Labour Day boycott call:
Armed troops puncture alternative ceremony in Yaounde

As early as 4:30am Friday 1 May, armed police officers invaded the Mvog-Ada headquarters of the confederation of workers trade unions to fence-off workers arriving for an alternative Labour Day event summoned by Jean Mark Bikoko, leader of the union, to boycott official festivities at the 20th May Boulevard

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

An alternative Labour Day event announced for the  Mvog-Ada headquarters of the confederation of workers trade unions, CSP, was foiled by armed police officers on Friday 1 May.
   
Workers hearkening to the boycott call issued by Jean Mark Bikoko, president of the confederacy, against official festivities at the May 20 Boulevard, were expected to rally at the union’s headquarters on the morning of 1 May to stage a separate event.
   
But as early as 4:30am on Friday morning, the rendezvous ground was swarmed by intimidating police officers who kept any persons from getting anywhere near the venue, The Herald gathered.
   
Making it to the scene at about 7 am expecting to see a crowd of workers, Jean Mark Bikoko rather bumped into police who were busy pushing back workers from entering the place.
   
Bikoko said he identified about five senior police superintendents in the company of the DO of Yaounde V and dozens of well armed junior officers who had taken up post at the CSP headquarters.
   
“Our planned meeting was foiled by government agents as usual”, Bikoko said on a local radio adding that “this is what the law on trade unions prohibits; the interference by governments or employers in activities of workers syndicates.”
   
About a week to Labour Day, Jean Mark Bikoko granted a press conference and called on workers to boycott all Labour Day activities organised by government or employers.
   
“Workers should be allowed to organise activities to celebrate their day.” Bikoko said at the conference.
   
Talking on local radio stations in Yaounde at the weekend, Bikoko maintained that the plight of workers in Cameroon is a reality that government masters. Reason why authorities were so embarrassed by their boycott call and deployed security forces to prevent them from going public with their grievances.
   
Despite the stalled event at the CSP headquarters, the officially organised festivity at the May 20 Boulevard was heavily attended by public and private workers’ trade unions here. An enlivened march-pass by workers, speeches from two trade union leaders and Social Security minister, Robert Nkili, were the caps on the day.

 

 

 

I am innocent!
Biyiti tells Biya enemies want to destabilise regime

The minister of Communication addressed a petition letter recently to Paul Biya warning him of trouble makers especially his own enemies

By Clovis Atatah in Yaounde

Pierre Biyiti-bi-Essam, minister of communication, is using all means possible to disentangle himself from the cobweb of allegations of embezzlement of funds allocated for press coverage of the pope’s visit in March.
   
After several press interviews to exculpate himself, Biyiti has now written to Paul Biya in an apparent bid to persuade the president to halt the judicial investigations against him, La Nouvelle Expression newspaper has reported.
   
In an article published last Thursday, the newspaper, citing reliable sources, reported that Biyiti in the letter explained how he used the 770 million FCFA the state treasury disbursed for coverage of the pope’s visit and also suggested reasons why detractors are rubbing him in mud.
         
As he already explained in various press interviews, Biyiti admitted to the president that he deposited 130 million FCFA in his personal savings account at SGBC, but justified the decision on the grounds of safekeeping.
   
He told Biya that those who alerted judicial authorities alleging he swindled state funds are enemies of the president who want to destabilise the Yaounde regime.
   
Biyiti is quoted as also telling the president that he has been a very faithful servant whose loyalty is unwavering.
   
The communication minister’s reference to enemies of the president and his loyalty are seen as an attempt to appeal to Biya’s emotions.
   
Biya, according to press reports, ordered investigations into Biyiti’s use of money allocated for the pope’s visit when he received information suggesting that the management of the funds was not exactly transparent.
   
The agency for the investigation of financial crimes, ANIF, first probed Biyiti after a tip off before forwarding its findings to the minister of Justice who in turn informed President Biya of the allegations against the communication minister, reports said.
   
Judicial police investigators subsequently interrogated Biyiti and some senior staffers at the communication ministry. He was recently grilled by the chief prosecutor at the Yaounde High Court.
   
Last week, there was fresh focus on Biyiti’s management of the pope’s visit funds when declarations by a certain Joel Ewonde on Yaounde-based RTS radio cast doubts about the veracity of the Communication minister’s account on the hiring of giant screens.
   
Ewonde said the government hired two giant TV screens from him for 800,000 (eight hundred thousand) FCFA. The Communication minister has consistently said he hired giant TV screens from Gabon for 70 million FCFA.
   
Biyiti said he was not aware of any dealings between his ministry and Ewonde.

 

 

 

Fruit of assiduous service:
Dorothy Forbin installed technical adviser at MINESEC

The seasoned language instructor with a 30-year teaching career to her credit has moved another step up the administrative ladder in the Secondary Education ministry. She was installed Wednesday by minister Louis Bapes Bapes

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

At a time when appointments into top positions of Cameroon’s public service are believed to be on the basis of tribal and political inclinations, patronage, man-know-man syndrome and not by merit; Dorothy Forbin, new second technical adviser at the Secondary Education ministry  attributes her appointment to the top job to anything but these.
   
“I consider this appointment as recognition of [my] hard work by the hierarchy of my ministry” she said following her installation on Wednesday 29 April by Secondary Education minister, Louis Bapes Bapes.
   
“I seize this opportunity to thank the high authorities of our country who have placed this confidence in me and I want to assure them that I will do the best possible to make them proud of the confidence,” Dorothy Forbin said cheerfully.
   
Friends and colleagues at the installation averred that the new technical adviser number two is an embodiment of what a true servant at the service of education in Cameroon should be.
   
During her 30-year career, Dorothy Forbin has steadily risen from class tutor through other professional and administrative responsibilities to her present portfolio. Yet, many of her younger colleagues from CAMELTA (Cameroon English Language Teachers’ Association) who continue benefiting from her rich experience believe she is still on her way to the top.
   
Dorothy Forbin has tirelessly led the 2000-member CAMELTA over the years, as president with a tact typical of a fine professional.
   
But the respected professional is rather inspired by doing her work well in whatsoever capacity. “My pledge at this point in time is to be able to make our work more radiant, colourful, fulfilling and also completely enjoyable for the teachers,” she told The Herald newspaper, radiating the confidence and goodwill that earned her the new post.
   
At the installation, minister Louis Bapes Bapes enjoined Forbin to take up the new challenge boldly. The minister also installed a new technical adviser number three, inspectors and directors recently appointed at the Secondary Education ministry.

 

 

Peace returns to UB:
14 suspended student leaders readmitted

A session of the Buea University disciplinary board held on Friday 1 May and lifted the indefinite suspension slammed on 14 leaders of the UB Students’ Union and created two commissions to investigate the root cause of the conflict

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga and Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

Fourteen University of Buea student leaders who were indefinitely suspended by school authorities a fortnight ago have been readmitted into the institution.
   
The decision taken following a disciplinary council meeting chaired by Vice Chancellor Vincent Titanji on Friday 1 May, puts an end to a storm that has been building in Cameroon’s bastion of Anglo-Saxon education.

According to the resolution signed by Titanji, the 14 students will henceforth enjoy their full rights as students of the university. The decision equally restores the leaders into their respective posts at the University of Buea Students’ Union, UBSU.
   
Meanwhile, two commissions supported by the Buea chapter of the Trade Union of Higher Education teachers, SYNES, have been co-opted to probe into the grievances that caused the faction of UBSU leaders to go berserk.

The UB disciplinary gathering follows an earlier meeting to solve the matter held at the Higher Education ministry on Wednesday 28 April between the suspended student leaders, ministry officials and ADDEC, the students’ rights association. When the talks ended in a stalemate, causing the frustrated students to consider a hunger strike, UB authorities caved in to prevent the worst from happening.
   
As a result, instead of engaging a hunger strike Monday morning at the Higher Education ministry, Fred Woka Nguve, reinstated chairman of the UBSU council, is on a responsible mission to the University Games in Yaounde to cheer UB athletes to victory.
“I am at the University of Yaounde I campus on my first mission as UBSU chairman following my readmission,” an enlivened Fred Woka Nguve told The Herald newspaper yesterday.

Only a week ago, Fred Woka Nguve and his cohorts took to a bush hideout in Buea in fear of police arrest.
   
This new development supplants the atmosphere of uncertainty that lingered in the public about the fate of the peace that the institution now enjoys. UB is in record for producing two bloody student strikes in two consecutive calendar years – one in April/May 2005 and another in December 2006.

 

   

 

Issue 2211

Wednesday 29 April - Sunday 3 May 2009

Hostile business climate:
Corruption, red-tape scaring away investors from Cameroon - German ambassador

Karin Blumberger-Sauerteig says private German investment in Cameroon will remain insignificant until the country cleanses its corruption-tainted image and makes the business climate more friendly

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

Government’s ongoing anti-graft crackdown that has fetched lengthy jail terms for several Yaounde regime heavyweights does not seem to have convinced the international community that the incidence of corruption in Cameroon has significantly reduced.
   
Germany’s ambassador in Yaounde Karin Blumberger-Sauerteig has joined international watchdogs to point out that endemic corruption in the country is chasing away foreign investors.
   
Blumberger-Sauerteig said bluntly at a business forum in Douala where she was guest of honour on Monday 27 April that Cameroon remained a very corrupt country which desperately needed to cleanse her image.
   
She enjoined the government to accelerate the fight against corruption and pace it with real efforts to ventilate the business climate by eliminating administrative bottlenecks and providing incentives for foreign investors.
   
The German ambassador’s remarks followed observations at the forum, organised by the Douala-based Club of Friends of Germany, a caucus of former Cameroonian students in Germany, that German investors had shown scant interest in Cameroon.
   
Several speakers noted with regret that while German entrepreneurs count over a thousand investments across Africa, with hundreds of companies thriving in next-door Nigeria, private German ventures in Cameroon remain insignificant or are just non-existent.
   
One of the biggest private German investments in Cameroon, the brewery company SIAC-ISENBECK sold out and left the country in 2008, a few years after its German and Cameroonian shareholders staged a noisy ownership wrangle with the Cameroon government looking on indifferently. It is thought that the feud – partly blamed on graft from the Cameroon side – constituted an additional deterrent to German investors.
   
And so Blumberger-Sauerteig hardly minced her words as she suggested ways for Cameroon to attract German investment, pointing out that corruption was a major road block.
   
Members of Club of Friends of Germany however appealed to the diplomat to help them partner with German investors as well as ease conditions for Cameroonians schooling in her country.
   
Blumberger-Sauerteig’s participation at the Douala forum was her first official function in the economic capital.

 

Labour Day 2009:
Ama Muna to get mass support from Cameroon artistes

A meeting of representatives of musicians from various regions of the country has sworn allegiance to SOCAM, the new artistes’ rights body created by the Culture minister to replace CMC. And they are not leaving it there. They are planning to march on 1 May to show support for Ama Tutu Muna.

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

It is not everyday that public officials enjoy enthusiastic public support. This is the very rare honour that Ama Tutu Muna, Culture minister, will be getting on Labour Day.
   
Cameroonian artistes, in their hundreds, have decided to come out en masse on 1 May (Labour Day) to show support for Ama Muna who is currently embroiled in a war of nerves with agents of Cameroon Music Corporation, CMC, which she dissolved by ministerial fiat in 2008 and replaced with SOCAM.

The musicians made their plans known in a press release following a meeting of the National Coordination of Associations and Unions of Music Artists of Cameroon, CONASAM, on Friday 24 April.
   
The release sent to our newsroom is signed by 15 musicians, each representing artistes’ associations from different regions of the country.
   
Prominent among them are Atango Atango, Ateh Bazore, Agbor Marts and Tchaya Stoppeur. In their statement, the artistes out  “recognise SOCAM as the sole authors’ rights society authorised to manage, collect and distribute royalties”.
   
Apart from this public solidarity act, artistes have been commenting openly on private radio talk shows in the country in support of Muna and SOCAM.
 
 The unalloyed support declared for Ama Muna by the artistes comes against the backdrop of a legal battle fuelled by embittered CMC officials. Although the CMC mandate which legally expired in September 2008 has since not been renewed, Sam Mbende, its board chair, took the matter to the Supreme Court and got a stay-of-execution of the minister’s decision.
     
But the minister has repeated in interviews to state media that the authority to create an artistes’ rights organisation rests on the minister, not with the court.

On Monday 27 April, the Culture ministry through the Committee for the Collective Management of Authors’ Rights (CPMC) issued a warning to the public to pay artistes’ royalties only to SOCAM and no other organisation or risk paying twice. (See page 8).
   
“He who pays unwisely shall pay doubly,” the release signed by CPMC head, Adolphe Minkoa She, cautions.
   
In a separate notice from CPMC, 44.5 million FCFA (also see page 8) has been allocated to SOCAM for redistribution.
   
Reports reaching us suggest that the payment may be effected before Friday. If SOCAM proceeds with the distribution, it will be the third since its coming into being about a year ago.

 

 

More implicating evidence:
Foreign consultants, German equipment suppliers further nail Biyiti-bi-Essam

Beyond the established fact that the Communication minister paid public money into his private SGBC account, more incriminating information has emerged. Biyiti’s case began when unpaid consultants and German suppliers approached the presidency for payment when, in fact, money had been given to the minister

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga in Yaounde

Communication minister, Biyiti-bi-Essam who is under investigation over the use of money for press coverage of the Pope’s visit appears to be in more problems than has been given to know.
   
So far, the minister’s main charge is about 130 million FCFA that he put in his private account at SBGC bank in two instalments of 70 million and 60 million respectively on 27 February and 10 March 2009. But more evidence has emerged, further implicating the minister.
   
The Herald has learned from dependable sources inside the government that Biyiti-bi-Essam failed to pay some foreign communication consultants for the government, and also German suppliers of giant television screens, both of which payments were included in the 770 million allocation entrusted to him.
   
Biyiti’s failure to pay the bills came to the open when a representative of the foreign communication consultants arrived in Yaounde to claim their payment.
   
In the same way, the suppliers of ten giant television screens ordered by the presidency from Germany wrote to the presidency demanding payment.
   
This caused much embarrassment to the presidency which had made provision for the two payments in the allocation to the minister.
   
The Herald sources pointed out that President Paul Biya was so embarrassed that he resolved that the minister should face the music.
   
Our sources say the president called from abroad and directed Amadou Ali, who manages corruption files, to personally bring Biyiti-bi-Essam to book. It is now understood that all of the ongoing investigations at the judicial police are done under the supervision of the Justice minister.
   
The national agency for the investigation of financial misappropriation, ANIF, The Herald also gathered, were the first to interrogate the minister. It is they who established that the minister put some of the money in his private account.
   
Biyiti-bi-Essam has in fact admitted in public statements that he put some of the money in his personal account at  SGBC bank but that he did so for safe keeping and had no intention to embezzle it.
   
The Herald sources say that president Paul Biya is very concerned about the matter not just because the integrity of the presidency was put to question as a result of Biyiti’s failure to pay the consultants and suppliers, but also because this act was done by a government minister in office, tarnishing the image of government abroad.
   
The minister was heard on Thursday from 6pm to past 9pm at the state counsel’s office in the Mfoundi High Court.
   
The speed with which the file is being handled has generated speculation in Yaounde that the minister might be dismissed from government to permit further judicial action.
   
This is reminiscent of former Water and Energy minister, Alphonse Siyam Siwe, who was removed from office in 2006 and arrested immediately on  the doorstep of his office. By the next day, Siyam Siwe was already held in prison detention.

 

Crisis at Buea University:
Suspended student leaders on the run from intimidating police

Fred Woka Nguve, chairman of the Student Council of the University of Buea Students’ Union, UBSU, and fifteen other student leaders who escaped police brutalisation on campus last Friday have taken to a bush hideout in fear of arrest

By Bainkong Godlove in Yaounde

An undisclosed bush in Buea is the makeshift refuge of a band of student leaders of the University of Buea Students’ Union, UBSU, who narrowly escaped police arrest and brutalisation on Friday 24 April while staging a peaceful demonstration on campus against their indefinite suspension from the university by school authorities recently.
   
Fred Woka Nguve, chairman of the council and leader of the aborted strike movement spoke to The Herald yesterday afternoon from a bush hideout he refused to identify.
   
In the telephone conversation, the UBSU council chair said he and his cohorts went into hiding after armed security men drove into the university campus on Friday and arrested three of their colleagues participating in the protest.
   
