The DO also said the war against Boko Haram in the Northern Regions is also draining the financial resources of the State. Ekoa Mbarga was speaking during a visit to schools in the Douala IV Sub Division, as he assessed the start of the 2019/2020 academic year.

Most of the schools he visited are hosting Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, from the North West and South West Regions. One of the major problems which the management of the schools presented to the administrator was the poor state of the roads in the area, which make movement of pupils, students and teachers to and from school very difficult, especially when it rains.

In response to the complaint, the DO said the problem of roads was not only in Bonaberi, but in other parts of Douala. Going by DO, the Douala City Council has earmarked projects to rehabilitate roads in Bonaberi, “but the main problem delaying the execution of the projects is the lack of funds because the crisis in the North West and South West Regions and the war against Boko Haram in the Far North Region have left the State coffers empty.”

The DO could not make any concrete promise to the different school authorities that the Douala City Council will carry out the roads rehabilitation projects. The authorities of some of the schools pleaded that while waiting for the funds to be available, the Douala City Council should at least throw gravel on the roads to fill the several potholes and reduce the mud.

The Douala City Council depends mostly on State subventions and tax revenue to carry out its developmental projects. But given that most of the revenue that enters the State treasury these days go to fund the aforementioned wars, and the payment of salaries to civil servants, even State subventions for road maintenance are difficult to come by.

As regard the Douala City Council’s share from taxes, the Deputy Mayor of the Douala II, Jean Robert Wafo, told The Post that for some years now, all tax revenues collected in Douala are first sent to the Yaoundé.

“When the money goes to Yaoundé, the Minister of Finance then sends the share of the Douala City Council, and the City Council in turns gives the shares of the other municipal Councils. But given that a bulk of the State revenue has been used to finance the war in the two Anglophone Regions and the war against Boko Haram, the Councils in Douala are in serious financial problems and cannot meet up with their projects,” he said.