Politics
The remains of two Cameroonian soldiers killed by Boko Haram were decorated in Maroua on Friday, by the Governor of the Far North Region,Midjiyawa Bakari.
Caporal Ngafdigang Joseph and Halilou Ismael Benson were both posthumously raised to the rank of Bravery in the Cameroonian military.
The Friday, 4th of November 2016 ceremony was to pay tributes to the soldiers who gave the supreme sacrifice in the fight against terrorism and attended by four army Generals among them was the Commander of the Multi-National Joint Task Force.
The Commander of the Multi-National Joint Task Force said the demise of the two soldiers gives more encourage to the military expedition to completely flush out the terrorists. He added terrorist have been rounded up within a small area.
Cameroontoday
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- Rita Akana
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Member of CPDM Central Committee.
What assessment can you make of the stewardship of the New Deal 34 years on?
As a Cameroon national that I am and one that has been at the forefront of political evolution of this country, particularly after the first republic, I think the New Deal government under the leadership of the distinguished President Paul Biya, who is a committed Cameroonian, has achieved so much. These achievements can be categorized in all the developmental programmes that he has had, be it in social, educational, infrastructural which includes roads, telecoms, stadiums, hydro-electric dams, hospitals amongst others. Again, across the periphery of Cameroon, he has shown that he wants even development. In terms of achievements in diplomacy, he has become a mentor even to most African leaders. A mentor in the way he manages the State with peace and order. Cameroon has become an enviable State as far as peace and national concord is concern. These are qualities that are rare in a proper leadership. His tackling of worrying issues like insurgency of some pockets of people who call themselves Boko Haram as he tries to ensure that he wipes them off from his territory and even more so going into alliance with other countries and the world to make sure that we do not harbour people who are there to destabilise the country. I think that we have achieved much under the leadership of President Paul Biya. In a nutshell, President Biya’s New Deal government has been progressing steadily, surely and in the right direction. Of course more is in stock with the envisaged national developmental agenda dubbed “Vision 2035”.
Some critics say the achievements are not enough in 34-year rule of the New Deal. What is your opinion on that?
When critics say “achievements are not enough” how do they quantify it? Where do they start and where do they end? Is it in terms of development of ports, schools, building hospitals? I will say that on the contrary, the New Deal government has done much. The country cannot be developed in a day. Even countries that we call advanced nations today took hundreds of years to attain the level they are now. So we will not say that the New Deal government has done nothing or that what it has done is immeasurable; I say no. The New Deal government is following a planned agenda and it’s progressing.
The New Deal has in the recent past embarked on the construction of structural projects like the dams, the deep sea port amongst others. Do you think that these projects constructed with loans will have a trickledown effect on the wellbeing of the population?
Naturally, the trickledown effect will be enormous on the population. Economic projects of that nature attract many other avenues of development which can transform the whole human life because they create opportunities for employment. In fact, all over the world, it is the private people who set up business in conformity with the law that creates jobs. Of course, the projects like the Kribi Deep Seaport, Memvele and Lom Panga dams amongst others are pillars for development. These are projects that show that the New Deal government is out to transform human lives and it’s doing that properly.
At 34, the New Deal has faced many challenges. What is your appraisal of the handling of these challenges?
Every regime in the world even in most developed countries has challenges of different dimensions and of course Cameroon is not an exception. Naturally, we are bound to have challenges, be it economic, political, social or diplomatic etc. But with maturity and vision, President Biya has been able to handle these challenges with the support of the nation. Take for example the settling of the border dispute of Bakassi Peninsular in the South West Region and the war against Boko Haram in the Far North Region. You can see that there is national concord in anything that we do. Cameroonians are not people who just go out because they want to demonstrate. They do things in a mature and orderly manner. I think that this should continue in the years to come.
The principle of rigour and moralisation that marked the beginning of the New Deal seems to have been abandoned. What explanation can you give to that?
