Abstract

The current need however to empower local councils and the realization that local communities are capable of identifying and prioritizing their real needs has boasted the drive for decentralization in Cameroon. In a bid in attaining its policy objectives of promoting development, good governance and democracy at the local level, since the 2010 financial year, the state has been devolving some of its responsibilities to local Councils.

This study therefore seeks to assess the constraints in these transfers of competences to some local Authorities in Fako division while evaluating the extent to which this process has been able to attain its policy objectives in Fako division. The Public choice theory, also referred to as the school of economics is an approach to political sciences that uses methods and tools of economics to explain how politics and government works.

The Structural Functionalist theory ensures a functional relationship among structures in a state, especially in public policy processes like decentralization processes which need a functional collaborative relationship of state institutions for their success .For the attainment of these objectives and with the usage of the stratified random sampling technique, a set of questionnaires were administered to the citizenry in the Limbe 1, and Buea municipalities and structured interviews were conducted with the Mayors, administrative officials, and some civil society organizations in these municipalities.

Using frequency tables, charts, graphs and chi-squared tests, three hypotheses were tested in the study and major findings revealed that although the state seems to be devolving some competences and resources within the ambit of the decentralization process, there is still the absence of a genuine political commitment in implementing all the facets of the decentralization policy coupled with the inadequate co-option of local communities in the decentralization process.

This study therefore recommends a functional and genuine political commitment on the part of the central government manifested and made practical with the establishment of a timetable for devolution and the allocation of a fix quota of the state budget to Local Authorities and for the financing of the decentralization process.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. 1 Background To The Study

The philosophical and political underpinnings of decentralized local works of scholars such as John S .Mill  (1806-73), World Bank (1997) and Tocqueville  (1805-1855) who advocated for local self  government.  This prevent political decisions to be imposed from above, but rather to be developed and accepted  from below, and at the same time considering this level of government as the chief instrument  for educating peoples on their rights and duties. In this light, pluralist theorists have contended that , power in democracies need not be centralized, but dispersed so that scores of people and groups  can exercise influence in different  issues, in different ways, and in different areas (Newton and Deth ,2005 ;257).

Decentralization is not however, a new phenomenon in neither African politics nor a novelty as far as Cameroon is concerned (Nforbin, 2005; 112),as its roots could be traced as far back as 1922 with the creation of native courts by British. Therefore, when African States gained independence, most possessed a measure of decentralized government but at independence, with the newly acquired monopoly  of formal  authority by political  leaders at the central government, they sought to eliminate local  autonomy(Kasfir,1993;24) by fostering deconcentration rather than devolution  so as to achieve their goals of establishing a centralised states. Some writers consider and or treat decentralization and local government as synonymous concepts or term, (See Smith,1985;) For stance, the  states that decentralization represents local government in areas  where the authority to decide has been devolved to a council of locally elected persons acting in their own discretion with officials they themselves freely appoint  and discipline .

Centralisation led to the progressive and constant ballooning of the central bureaucracy (Alima,2003;43) and by the late twentieth century, the government  bureaucracy had become too big and complex, leading to a lack of responsive and  efficiency (Bevir,2009;27).This bureaucracy led to rising trends in strengthening local communities by developing certain powers of discretion to local bodies. As a creation of the state therefore, local council established were expected to decongest the national government, act as a hedge against undue centralization, and secure a closer adaptation of public services to local needs (Abangma, 2009;1).

Contemporarily, decentralization is gradually becoming one of the most pursued institutional reforms in developing states as it has quietly become one of the fashions of our time, encouraged by many bilateral donors and international development agencies (Manor,1995,Kauzya,2005,Oslen,2007). It is embedded with the goal to improve efficiency in service delivery by debureaucratisation and radically reducing the number of intervening forces or obstacles in  service delivery. Its empowers various actors along the line to improve on quality, accountability, performance and productivity of whatever service is provided to the public (Forje, 2006; 2).

In terms of the structural adjustment programs, many Africa states had to accept decentralization and democracy as key elements of public sector reform strategies linked to poverty alleviation, democratization and good governance (Olsen 2007;2-3) or better still to promote development, democracy and good governance at the local level as per the objective of Cameroon’s decentralization policy consecrated  in section 2[1]of law No;2004 / 17 of July 2004 on the orientation of decentralization.

The government of  Cameroon in recent years seem to be following successive steps  in handing municipalities resources and decision making powers far beyond  anything local officials had imagined as the  policy  moved from its preliminary phase characterized by its legal and institutional framework in 2004 to it operational phase form 2017 financial year for the partial financing of decentralization process, as local authorities are assigned new task in the present context of promoting economic, social, health, educational and cultural development .This was earlier concretized with the further stratification of the state 2007 establishing new subdivisions with their corresponding decentralized local authorities.

Nevertheless, with the acknowledgement by the National Strategic plan for Growth and Employment (DSCE,2010-2020) of the objective of “becoming an emerging economy by 2035” partly through its decentralization administration at the service of development, challenges faced by local authorities in Fako  division raised question as to whether the government really  considers  the sustainable devolution of competences and resources.

The central dilemma consequently is to account for the wide gap between the expectations of local communities and the outcome of the implementation of the decentralization policy in the Fako division in the south west region of Cameroon so as to assess the effectiveness of the state in the implementation of this public policy

The decentralization process however, currently gained momentum across the state with first generation of the transfer of competences accompanied by resources from January1st to December 31st 2010 involving nine Ministerial departments and the second generation of competence transfer in the 2011 financial year with the additional involvement of four ministerial departments. It is in this light that there is therefore the need to assess the changes in the performance of municipal governments and the decentralization pattern that emerged as a result of the recent transfers of responsibilities to know if they go beyond political rhetoric, so as to shirt away from literature founded on expectations and discourse to research based on practice and outcomes in the scontext of Cameroon’s decentralization process.

1.2: Statement Of The Problem

The consecration of the policy of decentralization in the Constitution of Cameroon coupled with a number of presidential decrees and ministerial directives in force embodying Law No. 2004/017 on the Orientation of Decentralization and Law No. 2004/018 laying down rules applicable to councils together with scores of decrees, orders, circular letters and instructions from the central government since 2004 on the face of it depicts the government’s commitment to promoting the decentralization process.

It superficially depicts the state’s willingness to use its decentralization policy as the institutional and financial means through which regional and local authorities could operate to foster local development and local governance with the active involvement of the population through the devolution by the state, of ‘special’ powers and appropriate resources with substantial authority to hire, fire, tax, contract, expend, invest, plan, set priorities, and deliver the services they chose.

Taking into consideration mechanisms put in place by the State to ensure the attainment of effective devolution of powers and to commit resources to local authorities from the 2010 financial year in the ‘first generation’ of resource and competence transfer coupled with the overall allotment to the National Decentralization Fund for the 2016 Financial Year of nine billion six hundred and ninety-four million CFA for the partial financing of the decentralization process; one would run into quick conclusions that the government is committed to the implementation of the decentralization policy. However preliminary field studies and evidence demonstrate the contrary, as this concept is still shallowly appreciated and felt by the local citizenry and the municipal and sub-divisional councils in Buea Division. This is so because municipal and sub-divisional councils in Buea Sub Division still face usual and peculiar problems which hinder their effectiveness irrespective of the current putting in operation of the decentralization policy which is expected to serve as a solution to the power and resource inadequacy of these councils while fostering good local governance.

1.3 Research Question

1. What are actually the powers and resources that have devolved to Local Authorities
2. What are the problems associated with Decentralization?
3. What actually are the opinions of citizens in Urban and Rural Areas on the decentralization process?

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