Politics
President Paul Biya, some have claimed is a man of rigor and moralization. He is widely believed to have set the course for what is now the fight against corruption in Cameroon. He was heard saying recently that “During this hard times that we live, the large and long work of national construction involves the rigorous management and perseverance vis-à-vis the maneuvering force of demoralization, demobilization or destabilization”.
On the 31st of December, 2005, in his message to the nation, the Head of State, in a firm tone said, “the diversion of public funds to the detriment of the Cameroonian people. I would say today, very solemnly, has to stop.” In September 2007, in a press release made by the Cabinet, as in many other speeches, the Cameroonian Chief Executive reaffirmed his determination to fight every form of evil which prevents Cameroon from emerging as a great nation. He observed that “misappropriation of public funds, in whatever form, is a crime against the people deprived of the resources that belong to them. Such individuals must, therefore, be punished with the greatest severity.”
Correspondingly, Law No. 2001/028 of December 14th, 2011 created the Special Criminal Court. It was followed by Decree No. 2013/288 of September the 4th, 2013 that set the part for the return of stolen money from the state coffers. However, on December the 23rd, 2015, in response to recent accusations of corruption made by Transparency International, Issa Bakary Tchiroma Cameroon’s Communications Minister and Government Spokesman revealed that, “to date, there are at the Special Criminal Court, 129 files forwarded to the Specialized Corps of the judicial police; 115 cases entered, 123 indictments; 146 sentences of imprisonment with fines and court costs; 40 non-places visited; 78 acquittals; 41 decisions pending with over three billion CFA francs in refund as corpus delicti including almost 30 billion Swiss francs pronounced for damages suffered by the state.”
Interestingly, before the creation of the Special Criminal Court, the ruling CPDM regime had CONAC, (National Anti-Corruption Commission), whose president was reportedly involved in numerous financial scandals. The Biya regime also had ANIF (National Financial Investigation Agency), whose members lived a princely lifestyle at the expense of the Cameroonian taxpayer. All in all, the CPDM had CONSUPE (Higher State Control), and the Council of Budgetary and Financial Discipline (CDBF) both habouring fraudsters and looters.
Biya’s 32 years in power have seen castles, spectacular scientific complexes, villas and many 5 star duplexes belonging to highly placed CPDM officials and members of government springing up in Cameroonian cities, without their owners being asked about the origin of their fortune. Who now is fooling who here? We of this publication believe and fervently too, that Minister Issa Tchiroma needs rest.
Soter Tarh Agbaw Ebai
Editor In Chief
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Cameroon Intelligence Report
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Buhari, the former military ruler, also was elected on a platform that included curbing corruption and transforming Nigeria’s economy.
A number of high-ranking officials in the Jonathan administration have been arrested on corruption-related charges since Buhari took office, but their cases have dragged on in court.
Tunde Aremu, policy and campaigns manager for anti-poverty charity ActionAid, said the public’s interest in the corruption fight is waning.
“People are paraded on TV, they are taken to court. By and by, people are getting disinterested in the issues. Because when you have a case that appears simple, and it’s not going into full prosecution, people move onto other things," Aremu said.
Global oil prices
The economy is also dragging.
The global fall in the price of oil is partially to blame for the economic woes. So, too, are recent attacks by militants on infrastructure in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.
Petroleum production is thought to have fallen by 500,000 barrels per day due to those attacks.
All indicators show Nigeria is poised to enter a recession. Inflation is at nearly 14 percent. The government recently hiked fuel prices by 67 percent to end a nationwide shortage of gasoline.
Tiger Johnson, a student in the northern city of Kaduna, said the poor are bearing the brunt of the downturn.
"Since we voted Buhari for change, you understand, the poor masses are crying. It’s not the rich people that are suffering. It’s the poor people that are suffering," Johnson said.
Some economists have said Buhari should relax controls on obtaining foreign currency, while also allowing the value of Nigeria’s naira to fall. Such a move would boost growth, they have said.
Buhari has so far resisted those moves because he wants to protect local industries and reduce the amount of foreign goods Nigeria imports.
Economy
Kaduna teacher Danmaigona Clement said the current pain will lead to a more stable economy over time.
“These changes that they expected are not the type of changes they will get. They are changes that are painful," Clement said.
But with prices of food and fuel climbing, Buhari has failed to deliver on what he promised, retiree Suleman Yakubu said.
"Where is the change? Where is the change?” Yakubu asked.
The president is expected to address the nation on Sunday.
VOA's Nigerian reporters Ibrahima Yakubu Kaduna, Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi and Chima Nwankwo in Abuja contributed to this story.
