Donga Mantung: Inside out of Mayor Abdou Kanfon’s transformation of Ndu municipality.

In the Ndu municipality, Donga Mantung Division of the North West Region, there are increasing discussions based on the rare levels of grassroots development, witnessed since February 2020. 

These things have been happening and continue to play out like a dream, under the leadership of Alhadji Kanfon Bornou, as mayor.

When he was voted to become mayor in February 2020, many an inhabitant of Ndu thought it was some déjà vu arrangement playing before their eyes. 

But over six years on, locals are now saying Mayor Abdou Kanfon Borno has proven that it takes a leader with a heart for the people, vision and selflessness to turn things around as he has miraculously done in his municipality.

Howbeit, he resisted the life-threatening chaos that came with the crisis in the North West and North West Region to sustain his development agenda for Ndu municipality.

Already being credited as the best mayor Ndu municipality ever produced, Abdou Kanfon Bornou is not getting such praises based on his person but due to the undeniable local development exploits of his administration.

While others spent time paying lip service to decentralisation and local development, Mayor Abdou Kanfon Bornou, it is now being said, is a rare development bulwark.

He is one of the few mayors in the English-speaking Regions who has been living in his municipality, even when the winds are most uneasy.

Though the municipal magistrate has largely remained quiet about the sea of achievements and rare transformational projects, tied to his current mandate in the Ndu municipality, the echoes however continue to spread beyond imagination.

Today, Mayor Abdou Kanfon Borno is a standout local development champion with recognitions from women, youth, civil society and even the Head of State. 

His is a multilayered development success story, weaved in the provision of roads, potable water, solar energy, renovation of palaces, construction of a befitting council hall, building of dozens of schools, huge and consistent provision of didactics to schoolchildren, rehabilitation of palaces and more.

But that is not all. Mayor Kanfon Borno has a rare flair for inclusive development. He is a conscious leader who has repeatedly said there is no justification to leave any sector of society behind, in his development agenda. He has worked and continues to do so without counting the achievements. 

But the people for whom he is in office continue to keep pace of every addition to not only embellishing Ndu municipality but giving them a never-imagined quality of life.

Records that match celebration of rare developer

As if to differentiate between dreams and reality, the hype, buzz and admiration for Mayor Kanfon Borno, is not anchored on empty political rhetoric or some local traditional arraignment. 

It is an influence and stature saturated in projects that are countable and seeable and well documented across every village that makes up Ndu Subdivision.

The icon among icons in terms of development that Kanfon Borno is today, measures the same weight and length as the many of his projects scattered across Ndu Subdivision already serving the population. 

Before he came to office, it never once occurred in the minds of locals that a time will come when every palace will bear testimony of what local development is.

Today, he has in his catalogue the renovation, rehabilitation and electrification of palaces. Among them are seven palaces electrified viz;  Sinna, Mbipgo, Ntundip, Talla, Ntumbaw and Ndu palaces.

Other palaces have been restored to include; Ngvulu, Nsehmakop, Ngarum, Njilah, Sinna. Works in the same palaces also touched on re-roofing, improving drainage, sanitary infrastructure. 

Today, across Ndu Subdivision, community gatherings, cultural celebrations and other palace undertakings are conducted in more conducive environments.

Potable water everywhere 

Some 18 villages now have access to potable water, while works in two others are ongoing.  This brings the number of beneficiary villages to 20. Among them are; Ntumbaw, Ntungang, Ngvu, Mankeng, Mangu, Wowo, Ntantala, Ndu town, kakar, Sehn, Ngvulu, Mbipgo, Mbah, Talla, Mbiyeh, Taku, Ntundip and Mbajeng. Works have far advanced on the Ngarum and Njirong water projects.

Formidable education advocate 

When it comes to education, Mayor Abdu Kanfon, has remained steady and unrivalled, especially in primary education. He has constructed at least 16 schools. Government School, GS Ntumbaw, GS Njirong, GS Sehn,  GS Sop rehabilitated, GNS Mbandfung; Government Nursery School, GNS Mbiyeh, GS Talla one classroom, GS Fuh,  GS Mbah,  GS kakar, GS Njipnkang, GS Tengteng. 

Works, officials stated, are meanwhile ongoing on GNS Kakar, GNS Njiplvu and GS Mbarse.

Untiring in roads, bridges construction

The mayor’s report card in the construction of bridges also tells the story of an untiring municipal authority. 

Council records show that at least 11 major bridges have been constructed in the Ndu municipality since 2020. 

These are; Fuh-Mbongong bridge; Mbakfu- Njipkfu bridge, Talla-Tenteng bridge, Mbah bridge, Yanka I bridge, Yanka II bridge, Mbarse bridge, Ngarum Palace-Market bridge, Sinna I bridge and the Njipnkang-Nkwitang bridge. According to the Council’s development plan, works will soon start on the Sinna II and Ntumbaw bridges.

