The Region is gradually recovering from the nightmares of yesteryear’s bad roads.

Commuters in the South West Region have begun to beam out smiles of comfort on two major roads in the area namely the 151 – Kilometre Kumba-Mamfe and the 124-Kilometre Bamenda-Mamfe-Ekok popularly known as the Bamenda-Enugu Transnational Corridor. It now takes 45 minutes from Mamfe to Ekok, a journey many recall that it took days during the rainy season.

The new-found joy of the people is coming to bury erstwhile gutters of wrinkles on the faces of businessmen and women, farmers and travelers who wept over bad roads and could not turn their economy full circle. Mayors of many South West localities, as the people’s representatives, were like agreed to welcome each Governor or Minister reminding them that to travel from the Regional capital, Buea, to four of its six administrative Divisions required to pass through Nigeria or through three other Regions of Cameroon to get back to the South West. The page of such nightmares is being turned with voyagers from Bamenda (North West Region)  or Mamfe (Manyu Division) dressing in their cream white suits or “agwada” and riding safari cars to Kumba, Buea or even Douala passing through Manyemen (Nguti) in Kupe Manenguba Division. “It is a dream-come-true”, as many roadside dwellers testified to this reporter last week. 

Socio economic plus

The fallouts are already evident. Many modern houses are mushrooming along these highways thanks to facilitated transportation of construction material like cement, iron rods, corrugated iron and sand. The diaspora now quickly visit their ancestral lands and can make on-the-spot conception of development. Rural exodus is being curbed with many eager to stay back at home and develop themselves instead of crowding the cities in misery. Farmers can now place their produce by door-sides and be sure of traveler-buyers. The administration can quickly reach the people and liaise for development.

Politically, many more people now speak better of their government because of better road communication that had been their all-time cry. Patients can get to hospital quicker to save their lives. And so the gains of good roads are already multifarious with the highways of Bamenda-Bachuo Akagbe-Ekok and the Kumba-Mamfe.