Gov't's bad excuses for bad roads!.

He gave the weird excuse in an interview on CRTV’s weekend radio magazine programme, Cameroon Calling, while responding to a question on why roads quickly deteriorate and are punctuated with potholes, sometimes even before the construction work comes to an end or a few months after the roads are constructed.

He stressed that roads in the country always respect the technical specifications of construction, else they will not be accepted by the actors involved, notably the project owner, the company, the control mission and the engineer.

“This team must agree on the quality of the road before it can be accepted. What provokes the acceleration of degradation is the issue of not respecting the tonnage and effects of climate change,” he claimed.

The minister added that: “The truth is that we cannot do much when there is so much rain. Heavy rains have contributed to deteriorate those sections of our national roads.

“That is the main reason for the degradation of our roads. We have not abandoned any road. We have gone there to maintain the potholes,” Nganou Djoumessi added.

While expressing difficulty in raising funds for road works, the minister said in some cases like the Ngoundere-Garoua road, the ministry mobilises equipment and resources for repair works without waiting for a company.

He further called on regional inspectors in charge of controlling road projects to be more effective and urged them to carryout inspection visits on road networks in their Regions so as to identify difficulties and risks so that they can start looking for solutions.

He also commended the populations around road construction stretches for support they give to road works. Minister Nganou Djoumessi’s interview came after the 2025 annual conference of officials of the Ministry of Public Works.

According to him, the meeting was an opportunity to discuss some burning issues such as the rapid degradation of some of the country’s national roads, notably the Yaounde-Douala, Douala-Bandjoun and Ngoundere-Garoua roads; over the past six months.

He added that the gathering was also an avenue to discuss the 2025 planning of road maintenance and how to collaborate with other stakeholders.

He explained further that road maintenance and construction are major concerns for the government, which is only a project owner, and needs other stakeholders who play a major role for their objectives to be achieved.

The Guardian Post appreciates the minister's initiative to hold a conference with his staff to brainstorm on the problems of bad, deteriorating and even no roads in several parts of the country.

Roads are a key, if not the preponderant avenue of development. CPDM barons even say, "Where a road passes, development follows". 

There should, therefore, not be satirical excuses to explain the dismay failure of the CPDM government to provide good roads. Not a single express way exists in Cameroon as that between Yaounde and Douala has for years not been completed!

Data indicates that less than 9% of the country's road network of an overall length of 121,873 km as of December 31, 2023, is tarred.

At the end of December 2023, Cameroon officially had 10,225.58 km of tarred roads, according to the Minister of Public Works. 

More than half of the tarred sections are national roads of 5,798.69 km, while 1,606.08 km are regional roads and 2,711.81 km for municipal roads.

President Paul Biya, in his 2024 end-of-year address, complained of bad roads. He said Cameroonians have "lost their lives this year as a result of accidents, some of which could have been avoided. These include road accidents...". 

He was just re-echoing the Delegate General of National Security, Martin Mbarga Nguele, who had also cried out about deplorable road conditions when he travelled from Yaounde to Mutengene, in the South West Region.

The excuses the Minister of Public Works gives, passing the blame to climate change and overloading of trucks, are untenable, even by a stretch of warp logic.

Corruption and incompetent contractors contribute significantly to road construction and maintenance. His ministry should take the responsibility, rather than giving ridiculous excuses that only expose the failure of the CPDM regime in a key development sector.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3362 of Friday February 7, 2025