NDIAN DIVISION: A PETROLEUM GIANT SURROUNDED BY POVERTY, SUFFERING AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT—WHERE DID THE PEOPLE GO WRONG?

NDIAN DIVISION: A PETROLEUM GIANT SURROUNDED BY POVERTY, SUFFERING AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT—WHERE DID THE PEOPLE GO WRONG?

Beneath and beside Ndian lies extraordinary petroleum wealth. Yet above that wealth, too many communities remain isolated, unemployed and underdeveloped.

The Rio del Rey Basin adjoining Ndian reportedly accounts for approximately 70% of Cameroon’s crude-oil production and has produced petroleum for more than four decades. Nevertheless, the public still cannot clearly determine how many barrels are attributable to Ndian, how much revenue they generate or what measurable share returns to its people. 

Petroleum should produce far more than crude oil. Properly managed, it should create an entire economy:

- Exploration, drilling and production companies;

- Marine transportation, ports and logistics;

- Pipeline construction and maintenance;

- Fabrication, welding and engineering workshops;

- Refineries and petroleum-storage facilities;

- Petrochemical, fertiliser, plastics and manufacturing industries;

- Environmental monitoring and coastal-restoration services;

- Catering, accommodation, security and waste-management businesses;

- Banks, insurance companies and professional services;

- Technical institutes, apprenticeships and research centres;

- Thousands of direct and indirect jobs for young people.

Petroleum wealth should finance modern roads, reliable electricity, clean water, hospitals, schools, telecommunications and thriving coastal communities. It should transform Mundemba, Ekondo-Titi, Bamusso, Isangele, Idabato, Kombo-Itindi, Kombo-Abedimo, Dikome-Balue and Toko into connected centres of production and commerce.

Instead, Ndian continues to struggle with inadequate and unreliable roads, limited public services, weak industrial development, no railway connection and no modern commercial seaport capable of unlocking its strategic location. Even the vital Kumba–Ekondo-Titi–Mundemba corridor has suffered abandonment, delays and fake promises.

The contradiction is painful: oil leaves, revenue leaves, opportunities leave—but poverty, pollution risks and underdevelopment remain.

WHO IS BENEFITING FROM NDIAN’S PETROLEUM WEALTH?

Are the principal beneficiaries:

- The people and communities of Ndian?

- The Cameroonian population as a whole?

- Foreign petroleum corporations?

- Well-connected contractors and corporate executives?

- Officials controlling contracts, revenues and appointments?

These are questions—not accusations—and transparent accounts should provide the answers.

Cameroon’s petroleum revenues, including taxes, royalties, production-sharing proceeds and SNH income, largely enter the national revenue system. Yet there is no easily accessible public statement showing precisely how much originates from Ndian and what proportion is returned to its councils and communities.

Cameroon participates in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, but EITI has identified weaknesses in the disclosure of transfers to individual local-government beneficiaries. 

QUESTIONS NDIAN AND CAMEROON MUST NOW ASK

1. How many barrels are produced annually from petroleum fields adjoining Ndian?

2. What annual revenue does this production generate for the State?

3. How much has been returned directly to Ndian councils and communities?

4. How many Ndian residents hold technical, managerial and permanent positions in the petroleum industry?

5. How many Ndian-owned companies have received contracts—and what is the value of those contracts?

6. Who are the beneficial owners of the companies receiving petroleum-related contracts?

7. What percentage of procurement is reserved for genuinely local businesses?

8. What training and apprenticeship programmes exist for Ndian graduates, technicians, fishermen, women and youths?

9. Where is the petroleum-financed development plan for roads, electricity, hospitals, schools, clean water, ports and telecommunications?

10. What environmental damage has occurred, who monitors it and what compensation has reached affected fishing and coastal communities?

11. Why is crude exported while Cameroon imports expensive refined petroleum products?

12. Why has no integrated refinery, petrochemical, marine-services or industrial cluster transformed the economy of Ndian and the wider South-West Region?

13. What is the government’s long-term plan for communities when the oil reserves decline?

14. Will the government publish an annual Ndian Petroleum Benefit Statement disclosing production, revenue, transfers, employment, contracts, environmental obligations and completed projects?

OUR LEADERS MUST ALSO ANSWER

Where have Ndian’s parliamentarians, senators, ministers, mayors, chiefs, political leaders and elites been while this wealth leaves the region?

How many motions, bills and development proposals have they introduced?

How many times have they collectively demanded transparent revenue accounts, local-content targets, roads, electricity, hospitals, schools, jobs and contracts?

How many young people have they prepared for opportunities in the petroleum value chain?

Traditional titles, political appointments and access to government are meaningless if the people remain isolated, unemployed and poor.

Leadership is not demonstrated by attending ceremonies, praising authority or negotiating private favours. Leadership is demonstrated by protecting collective rights and converting natural wealth into measurable public development.

This failure is not Ndian’s burden alone. South-West and North-West political leaders, parliamentarians and professionals should have made the development of Ndian a central Anglophone economic demand. Cameroon as a whole should be concerned because every lost opportunity in Ndian is lost national revenue, employment, industrialisation and stability.

THE TIME FOR A NEW DIRECTION HAS COME

Ndian’s chiefs, councils, youths, women, professionals, businesspeople and diaspora must unite around one lawful, non-partisan petroleum-development agenda. They must demand a government roadmap containing measurable targets for:

- Local employment and apprenticeships;

- Local contracts and enterprise financing;

- Roads, ports, electricity and communications;

- Schools, hospitals and clean water;

- Environmental protection and compensation;

- Revenue transparency and community benefit-sharing;

- Local refining, processing and industrialisation.

Unity must replace private bargaining. Knowledge must replace silence. Accountability must replace political praise-singing.

And when elections come, the people must vote genuinely and responsibly. Votes should no longer reward titles, party loyalty or empty promises. They must reward competence, courage, accountability and measurable development.

Those who repeatedly abandon the people should not be repeatedly returned to power by the same people they abandoned.

Sustainable development creates employment. Employment reduces desperation. Justice builds trust. And trust creates sustainable peace and stability.

Ndian cannot continue producing wealth for others while its own people and Cameroon inherit poverty. The oil beneath its waters must become opportunity above its soil.

— Dr. David Makongo