Decentralisation: When gov’t sells goat, but still holds the rope!.

For the CPDM-led government, decentralisation is the hub of Cameroon's socioeconomic and political architecture. On the eve of Christmas in 2019, President Paul Biya promulgated into law the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities, which some of his party acolytes Christened ‘The Bible of Decentralisation’.

It was so cherished to the point that unlike all other laws, the Minister of Communication and Government’s Spokesman, Sadi Emmanuel Rene, accompanied by his peer of Decentralisation and Local Development, Georges Elanga Obam, held a joint press conference to give it maximum publicity.

At the conference in mid-January 2020, Minister Sadi said the code introduced several innovations in local governance like replacing appointed Government Delegates with elected City Mayors which he added was a historic milestone in the process of nation building.

In concord, Minister Elanga Obam, explained that the Code on Regional and Local Authorities is a major step in solving the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, which of course remains simmering.

As CRTV quoted him later "...the implementation of the Code of Decentralisation will begin from the date it was promulgated into law by the President of the Republic". 

The law was supposed to be effective from December 2019, but it was as late as last week that Regional and Local Authorities in the North West Region were being schooled on the Decentralisation Law. That was at a three-day workshop organised by the Ministry of Decentralisation and Local Development, MINDDEVEL, in partnership with the National School of Local Administration, NASLA.

During the three-day event, council executives, drawn from all seven Divisions of the North West Region were educated on what the 15% of resource allocation to councils is all about, as per by the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities.

Speaking during the opening session last Wednesday, the Representative of the Decentralisation Minister, Dr James Wung, expressed regrets that the training was coming behind schedule.

"It is a long awaited occasion, because as the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities states, once mayors are elected into office, they are entitled to initial training so that they can perform their duties," Wung said. 

The mayors were elected in February 2020 and have done more than half of their five-year tenure and are still being told it is better late than never. Isn't that a shocking admission of failure? How can a law that was projected as a panacea for development and even a solution to the macabre conflict in the North West and South West Region, still being expatriated to mayors, some with very limited education, more than three years since they were elected?  

What success do the powers that be in Yaounde expect from such mayors and the entire concept of decentralisation which the government launched more than two decades ago and it is still on the truck lane?

One of the sticky issues about decentralisation has been the transfer of competences and resources to councils. That has not been completed. There is also the thorny issue of 15 percent of national budget which the code enshrines should be allocated to councils. 

While some political thoughts argue the amount is just too small, the 15 percent is not even being respected. Mayor Augustin Tamba, President of Union of Cameroon Councils, is known to have petitioned President Biya to order a fair distribution of the budget that the state allocates to municipalities.

In the plea published in the media recently, he complained that "There is need for fairer equalisation. There are Ministries who give too many resources to very few municipalities. Twenty percent of municipalities receive credit transfers while 80% are waiting empty-handed. We are asking for more fairness".

The heartbeat of decentralisation is in all the 374 councils of which 360 are classified as Subdivisional and 14 as City Councils. They are indeed governments at the grassroots closest to the governed.

They are supposed to provide utilities like water, electricity, healthcare and basic infrastructure like roads, markets, hygiene and sanitation amongst others as enshrined in the Decentralisation Code that defines their competences.

It is also the contours of the paradigm that the National Development Strategy 2020-2030, NDS30, policy whose priority sectors are agriculture, livestock, fish farming, digital technology, among others.

Councils are expected to execute several other types of projects; in particular, value-added projects, collective facilities, the environment and sustainable development, capacity building for municipalities, digital transition and governance.

But it would appear Yaounde finds it a hard nut to divorce with ultra-centrist practices it has been used to for decades. Why is it that after creating a Ministry of Decentralisation and Local Development, Senior Divisional Officers, SDOs, who belong to the Ministry of Territorial Administration, continue to ‘supervise’ and even dictate to elected mayors? 

Isn't it in the same reluctant egoism of absolute power and resistance to change that staff from a different ministry should supervise elected mayors who should be answerable to the electorate and guided by their own ministry and the law?

Cameroonians of all political affiliations crave for available and affordable social amenities and efficient infrastructure which many say cannot be achieved within the ambit of limping decentralisation. 

But Yaounde considers another form of government a taboo. It should therefore make decentralisation work effectively by giving the mayors the competent staff, money and training in time as stipulated in the Decentralisation Code, not lame excuses.