The new CPDM MP for Donga-Mantung West says his constituency is educationally backward.
Since joining Parliament in November 2013, the priority of Honorable Abe Michael Ndra, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM Member of Parliament for Donga-Mantung West Constituency in Donga-Mantung Division of the North West Region, has been working hard to improve educational standards in Ako and Misaje Councils.
He says children do not go to school in the area, and even when they do, they do not have textbooks. Also, parents are very poor. His coming to Parliament, he explains, is to see how he can join hands with the people to make a difference so that every child of school age goes to school. To him, development starts with people having knowledge.
For the management of parliamentary grant for micro-projects in 2014, Hon. Abe set up two committees, one each for Ako and Misaje Councils and only coordinates their activities. A community library worth FCFA 7 million is under rehabilitation in Ako after the Ministry of Basic Education donated an unused classroom.
So far, 3,000 textbooks have been acquired. The plan is for children who do not have textbooks to read in the library or borrow them for use at home. Rehabilitation and furnishing of the building are expected to end soon. In Misaje, the local committee is relocating the town’s two motor parks to the outskirts of the town. It is currently building sheds at the new sites while the remaining part of the grant is being spent on educational empowerment.
“The money for all these projects is not enough. I have had to dip hands into my pockets to make up the difference, but this is not new for me. Prior to coming to Parliament, I had already been assisting some of the communities in their development efforts,” explained Hon. Abe.
His other projects include replacing the two wooden bridges over River Mboko worth about FCFA 1.8 million and River Nsime worth about FCFA 800,000. All the parliamentary projects are expected to be ready for commissioning before President Paul Biya’s 32nd anniversary in power on November 6, 2014.
Following last month’s CPDM regional seminar in the North West regional capital, Bamenda, to sensitise party officials on the threat posed by Boko Haram Islamist sect and the Ebola virus outbreak, Hon. Abe Michael said the information is being disseminated to the grassroots. This is especially as both Ako and Misaje Sub-divisions share borders with Nigeria where the two threats are found. Local people are therefore being encouraged to report any suspicious people in their midst.
