Abstract

However, the current need to empower local councils, as well as the realization that local communities are capable of identifying and prioritizing their true needs, has boosted Cameroon’s drive for decentralization.

Since the 2010 fiscal year, the state has devolved some of its responsibilities to local Councils in order to achieve its policy objectives of promoting development, good governance, and democracy at the local level.

As a result, the purpose of this study is to assess the constraints in these transfers of competencies to some local authorities in the Fako division, as well as to assess the extent to which this process has been able to achieve its policy objectives in the Fako division.

The public choice theory, also known as the school of economics, is a political science approach that uses economic methods and tools to explain how politics and government work. The Structural Functionalist theory ensures a functional relationship among structures in a state, particularly in public policy processes such as decentralization, which require a functional collaborative relationship of state institutions to succeed.

To achieve these goals, a set of questionnaires was distributed to citizens 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 the stratified random sampling technique.

Three hypotheses were tested in the study using frequency tables, charts, graphs, and chi-squared tests, and major findings revealed that, while the state appears to be devolving some competencies and resources within the scope of the decentralization process, there is still a lack of genuine political commitment in implementing all facets of the decentralization policy coupled with the decentralization policies.

As a result, this study recommends that the central government demonstrate a functional and genuine political commitment by establishing a timetable for devolution and allocating a fixed quota of the state budget to Local Authorities, as well as financing 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 centralized states. Some writers consider and or treat decentralization and local government as synonymous concepts or terms, (See Smith,1985; Gonidec,1985, Mawhood,1993).

For instance, the encyclopedia Britannica vol.14 at p .262 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 backlach against the 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.

Never the less, 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 the first generation of the transfer of competencies accompanied by resources from January 1st 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 context of Cameroon’s decentralization process.

1.2: Statement of the Problem

The incorporation of decentralization policy into the Cameroonian Constitution, along with a plethora of presidential decrees and ministerial directives in force, including Law No. 2004/017 on Decentralization Orientation and Law No. 2004/018 establishing rules applicable to councils, as well as scores of decrees, orders, circular letters, and instructions from the central government,

It appears to depict the states’ willingness to use their 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 participation of the population through the devolution of ‘special’ powers and appropriate resources with substantial authority to hire, for taking into account the mechanisms put in place by the State to ensure effective devolution of powers and to commit resources to local authorities in the “first generation” of resource and competence transfer beginning with the 2010 fiscal year, as well as the overall allotment to the National Decentralization Fund for the 2016 fiscal year of nine billion six hundred and ninety dollars

However, preliminary field studies and anecdotal evidence show that this concept is still only superficially appreciated and felt by the local citizenry as well as the municipal and sub-divisional councils in Buea Division. This is because municipal and sub-divisional councils in Buea Sub Division continue to face common and unusual problems that impede their effectiveness, despite the current implementation of the decentralization policy, which is expected to serve as a panacea to these councils’ power and resource inadequacy while fostering good local governance.

1.3 Research Questions

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