BAMENDA: Will Mayor Paul Achombang Right The Wrongs Of The Ndumu Administration?

Martial Gnoukapasi

Paul Achombang delivering his keynote address to city councilors.

I have not, the temerity to provide you readers with a 'yes he will' or 'no he will not' answer, for time and  only time will tell.

 But if we were to provide an answer to the above question base on the plan of action he read-out loud to the 33 grand councillors who showed up tuesday March 3rd for the first ordinary board council session this year, dedicated to putting in place the various committees to assist the council draft and execute the mouth-watering projects, which the mayor outlined and confessed will go a long way to correct the errors of the past and satisfy the aspirations of Bamenda city dwellers, then without mincing words one can unequivocally say 'yes'.

However, it should be noted that any plan is only as good as it's implementaion. There's this saying that 'Action speaks louder than words' -yet mankind has continue to live on hope and since that's the case, we can only hope that tommorrow will be better than today. 

The good thing is, in his remarks to his fellow councilors he acknowledged the fact that inhabitants of the city have been 'bad-mouthing' the way the town is being managed till now. 

So there's need to work in other to safe face.

 Questions like;

- Did his predecessor not make thesame speech?

-What happened to the Bamenda City Council Master Plan that was supposed to change the face-lift of the City?

-How many of the lofty projects in the city Master Plan were executed?, are being whispered here and there by city dwellers who certainly will want to see  words concretize to actions. The 'see before you believe' syndrome of thomas in the Bible.

Cross section of Bamenda City mayors.

The pioneer city mayor Paul Achombang has therefore enjoined the city councilors to set aside political differences and work collectively towards the ehancement of the well-being of the population of the city of Bamenda and prove wrong, the doubting Thomases.

"...we are here in this conference room to come out with the necessary arsenals that will make the Bamenda city a master of it's own development and taste i.e a city which is bouyant, friendly, united, inviting and prosperous. A city we should all be proud of". he said.

He acknowleged that in achieving the above mentioned goals, strategies must be put in place to improve the morals of Bamenda denizens, while enforcing sanitation in the city.

"It's not going to be an easy task but we must make bamenda exceedingly clean again. The sanitory situation of the city is very bad. The rainy season is around the corner. I shall be calling  you individually in the days ahead so we put in place strategies to make sure that the gutters and drainages are clear, so that the rains do not wash off the small quantity of roads that we have left in the city"

formation of committees

Members appointed to the Finance, social welfare, works and transport as well as the other purpose committees were commission into their functions.

speaking to the media at the end of the board session the city mayor oulined his immediate proirities for the city of Bamenda.

" The very first step we're going to take is to clean this town, ensuring that it's not just the business of the council alone but a collective one. The cleanliness of any city is the responsibilty of every citizen in that city. we shall let the press know, when the modalities will be out..... the various comittees that's been put in place will be responsible to draft quicky, the way forward. The social and welfare committee is expected to come out with a plan to clean the city. The finance committee will come out with a plan to reduce poverty. Works committee will make infrastructural assesments to ascertain where we're lacking while the otherpurpose comission will ensure that issues not highlighted by the other committees are looked into and discussed at length."

City mayor flanked by his collaborators of Bd'a I,II & III and the administration.

On how he was going to overcome the problem of insecurity to execute his plan of action he said:

"I was priviledge to visit the Arch bishop of Bamenda and i raised the matter with him. we are going to start first with an approach which will be Godly, religious, from the moral point of view, we are going to address those issues of security. from the point of reconciliation where everyone is able to see that everyone is everyone's keeper"