Monthly Archives: October 2016

12, October 2016

X-Maleya to tour the USA in October ⁰

X-Maleya has announced a series of concerts to mark the group’s ten years of existence. Cameroon Concord News learned that the trio: Roger, Auguste and Haïs, popularly known as X-Maleya will be touring the United States of America in what has been dubbed “USA Dream Tour”.

X-Maleya recorded huge success in Europe including their victory tour of Germany and Olympia-Paris in 2014. The US X-Maleya tour is expected to last for a month. The “boy band” will float the Cameroonian flag in Uncle Sam and their first stop is scheduled for October 16 at Fillmore Silver Spring, in the State of Maryland. After Silver Spring, the group will jet to Preston Bradley Centre in Chicago on 22 October.

A spokesman for the group recently observed that the conquest of the United States is a new challenge and preparations have taken a serious dimension as regards to synchronization of choreography and development of the directory.

The main ten years ritual will be performed in Cameroon in December although the date has not been disclosed. For the record, X-Maleya came to the lime light in 2006 through the Exile album. Since then, they have not disappeared from the music scene. The small group has made a name in Africa, Europe and are now heading to the US. They have five albums to their credit.

By Rita Akana with files from Cameroon Tribune

12, October 2016

Chadian Prime Minister in Yaounde ⁰

Prime Minister, Philemon Yang has received in audience the Prime Minister of Chad, Albert Pahimi Padake. Both heads of government met on October the 11^th, 2016 in the Star Building in Yaounde. The Chadian Head of Government reportedly handed over a sealed message from Chadian President, Idriss Deby to his Cameroonian counterpart, President Paul Biya.

Yang and his guest reviewed relations between Cameroon and Chad in various fields. The Chadian official indicated that the Cameroon – Chad railway line is advancing, hitch-free. Development in the energy sector between both countries was also discussed as well as security issues related to the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

We understand Chad is lobbying for Cameroon’s support, as one of its nationals is vying for the post of Chairperson of the African Union Commission.

CRTV

12, October 2016

2016 Cup of Cameroon: Apejes of Mfou the odd man in!! ⁰

Apejes of Mfou and Bamboutous of Mbouda are the two teams to be battling for the highly contested trophy of the 2016 Cup of Cameroon. Bamboutous of Mbouda over shadowed Coton Sport of Garoua with a 0-1 aggregate and Apejes of Mfou got their qualification ticket after thrashing Sporting of Douala 4-2. For Bamboutous of Mbouda it a fifty year old affair since they were created in 1966.

The Mangwa boys have managed to make strides at the UNIFAC Cup and the CAF Confederation cup in 2015 but have never reached the qualification stage at the Cup of Cameroon. Though both teams are still to complete their unfinished affair at the Division 1 football championship, the contestants have high hopes of caressing the trophy this year. Apejes of Mfou just needed time to start going places after starting off as a Football Academy in 2006. Apejes later upgraded to Division 2 status and after three years became a Division 1 team.

It was a difficult journey for Baboutous of Mbouda as they thrashed Coton Sport of Garoua in 1-0 defeat while Apejes had it in an easy way beating an unpopular Sporting of Douala, 4-2. Bamboutos finished thirteen in the last Division 1 football championship two points behind Apejes on position eleven with 43 points.

Both teams will be fighting for the fame and the money but it is worth noting that Mangwa boys have longevity and boisterous support to their sleeves. Apejes has zeal and new found motivation probably a reason for them to fight hard when the time comes.

CRTV

11, October 2016

France says Russian President Vladimir Putin has cancelled his visit to Paris planned for next Tuesday ⁰

France says Russian President Vladimir Putin has cancelled his visit to Paris planned for next Tuesday after the French insisted on holding talks only on Syria. “There were contacts between the Kremlin and the Elysee this morning to offer to Putin a working visit on Syria, but excluding all other events that President Hollande could have taken part in,” President Francois Hollande’s office said Tuesday.

“In response to this proposal, Russia has just indicated that it wants to postpone the visit planned on October 19,” a source at the office was quoted as saying. The Kremlin confirmed that President Putin has indefinitely postponed the visit, which envisaged the opening of a Russian cultural center and an exhibition. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the French side had revised the program and insisted that the visit should focus extensively on Syria.

“Regrettably, those events dropped out of the program,” Peskov said, adding it’s up to the French side to explain the reason. “The president decided to cancel the visit,” Peskov said. Russia on Sunday vetoed a French-drafted resolution calling for an immediate halt of anti-terror airstrikes in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. Moscow said halting airstrikes “provides cover to terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra” and other militant groups allied with them. Relations between Paris and Moscow have soured as they back opposite sides in the Syria crisis.

