Politics

Create a political party to contest in 2018 and bring the change you preach, return to advocacy with the United Nations or escape to the diaspora like others before you and pick up activism?

It’s over a week now since the venerated and former United Nations Legal adviser, Barrister Agbor “Balla” Felix Nkongho was released alongside over fifty-four other Anglophones who were detained at the Kondengui Principal and central prisons but his current and never-seen silence has cast doubts in the minds of Cameroonians about what he intends to do next.

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Chi Carlson

09.Sep.2017

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The people of Beti in the Mfoundi Division of the Centre Region have written an open letter to Paul Biya demanding the release of their brothers and sisters detained mostly for the embezzlement of state money.
They want Biya to pardon their brothers as he did the Anglophone activists released recently from unlawful detention in Yaoundé.

The three-page letter is signed by a group which calls itself "the council of elders of Mfoundi, acting on behalf of the people".

The release of their brothers, to them, is one of the preconditions for 'real unity', given that "true unity cannot come without Mfoundi and the Centre Region".

If Anglophone activists who  'committed inconceivable sacrilege by burning the country's flag,' for instance, could be 'pardoned' then their brothers who have just sinned against their father like anyone else have the right ,too, they argue.

The letter doesn't limit itself to a comparative study of the Anglophone activists and the Beti 'embezzlers' but it also uses alot of flattery and praise singing to sweeten Biya's bitterness.

The elders use the fast-approaching 2018 elections to persuade Biya.
"Your Excellency, we are moving towards a very crucial electoral period for the future of our nation and that of your regime", they write.
The letter becomes more of a motion of support for Biya than a genuine demand.
They also see Biya as a saint, whose inspiration descends right from God.

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Rita Akana

08.Sep.2017

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Reports say all the students from Ambozonia crossing to La Republique for education will be rejected in Amba Land should they come back after the possible success of the struggle. This will be implemented upon presentation of evaluation documents like report cards, they say. 
Most families in West Cameroon have decided to send their children to schools in La Republique where classes have resumed effectively for the new academic year.
West Cameroon on the other hand has vowed to keep schools as deserted as a graveyard at midnight. 

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Rita Akana

07.Sep.2017

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PART 1

I write to tell the story and ask some key questions which have been on the minds of most people, but who don't have the courage to ask. Without addressing these issues with honesty, we would have sentenced ourselves to living a self-imposed illusion.

Dear PEA,

I would like to call your attention (as if they don't already know) to the fact that teachers have been for seven months and counting without salaries and you ignor them and prefer to go about preaching and claiming that "your" schools have resumed. In which Cameroon and for which teachers to teach? Permit me ask a few questions:

1. Can you really admit with all honesty that "your" schools have resumed and this academic year will run successfully as planned? Wake up!!

2. How will your teachers send their own children to school should the so-called school resumption even materialize (resumption for2017/2018 academic year has failed in Southern Cameroons)? Is it normal for a teacher with children to go and teach other people's children while his/her own children stay home because they cannot pay fees and buy books?

3. How, if you care to ask, shall your teachers (as if you give a damn) feed themselves and their familis, pay their rent and still come to class to smile and teach as if all is well?

4. You have intentionally kept silent in the face of all these oddities which is a demonstration of the crooked tactics which you have learned from LRC as you are known for robbing soldiers with them. How long do you plan to maintain tight lips as uncertainty looms?

5. Is is not hypocrisy with some ingredient of bad fate for the PEA to withhold teachers' remunerations this long and yet call on these same teachers with threats and intimidation to come and organise morning and evening classes to "cover" the syllabus? Is this not modern day slavery? 

6. Have you forgotten so soon the children who have been locked up in jails and who will not be joining their mates to go to school? What about those who have been killed and maimed and their parents in grief? What about those students in areas where their schools have been burnt down? Have you chosen to close your eyes and ears to the cry of the suffering people? "Keeping silent in the face of an oppression means you have chosen the side of the oppressor." Has the Church through the PEA deliberately decided to betray us? If that is the case, make it official by sending it as announcement in churches so that we will know you are no longer with us. "The enemy you know is better than the friend you don't know."

