The
Bamenda City board has postponed debates on the dilapidating road
infrastructure in the city.
The move to
carry forward debates on the matter was reached Tuesday during the City Board
session that was dedicated to handling issues connected to the administrative and
management accounts of the City Council management led by the Government
Delegate. |
| BCC and development in Bamenda |
Though
the Press was barred from the session; journalists ordered out as always, doors
and windows closed, the Protem Chairman of the session Senior Councilor Kaba
Charles from Bameda III council responded to the press on matters of roads in
the city saying “the works committee raised issues concerning roads and we
almost called for an extra ordinary session to handle the road issues but the
Government Delegate took a commitment that in the months ahead during the
midway evaluation we are going to pay more attention to the road networks of
the city of Bamenda. I sure hope that before the end of this year much should
have been done concerning our road network.”
Though
this reporter will wait for several hours to talk to the government with no
success, I was however able to gather that at least FCFA 1.6bn of the over
FCFA2bn budgeted last year was realized.
On
the budget realization and the session the, the Protem Chairman explained
“despite the sociopolitical situation within the town and the region as a
whole, the council could still manage to collect over 50% of the intended
revenue and much work was done around town but we thought that if this crisis
were to come and pass the council could still do more because of the compare
the revenue figures for last year and this year it shows that we had a 10%
drop. This is understandable because of the series of Ghost towns and the rest
of the issues surrounding the Anglophone crisis.”
The
chairman who is also an opposition councilor (SDF) praised the council
officials for achieving what they achieved despite the difficult moment.
The
city board meeting comes at the time Bamenda roads have been reduced to
undulating foot paths with an unprecedented growing number of pot holes. The bad
roads, the lack of water, no constant electricity supply plus the self-imposed
public holidays every Mondays by the population have all reduced Bamenda to
a city by name with a staggering economy
and collapsing infrastructure.