Olive Ejang Tebug Ngoh
4 July 2008
Some 500 inhabitants of GBHS New Layout have begun digging a 1-km stretch of road.
The people embarked on the project because, as they say, the Principal of GBHS Kumba, Charles Mukete, constructed a fence round the school blocking the road they used to use.
According to Samuel Nyambuh Neba, quarter head of the area, they started digging after several attempts to seek help from the administration failed.
Nyambuh recalled that five years ago, they dispatched a delegation to present the road problem to then Meme Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, Wilson Otto, who told them to wait a while.
The quarter head recounted that after years of receiving no response, they wrote a letter to former Government Delegate to the defunct Kumba Urban Council, Caven Nnoko Mbele, to send a caterpillar to open the road.
He said Nnoko told them to wait for a feasibility study. However, Nyambuh said after the studies, they never heard from the administration, meanwhile they continued to suffer.
Nyambuh continued that when Prince Ekale Mukete was elected mayor of Kumba I Council, each family head resident in GBHS New Layout contributed FCFA 10,000 for the project.
The money, he said, was taken to Ekale. The mayor too, only told them to wait. "Disappointed and frustrated, we decided to start the construction manually. We work for about 15 hours a week," Nyambuh said.
Describing the road project, Divine Ashu, a landlord in the area, said the road will stretch from Kumba Station, passing beside GBHS Kumba to New Layout. Ashu said they have already dug 300 meters in six weeks. He added that they hope to complete the digging after three months.
He told the press that they intend to construct four culverts across the road. One Mrs. Tabe told The Post that they suffer in the area like ancient people. She said it was pathetic that they had to dig a road with their hands whereas they pay tax like any other citizen in Cameroon.
The mother of five stated that they find it difficult to go to take their farm produce to the market.Tabe also lamented that whenever someone is very sick in the area, they have to convey them in a cart to the roadside, before transporting them to the hospital, in a taxi.
Besides lack of a road, the woman said they lack pipe-borne water and electricity which makes life difficult for them.She added her voice to plea for government support for the grading of the road which they are digging.
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