“They came into campus in seven GMI [Mobile Intervention unit] trucks, chased us out of campus and finally arrested three students whom they brutalised, masked, handcuffed and took away to detention,” Nguve explained.
   
Although they did not initially know where their mates were taken to, Nguve confirmed, by the time we went to press yesterday, that the three were still detained at the Regional police headquarters in Buea.
   
Also contacted yesterday for a reaction to the matter at the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Vincent Titanji, said calm reigns on the university premises and it would be a “gross exaggeration to say the campus is militarised.” But he refused to comment further.
   
As life remains unbearable for Nguve and his supporters, the University of Buea Chapter of SYNES, the National Union of Teachers of Higher Education, has called on Titanji to suspend the conflicting arms of UBSU at the centre of the strike, and setup a committee to probe into the cause of the matter. Their memorandum to the vice chancellor issued on Friday and signed by Michael Yanou and James Abangma, respectively president and vice president; implores the “University Administration [to] exercise maximum restraint with regards to all purposed disciplinary action against any group of students.”
   
The conciliatory SYNES memo has warmed the hearts of the runaway student leaders who decry the absence of dialogue in the matter.

Issue 2209

Friday 24 - Sunday 26 April 2009

 

US health summit:
Chantal Biya grabs celebrity attention in Hollywood heartland

With attention-grabbing picks from her wardrobe, Cameroon’s ever jovial First Lady virtually eclipsed the subject of discussion at an AIDS conference in Los Angeles attended Tuesday and Wednesday by Hollywood stars, the wife of the British PM and other African First Ladies

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga in Yaounde

President Paul Biya’s hearty wife went to Los Angeles for an international AIDS campaign but was instantly turned into a fashion celebrity right in the heart of Hollywood.
   
With bouffant hair and a colourfully patterned dress bearing a purple bow and complementary purple high-heeled shoes and handbag, Chantal Biya stole the show from major speakers at the First Ladies’ conference that held on Tuesday and Wednesday.
   
Even Sarah Brown, the wife of the British Prime minister who was invited to deliver the keynote address at the summit did not get the same attention Chantal Biya received. Her outfit and hairdo looked self-effacing in the presence of Chantal Biya who sat next to her.
   
Chantal Biya’s dressing and hairdo were so peculiar and gorgeous that journalists and some participants were distracted from the main issue of the day.
   
Later during the summit, paparazzi went wild shooting pictures when Paris Hilton, reputable fashion model, made the best of an opportunity to share in Chantal Biya’s glamour during a swish dinner at a Beverly Hills hotel.
   
Despite the superfluous fashion swagger at the event, the conference was neither about beauty pageants nor was Chantal Biya the only African First Lady attending the summit.
   
The Los Angeles summit that held from 21-22 April is the first ever on HIV/AIDS grouping 22 African First Ladies and US stars to garner support for victims of the disease in the continent.
   
Organised by the US-based Doctors for Africa with the blessing of Maria Shriver, wife of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the participation of African First Ladies was secured through a July 2008 partnership between the US NGO and the African Synergy against HIV/AIDS and Suffering founded by Chantal Biya.
   
The wives of the presidents of Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Angola, Cape Verde and a host of others attended the summit. Showbiz icons like Sharon Stone, Jessica Alba and Naomi Campbell were also present.
   
The World Health Organisation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, international bodies supporting the fight against the AIDS pandemic were present.
   
These organisations facilitated negotiations for new partnerships for the fight against the pandemic in Africa.
   
During the summit, Chantal Biya, together with the first ladies of Nigeria and Kenya, secured arrangements for teams of experts to come to their countries to examine their AIDS control programmes and propose amends if necessary.

 

 

Unrest in Wum:
Motorbike riders go wild after policeman pumps bullets into colleague

The cop reportedly turned his gun on the commercial motorbike rider who refused to give him bribe. Motorbike riders went on the rampage after the incident, vandalising the Wum DO’s car and burning a police service motorcycle

By Teche Nyamusa in Bamenda

Commercial motorbike riders in Wum, North West region, seethed with anger Tuesday after a traffic policeman on duty sprayed bullets into one of their colleagues.
   
Reports from Wum said the motorbike riders went on the rampage on learning of the incident, vandalizing the car of the town’s DO and storming the police station where they set the policeman’s service motorcycle ablaze.
   
Hassan Bohjum, 24, the motorbike rider who was shot by the policeman, was however still alive at press time and was reportedly in a stable condition. Medics said he was lucky that all the four bullets went into his leg.
   
Shortly after the incident, the injured motorbike rider was rushed to the Wum District Hospital where he spent the night Tuesday before being transferred to the intensive care unit of the Bamenda General Hospital on Wednesday.
   
Reports say the policeman, whose name we did not get, pulled out his gun and shot Hassan at a checkpoint at Nikon in Wum following a scuffle with the commercial motorbike rider who apparently did not have papers to ply his trade. The policeman is said to have demanded a bribe of 6000 FCFA which Hassan refused to pay.
   
A quarrel ensued which soon degenerated into a fight during which the policeman shot the motorbike rider, witnesses said.
   
Hassan’s brother, Adamou Saleh, a motorbike rider himself, who witnessed the incident, confirmed this version of events to The Herald at the Bamenda General Hospital.
   
Menchum SDO, Mamudou Haman, and parliamentarian, Wallang Richard, reportedly engaged in peace talks with commercial motorbike riders who went on a frenzy of destruction after the incident.
   
Wallang reportedly donated 20,000 FCFA to Hassan’s family to begin medical treatment while the SDO promised to foot the rest of the injured motorbike rider’s hospital bills.
   
These goodwill gestures, witnesses said, soothed the angry motorbike riders and calm returned to the streets of Wum.
   
It is not clear whether the policeman is still in Wum, but motorbike riders say he has since not been seen in public.
   
The Herald tried unsuccessfully to get the SDO of Menchum on the phone to comment on the incident.
   
Elsewhere in Wum, tension has mounted between farmers and grazers after cattle went on a feeding spree in farms, with many crops destroyed in the process.

Farmers reportedly took to the streets in protest and threatened to cause havoc if the authorities did not call the grazers to order.
   
They also resolved to take the matter to the governor of the North West, Abakar Ahamat, who incidentally was in Wum chairing a security meeting.

 

 

Silencing dissent:
Gov’t arrests 70 Anglophone separatists over UN boundary mission

Amidst raging debate over the real mission of a UN boundary demarcation team currently in the North West, police Tuesday arrested about 70 Anglophone nationalists who were holding a meeting. SCNC activists believe the UN team will validate their contention that Anglophone Cameroon is a separate geo-political entity from the French-speaking part of the country

By Teche Nyamusa in Bamenda

About 70 Anglophone separatists meeting in Bamenda Wednesday to discuss the implications of a UN boundary mission that is currently in the North West region were arrested and detained.
   
Police said the activists, who were attending a seminar organised by a little known Anglophone separatist organisation calling itself UNO-State of Cameroon, were holding an illegal meeting.
   
All of the arrested activists, including the leader of UNO-State of Cameroon, Ateh Chia, were subsequently detained at judicial police station in Bamenda.
   
The arrests were made amidst raging debate in Bamenda over the real mission of a UN boundary demarcation team, which reportedly arrived in the North West on 29 March.
North West authorities say the over 10-person UN team is in Cameroon to help in the demarcation of the border between Cameroon and Nigeria following the ruling of the International Court of Justice in 2002 on the border dispute between the two countries.

But Anglophone separatists insist one of the missions of the team is to demarcate the boundary between the ex-British British Southern Cameroons and the Francophone section of Cameroon.

Speaking on CRTV radio 20 April, North West governor, Abakar Ahamat, reiterated that the team was in the region to demarcate the Cameroon/Nigeria border and urged the population to collaborate with them when necessary.

Abakar Ahamat disclosed that the UN team, that is crisscrossing the area in big cars and helicopters, will be in the North West until next month.

SCNC vice chair, Nfor Ngala Nfor, and UNO-State of Cameroon’s Ateh Chia, however told this reporter that the team has been sent to demarcate the boundaries separating three countries at independence – La République du Cameroun, Nigeria and ex-British Southern Cameroons.

They said they believed UN team had the original maps at independence and could not be fooled by anybody.
   
When asked by this reporter about their real mission, a spokesperson for the UN team directed all enquiries to the governor of the North West.
   
Anglophone separatists argued that the arrest of dozens of activists was an indication that government was panicky over the UN boundary demarcation mission. But administration officials who spoke to this newspaper dismissed the arguments by the Anglophone separatists as a big joke.
   
The Herald learnt that about 35 detained separatists were released on Wednesday, apparently without charge. About as many are still being held, including UNO-State of Cameroon’s leader Ateh Chia.

 

 

Organisation of motorbike taxi sector:
SDF chief incites resistance to gov’t order!

Jean Michel Nintcheu, Littoral SDF chairman has urged the riders to vibrantly defend their interests amid plans by authorities to chase them away from the city center

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

The fire-spitting Littoral SDF chairman and parliamentarian, Jean Michel Nitcheu, has enjoined motorbike taxi riders in Douala to vigorously oppose plans by the administration to confine them to the city’s periphery and suburbia.
   
Nintcheu’s “Call to Resistance” is contained in a memo issued this week and currently spreading here like a bush fire. Unanimously embraced by the riders, it states that the plan is economically absurd, morally indecent and socially irresponsible.
   
Last 31 December, PM Ephraim Inoni obliged the riders (benskins) to comply with new requirements regulating the activity within six months. Among others, they must be aged above 18, possess drivers’ licenses, helmets, insurance and pay several taxes before 1 July. But many are complaining of huge costs involved in procuring the documents.
   
Albeit the extensive grumbling; authorities here are taking advantage of the decree to ban the generally disorderly activity from the city center. They are delimiting it to laidback neighbourhoods. Government Delegate, Fritz Ntone Ntone said the City Council and its partner commuter bus service SOCATUR will fill the gap with 65 new buses that were cleared from the Douala port earlier this week.
   
But Nintcheu warns it is paradoxical for the authorities to raise the operational costs for the riders and then trim their scope of activity. “The Littoral SDF calls on the benskin riders to defend their interests and resist this anti-social decision which will stir unnecessary discontent at this delicate moment in the life of the nation,” the release notes.
   
The memo advises the authorities to immediately halt the plan which its author deems “suicidal” and likely to generate instability and widespread criminality in Douala. Across Douala, the scooter taxi riders, who command a legendary reputation for their solidarity, opposition inclination and unfriendliness towards the authorities, are unanimously acclaiming the MP.
   
“Nitcheu has only reiterated the obvious. The authorities know that their plan is unfair and that is why they are flooding the city with elements of the dreaded rapid intervention battalion, BIR to shoot at us. But we will resist them when the time comes,” Ahmadou Soule, a rider swore.
   
The authorities are yet to formally react to the SDF move which bears threats of an imminent standoff.

 

 

 

Issue 2208

Wednesday 22 - Thursday 23 April 2009

Pope’s visit:
Biyiti-bi-Essam in trouble over use of press money!

French radio RFI yesterday re-echoed reports in local tabloids that on the orders of President Biya, the Communication minister and some senior officials in his ministry have since last week been answering questions at the judicial police over the use of 770 million FCFA allocated by the state for press coverage of the Pope’s visit last month

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

One month after Pope Benedict XVI’s four-day sojourn in Cameroon, Communication minister Jean Pierre Biyiti-bi-Essam is living a nightmare because of that visit.
   
Since last week, investigators at the judicial police headquarters in Yaounde have been questioning Biyiti-bi-Essam and several senior staffers at the Communication ministry over the use of 770 million FCFA allocated by the state for media coverage during the pope’s visit last month.
   
French radio RFI Tuesday re-echoed newspaper reports that the minister is in serious trouble over the use of that money, as judicial police investigators suspect that some of the money was diverted into personal pockets.
   
RFI reported that the probe has been ordered by President Paul Biya who wants a detailed account on how the money was used.
   
Reports say the president’s attention was drawn to the matter following press reports that the sum of 130 million FCFA was deposited in Biyiti’s private account at SGBC Bank here, during the period of the pope’s visit.
   
The money, the reports added, was deposited by the director of administration and finance at the Communication ministry, Bella Chantal Ndzie, who is also being questioned alongside her boss.
   
Biyiti is quoted as saying that he put the money in his private account for safe-keeping. But newspapers quoted unnamed officials at MINCOM as saying that procedure was irregular and smacks of murky financial transactions.
   
Questions have also been raised on some of Biyiti’s alleged expenses, such as the hiring of three giant TV screens for 70 million FCFA and a press dinner that cost several dozen million FCFA.
   
It is expected that the directors of CRTV, SOPECAM and CAMTEL, who are supposed to have received money from Biyiti, will also be questioned to confirm that the payments were actually made.
   
Commentators here say if the judicial police find anomalies in Biyiti’s handling of the money, he may be in a big mess as President Biya is personally interested in the file.

 

Lewoh health centre upgrading:
LECUDEM-USA announces fundraising in June

The association’s executive headed by Michael Fondungallah says they plan to raise about 23,750,000 FCFA during the event to take place in Atlanta, Georgia from 26-28 June 2009

 By Asonglefac Nkemleke, USA

The Lewoh Cultural and Development Meeting in the United States (LECUDEM-USA) will organise a grand fundraising event in Atlanta, Georgia in June 2009 to upgrade the Lewoh Health Center at Anya in the South West region.

The executive of LECUDEM-USA led by its president, Michael Fondungallah, said they plan to raise $50,000 (about 23,750,000 FCFA) during the event to hold from 26-28 June. The non-profit association, he added, had already contributed $10,000 (about 4,750,000 FCFA).
   
The choice of Atlanta to host the fundraiser was influenced by the fact that the association wants to expand its activities to the South of the US.
   
Fondungallah who is an Attorney in Minnesota disclosed that the association’s financial contribution was intended to complement the $50,000 the Cameroon government earmarked in this year’s budget for the modernisation of the Lewoh Health Center. He did not say when work on the project will start, but said government’s allocation was already available at divisional level in Menji awaiting the award of a contract.

Upon completion, LECUDEM-USA president intimated, the heath centre will get the status of a divisional hospital comprising a neonatal ward, an obstetric and gynaecology ward, an emergency and trauma unit, and an infectious disease unit.
   
Briefing the LECUDEM-USA bureau members last Sunday on his trip to Cameroon, Fondungallah averred that he visited Anya (Lewoh), Yaounde, and Limbe where he held working sessions with staff of the health center, and home-based members and executives of the mother branch of LECUDEM on the needs of the Lewoh health unit. He said he equally discussed with the Lewoh traditional Council before meeting with His Majesty Fotabong Lekelefac I, the Atemangwat of Lewoh and the association’s international relations officer Leke Tambo (HRH Fuafe’eh).
   
He noted that the absence of a resident medical officer at the facility was a major problem. To have knowledge of the other needs of the health center, Michael Fondungallah discussed with the medical staff.
   
LECUDEM-U.S.A has among other things built a portable water project in the Fondom, a trans-Lewoh road that needs funding to surface and build bridges and culverts, and supported educational projects.
   
Last April the association was launched in mid-west branch in Minniapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Branches also exist in New York and Washington, D.C.

 

 

After embarrassing security failures:
Biya entrusts key jobs to Anglophone officers

Following disgraceful attacks on public buildings, last year’s bank raid in Limbe and incessant incursions by Niger Delta rebels in Bakassi, the president has turned to Anglophone army officers for help. Col. Daniel Njock Elokobi will now coordinate Gendarmerie operations while Lt. Col. Benedict Ayukegba will lead the new military mission in Bakassi

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

President Paul Biya has now turned to fine Anglophone army officers for solutions to smouldering security problems facing the country.
   
After embarrassing bashing of army units in Bakassi by Niger Delta rebels in the past two years, the humiliating bank raid in Limbe last year and nocturnal attacks on public buildings in Yaounde and the upsurge in highway robbery and hostage taking, the president has turned to Anglophone soldiers to secure the country.
   
Last Thursday, Biya appointed Lt. Col. Benedict Ayukegba to command all military operations in Bakassi and Col. Daniel Njock Elokobi to direct all field operations at the National Gendarmerie as director of Employment and Structures.
   
Lt. Col. Ayukegba, it is expected, will lead the Rapid Intervention Unit, BIR, now manning the Bakassi peninsula, to crush the marauding rebels and bring honour to the country.
   
