Ndu Council Creates the Unexpected, Adopts FCFA One Billion and Seventy Seven Million as Budget

Ndu Council Adopts a Colossal sum of FCFA 1.077.000.000 (one billion and seventy seven million) as budget for 2018 as against FCFA 860.000.000 in 2017. The councilors adopted the budget based on the council development agenda for 2018. Though doubts have been casted as to whether the huge budget is realistic, Bunyui Emmanuel Nyugap however disclosed that the council is hoping to generate about FCFA 372.760.000 locally while FEICOM will provide FCFA 535.555.425 and PNDP will provide FCFA 54.295.218. The SDO for Donga Mantung applauded the council for its determination to foster development in the municipality. Nkwenti Simon Doh used the opportunity to cautioned especially youths against drug consumption, promiscuity and child labour. He called on the councilors to sensitize the population in order for Ndu not to be the hup for child labour.

The mayor of Ndu council it is worth mentioning has been very innovative in his actions though several lapses were recorded during this year. Worthy to note that Ndu council was rated the best managed council in Donga Mantung by PNDP and ranked 6th in the North West Region and it is time for the mayor not to lay on his laureate. Though the situation is not that bad in Ndu council, observers say the huge budget may not produce the needed impact given that the basket approach by PNDP to prioritize projects in the municipality is yet to meet the desire of the population as some projects have been rejected by its beneficiaries. This is so because some of the projects realized by the council this year were either abandoned half way or were "poorly executed". Examples abound. The Ndu Park B, constructed beside St. Louis Campus Ndu has been abandoned to goats and sheep. The Mobile Urinary(ies) that have never moved from one spot since 2015 are a fiasco. Furthermore, the plastic tanks (which were allegedly overcharged) did not even improve on access to water in Ndu town. Critical minds have been wondering whether the master of the "Vision Cottage" was able to select from the basket of priorities the needs of the population. It is worth mentioning that while councilors were deliberating on the budget, a farmer who happened to have been present at the session murmured to himself whether the council could not disburse only 10% of the revenue collected in the various markets to finance a mini agropastoral show when smaller councils like Misaje and Ako have organized agropastoral shows. A glance at priority project reveals another blurt of the Ndu council blunder. It concerns the installation of solar street lamps when the first lamps did not last for three months. In fact, Bunyui Emmanuel hopes to rehabilitate the water system with about FCFA 600.000.000 from FEICOM yet his vision sees only the rehabilitation scheme and the solar pumping station without thinking of how to protect the water catchment. Apparently, with Bunyui Emmanuel, the mayor of Ndu council is dancing " the Bafia dance" when judged from this huge budget. A budget that depends more that 75% on external funders is not sustainable.

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