Socio-Economic Impact of Tarring the Cameroon Section of the Lagos-Mombasa Trans African HighWay through Mamfe in Manyu Division

The town of Mamfe in Manyu Division used to be an important socio-economic and political hub in former British Southern Cameroons, and the then West Cameroon geo-politics. Shortly after independence and reunification, it became noticeably clear that the town had switched from relative to absolute decline. This was so because the economic capital of the territory at the time had moved east from Lagos to Douala. Its derelict social infrastructure and road network that ensued from its absolute decline contributed in plunging the town and the entire division into inaccessibility and enclavement. The tarring of the Cameroon section of the Lagos-Mombasa Trans African HighWay (TAHW) came as a long awaited relief to the Manyu people. It opened up not only this region and the backside of this part of the country, but revamped and restored the lost glory Mamfe town once enjoyed. This study aimed at evaluating impact of the TAHW on the socio-economic and environmental development of Mamfe town in particular and Manyu Division in general. The method employed to achieve the desired results combined both secondary and primary sources of data collected from the field, the topographic map of Mamfe and the population data for 2005. Field observations, interviews, administration of questionnaire to randomly selected road construction workers, company officials, administrative officers, elites, politicians, and the local population characterised the data collection. The results revealed that with the tarring of the TAHW across Mamfe, the socio-economic and physical transformation was visible just for one year. Internal and external mobility was not only faster but at cheaper rates too. Small businesses expanded; crises that sparked off in the latter half of 2016 halted all these achievements.


Introduction
Transport is a vital asset to a country's development. Africa has set up programmes to dis-enclave communities in order to trigger country development and progress. Many countries and economic development blocs initiate actions for the construction of major transport highways in order to accomplish the broad base objective for the infrastructural development of Africa. A highway is a main road or a most direct motorable way linking two important areas (Wikipedia, 2013).
The classic definition of highway is that it is a main road with many lanes that can go from two to ten depending on the intensity of traffic or the economic situation of the localities they serve. Vehicles moving at relatively high speeds of 120 to 180 km/h often mark highways. Unlike secondary roads where the speeds are relatively lower, vehicles plying highways are not expected to halt and pick up passengers, load or discharge loads, except in the face of mechanical break-down or an obstacle.
The main objective of development planners on the African continent was to construct road highways linking the capital states of member countries. The carving out of the continent into regional blocs aimed at attaining the objective of a holistic development (EU's European Development Fund for ACP Group of States, 2012). This laudable initiative to construct road highways that could dis-enclave the entire continent witnessed some feet dragging by most leaders who wanted to maintain their microstates. This significantly retarded the speedy realization of the Trans-African HighWays (TAHW) project. Projects to con-  Gina Porter (2012) in assessing the impact on the rural poor of constructing roads in Ghana and Nigeria, this author focused on women since women experience more poverty than men, a situation that prevails in Manyu Division.
They are the main farmers producing foodstuffs that are sold in the markets. He concludes that roads in West Africa are not necessarily a good thing for women who live by them. This is because they are often not in a position to take advantage of the benefits that the roads confer. That for women and other sectors of the rural poor who live away from good roads, regional road construction programmes can even make life harder. All the benefits of the TAHW in Manyu Division as investigated in this study lasted just for one year.

The Study Area
Mamfe town is the headquarters of Manyu Division that is made up of four   Being one of the oldest divisions, Manyu was the hub of economic activities in the then Southern Cameroons from the late 1950s to the beginning of the 1960s as all its socio-economic and political life was linked to Nigeria. When this territory joined the Republic of Cameroon through a UN organised Plebiscite in 1961, its status as a federal state run from Buea (Federal capital of West Cameroon) did not change much though this socio-economic and political life became linked to the Republic of Cameroon. The trunk A road that linked Victoria via Buea, Kumba, Mamfe, Bamenda, Kumbo, Nkambe, Wum and back to Bamenda constituted the life wire of the then West Cameroon economy. The bifurcation in Mamfe (i.e. to Ikom in Nigeria), which hitherto served as the main link between Southern Cameroons and Nigeria made Mamfe and economic centre. When the federal system in Cameroon was abolished in 1972 and the institution of a unitary state, all efforts to maintain and or develop these roads were futile. The town of Mamfe became relegated to the backyard, as it became a near island with the dilapidation of the Mamfe-Kumba, Mamfe-Bamenda and Mamfe-Ekok roads. With the tarring of these roads as from 2010, Mamfe once more resurfaced as an emerging economic centre, which thus motivated this study (Achankeng, 1995).