Other anglophones appointed to strategic posts include Ekongwesse Divine Nnoko, legion commander of North region, Mbu Atang Peter, legion commander Extreme North and Fondzenyuy Roland, chief of gendarmerie Etat-Major.
   
At the installation of Col. Elokobi Monday at the Gendarmerie headquarters, senior officers present saluted his fidelity and heroism throughout his military career.              Just fresh from a job as legion commander in the East region where he kept highway robbery and cross border crimes in check, the valiant warrior is expected to salvage the crumbling internal security machinery in the country.
   
A close look at the series of appointments into the army suggests that Anglophones are increasingly being entrusted jobs at all levels of the military.
   
Such confidence bestowed on Anglophone servicemen by the president is however not new. President Paul Biya’s private presidential security is headed by an Anglophone. General Ivo Yenwo, director of presidential security, is the man who is known to have personally whisked the president to safety during the 6 April 1984 failed coup.

 

 

Appointments in gendarmerie:
Bokam vindicates press over reports of degenerating security

Installing newly appointed officials Monday, the secretary of state for Defence in charge of the Gendarmerie called on them to fight rising indiscipline in the corps that has created weaknesses in gendarmerie operations permitting journalists to pick out lapses in the country’s security

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

Jean Baptiste Bokam, secretary of state for Defence in charge of the Gendarmerie has vindicated the press for reports that there is a security breakdown in the country.
   
Presiding over a ceremony to commission newly appointed officials of the gendarmerie Monday at the gendarmerie college, Camp Yayap, Bokam exhorted them to work to bring an end to lapses in security operations that pushed the press to report that the gendarmerie was dying progressively and losing its place as an elite security force.
   
The secretary of state acknowledged that gendarmerie security operations in the recent past witnessed lapses. He noted that the cause of the weakness was indiscipline and called for a new dynamics in the corps.
   
“Indiscipline is a gangrene that has affected all levels of the gendarmerie corps,” Baptiste Bokam said. He cited some forms of indiscipline like irregular absence from the work place, dereliction of duty, poor handling of arms entrusted to personnel, desertion of service, poor hygiene and sanitation at work environments, etc.
   
“You must do everything to eradicate indiscipline in all its forms,” Bokam charged the new officials.
   
The new officials included technical advisers, inspectors of services, directors and research officers appointed by a presidential decree on Thursday  16 April.
   
One of the officials we talked to, Daniel Njock Elokobi, the new director of employment and structures, thanked the head of state for renewed confidence and promised to do everything to live up to the tasks in his new portfolio.

 

 

 

 

Issue 2207

Monday 20 - Tuesday 21 April 2009

Brewing agitation:
Kribi natives vow to claim 70% of port jobs

Claiming that they gained little or nothing from the Chad-Cameroon pipeline whose terminal is in Kribi, the natives of the seaside resort now appear resolved to have at least 70 percent of jobs when the Kribi seaport development begins later this year.

By Ntaryike Divine Jr. in Douala

The Batanga natives of Kribi are a gentle people. They are not given to agitation or violence. But what appears to be developing in Kribi now suggests that they might go all the way if it comes to that.
   
They appear determined that having lost out on jobs and other advantages from the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project, whose terminal is in Kribi, they will not suffer the same misfortune with the seaport development underway.
   
Several campaigns seem to be on the go, mobilising the people to rise up like one man and maintain that the natives of Kribi should have at least 70 percent of jobs, at all levels, deriving from the Kribi seaport project which begins this year.
   
A common initiative group claiming to be fighting for the rights of the Kribi people is conducting their own campaign with the slogan ‘Remember’.
   
‘Remember’ appeals to sad memories of lost opportunities with the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project.
The Kribi people were shocked to realise that while they were expecting jobs and other advantages to come to them, they were instead sidelined. This explains why they are now determined to be aggressive in demanding that opportunities in the seaport project be given to them.
   
The campaign so far does not say what they will do should they not be satisfied.
   
Among the many sad stories told about the pipeline project, which left them out, is the experience of many chiefs who were paid the paltry sum of 3,000 FCFA per month while the pipeline was under construction. They believed that with the end of the work, they would receive something more substantial. But that never came.
   
The Kribi seaport  development project estimated at 282 billion FCFA will begin in December 2009. The project is expected to last for four years.

 

 

Corruption in SDF!
SDF deputy regrets extensive tribalism in party

Serge Simon Noumba told a press conference in Bafoussam last week that tribalism in SDF party leadership is about to destroy the leading opposition force in the country

By Tendong David in Bafoussam

Talk about corruption, fraud, tribalism and nepotism has always centred on the ruling CPDM regime. Rarely has the torchlight been pointed at opposition parties. But here comes an SDF parliamentarian who does just this about his own party.
   
Serge Simon Noumba, SDF parliamentarian for Mifi division in the West region, organised a press conference last week specifically to vomit his disgust on the many unacceptable practices within the SDF party.
   
The deputy told journalists in Bafoussam that corruption is pronounced in the party. He particularly expressed regret that tribalism in the party leadership has destroyed the party, placing it at the brink of moral and political collapse.
   
To buttress his argument, Noumba cited the fact that the national chairman of the party and the secretary general come from the same subdivision, adding that most SDF MPs in the National Assembly bureau hail from the North West.
   
Questioned on a controversy caused by his ambition to stand as SDF presidential candidate in the 2011 elections, Noumba said he has openly told Fru Ndi that if the party refuses to field him as candidate then he will consider vying on an independent ticket. The honourable gentleman says he wants an opportunity to rule the country with transparency.
   
On the pervading division within the ranks of the SDF in his Mifi constituency, Noumba said he will only collaborate with militants who regard him as MP and are willing to work for the good of the party.       
   
He claims, however, to enjoy a good working relationship with SDF elected representatives in the constituency.
   

 

Pentecostal priest poised to challenge Biya in 2011

Justin Betebe has been chosen amid controversy to bear the flag of the little-known RCP party at the anticipated 2011 presidential poll

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

Eyebe Justin Betebe has been folding sleeves since the weekend to challenge incumbent Paul Biya at the 2011 presidential poll. He was designated candidate of the little-known Douala-based RCP [Cameroonian Rally for Progress] party at its first-ever extraordinary congress held here at the weekend.
   
The 18 April RCP convention held at New Bell nonetheless instigated widespread disagreement among some militants. Many believed the party officials bent a number of rules and even bruised the rights of some estranged officials to clear hurdles barring the prelate’s nomination.
   
Guillaume Manda Mvondo, hitherto RCP secretary general was expelled over claims of insubordination. He was replaced by Mgr Betebe, a pentecostal church leader who thus gained eligibility as the party’s presidential candidate. “And they stand here to talk about democracy? It is all a masquerade and to think that a clergyman is involved makes it even more scandalous,” an irate supporter of the excluded Manga Mvondo verbally fumed.
   
Emilienne Mbassa, hitherto serving as RCP coordinator in Kumba was also accused of gross misconduct and shown the door.
   
Despite the overt criticism, however, Mgr Betebe unveiled a catalogue of antidotes to heal Cameroon of its several ills. He claimed to possess the remedy against prevalent poverty, corruption, moral decadence and tribalism, etc, as well as divulged a blueprint he said would eventually ensure prosperity for all and sundry Cameroonians.
   
Meantime, Pierre Monthé, the party’s national president with a five mandate renewable once, urged militants to unleash unconditional support for Mgr Betebe. Among others, he said the party will henceforth strive to remodel the country’s economic policies.
   
He seized the occasion to heap blame at the International Monetary Fund for “stalling growth of the Cameroon economy through badly-tailored reforms programs which only brought more poverty and underdevelopment.” He preached the need for team spirit, and called on the RCP militants to become the flagbearers of democracy and ideological debate.
   
It was noting that the RCP was formally known as the AJC or Youth Action for Change. Attendees at the congress included representatives from the SDF and the UDC among others.

 

 

Seasoned gynaecologist Ngassa Pius laid to final rest

The accomplished gynaecologist was buried at his family home in Yaounde after a befitting funeral attended by university colleagues, students and health professionals.

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

A choir sang a hymn and mourners sobbed as the casket bearing the remains of Pius Chanchu Ngassa was lowered into a crypt at his Yaounde family residence last Saturday; ending the funeral caravan bidding farewell to one of Cameroon’s finest gynaecologists.
   
The day before, colleagues at the University Teaching Hospital, CHU, where he consulted until the day before his death, paid tribute to the fallen professor who served humanity in a medical career.
   
A mass said at the esplanade of CHU was marked by a heart-rending testimony from Njitoyap Ndam, director of the Yaounde General Hospital where Ngassa died on Saturday 14 March. Njitoyap told mourners that he was still reeling from the shock which seized him with news that Ngassa, whom he saw, hale and hearty, the day before; had died.
   
Maurice Nkam, director of CHU described Ngassa as an example of a hard working physician the younger generation should emulate.
   
On behalf of Gynaecologists, Mbu Robinson saluted the contribution Ngassa had made in the training of gynaecologists and the upkeep of the specialty in Cameroon.
   
Pius Ngassa Junior, son of the deceased, described the fallen hero as a humble and dedicated father who offered his children the best he could afford.
   
After the 90-minute mass, the funeral procession comprising university lecturers in academic robes left for Amphitheatre 700 on the Yaounde I University campus where the corpse was laid-in-state.
   
Lecturers at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, where Ngassa taught Gynaecology, filed past the coffin paying their last respect to their colleague. Students of the institution also performed the ritual in homage to their master.
   
According to tributes paid by mourners, Pius Ngassa had a full working day on the day preceding his death. He did his clinical rounds and consulted patients. He returned home hale and hearty that Friday evening, hoping to keep appointments with pregnant women the Monday after.  But he suffered a malaise the next day and died a few hours after at the Yaounde General Hospital.
   
Ngassa graduated from Sasse College in the sixties and moved to Nigeria where he later read Medicine at Lagos University. He died at 62.

 

 

Gov’t works towards better planned urban centres

A three-day workshop in Yaounde trained council authorities and actors in the domain of town planning and on how to achieve this goal

By Takang Bisong in Yaounde

In recent years, authorities have been tearing town shanty towns and roadside eyesores in Cameroon’s major cities because for decades, settlements were allowed to develop in elaborate chaos.
   
Government now wants to break this vicious circle of build-and-destroy, which causes enormous economic losses and hardship, by encouraging the proper planning of urban centres in the country.
   
One of the measures government has taken is initiating a three-day workshop in Yaounde; attended by mayors, urban planners and competent staff of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, on long-term urban planning.
   
During the workshop which began on 14 April and organised by FEICOM, the council support fund, participants were enlightened on the strategies and methodology of drawing up development plans that will ensure order and development.
   
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Emmanuel Edou, minister delegate in charge of local councils at the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, urged participants to put the knowledge acquired to practical use.
   
He said local council authorities should ensure that development plans include pressing needs of the people like roads, electricity, hospitals, pipe borne water, well-planned streets and properly constructed houses.
   
Edou said the seminar was very timely given that it was organised when more power has been devolved to local authorities and shortly after the creation of new councils in the country and the appointment of government delegates.

 

 

 

 

Issue 2206

Friday 17 - Sunday 19 April 2009

Caught up in corruption dragnet:
Biya’s former US envoy lured home to Kondengui prison

Ambassador Mendouga is accused of misappropriating over 700 million FCFA while serving in Washington. Prosecutors say he swindled the money while acting on behalf of the government in the purchase of a presidential jet

Former Cameroon ambassador to the US Jerome Mendouga went to the Yaounde state prosecutor’s office Wednesday as a witness in the investigation over the corruption tainted purchase of a presidential jet in 2004 christened the Albatross but ended up at the Kondengui prison as a pre-trial detainee.
   
Mendouga who was impeccably dressed in leather shoes, a spotless white shirt and suit, was transferred to the Kondengui prison after several hours at the Yaounde court complex, better known in French as parquet, where he initially went to testify against Jean Marie Atangana Mebara,  the ex-SG at the presidency who has been in pre-trial detention for eight months now over the Albatross embezzlement scandal.

The Herald learnt on Wednesday that Mendouga was at the parquet as a witness, which was unusual considering that sources had hinted us months ago that the ex-ambassador was actively being searched by Interpol in relation to the Albatross investigation when he failed to return to Cameroon after his sacking last year.
   
Newspapers even suggested that Mendouga had gone into hiding to avoid facing the law back home.
   
It therefore came as no surprise when Mutations newspaper reported Thursday that he had been consigned to the Kondengui prison as a key suspect in the Albatross embezzlement scandal.
   
We have confirmed from prison sources that the former ambassador is currently at the VIP quarters at Kondengui prison, the current abode of several regime heavyweights either detained or convicted on corruption charges.
   
It appears authorities tricked Mendouga into believing that he was a witness in the Albatross affair in order to encourage him to cooperate with the investigation, while his pre-trial detention order as a corruption suspect was already prepared.
   
Sources said during his time in Washington, Mendouga was given various assignments in relation to the purchase of the presidential plane and was entrusted with certain delicate financial transactions.
   
It is during these transactions, court sources say, that prosecutors believe he diverted about 720 million FCFA of public money.
   
The investigating judge at the Mfoundi High Court, we learnt, officially indicted Mendouga for misappropriation on Wednesday afternoon and ordered his pre-trial detention at the same time.
   
Mendouga, court sources said, had already been interrogated twice since his return to Cameroon.
   
Judicial sources say several former and current regime barons are also implicated in the Albatross scandal.

 

Marafa receives Hogbe Nlend:
Kodock warns: I’m sole owner, leader of UPC

Irritated by claims that the UPC is splintered, after faction leader Hogbe Nlend visited the MINATD boss, Kodock said he holds the copyright document of the party

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

Former minister of state and UPC secretary general Augustin Frederick Kodock has angrily dismissed the widely held view that the party is in factions.
   
“You people keep annoying me,” Kodock complained when journalists insisted at a UPC 61st anniversary press conference in Yaounde on 10 April that the party was in factions. “I have always said that there is no such thing as UPC Kodock, UPC Hogbe Nlend, etc. The only UPC is the one holding this anniversary celebration here.”
   
Kodock said he is the sole leader of the UPC and virtual proprietor of the party because he registered it with the African Intellectual Property Rights Organisation. The UPC SG says MINADT boss Marafa Yaya had acknowledged him as the sole UPC leader in a decision in 2004. Marafa by that decision barred Hogbe Nlend from holding a UPC conference in Yaounde as he had no legality to do so.
   
Reminded that former presidential candidate, ex-government minister and rival UPC faction leader Henri Hogbe Nlend was granted audience by the minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, the previous day, Kodock said he did not know in what capacity the said persons went to see the minister as he had not authorised any person to represent the party anywhere.

“I am the only person who registered the UPC party. I don’t know of the existence of any other UPC party apart from the one I registered,” Kodock said.
   
The UPC faction leader, Henri Hogbe Nlend, who led a delegation of the party to see Marafa, told reporters that he wanted to see the minister in charge of party affairs to look into the problems of the party and if possible suggest a way forward for the leadership of the party.
   
To Hogbe Nlend and his supporters, the ownership of the UPC is not a personal affair. He said they received a letter from the African Intellectual Property Rights Organisation in 2006 which stated clearly that the UPC cannot be registered in an individual’s name. He said they brought the territorial administration ministry’s attention to the letter three years ago.
   
It is believed that the position of the intellectual property rights organisation on the UPC leadership crisis puts Kodock’s claim to sole ownership and leadership of the party to question.
   
The UPC party split into factions since the early 1990s due to leadership struggles and squabbles over the direction Cameroon’s oldest political party should take after years of operating underground.

Issue 2205

Wednesday 15 - Thursday 16 April 2009

After unconvincing decree:
Biya allocates 4.1 bn to calm striking varsity lecturers

In a telephone instruction to PM Inoni yesterday from abroad, President Biya directed that 4.1 billion FCFA should be paid out to lecturers involved in research. Last week, a presidential decree, hurriedly signed without a text of application, did not impress lecturers

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga and Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

Barely a week after failing to coax striking university lecturers to abandon an ongoing strike, President Paul Biya who is presently on a private trip abroad has hatched another strategy to solve the matter, The Herald has been informed.
   
A decree, hurriedly signed by the president before his departure last week, creating a special fund for research in all state universities failed to persuade leaders of the Syndicate of Higher Education teachers, SYNES, to call off the strike.
   
