Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
All Mayors Of CPDM –Run Councils In NW, Have Been “Urgently Requested To Submit, An Inventory, Of All Development Projects Realized Under Their Stewardship Since February 2020”. At A Recent Meeting In B’a, The NW CPDM Elites Group Learnt That Many CPDM Mayors Are A Disappointment To Their Population. Last Year, Minister Rose Mbah Acha, Warned That Many NW CPDM Mayors Are Potential Prisoners, For Embezzlement.
“All CPDM Mayors are urgently requested to submit an inventory of all development projects realized under their stewardship since February 2020. Please attach photographs, videos of the projects. This is intended to enhance the quality of our campaigns for the impending dual local elections. Please send all your reports through whatsApp to Mr Adamu Musa, Coordinator of the Communication Sub – Committee of the Northwest Regional CPDM Elites Group”.
The above is an excerpt from a correspondence by the Northwest Permanent Regional Development Strategy Committee, addressed to, “All Mayors of CPDM –Run Councils of the Northwest Region”, with the Subject being, “Balance Sheet of Your Past Municipal Mandate”. The correspondence which follows a recommendation by the Strategy Committee that was endorsed by the Head of the Permanent NW Regional Delegation of the Central Committee of the CPDM, is copied to the Northwest Regional Coordinator of CPDM Party Activities, Philemon Yang,
The correspondence dated September 21, 2026, is signed by the Chairman of the Northwest CPDM Permanent Regional Development Strategy Committee, Francis Fai Yengo.
Worthy of note that Fai Yengo is a retired Senior Civil Administrator, who in that capacity last served as Governor of the Littoral Region, before going of retirement. He was later appointed by the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, as the Coordinator of the Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, that was created on November 30, 2018.
Amba Boys And Administration, Sworn Enemies, Gave NW Councils To CPDM
It should be noted that 33 out of the 34 municipal councils in the Northwest Region, is currently run by the ruling CPDM Party, or better still, by CPDM Mayors, thanks to the armed Separatist groups commonly known as Amba Boys, and the local administration which is Pro – CPDM (ruling party).
The armed separatist groups imposed a lockdown at the last municipal and legislative elections that held on February 9, 2020. With the exception of Nkambe Municipality or Sub – division, less than 5 % of registered voters in the other 33 municipalities in the Northwest Region, were able to cast their ballots. This was because the population stayed indoors throughout that day, not because they didn’t want to vote, but rather for fear of been shot at, or killed, by Amba boys. The local administration, precisely the SDOs, then took advantage of the situation that voting did not effectively take place across the Northwest Region, to give all but one of the municipal councils to the ruling CPDM.
The CPDM thus ended up having 33 of the 34 municipal councils..
It should be noted that since the rebirth of multiparty politics in the country, the frontline opposition party, SDF, which boycotted the 1992 municipal elections, had since the 1996 municipal elections always swept a large majority of the councils in the Northwest Region, the party’s fief. It was only at the 2013 municipal elections, that the ruling CPDM party, managed to have a tiny majority over the SDF in the Northwest Region. This had to do with the number of councilors.
Northwest CPDM Had Promised That, Their Mayors Would Deliver, But – – – –
Meanwhile, during the long period that the SDF was running a large majority of municipal councils in the Northwest Region, the Northwest CPDM Elites in their political game, always accused Mayors of the SDF –run councils of not delivering good enough, promising to transform Northwest into Paradise on earth, the day the CPDM would take back the councils from the SDF. Then, came, the 2020 municipal elections, and what happened, happened, ending up with the CPDM grabbing 33 of the 34 municipal councils, and leaving the SDF with just one municipal council (Bamenda III).
But rather than seized the opportunity to deliver, especially on development projects, as the CPDM Party had been promising since 1996, some CPDM Mayors instead seemingly thought that it was a God – given opportunity for them to make big money for themselves . That it was time for them to become multi – millionaires at the expense of their municipalities and population.
Patriotic CPDM Mayors / Unscrupulous CPDM Mayors
Many unscrupulous CPDM Mayors in the Northwest Region took advantage of the Anglophone crisis, which at one point forced them to run away from their municipalities for security reasons, to abandon their municipalities. But they did not abandon council funds. These unscrupulous mayors do flagrantly embezzle, or better still, steal council funds like rats do with groundnuts. As , The Mentor, reported recently, after the February 2020 municipal elections for example, the Government , as from that year (2020), was annually making a special financial allocation of 27 million francs CFA to each of the 34 municipal councils in the Northwest, to assist in the maintenance of municipal roads. The special financial assistance by Government was handled by the Ministry of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development.
But while decent and patriotic mayors of the Northwest Regions, used the fund for the purpose for which they were allocated by the Government or by the State of Cameroon, for the interest of their municipalities and population, the bad ones, with the complicity of some contractors, council treasurers and even some dubious CPDM elites, embezzled the funds. The gangs would prepare fake documents of fake contracts that were purportedly awarded and executed, and used the fake documents to collect the 27 million francs CFA, and share.
From Empty Pockets At The Time The Became Mayors In 2020, To Millionaires In 2026
Also, besides pilfering council revenues, the ‘Tif Tif CPDM Mayors’ have also been playing mafia in the implementation of the annual Public Investment Budget for specific development projects in their municipalities, and stealing the funds. They make documents for fake contracts purportedly awarded and executed, and grab the money budgeted by Government for the development projects..
