Measures are under-way in the country to check the illegal acquisition of driving licences.

If all reforms that are being undertaken in Cameroon by the government were effectively and efficiently implemented, the problem of fraudulent acquisition of driving licences could soon be history. "We are no longer going to have fake driving licences in Cameroon in a year's time," said Moussa Aoudou Dotel, Director of Land Transport in the Ministry of Transport.

Meeting in his conference hall last July 22 to inform the ten regional delegates of transport of the new reform on acquiring driving licences in Cameroon, the Minister of State, Minister of Transport, Bello Bouba Maigari, and his close aides have taken up the challenge to ensure that driving schools in the country no longer serve as accomplices in the issuance of driving licences to undeserving persons. The new change, to take effect next month, specifies that all candidates in the ten regions of the country will henceforth, write a compulsory test, organised and supervised by the Ministry of Transport in collaboration with its regional delegations.

"The first control measure the Ministry of Transport has taken is that the regional delegations in collaboration with the various driving schools will come up with a list of candidates eligible for the examination. The list will be forwarded to the Minister of State, Minister of Transport who will scrutinize, verify and validate it," Moussa Aoudou Dotel explained. He emphasised that after legalizing the list, the Ministry will send supervisors to the various examination centres for the exercise. "Only the Minister of State, Minister of Transport will sign the list of successful candidates," he hinted.

The reform falls within the framework of government's initiative to reduce the rate of road accidents that have transformed many highways into death squads. The causes of such behaviour by drivers have generally been attributed to the inability of many of them to understand road signs, probably because they did not go through the right training and or simply because they tend to ignore the lessons learnt in school. The reform is also meant to complement the regular road safety campaigns initiated by the Ministry each year.

Sources in the Ministry of Transport hinted that plans are already in place for tracking down any defaulters when the reform goes operational. Any accomplices in the Ministry, the sources warned, shall be promptly and severely sanctioned. On the other hand, driving schools that indulge in forgery will have their authorisations seized immediately, while motorists who are caught in possession of fake licences will have them withdrawn immediately, the Director of Land Transport, warned.

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