A campaign to rid Cameroon’s major towns, especially Yaounde and Douala, of weird looking old taxis has been launched in the nation’s capital. Statistics show the two cities account for about 75% of township taxis in Cameroon.

Government, through the regional delegation of transport for the Centre region recently issued an order urging drivers of such taxis to take them off the city roads with immediate effect.

Officials say the move is part of wider plans by government to curb urban cacophony as the country gears up to welcome millions of other visitors from across the world during the women’s Africa cup of nations due to begin on 19 November in Yaounde.

Yaounde and Limbe are the two host cities of the biennial flagship African women’s football jamboree which Cameroon shall be hosting for the first time in its history.

According to government authorities, allowing such dilapidating public transport vehicles to circulate in the nation’s nerve centre when the entire Africa is around is not only risky as most of them can easily breakdown with passengers on aboard but it is enough to tarnish the image of the country.

In Yaounde, for instance, it is common to find township taxis circulating with shattered head lights, door handles fastened with ropes to enable them open and close, funny and shaky tyres, cracked windscreens, unstable seats and at times, too dirty with cockroaches running on passengers.

Since the development, taxi drivers, owners and citizens alike in the nation’s capital, have been reacting variously. While some think it’s a laudable move by government, others, especially taxi drivers have been wondering what the situation will be like when government will start taking repressive field measures.

Said Ngwa Edmund, a Yaounde resident: “it’s a well thought out decision by government. The state of some of the taxis one finds in Yaounde is very pitiable. Let’s not forget that many football fans from other African countries with more advanced township taxi cultures will be here…it’s a wise decision especially as it has been taken well ahead of time.”

A driver of a very old taxi, who talked to our reporter at a washing point at the Yaounde Tam Tam neighbourhood, hesitantly quipped: “it is not my taxi. The question of whether it would be taken off the road can only be answered by my ‘patron’.”

For Sheila Abunde, another resident, government should not only end at ordering the old vehicles off the city roads but should also give directives on how drivers should conduct themselves viz-a-viz passengers during the AFCON period. “Some taxi drivers are very rude to their passengers… some eat while driving while others look so shabby on the steering wheel…” she pointed.

Meanwhile, city council authorities in Limbe which is going to be one of the host cities of the tournament are also taking a number of measures in order to give the seaside city a dazzlingly beautiful face during the AFCON. A campaign has long been underway to demolish ramshackle roadside structures considered an eyesore.