While SYNES is hoisting its intensions to make the strike indefinite, a source hinted, the president called Tuesday and directed
the Prime Minister for 4.1 billion FCFA to be paid to university lecturers in the days ahead.
   
Until late afternoon yesterday, Higher Education minister Jacques Fame Ndongo was in a closed session discussing the new development with PM Ephraim Inoni, our source said.
   
As we went to press, a special committee was still working at the Higher Education ministry to elaborate how the huge disbursement would be paid to lecturers.
   
Although we couldn’t confirm, it is a strong possibility that the document the said committee is elaborating is the text of application for last week’s presidential decree which was ignored by SYNES.
   
It is thus clear that the paralysing SYNES strike over uncomfortable working conditions has caused discomfort to the president.
   
Unlike full-fledged professors in neighbouring Gabon who, according to figures, earn about 1.3 million FCFA and those in Senegal who bag 1.5 million FCFA every month, lecturers ranking as such here earn only about 500,000FCFA.
   
One of the striking lecturers at the Yaounde I University, who does not want to be cited commenting on the matter, averred that research is the very essence why a university should exist. “It is either you publish or perish,” he said.
   
He emphasised that quality research necessitates huge financing from the level of reviewing literature, collection of field data to the publication of articles in academic journals worthy of the name.

 

Erosion of traditional authority:
Another NW fon dethroned by population

After the violent dethronement and subsequent lynching of the fon of Big Babanki a few years back, the people of Oshie in Momo division have also dethroned their fon. They defied a ban by the SDO and enthroned a new fon at the weekend

By Teche Nyamusa in Bamenda

North West fons who used to be so powerful to the point of being deified are increasingly losing authority over their subjects.
   
After the dethronement and subsequent lynching of the fon of Big Babanki a few years back, a popular movement in Oshie, Momo division, has seen another helpless fon pushed off the royal stool.
   
Eric Anyangwe IV, the US-based fon of Oshie, was dethroned at the weekend after Oshie natives in Cameroon and all over the world decided that he had outlived his usefulness and should be replaced.
   
Oshie’s royal stool is now occupied by Ekanyia Lawrence Anyangwe V who was enthroned at a massively attended ceremony in Oshie on 11 April.
   
The enthronement went ahead in spite of an injunction by the SDO of Momo, Mudoro Isaac, who argued that the move was unlawful and endangered public peace.
   
But no dissenting voices were heard during the enthronement, indicating that the Oshie people were united in their desire to see the back of Eric Anyangwe.
   
Oshie kingmakers, known as okums, who heeded the popular clamour for a change at the helm of the Oshie palace, said they defied the SDO’s orders because it came late and the occasion did not threaten peace.

The Herald learnt that the Oshie people have been disgruntled for quite some time now as Eric Anyangwe virtually abandoned the village since his enthronement about a decade ago.
   
They say the Oshies are a respectable and hard working people and will not afford to keep a fon who has slowed down all development strides in the village.

“Grass has over-grown in our palace, our palace has turned into a bush, and village development projects are dead. Above all, widows of former rulers, who hitherto kept the palace lively, have all deserted the royal home,” one of them lamented to The Herald.
   
Members of the Oshie Cultural and Development Association (OCA), which spearheaded the dethronement of Anyangwe Eric, pointed out that the fon did not even attend the meeting of Oshie people in the US where he lives and spends long periods without coming home.
   
A delegation of Oshie natives resident in the US attended the enthronement of the new fon to show their support for the move. Thousands of Oshie people across Cameroon also flocked to the village to witness the change in leadership.
   
Before last weekend’s event, some Oshie natives, fearful that the dethronement of the fon could trigger conflict, had appealed that Eric Anyangwe be given a chance to right his wrongs. But their appeal was scorned.

Issue 2204

Monday 13 - Tuesday 14 April 2009

To wait for senate, presidential elections?
Dipanda Mouelle demands to retire, but Biya says no

It is believed that the President wants to keep him to continue to proclaim results of important elections - senate and gubernatorial elections in the months ahead, and the presidential election in 2011 or before

By Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

Alexis Dipanda Mouelle, president of the Supreme Court of Cameroon is in a war of nerves with President Paul Biya.
   
Now well into his 70s, he is having difficulty getting the president to authorise his retirement.
   
Well informed sources have told The Herald that the first president of the Supreme Court, as Dipanda Mouelle is formally designated, has recently written a letter to the President pressing him to let him go. The letter, our sources say, was a follow-up to an earlier one he wrote about a year ago asking to go on retirement.
   
Upon receiving the letter, our sources further say, the president summoned Amadou Ai, Justice minister and made it clear to him that he had no intentions at least for now to release Dipanda. And that the minister should not in any error do it himself.
   
Apart from his full time job as head of the Supreme Court, Dipanda Mouelle has a non-resident appointment as a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague.
   
It is believe that with his retirement, he will give more attention to his assignment with the ICJ.
   
In his role as the Supreme Court president, he declares election results, a role he has played since the controversial and acrimonious presidential election of October 1992.
   
Knowing the controversy that surrounds every election since then, President Paul Biya has come to rely on the unswerving loyalty of Dipanda Mouelle.
   
His unwillingness to let him go on retirement has been interpreted to mean that he wants him to stay at his job to announce the results of the next election, which pundits, believe will be sooner than later.
   
It is believed that senatorial and gubernatorial elections are expected either late this year or early next year. The next presidential election is in 2011, if not before.

 

 

UPC 61st anniversary:
Kodock calls for another popular uprising against Biya regime

At a weekend party event, the UPC leader declared that only a bold mass action like that mounted by the valiant UPC founding fathers can re-conquer the destiny of the nation which has been mortgaged by Biya and his cronies

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

Another popular uprising masterminded by the legion of young and vibrant intellectuals in the country is the only way for Cameroon to recover from the decades of decline it has suffered under the leadership of President Paul Biya; Augustin Frederic Kodock, UPC leader has prescribed.
   
“You are intellectuals and true intellectuals cannot stay silent in the face of tyranny and injustice,” Kodock challenged youths at a press conference here in Yaounde on the occasion of the 61st anniversary commemoration of the creation of the UPC party at the weekend.
   
“Rise up and act. Your destiny lies in your hands make use of the press freedom and the freedom of social communication,” a visibly irate Kodock yelled.
   
Citing the youthfulness of founding fathers of the UPC who led a nationalist movement against colonial forces yet with a weaker intellectual prowess compared to today’s youth, Kodock assured youngsters that they can lead the change Cameroon needs to be free from the asphyxiating grip of the regime.
   
He advised that it is foolhardy for the youth to succumb to fear of intimidation and repression from the regime whereas the latter has caused rancour and hopelessness to them.
   
The present about turn in political opinion propagated by Kodock, is in sharp contrast to his regime-accommodating posture he assumed when he enjoyed a power sharing stint as Agriculture and later Planning minister in government.
   
Given the opportunity, journalists quickly picked faults in the multi-faction UPC which they blame for not uniting to bring change to the nation.

Kodock however leaped at the notion boasting that the regime has always ‘feared’ the UPC in its 61 years of existence. “Our goals and objectives have permanently been a nightmare to our enemies” Kodock said.
   
Kodock said even though it was the UPC that fought hard for independence, the colonial powers handed over the country’s sovereignty to people who were ill-prepared to govern.
   
Despite Kodock’s remarks, observers here are rather eager to see Kodock translate his new political discourse into street mobilisation feats that could prove more successful.

Issue 2203

Wednesday 8 - Sunday 12 April 2009

Firefighting:
PM says Otto Pfister should stay

Ephraim Inoni stepped in and saved the day after a meeting convened by the minister of Sports to chart a way forward for the Indomitable Lions following their painful defeat by Togo 10 days ago, ended in disarray

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

After a crisis meeting at the ministry of Sports and Physical Educaiton, Monday, failed to decide on the future of Lions coach, Otto Pfister, and instead collapsed into chaos, the prime minister quickly assumed the role of a firefighter.
   
Ephraim Inoni summoned various stakeholders in the management of the national team for a meeting at his office Monday evening and after listening to various sides ordered that contrary to a widely held opinion, Otto Pfister should stay.
   
Highly placed sources said the PM reckoned that major changes in the technical bench of the Lions may help to fuel the ongoing crisis that was triggered by the painful defeat of the team by the Hawks of Togo, in Accra, Ghana, 10 days ago. The match counted for the opening game in the last round qualifiers for the joint CAN/World Cup 2010.
   
Inoni, highly placed sources told us, pointed out during the meeting at his office that any panic measures at this time will instead deepen the sense of uncertainty in the Lions’ den and destabilise the team throughout the qualifiers.
   
The PM reportedly called on all football authorities responsible for the management of the national team to ensure that peace reigns among them and within the Lions.
   
Sports analysts said the PM’s intervention was timely after the earlier meeting convened by the minister of sport, Augustin Edjoa, to chart a way forward for the Lions, ended prematurely as flaring tempers of some participants made it virtually impossible to continue with deliberations.
   
Roving Ambassador Roger Milla and Otto Pfister, we learnt, were engaged in a squabble that almost ended in the exchange of blows.
   
Before the PM’s decision was made public yesterday, popular opinion here supported a position by legendary footballer, Roger Milla, for the coach to be sacked outright, or a college of Cameroonian coaches appointed to assist the German national.
   
But the PM was obviously not of that view. Inoni’s position was similar to the one held by Lions striker, Samuel Eto’o Fils, who argued that sacking Otto Pfister at this time will be “a stupid thing to do”. Eto’o said the technical bench was competent and was generally doing a good job.

 

 

Biting off woman’s buttocks:
Breaking loose, wild gorilla is gunned down in Douala

The huge ape that had starved for several days also inflicted deep wounds on the thigh and arms of the woman and attacked two other people severely injuring them too in its craze for food. Gendarmes gunned it down at the PK 8 quarter for security reasons on Sunday

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

A gorilla which provoked widespread panic in Douala on Sunday afternoon is no more. Gendarmes reportedly shot dead the ape hours after it broke free and attacked at least three persons leaving them all with gaping and near-fatal injuries.
   
The animal, which belonged to a traditional doctor, we learnt, was usually shackled in a cage at his home situated behind the Catholic Mission at the Bilongue neighbourhood in the Douala III municipality. It reportedly broke the chains Sunday afternoon and then forced open a cage that until then served as its abode.
   
According to area residents, its owner, the traditional doctor identified only as Mr Martin had been away for several days, leaving the animal without enough food. It is believed that it was in a mad quest for food that the hungry ape broke free and went about in search of something to eat.
   
“I heard people shouting that the gorilla had broken free and was running wild around the quarter. I immediately ordered my children into the house and locked the doors and then the main gate,” Beatrice, one of the animal’s first victims recalled.
   
“I came out and sat on the veranda in front of the house and was eating. Suddenly I saw the gorilla jump over the fence and into the compound. I rushed for the door to the house but it caught me and started tearing me up and eating me. See the wounds,” she explained Monday morning, still trembling as she recalled the incident in which she narrowly escaped death.
   
She unveiled deep wounds on her right thigh, buttocks and arms as testimony of her struggle with the beast. Had it not been for neighbours who came out shouting after she began screaming for help, Beatrice said, she would have been killed by the gorilla.
   
Scared by shouts from neighbours, the animal jumped out of the compound and into the streets. It reportedly attacked at least two other persons in almost the same manner, tearing their dresses and inflicting deep wounds on their bodies.
   
Unconfirmed reports claimed gendarmes at the PK 8 neighbourhood later tracked down and shot dead the animal to prevent it from causing more havoc.

 

 

 

Anti-graft crackdown:
Ngamo Hamani setting most-mobile detainee record

Since January, Ngamo Hamani, currently held under pre-trial detention at New Bell has been shuttled to and from Yaounde at least four times, and may be on the move again soon

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

Escorted to the Douala New Bell prison last Friday, 4 April after spending a week at the Yaounde Kondengui prison, Paul Gabriel Ngamo Hamani is again expected in Yaounde “in the days ahead.”
   
The former provisional administrator of the defunct national carrier, CAMAIR, is on course to becoming one of the most itinerant high-profile detainee in Cameroon in recent times. His endless shuttling between the administrative and economic capital cities began last 8 January when he was seized by Yaounde police and whisked off to face the state prosecutor at the Wouri High Court in Douala.
   
Three days later, he was set free as controversy piled over the real motive of the arrest with the state prosecutor denying he ordered the arrest.
Last 5 March, a remake of the January arrest was staged. But it was for real as Ngamo who was once again escorted to Douala, was grilled by the state prosecutor and then returned to police custody in Yaounde where he remained in detention to allow time for his cell at the VIP quarters at New Bell to be rehabilitated.
   
The examining magistrate at the Wouri High Court charged him with embezzling 127 billion FCFA during his three-year service at the helm of CAMAIR. 
   
Last 28 March, he was again summoned by the budgetary and financial discipline council of the Supreme State Audit. For his weeklong sojourn in the nation’s capital, Ngamo Hamani was lodged at the Kondegui Prison. He was returned to Douala last Friday, 4 April amid reports he will be heading back to Yaounde to feed investigators information on his management of CAMAIR until its collapse last year.
   
Ngamo was appointed by presidential decree in February 2005 to prepare the ailing CAMAIR for privatisation. But, his initial six-month mandate as provisional administrator renewable once was severally prolonged for him to eventually manage the company for three years until it finally dropped from the skies in May last year. 

 

 

 

New SDF renegades:
40 disgruntled SDF youths decamp to CPDM in Tubah

Most of the defectors crossed the political turf last Saturday at a CPDM party event claiming to do so as a result of broken campaign promises by the SDF elected representatives in Tubah

By Chrysantus Nchong in Bamenda

Forty supporters of the leading opposition SDF party have left for the ruling CPDM party.
   
The youths who militated in the SDF until last Saturday are mostly operators in the informal sector among them bike-riders, taxi drivers and small scale business operators.
   
The renegades left Fru Ndi’s party on account of failed unmet campaign promises by the SDF mayor of the municipality and the MP who they say has neither embarked on the development projects nor the assistance they promised youths of the area.
   
Azenwi Martin, one of the youths pointed an accusing finger at Hon. Bujong James of Bafut/Tubah and Mayor Stanislus Nsosa whom they blame for not being concerned about the future of the party. “We fought for this party to become what it is today and we are now being treated like beggars,” he fumed.
   
The renegades claim that the mayor has not erected the street lights he promised while the MP has not been supportive to them at all.
   
They were received by Peter Abety, president of the Mezam V section of the CPDM at a party conference.
   
Some SDF party supporters here have dismissed their gesture as an adventure in quest of a gold mine. Others advance that most of them are not regularly registered members of the SDF and so Saturday’s event was all an orchestrated drama.

 

 

 

 

Issue 2202

Monday 6 - Tuesday 7 April 2009

After Lions defeat:
10,000 signatures collected calling for Otto Pfister’s dismissal

Sport and Physical Education minister Augustin Edzoa has already convened a crisis meeting for today in response to the development and concerns raised by hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians since the Lions’ poor showing against Togo just over a week ago

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

 

Following the bitter defeat of the Indomitable Lions by the Hawks of Togo on Saturday 28 March in Accra, Ghana, there have been persistent clamours for the sacking of head coach Martin Otto Pfister.
   
A pressure group, Committé d’action pour le départ d’Otto Pfister (action committee for the departure of Otto Pfister), has added its voice to the calls by collecting over 10,000 signatures of Cameroonians who want the Lions’ trainer to be shown the door.
   
The president of the pressure group, Charles Noue, in a press release Thursday 2 April said the memo containing the signatories had already been presented to the minister of Sports and Physical Education, Augustin Edjoa.
   
According to the release, the pressure group was formed since 15 September 2008 when it was observed that the Lions’ play style and performance were becoming serious causes for concern.
   
“Even though the Lions qualified for the second round of the joint CAN/World Cup qualifiers in 2008 we observed that their performance left much to be desired,” Charles Noue said, adding that since then the group started calling for a complete overhaul of the technical bench. They hold that Cameroon has very good players but the technical bench is doing a shoddy job.
   
The pressure group says with over 10,000 signatures collected within just a short space of time there is every indication that Cameroonians don’t want the coach Otto Pfister anymore.
   
“We are simply asking for those who recruited Otto Pfister to listen to our demand in time and sack him if they must avoid an imminent catastrophe in the country,” Charles Noue said in the release.
   
Copies of the release are reportedly deposited at the ministry of Sports and the Prime Minister’s office.

