What’s Fishy About Limbe Fishery Academy?

If this school was based in Yaounde, it would have long gone operational but they keep telling us the school will commence very soon and nothing is happening.

By Bertrand Shancho Ndimuh

Some elites, chiefs and indigenes of Limbe in the Fako Division, South West Region, have told the Green Vision that the government has delayed the take-off of the Limbe Maritime and Fishery Academy in Wovia because it is found in the Anglophone part of the country, worse still in the South West.

“We have been waiting for long. It does not surprise me that the school has not gone operational. We the Anglophones and especially of the South West Region are a minority. If this school was based in Yaounde, it would have long gone operational but they keep telling us the school will start very soon and nothing is happening,” said Marthias Lotongo Engennise of Wovia, Limbe.

According to Lotongo, two years ago they were told the school would begin in September 2013 and they mobilized they children with Advanced Level certificates and even degree holders.

“I personally came here with my son to find out the different programmes and entry requirements but did not meet anybody who could give us concrete information,” Lotongo complained.

A Limbe-based storekeeper, Gladys Tabe, said she was happy when she received the news that the fishery school would open by September 2013 but was very disappointed when she went to seek admission for her son and met nobody at the institute.

She said she had to send her son to the University of Yaounde 1, which was not her original plan.

Something Fishy

Most elites and indigenes of villages adjacent to the Limbe Maritime and Fishery Academy do little to hide their feelings about the delay in opening the school. Even traditional rulers of the area where the school is located seem to have little idea of what is going on there.

“Look at the thing standing there like a flower. They seized my land for this school and promised compensation, which I have not received for over five years now, yet nothing is happening there; what do these people take us for? In fact, I am not ready for this interview,” the Chief of Wovia told The Green Vision.

According to the Chief of Mokindi village, after the first phase of the school was completed, the second phase was “completed with rumours that it has been handed over but we who poured libation and ignited the construction of the school, have no idea of what is going on. It is just standing there like a monument. We have raised alarm to the authorities but they don’t also know what is happening.”

The traditional ruler said when the fishery academy goes operational, indigenes of the South West should be given pride of place “and not importing non-indigenes as is always the case in Fako where people from other regions are imported through the back door. We are always neglected; look at SONARA, Chantier Navale and others.”

The Chief pointed out that a cement factory was supposed to have been constructed in Limbe but containers with construction materials were brought to the site some years ago and nothing has been said about it despite repeated reminders by Fako chiefs.

Despite the procrastination, the elites and traditional rulers said the creation of a maritime and fishery school in Limbe is a great move by the government to bring life to the area given that the same trades for which Cameroonians pay millions to study at the Ghana Maritime Academy will be offered at home.

The Southwest Regional Delegate of Livestock, Fishery and Animal Industry, Dr. Francis Salle, refused to answer questions about the school “until the operational decision is out.”

He, however, admitted that construction work has been completed and all equipment installed with technical notes on the school already submitted to the Ministry of Livestock Fishery and Animal Industry, for transmission to the appropriate quarters where the Head of State will pass a decree for its take-off.

Access Denied

At the academy where military officers denied this reporter access, workers could be seen cleaning the campus.

A technician with MAKIBER-DRAGADOS, the company that constructed the school, recounted how the project has evolved. He said in 2007, the Cameroon government signed an agreement with Spain for the financing and construction of the fishery institute with the project divided into two phases, each taking two years; phase one for 2008 and 2009 with supervision and financial support from the Spanish government and phase two for 2010 and 2011 with financial support from the Cameroon government. By the end of 2009, the first phase was completed but Cameroon was not ready to take on the second phase of the project. It was only after 2011 that it initiated the second phase with May 2013 as deadline; that phase was completed and equipment installed but the construction company is still waiting for the government to officially take over the project.