Politics

The National President of the Cameroon People’s Party (CPP) Edith Kahbang Walla and his Vice President are on war path over the party’s decision to boycott May 20^th celebrations.

Kah Walla recently signed a press release, indicating that her party will not take part in this year’s National Day celebrations, following the callous management of the Anglophone crisis by the Biya Government.

“We cannot participate in official festivities when we do not agree with the current management of the Anglophone Crisis. No celebration of national unity in exclusion, violation of fundamental rights and repression,” the CPP President wrote.

Kah Walla had informed the CPP militants not to partake in the festivities because the national unity which Biya’s song birds were singing was just an illusion, while the country was gradually plunging into a civil war because of bad governance.

She advised Cameroonians to use this year’s National Day to reflect on how to unite and look for   a way forward.

“Instead of participating in this superficial ceremony that increasingly resembles a personality cult, we should instead come together to define ways to build a nation truly united, strong, just and prosperous,” Kah Walla said.

Meanwhile, after issuing her press release, the CPP executive was stunned on, May 16, when the State-owned broadcaster (CRTV) read a communiqué purportedly signed by the CPP Vice National President, calling on militants of the party not to respect the President’s boycott call.

In his release, the Vice President said the National Day boycott decision was unilaterally taken by the National President and was contrary to the vision of the party which stands for nationalism and citizenship.

On his part, the Secretary General of the CPP, Frank Esi, issued a disclaimer, deflating the Vice President’s release. Esi also accused CRTV of manipulation in a bid to cause division in the party.

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Rita Akana

18.May.2017

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The Minister of Secondary Education, Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe, has reported the Archbishop of Bamenda, to Prime Minister, Philemon Yang, for refusing to meet him while on a visit to Bamenda.

The Archbishop of Bamenda, Mgr. Cornelius Fontem Esua, allegedly avoided meeting him during his visit to Bamenda last week. The Post learnt that the Minister, in briefing PM Yang, after his mission to the two Northwest and Southwest Regions last week, backbit Archbishop.

The Post learnt that, while in Bamenda on May 10, together with Northwest Governor, Adolphe Lele L’Afrique, the Minister was surprised by a communiqué, signed by the Secretary General of the Bamenda Provincial Ecclesiastical Conference, Zephrinus Yem Mbuh, addressed to the Registrar of the Cameroon GCE Board, relating to the organisation of the 2017 GCE Exams.

The Secretary General stated, “unequivocally”, that Bishops of the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference, comprising the Bamenda, Buea, Kumbo, Mamfe and Kumba Dioceses, had finally given their consent that all Catholic colleges that were earmarked to serve as accommodation centres for the 2017 GCE sessions, will be available for both the practical and written parts of the examinations in the Dioceses.

The Registrar of the GCE Board, Dr. Humphrey Ekema Monono, was also in Bamenda on that day accompanying Minister Ngalle Bibehe in the assessment of preparations for the exams.

The GCE Board Registrar was reportedly handed the communiqué after a working session that the Minister held with Principals of colleges, including those of confessional schools, related to the organisation of the 2017 GCE Exams.

Closed Door Meeting

The Post leant from a reliable source close to the entourage of the Minister that a closed door meeting was held at the Northwest Governor’s Office to discuss the communiqué.

The Minister, Governor and the GCE Board Registrar found the communiqué not only surprising, but also confusing, due to a number of reasons.

One of the reasons was that the communiqué was received by the GCE Board Registrar, shortly after the Minister of Secondary Education ended the working session with principals, including those of Catholic Colleges.

Some Reverend Sisters and Priests who are principals of these Catholic colleges that attended the meeting, were opposed to the idea that the GCE Exams should take place when students have not been adequately prepared.

Due to the strike by Anglophone teachers’ trade unions as well as the ongoing Anglophone Crisis, Anglophone pupils and students in the two Anglophone Regions have, generally, been away from school since November 21, 2016. If the principals and students who have not been going to school sit for exams, there will certainly arise a question of credibility about the certificate.

Our source said the Minister could not reconcile the communiqué and the pronouncements that were made by Catholic Education principals at the working session earlier on that day.

The Minister wondered how the Bishops could have taken the decision that Catholic colleges earmarked as accommodation centres for the 2017 GCE Examination sessions would be available, without the knowledge of the principals.

Archbishop Allegedly Avoids Meeting Minister

Amid the confusion, the authorities at the closed door meeting resolved that Minister Ngalle Bibehe meets with the Archbishop of Bamenda, His Grace Cornelius Fontem Esua, to get clarification on the communiqué.

