The City Mayor of Kumba, Meme Division, South West Region of the Republic of Cameroon, has made known his intentions to step up the towns development. He was speaking during the program “Inside The Presidency” that held over the CRTV on November 16.

Greg Mewanu, Kumba city Mayor

According to the city mayor of Kumba, Greg Mewanu Ntemoyock, Kumba has over the pasùt years lacked in development and needs to be revived. He promised that the town of Kumba will have pipe borne water running through the nooks and crannies “Kumba is the sole metropole of the South West Region and we have the interest to make sure it answers that name in its infrastructural development…Kumba has about 120km of roads and just about 4% of it tarred. So everything is earth road of course we want to maintain the earth road but we are also using this medium to ask for more tarred roads and this can come from the national budget and if we the city council of Kumba are given the 15 % that is promised to respective city councils, we are going to make use of that to develop the city of Kumba. We need water. It’s a fast growing town. We need to make sure pipe born water is going through the nooks and crannies of Kumba.”

Going further, he explained the need to improve on electricity supply in the town. “We need electricity. We are talking about security, there is no security without electricity…in a month, we have just about 10-12 days of electricity in Kumba. It is unacceptable for a city like Kumba and that is one of those things that perpetuates insecurity so Eneo needs to also step up its production capacity for Kumba so that we can have constant electricity to enhance the security situation of the town. We are talking about education, we need more schools most especially the higher educational institution. We are pleading, everybody in Kumba, the Community at large is pleading to have one of the that is going to serve all these other villages like Lebialem, Kupemaneguba, Manyu and Ndian”.

Greg Mewanu furthered that the town of Kumba was one of the most vibrant in the country during the 60’s and there is a need to give it back its position “We want to revitalise the community that we take our responsibility into our respective hands and get it done most especially with the impetus of decentralization which has just come in. I think it’s an opportunity to make use of and make sure we develop our respective communities. We are praying that the visions and goals of this decentralization is realised as soon as possible so that it will go further to give us the tool we need like the 15% state budget that will be given to the respective council . We are humbly waiting for it to put into investment so that Kumba as a city can be well again. We also want to enjoy from what Yaounde and Douala is enjoying when it comes to attention towards development”.

To this effect, he hopes that the Head of state gives a helping hand in the city’s development project “…it is a big city. Its a city well loved by Cameroon and of course our illustrious Head of State and I am pretty sure he is doing everything possible to give us a helping hand to take Kumba back to its greatness of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s”.

Kumba had recently be hit by a tragic incident on October 24 where in seven school children were killed by unidentified gunmen. The city Mayor said that the town is picking up “Kumba is doing well, surprisingly, ver well. What do I mean, because the people have decided to use this sad happening to make it clear that enough is enough. That enough of this sad dark happenings, the ‘amba’ issue which is not the identity of Kumba. The people have decided to use it to turn a page over to positive happenings to development, to collaboration, to sharing to love”.

As such, he called on the separatist fighters in the bushes to drop their arms and be reintegrated into the society “There is no development in an atmosphere of insecurity. So I as the city mayor of Kumba, I am also using this medium to ask our brother, our sisters, to ask our children who are still in the bushes, who are perpetuating this act of brutality, lack of patriotism, I will ask them to drop their arms and join us to develop Kumba.”

Kumba also has touristic attractions which the town is proud of as the mayor said over the TV program “Kumba is blessed to find itself in the rainforest. The rainforest itself is a wonderful touristic attraction and that we need to develop…we dont want to forget the legendary Barombi lake which is one of the biggest crater lakes not only in Cameroon but in West Africa.”
The mayor at the end of the interview with Ashu Nyenty, CRTV’s chief correspondent at the presidency made a request to the head of state “I will ask him to put an eye on Kumba and give us what it takes to develope Kumba and make it great again. We need infrastructure in Kumba.”

By Sandrine M