October 12 poll: CPDM regime ‘blindfolding’ citizens with emergency road repairs!.

The timing of the works, years after repeated cries from the public, critics are saying, rather shows the CPDM regime is seeking to use the ongoing road works for campaigns as the Head of State contests for an eight-term come October 12.

The pain and frustration from the works have left citizens with mixed feelings. While some are praising the works, a majority say engaging the works only weeks to election sends across a different message.

In the wake of the debates of the works have stirred, the suffering of the masses is what has remained preoccupying. 

Circulation across Yaounde and Douala has for weeks now been crippled, leaving many to miss vital appointments.

West Entrance of hell into Douala

The West Entrance into the economic capital, Douala with ongoing works around Carrefour Mutzig, has left travelers to and from the West and South West Regions with bitter experiences.

Thousands of citizens have not stopped lamenting that circulation around the West Entrance into Douala alone takes as much as four hours and beyond. 

Sight of congestion, accidents and goods getting rotten are the stories that have overshadowed the emergency road repair works in Douala.

Many say they see nothing interesting in the works, if not politics, insisting that the stretch had been bad for years and government did nothing.  

There are those who travel to the economic city for health reasons plus those who have missed flights due to the restricted circulation paths due to repairs. These, it is being said, add to the details of just how the works are draining an entire nation. 

Given that Douala is the nation’s economic hub, travelers say whatever happens there has an impact on almost all sectors of national life. 

Most business persons are reported to have transferred extra cost incurred, either through spoiled goods, especially for foodstuffs to consumers through high prices.

Drivers, meanwhile, are also said to have slightly increased fares as a way of making up for the time wasted and fuel dissipated battling to meander through the terrifying Douala traffic.

Road repairs compounding life in Yaounde 

While Douala’s situation is mostly in the West Entrance, Yaounde, which for years has been known for its broken road network, is at another level with the spectacle of congestion. 

A majority of busy axes for Yaounde’s estimated three million population, are now either blocked or partially opened. In most of such areas, the old coat of tar has been excavated while elsewhere, several kilometers of abandoned roads have been graded but remained block. 

The situation has left private cars, cabs, motorcycles and trucks transporting goods jostling for space to circulate on the few other roads that remained open.

Citizens say they now find it difficult leaving one part of Yaounde to another, especially in affected neighbourhooods. 

Where the roads have been graded, the problem of dust has surfaced, given that rains have continued to delay in returning to Yaounde.

With the city’s cold weather, denizens are not only choking in congestion, some say they are having in addition to it, catarrh, cough and other seasonal bodily twinges. 

Many are saying it now appears Yaounde has more cars and motorcycle than roads required for their circulation.

There has also been a sharp disruption in businesses, especially in areas like the Carrefour Biyem-Assi-Carrefour Obili axis. Here, several families that survive on road site businesses are idling. 

Those who battle to survive at all cost have pitched tents elsewhere waiting for whenever the works will be finished.

The plethora of travel agencies on the axis that transport thousands to especially the North Wes and West Regions daily, have also been temporarily moved to other parts of the capital city. 

The headache is now both for businesses that have lost clients and members of the public who are unable to trace their new places of operations.

Spotting a sea of vehicles, motorcycles and pedestrians clogged on certain road portions in Yaounde, due to the road works is now a daily experience. 

Works are ongoing on axes such as; Carrefour Etoug Ebe-Centre, Carrefour MEEC-Cité Vert, Cité Verte-Madagascar, Mbangkolo-Carrefour Golf, Shell Nsimeyong-Carrefour-Vogt, Carrefour Vogt-Mvolye and Carrefour Club France-Dakar among others.

School resumption to compound situation

Given the stress in the two cities with schools yet to resume, it is now being projected that when the 2025/2026 academic year rumbles off on Monday September 8, the situation might go out of hand. 

Critics say when thousands of learners will begin pouring to the streets seeking to get to campuses, the congestion linked to the road works will attain another vexing level.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3553 of Wednesday September 03, 2025