Bamenda City Mayor’s “End to Lockdowns” Drive: Public Service or Political Eye-Service?

By Njoh Linda

On Tuesday, September 9, the City Mayor of Bamenda, Paul Achombong, staged a controversial campaign while much of the city and other towns in the Anglophone regions remained paralyzed by a separatist-imposed lockdown.

Riding through the deserted streets of Bamenda with a caravan of commercial motorbike riders, the Mayor announced the supposed end of ghost towns and lockdowns.

At Commercial Avenue, Achombong declared with defiance: “We will continue until the town is opened and lockdown is history.”

He went further to promise that markets would be reopened so residents could return to their daily activities.

Yet, by all accounts, his proclamations fell flat. MMI reporters who visited the Nkwen, Ntarinkon, and Main markets found a different reality: traders selling timidly by the roadside while market gates remained locked.

The Bamenda Main Market itself has remained closed ever since his bold declarations.

This disconnect raises a lingering question: was Mayor Achombong acting out of genuine concern for the suffering citizens or merely showing up to impress his superiors?

Political Timing and Symbolism

Just days after the mayor’s parade, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute arrived in Bamenda to preside over the launch of the Bamenda Urban Bypass Roads.

The Mayor’s “courageous” outing now appears less like a civic duty and more like a calculated show of loyalty ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit.

This pattern is hardly new. In 2022, after years of public complaints about the dilapidated state of Bamenda’s roads, Achombong only reacted days before November 6, the date CPDM elites converged on Bamenda to celebrate President Paul Biya’s accession to power.

Instead of fixing the city’s road network comprehensively, he hastily poured earth over potholes from Veterinary Junction to Ayaba Street, while leaving other critical stretches like Sonac Street untouched.

Again, on June 10, a public holiday, the Mayor mobilized bulldozers overnight, coincidentally on the eve of the Prime Minister’s arrival to chair the 7th Steering Committee meeting of the PPRD in Bamenda.

Was Bamenda City Mayor Serving the People or Hierarchy?

To many observers, these actions reveal a troubling pattern: the City Mayor acts reactively, often in sync with the political calendar, rather than proactively addressing the daily struggles of Bamenda residents.

Whether it’s road maintenance, public safety, or the fight against lockdowns, his interventions seem tailored more to please Yaounde and the ruling CPDM hierarchy than to respond to the needs of the people he was elected to serve.

The reality on the ground speaks volumes. While citizens remain trapped between separatist-imposed restrictions and the state’s symbolic gestures, Bamenda continues to suffer.

Its streets empty, its markets shut, its children out of school and its residents disillusioned.

In this light, Mayor Paul Achombong’s latest “end to lockdown” campaign appears less as an act of leadership and more as another chapter in his record of political eye-service.

The real question remains: when will Bamenda’s mayor rise beyond symbolic shows of power to genuinely confront the hardships of his people?