Politics

Brenda Biya has been thrown again into the limelight, not because of her weird lifestyle or extravagance at the detriment of Cameroonian taxpayers, but because of circulating images on social media showing her in tight grip in the hands of an individual who calls her "My love" The images speak for themselves, more can be seen on the individual's Facebook page here attached to thei article

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Mbi James

23.Oct.2016

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It is with tears in our eyes and with profound grief in our hearts that we address sincere condolences to the families and friends of all those who lost their lives today in the train accident at Eseka. The Cameroon People’s Party grieves with you. We grieve for the loved ones you have lost, we grieve for the senselessness of their deaths, and we grieve for ourselves as a nation that can no longer ensure the basic safety of its citizens. To those who are wounded and in pain, the Cameroon People’s Party sends you thoughts and prayers for courage, healing and strength. Our entire nation is with you at this difficult moment and it is our sincere hope that each and every one who is affected will find their health and vitality restored.

To the rest of our fellow citizens, the CPP raises its voice to ask of you solidarity and action. Now is the time when we must stand for our nation. Now is the time when we must define what it means to be Cameroonian. Every woman, man and child who was wounded or died in that accident is our sister, brother, child and compatriot! Cameroonians, let us STAND UP! Let us STAND UP for our families, let us STAND UP for our children, let us STAND UP for Cameroon! It is enough. How many people must die? How many must be wounded? How many are we going to sacrifice at the altar of our government’s incompetence? Hundreds have died in Cameroon this year alone, simply trying to get from one part of the country to the other.

Hundreds have been wounded, maimed. We cannot as citizens of this beloved country allow this to continue! It is you and I, our children, our families and our friends who are in danger. There is no question that we have lost dozens of Cameroonian lives today because:

• The current regime is unable to provide basic, safe and secure transportation services to its citizens between its two largest cities.

• Cameroonians pay billions of francs cfa in road tolls and taxes which have been used to create road funds and other facilities. Despite this, the regime is unable to carry out basic maintenance and upkeep, let alone upgrade of our roads to guarantee our safety.

• The officials of this regime whose salaries are paid for by you and I will always seek to protect themselves and their power rather than our well-being. The Minister of Transport, who should have been conducting emergency response since the early hours of this morning when the road collapsed was either uninformed or lying when he denied the derailing of the train after it had occurred. Ministers managed to find a helicopter to transport them to the site, but no helicopter to transport the wounded or the dead.

• In a crisis situation, the regime has absolutely no emergency response system.

The overflow of passengers at the train station today was predictable, due to the collapse of the Douala-Yaoundé road. No system was put into place to manage it. Risks appear to have been taken to board almost double the number of passengers the train usually carries. A private, profit-making corporation was left on its own to manage this crisis.

As a result over 50 Cameroonians are dead and over 500 have suffered injuries. Once the accident occurred, the complete lack of emergency health services in our country was once again most painfully brought to light. No ambulances, no emergency response teams, no one. As Cameroonian citizens today, we have no one.

No functional government that in any way protects our rights and well-being as citizens. We do not need another death. We do not need another crisis. We do not need any further proof that this government has reached the end of its abilities and possibilities. The Cameroon People’s Party is asking YOU as a Cameroonian to stand up! Stand up and let us take control of our welfare as citizens and our future as a nation. We can only count on ourselves and we will have only ourselves to blame if we do not stand up now. As a member of the Stand Up for Cameroon movement the Cameroon People’s Party will be joining other political parties and civil society organizations to take action with regard to this train accident in particular and the state of our nation in general. We ask you to join us. Join us to say enough is enough and to take action that will transition our country to a new system of governance.

It is important to sound the alarm on Facebook and on Twitter. It is important to write newspaper articles, it is important that we talk with our friends and console one another in our families. However, it is time to follow talk with action. It is time to take action as a citizen, to take responsibility as a Cameroonian. We must refuse to keep dying as a people. We must choose life. Join us at the Stand Up For Cameroon movement as we organize and prepare for legal and protest action. We will be demanding:

1. That the rights to emergency services and healthcare of those who were wounded in this accident be respected. That the families of those who have lost their lives receive all they are due.

2. Basic services for Cameroonians: water, electricity, healthcare, SAFE AND SECURE ROADS and more.

3. Political transition for Cameroon. It is time for a new political system for our country. If these are your objectives for our country, do not let these Cameroonians die for nothing. Take action today. Call 694 693 463 to join those who are standing up for Cameroun. The Stand Up For Cameroon movement will be communicating specific actions for Cameroonians to take within Cameroon and outside of Cameroon to protest this complete lack of responsibility for our safety and security as citizens that our government continues to demonstrate; as well as to take the first steps in taking the destiny of our country into our own hands. The Time Is NOW !!! Kah Walla National President

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Rita Akana

23.Oct.2016

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Yesterday's headlines reported two major collapses in Cameroon, a poor West African nation ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world. A portion of the only major highway linking the economic port city of Douala and the political capital of Yaounde caved in, leaving thousands of travelers confused.