I don’t think it has been abandoned. If it was abandoned, then why are people behind bars? In fact, when President Paul Biya came up with the principle during his inaugural speech in 1982, people did not know the importance and how far-reaching that statement was. But now, they are seeing it. The truth is coming out. It has now created more awareness among people on management techniques and financial management of public funds and unfortunately for some of our compatriots, who found themselves trapped by the legal net for misappropriation of public funds.
What does the future hold for Cameroon with the New Deal?
The New Deal has set up a platform and principles which should be a tradition now for Cameroonians to know that we have to work as one and indivisible Cameroon. We should know that our destiny is in our hands. So we have to follow the economic programme for the development of our nation. I think that whenever the New Deal may hand over government to in future should preserve that power. Of course, CPDM working now for the New Deal, we want to preserve it and preserving it means that the programme we have in hand now, is executed to its logical end. If it ends, it creates another stage for continuation. There is the need for people to have a spirit of oneness, peace and harmony and I think people are conscious of that.
HRM Nfor Senator Tabe Tando: “The New Deal government is out to transform human lives and it’s doing that properly”.
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Cameroon has one of the most liberal press in Africa and the most fearful citizens in the world. When I read reports that the media is "not free or partly free," I weep. It is very free. I may only argue that the cost of production for reporters is high and that the broadcast licenses are exorbitant for the private stations.
But come to think of it. The last time a journalist was ever arrested or molested was this year. And investigate keenly. They had either been under a controversial lawsuit or had played rough with some authorities. And their arrest lasted only hours before the media could talk much about it.
The most critical media in Cameroon have headquartered 30 minutes away from the Presidency and one minute away from the Presidential Guard headquarters. But none of their reporters has ever been arrested for writing any hard article against the gangster regime. They are free to write as the like and publish what they want. In fact, I am a regular columnist for one of Cameroon's most critical and widely read English-speaking Newspapers, The Guardian Post.
You see if you did not pose any security threat to the gangster regime, or investigate sects or whatever thing perceived as "dangerous" for the people in power, you are as free as a freedom. Most often, even elites pardon libelous works or defamatory statements. No prolific media can claim absolute neutrality on that, and the regime knows it.
When people say Tapang are you not afraid, I laugh. Afraid of who? Did I embezzle? Did I steal money like some gangster ministers and put in Western treasuries? Did I ever hold a public office? Did I ever investigate the private lives of people? When has critiquing public management become a crime? In fact, they should be glad that I give them proposed solutions freely without the need for hiring my services.
It is your inalienable right to talk as citizens and exercise your civic and political liberties. Biya is not a fool to allow more than 600 registered political parties and more than 500 newspapers up and running in the country. He is not a fool to allow more than 20 TV stations and 100 radio stations running in the country. And note that among these liberal press, only one private TV station is operating on a license.
Well, I regularly visit Cameroon and my when the police see me, they offer me, one man. All through my life, before July 2015, I was in Cameroon. It is, however, very peaceful and loving. The only problem is poverty that silences people from talking and a gangster regime that deliberately allows angry people to freely express their views and feel satisfied. Sometimes when you have an angry wife, don't exchange words with her. Allow her to express and shout out her views. Then she will calm down. Did I make some sense?
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Framed portraits of a youthful Paul Biya hang on office and hotel walls across Cameroon. The presidency released the picture when Mr Biya came to power in 1982 and it remains the official photograph of a leader who, now in his eighties, appears sprightly but has wrinkles and dyed black hair.
This weekend, Cameroonian officials and civil servants will head to their home villages, towns and cities to host parties honouring Mr Biya to mark the 34 years he has been in power in the central African nation.
While loyalists celebrate and pray for “continuity”, more and more young people are venting their frustration with the 83-year-old leader. Cameroonians who have lived their whole lives under Mr Biya’s presidency are increasingly saying, mostly on social media, that they have had enough.
“We are a nation of young people being led by elderly ones. They don’t listen to us,” said Jean, 25, who bags groceries at Casino, a French-owned supermarket in the capital Yaounde. “I have a Masters’ degree in law and I want to use it. Instead I’m doing this,” he said, adding that there are “too many” people like him.