Data Collection
This study made use of a number of materials and methods for the attainment of the expected results. Field observations made on the physical and human landscape before, during and after the tarring of the TAHW were to appreciate the socio-economic and political mutations that cropped up. This then followed with interviews of administrative officials, staff of the road construction company as well as the local population, chiefs and quarter heads. This was to assess the impact of the TAHW on the socio-economic and political life styles of the people of Mamfe town and the rest of Manyu Division. Organised focus group discussions took place in three different sites. This first targeted the officials of the road construction company on statistical issues such as the total length of the road, the total number of workers employed, salary paid per worker etc. The second site targeted economic operators and local NGOs on nascent economic activities in the area due to the TAHW, profits and volume of sales. The third focused on group discussions held with administrative officials to assess the level of insecurity in the study area. The researchers took photographs on important socio-economic activities in the study area. Finally, a set questionnaire was administered to the population, which contained both closed-ended and open-ended questions. This was necessary for qualitative and quantitative interpretation and analysis of the data collected.
The method adopted to this study is the hypothetical-deductive method (Everson et al., 1972). The first phase of data collection constituted of bibliographic research while the second phase was fieldwork. Bibliographic research permitted the consultation of archival documents from the Mamfe Urban council and docu- centres, information related to transport development, impact of road construction on socio-economic and political development was explored and analysed.

Sampling Techniques of the Population
The total human population for Manyu division for 2020 stands at 235,145 inhabitants (projected RGPH of 1987 and 2005) using this formula, where P x is the projected population, N is the period between P 1 and P x , n is the period between P 1 and P 2 , P 1 is the initial population and P 2 is the last known population. The sample size for this study was selected from the households. The reason for using households was that it is much easier to administer a questionnaire with them than to individuals among the population. Anybody within a household can respond to questions unlike to individuals who at one moment or the other can be absent thereby prolonging the period meant from the questionnaire administration. Effectively, 2% of these households were decided upon to constitute the sample size. The rationale for selecting a 2% sample ties to what Nwana (1982)

Data Treatment
Data collected from various sources especially from the questionnaire administration were analysed to produce various illustrations for better understanding.
More precisely, descriptive statistics were used to analyse and interpret the results deduced from field investigation.
Data treatment was synthesized with the guide of concepts and theories. The information gathered on the field yielded both qualitative and quantitative data.
The tools employed for data analysis include descriptive statistics such as tables, percentages, pie charts and bar charts. The following softwares and programmes

Data Analysis
It was necessary because it provided an opportunity for the researcher to examine, analyse and interpret the data collected and treated. In so doing, recourse

Improved Internal and External Population Mobility
Internal mobility in Manyu Division involves the displacement of people on relatively short distances such as from one subdivision to the other, from one village to the other or from one compound to the other in the same village.
However, the tendency is that they remain within a familiar cultural environment and therefore have few problems of adjustment to language, social customs, ideology and institutions. Though the constraints to internal migration include low incomes, family wrangling, settling of scores and deplorable road infrastructural network, the construction of the TAHW has mitigated these constrains and further boosted the propensity to mobility from one place to the other. This is simply because transport fares, especially along the TAHW dropped tremendously with no seasonal variation as was the case before (Ngwa Nebasina, 1997).
Before the tarring of the TAHW, Manyu Division in general and Mamfe in particular appeared more as an island, as movements of goods and people were too limited. During the rainy season, trade between the adjacent rural communities with Mamfe town and across to Nigerian was near inexistent. Table 3       The flux of passengers has more than doubled with the tarring of the TAHW through Mamfe. Now people have to travel in and out of Manyu Division conveniently and at cheaper transport fares. ALIBABA Express that was the lone agency before the tar has marked the Manyu man. Though this agency operated with mini buses (14 seater, 18 seater and 30 seater buses), it did not lose its clients to new arrivals. When tar arrived, coupled with the arrival of other travelling agencies with more comfortable buses of higher capacities (53 seater, 60 seater and 70 seater buses), this only solved the problem of increased flux of passengers. Most of the local population remained glued to the agency that cooperated with them during the difficult days. It is for this reason that ALIBABA Express still top the list in the number of passengers transported per day to and from Mamfe as seen in Table 4. Being its major line from creation, this travelling agency has won the hearts of the Manyu man as both are manifesting mutual trust (O'Kelly, 1998).
This increased mobility of people is for various reasons. Firstly, it is for religious purposes, as Mamfe town in particular has of late become a centre for religious activities due to its geographical location. Church and ecumenical services have been organised there to pray for peace for both Nigeria and Cameroon. Christians congregate there on annual basis coming from cities such as Bamenda, Kumba, Douala, Yaounde etc. on the side of Cameroon and from Ikom, Calabar, Onitsha, Lagos, Enugu, Jos, Ibandan etc. on the side of Nigeria. These prayers that hold at the town's Ground Stand, mostly centre on the outbreak of the Ebola disease in DR Congo and the Boko Haram threats in the north that affects Nigeria and Cameroon. This brings together many religious leaders of different denominations, which include the Pentecostants, Protestants and Roman Catholics (Donaldson, Jinhage, & Verhoogen, 2017).
Furthermore, Mamfe has also become a transit town for Christians on pilgrimage for religious purposes to and from Nigeria. Noteworthy is that Nigeria of late has become famous in organising Divine Healing Services, which attract Christians from all over the world. The tarring of the TAHW makes Mamfe the easiest transit corridor from Cameroon to Nigeria thus giving a facelift of the town in handling a higher influx of religious pilgrims (Cupers & Meier, 2020).

