Politics

Cameroon’s Minister for Sports and Physical Education, Pierre Ismael Bidoung Mkpatt, has insinuated that the Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration of the National Olympic and Sports Committee is incompetent to determine the validity of elections at the Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT. The Minister’s stand on the overdue electoral bickering at FECAFOOT was made known yesterday in Yaounde and broadcast nation-wide following fears that the perennial contesting faction of the federation led by former Vice President, John Begheni Nde was bracing up to take over management of FECAFOOT affairs less than 72 hours after the Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration of the National Olympic and Sports Committee had ruled that the recent elections that brought current President Tombi Aroko Sidiki to power was null and void.

Can we therefore say the curtains have ultimately been drawn on the longstanding melodrama at FECAFOOT? We of this publication say NO! Needless taking you back to how we got to where we are now. Rather, let us take the cue from when Tombi Aroko was sworn in as FECAFOOT boss. As celebrations went underway at the FECAFOOT headquarters in the Tsinga neighbourhood in Yaounde, the brain trust of the distraught faction was meticulously putting together files to challenge the decision to uphold the validity of the elections. One file bungled, while the other one convinced the Conciliation and Arbitration Committee of the National Olympic and Sports Committee to nullify the deliberations of the last FECAFOOT General Assembly, by implication, declaring the elections null and void.

FECAFOOT had 21 days to appeal the decision. But three days into the appeal opening, Minister Bidoung Mkpatt, the same one who had been sacked from Government in 2004 in the heat of the stand off between FIFA and FECAFOOT over the Indomitable Lions single outfit, undertook to hoodwink a carefully chosen group of officials to come up with what is currently tearing apart the football family in the country. Can someone explain to us why Abdourhaman Amadou and Co. who seem to be a particularly clever lot could not be cowed into submission by a conglomerate of learned men of the law? Without being a football astrologer, Cameroon Concord can safely conclude that Abdourhaman and Co. are already whistling foul and are certainly taking the matter to the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Lausanne who, before any other thing else, will raise an objection as to what we will be reminded of as being government intervention in football management in Cameroon.

For a man whom President Biya, against all odds, decided to offer some political rehabilitation, it is regrettable that Minister Bidoung Mkpatt should consciously create more problems for an octogenarian leader suffering from insomnia. Which way out? It is a matter of common sense that in such a long drawn out problem, a lot has been wasted and destroyed in material, financial, ego-tripping considerations. For one thing, the Government will not allow itself to be dragged endlessly in the mud with impunity.

The incumbent is certainly unwilling to let go the golden fleece after coming so close yet so far. And Sheik Abdourhaman Amadou who has demonstrated with outstanding finesse how well to read and interpret mere texts will for nothing at all slant from being The Cameroonian of the Year to a toddler. However, the complicated polynomial which otherwise should necessitate mastery of the Binomial theorem takes just knowledge of a simple linear equation to resolve: Summon Tombi and Abdourhamann to an eyeball-to-eyeball closed door discussion and ask them to grant a press conference after the secret meeting during which they will announce the joint decision and subsequently jointly supervise its implementation. This is our medical prescription to cure the cancerous ulcer lethally gnawing away at the FECAFOOT substrate.

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Ngwa Bertrand

19.Nov.2015

Hits: 1842

Cameroon’s Minister for Sports and Physical Education, Pierre Ismael Bidoung Mkpatt, has insinuated that the Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration of the National Olympic and Sports Committee is incompetent to determine the validity of elections at the Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT. The Minister’s stand on the overdue electoral bickering at FECAFOOT was made known yesterday in Yaounde and broadcast nation-wide following fears that the perennial contesting faction of the federation led by former Vice President, John Begheni Nde was bracing up to take over management of FECAFOOT affairs less than 72 hours after the Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration of the National Olympic and Sports Committee had ruled that the recent elections that brought current President Tombi Aroko Sidiki to power was null and void.

Can we therefore say the curtains have ultimately been drawn on the longstanding melodrama at FECAFOOT? We of this publication say NO! Needless taking you back to how we got to where we are now. Rather, let us take the cue from when Tombi Aroko was sworn in as FECAFOOT boss. As celebrations went underway at the FECAFOOT headquarters in the Tsinga neighbourhood in Yaounde, the brain trust of the distraught faction was meticulously putting together files to challenge the decision to uphold the validity of the elections. One file bungled, while the other one convinced the Conciliation and Arbitration Committee of the National Olympic and Sports Committee to nullify the deliberations of the last FECAFOOT General Assembly, by implication, declaring the elections null and void.

