The Governor of the South West Region recently ended his tour of Fako Division.

The Governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, on January 9, 2015, rounded off a 96-hour tour of the seven sub-divisions of Fako Division.

While in Tiko on January 7, 2015, he listened to Mayor Moukondo Daniel Ngande’s speech in which he pointed out that local people were not benefitting enough from the presence of giant industrial plants in the area.

He cited the piteous state of the farm-to-market roads fundamental for the livelihoods of the people. The Mayor described the sordid living quarters of Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, workers, which to him, have remained an eyesore and below human standards over the years, despite harbouring those who vitally produce the CFA billions for the corporation. Likening workers’ homes to open-air prisons, the Tiko Mayor said they have suffered severe lack of maintenance for decades, adding that the living quarters also lacked sewage disposal systems and remain in squalor.

Daniel Ngande also complained of constant air pollution with pungent “toxic” gas emitted from the rubber factory in the heart of Tiko. The situation is further compounded, as he noted, by the constant airborne spraying of “radioactive insecticides” over banana farms close to inhabited areas, with generalised lung infections recorded in the neighbourhoods. The Mayor pleaded with the Governor to seek a quick solution to the enumerated ills.

As the Governor ended his tour, he cautioned against chieftaincy wrangling that has kept some vital thrones vacant in Fako for close to a decade, notably in Limbe and Mutengene. He equally called for prudence in the management of land ceded by CDC for the expansion of various villages.

The Governor’s tour also offered an opportunity for him to call on persons who have come of voting age (20) to enrol in voter registers opened at the beginning of the year in all localities by the elections organising body, ELECAM.