Village Road Fund Encouraged Council To Allocate FCFA 20 Million For The Project

The people of kejom ketinguh in Tubah SubDivision have decided to take the bull by its horns on the dilapidated state of roads in the village by creating a village road fund. This initiative to raise funds by indigenes of Kejom Ketinguh has encouraged the Mayor of Tubah, Martin Tanjong to increase Council allocation of FCFA 10 million to 20 million, for roads in Kejom Ketinguh. Mayor Tanjong has since his installation at the helm of Tubah Council has embarked on participatory approach to development.

According to Visas Christopher Banki, Chairman of the Kejom Ketinguh village council, his people decided on this road fund initiative as the last resort given the deaf ears of government to come to their rescue. The village located on the slope of Sabga hill is inhabited by mostly farmers and grassers with a soil rich in fertility noted for producing vegetable, onion, garlic, carrots, rice, leeks and cabbages in commercial quantities and supplying the entire country, has successfully written the name Tubah in the golden book of agriculture. He said. To him the people would only live better carrying out this income generating activities if good roads are made available to evacuate farm produce. Farmers now rely on the commercial motorbikes to evacuate farm produce on the rugged roads from interior to the main road for onward transportation to the various cities and countries.

On the part of the Council, some basic necessity such as classrooms, health centers, water and electricity have been made available to the people still the yearn for good roads stays paramount in their demands. The Mayor of Tubah on his maiden meet the people’s tour of his municipality lauded the people of Kejom Ketinguh for the wonderful initiative to abet the precarious road situation in the area. He raised the peoples’ hope by saying the council shall complement this effort to jointly tackle to road issue in 2016. The mayor visited all the projects realized in the municipality such as roads, constructed classroom, bridges, health centers, palace projects and nodded in satisfaction the work done this year. At each stop the people thanked the mayor and his team while asking for more.

By Ignatius Nji

Tubah Council Mayor Launches Waste Management Competition In Schools, Cash Prize FCFA 1 Million

To promote hygiene and sanitation in the municipality, Mayor Martin Tanjong Meshungong of the University Council area of Tubah in the North West of Cameroon has on December 7 2015 launched a clean community campaign with school competition on waste management. Schools in Tubah shall be competing cash prize of FCFA 1000.000 for 2016. The cleanness school at the end of the exercise shall take home FCFA 500.000, the second shall receive FCFA 200.000, the third shall get FCFA 100.000 and so forth. While on a four days contact tour in his municipality, the Mayor called on all communities to each do its best to end the covetous first prize as cleanness community.

This competition that shall include everybody in Tubah municipality beginning from students, teachers to parents, is in itself an exercise to inculcate not only the values of cleanliness in the children but to ensure, the future of clean communities are guaranteed. According to Mayor Tanjong, clean environment means more healthy living in disease free communities. He cautioned against excessive drinking habits common among his people. He reiterated that a great man in a community is not measured by the number of beer consumed a day nor by the number of rounds of drinks given in a beer parlour  rather a great man is measure by the quality of education he afford to his children and the comfort he enjoys in a stable family. What one eats determines how healthy he/she lives, he said. The rampant consumption of sachet whisky, food wrapped in plastics and drinking white stuff at funerals, from containers emptied of chemicals, the Mayor said, are certainly the root causes of cancer and other strange diseases common in the communities today. From these chemicals consumed, most children are born incomplete, some with half limb or blind. The Mayor insisted that people should stop buying and wrapping food in plastics which are later discarded just anywhere destroying the soil fertility.  He prescribed a return to the traditional use of leaves which are toxic free void of chemicals. To stop the spread of plastics, people should stop buying the plastics.

On the falling morality rate witnessed in the communities today especially among the youths, Mayor Tanjong told his people of Tubah that broken homes are the cause of most of these societal ills witnessed on daily bases. To him the family remains the main solution to all these ills given that no political party can change a community better than the force of a strong family bond. When a family is stable, children grew up with good values embedded in them and these serves as strong foundation for any nation. Children born of broken homes become wayward reason why a teenager would easily joins a gang of armed bandits just to express his disgust of a family he never had. Today many are witnesses to the age group recruited by the Boko Haram insurgents to detonate bombs. In order to strike a balance in a family, parents should always dialogue with their children at home. Talking to the soul is better than Inflicting pain on the flesh. Most parent don’t sit to talk to their children in a friendly manner reason why they do not understand themselves which results in to quarreling and sometimes fighting and before long the home is broken.

By Ignatius Nji

Bamenda III To Drag Tubah Council To Court Over Non Vacation Of Old Site

Councilors of SDF won Bamenda III Council in Mezam Division have decided to drag Tubah Council to court to answer charges on non vacation of the old site which belongs to Bamenda III. This resolve was validated during a stormy deliberation in session to that effect on Friday December 4 2015. This was following two Prefectural decisions signed by two Senior Divisional Officers for Mezam spelling in clear terms that the area belongs to Bamenda III but the properties thereon belongs to Tubah Council.

