Riding through the rough and stony road is backbreaking
BY Ngalame Elias
The travails of bike riders and pedestrians of the Bangem-Babubock- Nguti road are just indescribable. Everything about the hard to access trajectory is notoriously bad, rough, stony and bouncy. Safe bike-ride on this road is luxury. Backbreaking is apt to describe traveling to and fro, the typical forest trajectory.
Left with no choice commuters are bound to deal with the perilous situation. Bikes being the only means of transport in the area, the rural setting is teeming with them. They serve as everything- a mule and vehicle for transporting goods and passenger.
Playing the beast of the burden role, they transport virtually everything transportable.
It is very challenging albeit a thriving business for this group of young and energetic boys who have the monopoly of transporting even corpses coming into villages along the trajectory and critically sick persons from these villages to hospitals in Bangem, the headquarters.
It is against this backdrop that the riders have constituted themselves into a group( association) to carry our regular community work in some very degraded portions of the road. It’s a selfless service that protects their interest and that of the entire community.
GLIMMER OF HOPE
In the heart of KupeMuanemguba forest the fertile vegetation and rich biodiversity have long been the lifeline of the rural communities along the Bangem- Nguti area.
Intertwined with his very identity and ancestral heritage Ebong Jones, a farmer in Elah village says. “Our land is like honour, a gift from God,” reflecting a deep-seated respect for the soil that nurtures his family and sustains his community.
“ Though the land is very fertile, the bad road has been our major huddle. We are happy things are going to change with the announced construction of the Bangem-Nguti road” Ebong said beaming with smile in anticipation.
Like Ebong the project to construct the Bangem-Nguti road to the rural and remote population in the area is a welcome relief.
The bike riders say they are also hopeful.
“I could not believe it at first,” Peter Ekabe, one of the bike riders admits.
“The idea that this road will be constructed one day and our sufferings come to an end seemed like a dream”.
But the evidence is now undeniable, the machines to carry out the construction works by the BIR engineering team are already in place in Ndibisi, bringing a glimmer of hope to the community.
For the bike riders and farmers in the region this road project signifies more than just economic revival; it is a personal and communal renaissance.
“We have new hope and a renewed sense of purpose,” the chief of Elah village, Marcus Sale says.
The Bangem-Ndibisi lap of the road already transformed. The population is highly expectant to see the rest of the project completed with the coming of the dry season.
