Great expectations are the apt words that best depict the atmosphere that currently reigns in Bakassi as the Minister of State, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, Marafa Hamidou Yaya begins a three-day working visit to the Peninsula today. With a population estimated at over 300,000 inhabitants, the area is enjoying serious government investment and peaceful coexistence in accordance with the June 12, 2006 Green Tree Agreement signed between Cameroon and Nigeria under the auspices of the United Nations
The visit will take Marafa Hamidou Yaya to Bamusso, Rio Del Rey, Jabane, Idabato, Akwa, Isangele, Mundemba amongst other localities. During his working visit, the Minister of State, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization (MINETAT/MINATD) will inspect and evaluate government structures under construction, visit government projects, schools, fire disaster areas, health units, administrative quarters, ELECAM offices, Council Chambers, projects carried out with European Union assistance, etc. After an in-depth analysis of the realities on the field, Marafa Hamidou Yaya will have a working session with administrative authorities, forces of law and order, mayors, political leaders, traditional rulers and invited guests at the Mundemba Chambers in Ndian Division. During the working session, the local authorities and traditional rulers will certainly hail government’s development initiatives and present some problems faced in their various administrative units.
The Bakassi crisis is now history and even sceptics do agree that the peninsula occupies a pivotal place in government’s development priorities. The creation of a National Committee for the Coordination of Priority Projects in the Bakassi Peninsula operating from the Prime Minister’s Office, is a vivid testimony of the huge investments that have a bearing on the inhabitants’ socio-economic wellbeing. Cognizant of these realities and with the creation of administrative units, Marafa Hamidou Yaya’s visit is a clear commitment of not only making government’s effective presence visible, but it also brings the administration closer to the people.
It should be recalled that the Bakassi Peninsula is made up of four subdivisions namely Isangele, Kombo Abedimo, Kombo Itindi and Idabato. Talking to Cameroon Tribune yesterday June 8 by phone, the Senior Divisional Officer for Ndian, Peter Tieh Ndeh said Bamusso Subdivision has been incorporated in Bakassi within the framework of government’s development scheme for the area. Access to the Bakassi Peninsula is only by sea and the people (mostly of Nigerian extraction) depend mostly on fishing for their livelihood.