On Monday, Hollande said he had not decided yet whether to meet Putin and claimed that Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, had committed a “war crime” in Aleppo. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault visited Moscow last week before heading to Washington in a bid to garner support for the French draft resolution for a ceasefire in Aleppo.

Last month, Russia brokered a ceasefire in cooperation with the US but it collapsed after an American airstrike killed 83 Syrian troops in Dayr al-Zawr. The US also failed to implement an important requirement of the peace deal to separate what Washington calls moderate militants from terrorists such as al-Nusra Front members.

Under the deal, the US military had also undertaken to join Russia in targeting terrorists in Aleppo but Washington fulfilled none of the pledges. The calls for a ceasefire come as the Syrian army is tightening the noose around the terrorists in Aleppo as part of its bid to retake the country’s second largest city.

Presstv

11, October 2016

SONARA spends 112,472 dollars buying toys for the children of its staff ⁰

The management of the National Oil Refining Company, SONANA has awarded a contract worth 56,236,396 (fifty-six million two hundred and thirty-six thousand three hundred ninety-six francs) a little more than 112,472 dollars for the supply of toys to the children of its staff.

Cameroon Concord News was reliably informed that the supply of toys was decided and unanimously agreed by a board meeting chaired by former minister John Ebong Ngole, member of the political bureau of the ruling party at a time when the company was struggling to survive.

Our chief economic correspondent who contributed to this report hinted that the CPDM government recently launched a savings collection operation for the financing of this same company-an operation that ended in fiasco as only 350 billion CFA francs was collected simply half of the expected amount. A journalist with Cameroon Intelligence Report revealed late last week that the heavy debt crisis that has rocked SONARA came about due to the inconsistency of the state of Cameroon in paying its own fuel debts related to sovereign expenditure.

A very flippant but reliable source in the company told this reporter that the supply of toys for 56 million FCFA is a practice that has always existed within the company. But this time around, the general manager decided to handover the contract to a close family friend also a worker in the company.

By Rita Akana

11, October 2016

International Cycling: Grand Prix Chantal Biya begins tomorrow ⁰

The 2016 edition of the international cycling race, Grand Prix Chantal Biya will kick off tomorrow with the first lap expected to be run between Yaounde and Bafia. The last preparatory meeting towards the organization of the race took place on October 6^th and was presided by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education representing the minister.

It came out from that meeting that all was now set towards the effective take off of the race. Ten teams from Europe and Africa will be taking part in the race. The bulk of the foreign delegation will arrive in the country today including the referee of the race, Belgian born Jean Pierre Coppenole. The race will comprise four laps; Yaounde-Bafia, Yaounde Ebolowa, Zoetele –Meyomessala and Sangmelima-Yaounde. The kick-off of the race will be at the place de l’Independence, whereas the arrival will be at the 20^th May Boulevard.

Cameroon Tribune

11, October 2016

CPDM Cameroon: Where housemaids are now killing children ⁰

The story about the killing of 12 year old boy Rhandy Ndonko is still making news around the Ngoussou neighbourhood and Yaounde the nation’s capital. He was stabbed and killed last September 2016 by a 22 year old girl – Nchang Tina Ngwa who was apparently serving as housemaid to the Ndonko Family at Santa Babara-Ngoussou neighbourhood in Yaounde.

From police investigations, Nchang Tina Ngwa affirmed that she drank two bottles of Guinness and a short of whisky before committing the act. Rhandy died shortly after having been stabbed three times on his back. As if that wasn’t enough, she tried stabbing Rhandy’s elder brother Ndonko Wanyl who attempted to rescue his brother but did not succeed.

Tina who was arrested eight days after the incident, was recently presented to the public by the elements of the First Police District of the Centre Region in Yaounde. The bloody act occurred just after two weeks of Tina’s recruitment as house maid at the Ndonko’s and at a time where the children just resumed schools from holidays. As a result of this, the forces of law and order are calling on parents to keep a close watch at the house maids they employ to serve their households.

11, October 2016

Bamenda: Agho Oliver is new Secretary General of North West FECAFOOT ⁰

The Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT, North West chapter now has a new regional secretary general appointed by a decision signed by Tombi A Roko, head of Cameroon Football. Tombi A Roko Sidiki who was also elected in a controversial process last year, decreed that Agho Oliver, 33 should replace Kaba Christopher, now president of North West region FECAFOOT.

Immediately after the decision was made public on Monday October the 3rd 2016, Agho Oliver reacted by thanking the almighty God for his appointment and promised to work towards the development of football in the North West region. He marked his commitment to his new office to match assiduity, diligence and fraternity.

