We are tired of seminars, workshops-SW Mayors tell ministers

Mayors of the South West Region are disgruntled over the numerous seminars and workshops they have been attending since they took office.

Their annoyance, is not only limited to the lectures they received from these seminars and the high cost incurred, but also the fact that the resolutions of the workshops always end up in the cupboards of ministers, with nothing to show thereafter.

The Mayors expressed their resentment recently in Kumba during a workshop organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The workshop was to acquaint them with the process of decentralisation in the ministry.

The Mayors, who had earlier complained that workshops were announced at very short notice, also accused the Ministry of Agriculture of not reaching out to their councils. They told organisers to stop wasting their precious time over initiatives they cannot implement.

Expressing his anger, the Mayor of Limbe II Council, Duncan Molindo, denounced the practice of decentralisation in Cameroon. He recalled a seminar they attended in Congo on decentralisation where Mayors from Cameroon could not state who and when the implementation will be done.

He said his council has not benefited a dime from the Ministry of Agriculture as concerns decentralisation. He added that, the practice is difficult because ministers are not willing to surrender part of their powers to councils.

Molindo stated further that, only 4 percent of the State budget is alloted for decentralisation.

His colleague of Limbe I Council, Rodany Mbua, noted the power tussle that exists amongst the Divisional Delegates and themselves over the management of resources sent to them through the various ministries. He said, Mayors are treated like assistants as they are called upon just to append their signatures to documents.

Mayor Martin Forcha of Kumba II Council suggested to his colleagues to use their Mayors association to come together to write a memorandum to the Prime Minister, detailing their concern rather than depending on seminar organisers who have nothing to do with implementation of measures developed at such gatherings.

The resource person of the workshop, Geoffrey Guemuh Nsofon, Sub Director of Community Development in the Ministry of Agriculture, explained that the essence of the workshop was to put in place a new strategy on how competences transferred by MINADER to councils could be properly managed since there were some difficulties at the level of execution by some councils.

He urged the Mayors to forward their communal development plans to the ministry so as to get directly involved in the process.

The Regional Delegate of Agriculture and Rural Development for the South West, James Enang, who opened the workshop, explained to the Mayors the great role they have to play to ensure that the policies of the Ministry are implemented so as to realise the second generation agriculture.

At the end of the workshop, the major cry of the Mayors was for the Ministry of Agriculture to put at the disposal of each council a permanent agricultural technician to help advise the council on the importance of agriculture.