MEET TIKO MAYOR, HRH CHIEF DR. PETER IKOME MESOSO III: A PROPHET CELEBRATED AT HOME FOR POSITIVE REPORT CARD

Tiko — From 2km of tarred road to Clean City Champion: How Tiko is rewriting its story

Meet the man who inherited a council with just 2 kilometers of tarred road out of thirty-five.

Meet the leader who took the helm of a coastal municipality where mothers walked long distances to fetch water, where drainage collapsed with every rainy season, and where a mortuary sat in disrepair for years.

Meet the mayor who turned regional recognition into a national ambition, brought international partners to a Cameroonian council table, and has been voted South West’s Best Mayor three times by the very people he serves.

Meet HRH Chief Dr. Peter Ikome Mesoso III, Lord Mayor of Tiko Council.

THE STRUGLE

Tiko Council did not begin as a showcase of development. Created in 1974 as a rural council and upgraded to municipal status in 2004, Tiko carried a growing coastal population without matching infrastructure.

Diagnostic reports were sobering: only a fraction of roads were tarred, seasonal rains cut off neighborhoods, and drainage systems buckled. Water was the cruelest struggle. Across Mutengene, Tiko, Likomba, Dibanda, Ekande, and Lower Bokova, tens of thousands lived with chronic shortages. Women and children bore the burden, trekking daily for clean water.

An aging mortuary, overstretched health facilities, and a regional security crisis that strangled council revenue completed the picture awaiting whoever took office in 2020.

ENTER MAYOR MESOSO

Mayor Mesoso III did not promise miracles. His approach includes gradual but massive development, starting from villages and radiating outward. Built on realistic budgets, welfare, and partnerships with FEICOM, the Public Investment Budget, Germany’s KfW, and the Tiko diaspora.

THE RESULTS

In June 2024, the Minister of Decentralization commissioned the Mutengene–Tiko potable water project with 42 taps delivering clean water to over 80,000 resident For accessibility Pavement in Mutengene, farm-to-market roads to Missaka, and a permanent bridge over River Ndongo linking Likomba Integrated Health Centre to the national road. Health they say is wealth. To achieve this a new Integrated Health Centre in Missaka Village. The long-neglected Tiko mortuary renovated. To boost human resource in the municipality Mayor Mesoso took on education as a priority. The annual "Minimum Package" reached schools from GS Limbe Road Mutengene to GS Likomba, GS Mudeka, and GS Mondoni with classrooms, furniture, and equipment. In the domain of Civil status, the "My Name" birth registration campaign with UNICEF registered over 3,000 children by early 2025

Tiko’s proudest recent milestone: is the South West Region’s Clean City Champion 2026,earned through the "Clean Thursday" enforcement drive and a disciplined Hygiene and Sanitation department.

This builds on Tiko’s 4th place in the 2023 National Clean City Contest. For Tiko to emerge national champion, on July 20, 2026, Mayor Mesoso III chaired a strategic meeting to launch the field phase for the national title. His message: discipline, teamwork, and resident participation.

A TOWN ALIVE WITH FOOTBALL

Development is also measured in laughter on a football field. Home to Tiko United FC the first club west of the Mungo Bridge to win a national title Tiko’s inter-quarter tournaments continue to unite rival neighborhoods. It’s grassroots sport knitting the community closer, one match at a time.

A TOWN BUILT ON ITS INSTITUTIONS Education: G.B.H.S Tiko, G.B.H.S Mutengene, G.B.S.S Mudeka, G.T.H.S Ombe, G.T.C Tiko, Christ the King College, Regina Pacis, Imperial Academy, etc. Health: Tiko District/CDC Hospital and Tiko Cottage Hospital — once a teaching hospital for medical students. Economy: The Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC and port activities earned Tiko the nickname "The Gateway City."

THE IMPACT

80,000 people no longer measure mornings by distance to a tap. Villages once cut off in rainy season now have roads and a bridge, above 3,000 children now have birth certificates Regional Clean City title in the cabinet, national title in sight, three times voted South West’s Best Mayor

Mayor Mesoso III admits the work continues: budgets remain partially public, security challenges affect revenue, and this is a gradual project. But as he puts it "councils are judged not by the absence of struggle, but by what they build in spite of it"

This is Tiko — a gateway city writing its own chapter, *one tap, one road, one classroom, one clean street, and one football match at a time.