Politics

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.

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John Mbah Akuroh

18.Jun.2016

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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!

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Rita Akana

18.Jun.2016

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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.

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Rita Akana

18.Jun.2016

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The Cameroon Bar Council is demanding the government to withdraw the Penal Code, currently under review by Cameroon Members of Parliament and Senators.In a statement after an  extraordinary session of the Bar Council held on June 16 2016,the lawyers observed that there is no correlation between the French and English versions

(the translation is said to have been done using the google translator with all its deficiencies).

The Bar council condemns “the translation disparity between the French and English versions of the said bill with the consequential effect being the divergence in interpretation

and the likelihood of misinterpretation and application of the said text with the probability of creating chaos in the administration of Justice,” partly read the press statement.

The legal minds demand that the government withdraws the bill and bring it back only when the suggestions made by the Cameroon Bar Council is given due consideration. 

The Bar said that it was   never consulted before the submission of the draft bill to the National Assembly and wants a  Review of problematic provisions, 

the striking out of obsolete and unwarranted provisions and for the Draft Bill to comply with  International Instruments ratified by the Republic of Cameroon.

The Bar council President Jackson F. NGNIE KAMGA is arguing that such an important document cannot be drawn up without the consultation and consent of lawyers, civil society actors and human rights defenders.

The draft code n° 989/PJL/AN was single handedly drawn up and tabled before parliament by the Cameroon government, presumably the Ministry of Justice with no consensus or consultation with lawyers and magistrates, argues the Cameroon’s Bar Council.

The lawyers are demanding MPs to take up their responsibilities and look into the proposals from the Bar.

PRESS OFFENCES PUNISHABLE

What is being observed taking a quick look at the draft  372 articled and 119 page bill is that ,while other countries the world over are depenalising for instance, press offences, 

Art 305 of the draft code punishes defamation with six days  to six  months imprisonment and a fine of between 5000 Frs to 2.000.0000 million frs CFA. 

The same code in its Article 198 said the punishment would be double for publications made through the media

BEGGING…PUNISHABLE

The penal code gives different fines and sentences for public drunkenness, gathering of more than five persons in public places, begging, (3 months-3 years imprisonment) insults among other issues hitherto seemingly unpunished.

On the protection of the women and children, Art 277 condemns male and female genital mutilation, rape sexual harassment, (Art 302) those who fail to send their children to school (355) or chase their wives or husbands from the house (Art 358). 

Homosexuality remains punishable. Provisions for the punishment of domestic violence were not immediately spotted.

Although the government in the preamble of the draft bill said the intention of tabling a new code is to modernize and harmonize the two (Anglophone and Franchone) legal systems, 

it remains unclear what the government is insinuating when it said mentalities and behaviors have changed, 

with the changes being amplified by the new Information and Communication Technology.

With lawyers   already demanding a withdrawal of the code, it would be appropriate for everyone to read the code and be aware of the fines and imprisonment that accompanies offences.

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Solomon amabo

17.Jun.2016

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After ‘A People’s Call for an Anglophone for Presidency 2018’; after articulating the 10 good reasons why our majority francophone brethren would vote for an Anglophone candidate; after putting paid to rest claims that a minority cannot influence a majority by assembling jurisprudential evidence that historically, minorities have successfully influenced majorities and even in more complicating situations than ours; today, we begin critical and profound reflection on how to transform the wishes of Anglophone Cameroonians into concrete reality.

Given that it is incumbent on him/her who creates a need to seek to ways and means of fulfilling it, and given that time is not on our side; the team at Cameroon Journalists 4 Justice Solutions, CJ4J, and A Common Future-Cameroon, has been putting in the extra hour and extra energy to create an enabling environment for the Anglophone candidate to have an easy ride to Unity Palace.

Given that the Anglophone for Presidency Campaign largely draws inspiration from the Obama Organizing for Action campaign, OFA, where for the first time in American recent history, a Presidential candidate refused government and other lobby groups’ campaign funds, we are working hard to replicate that success story in

Cameroon in 2018 by making sure our candidate does not accept any form of government funding.

To make sure our candidate goes to Unity Palace on a clean slate without dirtying his/herself with some of the stolen money circulating in political circles and without influence from established interest groups and lobbyists, and to ensure that our next President is entirely accountable to the poor masses that voted her/him; it is our hope that both material and financial resources are put at the candidate’s disposal to cover caution and campaigns throughout the 10 regions of Cameroon.

Lifting the caution fee and campaign burden off the shoulder of the selected candidate in the upcoming Presidential election would inaugurate a new era of transparency and accountability in the management of public affairs in Cameroon as well as reduce personal and government expenditure during elections for public office in Cameroon.

So, what would I do if I had 2 billion FCFA from just 2 million Cameroonians of goodwill at home and abroad in the run up to 2018 Presidential elections?

This is the kind of life-changing question that revolutionalized entrepreneurship thinking in the United States of America. Frank Wakely Gunsaulus, educationist and preacher in his famous sermon, ‘What I Would Do If I Had a Million Dollars’ demonstrated in triumphant detail that ‘where there is a will, there is the way’, as he worked tirelessly to correct defects in the U.S educational system. By the time he ended the ‘million dollar sermon’, good will Americans showed an outpouring of support by contributing one million dollars to enable him introduce a new educational system in America where students were to ‘learn by doing’. It was the average American citizen’s widow’s mite contribution to Dr. Gunsaulus’ idea that America is what it is today, not the billions from government or some funding agency.

We are counting on just 2 million committed Cameroonians at home to chip in FCFA 1000 to special accounts created at various credit unions in all parts of the country for this cause. This way, we shall realize a total sum of FCFA 2.000.000.000.

This notwithstanding, our well-wishers in the Diaspora would have to chip in a minimum of $20 in to an account that would be created out there. The expected CFCA 10000 Diaspora donation would sum up to a total sum of $200.000 x 550 = 110.000.000 FCFA. Everything being equal, we expect that by December 2017, our expectations should be met.

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Gwain Colbert

10.Jun.2016

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DUNGA-MANTUNG AS TRUCK FULL OF COFFINS HEADS TO NKAMBE
Savannah frontier Radio station Ndu (SFR)says a reporter approached the driver of the vehicle, one Ndeh Gabriel from Bamenda to know more about the coffins, ‘he just smiled and said he is taking them to Nkambe.

That the coffins are being purchased by the government so as to use in case of any death by a civil servant or military’,Ndeh said. The driver continues that after Nkambe he will go back to Bamenda and carry the ones for Wum and other Divisions of the Region.

It still unclear why the CDPM regime has decided to distribute coffins in every administrative Divisional head quarter of this English speaking part of this West African country and going by the drivers words Wum,Mbengwi,Ndop,Bamenda should be expecting theirs.

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Eng David Aseneh

09.Jun.2016

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