Setting Up of Many Businesses
To demonstrate the economic twist due to the advent of the TAHW, many economic establishments in Cameroon now consider Mamfe a potential market centre. For example, CONGELCAM, the main dealer in frozen fish in the country opened a branch in the town of Mamfe in 2015. This has not only facilitated the acquisition of fresh fish at all times, but has spurred other related fish businesses such as the roasting of fresh fish around bars, snacks, off-licenses and nightclubs that have cropped up to handle the teeming population, a phenomenon that never existed before. CONGELCAM has led to the phenomenon of fish retailers who supply to surrounding villages at all times. These villages hitherto depended

Accelerated Cross-Border Trade
When the oil boom brought Nigerian agriculture to its knees before 1981, Cameroon was the breadbasket to Nigeria and other central African countries. The food deficit later pushed many Nigerians to embark aggressively on agriculture in a bid to meet up with the ever-growing demand for food. From 1980 to 1990, i.e. before the oil boom that crumbled agriculture, many women from Manyu Division, Douala, Nkongsamba, Bafoussam and other areas in Cameroon often crossed over to Nigeria though Ekok to buy foodstuff such as yams, maize, groundnuts, palm oil, tomatoes etc. Major producing areas in Nigeria that were closer to the Cameroon border included Ikom and Ikang. However, the problem of farm to market roads coupled with the poor state of the TAHW at the time did not render the business for foodstuff profitable. This business often went dead during the rainy season, as it was not easy to transport the foodstuff to Cameroon, thus creating artificial scarcity in the markets (Achankeng, 1984).
With the Nigerian oil boom, it became a reverse situation which can be termed pendulum cross border trade between Cameroon and Nigeria, wherein at one moment truckloads of a particular good cross from Nigerian to Cameroon and at another moment truckloads of that same good cross from Cameroon into Nigeria ( Figure 3).
Sources at the Ekok customs office revealed that, the importation of foodstuff

Analysis
In general, asphalt pavement materials eliminate potentially dangerous and ex- Reasons advanced to this non-adherence were that, the tarring of roads is purely a national issue and countries do this according to their means, economic interest and norms (Barr et al., 1972).   Businesses have sprung up in the whole division. The delivery of goods is now faster to the extent that there is the non-decay of perishable goods. Relatively, business people now realise profits whose multiplier effect is the attraction of more people to take up Mamfe as their permanent resident. In spite of the stability in transport fares throughout the year, the low income of the indigenous population coupled with the strong social ties continue to impede internal and external mobility. However, the influx of people from other parts of Cameroon especially from the Littoral Region is proof of the fact that businesses make profit. Given that most of the new comers are women, they mostly focus on petit trading such as roasting of fish around bars, promiscuity and provision stores.
This means that in spite of the tarring of the TAHW, the poverty situation of the Manyu man has not really improved.
Located in a dense forest region, where the relief, fertile soils and climate are appealing, investors in large-scale agriculture are yet to exploit the area. However, with the advent of the TAHW, a majority of the local population remain glued to smallholder farming of food crops largely meant for household consumption. As Figure 6 illustrates, all the settlements adjacent to the TAHW in Manyu Division transport their produce for sale to the tarred roadside. This is for onward transportation to the market either in Nigeria of in Cameroon.

Discussion
Although it took many years for the Cameroon government to approve the tarring of its section of the Lagos-Mombasa TAHW (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015), there is a strong believe that this depended on national priorities unlike from external influences.
Agreeing to this fact, if international financial institutions did not implicate in it, many more years could be needed for the government of Cameroon to realise this project ADB Group (2014). Upon the completion of this road in 2015, alien population flooded the town and scrambled for the acquisition of large expands Open Journal of Social Sciences of land on strategic positions for business and plantation agriculture. This was followed by an ephemeral boom in socio-economic activities that later dwindled. What therefore explains this sudden decline in socio-economic activities in the study area? The major reason advanced points to the Anglophone crisis, which started in 2016, barely one year after the completion of the road. This means that all the advantages enumerated above due to the tarring of this road happened within a year. It should be noted that it is in Manyu Division that the crisis turned into an armed conflict. This was followed by consistent calls for ghost towns, civil disobedience and the grounding of the civil service. This has succeeded in scaring away investors and alien population that came to settled there in order to take advantage of the road. Due to this, the development of Mamfe, alongside that of the entire division has reversed to more than what it was prior to the construction of this road. Had it not been for the Anglophone crisis therefore, this study unit area could have got to another significant level of development appreciated by both the local population and economists.
In ignoring all the difficulties involved, farmers channelled their produce to transitional markets along the TAHW ( Figure 5), which easily got to the markets either in Cameroon or in Nigeria. Those going to Nigeria must pass through the Ekok frontier market thus subjected to the payment of custom duties. The reverse situation is the same for those coming from Nigeria. This is case of a pendulum border trade as described above (Sera, 1975). This scenario implies that both Cameroon and Nigeria are proficient in agricultural production, but with Cameroon having an absolute advantage over Nigeria. On the other hand, Nigeria also has an absolute advantage over Cameroon in Manufactured Goods as can be noticed at the Ekok customs checkpoint.

Conclusion
This study centred on "The socio-economic impact of the construction of the