Politics
As the 2018 electoral year narrows down in Cameroon, the United Nations (UN) Electoral Assistance Division was in Cameroon, to prod into Elections Cameroon’s (ELECAM) preparedness and the political environment.
The visit of the UN mission led by Akinyemi Adegbola, was intended to evaluate the readiness of the elections governing body to curtail mass rigging that has often characterised past elections in Cameroon.
Others members that accompanied Adegbola were: Pascale Roussy, Dieudonné Tshiyoyo and Nadjita Francis Ngarhodjim.
The UN envoys met members of ELECAM led by Abrams Enow Egbe and the Director General of Elections, Abdoulaye Babalé.
Speaking during the visit, Enow Egbe, said the visit is in line with the relationship the electoral body has with the UN.
“We have important elections in 2018 and they are here to discuss with us and assess our needs. They are experts from the UN Electoral Assistance Division, whose reputation is well known around the world. We have to work with them for the continuity of the electoral process aimed at being transparent and reputable elections,” he stated.
On his part, Adegbola said the objective of the visit is very simple.
“We received a request from the President of ELECAM for some form of assistance from the UN. We have a system in the UN by which each time we receive a request, we deploy a needs assessment mission to determine in which areas the UN might be able to provide the assistance and under which conditions we have to collaborate with the organisation.
Adegbola said they are also in Cameroon to look at the environment in which elections will take place so that they can design the assistance to meet the actual needs and not just based on their own ideas of how it should look like
“The request signed by the President is quite clear in defining our area of assistance. It talks about information, education and communication.
“We will focus on that but we will also look at other possibilities and areas of assistance in which we can collaborate with partners to meet the needs of Cameroon in the areas identified,” he told reporters.
- Details
- Abeh Valery
- Hits: 1521
After 54 years, Cameroon a bilingual country with British and French colonial heritage will now have a Common law Bench at the country's highest court. This follow the enactment into law a bill reforming the Supreme Court to allow the creation of the Supreme Court.
According to the law signed on July 12, officials appointed to the Common law Division must have an Anglo Saxon background. The Common law Bench shall have competence over issues relating to the Common law .
This was one of the biting issues raised by protesting Common law lawyers which sparked the Anglophone crisis. After giving a deaf ears to this demands, Government sluggishly swung into action. The Minister of state, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals on March 30, 2017 announced the creation of the Bench amongst others measures.
Esso said at the time that , the measures are intended to improve on the functioning of the judiciary and also to satisfy the legal and judicial disposition of the constitution in section 1 paragraph 3 which stipulates that the official languages of Cameroon shall be English and French both languages having equal value.The Minister even claimed , that before the lawyers went public with their claims, the President of the Republic had initiated reforms regarding the functioning of the judicial system and had presided judicious measures.
A bill relating to this was sent to Parliament during the just ended session and was adopted, paving the way for Biya to sign the Ordinance creating the structure.
While some Common law practitioners have appreciated the move, Barrister Fru John Soh has rubbished the move saying it is too late. A fire brand critic, Ekinneh Agbor Ebai is worried about the clause "Anglophone Saxon background." This is what has raised concerning the issue: "But in the context where many Francophones are sending their children to Anglophone colleges, what does "Anglo-Saxon" legal background really mean? What happens if a Francophone attends SASSE College; graduates from UB and proceeds to the Common Law Department at ENAM where he graduates as a Magistrate and is subsequently appointed to the Common Law bench? Sounds like marginalization through the back door; or am I missing something here? And is it too little too late as the train seems to have already left the station?"
Common law lawyers continue to ground courts in the North West and South West regions in a crisis which has taken an unprecedented dimension with the Biya regime paying in hard currency for innitially downplaying the demands raised by the lawyers.
- Details
- Rita Akana
- Hits: 2883
SOUTHERN CAMEROONS INTERIM PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT PRESENTED TO THE UN BY MOLA NJOH AND CO. (OFFICIAL REPORT)
In the first official diplomatic move after the election if our president H.E S. AYUK TABE, the UN Security Council played host to a delegation led by our legendary Free MOLA NJOH LITUMBE.
Mola Njoh writes:
Yesterday, by prior appointment, I led a small delegation of Southern Cameroonians, comprising two men and two women, to re-present the Case of the Uncompleted Decolonization of the former British Administered UN Trust Territory of Southern Southerns, over which the UN General Assembly, by Res. 1608(XV) ot 21st Apr. 1961, fixed the date of S. Cameroons independence to be on 1st October, 1961, upon joining the sovereign state of La Republique du Cameroun, in a Federation of 2 states equal in status.
Sadly, that independence was suppressed by the neighbouring state of La Republique du Cameroun that has instead annexed Southern Cameroons and converted the former UN trust territory into two provinces of its own country, contrary to Arts 102/103 of the UN Charter, Art. 4b of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, and in open violation of Res. 1514 (XV) and 1541(XV) of 14th and 15th Dec. 1960 of the UN General Assembly which is the supreme Organ of the UN.
The Political Affairs Dept of the UN received my delegation with extreme courtesy and promised to convey our concerns to their hierarchy.
Mola Njoh Litumbe
South Cameroons AT UN https://t.co/Iz5jcC7ho6
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) July 11, 2017
- Details
- Rita Akana
- Hits: 3666
On WWednesday, 12.07.2017, Abine Ayah Ayah, son of Chief Justice Ayah Paul recounted on his social media wall what happened as he left hospital with his sick dad.
Below is what he wrote:
"As we left hospital for SED, under very tight security as usual, with dad being escorted and paraded around like a criminal as always is the case, I witnessed some French speaking Cameroonians saying: (translated)
"That's one of those terrorists, that old fellow. He will rot in jail, we pray so. He taught he was strong, let him prove to the state now just how tough he is. They are the ones who want to divide and destroy Cameroon. Take him back to Prison his home and hope he rots in there. May he never see freedom again...."
