Yaounde roads, 41 years under Biya!.

Forty-one years and still counting as Head of State, analysts say in most cases, it is promises and pronouncements versus what is on ground.

Those who have been looking at his score sheet argue that there is no better place to start X-raying how the nation has fared and is still faring under Biya’s leadership than beginning from the seat of power, Yaounde.

Yaounde, which incarnates what Cameroon, analysts say, is a paradox of shame when it comes to roads in the over four- decade plus of Biya’s rule. 

Many who lived the last years of the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo’s leadership and are still alive today, argue that Yaounde, beyond its formless infrastructural outlook, has regressed in terms of its urban road grid.

Others are pointing at a culture of neglect, lack of vision and maintenance as accounting for the yawning craters, artificial lakes, bumpy and potholed-infested road network in Yaounde. Many say it is rather uncommon to circulate in Yaounde without living the sad reality of a road network that speaks of those in power having run out of ideas to put things in order.

Critics say Yaounde, in the last forty-one years under President Biya, has rather lost its beauty and form. The roads that made Yaounde the dream of many in the yesteryears, others have been arguing, have been allowed to shrink to almost footpaths. 

New road projects that government has embarked on in recent years, they say, have rather been scamming schemes where unscrupulous cartels loot the public treasury while the citizenry continues to be deprived of good roads.

Even in the phase of the outright failure of Biya’s foot agents to embellish Yaounde, those who believe in the maxim that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, say the blame for the shameful look of Yaounde, rests solely on the shoulders of President Biya. 

For others, the state of roads in Yaounde today rather leaves them with the view that Biya’s 41 years of leadership have been uninspiring and leave nothing to write home about. 

The Biya regime, many argue, may have survived turbulent times in 41 years, but the shocking road network of the nation’s capital, coupled with terrible drainage problems, point to a disaster that has been on for years. 

They say it is possible for a pregnant woman in labour, to suffer miscarriage in Yaounde, given the bad roads like it is in some rural and remote areas of Cameroon.   

Bad roads everywhere you go in Yaounde

For regime apologists and other dyed-in-the-wool supporters of the Head of State, the rotten state of roads in Yaounde, many denizens say, is loud enough for them to bury their heads in shame. A rapid tour of Yaounde shockingly shows that bad roads are abundant in almost every neighbourhood.

The situation, many lament, is more aching, given that these major streets in the nation’s capital are used by millions every day. 

Surprisingly, the shame that has covered Yaounde through bad roads has not spared even the neighourhood where the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, lives. Here, we are talking about the Etoudi Marche area and Etoudi Canal 2 roads; both, just a stone throw from the Unity Palace.

Other neighbourhoods with bad roads that have no one bordering about are: the Presidential Guard, GP, Melen, Biscuiterie, Emombo, Essos, Nkolmesseng, Anguissa, Efoulan-Lac, Efoulan Carrefour, Carrefour MEEC, Oyomabang, Cite Verte and Madagascar neighbourhoods.

That is not all. The is also:  the Marche Nkoleton, Bata Nlonkack, Biyem-Assi, Accacia Carrefour, Marche Madagascar, Santa Barbara, Nkolmbong Abbatoire, Mendong Gendarmerie, Entre Simbbock-Carrefour Jovance stretch, Marche Central and more.

Throwing dust in people’s eyes all the time?

Those who argue that the bad state of roads in the nation’s capital speaks of a country experiencing regression and stagnation for over four decades, are further lampooning the Biya regime for throwing dust into people’s eyes for too long. 

Those who hold this line of thought say members of government have, for several decades under President Biya’s watchful eyes, played to the gallery and cameras for long, but nothing has changed.

A case in point is the Nkolmesseng stretch that is neither manageable in the dry season nor in the rainy season. The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Celestine Ketcha Courtes, has been to the stretch severally, making promises, but nothing has changed. The road has remained unworked like she came and met upon her appointment in 2018.

Analysts concur that she too will play to the gallery and go like her predecessors did several years ago. 

Many observers say after 41 years in power, the Biya regime should own up to the embarrassment and the international shame Cameroon has attracted, thanks to the ugly state of roads in Yaounde.

Even the multiple meetings that have been staged across the decades that Biya has been in charge and still counting, have not changed the road fortune of Yaounde.

