Traditional rulers in a fix over gov't proposed salaries

Traditional rulers in the Southwest Region, like their peers in other parts of the country, are in a fix following the recent Presidential decree on allocating salaries to them.

According to the Presidential Decree, Third Class Chiefs in the country will earn FCFA 50,000, FCFA 100,000 for Second Class Chiefs and FCFA 200,000 for First Class Chiefs, at the end of each month as salaries.

Weeks after the presidential decree was made to chiefs, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, said the chiefs will begin receiving their salaries at the end of June, 2014.

However, at the end of the month of June nothing was heard from Government and a lot of questions are popping up in the minds of the traditional rulers.

The custodians of the cultures and traditions of Cameroon are afraid that the fate of Mayors, who were once promised similar salaries in another Presidential decree over seven years ago, have not received even a dime till date thus they anticipate same may happen to them.

To add salt to an excruciating sore, the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Fako, Zang III, earlier last month, ordered the chiefs of Fako Division to compile their documents for onward transmission to the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation in Yaounde.

The documents, the SDO said, was to facilitate the payment of the chiefs. In a marathon race, the chiefs hurriedly compiled their files and forwarded them to the SDO.

Chiefs who failed to meet up with the SDO’s deadline for the compilation of their documents have under taken numerous trips to Yaounde, lobbying to have their documents accepted.

The complete file consist of; a photocopy of National Identity Card, a decision signed by the SDO designating an individual as chief, a hand written application among others.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Decree allocating salaries to traditional rulers met with a lot of criticisms from political actors. Many interpreted the move as an attempt by Government to bait the chiefs and their subjects into supporting the political regime, given that, a chief is a traditional obligation that an individual owes to his people and community and need not be rewarded.

However, Chief Johannes Mokoto Njie, President of the Muyuka Chiefs Conference and Former Mayor of the Muyuka Council, thinks that such an initiative to pay traditional rulers is very important especially in local communities where Government depends on the chiefs for the maintenance of law and order.

“Such payments can facilitate the transportation and rallying efforts of chiefs in rural communities to curb crime,” Chief Mokoto stated.

According to the former Mayor, “it would be absurd for a chief to sell his conscience or abandon his political party in support of a different party because of FCFA 50,000.”

Chief Mokoto and colleagues are hoping that the Presidential Decree on salary allocating to chiefs should not turn out like that of the mayors.