Yaoundé, November 13, 2025 (True Cameroon) — In many communities across Cameroon, small, improvised infrastructure projects continue to be presented as major achievements by local politicians aligned with the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM). A recent example circulating on social media shows a temporary wooden bridge constructed in Naikom, Wum, with local officials dressed in party fabric — praising the structure as a significant “gift” to the population.
While images like these generate applause from some supporters, they also revive long-standing questions about how political patronage, symbolic development, and information gaps shape governance and expectations in Cameroon.
The Naikom Bridge: A Symbol of a Larger System
The temporary wooden bridge in Naikom illustrates a familiar national pattern:
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A non-standard, improvised project
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Delivered in a community needing far more fundamental services
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Publicly celebrated as a major achievement
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Framed as a political “gift” rather than a state obligation
This is performance development small gestures amplified into narratives of progress, while deeper issues remain unresolved.
The bridge is not the problem itself;
it is the symptom of the underlying political strategy.
The Politics of Presentation Over Performance
For decades, Cameroon’s dominant political party has built a governance model rooted not in systematic development, but in symbolic visibility. The strategy is simple and familiar:
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Small-scale projects are framed as major achievements.
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Community needs are transformed into political favors.
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Local elites act as intermediaries, promoting the idea that development comes from loyalty, not from national planning.
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State responsibility is replaced with party gratitude.
In rural and semi-urban regions where infrastructure gaps are severe and economic conditions difficult even temporary repairs or improvised bridges are quickly elevated into political narratives of progress.
These gestures are often timed around elections, official visits, or moments of public dissatisfaction, reinforcing a cycle in which citizens are encouraged to associate even the most basic public works with individual political figures rather than with public institutions.
Why This Model Endures
Political scientists describe this structure as clientelism: a system where the governing party maintains allegiance by offering selective benefits rather than universal development. Several factors sustain this model in Cameroon:
1. Limited Access to Reliable Information
In many areas, residents depend on local officials and state-affiliated media as their primary information sources. This environment allows political messaging to overshadow independent evaluation of public services.
2. Chronic Underdevelopment
When communities lack roads, bridges, schools, and clinics, even minor projects feel significant not because they solve long-term problems, but because they stand out amid chronic neglect.
3. Personalization of Power
Development is frequently presented as a direct gift from individual politicians, reinforcing a culture where political loyalty is seen as the path to accessing basic services.
4. Election-Time Visibility
Temporary structures and quick fixes often serve electoral purposes. They demonstrate activity without requiring long-term planning or accountability.
The Civic Lesson: Development Is a Right, Not a Reward
Across the globe, countries that have transitioned away from dominant-party systems often open public debates about how to rebuild institutions and redefine the relationship between citizens and the state.
For Cameroon, such a discussion would include:
• Strengthening local governance
Municipal and regional bodies must manage development based on community needs, not party lines.
• Ensuring transparency in public projects
Citizens should know how funds are allocated, who executes projects, and whether standards are being respected.
• Building civic awareness
Understanding the difference between political symbolism and structural development helps communities evaluate leadership based on results, not gestures.
• Guaranteeing equal access to infrastructure
Public goods must not depend on political affiliation or party connections.
These are reforms that many societies consider when reflecting on governance models after long periods of centralized political rule.
A Bridge and a Bigger Question
The wooden bridge at Naikom, like many similar structures across the country, is not merely an engineering solution it is a symbol of the broader governance challenges Cameroon faces. It reflects both:
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the resilience of communities that organize to survive,
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the limitations of a system where basic public services become political messages.
Cameroonians from urban centers to rural villages continue to express a desire for stable roads, durable bridges, quality schools, functioning hospitals, and transparent leadership. Recognizing the difference between short-term fixes and long-term development is an essential step in strengthening civic understanding and public accountability.
FANONIAN CLOSING: THE AWAKENING OF A PEOPLE
Frantz Fanon wrote that “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.”
For decades, Cameroonians have been asked to applaud wooden bridges, temporary repairs, and symbolic gestures. They have been told to thank leaders for what should be basic rights. They have been taught to confuse presence with progress.
But a society awakens the moment it begins to question the stories it has been told.
The Naikom bridge is more than timber.
It is a lesson.
It is a mirror.
It is a quiet spark in the collective consciousness.
Fanon reminds us that liberation begins not with violence or revolt, but with clarity the moment a people recognize the structures that bind them, and the possibilities that lie beyond.
A new Cameroon will not be built on token gestures, but on a new understanding:
that dignity is not a gift,
that development is not a favor,
and that the future belongs to citizens who refuse to applaud the minimum.
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