Apparently in response to the release and other concerns raised by many Cameroonians within and without the country after the Lions’ defeat, the minister of Sports, Augustin Edjoa, has convened a crisis meeting for this today, Monday 5 April in his cabinet.
   
Those invited to attend the meeting include, among others, roving ambassador Roger Milla, FECAFOOT president Iya Mohammed, FECAFOOT secretary general and the administrative director of the national team.

 

 

France-Cameroon relations:
Georges Serre justifies Sarkozy’s failure to visit Yaounde

During a two-hour interview with Radio Tiemeni Siantou last week, the French ambassador denied that France’s president refused to visit Cameroon because he disapproved of the policies of the Yaounde regime

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

Media reports that French leader Nicolas Sarkozy turned down President Paul Biya’s invitation to visit Cameroon are not exactly accurate, the French ambassador in Yaounde has said.
   
Georges Serre, during a two-hour interview on Yaounde-based Radio Siantou, 2 April, denied media claims that Sarkozy dropped Cameroon from the itinerary of his recent Africa tour because he disapproved of Yaounde’s policies. The French president, the ambassador said, had nothing against Cameroon.
   
He said  President Sarkozy had actually accepted an invitation by President Biya to visit Cameroon in 2008, but could not find time to do so due to a very busy schedule.
   
“After the annulment [of the trip to Yaounde], we had to look for a new schedule that would suit both heads of state. A new visit of President Biya to France has been planned for July 2009,” the diplomat assured.
   
He said both countries were hopeful that unforeseen events would not cause this new schedule to suffer another cancellation. “We hope the agendas of both presidents would permit this new programme to hold,” he said.
   
Georges Serre was not very clear on why Sarkozy did not make, at least, a stopover in Cameroon during his recent Africa tour. But his explanations suggested that it was not necessary since President Biya is due in France in the summer.
   
However, not everybody is convinced about the French ambassador’s explanations. Some observers argued that if Sarkozy really wanted to visit Cameroon, he would have done so during his recent Africa trip. Others insist that press reports that the French president refused to honour Biya’s invitation are more plausible.
   
Newspapers severally reported that Biya’s revision of the constitution to remove presidential term limits, the overwhelmingly CPDM membership of ELECAM and other anti-democratic policies were the reasons for Sarkozy’s lukewarm relationship with the Yaounde regime.

 

 

Indiscipline among security forces:
Biya expected to slam heavy sanctions after police, presidential guards clash

Authorities are still embarrassed over an incident in Yaounde on Thursday in which dozens of heavily armed presidential guards and the police resorted to jungle justice by attempting to settle differences through a fight. Biya is now awaited to send a strong signal to the armed forces that Cameroon is a state of law

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

Anasty incident in Yaounde last week involving the police and presidential guards was a reminder of how impunity enjoyed by Cameroon’s security forces could threaten even the regime.
   
Dozens of heavily armed presidential guards and police faced each other in the street and were close to opening fire, in what could easily have degenerated into a full scale war between the different security corps in the capital city.
   
The confrontation between the presidential guards and police was over a minor traffic incident, which many Yaounde residents considered as a flimsy reason for a resort to arms.
   
President Paul Biya, who should already have the report on his table, is now widely expected to strike hard at those responsible.
   
Witnesses said the incident occurred on Thursday 2 April near the national police headquarters after an altercation between a presidential guard and a traffic police officer.
   
The traffic police officer who was duty, according to witnesses, stopped the presidential guard who was driving in mufti from forcing his way through traffic in disregard of the order of traffic flow which the policeman was directing.
   
Shouting at the top of his voice, the presidential guard jumped out of his car and slapped the policeman, witnesses said. Traffic policemen then retaliated and dragged the presidential guard into the police headquarters.
   
Shortly afterwards, we learnt, four presidential guards armed to the teeth stormed the police headquarters to forcefully release their colleague. They had apparently been alerted by the wife of the detained presidential guard, who had been in the car with her husband.
   
When the four presidential guards realised that they had underestimated the situation, they called for reinforcement. A truckload of their colleagues furiously stormed the scene asking for their colleague to be released immediately.
   
The police in turn called in two truckloads of their colleagues of the special intervention unit, GSO, to back them.
   
Consternation, we learnt, gripped the scene, as tension rose and both parties exchanged heated insults.
   
Witnesses say they only came short of pulling their triggers, adding that it took only the police chief of the Centre region and the SDO of Mfoundi to calm the situation.
   
While the SDO appealed to the warring factions to go back to their workplaces, promising to ensure that the matter is looked into at a higher level, the police chief promised to hand a report to the national police boss, Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o, for proper sanctions to be taken.
   
Shocked onlookers said they feared there was going to be a bloodbath and many fled the scene for fear of becoming collateral victims.
   
The public is now watching to see which action President Biya will take to send a strong message to the armed forces and police that Cameroon is a state of law.
   
Security sources told The Herald that the authorities are taking the incident very seriously and it is likely that the sanctions President Biya would mete out will be heavy.

 

Expensive university lodging:
Fame Ndongo nibs planned student revolt in the bud

Yaounde students Thursday sent a memo to state authorities threatening to go on strike from today if immediate solutions to their housing problems were not sought. But the minister of Higher Education visited the students’ residential neighbourhood here in time Saturday to calm the situation

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

A planned strike by students of the universities of Yaounde I and II over problems linked to uncomfortable, inadequate and expensive student lodging facilities here has been put on hold after the minister of Higher Education paid a timely visit to the students’ quarters at Bonamousadi Saturday.
   
Jacques Fame Ndongo responded quickly to a memo sent to him by the students’ rights body, ADDEC, on Thursday 2 April threatening to mobilise students to go on strike if state authorities failed to compel landlords to unconditionally respect government’s prescribed rents rates.
   
ADDEC gave the state authorities until yesterday Sunday to take action or face the eventualities of a mass strike action, which they said, was going to run indefinitely from today 6 April.
   
But the minister of Higher Education rushed to the students’ residential neighbourhood Saturday, talked the students to stay calm, and urged landlords to respect the homologated rents rates or face serious sanctions.
   
Even though ADDEC had not issued an official statement calling off the planned strike, it was unlikely that they would go ahead with their plans as they have since remained calm presumably waiting to see the result of the minister’s action.
   
Students at Bonamousadi were visibly happy that the minister, who was accompanied by the rector of UNIYAO I, Bouba Oumarou, personally entered into their rooms and walked through the squalid corridors there to evaluate the situation.
   
However, it was doubtful that a solution to the problem would be easy to come by. A special committee constituted about several months ago by former UNIYAO I rector Dorothy Njeuma and headed by Mfoundi SDO Beti Assomo to find solutions to the same problem has had little impact.
   
Government in 2005 issued an order calling on landlords to reduce rents to 4500 for low quality rooms, 8000 for ordinary rooms and 13,000 FCFA for high standard rooms. But landlords have since ignored the government order.

 

 

 

 

 

Issue 2201

Friday 3 - Sunday 5 April 2009

Ben Muna woos Biya:
I wouldn’t mind joining the gov’t

At a party event in Mbengwi last weekend, the AFP chairman announced his willingness to partner with the Biya regime if the system can accommodate the views of his political movement in running the country

By Chrysantus Nchong in Bamenda

The history of flawed elections in Cameroon has weakened the opposition to the point of despair.
   
For some time now, the trend has been for opposition leaders to seek accommodation within the regime.
   
Ben Muna, chairman of the Alliance of Progressive Forces (APF), is the latest opposition leader to show inclination to have a closer working relationship with the Biya regime.
   
He took many by surprise when he announced after a rally in his native Momo division last weekend that he wouldn’t mind accepting a place in government were he to be offered one.
   
The APF leader told journalists that he would gladly accept an offer to work in government because he considered it service to the people.
   
Muna, however, suggested that it is not only sufficient to join government but the venture would reside in how much impact in policy the AFP will be allowed to make. The party would only endorse an arrangement that is in line with the interest of the people, not some select individuals, Muna said.
   
Muna broke away from the SDF in 2006 following long drawn battles with Fru Ndi over the management of the leading opposition party.
   
Observers here, however, question whether President Biya who hires and fires ministers would have a place for two Muna siblings in the same government. Ben’s younger sister Ama is currently minister of Culture.
   
Apart from Muna, other opposition leaders seem to have lost the stomach to challenge the Yaounde regime and would rather be part of the government.

In the last few months, Jean Jacques Ekindi, leader of the MP party and parliamentarian from the Littoral and Issa Tchiroma of the FSN party have strongly been inclined to government. Both of them are expecting a place in government when President Biya announces his new team.
   
The gestures and language of Adamou Ndam Njoya, leader of the CDU in the past few weeks especially on the ELECAM affair, suggest that he has an eye on a seat in government.
   
Augustin Frederick Kodock of the UPC party and Daikole Dassala of the MDR party were dropped out of government after losing municipal and legislative elections in 2007. They would rejoin the government with alacrity if given the chance.
   
Bello Bouba Maigari of the UNDP and Mustapha Hamadou of the ANDP are still basking in government affluence.
   
With the current posture of most opposition leaders, there are few powerful voices left to shout at the Yaounde regime from time to time.

 

 

Alternative Nobel Peace laureate in Cameroon!
Yaounde poised to make political capital out of visit

The arrival of Norwegian Johan Galtung, winner of the 1987 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize and global icon in Peace Studies this weekend in Yaounde, is an opportunity for authorities in Yaounde to try to get him to endorse the policies of the regime

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga in Yaounde

Although officially invited by the Protestant University of Central Africa for a purely academic event, Yaounde authorities appear eager to use the visit to Cameroon of distinguished scholar and global peace crusader, Johan Galtung, to score political points.
   
On the directives of President Paul Biya, Higher Education minister Jacques Fame Ndongo, will be at the Yaounde Nsimalen airport to receive the 1987 winner of the Right Livelihood Award, Johan Galtung; The Herald has gathered from a reliable source.
   
The Right Livelihood Award is equated to the Nobel Peace Prize and even referred to as the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize.
   
Galtung is such a distinguished person to the extent that regime officials have struggled; we are reliably informed, to invite him to Cameroon, however, without success.
   
But government was so pleasantly surprised that the Protestant University has succeeded to invite the respected don for an academic event on peace and development in Africa.

A security source confirmed to The Herald that Galtung will be received in audience at the Star Building by Prime Minister Inoni Ephraim.
Our source even projected that President Biya’s agenda next week could feature an audience with the global authority.
   
Yaounde authorities, our source said, will try to give the peace prize laureate the impression that the absence of war in Cameroon is due to the presence of justice, genuine democracy and respect of human rights, which is contrary to the image reputed rights bodies have consistently painted of the country.
   
We were also told authorities will try to persuade Johan Galtung to endorse the policies of the regime.

Galtung is expected to deliver a keynote address on peace during panel discussions attended by a cream of academic minds on Peace Studies drawn from around the world. Regime intellectuals like Jean Emmanuel Pondi and Daniel Abwa are will be panellists at the event.

Issue 2200

Wednesday 1 - Thursday 2 April 2009

Scoop!
Biya caves in at last; revises ELECAM!

With rejection left and right and pressure from powerful partners like France, the President has finally admitted that Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) is unfairly dominated by the CPDM. Interestingly Paul Biya has still made the whole list partisan and has spread it over to other political parties. Watch out for list before it is made public

This is the break down by party of ELECAM membership;

-  CPDM 4
-  SDF 2
-  CDU 1
-  MP 1
-  UPC 1
-  ADD 1
-  UNDP 1
-  AFP 1
(Also see page 10)

(April Fool’s Day: How did you enjoy our front page joke?)

 

Q&A session of parliament:
Eyebe Ayissi announces imminent ambassadors’ conference

The External Relations minister made the disclosure Friday answering a question on why the present regime had abandoned ambassadors conferences that were a regular feature in the Ahmadou Ahidjo era 

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

The minister of External Relations has said that an ambassadors’ conference is under preparation to be held in the near future.
   
Henri Eyebe Ayissi made the disclosure during a plenary session of the National Assembly in Yaounde Friday 28 March. He was answering to a question by MP Gabriel Kosongo, who was interested in pertinent issues about Cameroon’s diplomacy notably the status of diplomats, absence of a regular ambassadors’ conferences, the foreign policy objectives of the regime and profesionalisation of the diplomatic sector.
   
In attempting answers to these questions, Eyebe Ayissi used an approach that many observers in the House considered as escapist.  He said Cameroon’s diplomacy was the exclusive preserve of the Head of State, who he said, was the supreme minister plenipotentiary.
   
He said even though he was the minister of External Relations he did not have a freehand to take major decisions in diplomatic matters. “I merely execute orders and decisions taken by the Head of State”, he added.
   
Concerning the conference of ambassadors, the minister said there was no legal provision in any of the fundamental laws of the country that called for such a conference. However, he said such a conference could be held when the Head of State deemed it necessary.
   
Recalling that President Biya convened an ambassador’s conference in three years after taking office – 1985 - and has since not seen any need for another one, Eyebe Ayissi disclosed that preparations for such a conference were being made at his ministry.
   
About the status of diplomats and why only few professionals were called up to head diplomatic missions abroad, the minister said it was the exclusive prerogative of the president.
   
Concerning the country’s foreign policy objectives he said they were guided by a resolve to paint a good image of the country abroad, ensure preservation of international peace and security, non-interventionism, African and sub-regional unity, adherence to international cooperation bodies, etc.  “And thanks to the strict adherence to these guiding principles our diplomacy is today a model in the world,” Eyebe Ayissi added.

 

For violating procedure:
PM rejects Communication minister’s appointments

A poisoned atmosphere is said to reign at the ministry at the moment as officials who Biyiti-bi-Essam intended sacking are not taking it kindly

Communication minister, Jean Pierre Biyiti-bi Essam, has been impatient to eject senior officials he considers as encumbrances.
   
Before forwarding a draft decree on appointments of senior officials at the Communication ministry to the Prime Minister’s Office, Biyiti-bi-Essam had already signed a decision making similar changes albeit on an interim basis, Le Messager reported Tuesday.
   
The Douala-based daily said this was a strategy to pressurise the Prime Minister’s Office by presenting them with a fait accompli. But the strategy backfired.
   
Quoting Communication ministry sources, the newspaper reported that the PM’s Office rejected the minister’s draft decree on grounds that Biyiti-bi-Essam flouted procedure by first implementing the proposal before the visa of the PM.
   
The PM’s Office has reportedly asked the minister to furnish additional information and justification for the changes he has proposed.
   
Biyiti-bi-Essam is said to have attempted to offload officials who are poking their noses in his management of the annual subvention provided by government to private media. In the same vein, he wanted to appoint officials who would be absolutely loyal to him.
   
Biyit-bi-Essam is accused of abetting a system of kickbacks in the management of subventions to private media.
   
According to Le Messager, Biyiti-bi-Essam intended dropping the following officials: Albert Mbida (inspector general), Félix Zogo (technical adviser no 1), Israel Leonard Sah (technical adviser no 2), Ebona Nyetam (director of government communication) and Metugué (director of international communication), among others.
   
Senior communication ministry officials reportedly managed to obtain copies of the minister’s draft decree and its contents are now common knowledge in the house.
   
A poisoned atmosphere now reigns in the Communication ministry as a result, which is characterised by suspicion, hatred and rancour, according to Le Messager.
   
At the same time, work has virtually come to a standstill as those who feature on the list to be sacked have folded their arms while those who are expecting new posts are equally looking forward to their new duties rather than doing their current jobs.

Issue 2199

Friday 30 - Sunday 31 March 2009

Blatant injustice in Britain?
Cameroonian who served British Army in Iraq faces deportation!

Charly Ngouh, 29, a Cameroonian who staked his life in defence of Her Majesty’s government in Iraq, could be deported in shame to Cameroon next Wednesday against the hue and cry of the British Royal Legion which calls it «distressing». He committed no crime; neither did he break an immigration regulation. Authorities are only angry that he left the Army after serving in Iraq.

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. In Douala

After years of teaching Cameroon and Cameroonians about fostering social rights and justice, British authorities are themselves exacting scandalous injustice to a Cameroonian.
   
Even an influential British group taking up the case of Charly Ngouh, 29, does not seem to be making any success in persuading the British Home Office on the young man’s plight.
   
Charly Ngouh might be deported back to Cameroon on 1 April. He has neither committed a criminal offence nor violated any immigration regulation. His only crime is that after serving in the line of fire for the British army in Iraq for seven months in 2006, he opted to quit the army. And it appeared that that decision did not please the Home Office which says «he did not play by the rules».
   