The man who tarred roads in Ndu

Among the varied areas where Kanfon Borno is a pioneer in local development in Ndu municipality, that of asphalting roads is also prominent. 

Today, many are already referring to him as the man who gave Ndu its first coat of tar on certain key roads.

If the Subdivisional headquarter, Ndu, is being referred to today as a town, many say and rightfully so that Mayor Kanfon Borno is the man who made it happen. 

He has to his credit the tarring of stretches such as; Ndu Council-Ndu Catholic Church road; and the Way Out Ndu New Market-Post Office and Post Office-Ndu Baptist Hospital.

Other major projects 

Beyond schools, roads and boosting access to potable water, the Abdou Kanfon-led transformative team at the helm of the Ndu Council also has to its credit other momentous projects. 

There is an ultramodern building hosting council services, which many say, they are yet to believe is sitting on Ndu soil. There is also the Ndu Council Multipurpose Hall. 

The construction of a warehouse, market hanger and transformation unit in the municipality expand the lists of Kanfon Bornou’s achievements. 

With financing from the United Nations, UN Women, the project, which is a by-product of the construction of the Bamenda Ring Road, which passes through Ndu municipality, is expected to serve the purpose of preserving harvests for bigger markets.

Kanfon Bornou’s projects realisation account also shows work is about to finish on the Ntaba Market and 140 stores at the Ndu Main Market. 

The Council has also enlisted in the Adaptive Safety Net Project, to bring thousands of people out of poverty. 

As part of its inclusive policy, the Ndu Council, under Mayor Kanfon Bornou, has consistently reached out to the vulnerable and persons living with disabilities.

One of such recent exercises was the December 17, 2025, award of scholarship to 15 children living with disabilities and other vulnerable persons. 

Then, Council authorities said it was part of the mayor’s vision to enhance inclusive education and build a society of equal opportunities for all.

Special support to farmers, Common Initiative Groups

Thousands of famers and Common Initiative Groups, CIGs have also benefitted from Mayor Abdou Kanfon's indiscriminate leadership. 

The mayor has made it a tradition since taking office, to provide farmers with specialised equipment and improved seedlings and other inputs to promote sustainable agriculture.

It is a policy that has in over half a decade helped in sustaining Ndu municipality as one of the main breadbaskets of Donga Mantung Division and the North West Region in general.

Leading, healing Ndu’s social fabric

When it comes to the power of dialogue, Mayor Abdou Kanfon Bornou, is very pragmatic. 

He has, through dialogue and other grassroots engagements, healed Ndu municipality from division and other terrible happenings that were not unconnected to the chaos in the North West and South West Regions.

He has seen vandals destroy some key investment projects, gunmen attack minority Mbororos, shoot some to death, maim others, loot property and livestock. 

Mayor Abdou Kanfon has seen same happened to other members of his community under the works of separatist fighters.

Yet, through his unwavering commitment to giving the Ndu municipality what it has never had, he is now being celebrated as a standard example of community peace crusading.

As a selfless father, Mayor Kanfon Borno has united the population, talked every member of the community into the merits of peace, development and living together. 

When President Biya talks about community, many say, a leader like Abdou Kanfon Borno knows what it means, given that he has walked the road and returned with good success for his people.

Today, his detractors are the first to climb rooftops to sing Mayor Abdou Kanfon’s praises; for his transformation of the Ndu municipality, amidst security challenges. 

Most of them are said to have joined locals into affirming that the Ndu municipality is on an irreversible path of emergence, with Abdou Kanfon Borno as the golden torchbearer. 

Hard work that attracts unending recognition

To complement reports that Abdou Kanfon is among the best of mayors in the current batch of municipal authorities in Cameroon, he now holds recognitions even from the Head of State, Paul Biya. 

These include decoration as Knight of Cameroon Order of valour.

Other recognitions are; First Prize in the Clean Competition in Donga Mantung and North West Region. 

Nationally, the Council emerged 7th, bagging home 40 million FCFA for other development projects. 

The Ndu Council also won the first prize in the North West Region during the My Name Challenge. It was a competition organised by the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF and the Ministry of Decentralisation and Local Development. In the same competition, the Council grabbed the 11th prize nationally. 

Nationwide, Mayor Borno Kanfon also holds the record of the lead mayor in nationwide in promoting inclusivity. He was recognised for making the Ndu municipality a national landmark in disability inclusivity. 

It is an area of his which many are still learning from. He has also been awarded for severally recording 100 percent in projects execution. He is simply a man living ahead of his time.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3807 of Thursday June 04, 2026