Politics

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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Rita Akana

04.Nov.2016

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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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Amnesty International

03.Nov.2016

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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.

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Rita Akana

02.Nov.2016

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 Zacchaeus Mungwe Fornjindam, the former General Manager of the Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering, CNIC, was on Tuesday, November 1, 2016, sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by the Supreme Court in Yaounde. This followed an appeal by his counsel. He was earlier sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2012 by the Littoral Appeal Court for embezzling about 350 million FCFA.

Zacchaeus Fornjindam was on Tuesday found guilty of embezzling 273 million FCFA during his tenure at CNIC. The unanimous ruling was read out by Justice Mvondo Evezo'o, President of the Specialised Bench of the Supreme Court. Out of the amount, 214 million FCFA was paid out to Logisco, a CNIC contractor that belonged to one of its staff, Louta Samuel. The court said this created conflict of interest. The remaining 59 million FCFA was unjustified expenses the former GM incurred. Another co-accused, Djane Antoine, was slammed a 32-year imprisonment; while Louta Samuel got 25 years.

The court lifted the confiscation of five homes and a vehicle belonging to Fornjindam. However, it confiscated a car and 11 plots of land in Douala, Yaounde and Mezam Division of the North West Region belonging to Fornjindam and wife. Similarly, five of Fornjindam’s bank accounts were frozen. Louta Samuel’s bank accounts were also confiscated. Fornjindam and co-accused are to pay 470 million FCFA to the Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering as losses.

Responding to the ruling, Barrister Baombe Paul, one of Fornjindam’s counsel, said overall, he was disappointed as it was never proven that his client stole any money. He said Fornjindam was simply the victim of his own ingenuity and success, which prompted the jealousy of his enemies. His colleague, Barrister Djoubairou Ousmanou, said it was unthinkable that assets Fornjindam acquired with his wife, a well-known, successful business woman, should also be confiscated. Meanwhile, Fornjindam faces at least two other corruption trials at the Supreme Court, including an appeal against a life conviction for embezzling about 200 million FCFA.

The story of Zacchaeus Mungwe Fornjindam is anything but a paradox. He led CNIC for almost 20 years, about half of it in acting capacity. Several times congratulated by President Paul Biya for lifting the performance of the Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering to an enviable level, Fornjindam was soon to be fired and arrested in 2008 on charges of corruption. His lawyers told Cameroon Tribune that at the time Fornjindam was fired from CNIC in 2008, it had an annual turnover of 48 billion FCFA. But the amount dropped to a single billion FCFA one year after.

“Today, the Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering is a shadow of its old self, with General Managers replaced regularly without any lasting solution being found to the problem,” noted Barrister Baombe Paul. “The takeoff of the Limbe Petroleum Dockyard, the brainchild of Zacchaeus Mungwe Fornjindam, remains in doubt, with 5,000 direct jobs missed. Someone like Fornjindam should be protected against the wicked. People like him make the strength of the State,” Barrister Djoubairou Ousmanou said. “CNIC is plagued by workers’ strikes, with salaries paid irregularly, yet the author of the glorious years of the company is languishing in jail,” he noted.

Cameroon Tribune

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Rita Akana

02.Nov.2016

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Many people have been questioning the motive behind the arrest of CCP's Leader Edith Kahbang Walla, and we just thought we could do a slight briefing on it.After the train derailment of Friday Oct. 21st 2016, Edith got more furious at the government,exposing their incompetency in the management of the country, and asked Cameroonian to STANDUP more than ever to fight for safety on our roads, in a Press Release of Oct. 22nd 2016.

In the rest of her press release, she was seemingly campaigning for her party, while calling on Cameroonians to join the Cameroon's People Party and protest for a "Political Transition of the Government". The Press Released ended by inviting Cameroonians to watch out for coming instructions, that will be communicated on the necessary actions that would be taken to protest against Government's irresponsibilities on the safety and security of Cameroonians.It is in this light that on Oct. 27th 2016, Mawo Serge, militant of the CPP took to their CPP's Facebook page in this words: "To say that the Biya's government is a failure would be agross understatement.

A president that has no interest in the welfare of his citizens (the recent disastrous train accident is a classic example). I prefer not to state how the minister of communication falsely and shamefully blamed the road collapse and the train disaster on boko haram; worse he claimed that the said boko haram members responsible had been apprehended.This same Francophone led government of Cameroon has literally ignored the ongoing sit-in strike of the Anglophone lawyers (on which the strike is basically a fight against all forms of assimilation of all Anglophones by the Francophones) and better the lives of more than 5 million of her"citizens".

We the CCLL have also since resolved that the strke shall continue indefinitely except and until all our demands are met. These demands are contained in the CCLL conferences 1 & 2 resolutions and in the communiqué calling for this strike.The gist of these resolutions is that:

1. We want a return to the Federal system of government we voted for in the plebiscite of 11th February, 1961. That is two independent nations of equal status having full independence uniting as a Federation of states;
2. We want to have a southern Cameroons National Assembly to enable us make our own laws and other legislation;
3. We want a perfect Common law legal system for Southern Cameroons, ie having her own law school to train lawyers. To nominating and confirming via our own House of Assembly, judges of the lowest to the highest courts, ie including a Southern Cameroons Supreme Court;
4. We want to be able to decide onour educational parth and future which primarily favours technical education;
5. We of course demand the use of English language as the sole working language of Southern Cameroons;
6. We want to manage all our natural resources e.g petroleum, timber etc, and direct FD investment and development; and
7. We want to have the possibility of breaking away from the Union with French Cameroon if it becomes at anytime the wish of the majority of Southern Cameroonians.We are calling on all Anglophone Cameroonians to stand with us and fight by us to achieve these objective. Together we shall succeed.The time is now.
If you support the above objective please share this on all social media available to you".
Based on this and the others enumerated in Kah Walla's STANDUP call in her Press Release of Oct. 22nd, CPP converged on Oct. 28 at their Head Office in Yaounde, and that was where the Forces of Law and Order stumped the place brutalized and arrested Edith and some of her militants and took them to the Yaounde 4th District Police Station.They were later released late in the night following intense pressure from high places.It should be noted that Cameroons have accusing Edith Kah Walla for taking advantage of the grieving situation in the country to multiply her campaign strategies."How does an accident become political even though there was negligence, if they could win parliamentary seat then they couldchange the system and make safety controls stringent. All this stomach politics" , one angry Cameroonian asked.

Cameroontoday

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Rita Akana

30.Oct.2016

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The Common Law Lawyers have a press release inviting all political parties within English speaking Cameroon to wake up from  slumber.Following the news of the communique which has gone viral on social media ,observers feel there is every indication that the lawyers are referring to the main opposition political party of the country the Social Democratic Front(SDF).

The SDF of Ni John Fru Ndi has been silent since the common law practitioners started this fight.While some hold that the SDF, is a national party and should not get involved, others argued that Speaking out does not mean the SDF is reduced to a regional party.

This is what the Anglophone lawyers wrote in their most recent communique,” That we invite the political parties operating within the Common Law Jurisdiction(s) of the North West and South West Regions and represented in Parliament and Senate, to live up to their responsibilities by joining us in Calling for a constitutional Conference through which a secured foundation will be laid for the security of the co-existence of the common law and Civil Law in Cameroon…”

Cameroontoday

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Rita Akana

30.Oct.2016

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