Southwest Mayors Pledge Collaboration With Rumpi Project

By Olive Ejang Tebug

Twenty Southwest Province mayors, Thursday, January 26, pledged to collaborate with the Rumpi Project for the development of the Province.In a speech on behalf of the mayors at the Kumba Urban Council Hall, Buea Rural Council Mayor, Charles Mbella Moki, said their aim is to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. 

Mbella said the doors of the councils would remain open to the Rumpi Project as the development of the province is at the forefront. He hoped that more workshops would be organised for the mayors.

The occasion was a development partnership meeting between Rumpi Project and Councils in the Southwest Province.

Poor Attendance

The Government Delegate to the Kumba Urban Council, Caven Nnoko Mbele, expressed disappointment at the scanty number of mayors that attended the meeting. He questioned if another meeting would be organised for the absentee mayors.

Chief Esoh Etoh of the Ekondo-Titi Rural Council pointed out that the Southwest mayors have a well-constituted union with a secretariat in Buea. He said Rumpi could have passed through this secretariat to inform the mayors.

In another development, Mbella Moki declined to present a paper on "Benefits of Working in Partnership with Other Institutions: the Experience of a Mayor." He said he couldn't present it, when older colleagues like Nnoko and Chief Esoh Etoh were in the hall.

The mayors further refused a presentation from Besong Bakia, a governance expert from SNV-Cameroon, on "In Search of Veritable Partnership Between Councils and Village Communities; Experiences from Northwest Cameroon."

Nnoko observed that it was abnormal for SNV to draw experience from the Northwest to deal with Southwest councils. Mbella contended that the Northwest has homogenous councils while the Southwest has a heterogeneous set-up. He since SNV would have exploited the experience of Southwest councils.

Following the confusion that ensued, the Co-ordinator of the Rumpi Project, Dr. Fabian Ekue, was compelled to apologise to the mayors for not passing through the mayors' union.

During the plenary session, presentations dwelt on an overview of the importance of developing partnership with councils, capacity building components, agricultural production and productivity enhancement, access to markets and support to local initiatives and micro-finance and development.

Comments

[shuche]

Stupidity will never seize if people like Noko Mbelle stay there. Just because a case study of success is from the NW they will refuse for it to be use to illustrate.
I know the coordinator just had to present the methodology of doing it. Not asking them to adopted thesame methodology.
It is a disgrace to read things like these. May be if it came from Ebolowa people will be willing to see or listen what that is.
we should stop thinking at one level because that is standing on the way of our development.

[Emma Bi]

It is really stupid for people like Noko Mbelle to be saying such a thing like that.What is the matter if a case study is taken from the North West.Even if he considers the North
Westerners as infants in front of him, can an infant not advice his/her parents? if the parent sees that the idea the child wants to purpose is useful why can he accept so that it can help him rather sitting behind in shame and be grumbling.so the North West and South West should stay in unity. they should not forget that they are the minority.