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| Ring Road in Tears (what about rain gates?) |
The road to Nkambe commonly known as
the Ring Road is a big shame to the Biya regime. It is so bad that traveling
from Kumbo to Nkambe on the Ring Road needs two days whereas it is less than 60
kilometers. Even vehicles using that road invariably retire to a mechanics
workshop at the end of every journey. Transporters are hurting and are
bewildered that despite their payment of all road taxes to Government and the
various rates to the state and local governments, little is being done to
repair the roads upon which their livelihood depends. It is not just a
nightmare but a therapeutic theater of trauma for anyone pregnant woman and
children below the ages of two. From Kumbo to Nkambe, there are trucks that
have sunk into the mud and have remained on the spot for the past two weeks. Besides, the very many potholes and detours
mean that vehicles keep breaking down and sometimes with disastrous
consequences.
It is common for thieves, rapists and
other miscreants to ensconce themselves in bad portions of the roads where all
vehicles virtually come to a halt. Traveling on the Kumbo-Nkambe stretch of the
ring road represents a perpetual danger to the population. Instead, the present
state of nature of the Ring Road makes it impossible to plan a journey or
predict arrival time. Commercial activity is suffering as goods and services
are now in short supply leading to price increases in practically all consumer
items.
Why
Divisional Delegate of Public Works for Donga Mantung Should be Interrogated
When I made a comment on one social
media on the nightmare on the Bamenda Ring Road, a friend asked me whether we
have a department in my country that oversees road maintenances. I said, well all
this is happening in a country where there are several agencies, including the Ministry
of Public Works which is responsible for the construction and maintenance of
roads.
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| Enjoyment on the ring road |
Imagine that yesterday, I spent the
night on this road, I discovered that strange aspect of the road that
government seems to ignore. In fact, the general cry is the poor nature of the rain
gates. The Divisional Delegates of Public Works for Donga Mantung Division
manages this section as if it is his personal shop. This year even though 8
million FCFA was disbursed by the state to construction new rain-gates,
indicators are rife at that nothing has been done to that effect. Even the old
ones that were to be repaired in order to control the movement of heavy trucks
during this time of the year have not been repaired at all. It is even alleged
that the rain-gate controllers have also not been paid for the past months
reasons why they would prefer to collect a 1.000 FCFA note from a truck driver
and allow him to pass. The most embarrassing
is that the poor population suffers from such obnoxious corrupt practices.
The Yaounde government at least on
paper has voted billions of FCFA for the rehabilitation of our road network. And
the maintenance contract on this stretch of the road was awarded to Joe Corner
Water but nothing concrete ever happens on the ground except for the few
potholes that were filled. It time for CONAC to look into what happened to the
billions allocated for road works and whilst at it, to investigate well
especially all the decentralized structures that have to provide other control
mechanism like rain-gates. They should even be arrested and detained if found
guilty. In fact I was so annoyed that by the time of putting down this piece I completely
forgot the name of the Delegate of Public Works for Donga Mantung Division. This
matter is important because our country cannot develop with rickety office
gansterism.
There is the problem of erosion
impacting on the road network. Whole sections of our roads are being washed
away by erosion and poorly planned or non-existent drainage system. The case of
the Bamenda Ring Road is very pathetic.
A
Corrupt Government that doesn’t Care
From Kumbo-Nkambe, the road in it
entirety is now a dangerous pothole. I mean potholes everywhere and all the
directions. It is practically impossible to avoid all of them as quite often
one preventive manoeuvre often leads the driver into yet another pothole. That s
what exactly happened to us yesterday at Tatum and we were forced to spent the
night along the road. Trailers and tankers are quite vulnerable. Trailers as usual
often do not secure the containers they carry, relying on their weight for
stability. As a result of a combination of circumstances, the Ring Road is
littered with overturned trailers, tankers and containers. At the Seminary Hill
Tatum (another celebrated hill) three trailers have been stuck in the mud for
two days. How they managed to pass the ring gate when there was a heavy down
pour is another misery. Traveling along
the ring road doesn’t require any stranger to look for signposts, because the
nature of the road is always a topic of conversation and most celebrated areas are
always key topics. This is so because after each 1km or even less, the driver
will always ask passengers to jump down and push the car. Here one of them “we
are at Kitshong, please everybody should move out of the car because we have to
push”.
Transporters are lamenting the loss of
revenue. They can only operate skeletal services during the day and cannot
operate at night because of the menace of armed robbers. Their revenue is down
by 70% and unless the roads are repaired, the transporters may well abandon
their trade. Already bad roads have led to a reduction in travel.
It will soon be Christmastime when
Donga Mantung experiences an upsurge in commuter traffic as everyone will be
rushing home to celebrate. With the roads being in such poor state it is
doubtful whether individuals would be prepared to put themselves through the
rigours of a punishing journey merely for the sake of celebrating the yuletide
with their kith and kin and friends.
Another problem besetting the ring
road is that government cares little about the people of Donga Mantung Division.
The lack of maintenance of roads in
Cameroon has become a public issue as Cameroonians are daily lamenting this failure
of leadership. Good roads are a basic component of good governance. Cameroonians
are routinely being put at risk everyday as a result of the failure of the
state to provide adequate amenities for its citizens. All the authorities
involved in road construction and maintenance should buckle down and do
something to remove this blot on Cameroon’s image. We are even made to
understand that this road is tarred on papers.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. Minute by Minute Report on Cameroon and Africa
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