According to Councilor Afong Lucas Ngu, the decision does not reflect in its entirety what was discussed at a crisis meeting to seek out a way forward few months back. He posited angrily that in that meeting, the SDO’s attention was drawn to the fact that there was no written document indicating ownership claims by Tubah Council which warrants that all properties thereon belong to the owners of the area. Embarrassingly after acknowledging this fact, the SDO Nguele Nguele Felix who is today Governor for South Region took the same decision just like his predecessor Njounwet Joseph Marshe Bertrand. In this light the Fon of Nkwen HRH Fon Azehfor III gave his blessing that the matter be taken to court. This is not withstanding that there is no law forbidding another council owning properties within another council area. Councilor Abednego Fon zoomed in a salvo saying at present while the councilors are busy hitting their heads over who owns what in the area a lady was busy compiling papers to establish a land certificate under Bamenda III on the said area. The question as to who has started selling pieces of the land is a question still hanging in the air. As Mayor Fonguh Cletus motioned that a team of legal experts be assembled to file a suit by Monday 7 December, he called on Councilor Abednego Fon (Barrister) to join the team and fashion same with some of these documents to constitute part of the file.

On the main subject of the day which was deliberation of the 2016 budget balanced in revenue and expenditure at the tune of FCFA 600 million. According to Mayor Fonguh, they opted for a realistic budget given that the same amount was projected for 2015 and the council did not attain 100% realization. The budget for 2016 was adopted with 40% investment while recurrent shall gulp 35% as 15% goes for staff expenditure. This budget he says shall be able to address the aspiration of the people of Bamenda III municipality and there is need for total collaboration. Some challenges recorded in the course of executing the 2015 budget have been taken in to consideration. The ongoing giant water project carried by the council shall soon see the light of day with distribution in the municipality. In the days ahead the Mayor said he shall be travelling to Dublin to enable partners to visit Bamenda III with interest in funding water projects.

Misaje Council: Projects FCFA 800 Million Worth Investment Plan For 2016, Actual Budget Of FCFA 521.5 million

The 22 year old Misaje Council in Donga Mantung Division of The North West Region has embarked on a giant stride with the projection of an investment plan for 2016 worth over FCFA 800 million and adopting a realistic budget of FCFA 521.534.143 last Friday November 27, 2015 marking an increase of FCFA 205.992.107 as of 2015 budget. According to Mayor Mgbata Sammy, the reason to draw up an investment plan worth far beyond the actual budget for 2016 is to give ample opening for future funding bodies to choose and finance any of the projects envisaged in the investment plan without any need for a deliberation thereof. Many might wonder why the projection in the investment plan is so high yet the budget is low he says it is much better to aim low in terms of budget and shot high in terms of realization than otherwise.

As elaborated by the Mayor of the municipality, priority projects shall hinge on putting in place an equipped science laboratory at the Government High School Misaje and ensure that other secondary schools in the municipality are updated in terms of classrooms, benches and didactic materials. With the investment plan for Misaje all the nooks and crannies of the 12 villages that make up the municipality are reflected in the plan especially in the area of roads, water and electricity given that the subdivision is presently being linked to the national grid from Nkambe. There are also plans to link Misaje with electricity from Bui Division in the days ahead that would run through to the economic Town Dumbu while other villages that are not on the map of the national grid such as Mayokila, Bebejatto, Bebejaman and Bebekette shall benefit from the rural electrification project on solar energy.

With this plan in place and going by the Mayor’s assurances, the people of Misaje are expected to witness an avalanche of projects execution in the municipality with one major one being the tarring of streets in Misaje town as announced by Mayor Mgbata Sammy. According to him the road; Dumbu, Sabongida, Mayokila, Bebejaman and Akweto with the means available shall be linked to the national road.

Other deliberations centered around the purchase of a new vehicle for the Mayor and Councilor Shiek Tukur questioned what had happened to the council hilux supposedly grounded in Bamenda under the custody of a mechanic with money paid in full and Councilor Nkenda Simon corroborated that buying a new vehicle without being able to manage the old one does not speak well of the council. Mayor Mgbata Sammy assured the Councilors that a legal procedure is already underway and what is delaying court action is a plea by some elite to give the mechanic up to the end of November and if he does not deliver the vehicle in good working condition legal action would proceed. These, not withstanding the Mayor said, by the end of the period of grace if the mechanic fails, he the Mayor shall pay back the said amount in to the state treasury and pursue the mechanic independently in court. With some degree of satisfaction from the explanations, Councilors equally adopted among others as a working document the remunerations and allowances to allocated to Mayors and Deputies as per the Presidential decree of 16 September 2015 which also allocate salaries to mayors and Deputies. Councilors shall also be entitled to some advantages such as augmented seating and outstation allowances given that Misaje is on category three having a budget that ranges within FCFA 250 Million and one Billion.

By Ignatius Nji