Assessing the Linkages between the Level of Service Delivery and Local Government Managers’ Academic Background in Cameroon

Since 1994 with the arrival of the African National Congress (ANC) at the helm of the political scene, many regions are struggling to meet the challenges of poverty alleviation and underdevelopment. Many researchers and academics, including Ndedi (2003) and Ndedi and Ijeoma (2008) have quickly pointed out that the lack of service delivery, among other things, is directly linked to the lack of capacity building of local government managers. In many African countries, many researchers have reached the same conclusion. In 2015, a cross sectional study was conducted in Cameroon with the aim of assessing once more if the lack of service delivery to local population is directly linked, among other things, to local government managers academic background everything being equal. In other words, the fact that a local manager does not have a Matric or a University degree or have a Matric or a University degree have a positive or a negative impact in the way he performs his duties. To achieve the above, an empirical study, both qualitative and quantitative, was conducted with a purposive sample of 300 peoples living in cities and villages under study in Cameroon. These areas are known of having mayors with no Matric and some with University degrees. All the mayors belong to the ruling Cameroon People Democratic Movement (CPDM) political party, with 15 in each group; ‘not having a Matric or a University degree’ and ‘having a Matric and University degrees’. A pilot study was conducted to validate the questions and eliminate those that are ambiguous and difficult to comprehend by the population of our targeted areas. The results found that 80 per cent of the population was happy with the quality of service delivery during the tenure of mayors with no university degree, while 35 per cent of the same population was unhappy with the level of service delivery during the tenure of mayors with a University degree. The study also found that mayors surrounded with qualified and experienced personnel perform well despite their lack of university qualification. The main limitation of the research is the understanding of service delivery by the population that differs from one person to another person