After Bakassi handover: SW elite clamour for fair share of dev’t

SWELA secretary general, Enow Orock George, says despite the fact that the South West contributes about 75 percent to the country’s GDP, the province has little to show in terms of development

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

The South West Elite Association (SWELA) has indicted the government for not bringing development to the South West in spite of the enormous contributions that the province makes to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country.

SWELA secretary general George Enow Orock made the disappointment of the South West province known during an interview he granted state radio following the handover of the Bakassi peninsula by Nigeria to Cameroon on 14 August.

George Enow Orock seized the occasion of the interview to call government’s attention to the fact that almost all the oil wealth in the country comes from the South West and especially around Ndian division where the Bakassi peninsula is found, yet there are no roads leading to the area, talkless of filling stations.

«Ndian division produces all the oil wells in the country yet there is no one fuel pump there,» Enow Orock remarked.

The SWELA secretary general observed that with the South West contributing about 75 percent of Cameroon’s GDP and about one-third of the food supply, and with the CDC being the second employer after the state, the province is yet to witness significant development.

«There are no filling stations, no bridges, no reads, no TV radio signals etc, [in Ndian]» the SWELA secretary general said.

He said with Bakassi and its enormous resources and potentials now regained, it was high time government realised the need to bring to the area and to the South West in general the development it deserves.

Addressing the Bakassi problem in particular, Enow Orock underscored the need for government to create a school for the study of fishing in the area since fishing was the main occupation of the territory’s inhabitants.

He also recommended that administrators sent to the area should be able to communicate in English so as to better understand the problem of the residents there.

Enow Orock Goerge also called government’s attention to the need for development to be brought to all areas along the Cameroon-Nigeria border to enhance fruitful intercourse between the peoples of the two brotherly nations.

Even before the SWELA official’s remarks, government had been variously been indicted for reaping much from the South West but failing to give back as much in return.

Some commentators have not ceased to question why the government gives royalties to timber producing areas and refuses to give the South West royalties for the petroleum products exploited there.

Others talk of the huge customs and excise duties collected from such active border ports like Ekok, Edenau, Ekondo-Titi, but which areas have remained underdeveloped with no electricity, no pipe-borne water, no hospitals, no roads and with shacks that pass for government offices there.