Selfless Teamwork Is Imperative!

Government’s vision of paving 700 km of its roads in 2023 raises a lot of hopes in the population who suffer on a daily basis moving from one end to the other as well as transporting goods. The legitimate enthusiasm of citizens is as a result of an undisputable fact that roads are indispensable development vectors whose absence and or poor state make life unbearable for the population and greatly draw back socio-economic growth. And so the popular saying that, ‘where a road passes, development follows!’ finds great meaning. 
Beyond the hope-raising announcement however, various actors absolutely need to boldly tackle varied hitches that have haunted efficient road construction in the country for decades.
Year in year out, complaints of abandonment of road construction projects and withdrawing contracts from defaulting contractors are often advanced to justify the sorry situation of the country’s road network. Absence of qualified personnel and shortage of fuel in some project sites as well as release of rights-of-way and mobilisation of counterpart funds in others are among the many problems. Amidst all these hitches, the popular doctrine of, “We must work more than in the past to find better ways to optimize the use of our resources, while being at the forefront of innovations in our sector, whether in construction or maintenance, to achieve more with less,” remains more of a slogan; on paper and the lips of he who pronounces them. 
Little wonder Cameroon's road network comprising 121,873.93 km has barely 9,885.08 km paved as at 2022. The country’s projections contained in the 2020-2030 National Development Strategy targets increasing the density of the paved network per 1,000 inhabitants from 0.32 in 2020 to 0.48 in 2030. The achievement of this objective requires the construction of 6,000 kilometres of new roads, the rehabilitation of 3,000 kilometres of paved roads and the permanent maintenance of the entire road network over the period 2020-2030. 
Having a vision is good, but working in synergy to attain set goals is better. There are several actors in the country’s road chain who do not seem to see in the same direction. There appears to be a raging conflict either of authority or of interest which doesn’t augur well in project execution. The State’s Engine...