Bakassi, New Era Of Development

Peter Efande

12 June 2011

Marafa Hamidou Yaya has pledged Government’s determination to provide more amenities

The turn out was impressive and understandably so because Marafa Hamidou Yaya, Minister of State, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, had in his package good tidings that will ameliorate the working conditions of the administration and the livelihoods of the Bakassi population. For three days, he braved the rough ocean, thunderstorms and bad roads to get a first hand pulse of the realities in the peninsula. Accompanied by the Governor of the South West Region, Koumpa Issa, the Senior Divisional Officer for Ndian, Peter Tieh Ndeh and seasoned experts from Yaounde, Marafa Hamidou Yaya’s working visit took him to all the subdivisions of the Bakassi Peninsula where he concerted with administrative authorities and gave the floor to the population who appreciated Government’s development projects. They also presented to him a litany of challenges.

In Bamusso, Ngosso, Idabato, Akwa and Isangele, the problems were identical: lack of staff, inadequate houses for staff, no drinking water, no electricity, no radio signals, no means of communication and transportation, inadequate health centres, and so on.

During a meeting with Idabato community leaders, he announced that before 2013, the Gendarmerie Brigade, Mayor’s office and other services shall be permanently installed. He said within the next two months, Idabato will have a Civil Status Centre. But the people were cautioned to collaborate with the Rapid Intervention Battalion for their safety, to fight erosion through tree conservation and to have special areas to smoke fish to avoid fire disasters.

On Saturday in Mundemba (headquarter’s of Ndian Division) Marafa Hamidou Yaya granted audiences and had a working session with the people. The Mayor of Mundemba Council, Madam Iselle Elizabeth (on behalf of Ndian Mayors), presented Ndian as a division created in December 1966 with a surface area of 6.626 square kilometres; rich in biodiversity, natural resources and petroleum products. Ndian Division, she disclosed, is made up of nine Councils accommodating nine administrative units and “it is the economic life-wire of the South West Region.”

Speaking in the presence of all the Divisional Officers of the Bakassi Peninsula; Marafa Hamidou Yaya said studies will be carried out by FEICOM to build a Municipal Hotel in Mundemba, adding that there is massive public investment in the pipeline for Ndian; that Government is examining possibilities of carving out another division in Ndian to facilitate the administrative machinery. He disclosed that in this year’s Public Investment Budget (PIB), a total of CFA 5 billion has been earmarked for feasibility studies for the tarring of the Akwa – Isangele – Mundemba – Ekondo Titi – Kumba – Tombel – Loum Road. Other problems like water and electricity, he said, will soon be things of the past.

Satisfaction could be read on many faces as Marafa Hamidou Yaya took leave of the population. Aboko Patrick, Mayor of the Kombo Abedimo Council summed it all: “The Minister’s working visit is very timely. He has seen for himself and has lived the realities of the Bakassi people. What he has seen has not differed from what we have been asking government to do. We thank the Head of State for sending such an august visitor to commune with us,” he concluded.

and make administration effectively functional by 2013.

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