Buea Inhabitants Overwhelmed By Garbage

By Armstrong Awah (UB Journalism Student On Internship)

The inhabitants of Buea seem to desperately wallow in the muck of garbage that line the lone highway and the backyards of homes.

Rotting garbage:Landmarks of Buea

This is exacerbated by the rest of carelessly disposed domestic wastes in the town.
From Mile 17, heaps of reeking garbage (fruit peels, decaying plantains, potatoes, cocoyams, vegetables, plastics and the like) 'decorate' the about 5-km long boulevard.

But for a few garbage containers planted along the highway, often overfilled with rubbish, most of the refuse are either piled on the roadside or deposited in the gaping gutters waiting for flash floods from the mountain to wash them downwards to the sea.

Besides the stomach-wrenching dirt, the ridge in the middle of the highway is strewn with grass which makes it look like an abandoned artefact.When The Post interviewed some locals downtown Molyko, they said some of them throw their rubbish into trash cans, others said they throw theirs into the gutters banally known as "Musole."

A high school student, for his part, names withheld, said he usually waits for night fall before depositing his rubbish in the culverts because there are no trash cans around their residence.

"I do this so that people can only discover it in the morning," said the student.What catches one's attention and wrenches the heart is the stinking garbage heap at the University of Buea Junction. This sort of defeats the very essence of 'university.' It gives the impression that those in charge are not duty conscious.

This is also the case of the filthy and muddy Great Soppo Market. Many have blamed Buea Council for the rotten state in which the town finds itself. They say Council authorities are less concerned with the sanitary condition of the town.

According to an inhabitant of Great Soppo, Jude Mendong, Buea should be awarded the prize for having the dirtiest streets in the Southwest Province. "It is a shame for the capital of a province that has such ecotourism potentials to be this nasty and this makes people and tourists feel downcast to visit the town.

It also makes non-residents perceive everybody that lives here to be contemptible. You need to see the bushes along the roads, the culverts filled with rubbish and decaying litter," said Mendong.

A certain accountant, Emmanuel Pefok, resident in Bokwaongo, said garbage containers should be placed at strategic points in quarters and should be emptied regularly."Due to the fact that the containers are too high, steps could be placed to enable short people climb up and throw dirt directly into it... If the Council does not have enough manpower to clean the streets and clear the debris, more people should be employed to do the job," Pefok suggested.

As to the role the incumbent Mayor played in ameliorating the unclean nature of the town, a businessman resident in Bonduma, Hearforgod Tata, said "the incumbent Mayor did little on sanitation for the past five years that can be appreciated."

It would be recalled that the Mayor of Buea Rural Council earlier this year said his Council was fighting garbage tooth and nail.

By press time, Council authorities could not comment on the issue because they said newly elected Council administration is still to be installed.

Comments

[Ndiks]

http://www.the-news-from-cameroon.com/article.php?article_id=760
Fru Ndi Denounces Warmongers

9 Aug 2007, 8:37 PM
The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, SDF party, has denounced war advocated by many as solution to the electoral malpractices over the years that have been depriving the party of its legitimacy to power in municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections. The party, according to statistics gathered from the field, lost through rigging, about 60 parliamentary seats in just ended twin elections. According the SDF statistics, it won 74 seats but was ascribed only 14 as proclaimed by the CPDM government Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Marafa Hamidou Yaya.

In spite of all this, Fru Ndi argued at a press briefing at his Ntarikun residence, a few days after the elections, that he would not want to see a showdown that would be very devastating to both sides of the political divide and the Cameroonian people. He told journalists that: “There is no victor nor vanquished in any political armed confrontations,” in spite the anguish. The Chairman said the SDF is fighting for “… you the youths and would not like to see you perish in an armed confrontation like in Liberia and so on.”

Militants, who uphold the use of force, if peaceful negotiations and dialogue failed to resolve the matters of the day, blamed Fru Ndi for adopting a peaceful approach. Fru Ndi again argued that it is easy to start a war but difficult to end it.

“I don’t want to increase the plight of Cameroonians plagued by bad governance,” he stated. He told the press that the Santa electoral hold–up was orchestrated by administrative authorities and elite who wanted to twist the election to favour the ruling party for selfish aims. He said it would be a political blow if “… I am defeated in my village.” He averred that the vote count from his village, according to CPDM report, was even more than the entire population of his village.

Fru Ndi condemned in very strong terms the role played by elite, front line communicators and lay preachers of the churches. He regretted that Biya will again use the smoke-screen election to rob international financial donors and use the money to keep himself and members of his oligarchy afloat but debit the economy and mar the future of the present generation and generations to come.

He deplored the “come no go” syndrome reintroduced by the Prime Minister, Chief Ephraim Inoni, during his campaign tour. He said the PM instructed Southwest administrators to frustrate Northwest SDF militants and deprive them of victory in the elections. In the same vein, Minister Etame Massoma was quoted as telling Cameroonians in Nkongsamba that the SDF was an Anglophone party that had nothing to do with francophones.

By

[Danny Boy]

A few weeks ago, I talked of the "winter of discontent" which brought down James Callaghan's government here in Britain in 1979. It all started when refuse collectors went on strike. London was worst hit. Soldiers were brought in but they could not cope. Other unions joined in and the economy was crippled. This forced Callaghan to call an election which he duly lost!
Who said the common worker has no powers? What is happening in Buea could just be the opening we need to oust this regime from office.