VOA
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The Assistant Secretary General at the President of the Republic who passed on last month, Prof Agbor Tabi is said to have left a list of names including government official and family members banned from attending his funeral. The late Biya Minister had earlier on requested and banned alcohol drinking during his funeral. Heis remains will arrive Mamfe, his area of origin this weekend for burial.
Born on February 23, 1951, in Ndekwai Village in Manyu Division of the Southwest Region, Agbor Tabi attended the Bilingual Grammar School Man’O’War Bay (later moved to Buea, now BGS Molyko,) from 1965 to 1971. He was among the privileged group of students to sit and pass both the Francophone BEPC and the GCE ‘O’ Level.
After his ‘A’ Level, Agbor Tabi enrolled in the then unique University of Yaounde, where he took a Bilingual Degree from the Department of Bilingual Letters and Linguistics in 1975. He also, in 1972, obtained the ‘Certificat d’Etude Franҫaise’ from the University of Dijon, France.
With his relentless quest for knowledge, Agbor Tabi later flew to the USA where he bagged successively a Master’s Degree and the PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the University of South Carolina in 1978 and 1982 respectively.
Upon return to the country, Agbor Tabi began his career as lecturer at IRIC Yaounde. He would later, in 1984, become the Deputy Director of the prestigious institution. In 1988, he was promoted as Director of IRIC.
His success as Director of IRIC caught the attention of President Biya, who entrusted him with yet another challenging job. In 1991, Agbor Tabi was made the Chancellor of the University of Yaounde. In this position he had the difficult task to implement the very unpopular reforms that government had just adopted for University Education in Cameroon, notably the proscription of bursaries for students and the institution of tuition fees.
Agbor Tabi, however, succeeded in this tough assignment, which two of his predecessors, Laurent Esso and Prof. Joel Moulin, had proved unable to handle. The two Francophones made very short spells as Chancellor of the Yaounde University. President Biya replaced them in quick succession before he decided to also try the Anglophone Agbor Tabi.
The Francophones left not before the Ngoa-Ekelle campus had literally transformed into a war zone, as students rioted against the authorities. Then, only 40 years old, Agbor Tabi shocked the entire nation and left many in awe, as he, soon, restored calm on the campus.
Prof. Agbor Tabi proposed the construction of a security fence round the campus. Students protested against this, but Agbor Tabi stood his grounds, sometimes folding the sleeves of his shirt to face the raging students in arm combat. He succeeded to erect the fence. Agbor Tabi also succeeded to implement the new reforms: bursary for students was stopped and tuition fees instituted.
It was surely for his spate of successes that, after creating six new universities in 1993, President Paul Biya retained Agbor Tabi as the pioneer Rector of the University of Yaounde I. On July 21, 1994, Biya made Agbor Tabi the Minister of Higher Education with mission to get the new campuses fully functional and operational. Agbor Tabi again did a commendable job and, before long, all the six universities went fully operational.
Agbor Tabi’s admirers started seeing him as a potential Prime Minister. To their great chagrin and maybe to his, Biya dropped Agbor Tabi from Government in 1997.
He returned to the classroom at IRIC and continued with active CPDM politics; preaching and convincing, especially his native Manyu people, that Biya understands their problems and has special plans for them.
On June 30, 2009, after 12 years in the political wilderness, Agbor Tabi bounced back as President Biya appointed him Assistant Secretary General at the Presidency. Given that the current PM, Yang, was ASG at the Presidency before becoming PM, Agbor Tabi’s supporters saw him as replacing Yang in the Star Building soon. But death has squashed all of Agbor Tabi’s hopes.
Prof. Peter Agbor , succumbed to death at an American hospital in Paris, France, after a protracted illness on April 26th 2016.
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to poverty, open theft and corruption, which needs to be addressed. There is no single reason for elections to be anticipated and Paul Biya should, for, once halt any such plans.
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West Africa's Lake Chad region is the world's most neglected humanitarian crisis, where poverty and desertification have been compounded by violence caused by Boko Haram, the U.N. aid chief said on Tuesday at the World Humanitarian Summit.
The gap between the suffering and the humanitarian response may be bigger than in Syria, Iraq or Yemen, a senior Red Cross official said.
Violence has forced more than 2.4 million people to flee their homes in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, according to the United Nations. Many families have been displaced several times. Up to 90 percent are sheltering in host communities.
Both the displaced and their hosts need emergency aid where farming has been curtailed by the violence, deepening food shortages and hunger, U.N. officials said.
More than 480,000 children could die unless they urgently receive food aid, they added.
"Lake Chad Basin ... at this stage is the most under reported, the most underfunded and the least addressed of the big crises we face," U.N. aid chief Stephen O'Brien said.