The GCE Board Registrar was asked to call the Archbishop and fix a rendezvous for the meeting. Monono succeeded to get to Archbishop Esua by phone, but the Archbishop was quoted as having told Monono that he was out of town, precisely in Widikum, and would only return to Bamenda the next day.

Monono’s attempt to convince Mgr. Esua to cut short his pastoral mission to Widikum and return to Bamenda on that May 10 and meet with the Minister, failed.

However, our source said, the Minister who was supposed to return to Yaounde early on May 11, decided to delay his trip till later in the day, in a bid to meet with the Archbishop. But all attempts on that May 11 to get to the Archbishop by phone allegedly failed.

With the Minister having failed to meet with Archbishop Esua, to get confirmation that Catholic colleges earmarked as accommodation centres for the 2017 GCE Examination will be available, the authorities resolved that it would be wise for the Government and the state media to be silent about the communiqué.

The Post leant that the Minister assigned some persons in Bamenda to monitor the situation in the two Catholic colleges in town; Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Lourdes, which are both earmarked accommodation centres, to see if there were any preparations going on.

At the end of Friday, May 12, the message that Minister received back in Yaounde, was that there were no signs of any preparations in those schools.

Government Threats

Meanwhile Reverend Fathers and Sisters who are principals of Colleges in the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference, and whose schools were earmarked as accommodation centres for 2017 GCE Examinations, have been strongly opposed to their schools being part of the controversial examinations.

The May 10 communiqué reportedly took the Catholic Education principals aback as they were allegedly never consulted or hinted.

The Post learnt that the Bishops were reportedly under strong pressure and repeated intimation by Government, with the latest one being a threat that any school earmarked to serve as accommodation centre for the 2017 GCE Exams that fails to open its doors, will be banned by Government.

Another threat is that if the Catholic schools refuse to serve as accommodation centres for the GCE, all Catholic Missions will not get a franc as State subvention for the 2017/2018 school year.

Indignation Of Principals

The Post also learnt that there was a stormy meeting between some Bishops and some irate principals of Catholic colleges in the evening of March 11 in Bamenda, following the May 10 communiqué.

At the end of the day, the principals said all what they will do to respect the order of the Government will be to open the doors of dormitories as well as the doors of their laboratories and classrooms, but vowed that they will not be party to the 2017 GCE Examination for which they did not properly prepare their students.

Catholic Education principals are arguing that their students were registered for the GCE as a precautionary measure, hoping that Government react to the demand of the Anglophone population and end ghost towns and restore peace and security for effective resumption of schools.

They had hoped that if a conducive environment returns, Government will extend the academic year in Anglophone Schools.

THEPOSTNEWSLINE

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Rita Akana

17.May.2017

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About 8 of the 10 students who were stung by a mad swamp of bees at GHS Buea town, Monday have regained their homes after   treatment at the Buea Regional Hospital and Integrated centre.  Some parents of the GCE candidates were at these hospitals to ensure that medics provided the necessary treatment to their kids who suffered from the violent bee rampage.  Cameroon Concord confirmed from a nurse at the Integrated centre  that the other two cases were serious and victims could not return home . They are being monitored closely by medics.

The dramatic incident  is still making news in the South West region with many insinuating that the bees were diabolically sent to disrupt  the controversial  GCE Exams. But the principal of the school has debunked  claims that the "Ambazonian bees" as they are popularly refereed to were sent through black magic.
“You know in any school environment we try to make sure that the place is clean and we don’t have any other people to do the cleaning, so students were assigned to clean the areas behind the school. A valley, to make it clean and then the students being who they are, thought that, they saw the bee hive and they thought that if they can do something and then come and tell us that bees have attacked us they wouldn’t continue working. So they have to throw stones at the bee hives and then the bees came out and as the bees were attacking them, they too were running back and coming,” the Principal explained
The Principal further went on to assure parents and students that they will resume school tomorrow at 7:30 AM;
At the moment exams have resumed hitch free, with tight security  though we cannot confirm whether the medically released students have continued with  the exams. Parents and guardians fear,  the incident could traumatize their children and jeopardize their success chances in the exams.   But school authorities claim there is no cause for alarm.

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Rita Akana

17.May.2017

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The Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms has issued a press release launching two competitive entrance examinations to recruit 80 English-speaking Cameroonians into the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM).

The decision that came on Tuesday is a desperate attempt by the government to solve some of the problems raised by some Common Law lawyers, which is part of the raison d’être of the unrest in West Cameroon.