As if to add insult to injury, the PEA goes ahead to perpetrate the same unfathomable and irreversible damage to the education of our children. You choose to shamelessly promote all students who virtually studied nothing in the2016/2017 academic year to the next class without any remorse. According to the PEA academic work coverage plan, teachers are expected to use 2 Months to cover all the work which was supposed to be covered last year and then start the work for 2017/2018 academic year in November. OUTRAGEOUS!!!! INCREDULOUS!! Whom are we deceiving? I can't help but laugh at all this short sightedness which we try to use to justify our immature actions and vehemently refuse to accept the fact that schools have been shut down for this academic year. Permit me ask a few questions again.

1. What criteria has been used to determine that the few francophone students dotted on your campuses qualify to move to the next class? (Ambazonia Education Board save us). Is this not witchcraft in broad day light?

2. If a child can be promoted to the next class who studied virtually nothing and didn't write any qualifying exam, what stops us from taking a child from primary 7 (sorry class 6) to go and seat in for the Advanced Level? What has education been reduced into? A race?

3. How on earth can the syllabus of the GCE I know (God bless the old days) of the Anglosaxon system of education be covered for one year (for A/L) and only two years (for O/L) and students are fit to write the exam? What about the science subjects which need practical lessons for at least two years before the students qualify for the A/L? Who will pay for this intentional irreparable damage being caused to the education of these children? What kind of nation are we envisaging. Remember: "Only a fool can allow his enemy to educate his child" ~ Malcom X.

4. What of a student who did not pass the O/L well in 2015 (maybe had 4 confused subjects without a combination) and went to Lower Sixth with the hope of rewriting the O/L in 2016, studied for less than 3 months and now magically finds him/herself in Upper Sixth to confront the A/L. In which class does this unfortunate student REALLY belong? Form 5, Lower Sixth or Upper Sixth? Is this not Academic Genocide?

5. Has the Church (through the PEA) chosen the side of the oppressor? Has the PEA been so compromised that it is willing to substitute its prestigious Anglosaxon academic system, so envied and respected by all especially francophones, for drudges handed down from LRC? How can the Church and its educational institutions so easily cow to external pressure to the extend that it can no longer differentiate EDUCATION from SCHOOLING?

6. May you be reminded that the forceful school resumption game you are playing is over before you have even started? Let us be ready to accept the humiliation when ever these mistakes we make turn around to slap us in the face.

Send those few francophone children home and save whatever iota of dignity the PEA still has left. LRC is making deperate moves to drown whatever heritage We have and hold. We can fight off this enemy if we refuse to play his losing game. Our children deserve better. Southern Cameroonians deserve better. And we shall get it.

Teacher of the PEA
for SCACUF

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Rita Akana

07.Sep.2017

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Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari told members of his party before he was first elected that he would only seek one term, implying he did not intend at that time to run in 2019, the minister of women’s affairs told Reuters on Wednesday.

The comments by Aisha Alhassan could heighten uncertainty over whether Buhari plans to contest the next election. Buhari took power in 2015 but has been absent for much of this year due to illness. He is yet to say if he will seek a second term.

“In 2014/2015 he said he was going to run for only one time to clean up the mess that the (previous) PDP government did in Nigeria. And I took him for his word that he is not contesting in 2019,” Minister of Women Affairs Alhassan said. 

Alhassan said in the interview she would resign if Buhari seeks re-election and would support former vice president Atiku Abubakar if he decides to run. Alhassan’s portfolio ranks relatively low down in Nigeria’s cabinet.

Abubakar was vice president from 1999 to 2007 as part of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), Buhari’s party, in 2014. She said Buhari made the comments in 2015 to APC members but gave no further details.

The president’s two spokesmen declined to comment on the minister’s remarks.

Buhari, 74, returned on Aug. 19 from three months of medical leave in Britain for an unspecified ailment. It was his second stint of sick leave this year following a break between January and March.

Many people say they doubt whether Buhari is well enough to serve another term in Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous country and has the continent’s biggest economy.

“If today Mr. President says he is running in 2019 I will go to him respectfully and thank him for giving me an opportunity to serve and then tell him that I have to resign because my political father may be running,” said Alhassan. 

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Reuters

07.Sep.2017

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The Minister Delegate at the Presidency in Charge of Defence, Joseph Beti Assomo, who initially blamed the population of Kumbo for the Kifem massacre, has now suspended the Gendarmerie Company Commander for Bui, for not restraining his troops during their raid in Kifem and for gross act of unprofessionalism. 
Minister Beti Assomo took the decision following investigation into the Kifem shouting that led to the death of 17-year-old Cyprian Sevidzem, Abdul Aziz and seriously wounded three others. 

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Rita Akana

07.Sep.2017

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