Clandestine Transport: A Growing Evil On Most Highways

Cameroonians have to step up the level of consciousness regarding the damages the clandestine transporters are causing to society

Many seem not to understand the mobilisation by law enforcement officials especially the National Gendarmerie around most highways across the country to reinforce road safety measures. Yet, in most localities across the country the daily reality is outrageous. Overloading with people and goods cramped in the same ramshackle vehicle. In such cases, the justification hardly lacks-Bad roads, no vehicles available or the need to arrive fast often constitute justifications that the car owners and those who hurry to enter such rickety cars give whenever they are intercepted by law enforcement officials.
However, glaring evidence exist to elucidate the fact that such people simply hurry to bury as they move to various parts of the country. For instance, in 2014 alone, the National Gendarmerie recorded 3,088 road accidents with 1,102 deaths and 4,262 wounded. These figures alone were sufficiently disturbing to impose an intensification of the fight against the use of clandestine vehicles that largely accounted for the malpractices on highways throughout the national territory.
Popularly called “Clandos” or “Opep”, no matter what the names connote, the fact is that the government had made much effort to create awareness and the desire to move a step forward in ensuring that the phenomenon is sufficiently tackled. Phase one of the national campaign that begins today until 15 July, 2017, to fight clandestine road transport and dissuade the general public against the use of such vehicles has several objectives. Other phases will soon follow. Apart from the preservation of law and order, reduce road accidents, but also the campaign is to ensure that by 2018 at least 80 per cent of the actors within the road transport sector should be able to abide by the rules enforce.
Understandably, the existence of such rickety vehicles on highways in Cameroon is equally nefarious to the economy. While regular commuters pay taxes and take measures to operate under comfortable and decent conditions, the clandestine vehicles hardly border about hygiene and sanitation. They neither respect the Highway Code nor keep their cars clean and acceptable for r...