Thus, his application for a visa to extend his stay in Britain has been rejected twice.  Not even proof of admission at Solent University in Southampton has caused the Home Office to grant him his wish.
   
Charly arrived Britain in 2001 to study at the prestigious Cambridge University. He spent two years studying there but went broke when he could not pay his tuition.
   
He then enrolled in the British Army which deployed him to Iraq in 2006 were he served for seven months.
   
His commanders even awarded him a Telic medal in appreciation of his commission in Iraq.
   
Problem arose when the Home Office denied him a stay to continue his academic career. «I have done more for Britain than I ever did for Cameroon,» Ngouh lamented to Mid Sussex Times in England. «Why was it OK to go to Iraq and not OK for me to stay now?» Charly questioned.
   
The newspaper paints a gloomy picture of Ngouh’s situation in a tone that decries the injustice done to the young man.
   
Also advocating for Ngouh’s cause, the Royal British Legion described his situation as «distressing».
   
Political pundits here are suggesting that Yaounde authorities should also take-up the case with British authorities.
   
After long years of Britain telling Cameroon about justice, fair play and human rights, Ngouh’s case does not help those lessons.
   
Ngouh could be back in Cameroon this weak for going into harm’s way in defence of Her Majesty’s government.

 

For duping woman of 18m FCFA:
Nine Cameroonians in hot waters in China

The suspected scammers and currency counterfeiters who fleeced a Chinese woman of the equivalent of 19 million FCFA are facing 30 years imprisonment while their  over zealous victim will go free of blame

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

Cameroon’s reputation abroad suffered another severe blow last week when Chinese police seized a suspected gang of its citizens charged with fleecing a woman of an equivalent 19 million FCFA.
   
The gang members, currently held under pretrial detention are thought to include Internet scammers and currency counterfeiters. They were reportedly captured in Shenzhen, a city in the Guandong province southwards of China following a month-long probe.
   
According to the Shenzhen Daily newspaper, the matter dates back to December 2008. Reports say the presumed gang leader, identified only as Denis T, initially contacted a woman named. He in the city of Fuzhou in Fujiang province via the Internet, posing as beneficiary of a 5-million-dollar heritage left behind by a deceased kin killed during a civil war in Africa.
    He told the woman he had come to Shenzhen to start up a business, promising her huge dividends if she assisted him in the venture by helping him secure the funds. Eventually, He was ensnared after Denis and his alleged accomplices proved they could multiply currency by «washing up» a couple of dollar bills with a chemical they specially had to buy for that purpose
   
In fact, the woman’s confidence bulged when she reportedly took samples of the «washed» dollar bills to a bank and was told they were genuine. She easily «contributed» 39,400 dollars to the project, hoping to get back not her initial investment, but a huge amount as dividend.
   
But last February, she suddenly lost communication with the Cameroonians and failed to trace them to their usual meeting place. She went to the police who used Internet Protocol [IP] addresses in her email exchanges with her «business partners» to track down the Cameroonians just over a week ago.
           
According to Chinese law, the men face two charges – currency counterfeiting as well as scamming and deception. If found guilty; they could each spend a maximum 20 years in prison for counterfeiting, plus 10 years for cheating. A date is yet to be fixed for the start of their trials, but critics say.  He should also be pursued for attempting to come into possession of fake currency.

 

 

Sarkozy succeeds in Niger:
Mamadou Tandja renounces term extension plan

The French president persuaded Tandja to go public at a press conference last Friday with a decision to step down from power honourably when his mandate expires at the end of 2009

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga in Yaounde

In a surprising turn of events, Niger president, Mamadou Tandja has openly renounced any intention of his to seek a third term in next November’s presidential election in his country.
   
The change of position is credited to the French President Nicolas Sarkozy who dissuaded him during a meeting with him on Friday. Sarkozy was in Niamey at the end of a 48-hour visit through three African countries including Niger.
Sarkozy even persuaded the Niger leader to make a public statement on his change of mind, which he did at a joint press conference.
   
Party supporters of Mamadou Tandja including government ministers and governors have been clamouring on the streets of Niger over the last six months calling on the president to revise the constitution to allow him seek another term at the helm of the nation.
   
On a visit to Niamey about a fortnight ago, Libyan leader Kadhafi joined in the campaign for Tandja, a close ally, to perpetuate his rule.
   
Opposition leaders in Niger also went wild with a «Don’t touch my Constitution campaign» that fuelled rows in parliament.
   
But President Mamadou Tandja has since not commented on the term extension campaign his supporters dubbed «Tazarce», Hausa for «It should continue».
   
However Sarkozy persuaded Mamadou Tandja not to remain indifferent. He urged him to go public with a resolve to leave power honourably when his present mandate finishes in November.
«When the table is cleared, one must leave,» Tandja told journalists in the presence of Nicolas Sarkozy. He even opined that «maturity means leaving with your head high.»
   
Mamadou Tandja has been in power since 1999 following democratic elections by a transitional military regime that took over at the death of Ibrahim Bare Mainassara.
   
Niger is the greatest African producer of Uranium, the radioactive substance whose enrichment provides immense nuclear energy that could be exploited in bombs.
   
French company Areva has just renewed a contract with the government of Niger to continue mining Uranium north of Niamey where a rebellion led by Tuareg militia blossoms over sharing of royalties from exploitation of the resource.

Issue 2198

Friday 27 - Sunday 29 March 2009

Campaign against mandate extension:
Sarkozy in Niger today to dissuade Mamadou Tandja

It is now clear that the French president dropped Cameroon from his Africa itinerary to keep away from Biya’s controversial policy of term extension which he is strongly against

By Clovis Atatah in Yaounde

If there was any doubt among sit-tight African leaders that they are increasingly isolated internationally, French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s current three-country tour of Africa will drive home the point forcefully.
   
In the last lap of his three-country visit today in Niger, Sarkozy will dissuade Mamadou Tandja, whose second term and last expires in November this year, from attempting to revise the constitution to pave the way for a third term, according to Jeune Afrique which cites a highly placed French official.
   
Tandja has not yet declared any intention to scrap term limits in Niger’s constitution, but Sarkozy still try to extract a promise that he will not contemplate the idea.
   
The French president will also meet with the Niger opposition, probably to discuss about free and fair elections, especially at the end of Tandja’s mandate.
   
This pro-active diplomacy is probably informed by experiences in other African countries where leaders took advantage of apparent inattention by the international community to mount constitutional coups and award themselves unlimited terms of office.
   
The Niger agenda, according to analysts, is meant to send a clear message to other African leaders about the position of the Elysée on term extensions that are becoming widespread on the continent.
   
«Sarkozy is against life presidencies,» Jeune Afrique says, summarising the position of the Elysée.
   
The French president has not hidden his opposition to unlimited terms since his election in 2006. He argued while pushing through a constitutional amendment in France to limit presidential terms to two, that any leader who works hard will not need a third term. He said after two terms, the leader has nothing more to offer.
   
It is now clear that Sarkozy dropped Cameroon from his original Africa itinerary because he strongly disapproves of Paul Biya’s constitutional amendment last year eliminating presidential term limits.
   
Biya, who proudly announced on France 24 in October 2007 that Sarkozy had accepted his invitation to make a trip to Cameroon, has instead been invited by the French president to the Elysée in the summer.
   
It is expected that Sarkozy will use that occasion to persuade Biya to stand down when his current term expires in 2011.
   
Sarkozy who returns to France today also visited Congo DR and Congo Brazzaville in his 36-hour flying visit.

 

 

Polyclinic Bonanjo acquires second MRI machine in Central Africa

The state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging facility will enormously boost the diagnosis of certain diseases which otherwise are not easily diagnosed using existing methods.

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga in Yaounde

Children born with congenital malformations of the brain and spinal cord, patients with joints and bone marrow diseases and those suffering some blood vessel disorders now stand a better chance to have their diseases better understood for medical intervention.
   
Patients who are also wary about the effects of x-ray radiation and have been prescribed a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan for better diagnosis of their condition, would not have to travel abroad for the examination or suffer in frustration.
   
Cameroon now boasts of two such machines which are relevant for diagnosing diseases that can not be easily discerned using existing methods like CT scan, conventional x-ray imaging and echography.
   
The Herald has been reliably informed that engineers have successfully installed the first Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine in Douala at Polyclinic Bonanjo, the private hospital owned by Dr Daniel Muna, president of the National Order of Medical Doctors.
   
Although the hospital is yet to fully announce diagnostic imaging services to the public using the machine, this newspaper has information that suggests it will go operational anytime soon.
   
The installation of the Douala MRI machine comes a year after the commissioning of another one at the University Teaching Hospital, CHU, Yaounde in March 2008.
   
Acquiring an MRI machine is a very expensive venture requiring as high as 400 million FCFA and beyond to purchase. This would certainly translate into an expensive cost on exams done using the machine.
 
Experts and scientific literature say diagnostic images produced by the MRI machines are generally of good quality and could require the injection of special pharmaceutical products that are safer when compared to those used for other exams.
   
   

 

 

Increasing food crisis:
Gov’t-farmers partnership to step up productivity

This as well as the government consumer protection policy was the focus of the monthy cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister in his office Thursday 26 March. But the ministers failed to touch the problem of bad or inexistent farm-to-market roads, which is not unrelated to food supply    
                                         
By Bainkong Godlove in Yaounde

The government of Cameroon is reviewing ways of collaborating with agricultural stakeholders in the country with the aim of stepping up agricultural productivity.
   
This was the focus of a traditional monthly cabinet meeting chaired by PM Ephraim Inoni in his office yesterday Thursday 26 March. The meeting scrutinised and evaluated the effective implementation of the agricultural policy with focus on its ability to mobilise the different actors in the agricultural sector to increase their overall production.
   
In one of two exposes the Vice PM, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Jean Nkuete, said a successful farming season is a combination of abundant rainfall, agronomic factors, agro industries and the rural financial service providers. He said ensuring food security for the nation and reducing unemployment were part of the government agricultural policy. He announced the promotion and development of medium and large-scale farming. He said this would be facilitated by a timely mobilisation of human and financial resources in accordance with the agricultural calendar.
   
In the other expose the Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana presented the government consumer protection policy which he described as proactive. He cited the periodic monitoring of supplies in the market and quality control among others as some of the proactive measures.
   
But the cabinet meeting failed to look at the sorry or at times inexistent farm-to-market roads, which cannot be ignored here. There are reports of areas where food is produced aplenty but lack roads through which the food could be transported to areas of consumption. As such, much of it gets rotten in the farms while the farmers remain poor and the society hungry.     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Issue 2197

Wednesday 25 - Thursday 26 March 2009

 

Embezzlement of Global Fund money:
Health minister raises alarm over limping anti-TB programme

Despite billions of francs pumped in by the Global Fund for the fight against malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, the situation on the ground has not improved because of the siphoning of aid money

By Tarkang Bisong in Yaounde

Public Health minister André Mama Fouda used a press conference ahead of the World Tuberculosis Day Tuesday to sound the alarm against the increasing incidence of tuberculosis.
  
The minister said in a speech at an event to observe the tuberculosis day in Yaounde, that despite enormous efforts by the government and donors, TB is on the rise and 40 percent of seropositive persons are afflicted by the disease.
  
Although the minister did not give statistics on the worsening TB situation in the country, a government official admitted on CRTV radio that the prevalence rate is increasing.
  
Observers noted that it is paradoxical that TB prevalence is rising despite the huge sums the government has been receiving from the Global Fund for the fight against malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS for some years now.
  
Mama Fouda’s apparent distress, it can be inferred, is an indication of the scale of embezzlement of Global Fund money by officials in charge of fighting malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.
  
Former Public Health minister Urbain Olanguena Awono was sacked in September 2007 and subsequently detained on charges of swindling billions of Global Fund money. The heads of the AIDS and tuberculosis programmes were also detained on similar charges.
  
Observers believe that the siphoning of donor money has seriously crippled the AIDS and tuberculosis programmes and the rising incidence of TB and complicated HIV-related cases are the result.
  
Public Health officials who spoke to us, however, said the government is beginning to make progress in tackling TB. They disclosed that 85 percent of diagnosed TB cases were targeted for treatment in 2009 up from 76 percent in 2008.
  
Mama Fouda said all TB patients who go to authorised treatment centres are treated for free.

 

 

 

Anti-corruption campaign:
Ngamo Hamani’s tossing around raises questions about appropriateness of judicial procedure

While some regime officials stay comfortably at home after being found guilty of swindling state funds, other corruption suspects are detained for long periods. The ex-CAMAIR provisional   administrator has particularly been tossed between Yaounde and Douala spawning concern about the judicial process

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

Humiliating treatment of criminal suspects in Cameroon and selective prosecution have attracted criticisms from international rights bodies and the harassment of defunct CAMAIR provisional general administrator, Paul Gabriel Ngamo Hamani, during the last few months is not indicative that the authorities have changed attitude.
  
After a very degrading arrest late last year during which Ngamo Hamani was ferried by heavily armed police from Yaounde to Douala and back, authorities released the ex-CAMAIR boss before subjecting him to a similar ordeal barely weeks later.
  
On 9 March, he was placed under pre-trial detention at the Douala New Bell Prison after another arrest in Yaounde and transfer to Douala. An examining judge at the Wouri High Court ordered his pre-trial detention following a charge of embezzlement of over 127 billion FCFA by the Supreme State Audit.

But barely days after his incarceration, Ngamo was summoned to Yaounde by the Supreme State Audit for further investigation. He was initially expected in Yaounde yesterday, Tuesday 24 March. Newspapers however announced Monday that the summons had been delayed till month end. No reasons were advanced.
  
While in Yaounde, Ngamo is to be interned at the Yaounde Central Prison at Kondengui, the current abode of several other high-level corruption subjects.
  
Reports said Ngamo was notified of his impending transfer to Kondengui last Friday by New Bell Prison officials. Details on the duration of his stay in Yaounde remain sketchy but observers say it may be long, considering that the suspect will be accorded time to peruse the charges against him before interrogations begin.
  
He was only notified of the charges against him when police whisked him off to pre-trial detention.  Legal experts say Ngamo will be at the beck and call of the Supreme State Audit until it fully determines his fate.

The summons has sparked controversy here. Lawyer Rene Manfo of the Cameroon Bar says detaining Ngamo before establishing his case amounts to grave violation of a 1976 law which states that detention can only happen after full examination of files by the Supreme State Audit and its hand-over to the law courts.
  
Other legal experts say his detention is discriminatory as former CRTV general manager Gervais Mendo Ze and petroleum depot corporation GM Nguini Efa were grilled by the Supreme State Audit as free men. The Supreme State Audit found Mendo Ze guilty of embezzling over 2.6 billion FCFA but he has never been detained.

At the same time, the judiciary has kept corruption suspects like Zaccheus Forjindam and Jean Atangana Mebara in pre-trial detention for many months without establishing any case against them.
  
There are widespread complains that the anti-corruption crackdown is selective and President Paul Biya, rather than the judiciary, determines the fate of suspects.
  
Ngamo is expected to answer questions on why he sold off property belonging to the defunct CAMAIR, and also explain his decision to raise the status of several «temporary workers» he met at the company.
  
President Paul Biya appointed him provisional administrator to prepare CAMAIR for privatisation in February 2005. But his initial six-month mandate (renewable once) was severally prolonged for him to manage the company for three years until the government shut it down in May last year and handed it to liquidators.

 

 

Public investment budget:
65m accorded to inexistent hospital in Yabassi!

The Action for the Humanisation of Hospitals says officials in the ministry of Public Health should be held accountable for embezzling the money

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

Among projects shortlisted for financing by the public investment budget for the Nkam division in the Littoral region is the completion of an integrated health center in Banya around Yabassi. In fact, the state is expected to disburse 15 million FCFA this year for the completion of the structure under construction since 2005.
  
But an NGO, the Action for the Humanistion of Hospitals, abridged ACTHU in French has cried foul. In a protest letter dated 23 March, its spokesman, Christian Locka claims that ever since the sum of 39 million FCFA was first allocated for the project three years ago, no work on the project has taken off the ground.
  
«Material worth 11 million FCFA intended to equip the hospital has been bundled up since four years. Yet on paper, the non-existent hospital is in the final stages of completion according to the last public investment budget planning,» Locka claimed in the petition.
  
