–Lord Mayor
Dr Ngomfe Loma David
Moloh, Lord Mayor of Nwa Council, hails from Luz in the Fumteh Clan and has
worked as chief Medical Officer in many hospitals around the country. He was
one of the earliest District Medical Officers that were posted to Kumbo and has
also worked in Nkambe and Ndu in the same capacity. He became Mayor of Nwa
since April 6, 2000 when he was District Medical Officer for Ndu District
Hospital. In this interview by Francis Ekongang, the Lord Mayor states
that his main preoccupations are Education and infrastructure.
Considering that you had a wonderful career as a
Medical Doctor, what inspired you to get into politics?
That’s an interesting
question. In fact this same question was asked me by an old woman in the
village. She said when I was in Nkambe she came consulting and was always happy
with the attention and care she received. In my absence she said when she went
for consultation she complained that she couldn’t get the attention she needed.
She then asked me why I had abandoned the hospital to work as a mayor. I told
her to accompany me to GHS Luz. There are actually three main buildings in the
school. I asked her if she knew who had constructed any of buildings and she
indicated one of the buildings that had been constructed by the PTA and
indicated another one constructed by the council. Then I asked if she knew the
cost of each of the buildings. The cost of a building was 15 million FCFA. I
then told her that if I came here as an elite and they were asking people to
donate for the construction I would not give more than 500.000 FCFA. The
fifteen million which had constructed the building had been made available
simply by the signature of the mayor I explained to her. I then told her that
my main reason of leaving medical practice to become mayor was simply because
the Sub Division was completely underdeveloped. Many politicians from this area
spend time concentrating on self aggrandizement and have hardly ever given a
glance at the area.
Can you shed light on the history of Nwa
Sub-Division?
This Sub-Division was
created in 1963 with three clans; the Fumteh Clan, the Yamba Clan and of course
the Mbaw clan but all along the Sub Division has been having municipal
administrators only from the Yamba Clan. Fortunately or unfortunately the Mbaw
Plain is the most fertile and the richest part of the sub-division. Because it
is a plain, most people are doing their farming there and that is therefore the
most developed part of the municipality. The hilly Yamba area is essentially
good for animal rearing. Most of the Yamba people have moved down to the Mbaw
Plain to engage in farming. For some reasons the road could not get to the
Fumteh area which is nearer the wimbum land and the resources in the area have
remained untapped.
How has the influence of the Social Democratic Front
and the ruling CPDM party influenced politicking in the area?
You will be
surprised that for about 55 years that is since 1963, I am the only person from
Fumteh to have risen to any reasonable position in the council. Most of the
administrators have come from one clan; the Yamba Clan. From 1963 to 1967 it
was Honourable Yoh who came from Luz and since then no one has come from that
area. From the Mbaw Plain there was Honourable Mboya in the fifties and since
then no administrator has ever come from Mbaw so the political scene had been
dominated by the Yambas up to the time I took over. Coming to the SDF and the CPDM
since 1996 the SDF controlled the council up to 2007. I am unable to see a
single building they ever built anywhere. The only thing I saw that they
supported is the bridge between Sih and Ndoyadji. I don’t see anything that
they did, not even a latrine to show for their stay in the council. With the
CPDM I think I changed the face of the council in Nwa. Where we are sitting is
in a magnificent building and it is the first of its kind in Nwa Sub-Division. Nobody
should say it was in those days. In the days that SDF was in control here, town
halls were being built. It was when the
CPDM came in that the road from Gom to Nwa was done and we are now able to pass
through Gom from Nwa. For 11 years, nothing was done and despite all that is
being done, many villages remain enclaved. They may say that at the time the
setup was not decentralized but there was the additional council tax which was
26 million FCFA and now they are giving us about 40 and something million FCFA.
At least you should show us one thing which was done with 26 million except the
bridge in Sih and this came with support from the Ndoyadji people. They have
testified to me and if you get there they will testify to you.
How satisfied are you with regards to meeting up
with your aspirations as mayor?
I always tell
anybody who cares to know that if you want to improve upon the life of a person
you educate that person and he will eventually use his senses to improve upon his
own life. I therefore took education as my first priority. When I came,
children were reading under trees. We have been able to build at our own
standard however and using a participatory approach more than 20 primary
schools. Today we have more than 60 support staff for our primary schools and
out of this number 40 have been trained at the Baptist Teacher Training College
BTTC Ndop to become Grade one Teachers.
Do you have a message for your people?
I want to tell the municipality that one of
the reasons why we have not been lifted to the level of a Division is the
complete absence of infrastructure in this Sub Division especially in Nwa. That
is why infrastructural improvement has been one of my main preoccupations. To
realise this, I have allocated parts of the forest as free land for any elite
who is prepared to come home and construct. Once we have the buildings, Nwa
will be uplifted.
Edev Newspaper/ Email: edevnewspaper@gmail.com/ Tel:+237678401408/ 696896001
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