Elections Will not Hold in Mbonge until….

-Mbonge councilors tell Meme SDO 

Councilors of Mbonge council have noted that elections cannot be held in the sub-division with the ongoing Anglophone crisis. The councilors are urging the President to call for a ceasefire in the war which he declared on the people. They also condemned the burning down of villages and destruction of property by the army.

By Doh Bertrand Nua in Kumba

Mayor Daniel Matta Mokambe of Mbonge council

The Senior Divisional Officer of Meme Chamberlin Ntou’ou Ndong has urged municipal councilors of Mbonge council to return to their respective villages and carry out sensitization towards a return to normalcy and stability in the Sub-Division. The SDO urged the councilors to free their populations from the grip of Ambazonians and to sensitize them to register their names on the electoral registers.

            The SDO was speaking through his second assistant, Hermia Njonje, on Friday May 11, 2018 at the Kumba city hall. It was in her address at the first ordinary session of the Mbonge council aimed to examine and adopt the 2017 management and stores accounts of the council. 

            “Councilors are representatives of the population who are at the same time their children. I have been asked by my boss to use this opportunity to mandate you to go back and hold strong sensitization talks with your children, for them to turn away from detractors who have nothing good to offer but deception,” Mrs Njonje said, noting that it has gone down in history that due to insecurity in the sub-division, Mbonge council was forced to hold its council session in far away Kumba. The crisis that has seen youths engaging themselves in useless battles with the state, has led to many youths finding themselves in early graves.

            The ASDO however hailed the Mbonge Mayor and his staff for the 74% realization despite the staggering economic climate in Mbonge. Though the ASDO hailed improvements in infrastructural development, provision of benches, chairs and didactic materials, he at once frowned at the ineffective resumption of schools which he blamed on the crisis.

She called on the Mayor to work with the DO and local chiefs to improve on the hygiene and sanitation of the council area. 

            While addressing the councilors, the Mayor of Mbong, Chief Daniel Matta Mokambe praised the courage of councilors who braved the odds to travel to Kumba to attend the council session despite the crisis that has hampered revenue collection by the council.

            On his achievements despite the odds, Mokambe revealed that the council constructed an office and toilets for the motor park, carried out road maintenance, constructed classrooms, paid workers salaries, constructed a block of nursery school at Bakundu, a pit latrine at Marumba Mboa, equipped public schools with didactic materials, gave support to livestock rearers amongst others.

            Mayor Mokambe noted that the session was not only aimed to examine the accounts but to look for ways to surmount challenges with the view to changing the lives of the population of Mbonge. He reminded councilors on the need to take part in the development of the municipality, urging them to embrace team spirit so as to maintain and improve on the growth of the municipality.

            The Mayor revealed that out of the over one billion budgeted for the council in 2017, the sum of over FCFA 893 million was effectively collected as revenue, while over FCFA 832 million was spent with an excess of FCFA 60 million.

Mbonge is not secure for elections

            Councilors of Mbonge council in the course of the council session told the SDO that they are not ready for any election in the sub-division with the ongoing crisis. The declaration was made by councilor Bawa Rejis Abua.

            “The government should look for better ways of solving this crisis….The soldiers are trying to do something but I don’t think that is good enough. Most of our villages are getting totally deserted; all the inhabitants of Ngango are living in the bushes as we talk. We cannot be talking about elections when we cannot live in our villages. Where will the voting take place? So my dear SDO I think that reasonable dialogue can be a solution to this crisis rather than the guns everywhere.

            The same view was shared by another councilor, Tortoh Adison, who condemned the excesses of the military that continue parading towns and villages with armored cars and heavy weapons.

            “We should stop pretending and tell the Head of State the truth on the ground,” Tortoh said.