FECAFOOT had 21 days to appeal the decision. But three days into the appeal opening, Minister Bidoung Mkpatt, the same one who had been sacked from Government in 2004 in the heat of the stand off between FIFA and FECAFOOT over the Indomitable Lions single outfit, undertook to hoodwink a carefully chosen group of officials to come up with what is currently tearing apart the football family in the country. Can someone explain to us why Abdourhaman Amadou and Co. who seem to be a particularly clever lot could not be cowed into submission by a conglomerate of learned men of the law? Without being a football astrologer, Cameroon Concord can safely conclude that Abdourhaman and Co. are already whistling foul and are certainly taking the matter to the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Lausanne who, before any other thing else, will raise an objection as to what we will be reminded of as being government intervention in football management in Cameroon.

For a man whom President Biya, against all odds, decided to offer some political rehabilitation, it is regrettable that Minister Bidoung Mkpatt should consciously create more problems for an octogenarian leader suffering from insomnia. Which way out? It is a matter of common sense that in such a long drawn out problem, a lot has been wasted and destroyed in material, financial, ego-tripping considerations. For one thing, the Government will not allow itself to be dragged endlessly in the mud with impunity.

The incumbent is certainly unwilling to let go the golden fleece after coming so close yet so far. And Sheik Abdourhaman Amadou who has demonstrated with outstanding finesse how well to read and interpret mere texts will for nothing at all slant from being The Cameroonian of the Year to a toddler. However, the complicated polynomial which otherwise should necessitate mastery of the Binomial theorem takes just knowledge of a simple linear equation to resolve: Summon Tombi and Abdourhamann to an eyeball-to-eyeball closed door discussion and ask them to grant a press conference after the secret meeting during which they will announce the joint decision and subsequently jointly supervise its implementation. This is our medical prescription to cure the cancerous ulcer lethally gnawing away at the FECAFOOT substrate.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

19.Nov.2015

Hits: 1627

Cameroon’s Minister for Sports and Physical Education, Pierre Ismael Bidoung Mkpatt, has insinuated that the Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration of the National Olympic and Sports Committee is incompetent to determine the validity of elections at the Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT. The Minister’s stand on the overdue electoral bickering at FECAFOOT was made known yesterday in Yaounde and broadcast nation-wide following fears that the perennial contesting faction of the federation led by former Vice President, John Begheni Nde was bracing up to take over management of FECAFOOT affairs less than 72 hours after the Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration of the National Olympic and Sports Committee had ruled that the recent elections that brought current President Tombi Aroko Sidiki to power was null and void.

Can we therefore say the curtains have ultimately been drawn on the longstanding melodrama at FECAFOOT? We of this publication say NO! Needless taking you back to how we got to where we are now. Rather, let us take the cue from when Tombi Aroko was sworn in as FECAFOOT boss. As celebrations went underway at the FECAFOOT headquarters in the Tsinga neighbourhood in Yaounde, the brain trust of the distraught faction was meticulously putting together files to challenge the decision to uphold the validity of the elections. One file bungled, while the other one convinced the Conciliation and Arbitration Committee of the National Olympic and Sports Committee to nullify the deliberations of the last FECAFOOT General Assembly, by implication, declaring the elections null and void.

FECAFOOT had 21 days to appeal the decision. But three days into the appeal opening, Minister Bidoung Mkpatt, the same one who had been sacked from Government in 2004 in the heat of the stand off between FIFA and FECAFOOT over the Indomitable Lions single outfit, undertook to hoodwink a carefully chosen group of officials to come up with what is currently tearing apart the football family in the country. Can someone explain to us why Abdourhaman Amadou and Co. who seem to be a particularly clever lot could not be cowed into submission by a conglomerate of learned men of the law? Without being a football astrologer, Cameroon Concord can safely conclude that Abdourhaman and Co. are already whistling foul and are certainly taking the matter to the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Lausanne who, before any other thing else, will raise an objection as to what we will be reminded of as being government intervention in football management in Cameroon.

For a man whom President Biya, against all odds, decided to offer some political rehabilitation, it is regrettable that Minister Bidoung Mkpatt should consciously create more problems for an octogenarian leader suffering from insomnia. Which way out? It is a matter of common sense that in such a long drawn out problem, a lot has been wasted and destroyed in material, financial, ego-tripping considerations. For one thing, the Government will not allow itself to be dragged endlessly in the mud with impunity.