He notes, however, that divisional public health authorities and the local public investment budget monitoring commission are looking for a site to begin construction with the awaited 15 million FCFA. He says thereafter, they intend to resort to the Health ministry to report what they claim is an error in the investment budget planning, and the request funds to carry on with the construction.
  
Meantime, area residents say envoys from the ministry of Public Health made several trips to the Nkam when the project was first retained in 2005, proposing kickbacks to finance officials in the division if they validated documents attesting to the start of the project. But they met stiff opposition and then decided to carry back the money to Yaounde.
  
Locka quotes health officials in Yabassi lamenting that medical equipment worth 11 million FCFA and meant for the health center since four years ago are already getting spoiled. Area residents who have to travel long distances to get to the nearest hospital in the particularly enclaved division are reportedly fuming.
  
They are pointing accusing fingers at officials in the ministry of Public Health with accusations of embezzling money that would immensely improve access to modern treatment in the area. According to Locka, added expenditure and effort from trekking long distances has encouraged reliance by the population on traditional concoctions and street-sold drugs.

 

 

 

24th anniversary of CPDM:
Sadi applauds militants for mobilisation during Pope’s visit

The special anniversary message from the CPDM scribe was conveyed to militants of the Mfoundi VI section by central committee delegate Suzanne Bomback

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

Party anniversary celebration in the Mfoundi VI section of the ruling CPDM was enlivened by a congratulatory message from party scribe Rene Sadi, saluting militants for massive mobilisation during the pope’s recent visit to Cameroon.
  
Sadi’s message was read out to party supporters by central committee delegate, Suzanne Bomback who also presided a seminar at which militants were schooled on ways of enhancing the functioning of the party’s basic structures. The celebrations took place at the Etoug Ebe handicap Centre.
  
Suzanne Bomback exhorted militants to respect the prescriptions of party leader Paul Biya for party activities to move from just festivities, to debates and concrete action.
  
She called on militants to multiply the holding of meetings at cell, branch, sub-section and section levels and for reports of meetings to be submitted to party hierarchy.
  
Suzanne Bomback told militants that Biya also prescribes team spirit and a regular attendance of meetings as these will help revitalise the party.
  
Party militants were called upon to convince militants of other political parties to join the CPDM and to hold back election loosers of the party from diverting to other parties.
  
Crowning the day in the usual way, the Mfoundi militants addressed a motion of support to the party’s boss and ended the celebration with a march in support of Paul Biya.
  
Nationwide celebrations were guided by the theme «Governance and Local development». Delegates from the CPDM central committee were sent to all branches of the party in the country to educate militants on the importance of local governance in bringing about grassroots development.

 

 

Titbits on CPDM anniversary
Compiled by Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

Mfoundi youth calls for Biya’s resignation
A CPDM youth of the Mfoundi VI section wrote an anonymous note and forwarded it to Central Committee delegate Suzanne Bomback in which he called for party chairman Paul Biya to resign both as head of the party and President of the Republic. In the note, the youth said Biya is too old and has gone short of ideas to carry the party forward. Suzanne Bomback expressed bitterness over the note and almost sent out all the youths from the ceremonial hall at the Etoub-Ebe handicap centre. However the YCPDM section president Yoki Onana tendered an apology on behalf of all the youths of the section. «It is an isolated case and we apologise for it,» he said.

Bilingualism at Mfoundi VI celebrations
A surprising innovation at festivities in Mfoundi VI was the public use of the English language. Speeches at the CPDM 24th anniversary in the Mfoundi VI section were done in both English and French languages. Even though most of the speeches and debates were done in French, they were all later translated into English by some Anglophone militants. But surprisingly, Francophones greeted the translations with resounding applause each time the translator ended his piece; suggesting that it marvelled them to hear the Queen’s language spoken in public.

Scramble of 1,500FCFA tip
Before leaving the ceremonial grounds at the Etoug-Ebe handicap centre, Suzanne Bomback promised 1,500 FCFA for all militants. Many said the money was used as a snare to hold back militants until activities closed. But at the end of the event the distribution procedure for the money was not clear forcing hungry militants to threaten breaking chairs if their «pay» was not handed them. In the end the militants mostly youths were asked to queue up for easy distribution.

 

 

 

Issue 2196

Monday 23 - Tuesday 24 March 2009

In spite of anti-corruption policy:
CPDM still summons ministers, GMs to cough up money for party anniversary!

Surprisingly devoid of its own funds due to the non-payment of monthly dues by its senior cadres, the CPDM has ignored government’s policy against corruption and summoned public officials to take money from their different votes and budgets to finance a 10-day long celebration of the 24th CPDM anniversary

By Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

Although former general managers of government corporations, ministers and senior public officials are serving long prison terms for corruption which includes unlimited financing of the ruling party, CPDM officials are still not deterred from calling on the same class of officials to support the party.
   
A preparatory meeting, Saturday, for the nationwide celebration of the 24th anniversary of the CPDM put the responsibility of financing various activities squarely on the shoulders of ministers and GMs. Private businessmen were also summoned to support the party.
   
The party was forced to turn to public officials for its financing because, ironically, party coffers are empty due to neglectful non-payment of individual monthly contributions by the same senior public officials.
   
The meeting which was chaired by the party secretary general, Rene Sadi, decided that public officials and some private businessmen co-opted for the purpose would each lead a CPDM delegation to support basic organs for the anniversary which will take the form of a campaign of  party education over 10 days across the country.
   
Given the unpredictability of the selection of corruption culprits, it is certain that many ministers and general managers will find the task of financing the party conflictual. During recent corruption trials, the courts systematically rejected all claims that some of the money was used to support the ruling CPDM at the request of party overlords.
   
Last Saturday’s meeting identified the GMs and businessmen invited to support the party. (See list below).
   
It is also interesting to note that the party did not impose an amount the GMs and ministers would be expected to take out of their budgets.
   
It is believed that such a party request provides a sure licence for abuse of public money. Many officials take far in excess of what they use for the party; some even share what they take out of their corporations with their party overlords.
   
Also noteworthy is the fact that five public corporations had been threatening to go on strike over improved conditions of service including small raises of pay. But the government has been reluctant so far.
   
The list of members of the bursary and logistic commission bears the following business magnets, Mohamado Abbo Ousmanou, Fotso victor, James Ononbiono, Yinda Louis, Sohaing Andre, Fadil Bayero, Kadji Defosso Josph, Ndongo Essomba, Jean Bernard, and the following GMs: Njalla Quan Henry – CDC, Beh Mengue Louis – ART, Iya Mohamed - FECAFOOT/SODECOTON, Etoundi Oyono Emmanuel – MAETUR, Mbayern Rene – CAMSHIP ,Ntongo Onguene – ADC, Sama Juma – Civil Aviation, Nkoto Emane – CAMTEL, Mekulu Mvondo – CNPS, Metouk Charles – SONARA, Nyodog Perial – TRADEX, among others.

 

 

 

CPDM anniversary:
Rene Sadi’s meeting gets unusual low attendance

Only about 100 of the expected 300 senior party officials attended Saturday’s preparatory meeting for the 24th CPDM anniversary. The reason for low turnout was not immediately clear, but some attendees attributed it to tiredness from the Pope’s visit

By Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

In spite of its importance, a meeting summoned by Rene Sadi, CPDM secretary general, was not enthusiastically attended. The meeting was announced three days earlier on public media, but when it began by midday Saturday there were hardly 100 party official in attendance. And attendance of some 300 persons had been expected.
   
The meeting was summoned to discuss preparations for the 24th anniversary of the party, which is the more reason why it was surprising to note its low attendance.
   
Those who attended it attributed the low attendance to fatigue due to the Pope’s visit or was it that information did not circulate sufficiently?
   
Participation in party activities is critical for the good standing of public servants, which makes it all the more surprising why Rene Sadi’s meeting did not have the usual heavy attendance.

 

 

 

CPDM anniversary:
Meme sections left out- by error or design?

Is CPDM Meme about to pay the price of its continuous power struggles? Why would Rene Said omit Meme and put Manyu I in its place?

By Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

Looking down the list of divisions across Cameroon to which the CPDM central committee is sending delegations in connection with activities of the 24th anniversary of the CPDM, Meme division and its three sections were conspicuously absent.
   
It is not clear if this omission was intended or was simply an error.
   
What is even more surprising is the fact that under Meme it is Manyu 1 that was inserted. Does it mean that the Central Committee delegation sent to Manyu I will stop in Meme? What sense does this make? 
   
It is almost certain that Rene Sadi, CPDM secretary general, will clarify this situation which is quite confusing.
   
Owing to a long history of leadership contestation and power struggles, Meme CPDM section was split a year ago by presidential decree into three separate sections- Meme I, Meme II and Meme III.
   
It had been expected that heads and bureaus of the different sections would be elected, but party authorities in Yaounde have never been able to organise the effective installation of the separate sections.
   
That failure left the previous Meme central section still functional under the leadership of Ekale Mukete and the continuation of the same problems that the split was intended to resolve.
   

 

 

CPDM anniversary:
Public services to halt for 10 days

Businessmen and other users of public services are in for a difficult time. Public services in Yaounde will be paralysed for some two weeks because ministers, GMs and other senior public officials will travel out to the grassroots for 10 days of party anniversary. Already businessmen had been unable to get payment from the government since a few weeks before the Pope’s visit

By Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

The 24th anniversary of the ruling CPDM whose celebration will begin tomorrow across the country will bring public services to a grinding halt.
   
Party delegations to grassroot organs in all 58 administrative divisions of Cameroon will be led by ministers, secretaries general, directors, general managers of public corporations and other senior public officials.
   
This year the party is organising a 10-day campaign of education for grassroots militants. The theme chosen is «governance and local development»
   
This mass movement of senior authorities out of Yaounde and Douala will leave services paralysed.
   
The visit of the Pope for the better part of last week constituted disruption in the public services in Yaounde.
   
Businesses owned by the government are among the worst sufferers of disruptions in public services. All debt payments were halted in view of the huge demands made on the public treasury by the Pope’s visit.
   
It had been expected that payments would resume this week, but with the emptying out of authorities from Yaounde, businessmen and other public service users might have to wait for another fortnight or so.

 

 

 

CPDM anniversary:
Is gov’t preparing for senate elections?

For 10 days CPDM delegates to the grassroots for the party’s anniversary tomorrow will educate basic organs, militants on «Governance and local development,» which sources believe will prepare them for senate elections anytime this year

By Roland Akong Wuwih in Yaounde

The ruling CPDM seems to want to use its 24th anniversary this year to prepare grassroots militants for senate elections which are expected later this year.
   
Delegations of the party’s central committee are to spend a minimum of ten days educating grassroots militants. The theme chosen is «Governance and local development.»
   
Party insiders believe that the content of the lectures which will be given them as they leave will educate the wide public on the importance of the senate and the role that they will be expected to play in connection with it when the times comes.
   
President Paul Biya has already announced that the senate would be created anytime now. The present move suggests that the creation is imminent.
   
Of the 100 members of the expected senate, only 70 will be voted by regional assemblies and the rest 30 directly appointed by the President.

 

Nigerian national arrested with human body parts

Jackson Ekoule was nabbed last week with a bag containing bones suspected to have come from humans

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

Police in Nkapa some 20Km in the outskirts of Douala are holding a Nigerian national suspected of trading human body parts.
   
Jackson Ekoule, was seized by police last Thursday. He was reportedly carrying a bag stuffed with bones believed to be from a human.
   
The arrest followed mounting reports by inhabitants of the Moungo division over the increasing defilement of graves in the area. Residents say even tombs in private homes have been dug up by unknown people and usually during the night.
   
‘We have been receiving information indicating that many tombs have been desecrated in this part of the country. We laid an ambush and caught Jackson Ekoule red-handed,’ Col. Nguete said. He said Ekoule would be sent to the Nkongsamba prison to await trial. Attendant sources said the bags contained skulls, rib bones and a femur.
   
Police said identification papers found on the man indicated he was a Nigerian national in Cameroon for business purposes. They are grilling the man in an attempt to uncover a wider ring of suspected human body parts traffickers.
   
Observers say increasing cases of people found dead with parts of their bodies plucked off are a pointer to a bulge in trafficking in human organs. They say it has become a very lucrative international trade and involves organised crime syndicates with tentacles spreading fiercely around the world.

 

 

 

 

Issue 2195

Friday 20 - Sunday 22 March 2009

Mighty success!
Pope keeps to pastoral agenda after all

Pre-visit fears that Benedict XVI’s trip would be used for the political ends of the regime have finally been unfounded. By repeatedly advertising the fact that the pope’s visit was at the invitation of President Paul Biya, the government left the impression it wanted to make political gain from the visit.

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga in Yaounde

Pope Benedict XVI may be said to have successfully accomplished his visit to Cameroon as he leaves Yaounde today for Angola, the second and final leg of his first trip to Africa.
   
The popular and sometimes hysterical gusto that welcomed the pope on his arrival on Tuesday has been maintained throughout the visit.
   
The high water point of the visit was a colourful high mass at the Ahmadou Ahidjo football stadium which was attended by some 60,000 faithful.
   
It was on that occasion that the pope personally handed over Instrumentum Laboris, a working document for preparation towards the Second African Synod of Bishops next October in Rome to review the situation of the church in Africa. One by one, he invited bishops, heads of Episcopal conferences throughout Africa, to personally receive a copy of the document from him.
   
Another highlight of the visit was the pope’s rejection of the use of condoms as a means of preventing AIDS which has high prevalence in Cameroon and other parts of Africa. This was widely reported by the international press that has had a heavy presence in Yaounde during the visit.
   
The French and German governments expressed strong disapproval of the position.
   
During his four-day stay in Yaounde, the pope received the Muslim leaders in Cameroon and encouraged peaceful cohabitation with Christians.
   
The pope also visited the Yaounde Centre for the Handicapped which was founded in 1971 by a Canadian cardinal, Emile Paul Leger.
   
Benedict XVI also met Cameroonian bishops and Catholic laity whom he encouraged to hold on to the faith.
   
Earlier, he had a one-hour courtesy meeting with President Paul Biya at the presidency. Nothing filtered from the in-camera meeting.
   
Prior fears that the pope’s visit would be used to support President Paul Biya’s political programme turned out to be unfounded.
   
Recently, the president created a heavily partisan electoral organ, ELECAM which its Western partners have unanimously rejected.
   
But the pope kept strictly to his pastoral agenda. In fact, the pope even called for criticism and condemnation of social ills that plague Africa like abuse of office, corruption and many others. Benedict’s speech on arrival at the airport was seen as a veiled indictment of the Biya regime.
   
The pope did not even accept to lodge in a government paid residence, choosing to stay throughout the visit at the seat of the Vatican embassy in Yaounde.
   
That may have warned the president to be cautious with his posture throughout the visit.

 

Policeman guns down colleague during field operation

Reports say Major Ekotto, shot dead by a colleague Wednesday, had a strained relationship with his killer

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

The police corps here has been gripped by downright consternation since early Wednesday, following the shooting to death of an officer by a colleague during an intervention operation.
   
Initial reports said agents of the police rapid intervention unit, ESIR, stormed the Ngouelle neighborhood in Bonaberi on Douala ’s west end at around 2 am Wednesday, 18 March. They were tracking down a group of bandits raiding the area thanks to a tip-off.
   
According to police accounts, one of them, Major Ekotto detached himself from the team and took vantage position behind a pile of bricks as his colleagues closed in on the bandits. But the operation turned sour only minutes later.
   
Police said a colleague whose names they are still keeping secret mistook the major for one of the thieves and unleashed bullets at him as he emerged from cover. Major Ekotto died from heavy bleeding soon afterwards as he was rushed for urgent medical intervention.
   
The killer, who has reportedly voiced his regret over the incident was dumped in custody at the judicial police headquarters in Bonanjo pending the outcome of investigations.
   
Meantime, there are trickling hints that the late Major Ekotto and his killer held a rather troubled relationship already spanning several years. Their colleagues at the ESIR base refused to comment any further on the emerging hypothesis, noting very tersely that they needed clearance from hierarchy to speak on the issue.
   
Others however say it is important to consider that the Ngouelle neighborhood, like all of Douala, was without electricity Tuesday night, following a power failure that affected most of the country. «We cannot rule out the fact that the darkness contributed to the mistake,» an officer who elected anonymity said Wednesday. He said such detail alone could vindicate the killer who nonetheless risks dismissal from the corps and several years behind bars.
   
