Politics

Where is the President of the Republic of Cameroon? It's been over 21 days now that the Cameroonian president left the country. Cameroonians are without news of him, according to close sources at the presidency who opted to be annonymous in passing over this information to Cameroon Concord.

On May 27 2016, a statement from the presidency indicated that Mr Biya had left the country for a brief private stay in Europe. No further details were given.
In the delegation accompanying the President were the following officials: Martin Belinga Eboutou, Director of the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency of the Republic, Admiral Joseph Fouda, Special Advisor to the Head of State and BIKELE Pierre Simon, the Chief of State Protocol to Mr Biya. All close associates of the President.

But now, it is more than 21 days that Cameroonians are plaqued with the fate of Mr Biya and his whereabouts, including the reasons for this secretly kept trip, or better say his prolonged absence from the country.

In neigbouring Nigeria, the approach is different. Recently President  Buhari went on a medical trip to London for treatment for an ear infection,before leaving Nigeria, the media and public all knew of the reasons why he was leaving.Buhari gave the reasons for his trip and explained to his compatriots the reasons for the extension of his stay.

In Cameroon it is the opposite, communications on private trips of the Head of State, is particularly opaque and evasive.Mr Biya sees no reason to tell the public where he goes or what he does.

Paul Biya's holiday  in southern France in 2009  was the subject of articles in the Cameroonian and French press which alleged Mr Biya was spending $40,000 a day on 43 hotel rooms. Officials at the time defended the president's right to spend the money allotted to him the way he wished.

Because of his lengthy absences - sometimes two or three months at a time - he is known by his critics as the "absentee landlord".

When the Paul Biya lion died at Mvog Beti zoo in 2007, many said it was bad omen for the president.

Not long afterwards there were rumours that he had died in a Swiss clinic.

When he returned home after what had been a 43-day absence, he boasted on state television that those wishing him dead must wait for another 20 years.
Image caption Chantal the lioness at the zoo in Yaounde is now a widow

The late veteran reporter Pius Njawe spent a year in prison for suggesting the president was suffering from a heart problem when he appeared to faint while watching a football match some years ago.

Details

Jackson Tantoh

22.Jun.2016

Hits: 4829

French citizens residing in Cameroon with support from Association pour la Diffusion Internationale Francophone” (ADIFLOR), have joined the Government to support pupils studying in the Far North Region of the country. Visiting French Senator Louis Duvernois, handed a consignment of 12,000 books to the Minister of Basic Education, Youssouf Hadidja Alim last Friday June 17, 2016 in the presence of French Ambassador to Cameroon, Christine Robichon and Consulate Adviser of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, Pierre Clerfeuille.

Senator Louis Duvernois said the books meant for 89 school libraries in the Far North Region are reserved for children to promote their level of education and improve their reading skills especially at home. He noted that the books will be of great importance to the children who are unable to go to school due to constant terrorist attacks in the region. The French Senator said while at home, the books will help the children make up with studying time.

While thanking the French community for their support, the Minister of Basic Education, Youssouf Hadidja Alim said books are useful items for pupils both in class and as individuals at home. The books, according to the Minister of Basic Education, will be distributed to some schools in the Diamare, Mayo Tsanaga, Mayo Sava, and Logone et Chari Divisions in the Far North Region. Youssouf Hadidja Alim explained that the donations have been packed in such a way that transportation will be safe and distribution made easier. She called on the children to make good use of the books.

Cameroon Tribune

Details

Rita Akana

20.Jun.2016

Hits: 1746

Two weeks after an attack by the Islamist group Boko Haram left at least 30 people dead, the border community of Bosso, in Niger, has become a ghost town. Most of its population left and the area remains at risk to violence.

A shoe, a half-full suitcase strewn in the backyard, the house doors left open… Most residents of Bosso left everything behind two weeks ago when the first gunshots rang through the town.

Among them is El Hajj Abba.

Yes, we are scared. We don’t have weapons, so it’s normal to be scared, he says as he stands on top of his car, strapping a pile of belongings he can bring to the IDP camp he and his family now stay at.

Abba is Nigerian. He fled to Bosso, in Niger, after Boko Haram militants wreaked havoc in his home country, only a few miles away. But the armed group has been attacking several neighboring towns in Niger as well, in the past couple of years, forcing populations to move back and forth between towns and makeshift camps located in the bush.

It’s not the first time that Bosso has been targeted. The most recent attack was on June 3. It was a Friday, just after 8 PM, remembers resident Abdelaziz Zembada, who lived next to a police station that was targeted.

I took one of my kids, my wife took two, he says. By the time we put them to safety and came back to fetch my daughter, a mortar hit my house. My neighbor’s children and my daughter were killed.

Officially, there were no civilians killed during the attack, only soldiers. But some bodies can still be found inside houses and the smell of death is everywhere.

Most of Bosso's estimated 25,000 residents left town. Two thirds were refugees and internally displaced persons. Alarmed residents in the general area also left their homes, leaving an estimated 50,000 people displaced.

On a deserted market street, the decomposing body of a goat dries under the scorching sun, next to a ransacked stall. There is no water, no electricity or phone network, and very little food left in town after Boko Haram looted most of it.

But despite all that, resident Souleyman Salissa decided to stay.