The incumbent is certainly unwilling to let go the golden fleece after coming so close yet so far. And Sheik Abdourhaman Amadou who has demonstrated with outstanding finesse how well to read and interpret mere texts will for nothing at all slant from being The Cameroonian of the Year to a toddler. However, the complicated polynomial which otherwise should necessitate mastery of the Binomial theorem takes just knowledge of a simple linear equation to resolve: Summon Tombi and Abdourhamann to an eyeball-to-eyeball closed door discussion and ask them to grant a press conference after the secret meeting during which they will announce the joint decision and subsequently jointly supervise its implementation. This is our medical prescription to cure the cancerous ulcer lethally gnawing away at the FECAFOOT substrate.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

19.Nov.2015

Hits: 1546

9 people were killed last night in an attack attributed to Boko Haram, in the village of Goldavi in the Far North region. Boko Haram militants also injured 12 others. The heavily armed fighters simultaneously attacked several Cameroonian localities bordering Nigeria. Several homes were reportedly burned including that of the leader of the village vigilance committee.

The Boko Haram fighters also made away with livestock. At the time of filing this report, information filtered to our news desk in Yaounde that three pregnant women and two children were among those killed. Boko Haram attacks in the Lake Chad have claimed the lives of more than 17,000 people and displaced 2.6 million.

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.Nov.2015

Hits: 1315

Officials of the International Criminal Court warned member states not to compromise judicial independence as Kenya began a renewed diplomatic push against charges faced by its deputy president. Ahead of this week's ICC general assembly meeting, Kenya is rallying its African allies in support of rule changes that would disbar much of the evidence prosecutors are relying on to convict Deputy President William Ruto over post-election violence that killed 1,200 people. The dispute risks driving a wedge between the European countries that largely finance the court and Africa, which provides a third of its members. In a letter published on Monday by the website Journalists for Justice and confirmed genuine by the court, the court's president, prosecutor and registrar said member states risked compromising the court's integrity. "States parties (must) robustly continue to safeguard the independence of the ICC's judicial process," they wrote in a letter to the assembly's president. 

The warning comes amid escalating tensions between Africa and the permanent global war crimes court, with leading members contemplating leaving the body. Judges this year withdrew charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who, like Ruto, was accused of stoking ethnic violence after the 2007 presidential election. This week, Kenyatta said he was "tired" of the ICC's "interference" in Kenya's internal affairs. South Africa, under fire from the court for failing to detain and extradite Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, a war crimes suspect, when he was in the country, was urged by its ruling party to leave the court.

Prosecutors have blamed their failure to put Kenyatta on trial on political interference and interference with witnesses, especially after Kenyatta was elected president in 2013. Their withdrawal weakened the prosecution case. "In 2014, information suggested that, for the first time, a (prosecution) witness was likely targeted and killed due to his interaction with the court," prosecutors said in a report published on Monday, without indicating which case the witness was linked to. Judges have allowed prosecutors to use statements from withdrawn witnesses as evidence against Ruto. Kenya wants member states to tell judges they were wrong to do so. Kenya says the court case against Ruto risks rekindling ethic tensions.

"The ICC represents an existential threat to Kenya ... its peace and security," said Korir Sing'Oei, a legal adviser to Ruto, adding if member states refused to rein in judges it would "show that the Assembly is a tool of just a few states." Despite complaints in Africa about being singled out by the court, the ICC is expanding its activities outside the continent, with investigations launched this year in Gaza, Georgia and Ukraine.

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.Nov.2015

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Bernard Bajolet, the chief of the French Secret Service was in Cameroon on Thursday, November 12, 2015 for reasons not yet known to the Cameroonian people. Bernard Bajolet was received in audience by President Paul Biya at the Unity Palace and nothing has so far filtered from this meeting between the two personalities, as the boss of the French secret services made no statement to the press. 

The presence of Bernard Bajolet in Yaounde some few hours before the happenings in Paris has created some “excitement” among the political elites, the Cameroon army and other policing establishments in the country. We gathered from our military informant that Bajolet met Biya to discuss the business of intelligence sharing in the war against Boko Haram. Our senior political correspondent in Yaounde who contributed to this report observed that with the arrival of the US contingent stationed in Garoua and made up of 300 soldiers, France is aware that the intelligence system has changed and Paris wants to be at the head of everything in Cameroon from the security point of view.

Recently, senior French leaders have visited Cameroon including Laurent Fabius (Foreign Minister) Bernard Cazeneuve (Interior Minister) and Francois Hollande (President). Bernard Bajolet became head of the French Secret Service, DGSE on the 10th of April 2013. He has served as ambassador of France in Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Jordan. From 1986-1990 he served as deputy ambassador in the French embassy in Syria. Bernard Bajolet was en route to Paris when the Friday terrorists’ attacks were staged. In trying to protect everything, you end up protecting nothing

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.Nov.2015

Hits: 1628