The Eye Newspaper: After Long Wait on President Biya to Supervise Tarring of the Ring Road, Donga Mantung People Go Hoes, Spades in Hand

On March 28, 2016 an estimated 5,000 people cued along the Ndu-Nkambe stretch of the Bamenda Ring Road with spades, hoes, cutlasses, buckets, digging axes and wheelbarrows. Four trucks and a front-loader hired thanks to the contribution made by business owners in Nkambe. This was someone puts it, an act of covenant with humanity and the future of man.

All transport cars were grounded, no one was allowed to go to the farm. As early as 5 am, Jujus could be seen in all the quarters in Nkambe, Binshua, Binka, Mbot and Tabenken villages mobilizing the population. Youths, elders and even kids defied the busy planting season to rescue the ring road which has been in tears begging for Yaounde to make a statement. Everybody was there, including the Divisional Officer for Nkambe, the Mayor of Nkambe as well as the Divisional Delegate of Public works who all assigned to themselves the role of coordinators. They did not only supervised but worked all day long digging and transporting stones. On the other hand the fons of Nkambe, Kungi, Mbot and Binshua were also very active moving from one spot to another to encourage the population. By 8am, the 19 celebrated spots that have been a nightmare between Nkambe and Ndu received the visit of unwanted quests. While women and children were busy collecting gravels, men were busy evacuating the poles of water in the middle of the road. From Nkambe end of tar to the most celebrated Yamba hill and Chory, truck loads of gravels were poured and tampered. To Ndi Evaristus, this intervention is a worthwhile action given that it cuts beyond the political divide. "I think those who failed to be part of this communal action would be judged by their consciences. There is no need for us to continue to wait for manners from heaven when we can provide food for our families", he concluded.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Donga Mantung who took time off the busy schedule to encourage the population said that he has given firm instructions to the Divisional Officer for Ndu and the mayor to make sure that the population is also mobilized to work on the celebrated spots from Tatum to Ndu. Ngone Ndodemesape Bernard expressed gratitude to the population for their act of maturity and self-reliance.

Pa Michael Nformi lamented that President Biya promised he was going to personally supervise the tarring of the ring road but its rather unfortunate that the promised has not been respected. " We are ready to contribute money to tar this road. I think government is a people, and we are a people. We have been constructing schools and I see no reason why we cannot tar a road".

Nfor Nsakwa on his part was of the opinion that it is pathetic that in the 21st century people still do road maintenance with hand tools. "We here on National Road Number Eleven, and as you can see, I am working. We are the ones suffering and we cannot fold our arms until Yaounde decides when to work on the road. This road is a predicament to development of this areas, we cannot sell our farm produce, we cannot evacuate patients to hospitals, etc. I am satisfied that we have been able to provide a temporal cure to our cry".

That the people of Donga Mantung Division have been tempered with carelessness by the Biya government is an indisputable human rights abuse. Since 1948, in the days of the Nkambe Division, government has reluctantly accepted the slow shame of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed to and which the nature of this country and the powers that be have imposed. In fact if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it can never save the few who are rich, says Samba Kingsley, the Freelancer.

When government institutions were the pillars of moral value, any statement made publicly by the Head of state of this great nation, Cameroon was never suspected to be an “April fool” kind of merrymaking. Any public pronouncement of the Head of State was considered by all and sundry as part of the Presidential largess that the President dishes out every time he visits any locality. Such a pronouncement was considered as a symbol of decorum because such promises were immediately followed up and realized within the shortest time possible. I remember my father once told me that President Biya once declared that he was personally going to supervise the construction of the Bamenda Ring road. Yet 24 years have come and past since he made that promise and the Bamenda Ring is still in patches like achaba tubes.

That the people of Donga Mantung Division decided to construct a road with hand tools demands a week of serious fasting and prayer. At The Eye we do not know whether it is the influence of the Western culture that has transformed government institutions into negating its people or influence of politics that has made Head of States to forget what they say immediately it is done. However, anyone signing any motion of support without mentioning the state of this road from Donga Mantung should be considered as being in a state of sin and or not upright up stairs as Tamngwa Marcel says outrightly. Being a respecter of the institution that President Biya incarnates and the powers that he wields, the pressure suddenly became unbearable when everyone saw the need for collective work on that road.