SONARA IS IN FAKO—BUT HOW MUCH IS FAKO BENEFITING?

SONARA IS IN FAKO—BUT HOW MUCH IS FAKO BENEFITING?

HOW CAN WE CREATE JOBS FOR THOUSANDS OF FAKO GRADUATES AND TRAINED YOUTHS WHO ARE SUFFERING, UNEMPLOYED AND UNCERTAIN ABOUT WHAT TOMORROW HOLDS FOR THEM IN CAMEROON?

Let us begin with SONARA.

This is free public-interest counsel for the people of Fako. Please read, reflect and share widely—our collective future depends on an informed and united community.

SONARA is located at Cape Limboh in Fako Division. Its rehabilitation, reconstruction and modernisation represent a major national investment—and an exceptional opportunity to create employment, develop local enterprises, transfer technical skills and transform neighbouring communities.

However, I have found no publicly available consolidated record showing:

How many Fako-owned companies have received contracts or subcontracts;

The names and beneficial owners of those companies;

The value of each contract awarded;

How many Fako residents have been employed;

How many young people have received technical training or apprenticeships;

How much has been invested in surrounding communities.

The honest answer, therefore, is that the number of Fako companies and residents benefiting from SONARA’s reconstruction cannot presently be established from publicly disclosed information.

That absence of transparency is itself sufficient reason to demand answers.

Questions Fako Must Ask

1. What is the total reconstruction budget, financing structure and completion schedule?

2. Which contracts and subcontracts have been awarded, to whom and for how much?

3. How many beneficiaries are genuinely Fako-owned companies—not outside companies operating through local fronts?

4. What percentage of procurement will be reserved for qualified companies based in Fako?

5. How many skilled, technical, managerial and unskilled positions will be allocated to qualified Fako residents?

6. Will SONARA publish quarterly reports identifying local contracts, employment, training and community investments?

7. What apprenticeship and certification programmes will prepare Fako youths for welding, engineering, electricity, mechanics, logistics, construction, refinery operations and industrial safety?

8. What opportunities will be created in transportation, catering, accommodation, construction, maintenance, security, waste management and equipment supply?

9. What measures will protect fishing communities, farmland, water sources, public health and the environment?

10. What roads, hospitals, schools, water systems and electricity projects will accompany the reconstruction?

11. What emergency-response and compensation mechanisms will protect neighbouring communities?

12. Will traditional authorities and affected communities receive permanent representation in project monitoring?

Cameroon’s petroleum framework recognises local content through employment, professional training, technology transfer and the use and development of local industrial and service companies.

Fako is not requesting charity. Fako is demanding transparent and measurable participation in the development taking place on its ancestral land.

How Fako Chiefs and Elites Must Organise

Fako chiefs should establish a non-partisan Fako SONARA Development and Local-Content Council bringing together:

Traditional rulers from affected communities;

Municipal councils and parliamentarians;

Youth and women’s representatives;

Engineers, lawyers, economists and environmental specialists;

Credible business associations;

Fako professionals at home and throughout the diaspora.

This council should conduct a comprehensive census of qualified Fako companies, graduates, technicians, artisans and jobseekers. It should then prepare a single evidence-based development memorandum containing clear and measurable demands.

The council must formally engage SONARA, the Prime Minister’s Office and the relevant ministries to demand:

Publication of all awarded contracts and their beneficial owners;

A clearly defined local-procurement target;

Employment and apprenticeship targets for qualified Fako residents;

A community-development agreement with budgets and deadlines;

Quarterly monitoring meetings and public progress reports;

Independent environmental, financial and local-content audits.

No chief should negotiate privately for personal favours while the wider community receives nothing. Private benefits weaken collective bargaining and condemn future generations to unemployment and poverty.

One chief speaking alone can be ignored. A united Fako institution presenting lawful, documented and measurable demands must be heard.

SONARA may be a national asset, but Fako must not carry its environmental and social burdens while contracts, jobs, skills and development opportunities are exported elsewhere.

If Fako provides the land and bears the risks, Fako must receive a fair, transparent and measurable share of the benefits.

Dr. David Makongo