Political power against traditional authority:

Sehm Mbinglo

K’bo Mayor challenges Sehm Mbinglo over water management
- According to Mayor Njong Donatus Fonyuy, the fon of Nso, Sehm Mbinglo 1, is asking for more than just his pound of flesh in his resolve to take over the management of the Kumbo Water authority KWA. Mayor Njong says for once he has agreed to disagree with the fon in the best interest of the law, and the populations of Kumbo. In the wake of the crisis the populations and elite of Kumbo are now divided between the fon and the mayor.   
By Njodzefe Nestor in Kumbo
The crisis that has been rocking the Kumbo Water Authority for some weeks now has reached a deadlock after a meeting organized July 29, 2015 to resolve the issue at the instructions of the SDO for Bui ended in a fiasco.
    While the Fon of Nso has decided to take full control of the water, the Mayor of Kumbo is calling on the government to step in and resolve the issue.
    Meeting in camera at the MINPAT building Kumbo, the main stakeholders in the crisis comprising of Kumbo Council, NSODA, KWA and the Fon agreed to disagree on the fate of the water scheme and on who should hold the command baton.
    It emerged that the meeting ended prematurely when the Fon stormed out of the meeting in anger, followed by the Mayor and the management of KWA. Some participants even said it was the Mayor who first walked out of the meeting in an unexpected disregard for the Fon.
    However, despite the walk-out by the main belligerents, the remaining stakeholders and some invited personalities stayed back and continued with deliberations. They reportedly ended with some controversial resolutions which have been fiercely rejected by the Mayor.
    It was resolved that the water be handed back to the Palace and that NSODA has denounced the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2008 between the Council, NSODA and the Palace. They also described the Mayor’s intervention during the meeting while addressing the Fon as “rude”.
    The Mayor has conversely described the resolutions as a concoction and unfounded, justifying that the major stakeholders were not present when the resolutions were drafted and read.

    A source that opted not to be named corroborated the Mayor, justifying that the resolutions are not binding since a quorum was not attained as at the time the resolutions were drafted. The source continued that the move was a calculated attempt by some of the participants in the meeting to give Mayor Njong a bad name in order to hang him when the time comes.
    Later in the Nso Fon’s Palace, the HRH Sehm Mbinglo 1 announced to a crowd of curious subjects and journalists that he had decided to take full control of the water scheme.
    “I and my people have decided to be controlling our water. As from Saturday (August 1, 2015) we will go up to the intake and start clearing it and the surrounding environment,” revealed the Fon, who regretted that funds amounting to FCFA 98 millions that were given by the Canadian government for the replacement of expired pipes have been converted to building an ostentatious office building.
He urged the population to stop going to Kumbo Council to pay their bills but rather come to the Palace.
    It should be recalled that at a public meeting on July 23, the mayor disclosed that plans are underway to replace the old albestos pipes. Going by assurances from experts, he said the pipes could still be used for some time. Mayor Njong however reassured the population that FCFA 800 Million has been earmarked by the council for a project to replace the albestos pipes.
    It should be noted that on 10 July 2015 Sehm Mbinglo 1 sealed the doors of Kumbo Water Authority faulting it for gross mismanagement.
    One of the central issues aggravating the Kumbo Water crisis is a controversial Memorandum of Understanding signed between Kumbo Council, The Nso Palace and Nso Development Authority NSODA in 2008 giving Kumbo Council the supervisory powers over the water scheme.
    Talking to The Median newspaper on the issue, the Mayor was emphatic that the MOU which was aimed at giving KWA legality is bidding and will not be reversed despite calls from major quarters that the terms of the MOU be revisited.
    The management of NSODA and the Fon, the major stakeholders in the MOU, have however distanced themselves from it and have considered it as null and void.
Kumbo Council is also acting within the precincts of the 2004 decentralization laws which give the council the supervisory power over water schemes.
    Fielding a question from prying journalists whether he was aware of the 2004 decentralization laws, the Fon wondered whether this law will start being applicable only within his fondom.
    Shushey Barrister Akuwiyadze Joseph has challenged this law saying the jurisdiction applies only to public water schemes. He added that the text of application of the said law is yet to be made available.
    While the Fon and the Mayor are disemboweling themselves in a gory public spectacle some individuals who are seeking personal aggrandizement and some politicians seeking political gains are fueling the crisis rather than trying to solve it.
    Speaking to this reporter, one of the elite of Nso who opted for anonymity said he was scandalized at the way some individuals were misinforming and intoxicating the public about the crisis.