"We Can't Complete Dev't in Mbengwi Council in 6 Years, Give Us More Time" - Mayor Tebe

"We Can't Complete Dev't in Mbengwi Council in 6 Years, Give Us More Time" -  Mayor Tebe Beatrice

The mayor of the Mbengwi Council, Madam Tebe Beatrice has requested for a mandate extension to enable her complete the realisation of projects she envisaged for the council. She was speaking on Wednesday November 13th 2019 in her office after the holding of the Mbengwi Council 2020 Budgetary Session. In an interview granted Mbengwi Online,  the mayor revealed the success story of her mandate and why she deserves another, this after presenting a 50 million award from PNDP to her councillors. Follow us. 

N.B: M.O - Mbengwi Online

         M.C - Mbengwi Council 

Tebe Beatrice, Mayor,  Mbengwi Council

M.O: Congratulations on your award. Can you present it to us?

M.C Mayor: Thank you very much. I just presented the PNDP performance Basket Award that we, the Mbengwi Council were awarded by PNDP and MINEPAT to local councils in the light of exhibiting the decentralisation program. It is just to urge councils to do better,  to keep good records, to organise their work according to laid down rules and to ensure effective implementation of the decentralisation process. Mbengwi Council was among the councils that participated in the N.W region and so we are lucky to receive this second prize for the region which is worth 50.000.000F of project.

M.O: Is it cash? 

M.C Mayor: It's not cash. What we brought home was a Mandat and a certificate to that effect. We will have to come out with a project in order to consume the money. You know that PNDP deals with community projects and will not feel comfortable giving direct cash but never the less,  the project we are soliciting is to continue improving on our security through solar energy street lights because when we had the first few from the female mayor's group,  there was a lot of complains for the need to continue improving on our lighting system. So that's the kind of fast project that we can be able to execute before the year runs out. 

M.O: Looking at the current situation,  one will say the M.C is faced with a lot of challenges especially the sociopolitical crisis yet councils that are in Bamenda where there's relative calm couldn't make it through. How did you do it? 

M.C Mayor: Well, you know that if you come into an institution with the zeal to learn,  you'll always be looking forward to overcoming challenges. Mbengwi Council has been one of those councils that has been fairly permanent and stationed and like I said in the council session, we've been carrying out our activities slowly but surely and so we did not relent our efforts when it came to preparing for the performance basket.  It's just the normal council activities,  not something very strange.  It is just being sure that every head of unit carries out what it's supposed to do and puts them in records and from time to time we have meetings to find out the level of execution of our various activities in the council. Because we've been able to stay put in our council area,  we've been able to achieve those activities that warranted us to excel. 

M.O: Your councillors said the second position isn't enough, that they want the first. How did you take that? 

M.C Mayor: (Laughs) Of course I think that coming second after coming 10th is a big gap that we've overcome. It means that we've learnt a lot of things and surely we are looking forward to becoming the first even if  the mandate is ending. If we are still to be there,  fine. If it'll be others and they seek our advise, we will be able to tell them what it takes to reach the top. 

M.O: Let's go back to the budgetary council session. We noticed that the budget had a slight drop. Any explanation? 

M.C Mayor: Yes the budget had a slight drop because we can no longer collect our local revenue like I mentioned. Therefore our sources of revenue have diminished and it's important to make it appear in the budget. We only rely on government support through FEICOM which is also not very regular and like you said, because it is not regular,  management is so tight, reason why we had to drop the budget a bit in order for us not to explode in a situation we can't manage. Although the budget is an explanation,  we want to work on what we hope to get from the government and if we have anything from local revenue,  then we're only going to add up to the main source. 

M.O: Did you take into consideration the decentralisation package? 

M.C Mayor: Yes of course we did because as of last year,  the decentralisation bundle arrived,  100.000.000 (one hundred million)  as was said and we've also projected it in our budget because we are sure that at least one hundred million will come even though we are canvassing for more. If you really want to execute a realistic project that serves the needs of the people, then 100 million is even small.  Imagine constructing a bridge or building a school. 

M.O: This award has opened M.C to so many partners and they're very interested to come and invest. If there's a particular project that you'll want to see realised, what will that be? 

M.C Mayor: Like you said,  this award has opened M.C to the public,  both nationally and internationally. In fact, while in Yaounde, I had handshakes of congratulations on behalf of M.C and my phone is also full with people canvassing to know more about M.C. If I were to chose a project today,  we are looking forward to improving our solar street lights that can serve anybody moving along the road irrespective of where you're coming from, who you are etc. 

M.O: Can you elaborate on the appeal you made during the session to the boys in the bush concerning project execution? 

M.C Mayor: Our brothers and sisters out there thinking otherwise,  we just want to let them know that the projects that come to us are our projects. We are the beneficiaries. As a mayor, we lobby. It's not only the government that gives us projects. We have projects from partners like PNDP,  HIMO projects etc. So we expect that when we have projects that benefit the common person, that  benefit the person on Ground Zero or the grassroots as we can call it,  they should be able to understand and allow these projects to take place because we are the direct and immediate beneficiaries irrespective of where it is coming from.

M.O: There's the notion that the M.C centralises its development endeavours but according to you, the council has also been carrying out certain achievements out of Mbengwi central which seem not to be known. Can you enlighten us? 

M.C Mayor: We carry out projects out of the central zone of the M.C and as well as within the centre. Before we had this severe crisis, we carried out projects like construction and equipping of G.N.S Njindom, construction of two classrooms in G.T.C Zang Tabi, we did the road Njindom-Sang-Munam and many others. We even did the Bome-Mbengwi-Funam-Tudig road. So we don't only focus on the central zone. We also think that those out there need to be empowered. But you see, it is not us as individuals. We need to go through contractors and when contractors express certain challenges, we have to follow suit because first of all it is important that those projects, whatever they are, are executed and if there are challenges out of the urban zone,  then we need to look at them and reconsider where to place our projects. 

That's why I said that this crisis is like backfiring on us. We are crying for development and when development comes,  we cannot execute it. Look at the cattle market we just constructed in Acha-Tugi, those are the projects that we've placed at distant places, not inside Mbengwi urban space. There are many more that we would've loved to do. We went one time to a Mbororo community to support a water extension project. We would've loved to go to many of such places and make them feel that M.C is for them,  that development is placed at their disposal. Today we're talking about community participation. It is all in effect to make people continue to see that development is in our hands. The government is only supporting us to develop the community where we live,  to improve on our livelihoods. So we are trying to take development everywhere not just in the urban setting but in the periphery.

The 50 millions booty

M.O: After the announcement of the 50 million booty,  there's now this notion where everybody wants the council to come do something in their area since they've heard of the money. They want to hear the mayor address something that will please them.

M.C Mayor: Of course, yes it's true that the 50 million booty is only being announced now but it had been there because the results of this performance had been published since June and we've already made a project proposal so that it goes alongside with the award. So like I said,  we cannot complete development in M.C in six years. They should give us more time. They should see what we have been able to do and they should support us to continue so that we can do more and touch the nukes and corners. At one time we came to put on a milk centre in Medig area,  we asked the community to give us land and there were so many struggles on where to place it but finally we did place it. That is the kind of spirit we want,  that when a project comes,  people really want it. It shows that people are listening to us and people are wanting us to support them and they're urging us to do more.

M.O: Thank you ma

M.C Mayor: Thank you so much.

Note: This interview was conducted by Nji Ignatius of Eden Newspaper and myself FONGOH p. Ayeh of www.mbengwionline.blogspot.com