Elsewhere, the mishap contributed in raising the issue of soaring insecurity in the Ngouelle area and Bonaberi in general. Residents say the place has been taken hostage by bandits who stage burglaries and assaults on a daily basis. They complain that a police post created there months ago is useless as it is always vacant, or is transformed into a card-game hall and bar whenever the officers are around.

Issue 2194

Wednesday 18 - Thursday 19 March 2009

Welcome Pope Benedict XVI!
Paul Biya gets lesson on bilingualism

Arriving to an enthusiastic welcome from a people whose president has never attempted to address them in English, the pontiff won the hearts of many Cameroonians by delivering his speech both in English and French

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga in Yaounde

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Cameroon yesterday at the beginning of a four-day pastoral visit and the first of two stops in his current tour of Africa.
   
He was received at the Nsimalen Airport by an enthusiastic crowd that chanted religious songs, cheering the pontiff as he arrived.
   
President Paul Biya and his wife Chantal were on hand to receive him. So was a huge delegation of cardinals and bishops from Cameroon and other African countries. The pope was also welcomed by non-Catholic religious leaders among them Muslims, Greek Orthodox and Protestants.
   
Although the pope’s flight arrived on time and his aircraft, a Boeing 777-200 of Alitalia taxied to a halt at 4 O’clock local time as expected, it took another ten minutes for the pope to alight from the plane because of problems encountered fitting the flight of steps on the plane.
   
In spite of his age, 81, the pope walked down the stairway of the plane briskly and was alert as he walked down the red carpet shaking hands with Church and public officials.
   
In the exchange of speeches at the airport, Benedict XVI won the hearts of his hearers by reading his speech in both French and English, something that President Paul Biya, his host, did not bother to do.
   
The pontiff was certainly aware that not only is Cameroon a bilingual country, but also, many foreign visitors in Cameroon for his visit are English speaking.
   
That was a useful lesson for Paul Biya who in his 26-year reign over Cameroon has never addressed the nation in English.
   
Among the many ills in Africa noted by the pontiff in his speech are corruption, poverty, hunger, violence and abuse of power all of which apply to Cameroon. Benedict XVI highlighted the aptness of the Second Synod of African Bishops to address these and similar societal issues plaguing the continent.
   
During the flight from Rome to Yaounde the pope commented on condoms in answer to journalists’ questions. He insisted on the Catholic Church’s position that rejects condom use to prevent AIDS.
   
During his visit which ends on Friday, he will meet with Biya and African bishops. He will also visit the Etoug-Ebe centre for the rehabilitation of the handicapped.
   
The high point of the visit will be a solemn mass at the Yaounde Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium on Friday during which the pope will hand over Instrumentum Laboris, the working document for the Second Synod on Africa next October in Rome.
   
On the flanks of the visit, opposition spokesmen have still not reconciled themselves with the pope’s choice of Cameroon for his first visit to Africa saying that the visit was a great honour done to an undemocratic Paul Biya.
   
Observers also expressed fears that President Biya will make political capital of the pope’s visit. His revision of the constitution to extend his stay in power and the creation of a partisan ELECAM, the new election organ, are very unpopular.

 

 

Pope wants Christians to speak up against abuse of power

In an exchange of speeches upon his arrival at the Nsimalen airport, the pontiff condemned violence and corrupt leadership, while President Paul Biya emphasised on Cameroon’s peace and harmonious ethnic relations

By Clovis Atatah in Yaounde

Pope Benedict XVI moved quickly to address some issues dear to many Africans as he arrived in Yaounde yesterday on the start of his first African tour since becoming head of the Catholic Church four years ago.
   
In a continent beset by misery resulting mainly from poor leadership, the pope’s speech upon arrival at the Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport resonated with the African masses when he said the church must be proactive in giving hope.
   
«Here in Africa, as in so many parts of the world, countless men and women long to hear a word of hope and comfort,» the pope said.
   
He was very clear that the church was against the sufferings visited upon the African people and said no Catholic should be indifferent to hardship.
   
«In the face of suffering or violence, poverty or hunger, corruption or abuse of power, a Christian can never remain silent,» the pontiff who spoke in French and English said as President Paul Biya and his wife Chantal listened close by.
   
The declaration was interpreted as an indictment of African leaders who impoverish their people through plunder and mismanagement and then use violence and constitutional manipulation to cling to power.
   
It was also considered as a call to Catholic Christians to resist oppression, and a vindication of those Cameroonian prelates who have been critical of anti-people government policies.
   
Pope Benedict XVI noted that in the midst of the global financial turmoil, world food crisis and climate change, Africa suffers disproportionately.
   
The 81-year-old pontiff, who on Thursday will present the working document for the second African Synod of Bishops to hold in October, equally dwelled on the theme of the meeting, «The church in Africa at the service of reconciliation, justice and peace».
   
He praised Cameroon for the harmonious relations among her over 200 ethnic groups and the religious tolerance in the country.
   
President Biya, who spoke before the pope, had also highlighted the peace that reigns in Cameroon and the country’s contributions towards international peace and reconciliation.
   
The Cameroon president recalled the peaceful resolution of the Bakassi conflict between Cameroon and Nigeria and cited it as an example of his government’s commitment to good neighbourliness.
   
Although Paul Biya was on home territory, it was the pope who was the celebrity at the Nsimalen Airport.

The head of state of the Vatican will leave Cameroon on Friday for Angola, the last lap of his two-nation African tour.

Issue 2193

Monday 16 - Tuesday 17 March 2009

Zacharias Tanee Fomum:
Born Again Prophet succumbs to 70-day prayer fast!

The committed and firing evangelist Fomum had a following of 10,000 born again Christians spread over 700 congregations across Cameroon. His activities took him abroad where he implanted his church in 60 countries. He died on Saturday completely exhausted by a 70-day prayer fast. He was also professor of Organic  Chemistry at the University of Yaounde 1

By Takang Bisong in Yaounde

The estimated 10,000 adherence of the Christian Missionary Fellowship International (CMFI) with headquarters in Obili Yaounde are mourning the passing of their leader Zacharias Tanee Fomum who died on Saturday. Fomum died at the Yaounde University Teaching Hospital (CHU) of exhaustion following a 70-day prayer fast.
   
He had collapsed in Bamenda the day before soon after he arrived there for an evangelical activity.
   
At the Yaounde headquarters at Obili where born again members met, Sunday, the mood was sad and solemn and the pastors were contemplating how the work will continue with the passing of their leader.
   
This reporter was told that Fomum said he was told spiritually to end the 80 day fast on the 70th day.
   
The fast was intended to combat Buddhism, Islamism and Communism which adherents said are the major cause of poverty in Cameroon.
   
Zacharias Fomum was a profoundly committed evangelist who claimed that he received a word to take the gospel to the furthest regions of Cameroon and to all countries of the world.
   
He founded the Christian Missionary Fellowship International in 1975. He created 700 congregations that presently attract 10,000 members in Cameroon.
   
He travelled abroad frequently where he established his church in about 60 countries of the world.
   
Fomum wrote more than 100 books and pamphlets on prayer, missions, leadership, Christian living and services.
   
Fomum rose to the rank of a prophet in his church and was called prophet Fomum. Besides his evangelical work, Fomum lectured Organic Chemistry at the University of Yaounde 1 where he rose to be professor.
   
He earned a doctorate in Organic Chemistry in Sierra Leone where, he said, he received his convention and calling to his spiritual task. He was born in 1945 and hailed from Momo division of the North West region of Cameroon.
   
As we went to press yesterday evening, we had information that he would be buried today.

 

Undeclared state of emergency in Y’de

Mixed contingents of armed forces and security men in mufti have been menacingly sweeping the streets of the capital city to nip any popular uprising in the bud

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga in Yaounde

Rumours about another popular uprising over economic hardship in the country seem to be given much attention by the state security machinery in the last few days before Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Yaounde.

Since the City Council effected a devastating demolition of roadside structures around town last week, an uneasy calm has hung over Yaounde. Matters became worse toward the weekend with protesting workers of five state corporations threatening to sabotage the Pope’s visit should their demands be left unresolved.
   
Armed officials keeping vigil have been the common sight in the capital city for the last four days.
   
The Herald’s security sources have even hinted that security men in mufti are pacing the streets of Yaounde to spy on the population and quickly send warning signals for security back up in case of any street commotion.
   
Menacing water spitting machines and military trucks loaded with armed men have become a common sight here.
   
On Friday, a handful of residents enjoying a group discussion in the central post office area quickly dispersed when a fierce looking gendarm water canon pulled up and directed its twin muzzles at them in a sinister way. This has been the common experience recounted by persons The Herald spoke to across the town.
   
By nightfall these days, military trucks loaded with security men are commonly spotted at strategic junctions in town.

Last Thursday, this reporter bumped into one such trucks discretely parked off at the Obili roundabout where a battery of bars host hundreds of jocund Cameroonians every evening.
   
There is no doubt that government is jittery about everything being in the right place for the Pope’s visit.
   
The Pope and his entourage have been fed with information of a Cameroon that is suffering from all sorts of ills due to poor management.
   
Yaounde authorities would not want the Pope to come to town and confirm all that for himself by meeting social unrest.

 

 

 

Obituary:
Pius Ngassa, CUSS don, dies of cardiac arrest

The seasoned gynaecologist who attended Sasse College, succumbed to a cardiac arrest on Saturday morning at the Yaounde General Hospital

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga

Pius Chanchu Ngassa, professor in Gynaecology at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences died suddenly on Saturday.
   
Until his death, he appeared hail and hearty, colleagues at the University Teaching Hospital, CHUY, where he practised told The Herald at the weekend. He did his usual clinical rounds and consultations at the gynaecology ward of the hospital on Friday and returned home like anyone else at the close of a full day.
   
But on Saturday morning, he suffered a malaise and was moved from his Ngousso residence to nearby Yaounde General Hospital where he died shortly afterwards. He was diagnosed to have suffered a cardiac arrest.
   
Ngassa was a SOBAN and attended Sasse College in the sixties. He studied Medicine at the University of Lagos in the seventies where he also specialised in gynaecology.
   
Condolence messages from friends and well-wishers have been streaming into his Ngousso residence where his widow and children are mourning his death.
   
At the CHUY premises  where he worked, the atmosphere was quite serene with the staff on duty expressing regret at the loss. An official obituary had already been posted on notice boards by hospital management.
   

He was aged about 62 and hails from the Nde division in the West region of the country

 

Issue 2192

Friday 13 - Sunday 15 March 2009

Visit of French Secretary of State:
Cameroonians appalled at Biya’s excessive warmth

President Biya who is customarily cold towards his guests treated a French envoy to an unusual reception this week. It struck the public that the president could be that affectionate towards a guest with rank of a junior minister

By Micheal Kimbi Tchenga in Yaounde

President Paul Biya is neither an enthusiastic person nor is he particularly warm. But when it comes to Cameroon’s relations with France, the president tends to go out of his way to display warmth and enthusiasm.
   
Last year, he obliged the former French Immigration minister Brice Hortefeux who was passing through Yaounde, among the African countries he was visiting, to extend his stay for a sumptuous fifty-place lunch in his honour. Both the visitor and analysts did not think the lunch necessary.
   
This week again saw the president display extraordinary warmth towards the French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet who came as an envoy with a message from the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.
   
For a man who usually shakes hands with visitors at arm’s length, Paul Biya pulled Joyandet close with two hands and embraced him. He further embellished the audience by offering Joyandet a traditionally decorated gourd; interpreted by some as a gesture too many.
   
Even within the CPDM party, the president has been criticised for over doing it. Alain Joyandet, Cameroonians say, is only a Secretary of State and that the president did not have to bend over backwards to receive him.
   
And what message did Joyandet bring from Sarkozy? He brought an invitation for president Biya to visit the Elysee Palace sometime in the summer. Although the government has presented the invitation as some diplomatic triumph, Paul Biya felt all the same somewhat disappointed.
   
For all of last year, Paul Biya was practically on his knees pleading with the Nicolas Sarkozy to visit Cameroon. But the latter appears determined not to do that.
   
Only recently, Sarkozy dropped Yaounde from his list of African countries he would be visiting in a 36-hour flying tour later this month. Yaounde was definitely not pleased with this.
It is believed by analysts that Paris sent Joyandet to extend the invitation to Biya and a proposed visit of the French Prime Minister to Cameroon, all of these, to reassure Yaounde that relations are still cordial between Yaounde and Paris.

 

Papal visit:
Are Christians paying for access tickets to pope’s mass?

While Christians in Yaounde wishing to attend the mass to be celebrated by the pope during his visit here paid 1000 FCFA each to their parishes, church authorities announced that access badges were free. But the parishes continued collecting the fee

By Ojong Steven Ayuk in Yaounde

Hundreds of thousands of Catholic Christians in Cameroon will be dying to attend the mass to be said by Pope Benedict XVI when he visits the country next week, but only about 50,000 with full wallets will likely be given access badges.
   
Church authorities announced some weeks ago that only Christians who were up-to-date with their annual financial contributions will qualify for access badges to the holy mass to be celebrated by the pope at Yaounde Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium on 19 March.
   
In Yaounde, the annual contribution is 12,000 FCFA and for many Catholic Christians with limited means it will be an uphill task to raise that amount.
   
Even then, Christians who went to their parishes in Yaounde to apply for access badges to the mass were asked to pay a non-refundable fee of 1000 FCFA.
   
Church sources told us that some Christians complained about this fee to the archbishop of Yaounde, Victor Tonye Bakot, who is also president of the Episcopal Conference and chair of the organising committee for the pope’s visit.
   
Tonye Bakot then issued a communiqué last week announcing that applications for access badges to the pope’s mass, to be attended by 50,000 people, were free of charge.
   
But when this reporter visited the Obili parish in Yaounde, Christians were still being asked to pay the 1000 FCFA fee. Christians from other parishes who spoke to this newspaper said they were experiencing the same situation.
   
However, some of them justified the fee saying it will offset the cost of the printing of the access badges.
   
Applications for the access badges officially ended on Wednesday, but Christians are reported to be still struggling to get the names on the list.
   
It is believed that the church in Cameroon will scoop hundreds of millions of francs from the annual church contributions and the application fees.
   
The church will also likely make much money from the sale of the official fabrics of the papal visit. At the Cathedral Notre Dame in Yaounde, The Herald was told that two of the fabrics sell officially at 15,000 FCFA each while the third design sells for 10,000 FCFA. The price of the official T-shirt is 2500 FCFA.
   
These fabrics are said to be selling like hot cake.
   
Meanwhile, the Yaounde archdiocese has intensified preparations ahead of the papal visit. Apart from works to ensure aesthetic improvement of the sites the pope is to visit, the church has also engaged in intensive preparations.
   
A release posted at the cathedral here read that prayer sessions for the pope will run from 4:00-5:45 pm each day until 16 March. Faithful will also keep vigil from 7 pm to 6am on Sunday to double prayers for reconciliation, peace, justice in Africa and for the continuity of the Catholic Church.

 

Mbouda mayor moans month-long dry taps crisis

He is crying out for help from government and international humanitarian organisations

By Tendong David in Bafoussam

There is a looming disaster in Mbouda, following one month of dry taps already and counting, the mayor of the town has warned.
   
Martin Kuete Mylord told journalists in Mbouda on 6 March that residents of the town have gone without potable water for over four weeks and were now relying on dubious sources of water with all the health, economic and social consequences that go with it.
   
The mayor blamed the water supply monopoly Camerounaise des Eaux for adopting an astounding indifferent attitude towards the plight of the population despite repeated appeals by his office for the company to act fast.
   
He said officials of Camerounaise des Eaux promised repeatedly to solve the problem but had not yet taken any action.
   
Kuete disclosed that he was making arrangements to hire water tankers to transport drinkable water from neighbouring towns to serve the Mbouda population.
   
But the mayor said this is only a temporary solution and appealed to the government and international humanitarian organisations to help Mbouda to find a long-lasting solution to the crisis.
   
When reporters visited the Mbouda branch of Camerounaise des Eaux, the manager was busy distributing water bills to angry clients. The branch manager said the problem was caused by the lack of a water pumping machine at the two water catchments situated 12km outside Mbouda. He said the problem was not at the level of his company but that of municipal authorities.
   
Most persons in Mbouda now depend on water bought by bus drivers from neighbouring towns. Car owners also drive out of town to obtain drinking water.
   
Although a health epidemic is feared, authorities have not yet announced any health problems related to the dry taps crisis.