"I've told my people that I will never want to leave Mbengwi. I'm somebody who will like to make an America in Mbengwi." These were the words of Ndangsa Kennedy Akam, Mayor of the Mbengwi Council as he granted an interview to Mbengwi Online's Fongoh p. Ayeh from the confines of his office at the end of the Mbengwi Council's 2022 Budgetary Account Session held on Wednesday December 8 2021 in the Council Hall.
While welcoming the councillors and the rest of attendees to the session, the mayor explained that a budgetary session is not an exercise to decide on what to spend out of existing coffers but rather a target setting exercise that requires individual and collective efforts from all municipal actors like councillors, staff and technical services of the state.
He further drew the attention of all stakeholders directly or indirectly involved in the execution of the budget to take active part in the recovery of approved revenue especially the delegations of commerce and taxation whose loud silence and armchair practices have had devastating consequences on the execution of adopted budgets in previous years. According to the mayor, "It is regretful to think that Taxation has chosen to pay close attention unto taxes owed by the council to the neglect of local development tax and global tax assessment and recovery in the field which are their legitimate professional activity"
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More still, he advised the councillors and members of the public present that it's not enough to adopt a budget and come sporadically only for sessions to assess what the executive has done or hasn't done but rather, it's unarguably the responsibility of the councillors to carry out civic education to orientate or affect municipal inhabitant's believes, commitments, capabilities and actions. Another key element in the mayor's welcome address that pricked the minds of many was when he fired back at those who engage in faking criticisms to discredit the council executive with one another and members of the public instead of forwarding constructive criticisms to their offices most especially as most of those who do such don't even live and work in Mbengwi as is supposed to be the case, an attitude that's at variance with state interest and the principle of social responsibility.
In the various committee reports presented, the mayor and council executive was congratulated by the health committee for the purchase of a mini waste disposal van and reinforcement of monthly clean up campaigns, an initiative that's gone a long way to greatly improve on the cleanliness of the municipality though still somehow limited to Mbengwi central town. The Natural Resources Committee on its part sought to know if the exploitation of Calabar Chalk from Bessi Fomukong has in anyway been generating income for the council. They proposed that the council fire traces all her forests, organise an annual agro pastoral show and fine graziers that step out of trans humans zones.
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| Session |
As remarked by the Works and Transport Committee in its own report, the council in the whole of 2021 didn't execute any single project using council revenue. Away from this, they recommended that the council feed mill be made functional. Reacting to the various reports, Mayor Ndangsa Kennedy clarified that every first Wednesday of the month is clean up campaign day and the exercise lasts for two hours (8am - 10am). In this light, the council is planning to organise a cleanest village competition meaning the clean up campaign is supposed to be carried too in all other villages.
About the non usage of the toilets in the Mbon market by traders, he too wondered aloud why a good number prefers to use nearby bushes than pay a token to use the toilets that were actually intended to generate income for the council like is the case elsewhere where individuals pay to pee or poo. However, as a way out, he gave assurances that a GP-DERUDEP sponsored project for the construction of new toilets out of the market precisely at the entrance into Mbengbagwa will soon be completed and put to use.
Talking about the issue of water scarcity in Mbengwi, the municipal boss regretted the gross level of abuse perpetrated by users simply because the basic utility, just like electricity is no longer being paid for because of the ongoing crisis. It's this abuse that's greatly contributing to the shortage according to him. He went on to answer the worries of the Embellishment Committee by promising that sooner, the original plan of the monuments at the Mbon park that were intended to be a fountain will be realised as work is already ongoing there. The statues will be repainted, re-fenced and water supplied there to beautify the heart of the municipality. He made other interventions about Christmas lighting, illegal exploitation of calabar chalk in Bessi Fomukong, illegal exploitation of the council forest in Acha, resumption of production activities at the council feed mill, resumption of work at the slaughter house construction project in Njaah, inability of council revenue collectors to go to the streets and collect taxes due to the current crisis etc.
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| New Stalls Being Constructed on the Earmarked Commercial Avenue |
He ended his interventions by applauding the new executive for putting a final end to the old practice of owing worker's salaries. "For now, as we are talking, we are not owing any council worker even a dime" he said with full confidence. As tradition demands, during every of such sessions, there are often deliberations to be adopted. Amongst those adopted were that the mayor be empowered to reconstruct the Checkpoint in Mile 18, give out plots at the earmarked commercial avenue to potential business persons, mount a project on the construction of more stalls on the earmarked commercial avenue equivalent to the 40 million francs prize won as cleanest council in the region, train an old staff on secretarial duties or employ a state trained secretary to reinforce work in the mayor's Secretariat and that the executive be empowered to erect a befitting fence round the council and mount a new project for the rehabilitation of the stretch of road Checkpoint to Mbon to Africa Petroleum filling station with pavement bricks.