He says we can tell it’s going better. Yesterday, we heard gunshot, but we were not worried.

Salissa says the heavy military presence reassured him. And, as a hairdresser, they are his only customers.

There are not a lot of people left. It’s disheartening, he says. We would like more residents to come back, and we need assistance with food, water and electricity.

That day, an official delegation led by Interior Minister Mohamed Bazoum visited the town for the first time since the attack and organized a meeting to reassure the population.

VOA

Details

Rita Akana

18.Jun.2016

Hits: 1890

In 1993, when the President of the Republic decided to create new State universities, thereby decentralizing the then University of Yaounde, he transformed the Buea University Centre that came into existence in 1985 into a full-fletched University. In the organic text of the said University, the President specified loud and clear for everyone to understand that the Buea University was going to be Anglo Saxon in nature and run according to the same Anglo Saxon tradition.
That is why any visitor to the website of the University of Buea will be welcomed by this piece of information in the first paragraph at “About Us”; “The University of Buea was born in 1993 following wide-ranging university reforms in Cameroon. Conceived in the English-speaking tradition, the University of Buea seeks to foster the essence of that system, while situating itself within the larger bilingual and multicultural context of Cameroon. It is located in the historic town of Buea, former capital of German Kamerun, former capital of the federated State of West Cameroon and now the provincial capital of the South West Region of Cameroon. Although the University draws its students mainly from the English-speaking part of Cameroon, it also serves the other provinces of the country”.
In 2010, the Head of State again signed decree N0. 2010/371 of 14th December, 2010 creating the University of Bamenda and that decree was followed by another one in 2011. That was decree N0. 2011/045 of the 8th of March, 2011 to organize the University of Bamenda, outlining every structure and mode of operation.
The decree of 2011 in Part One on general provisions, article 1 states that; “This decree determines and defines the administrative and academic organization of the University of Bamenda”. In the same article 1 (a), it stipulates unambiguously as follows; “There shall be established a body corporate conceived in the Anglo Saxon tradition by the name of THE UNIVERSITY OF BAMENDA (herein after referred to as the University); it shall be constituted in accordance with the provisions of this decree”.These decrees taken by the Head of State in person demonstrate amply that there are two cultures in operation in Cameroon and which deserve to be protected by law. The decrees merely follow a pattern that already exists elsewhere. In Canada for example, the French speaking community is based in Quebec and no one has tried to harmonize anything there, the people are happy to enjoy their unity in diversity and that is what everyone expects to happen in Cameroon.

By attempting each time to absorb the Anglo Saxon system into the French sub system of education in the name of harmonization, the Minister of Higher Education and his close aides are in a way trying to tell the world that the President of the Republic who signed those decrees emphasizing that the universities of Bamenda and Buea are “conceived in the Anglo Saxon tradition”, is functionally “insane”, reason they have been doing all within their powers to correct his errors.

At this juncture, it is important to quote the late venerated Prof. Bernard Fonlon when he said; “It shall be wisdom and even a duty” for the authorities to consider leaving things the way they are in the interest of peace and unity of the country. This is so because attempts to destroy the Common Law tradition already have led to a serious threat to the unity of the Cameroon Bar Association, a not too negligible indication that worse things could happen if people like Fame Ndongo continue to take the laws into their hands

• John Mbah Akuroh

  ASMAC/IRIC Yaounde

  Msc in International Relations, Specialised in Communication and International Public Policy.

Details

John Mbah Akuroh

18.Jun.2016

Hits: 3137

Cameroon presidential candidate  Ayah Paul Abine, writes on his Facebook page about veteran journalist and former World Bank Communications Officer, Boh Herbert.

---- Ayah writes-----

BOH HERBERT THE OBLONG BLOCKHEAD!

Details

Rita Akana

18.Jun.2016

Hits: 4419

Kuda in northern Nigeria was the scene of the atrocity, which also involved looting food supplies and burning homes

Boko Haram militants have killed 24 people, mostly women, as they mourned at a funeral in a village in northern Nigeria, looting and burning their houses down.

Suspected Boko Haram militants also attacked a village in Niger while a delegation of ministers was visiting, killing seven police officers and wounding 12 in a gun battle.

Some women were still missing after Thursday’s attack on the village of Kuda in Nigeria’s Adamawa state, according to a resident, Moses Kwagh. Maina Ularamu, a local community leader, said the attack occurred during the “mourning celebration” for a local leader.

“They came on motorcycles and opened fire on the crowd, killing 24,” he said. “Most of the victims were women. They looted food supplies and burnt homes and they left almost an hour later.”

A police spokesman, Othman Abubakar, put the death toll at 18, adding that many more were injured. “Our people who fled their homes to escape Boko Haram attacks have been returning because they can’t live in the camps. But now they are facing threats from Boko Haram who launch nocturnal attacks,” he said.

Ularamu said that although Boko Haram had been chased out of the nearby town of Gulak, militants still lived in the villages surrounding it.

Boko Haram threatened to overrun Adamawa state in 2014, sweeping down from their stronghold in Sambisa forest, which lies just across the border in Borno state. That attack, which destroyed bridges and homes on the only road south to Yola, forced tens of thousands of people to flee from their homes into camps and host communities in the state capital.

Details

Rita Akana

18.Jun.2016

Hits: 2864