The Ministers responsible for Public Contracts, Abba Sadou; Housing and Town Planning, Jean Claude Mbwentchou and Sports and Physical Education, Bidoung Mpkwatt were in Limbe last Tuesday.
They went to assess construction work on the Limbe football stadium, one of the two stadiums selected in the country to host next year’s African Women’s Football cup tournament. Three government Ministers in Limbe; a feat indeed! After a detailed inspection of access roads to the stadium at the Ngeme neighbourhood and other sites, the Ministers were unanimous in deploring the scandalous 30 percent rate in the projects realization whose project, judging from commitments taken by government to organize a hitch-free tournament and a large-scale image-selling event for the country, was expected to have the highest priority.
That the Ministers were the whistle-blowers in this disturbing situation speaks of the indolence of the civil society, notably in Limbe, whose place it was in the first place to denounce this feet-dragging in a most urgent project. It is also surprising that the worries are coming mostly from those supposed to bear the brunt. Last November 25, the Governor of the South-West Region visited the work site and came up with the same exasperation observing that the different companies involved in the construction work had consumed up to 25 percent of projected funding for only 12 percent of effective work.
This means there is something not going on well as fingers, as usual point to the construction companies involved. One of them, BUNS, complains of the estrangement of its laterite site, situated very far from the work site. Laterite is an essential component in road construction and if the situation persists, the building of the access road to the stadium could be seriously imperilled. For the other projected works such as the building of the training stadium in Middle farms and uplifting works to raise the centenary stadium to a training site, the companies involved complained of inadequate electricity supply.
The worry about the lateness in the Limbe project is predicated on a well-known national syndrome gaining ground with similar projects around the country in which serious work is only considered when the countdown to the projected event is virtually in a matter of days or weeks. In such a situation and with the need for urgency, those responsible for projects hope to easily obtain money – usually higher than what is really needed – from the higher authorities who would want to see the job done or deadlines met.
Of course, one cannot expect any excellent quality for work done in these circumstances. The cities of Bamenda and Buea stand out as glaring examples of this situation. To prepare for the organization of the 50th anniversary of the Cameroon Armed Forces in 2010 in Bamenda and the 50th anniversary of Reunification in Buea in 2013 government disbursed huge sums of money for face-lifting projects in these two cities, especially in urban roads.
Less than five years after the events, the road situation in these towns leaves much to be desired simply because of the haste under which the construction or repairs were carried out, mostly at the dying moments. Situations as those being experienced in Limbe are simply unacceptable, especially in a context where most of our developmental signals are in the red and when all energies are expected to be mobilized into a strong synergy towards attaining emerging economy status by 2035. Our capacity to respect urgent rendezvous such as the two important African Cup tournaments will constitute an important signal in determining whether or not we can obtain the desired results.
Because of the transversal nature of the problems in which responsibility is shared between the construction companies and government, the hornet’s nest stirred by the latter last Tuesday in Limbe speaks of government’s worry. But it also takes a robust, vocal and proactive civil society to get government to sit up and ensure that these projects, designed for the uplifting of the living standards of ordinary citizens, are effectively carried out. That is why we suggest that ordinary citizens, spearheaded by CSOs should be seen more and more in whistle-blowing.