The budgetary council session also provided room for the validation of the Annual Investment Plan of the council for the year 2022 and Midterm Expenditure Framework. From the plan, projects earmarked for next year include the construction of a block of 3 classrooms in G.S Bessi Fomukong to the tune of 23 million, purchase/installation of 35 solar street lights in all village and community squares in the municipality, purchase of a hearse for the council mortuary and construction of a garage, construction of a bridge in Wumnemburg, rural electrification of Kai - Zang Tabi to the tune of 50 million, construction of boreholes in Njindom and Mbon park amounting to 44.700.000F, rehabilitation and extension of Ngyen-Mbo water scheme to the tune of 15 million, purchase of mattresses, blankets and other items to two orphanages in Mbengwi amounting to 1.5 million, rehabilitation of Njembeng Junction - Muswe - Mile 19 road amounting to 40 million among others not listed here.
Seating in for the Senior Divisional Officer of Momo as supervisory authority was the Divisional Officer for Mbengwi, Sakwe Jarvis. From time to time through out the session, he too stepped in to make certain clarifications and interventions like advising that rather than giving powers to one person to decide on issues of land that are technical, a committee be instead put in place to deliberate and conclude on such sensitive issues.
When given room to present his speech to close the session, the D.O clarified that the vision of the council as per the law is not good living and development for some specific people or most people but for all; old/young, rich/poor, educated/illiterates, natives/non natives alike. He promised to spare no effort in improving on the safety of actors in the educational sector and in helping the council realise its plans. He also addressed words of encouragement to all sons and daughters of the subdivision and division that provided material and financial assistance to youths and students for the successful commencement of the 2021/2022 academic year. According to him, such contributions made Momo in general and Mbengwi in particular to begin regaining its prestigious position as a temple of knowledge and living together.
At the end of the session, Ndangsa Kennedy Akam, the mayor of the Mbengwi council granted an interview to Mbengwi Online. Our first question to him was to justify why he described the session as one of the best ever. In response, he said it was because there were lots of deliberations and points raised by the councillors, leading to arguments yet he was up to the task to defend the questions that they asked. He went further to give great assurance that before his mandate comes to an end, every village and community in the Meta clan will feel the impact of the council because he is a representative of all the Meta people for there's no essence of giving water to Njindom and not to Munam or Zang Tabi for example because all are people of the same clan.
"I am doing all it takes to see that every community, every village at the end of my mandate should have at least a project." he insisted. The Mbengwi Council is the only out of the five in Momo division successfully holding her sessions within her municipality. Asked if there's any secret to this, Mayor Ndangsa said "There's nothing so secret about it. What's there is that from times immemorial, I used to tell my people that I will not want to leave Mbengwi. I'll be somebody who will like to make an America in Mbengwi and I believe in that ideology." He added that he's had several opportunities to travel abroad which he turned down because Mbengwi is his home town. "If I'm leaving Mbengwi who then do I expect to come and build the Mbengwi for me?" he asked. "Again I usually ask myself, if an S.D.O is here existing, a D.O is here existing and these are persons that have come from other areas to work in my place, then I as a landlord leaving to go and operate in another area is a call for concern. I won't let it happen" he reiterated.
As last words to councillors, municipal inhabitant's, sons and daughters of Mbengwi living in and out of the country, he said "To my councillors, I extend to them a motion of thanks for their maximum collaboration. To my people of Mbengwi, I want to let we all know that it's time to hold the bull by the horn to see our development projects sail through. Let's enable all the nukes and crannies of Mbengwi to be a green zone so as to attract these our development projects that are coming from Yaounde because the President of the Republic of Cameroon has the intention of sending projects only to areas that are green, same for any contractor that goes to execute a contract in an area and it turns out not to be conducive, that project won't be executed."
Ndangsa Kennedy Akam it should be noted was voted as new mayor of the Mbengwi Council on Tuesday February 25 2020 and sworn into office on Wednesday April 8 2020 after spending a month in Amba captivity as he was kidnapped after his election before beimg after released. His mandate and that of his two deputies plus councillors will end in 2025
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