While municipal authorities are decrying spiraling anarchy in the housing sector, the nature of roads, many say, appears more dreadful. The roads, some say, constitute more threat to public peace and order than the wind government has been chasing for years.

Making mockery of a people, wasting opportunities 

Those who say President Biya has no excuse as to why roads in Yaounde are the way they are in 2023, add that the situation is rather a mockery of the populace. 

Analysts appear unanimous that occasions that would have helped the Yaounde regime to save face, have also been squandered.

Recall that Cameroon, between 2019 and 2023, hosted the African Nations Championship, CHAN and the 33th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON. 

Many say these were windows to give the road network in Yaounde a new look. 

This reporter has, on several occasions, pictured instances where gaping potholes are being filled with earth in the heart of the capital city. Others were seen whitewashing certain avenues and painting stones to give the semblance of the roads being in shape, but time, critics say, has laid bare the situation of things for all to see.

Sloganeering & sleeping while city rots?

While some say they can’t understand why even the capital city can’t boasts of goods roads, there are those who have opted to see the bad state of roads as the outcome of a regime that spends time in sloganeering and playing around while Yaounde is sleeping into ruin.

They say all the slogans that Biya has used to open the different mandates he has won to lead since 1982, roads in Yaounde show, have been empty talk and cheap politicking.

Yaounde a disastrous example of decentralisation?

Outside the major roads that speak volume of nothing moving, most of the city dwellers in the seven Subdivisions that make up Yaounde, say the capital city is an example of failure in decentralisation.

While the central government has been shamed for leaving roads to get bad, the role of councils, city dwellers say, are not felt when it comes to maintaining roads in their municipalities.

Shockingly, the Subdivisional Councils and the City Council in Yaounde are among the richest nationwide. What they do in terms of even maintaining roads, many Yaounde denizens we spoke to say, is not known. 

Many say they know of streets that have never been graded for decades and no one cares! Many Yaounde residents say they consider the capital city a very big village, owing to its worsening state of roads.

“What is the difference between roads in Yaounde and those in my native village, Weh in Wum, Menchum Division of the North West Region,” a Yaounde resident who pleaded to stay anonymous questioned angrily. 

“How do I convince my kith and kin back in Menchum, that the same trouble we go through, while travelling from Wum to Bamenda, is exactly what I am witnessing driving through the nation’s capital, Yaounde?”, he questioned further. 

PM Dion Ngute on fruitless mission to salvage situation?

Apparently, having come to terms with the stark reality that the bad state of roads in Yaounde has harvested for Cameroon, international shame, the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, summoned concerned stakeholders for a meeting last October 26, to urgently address the situation.

But how can a situation that has lasted decades be adjusted under emergency conditions? Analysts have praised the PM for the move, but say they are almost certain that nothing will change. 

For one thing, the Minister of Decentralisation and Local Development, Georges Elanga Obam and his counterpart of Housing and Urban Development, Celestine Ketcha Courtes, left the meeting that was staged at the Star Building with twisted faces and fallen jaws; telling whoever cared to listen that, as it stands, there is no money to urgently address the worrying bad state of roads in Yaounde! 

To further worsen the situation in what many say points to the Biya regime having had no vision to modernise Yaounde, the Minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, rather said in the long run, roads in the nation’s capital will be classified and plans made to construct them.

Analysts say it is baffling that in 41 years, the Biya regime is still talking about classifying roads in Yaounde! 

Even the timing of the PM’s meeting with many ministries almost exhausting their budgets and waiting for 2024, observers say, speak volumes of a system not properly coordinated. 

Worst still, even the 2024 budget for most ministries have been drawn. Many say they fear no special budget lines have been included in concerned ministries’ 2024 budget to salvage the shame in Yaounde.

Urgent need for special road fund for Yaounde

For many, government must leave the cosmetic measures and unfruitful gatherings it has been staging over the years to get pragmatic and reverse the situation. 

Town planners and road construction experts say President Biya should, as a matter of urgency, institute a special road fund worth hundreds of billions of FCFA to repair, construct and open up more roads in Yaounde, whose population is growing at a geometric rate. 

Without this, they sustain, Yaounde will remain the capital city of shame it has been for forty-one years under President Biya.