I listened to all that with my own ears. Well, they are forgiven for their ignorance. If only they knew the truth and what the anglophone problem is all about. I enjoyed their freedom of speech though it's a pity we can still find this dimension of ignorance and hate speech at such a crucial epoch..."
This post comes barely a few days after Ayah's son wrote exclusively how deplorable it felt like, to be in La Republique’s detention.He had gone to the military tribunal in Yaounde on Wednesday, 7 June 2017, to attend the court hearing of some Anglophones who were locked up in relation to the strike in the English speaking regions of the country, before being arrested.
He said he came to understand what our Anglophone brothers and sisters have been going through in La Republique cells. “There is need to pray for all those under detention, especially the Anglophone detainees on the account of the Anglophone crisis” Ayah disclosed. Most of them have been languishing in pain for months now, but the authorities in charge are not helping it in any way with the constant postponement of their court cases.
Ayah Ayah also talked about his father’s manipulated retirement, which has greatly reduced his chances of slipping off the hands of the regime’s forces. This will only help to worsen his health which is not even the best, according to sources.
The Advocate General’s son could not forget his mom who bailed him “thanks be to God for letting my entire family and especially my mom for bailing me out of this wahala”. After the release, he felt the urge to call on the rest of the Ambazonians to pray for those in detention, for they are in hell.
- Details
- Rita Akana
- Hits: 2433
Gov't imposes travel ban on Anglophones
Just weeks after wasting taxpayers money to organize a so-called forum for the Cameroon Diaspora (FODIAS 2017),the gov't has imposed a travel ban on Anglophones from entering the country.
The contradictions are simply mind-boggling and shows a gov't completely out of touch with a reverse sense of its own priorities. Obviously, Diaspora Anglophones are now an endangered species whether or not they support the ongoing Anglophone struggle, but any responsible gov't will not shut the door on its citizens; while at the same time asking them to come back home and invest. Is the gov't pretending not to know that the all the Cameroonians who attended Diaspora forum hold passports and resident cards from their countries of origin? Who is fooling who?
The same gov't rolled out the red carpet for a group of Black Americans who claimed to have traced their ancestry to Cameroon; yet deny entry to its natural born citizens. The gov't would do well to send its "blacklist" to the embassies to screen visa applicants because issuing someone a visa only to turn round and block the person at the port of entry only reinforces Cameroon's international image as a country with highly dysfunctional institutions where bizarre things happen.
This pig-headed policy is ill-advised, counter-productive and plainly egregious in its stupidity. Either way, it is the economy that loses because those rejected Anglophones constitute part of the Cameroon Diaspora that have helped sustained the Biya regime with remittances.
Granted that Cameroon does not recognize dual nationality, even though most Ministers and top gov't functionaries hold French passports; but must you bite your nose to spite your face? Can the gov't survive if Diaspora Cameroonians boycott Western Union and MoneyGram for just one month?
- Details
- Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai
- Hits: 3944
Despite a wobbling 2016/2017 academic year, the Minister of Secondary Education, Jean Ernest Ngalle Massena Bibehe, has suspended Government subventions to some 15 private secondary schools.
The subvention has been suspended for the violation of the law governing the use of State subventions.
The 15 schools were suspended following decision no 363/17/MINISEC/SG/NCBPSES issued on June 27.
Of the 15 schools suspended, eight are from the Littoral Region, four from the Centre Region, two from the West and one from the East Region.
The suspension of the subvention to some of the 15 schools will last for a year, while others will last for three years.
According to a communiqué signed by Minister Ngalle Bibehe, Wouri Division in the Littoral Region is the most affected as schools in the Division will be facing these sanctions.
Schools in Douala II and IV, College Prive Laic La Bergere, College Bilingue New Look, College Progressif Ngounou and Institut Bilingue Saint Benoit will be excluded from the 2017 State subvention.
College Bilingue Le Petit Rousseau will be excluded for two years (2017 and 2018).
Whereas, College Polyvalent Kouakeu De Tonfe, College Polyvalent Sainte Louise and College Polyvalent Bilingue Elisabeth Nkwamegni will be excluded from the State subvention for three years(2017, 2018, and 2019).
Meanwhile, Gopal Bilingual Secondary School, College d’Enseignement General Et Technique De Nyom II, of Yaounde I in the Centre Region will suffer the same fate, as they have been suspended for three years, while Institut Mak Mbe and Institut Prive Laic Mbe of Yaounde II and III will also be sanctioned for two years.
In the West Region, Mifi Division has two schools: College Prive Laic Mbe Sombe and Institut Mbe Sombe Bafoussam, will both be excluded from Government subvention for two years.
The East Region has the lowest number of schools suspended. In the Lom and Djerem Division of Bertoua I, College Bilingue De L’Orient will serve a three-year suspension.
The Minister’s communiqué states that, the suspension was informed by the reporter on the control of State subvention for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 academic years.
The report carried out by the National Control Brigade of Private Schools is contained in press release No. 31/17/MINESEC/SE/NCBPSES of May 15, 2017.
Article 2 of the Minister’s communiqué stipulates that the Directors of Vocational and Technical Training, Regional Delegates, Educational Secretaries and competent authorities should enforce the Minister’s decision.
- Details
- Abeh Valery
- Hits: 2644
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
# Opinion
Get insights and perspectives on the issues that matter to Cameroon and the world with our opinion section. We feature opinions from our editors, columnists, and guest writers, who share their views and analysis on various topics, such as politics, economy, culture, and society. Our opinion section also welcomes contributions from our readers, who can submit their own opinions and comments. Join the conversation and express your opinions with our opinion section.
