Decidedly, Douala is in the limelight. And for once, in a positive disposition. The city’s authorities are manifestly wont on giving the nation’s economic metropolis a facelift deserving enough for the main entry point into Cameroon by air or by sea.

Douala, as a city, has a usually been ashamed of itself. Its filled-up trenches, gutters and blocked water ways and the unending stench in its overcrowded neighbourhoods have never really made Douala a dream destination for many Cameroonians. Many have resorted to live and work there simply for availability of work and the high pay packages offered thanks to glooming economic activity and its busy seaport. The lucky few can afford beautiful apartments in the posh neighbourhoods of Bonanjo, Bonapriso, Denver etc where the invasion of mosquitoes attracted by scorching heat is staved off by the use of air conditioning facilities.

Douala is suffocating!

This image is best encapsulated by remarks made by a town planner at a recent seminar on urbanisation in Douala. Talking about the Congo market neighbourhood in the city and the market under construction, he refused to admit that the area was fit for human habitation at all. The official was commenting on the regular fire outbreaks which usually cause a terrible toll on property, merchandise and even human lives. “I refuse to call this place a city” the town planner protested.

In this desert of desperation, any small initiative takes a rather significant dimension. It is in this wise that we salute the initiative of the Government Delegate to the Douala City Council to empower his Council with all the necessary technical staff who can now sit down and think in a multidisciplinary manner on ways of making Douala a veritable city worthy of the name of an abode for some three million people.

A few days ago, Dr. Ntone Ntone, the Government Delegate was swearing in some 200 workers recently recruited to help sustain the resolve to address the city’s problems more pointedly. It is not a social measure to create jobs! Rather, the very specific technical areas for which the recruitment was made, is an indication that very soon, the activities of the city council on the ground will be more legible. The new staff include truck drivers, mechanics, carpenters, sanitary inspectors, brick layers as well as several lower and intermediate level staff to ensure the success of the council’s new proactive posture.

But the council is not stopping at that. Last week, the Council announced that within the framework of its development programme, it has set out to recruit high-level personnel in some 40 disciplines. The areas include institutional communication, public relations, financial controllers, auditors, engineers (civil, mechanical, electronics, maintenance, computers etc), jurists, insurance specialists, architects, town planners, geographers, sociologists, economists etc.

The mode of selection which requires prospective candidates to postulate is quite appropriate because it will enable the council to evaluate and appreciate whatever input each candidate is proposing to bring along.

Some of the areas are quite revealing of the determination either to fundamentally change its modus operandi or to reinforce existing methods. The decision to recruit institutional communicators, public relations specialists or sociologists is obviously informed by the need to promote dialogue between city dwellers and decision-makers and also enable the city dwellers to take possession of the initiatives being taken to transform the city. It has been noticed in the past that some of the most ambitious face-lifting initiatives fail simply because their objectives and good intentions were never really explained to the beneficiary population.

Seen from paper, the recruitment of these specialists could greatly transform Douala. But this will only come about if there is a veritable synergy between all of these specialists and good coordination to ensure that all look in the same direction.

Even before the Douala City Council initiative bears fruit, the good intentions, driven by the desire to see a new city with new mentalities ought to be shared by other well-meaning municipalities across the country.