Tiko Mayor: We Gain Nothing From Wharf

The Mayor of Tiko Council, Daniel Moukondo, has told The Green Vision that the council benefits nothing from the wharf, which is found in his jurisdiction.
“For a very long time, we have received no royalty from the revenue collected at the wharf cognizant of the fact that so much revenue is generated at the wharf after SONARA,” the Mayor said.
It is unbelievable that with up to 100 million frs CFA generated monthly through customs duties, excluding amounts from the port authority and other service units, over 155,000 tons of horticulture and agricultural products, and over 12,000 tons of sand shipped out of the country annually via the Tiko wharf, no one seems to know who actually controls the dilapidated yet lucrative dockside.
By Bertrand Shancho Ndimuh
The ‘ownership’ of the Tiko Wharf aside, the quay 3-km stretch of road which leads to it is filled with portholes taking vehicles and motorcycles over “two hours” to get through such that the Custom Chiefs of Tiko Wharf, Danglady Aboubakar, reportedly appealed to “some authorities in Tiko and transporters for help”. 
This status quo persisted until January 2014 when a Nigerian shipping line reportedly rehabilitated the road. 
Many inhabitants in and around the Tiko area wonder why the wharf with all its economic prowess lacks such basic infrastructure like roads, warehousing, and telephone and radio communication.
It seems the wharf is a victim of neglect and unmitigated corruption as affirmed by a soldier at the checkpoint into the wharf, who mistook this reporter for a job seeker and asked him, “Are you going there that you can start stealing money also?”
One of the Tiko Port Authority directors, who refuted granting any interview, said there are different units that collect revenue from the wharf with the highest amount collected by the Customs Unit. As to what happens to the money they collect, the official refuted claims of embezzlement. 
“We have a bank account at BICEC in Limbe where all payments are made for the different vessels. This money is later transmitted with all our reports to the head quarters in Douala for onward transmission to the Ministry of Finance. For the Custom Units and others, I don’t know what they do when they collect dues from here,” he said. 
Quizzed on why the public has to contribute toward rehabilitating Tiko Wharf road, the Tiko Port Authority official said it was just a desperate measure. 
“We don’t have the responsibility to construct or rehabilitate roads. It is the government’s responsibility through the head office in Douala. All we can do is draw their attention to it with reports and pictures and this we have done severally but as you can see, we got no response,” said the official. 
Some workers at the wharf told The Green Vision that they blame the poor state of infrastructure of the wharf on administrative bottlenecks “who don’t want the wharf to grow.”
Meanwhile, the Port Authority official said, “Lots of economic activities go on here. We have over three ships that come in and out the port unlike Limbe that has just about one and others in the country. Buea is the economic hot spot of the region but those in Douala and other administrative officials don’t always want the world to know because of political reasons”.
Concerning the management of waste at the port, he said the shipping lines contribute money monthly and pay a waste management agent who comes to the shore and removes refuse for proper disposal. 
He said no refuse or scrap is dropped into sea because there is an international convention that is totally against such practice. 
“The refuse is carefully kept in the ships and disposed of at the ports for proper disposal; but for the past few days, the collectors have not come that is why you see refuse and plastics lying around,” he added.
Reacting to the ban on the use of plastic papers to take effect next month, the Port Authority official doubted the workability of the decree. 
He argued that over 20% of goods that come into the country through the Tiko Wharf are in plastics and banning plastic papers will automatically mean banning their importation.
Meanwhile, the Customs Chief, Aboubakar, in an interview he granted a local tabloid recently, had said their monthly revenue projection runs up to hundreds of millions. 
Of this amount of money, he had said, “the biggest part goes to the government through the treasury in Tiko. Then other stakeholder administrations notably small councils, OHADA and fisheries, etc, receive another chunk and the leftover handed to the municipality.”
He said the Tiko Wharf is a commercial port not officially recognised by the government.