Post Card From Isangele

Isangele Council is located in the Ndian Division in South West Region. It is privileged to be among the 18 councils out of 360 with a female mayor at their helm. It is also privileged to be located at the border, at the crossroads between Cameroon and Nigeria. As such, its population is a melting pot of ethnicities, not only from these two nations, but also from other West African countries attracted to its rich fisheries.

A building scheme in Isangele: Solving the housing problem.

Created on june 29, 1977, this Council 765 km² Isangele Council has a population of 5,000 inhabitants and is governed by a council of 22, under the leadership of Caroline Offiong Usim. It is bounded in the north by Mundemba council, in the south by Kombo Abedimo council, in the west by the Atlantic Ocean  and in the east by Ekondo Titi and Kombo Itindi council areas. This is the parent council of the Bakassi Area, with offshoots being the Kombo Itindi and Idabato Councils.

The main settlement is Oron, with its paramount chiefdom, followed by other recognized chiefdoms like Bateka and Amoto. Many Nigerians live in the municipality especially in the fishing villages where in some cases they constitute up to 100% of the population.

The dominant vegetation is the forest and over 60% of Isangele is covered by the mangrove forest which is continually washed by creek waters from the ocean and numerous streams and rivers. The creek waters are excellent breeding grounds for fish. The mangrove also provides wood for building and fuel. The water ways are used for transportation. The numerous mangrove forests are good sites for eco-tourism but all these exist in the form of potential. Its recent history of being the arena of warfare between Cameroon and Nigeria, and above all, the difficult access to this area makes economic activities other than fishing and small scale arable farming very difficult. Over fishing is a high risk as well as destruction of the mangrove. 

Potential

Any serious talk of economic activities in Isanggele is mainly in the form of potentials. The Council Development Plan of Isangele, designed with help from the National Community Driven Development Programme (PNDP) cites the following as potentials for development: agriculture due to vast expanses of fertile lands with a sedimentary bedrock, council/community forests and timber exploitation due to its vast primaeval and secondary forest vegetation, transport due to abundant navigable permanent and semi-permanent waterways, commerce due to proximity to Nigeria and Mundemba, tourism due to abundance of wild life, beaches and islands, creeks, mangroves, etc. However, the trauma of warfare with Nigeria needs to be buried deep in the past before such activities can reach their golden age, and recent militant activity across the border in Nigeria do not augur well for safety in this region, given its proximity to the hotbed of irredentism in Nigeria. .

Council Activities and Budget

The Councillors met on June 21, 2016, to validate the 2015 administrative and management accounts of the council. The meeting took place under the supervision of the Divisional Officer for Isangele, Ngale Meende Alfred, as representative of the Senior Divisional Officer for Ndian Division. Mayor Caroline Offiong Usim, said the council raised 355.1 million FCFA in 2015; out of which 326.6 million FCFA was spent on investment, leaving a surplus of 28.6 million FCFA. The investments were spent in areas such as roads, health, pipe borne water, all in a bid to make Isangele (and in fact, the entire Bakassi Peninsular) a more attractive place for its Cameroonian population.

Recent Development 

Getting to Isangele is no feat... if you are a daredevil motorist!

Some of the projects realised by theIsangele Council recently include the construction of a Women Empowerment and Family Centre in Amoto, the construction of a council chambers in Bateka, the rehabilitation of Isangele Urban Space through road grading and construction of pavement slaps, construction of classrooms at Idibanyanga and Amoto and low-cost housing for staff. On the other hand, 60 modern apartment houses were built as well as drying ovens and toilets for resettled Cameroonian fishermen at New Beach. The Central Government, on its part, has spent close to 2 billion CFA francs, not withstanding the area’s very small population, in Isangele Council since 2011, in a bid to make Cameroonians in this part of the country feel at home.