By Sylvanus Ezieh Acha’ana in Yaounde
Following a communiqué signed last Wednesday by the minister of trade,
Luc Magloire Mbarga stepping up the minimum taxi fare from 200 – 250FCFA, a
cold war is said to have developed between him and his counterpart of
transport, Robert Nkili.
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| Robert Nkilli |
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| Luc Magloire Mbarga |
Nkili who apparently did not
feel comfortable with Magloire’s move hurriedly signed a similar communiqué
from Yaounde instituting the same rule as did Luc Magloire. While Magloire took
the decision on a campaign mission in Douala to convince businessmen and women
not to sanction consumers with exorbitant prices as a result of the fuel price
hike, Nkili for his part signed the communiqué in Yaounde shortly after that of
Magloire was read on state radio.
Even though neither Nkili nor
Magloire has made any open statement as to whether who of them is gratified
with the right to decree the increase of taxi fare, wide opinion holds that Luc
Magloire Mbarga may have stepped into Nkili’s shoes to execute functions that
do not fall within his area of competence.
Meanwhile Magloire’s lackeys
are arguing that as minister of trade, he is in charge of prices, which give
him the competence to intervene in the price control of any domain. But his
critics have refused to see any reasoning in the argument raised by his
advocates. This school of thought argues that as trade minister, Magloire is
concerned with the control of prices of local commodities and not prices of
services.
A Yaounde-based teacher told
The Guardian Post that he was yet to reconcile the action of the trade minister
with his actual competences. He regretted the fact that a government minister
of Magloire’s standing could go this far to usurp functions that are not
officially his.
Albeit in Douala on a mission
to sway traders from taking advantage of the fuel price increase to swell
prices of local commodities, Magloire has come under stiff opprobrium after
last Wednesday’s communiqué.
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