According to the press release, the president of Cameroon has instructed the Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms to launch two competitive examinations “for the special recruitment of  50(fifty) Pupil Magistrates and 30(thirty) student Court Registrars of English expression into the Magistracy and Registry Division of the National School of Administration and Magistracy(NSAM) for the 2017/2018 academic year…”

The written phase of the examinations will be done exclusively in English, and shall take place in the chief towns of the Centre, North, North West and South West regions, says the press release.

In the meantime, serial examinations organized by the institution are yet to be launched.  

This is one in a line of desperate attempts by the government to handle the concerns raised by Southern Cameroonians, fighting against what they call their marginalization by their French-speaking compatriots.

Previously the Minister of Justice had announced the creation of a department of Common Law in the same institution. A department of Common Law had equally been created at the French-speaking state universities in the country, as well as a department of French Private Law in the two universities in West Cameroon.

This move targets principally Common Law lawyers who have been denouncing the invasion of their legal life by civil law professionals, among other things.

The unrest in West Cameroon began in November 2016.  

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Tasha Seidou

17.May.2017

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Surprises have never ceased to be occurrent in Cameroon through Cameroon Radio and Television Channel. Yesterday the 15th of May 2017,another drama was staged by CRTV dramatists. They interviewed a Bamilike in Kumba who said he has lived in Kumba for fifty years and another Hausa from the North was interviewed from Old Town Bamenda,who equally said he has lived in Abakwa for twenty years.

I want to remind that Junk of a Journalist to understand the following dynamics and truths:

The Bamilikees were forced to resettle across the Mungo and precisely in areas around the erstwhile Southern Cameroons because of the heavy hand of La Republique Du Cameroun on them that was aimed at completely wiping them out from the surface of the earth.
Hausas across the World come from Nigeria and as migrants who settled in Abakwa in 1910,one cannot call them strangers.  

We cannot afford to say that because French men and women who have lived in Britain for centuries can today say they are Britons?

This falsification and manipulation cannot be given a pass mark by any right minded and right thinking Cameroon nor does it hand wink international public opinion.

Why did the CRTV not brandish the binding treaty that ratifies the two Cameroons and nullifying the Internationally recognized Simeon-Miller Agreement separating French Cameroun and British Cameroon?

Can CRTV be bold enough to trace our historical trajectories and call each word and pronounce each statement or sentence just as it is supposed to be read?

Can CRTV be bold enough to criticise the crab across Cameroon that passes for translations on bail boards whereas we purportedly have A School of Translators and Interpreters?

Can CRTV tell us how can it be possible to be harping on the relevance of the much trumpeted 20th May farse in the name of National day,when we all know that it was meant for the United Republic of Cameroon, wheras today it's that French Cameroun that obtained its independence from France that is celebrating it.Jointly celebrating it alongside Anglophones is fraudulent and posses as a checkered history.  

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Rita Akana

16.May.2017

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The SDF's decision not to be part of this year's National Day has attracted a media campaign, a move which the party's scribe Senator Jean Tsomelou has described as attempts to destabilize the party.

The socialist movement is accused of eating from the same plate with the regime. Monday's editions of French dailies, "L'independent" and "Le Soir" carried stories on the SDF with claims that the party had received over 6.5 billion FCFA during the 2011 Presidential and the 2013 Municipal, legislative and Senatorial elections.  

In the midst of this scandal, the Secretary General of the SDF has lashed out at attempts from some people to tarnish the image of the party. In a communique released yesterday, Senator Jean Tsomelou argues that these French dailies are being sponsored by a cabal to hit the party. He doubts how many publications will work on a story, treat it similarly at the same when it was not a press conference.

He says the party will reserve the right to take to court these media organs and journalists for defamation.

Observers however say if would be difficult for the SDF to claim it has never received money from the state since MPs, Senators and recently mayors all receive some form of remuneration from the state. Beyond party assistance it is also alleged the SDF chairman,  John Fru Ndi had received assistance from the state purse during the death if his wife. And that millions were spent for in the build up to the historic meeting between President Paul Biya and John Fru Ndi in 2010. But whether such money received implies that the state is financing the party is the bone of contention.

SDF says the law of 2012/001 of 19 April 2012 modified and completed by law number 2012/017 of 21 December 2012, gives room for political parties not only SDF to receive funding from the State and not a gift from State. And such subventions doesn't mean that the party is funded by the regime. However critics say such legislation gives room for political "blackmail" and political parties should be able to auto finance themselves and stop receiving subventions from the state.

If What the SDF says is True,why then did the Newspapers Attempt to SET such an AGENDA at this moment.  

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Rita Akana

16.May.2017

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