Administrative Measures: Better Follow-up Mechanisms Required

In Cameroon, administrative measures are official directives issued by executive authorities, like Governors, SDOs or Divisional Officers (DOs), and cabinet Ministers to regulate public order, enforce national policies, or manage local affairs. Enforcing these orders locally faces severe challenges, compounded by entrenched corruption, porous borders and most especially the absence of stringent and better follow-up mechanisms. In April 2014, a joint decision by the Minister of the Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development and his colleague of Trade, banned the production, importation, commercialization of nonbiodegradable low-density plastic packaging (60 microns or less in thickness), throughout the national territory. While this regulation which aimed at preserving the environment from plastic pollution and enhancing the health of the population has been on the books for more than a decade, enforcement remains a major challenge. Despite the administrative edict, non-biodegradable plastic bags continue to inundate the markets and streets. The black market for the banned product is rather blossoming as tons of it are smuggled from neighbouring Nigeria through very long and porous borders or with the complicity of those who are supposed to enforce the regulation. The demand is high while the supply is limited following the ban, thereby fuelling the black market since production of the acceptable plastic bags is not commensurate to the national demand. Away from the plastic packaging ban that spans several years, yet, shrouded with implementation challenges, recent administrative orders are also suffocating under same weight of negligence, lack of appropriate follow-up mechanisms as well as laxity. In February 2022, the Minister of Territorial Administration came out firm to ban the importation, sale, promotion and consumption of Shisha (coloured and flavoured tobacco smoked through a water pipe. It is also known as Hookah). The ban of these substances, as usual, was for public health concerns. Unfortunately, shisha and other toxic substances are still ubiquitous in our snack bars, lounges, night clubs and other recreational spaces. Even in private homes especially in student residential areas, shisha is still being commercialized and consumed by the obstinate youth and some delinquent adults. The question lingering in many minds is how the substance finds it way into the Cameroonian market? Of course, the answer is hanging in the air as importation, sale and consumption is still rampant in all nooks and crannies of Cameroon despite the administrative ban. Sometimes the product is even consumed with zest by those who are supposed to enforce the ban like defence and security agents. Four years down the lane, shisha and other substances continue to proliferate with impunity in snack bars, casinos and other leisure spots as if nothing ever happened. Again, weak and irregular follow-up mechanisms, corruption and administrative laxity continue to challenge the execution of the bans and the consumption goes on unabated, undermining the public health concerns that the ban intended to address. To think that the Governor of the Litoral Region came back on May 15, 2026, to ban a similar substance (Nitrous oxide) also known as ‘laughing gas,’ in his territory of command, lends credence on the non-application of the MINAT ban. The laughing gas just like shisha according to the Governor’s communique is widely consumed in night clubs, snack bars and other recreational spaces. Administrative authorities who are supposed to enforce the previous bans of such substances by MINAT are seen issuing their own orders without implementing the previous ones from hierarchy. This cast aspersions on the implementation of the Governor’s administrative order as no control and follow-up mechanisms are not speltout. Similarly, his counterpart in the South West Region, on March 27, 2026 issued a ban on the circulation, commercialization and consumption of specific hard drinks and illicit substances like tramadol and Indian hemps across the Sout...