A road to Bakassi will do the magic

       -Mrs. Ndoh Bertha Bakata, Special Adviser at the PM’s Office

You are the president of the committee in charge of follow up and coordination of priority projects in Bakassi. How are these projects fairing?

Mrs. Ndoh Bertha Bakata, Special Adviser

to the PM and Focal Point for Bakassi

The government is doing its best to realize priority projects in Bakassi. But as you know there are many difficulties that are hampering this very enormous effort. The first among them is accessibility to the area. While it is expensive and at times frightful to get to Bakassi through the high seas, it is also not very easy by road. When it rains the roads are virtually impassable. And the very long rainy season in the area only makes things worse. In the past years and even this year Bakassi has witnessed virtually no dry season. However, we have continued to advice the government to do something about the linking roads to Bakassi. I have personally met the minister of public works with the problem. The Prime Minister is also aware and he is very concerned about this worrying problem of accessibility especially as the government wants Bakassi to be populated by Cameroonians. The advice we give is that if Bakassi can be accessed easily by road, people would be encouraged to go there and even settle there, why not?

Contractors complain of very high cost of transporting building materials to Bakassi. Have you also advised the government to make additional financial allocations to cover this extra cost incurred in doing projects in Bakassi?

That has been our cry. We have explained the situation to the various ministers concerned. We have drawn their attention to the fact that it is much more costly to do projects in Bakassi than in the urban towns. If a classroom has to be built in Kumba for example it will not be the same like for Idabatou. In Akwa and Isangele it could be a little bit less because one can get there by road. But to carry materials through the high seas to Idabatou is very difficult and costly. So we are trying to negotiate with the ministers concerned to consider raising the price for building projects in Bakassi to about double what it is today.

There are so many abandoned projects in Bakassi; there are those that were started and later abandoned and others that never took-off at all. Are you aware of this? If yes what is being done to curb the phenomenon

Well, if I say I am not aware then I will be telling a lie because firstly the weather in Bakassi is not very favourable for some of these projects. The excessive rains are posing a serious handicap for contractors. In Bakassi we have just about 2 months of the dry season. The rest of the year is rain and it is difficult to carry on with projects during the rains. When it rains the whole environment becomes muddy and marshy, so the contractors find it difficult to continue with their work. But we are talking with the ministries of public contracts and the MINFI if they can allocate money for projects in Bakassi early enough say between November and February, I think if this is done the contractors can do their projects before the heavy rains set in.

If you were to propose strategies to government on how to get Bakassi populated by Cameroonians what will be your advice?

Like I said before the only magic is creating good roads to Bakassi. If this is done it will make it easy for people to get to the peninsular and settle there. Already Pamol is carrying on a project to extend its plantations to Bakassi. I think that is one of the things that can help to populate the area. By the time workers of these plantations go and settle there with their families the population of Bakassi will increase considerably. But I think the best solution is the roads. If the roads are done I think before long Cameroonians will rush and populate Bakassi.

Fishing is the main activity of the people of Bakassi. Is the government carrying out any projects to promote and encourage fishing there?

Of course yes. Some fishermen have been sent there from the North. Presently we are trying to build about 100 or more settlement areas where these fishermen from the North would settle. I think when these settlements are completed more and more fishermen will come and settle in Bakassi. It is our hope that Cameroonians in urban centres can also eat fish from Bakassi. You know for now most of the fish is exported to Nigeria and this is because it is easier to transport the fish to Nigeria than to our hinterlands. That is why effort is being made to get as many Cameroonians to also get involved in fishing in Bakassi. But like i suggested earlier, a good road will do the magic of getting Cameroonians to discover the wonders in Bakassi.