Today, some of these ‘Tif Tif Mayors’ in the Northwest Region, who became mayors in early 2020 with empty pockets, and some living in rented apartments, have ‘thanks’ to embezzlement, become millionaires. They have built mansions in Yaounde and other places, while their municipalities lack basic facilities, including those for which the Government had allocated funds.
Minister Rose Mbah Acha Had Sounded The Alarm Bell
The Mentor garnered that last year, an active and prominent Northwest CPDM elite, Mme Mbah Acha nee Fomundam Rose Ngwari, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Supreme State Control, rang an alarm bell at a meeting of the Northwest CPDM Elites Group, which held at Bamenda Up Station. Madam Mbah Acha, reportedly warned in a disclosure to her comrades, that from records and reports she has seen, especially on the implementation of the Public Investment Budget by Northwest Councils, as well as on the management of some special development funds that the Government allocated, many Northwest CPDM Mayors are potential prisoners for embezzlement of public funds.
Embarrassment, Panic In The Group Of Northwest CPDM
Meanwhile, The Mentor has learnt that members of the Northwest CPDM Elites Group, especially the leadership, were taken aback, at the meeting of Northwest CPDM which held in Bamenda recently, and which was chaired by the Norwest Regional Coordinator of CPDM Party Activities , Philemon Yang (Former Prime Minister /Former President of the UN General Assembly), to plan for the impending municipal and legislative elections. The Northwest Regional CPDM Elites Group was embarrassed with survey and evaluation reports on the performance of CPDM Councils (Mayors) in the region.
Members of the Northwest CPDM Elites Group happily learnt that some CPDM Mayors in the region, have since their mandate started in early 2020, been doing their possible best, despite the odds or security challenges, and thus the councils they head have realized many development projects in their municipalities, making the population happy with the councils, and making the CPDM Party proud in those municipalities or sub –divisions.
On the contrary, the unscrupulous CPDM Mayors have nothing concrete to show in their municipalities in terms of concrete development projects, that they have realized, except the new mansions they have constructed for themselves, as well as the several side- chicks they now have all over the place, thanks to their ill – gotten wealth. The survey as well as evaluation reports, show that the population in municipalities where CPDM Mayors have performed so poorly, are so disappointed and disgusted with the CPDM Mayors, and by implication the CPDM Party, because of the CPDM mayors woeful failed to to deliver.
. SDF Will Get Back A Majority Of Councils, In Case Of Free And Fair Elections
The Northwest CPDM Elites Group learnt from the field reports, that the possible consequences of the gross failure by quite of number of CPDM mayors to deliver in their different municipalities because of embezzlement, coupled with incompetence, has turned the population against those CPDM Mayors, and by implication the CPDM Party, such that if a free, fair and transparent municipal elections were to hold today, the SDF will get back a majority of the municipal councils in the Northwest Region.
In the face of the danger facing the CPDM in the Northwest Region ahead of impending municipal elections , the Northwest Permanent Regional Development Strategy Committee, went to work, and came up with a well –thought out strategy. In those localities that CPDM Mayors have performed well, their realizations, or better still, the development projects realized by the CPDM – run Councils, will be used for campaigns in the municipal elections, in those municipalities. As for the ‘Tif Tif Mayors”, that have failed to deliver, and thus have done damaged to the image of the CPDM Party, as well as failed the population, The Mentor has learnt that the Northwest CPDM Elites Group will adopt measures to sanction them. They will probably be sidelined in favour new and promising faces, at the next municipal elections.
Paul Biya Is Not On The Ballot At Municipal Elections
The Mentor does not only criticize the ruling CPDM as some people ignorantly, erroneously or maliciously say. When the CPDM does something good, we say it is good. The proposal that the Northwest Permanent Regional Development Strategy Committee conceived and proposed, and which was endorsed by the Head of the Permanent Regional Delegation of the Central Committee of the CPDM, is laudable. This is how a serious political party is normally supposed to operate. In the past we saw CPDM campaign teams for municipal elections, instead talking of how a vote for the CPDM list, is a vote for President Biya. HOW!!! Biya is not on the ballot at municipal elections.
Also, many CPDM elites, especially some of the money bags, are also partly to blame for the failure of quite number of CPDM mayors to live up to the minimum expectation of the population. This is because they have often given the party militants the impression that they can always use their money power or the influential positions, to get DOs and even local ELECAM officers, to rig elections in favour of the lists of the ruling CPDM.
TREASON!
Meanwhile, there are also a handful of Northwest CPDM Elites that scandalously try to condone, or cover up cases of embezzlement or theft by their Mayors, under the pretext that the mayors, some of whom as CPDM Section Presidents, are loyal to them. Some of these elites are even accomplices in the embezzlement by the mayors.
ONE OF THE WORST THINGs THAT A CAMEROONIAN CAN DO TO HIS VILLAGE, MUNICPALITY, OR SUB – DIVISION, IS TO EMBEZZLE, OR BETTER STILL, STEAL, MONEY MEANT FOR A DEVELOPMENT PROJECT. THAT IS TREASON. TRADITIONALLY, SUCH A PEROSN IS EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE OSTRACIZED FROM THE COMMUNITY.