Climate change and lack of resources have already caused terrible suffering, and this has been compounded by the brutality wreaked by Boko Haram, he added.
Both the displaced and their hosts need emergency aid where farming has been curtailed by the violence, deepening food shortages and hunger, U.N. officials said.
More than 480,000 children could die unless they urgently receive food aid, they added.
"Lake Chad Basin ... at this stage is the most under reported, the most underfunded and the least addressed of the big crises we face," U.N. aid chief Stephen O'Brien said.
Climate change and lack of resources have already caused terrible suffering, and this has been compounded by the brutality wreaked by Boko Haram, he added.
"We have humanitarian needs now in that part of the world on a scale which is unprecedented," said O'Brien, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
This year, the United Nations has appealed for $535 million for the region. Last year's appeal was just over 40 percent funded.
Some 3 million people face severe food insecurity in the region, the majority in northeast Nigeria. In the far north of Cameroon, the number urgently needing food aid has quadrupled in the last year, according to U.N. figures.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was rapidly scaling up its response to avoid a "famine-like situation".
"Across Lake Chad, where farming is possible but not practical because so much insecurity exists, the crisis disrupts trade, and the pastoral and agricultural lean season has come two months early," said WFP head Ertharin Cousin.
POVERTY IS CAUSE OF "MADNESS"
Yves Daccord, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said: "Normally I don't like to compare suffering, but if I look at all our operations ... what we see - in terms of levels of violence, of suffering and most importantly, the gap between the humanitarian response ... and what (it) should be - is possibly the biggest gap we have right now."
He was comparing ICRC's operations in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and the Philippines with those in the Lake Chad Basin.
Boko Haram has killed more than 15,000 people across the region, during a seven-year campaign to carve out an Islamist caliphate.
Kashim Shettima, governor of northern Nigeria's Borno state, said poor literacy, destitution and joblessness need to be addressed to end what he called the world's deadliest insurgency.
The conflict, centered on Borno state, hit the headlines when more than 200 girls were kidnapped from a school in Chibok in 2014.
"The root cause of this madness, this insanity, is extreme poverty," he said.
"(When) we create jobs, engage the youth, this madness will certainly evaporate."
O'Brien, who traveled to the May 23-24 World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul via Niger and Nigeria, said the region, more than any other, epitomized the many overlapping issues the summit was trying to tackle.
"We've never had a conference like this. This is about generating will, the most difficult thing to bottle up and to get going," he said.
"It's about putting people affected by crisis through no fault of their own at the heart and center of everything we do."
(Reporting by Alex Whiting, Editing by Emma Batha.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change.
Reuters
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Stakeholders from the South West and North West Regions are in Buea for an in-depth capacity building seminar.
Assessing progress made towards decentralization, promotion of local development, target objectives, transfer of powers are some cardinal points currently under the scanner in an ongoing seminar that kicked-off on May 24, 2016 in Buea. For three days, stakeholders from the North West and South West Regions are busy brainstorming on five main themes.
Follow-up and evaluation of transferred powers and allocated resources; the technical support of councils by the State; local finance governance; partnership and local development; funding of international and council projects by the Special Council Support Fund for Mutual Assistance (FEICOM) are the topics under discussion with the help of seasoned professionals.
Addressing participants on Tuesday, the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Territorial Administration in charge of Decentralisation, Jules Doret Ndongo appreciated support and assistance from international and national partners notably the German Cooperation, FEICOM, the National Community Driven Development Programme (PNDP) and the Local Government Training Centre (CEFAM) in the enhancement and promotion of local development.
The Minister stressed that while participants will be evaluating progress made in the decentralization process, the Buea seminar also paves way for in-depth discussions on the decentralization carried out in Cameroon since 2010, when the effective transfer of special powers and appropriate resources by the State to councils and City Councils started.
Presentations interspersed with questions and answers, have enriched a seminar studded with a galaxy of decentralization stakeholders from the two Regions. As participants say quits today, they informed CT that the initiative is a laudable stitch in time.
Cameroon Tribune
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Subcategories
Biya Article Count: 73
# 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.
Southern Cameroons Article Count: 549
.# Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia
Learn more about the history, culture, and politics of Ambazonia, the Anglophone regions of Cameroon that have been seeking self-determination and independence from the Francophone-dominated central government. Our Southern Cameroons section covers the ongoing conflict, the humanitarian crisis, the human rights violations, and the peace efforts in the region. You'll also find stories that highlight the rich and diverse heritage, traditions, and aspirations of the Southern Cameroonian people.
Editorial Article Count: 885
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