Hours later, at least 53 people died and nearly 300 were injured when an overloaded passenger train traveling between Douala and Yaounde derailed and overturned, according to Aljazeera reports. Basically, every direct access point between Yaounde and Douala has collapsed. Only the rich can afford flying with the country's ailing airline company, CAMAIRCO.

Well, the Biya administration's national policy has failed, and every sector sustaining the country's economy is waning. I will explain.

Data from the CIA World Factbook revealed that among other countries in the world, Cameroon ranks 112 for its airports, 87 for its railways, and 76 for its roadways. Its railway connections are generally "efficient but limited," linking only four in 10 regional capitals. No English-speaking regional capital is linked.

Roadways total about 51,000 km, but only slightly over 4,000 km is tarred. A 2011 study finds that there is nearly 29,000 km of national roads. Take a deeper look at the transport system again. Most of Cameroon's roads were paved by former president Amadou Ahidjo who ruled between 1961 and 1982.

No major quality road construction work has taken place ever since President Paul Biya took office. Instead, the 34-year-old regime has been hawking from one foreign bank to the other, begging for loans like a 19th-century gangster. Many of its citizens and supporters are unaware of the dangers of international debt. Perhaps, I could better clarify this once and for all.

In International Political Economy, we often use a term "bad luck." It basically means that money is borrowed in huge sums in response to external factors, particularly the oil price shocks, high-interest rates, recessions and weak commodity prices. Also, political factors play a major role too. Cameroon borrows and spends more than it receives as revenues.

Estimated revenues in 2015 hit nearly $5 billion USD. But expenditures that same year were over $6 billion USD. We owe more than $4 billion dollars of international debt, roughly 28 percent of GDP. So ever since Heavily Indebted Poor Countries' Initiative canceled off Cameroon's loans in 2006, living standards even became worse.

Debts have been accumulating once again from 9 percent in 2008 to 19 percent in 2014 and 28 percent in 2015. And no one is stopping it? What in the world! Here are the big questions: What have we been doing with the borrowed money? Who has been taking how much for what project?

Spending FCFA75 billion to supply laptops to some favored students instead of building laptop manufacturing factories or tarring roads across major cities. With the absence of the rule of law, weak institutional checks and balances, bad democratic governance, opaque public accountability, the danger is that if Cameroon foreign debt exceeds 50 percent of its total revenues, it would be time to say goodbye.

Here is Tapang's take.

Halt the unwanted borrowing and stop relying on oil revenues. The oil wells are drying up and are unsustainable. In fact, as of 2007, a Correlates of War (COW) study revealed that all of Cameroon's oil would have been depleted in 7.1 years if it continued extracting it at that same rate COW recorded. Cameroon should diversity to agriculture. Investing more in that sector would not only pull back the country from teetering on the brink of an economic collapse but also from a conflict trap.

Oil has caused unresolved wars in most of Africa ever since sovereign states began producing the back gold. Cameroon has been saved from oil-related violence because of its heavily divided ethnicity. Paul Collier, an economist and conflict researcher argues along my lines. It takes decades for oil-related conflicts to be resolved but it takes hours for food-related conflicts to be resolved. And ever since Cameroon started oil production in 1979, there has been no oil-related violence. The first violent was food related in 2008. And that claimed over 100 lives, according to some media reports.

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Tapang Ivo

22.Oct.2016

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Cameroon, situated politically in Central Africa and geographically in West Africa is reputed for its uneven distribution of development projects.

If the architects of the reunification of Cameroon were still alive, then they would not only be regarded as traitors but they would have to explain why the 1961 plebiscite wherein they encouraged Southern Cameroonians to sign for a 50/50 economic development and political power sharing is yet to yield any fruits.

50 years after the reunification of the former British and French Cameroons, the former is not just deserted and abandoned to itself in the socio-economic and political aspects of life but equally, none of the clauses of the reunification is being respected.
French speaking regions developing very fast

In French-speaking regions of #Cameroon which constitute 80 percent of the national territory and population, the development of air, land and water transport systems is evolving at the speed of light. Talking about #air transport, the French-speaking part of Cameroon can as of now boast of at least three international airports namely, the Douala, Yaounde and Garoua airports not forgetting the newly created national travel routes to Bafoussam. These are  now all operational.
With the plethora of air routes already established in Francophone Cameroon, one will expect at least more from a nation which reunified on a 50/50 basis. Anglophones  compose the minority, occupying barely 20% of the national territory with two regions, the North West and South West.
English speaking infrastructure a ghost of the old days

Air transport which originally started in the English Speaking part of Cameroon is today a ghost of its former self. The Tiko airport constructed by the Germans during the pre-colonial period around the 1940s is today a mirror of what it used to be.

As the Female African Cup of Nations to be hosted by the South West and Center regions was announced, Anglophones in the South West Region breathed a sigh of relief as it was proclaimed that the Tiko airport was to be renovated and used to transport teams before, during and after the competition in Limbe.

