Words, Yes, but Action Too

In the face of the veritable threat on human lives and property posed by the growing and uncontrollable phenomenon of heavy-duty trucks plying urban roads, especially those laden with transporting building sand and gravel, the Minister of Transport has come up with another directive expressing not only his bewilderment, but streamlining the movement of such trucks.The Minister's move is certainly to minimize and even possibly eradicate this endangerment; given that day in day out, countless cases of accidents even involving loss of life have been recorded in our main cities. The nature of this transport system is evidently not adapted to city centres which usually carry huge human concentrations and activities requiring constant displacements of people and smaller engine driven vehicles.

If old habits are anything to go by, then the Minister's directives can reasonably be taken with some pinch of salt. For many reasons, least of which is not the generalized propensity to circumvent similar measures in the past with the use of any imaginable subterfuge. For example, previous directives prescribed specific hours for heavy-duty vehicles to ply urban roads.

At one instance it was directed that such vehicles could only work after 2pm, but many drivers fraudulently obtained passes from officials of the Ministry of Transport with which they easily sidetracked the law. Collusion and other corrupt practices with the forces of law-enforcement have also been identified as a major weakness in the effort to obtain the results solicited by the ministerial directive.

A good application of the Minister's measures begins right from the Ministry where officials should check the fraudulent delivery of passes because in the Cameroonian context, it is very easy to turn an exception into the rule; so the delivery of passes should simply be proscribed because it is becoming a strong vector of corruption and the escape valve for the busting of the Minister's good intentions.

To get this noble initiative off the ground and attain the desired effects, the ministry need not go far for good practices. The ministry has recently been instrumental in the drop of road accidents on inter-urban roads. And this was due largely to the fact that all involved took a hands-on approach by going down the roads and ensuring that texts were applied. These notes certainly spell the Minister's determination; but action on the ground will certainly be more compelling.