Marafa Fires Another Unguided Missile in Sixth Letter, Criticizes 2016 Budget

Marafa Hamidou Yaya has fired what commentators say is his sixth letter. The letter makes a critical

judgment analysis of the 2016 state budget. In the letter, Marafa criticizes Cameroon’s plan to allocate 13% of the 2016 budget, FCFA 550 billion to finance football infrastructure to host AFCON 2019 while a meager FCFA 499 billion has been earmarked for education. This he said is happening when the Cameroon is facing serious security crisis and a drastic drop in the prices of oil. He observed that the construction of the Douala and Yaounde is expected to cost about FCFA 150 billion while the rehabilitation of the Onmisport stadium in Yaounde, Douala, Garoua and Bafoussam stadia will consume FCFA 158 billion. On the other hand, he also made mentioned of the rehabilitation of the outer parts of the Limbe and Bafoussam stadia estimated at FCFA 28 billion. He wondered why such huge luxury investments when the benefactors will be external structures and the end results will be that Cameroon will soon solicit aid from China.  “No, it’s more than 1 billion dollars that we shall spent to host the prestigious event”. Marafa also observed that this will lead to over 4.5% deficit on the state budget. He questioned whether Cameroon cannot renounce its intention to host AFCON like was the case with Morocco. In the letter, Marafa goes further to propose that Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad should jointly host AFCON given that these countries already have the adapted infrastructures, stadia, hotels etc.

(Details analysis soon)

 



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