By Ndi Eugene Ndi
Close to 20 of the 35 councils in the North West region have pledged to henceforth adhere to the call for the respect of Section 17 of the 1981 Civil Status Ordinance, which provides for the free establishment of civil status documents.
Weeks after the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator (PIC) for the North West called out some councils in the region for extortion, bribery and corruption in the issuance of the said documents, at least 17 councils in the region have issued statements emphasizing their commitment to ensuring the free issuance of the documents.
In its 2023 Annual Activity Report released last month in Bamenda, the Office of the PIC for the North West region indicted over 20 of the 35 councils – including the Bamenda City Council, of the region for varied illegal activities including extortion, bribery and corruption and unfair taxation among others.
The report of the new state institution born out of the Special Status, within the context of decentralization was based on a perception survey on the functioning of councils carried out in the different municipalities.
Last year, the office of the PIC launched a region-wide campaign which was aimed at discouraging the practice whereby poor citizens are made to cough out huge sums of money to either obtain birth, death or marriage certificates in many councils across the region.
The campaign was in keeping with the institution’s missions to make sure that the councils render good services to the population, void of discrimination and marginalization, and in respect of human rights.
Campaign bearing fruits
Months after the campaign was launched, and following the public of the 2023 activity report, the office of the PIC says that many councils in the region are now increasingly becoming compliant with the civil status legislation law.
“The campaign to promote the free establishment of civil status documents organized by the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator of the North-West Region is yielding fruits,” the institution said in a statement posted on its official Facebook page on Thursday, March 28, 2024.
It said some mayors in the region had been committing to comply with the law and were signing municipal orders announcing the free establishment of civil status documents in their municipalities.
Councils that had announced the free issuance of civil status registration documents in the region as at March 28, 2024, according to the statement, included Andek, Balikumbat, Bamenda I, Benakuma, Furu-Awa, Mbengwi, Misaje, Ndop, Ndu, Njinikom, Nkor, Nkum, Tubah, Wum and Zhoa.
The Office of the PIC for the North West region said in the statement that the number of press releases signed by mayors committing to the free issuance of civil status registration documents keeps increasing by the day.
“The Public Independent Conciliator for the North West region, Mr. Tamfu Simon Fai, encourages mayors who have not started issuing Civil Status Documents free of charge in their municipalities to do so and to sign Press Releases in this light, as other mayors have done,” the statement said further.
It is thus expected that the move by the office of the PIC will go a long way in increasing the rate of obtaining civil status documents in the crisis-plagued region, and probably serve as a lesson to the rest of the country where access to civil status registration services remains difficult and expensive.
First published in NewsWatch newspaper No 172 of Monday, April 8, 2024.