Getting more young men and women actively involved in football is among the priorities of the Kaba Christopher-Agho Oliver team. The appointment came barely a month and ten days away from the 2016 female African Cup of Nations to be hosted by Cameroon. The country has equally been favoured to host the 2019 AFCON.

By Cham Victor Bama (Cameroon Concord News Group)

10, October 2016

Bush family behind release of tape against Trump ⁰

The Bush family was behind the release of an 11-year-old tape that shows Republican president nominee Donald Trump making lewd comments about women, according James Fetzer, an American scholar and a retired professor in Madison, Wisconsin.

On Friday, The Washington Post released a tape in which Trump is heard making lewd comments about women and having a conversation about trying to have sex with a married woman. GOP officials, including governors, senators and congressmen across the US have disavowed Trump over the sexually obscene remarks caught on a hot microphone.

Even Trump’s apology for the remarks has failed to quell the unprecedented controversy over his comments, prompting growing demands by Republicans for him to quit the race. “During the debate last night against Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump completely diffused the furor that has been created by the release of a tape 11 years ago, in a conversation with producer Billy Bush, who turns out to be a cousin of George Herbert Walker Bush,” Professor Fetzer said.

The scholar said the Bush family is “strongly opposed to Trump, because they represent the New World Order, and he’s out to defeat it. [They] were undoubtedly responsible for the release.”

Presstv

10, October 2016

University of Buea: After failed harmonization Plan, Faculty of Social and Management Science Board announces split of Faculty ⁰

The Faculty of Social and Management Science, FSMS, University of Buea has addressed attempts by government to create three new faculties and schools out of the current structure and to merge the social science facet with the Faculty of Arts. We gathered that the Faculty board recently met to strategize on the widespread reforms by the Ministry of Higher Education on the University of Buea curriculum. The Wednesday 5th of October 2016 meeting that held inside the campus and chaired by the Dean, Prof. Martha S. Tumnde, didn’t agree to some of the new formulation of three faculties with brand new nomenclatures such as; Law and School of Law, Social Sciences, and Economics and Management respectively. The partitioning of the Law school was however accepted.

The background information about the imminent creation of these faculties was transmitted to the Ministry of Higher Education. The proposals were mainly on the Social Sciences intended to be merged with the Arts to generate into the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Humanities. It is expected that the Faculties of Law and Law School, Economics and Management and a School of Journalism and Mass Communication would stand out. The three structures initially were envisaged against the backdrop of an argument that the Social Sciences were going to bolster the Faculty of Arts financially. A 2008 proposal by UB officials for higher education authorities to scraped Law off the FSMS which would have led to the birth of a School of Law went futile.

The Board on the procedure and validity of the planned merger of the Social Sciences with the Arts observed that; firstly, the merger had no scientific basis as they were independent faculties in English speaking Universities. The latter and Social Sciences were markedly different in terms of content and approach. Secondly, the Board argued that the splitting of the FSMS was to decongest its size, then merging the departments of Geography, Women and Gender Studies, Sociology and Anthropology and Political Science and Public Administration with the Faculty of Arts would also lead to congestion of the new Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The board suggested that, it will not be proper to remove the nomenclature “Social Sciences” which has been used since the inception of the University of Buea because this Nomenclature “Social Sciences” reflects the Anglo-Saxon tradition and dream of education and not Arts and Social Sciences as obtains in the Francophone system.

Moreover, the Social Sciences disciplines have the prospects of growing with the creation of new programmes such as Social Work, Development Studies, Psychology, Demography, Urban and Regional Planning, some of which have been solicited to develop over the years. Lastly, the board also noted that the Social Science disciplines have been offering Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science and Not Bachelors of Arts and Masters of Art. The association with the Arts as Humanities will create problems of continuity and consistency that may cast doubts on our degrees especially out of the country. They also argued that the scientific approach with UB’s Social Sciences was an asset that ought to be maintained by creating its own autonomous faculty. The choices of the students who opted for this model should also be respected. In addition, the merger of the Social Sciences and Arts is a regression in intellectual development giving that these disciplines have moved apart a long time ago.

The faculty board at the end of the Letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor of UB urged the University and the Ministry of Higher Education to review the plan and leave the Social Sciences as an autonomous entity. At press time we gathered that the text of application to legalize the new faculties if finally promulgated will go operational this 2016/17 academic year. This implies that new students who had apply to read degrees in Sciences would be left with no option than to enrol in the Art degree program. Some observers say the imminent reforms are fallouts of the failed attempt to harmonize the country’s higher education system.

The desire to destroy and crackdown on Anglophone education is old and all a calculated attempt to ruin the hard earned genuine value and status the Anglo-Saxon system has achieved in contemporary times. The Ministry of Higher Education was represented by English speaking Prof. Gabsa Sixtus.

By Cham Victor Bama in Buea