The existence of texts governing decentralization in Cameroon is proof that the State is aware of the fact that its emergence will largely depend on progress in its decentralization process.

This is the reason why the 1972 constitution already recognized the municipalities as autonomous institutions on the legal, administrative and financial level. This surge of generosity will be reflected more 24 years later by the constitutional revision of 1996 which created another category of decentralized local authorities: the region.

The promulgation of texts and their applicability

In Cameroon, as to paraphrase some, it is not the texts that are lacking but their lack of implementation or the slowness of the procedures. By making a comparison between the number of texts voted and promulgated, and the number of texts concretely applied on the ground, we will realize that the applicability of a text is conditioned by several factors which obey a calendar and a hierarchy of priorities defined by the Head of State himself. Indeed, the 1996 constitutional revision created the region, but it was later in 2008 that the province was really replaced by the region after a presidential decree. It should also be noted that from 2004 to 2009, without however forgetting later in 2019, the law relating to the general code of decentralized territorial communities, several texts deliberated and adopted by the National Assembly and promulgated by the President of the Republic give more clarifications to this new form of participatory and administrative governance. These include the law on the orientation of decentralization, the law relating to the procedures for the election of senators and that relating to the mode of election of regional councillors. It took 15 years, from 2004 to 2019 to give more details. 7-year intervals from the law establishing the method of electing senators in 2006 for the organization of the first senatorial elections; 15-year intervals from 2006 with the law setting the mode of election of regional councillors to have the first regional councillors; 17 years apart from the constitutional reform of 1996 which really institutionalized decentralization in Cameroon for the first senatorial elections and 25 years later from this same reform for the election of the first regional councillors.

Decentralized Territorial Collectivities and public policies

In 2009, a presidential decree setting the general allocation for decentralization provided 3 billion for the operation of each region. If this allocation has been multiplied almost by five in the space of 10 years, going from 10 to 49 billion according to a 2019 report, it is just limited to the resolution of problems deemed priorities by the State while waiting to see in what measures brought solutions to the problems of other populations, particularly rural ones, who are languishing among others in the lack of water, electricity and quality roads after several years. Although the efforts of the State to improve the envelope allocated to its local development partners is not negligible, it is still very insufficient.

Many schoolchildren are still receiving lessons under the stars; that is to say, on spaces that are not sheltered from the weather. Public establishments are poorly maintained. The staff are insufficient and sometimes absent due to the distance, the poor state of the roads, the derisory salaries, a dubious vocation and the poor quality or almost non-existence of the work equipment.

Also read : Development of transport infrastructures in Cameroon : a long and promising process at the speed of a turtle

Urban populations are more advantaged than those in rural areas. With regard to the sports infrastructures, if their gestation in several regions is commendable, it is however necessary to specify a lack of attractiveness and a disinterestedness of the populations who go there only during a major sporting event or when an elite of the region guaranteed to them free seats. The populations have lost the culture of a dynamic of development which would like the development of sport to go through personal planning to fill stadiums permanently. The precariousness of existence and the decay of sports infrastructure after 1972 until the early 2000s with new sports infrastructure construction projects have reduced the desire of Cameroonians to go to stadiums. They only go there massively when there is a major event sometimes conditioned by a political mobilization which is not bad in itself, but which should also help the populations to reclaim this habit of yesteryear, namely: to stimulate national development through a personal contribution resulting from local employment  thanks to a transfer of resources and skills.

The management of educational and sports health infrastructures by the municipalities

Asking for a transfer of skills and resources means asking for autonomy in the management of the resources and goods transferred under the control of the national decentralization council and the interministerial committee of local services as defined by the law on the control of the institutions provided by the regulations in force in the operation of decentralized territorial communities, and not empowerment in the sense of a break with the central power. They remain institutions at the service of the republic and therefore must be equipped with everything necessary to achieve their objectives, namely the improvement of the living conditions of the populations. If the decentralized local authorities need the help of the State to be more effective, the State needs them even more to develop more in all areas; hence the need to transfer resources to enable municipalities to take charge of other priorities, particularly in terms of health, education and sports, while also establishing partnerships with the outside world. Wouldn't it be better to transfer the management of all the infrastructures to the municipalities? As key partners in the integral development of a Territory, the decentralized territorial communities and in particular the rural communes have a greater need for the means necessary to stimulate local development and contribute to the development of the Territory. A transfer of skills that is not accompanied by a transfer of resources is incomplete. In Cameroon all projects are important. The priority given to some is a political will that is part of the dynamics of a slow and effective process that cannot solve all the problems all at once. The municipalities are waiting for their budget to be increased in order to be able to fully play their role, but the State is not yet ready to grant them these favours immediately. Meanwhile some teachers continue to teach in the open air. The lack of electrification makes learning even more painful. Those who do not have quality health infrastructure are forced to travel long distances sometimes at the risk of their lives. The lack of water facilitates the proliferation of pathogenic agents. Some officials refuse to go to remote places because they have no interest in going there; some don't even have a salary.

If it was the municipalities that made their own recruitments and established the employment contracts themselves, the problem of remuneration would be settled. Why not build school, health and educational infrastructures and entrust them to the municipalities? When a decentralized local authority manages its own infrastructure and resources, the optimization of development is higher. Any development that starts from the bottom and has everything necessary will always be very effective despite the fact that there will always be deplorable attitudes inherent in a problem of mentalities that will always have to be corrected. Even if the effectiveness of the decentralization in Cameroon is doubtful, the political will displayed for several years by certain concrete acts which far from responding to all the aspirations of the populations allow at least to understand that a serious process in a context plagued by multiple embezzlement will gradually meet all expectations over time.

Populations must therefore continue to be patient. Despite the fact that the end of the ordeal of some of them is not for now, they must show resilience in a Territory whose progressive process of decentralization is advancing slowly, aware of the main concerns of the populations namely to allow decentralised territorial collectivities and council in particular to better stimulate the development of the whole Territory from local development to no longer depend mainly on the central power.

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