As expected, the project died a natural death and recently the main road leading to the airport that was linked by an age-old bridge constructed during the pre-colonial period collapsed, handicapping the residents of the area and putting the road users in a difficult situation.

In the North West Region, the story is a similar one. A demarcated piece of land in Bali -Nyonga that at first was set aside for the construction of the Bamenda International airport has been turned into a hunting ground where idle youths go for hunting.
The Bafut military airstrip

A tiny one found in Bafut and used by the military has in recent years received a lot of criticism due to its soft nature of the ground which does not permit heavy aircraft above a certain number of tons to land on it.

Anglophone pressure groups, trade unions, lawyers and teachers among others have continued to decry the unjust treatment and uneven distribution of development projects even though they say their regions (North West and south West) are the breadbasket of Cameroon, having all the mineral deposits.
Calls for separation

While a group of individuals have classified themselves under the banner of the Ambazonia republic and are calling for the separation of the former British Southern Cameroons, the majority of the population remains indifferent with some focusing their minds on having just their daily bread.  

It has been announced that air routes will be extended to Bamenda. #reunification of Cameroon

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Amos Fofung

20.Oct.2016

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Rita Akana

19.Oct.2016

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Militants of the Cameroon Peoples’ Democratic Movement, CPDM, in Meme IB (Fiango) summoned for reconciliation on October 13, ended up trading insults at each other.

The meeting which held in a popular Hotel in Kumba II at the behest of the CPDM Meme Divisional Coordinator, Benjamin Mutanga Itoe, reportedly turned into a forum for insults among militants.

Steps taken to reconcile the warring camps of the Section collapsed at the last minutes. 

Information from the in-camera gathering holds that militants who dreamt of taking over control of Kumba II in 2013 surfaced with campaign posters.

The Post further gathered that Barrister Philip Awutah Atuba, one of the frontline militants of the party during the legislative elections condemned the character of certain individuals.

Awutah is quoted as having told the militants that, but for some money doublers, whose faces appeared on the campaign posters, the CPDM would have won in Kumba II.

He is said to have opened the old campaign posters pointing to the space the faces of certain individuals occupied.

The man of law said certain individuals with controversial backgrounds known in the society contributed to the defeat of the party.

Participants at the meeting who spoke to The Post on conditions of anonymity, said as Awutah ended his presentation, the Section President, Jocab Mbatchou Kay, sprang to his feet from the high table and challenged Awutah’s diction.

The Section President is said to have taken exception to Awutah’s comments and considered it detrimental to the Section at a time when it was looking forward to gathering steam.

Other militants also faulted the man of law for defending certain individuals in court, who are accused of grabbing land from the population. The militants told Benjamin Itoe that all those heading the party in Kumba II contributed to its failure.

Other militants pointed accusing fingers at the former Government Delegate to the Defunct Kumba Urban Council, Caven Nnoko Mbele, for contributing to the present challenges facing the party in Meme IB.

Nnoko Mbele, though hailed for peacefully reorganising the Section, was faulted for failing to reconcile the lists that emerged in 2013.

Gov’t Delegate Regrets Investment

Meanwhile, Kumba City Council Government Delegate, Victor Nkelle Ngoh, is said to have expressed regrets over huge investments made in the Section. Ngoh reportedly frowned at the inability of those heading the party to deliver the goods, despite multiple appeal letters sent to his office.

The City Council boss reportedly urged the warring factions to unite and overthrow the SDF.

Ngoh is quoted as having told the militants that the SDF Grand Councillors were less collaborative with his development vision for Kumba. Robert Ayuk, another militant is said to have retorted that Philip Awutah, Richard Njikam and other frontrunners of the party must share the blame.

Did The Imam Reject Reconciliation?

Reports hold that the Assistant Imam of the Fiango Central Mosque, Nasirou Ibrahim, who is enjoying the backing of many militants, failed to conclude on reconciling with the Mbatchou- led team.

Nasirou, who lost the Section Presidential race in 2015, was about endorsing the reconciliation meeting, when a cross section of militants in the hall shouted “don’t agree.”

Secret Meeting Held Ahead Of Reconciliation

Meantime, reports hold that a day before the reconciliation move, militants of the opposing camps held a secret meeting and mapped out strategies to frustrate the Benjamin Itoe-led reconciliation conclave.

Itoe is being criticised for neglecting other members of the bureau and working alone.

A militant of the party questioned why even the Charge de Mission has been side-lined on such serious matters. A second meeting has been scheduled for October 18 to finalise the reconciliation process.

Despite the gloomy start in Meme IB, the former Minister recorded success in Meme IC (Mambanda), where the reconciliation meeting reportedly went on without hitches.

The greatest Section to reconcile, observers hold, is Meme IA, where the strings between Itoe and the Nfon are strained.

Cameroonpostnewsline

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Rita Akana

19.Oct.2016

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