By Noela EBOB BISONG
Minister Pauline Nalova Lyonga of Secondary Education took some by surprise when she expressed her disappointment at the poor road network in Bamenda, chief town of the North West Region. The Minister spoke at the Congress hall in Bamenda recently. Prof Nalova Lyonga was part of Prime Minister, Chief Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute’s delegation to North West for the 7th Steering Committee meeting of the Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development PPRD of the North West and South West Regions. The focus of the meeting was amongst others to take stock of the implementation of the plan so far, and what is being done in 2025. Central amongst areas of intervention is the road network, said to be in terrible shape, as is the case in many areas across the nation.
Prof Nalova, known for her straight-forward nature but one also feeling the pain of ordinary Cameroonians and in this case the people of the North West, did not pretend to say all is rosy and glittering. Thus when she took to the rostrum, she stated: “I have to start by saying that I’m completely, completely just shocked by the state of the roads in Bamenda.”
The Minister went on that, “I will say let us not make promises which we cannot fulfill. Let us make a promise short, even for one month, two months, you do what you said, and the population is going to see that you have done just what you could do within that period”, the Minister said, cautioning against high level promises which cannot be realised.
Her intervention is said to have taken many by surprise and sent some level of shock waves across the hall, and has since been greeted with mixed feelings across the nation.
Close observers who have been trailing the Minister’s efforts towards roads rehabilitation in her Division of origin (Fako), however say it is an aspect close to her heart. The Professor is celebrated to have amongst other efforts, coordinated much effort at the central administration to push the rehabilitation of the Mutengene – Mile 16 stretch, ending the nightmare of commuters. Often times has she spoken of the need to rehabilitate roads across Fako and the South West during public outings, sources state, holding that the Bamenda outing was simply Nalova speaking from her heart, and nothing else.