Across Africa, only Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe have been in power longer. During his tenure, Mr Biya quashed any possible successors in his own government by sacking or jailing them and has successfully neutralised the country’s opposition by buying them off. With no obvious successor in place, there is growing alarm about what comes next for Cameroon.
“The country is very much unprepared. It’s dangerous because there’s so much uncertainty and no one knows what’s happening inside the black box of government,” said Denis Tull, a Cameroon scholar at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
The small country’s geography — a neighbour of giant Nigeria and the Atlantic Ocean gateway for states including oil-rich Chad — means its stability matters far beyond its borders. This has kept western allies, especially former colonial ruler France but also the US, on Mr Biya’s side. With 220 American military personnel based in the northern city of Garoua, Cameroon has become a key US partner in the regional fight against Islamist militants Boko Haram.
“[Mr Biya] has always been able to portray Cameroon as a steady ally of western countries,” said Berny Sèbe, Francophone Africa expert at the University of Birmingham. “As a result, he’s been able to resist [external] attempts to democratise the continent.”
The perception that the elite has pillaged national resources at the expense of development is palpable, said Fred Eboko, a political scientist at the Institute for Research and Development in Paris.
Despite the fall in the price of oil, economic growth has not fallen as precipitously here as elsewhere on the continent. It still runs above 5 per cent. This is partly because it also has coffee and timber to exploit.
But from the lush southern lowlands to the picturesque hill country in the west and the remote north, signs of decay abound. Major highways are ridden with potholes. Universities lack reliable internet connections and contemporary textbooks. The airport in the largest northern city, Maroua, is a dust-covered reminder of a time before the tourism industry was killed off by the Boko Haram insurgency two years ago, when militants first streamed in from Nigeria. Hundreds of Cameroonians have since been killed in attacks and 200,000 displaced.
Anger flared following a train accident last month that killed 79 people and injured hundreds.
Returning home after the accident — he had been abroad for 35 days — Mr Biya declared his government’s handling of the accident’s aftermath “fairly positive”. He was pilloried on social media. Some called him heartless and one commenter labelled him a “crazy old man”.
AFP
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Amnesty International has strongly condemned the 10-year sentence slapped on a 27-year-old Cameroonian who joked about Boko Haram.
Fomusoh Ivo and two of his friends - Afuh Nivelle Nfor and Azah Levis Gob - were convicted by a Cameroon Military court in Yaounde and sentenced to 10 years in prison for "non-denunciation of terrorist acts" linked to a sarcastic SMS about the terror group.
Even Boko Haram, wouldn’t hire you unless you passed five high school subjects.
"Fomusoh Ivo and his two friends should never have been arrested in the first place, as they were simply exercising their right to freedom of expression," Samira Daoud, Amnesty International Deputy Regional Director for West and Central Africa said in a statement late on Wednesday. "Instead of being in school like their friends, these three young men will now spend years of their lives in prison for a simple joke.
"This ruling is clear evidence that Cameroonian military courts should not have jurisdiction to try civilians. The Cameroonian authorities must quash their conviction and sentence and immediately and unconditionally release all three of them."
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Nigeria’s army says it has rescued at least 36 women and children from Boko Haram militants. The rescues took place in the North-eastern Borno State.
The rescues are part of the army's efforts to clear the militants along the border between Nigeria and Niger.
The army says six members of Boko Haram have been killed in the operation. Several others escaped with gunshot wounds.
The insurgents also reportedly left behind items like motorcycles and flags. It's not clear where the rescued women and children have been taken at this stage.
CCTV
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# Paul Biya and his regime
Explore the political landscape of Cameroon under the rule of Paul Biya, the longest-serving president in Africa who has been in power since 1982. Our Paul Biya and his regime section examines the policies, actions, and controversies of his government, as well as the opposition movements, civil society groups, and international actors that challenge or support his leadership. You'll also find profiles, interviews, and opinions on the key figures and events that shape the political dynamics of Cameroon.
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