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19, July 2016

Inside Cameroon: Is the SDF Diaspora revolution over? ¹

The Social Democratic Front (SDF) and the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) are both major political parties in the Republic of Cameroon. The similarities end there! The SDF as Cameroon’s main opposition party is in a state of brooding, and its diaspora outlets in Europe and the United States of America are facing an energy-draining soul-searching brooding.Yet, every SDF militant you meet in the streets of London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin and Oslo is not even worried.Is their silence deliberate or accidental? What is really the matter? Is it that the SDF revolution is actually over? Or is it in the words of Dr.Boniface Forbin “going, going, gone”.

The SDF tormented by fear graciously accepted the 43 seats awarded the party by a CPDM government-rigged parliamentary election in 1997. The understanding then from every SDF militant particularly those in the diaspora was that: well, we know the party will do nothing in parliament, but what will it achieve by staying out? It would have continued as a front as some Semi Bantus and Sawas recommended. But the Bafourchu mafia that hijacked the SDF were tired of staying on the sidelines of power and those luxurious hotels in Yaounde, the nation’s capital. From 43 seats gotten through a counterfeit parliamentary elections in 1997, the SDF has slowly but surely been reduced to a North West Region political party in 2014.

Correspondingly, it is evidently clear that the silence maintain by SDF militants in the diaspora is deliberate and betrays frustration arising from the fear that the SDF as a political entity in Cameroon has outlived its usefulness and the revolution that came along with it is over. When this reporter speaking to SDF militants in Paderborn,Germany in 2000 did observe that the SDF going to parliament in 1997 under those CPDM conditions was in effect surrendering and beginning a new form of cooperation with the President Biya regime, he was given matching orders to leave the venue. The 1997 SDF decision demonstrated a frightful and unloving attitude by the party towards the Cameroonian people. It was indeed a decision that was contrary to the SDF’s fundamental objective which was to overthrow the crime syndicate headed by President Paul Biya and bring about democracy, economic prosperity, law and order and above all good governance in the Republic of Cameroon.

As a big political party with a very small brain, the SDF did not know that its Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi’s greatest distinction and strength laid in his consistency and unswerving faithfulness to the party’s objective over the years. A pro-National Assembly policy destroyed this overnight. To be sure, the 1997 pro-Assembly decision weakened the SDF and its leadership forever!! The SDF diaspora in Europe and the USA cannot wash their hands off this failure like the biblical Pontus Pilate! The argument that came from New York, Berlin and London that there is no future prospect for free and fair election under President Biya greatly contributed to ending the SDF revolution. What the SDF diaspora was actually saying to their leadership back home was that “if you can beat them, join them”.Which they did!!

The SDF it can now be said was never ready for a long term campaign. What we know as Africans is that similar liberation struggles have lasted for decades and even more. The revolution that finally brought Meles Zenawi to power in Ethiopia in 1991 lasted 17 years. Though a very bad example in modern day Africa, but it is on record that Yoweri Kaguta Museveni challenged the electoral fraud of Milton Obote and that led to a long campaign based on a 10-point programme. He finally beat Obote and all the others in 1986, after 16 difficult years. In Namibia, Sam Nujoma and Toivoja Toivo founded SWAPO in 1959 to fight abusive colonialism. Nujoma went on exile in 1966 but kept up his fight for liberation. He won and became President of Namibia in April 1990-after 31 years. In South Africa the ANC campaign began in 1910. Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years. That did not daunt the spirit of the struggle. The campaign for African majority rule in Northern Rhodesia now Zimbabwe lasted for more than 20 years. So where does our Cameroon SDF stand in history? Maybe the SDF diaspora needs to come up with a new idea!!!!

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News Group)

NB: This article was first published in 2014

19, July 2016

50 billion FCFA stolen from BICEC Cameroon ⁰

An audit conducted in March 2016 by the Banking Commission of Central Africa (COBAC) has revealed that 50 billion francs CFA was stolen from the International Bank of Cameroon for Savings and Credit (BICEC). The findings also noted that the money was taken from the bank through “implied external providers with internal complicity.”

Media reports have suggested that the arrival of Alain Ripert, the new CEO of BICEC brought about the opening of the investigations. The COBAC revelations highlighted the participation of two senior executives of the bank in these criminal practices namely, Innocent Ondoa Nkou who resigned a few weeks after the discovery and Samuel Ngando Mbongue, the Director of Accounting and Treasury who was fired with four other employees.

Rita Akana (Cameroon Concord News Group)

19, July 2016

Camair-Co: Downward trend continues as pilots begin strike action ⁰

Camair Co-pilots reportedly launched a strike action on Monday, July 18, 2016, because of their poor working conditions. In a memorandum from the Union of Airline Pilots and Flight Engineers of the Cameroon Civil Aviation ( Spinac) addressed to the Minister of Finance and the chairman of the board of directors of Camair-Co, the pilots noted the non-payment of salaries since May 2016.

Commander Ngom Mambingo who signed the document also stated that the pilots were demanding three months of unpaid wages. Camair-Co like every CPDM business structure is run like a crime syndicate. Salaries for December 2015 were paid in February 2016 and that of April 2016 were paid in early July of this year.

The pilots also denounced the incompetence at the top management and operation of aircraft. The recruitment policy of the company is laughable. From 2011 to 2014, Camair-Co had 400 to 500 employees. Today, the workforce is 900 employees, against only 96 additional seats with the two new flying coffins from China- MA-Go with 48 seats each.

So in two years, Jean Paul Nana Sandjo has recruited 500 new employees in a company that is sorely lacking in financial resources to pay the maintenance costs of its aircraft, as well as wages.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News Group)

18, July 2016

Cameroon in 2016: The Agbaw-Ebai Debate ⁰

Cameroon is ill, very sick

Mention one area that is in order

Military-Thieves

Police-Rotten

Roads-Death traps

Justice-So much injustice

Electricity-Epileptic

Housing-Not affordable

Civil Service-Evil servants

Tax System: Favors ruling CPDM barons

Hospitals: Mere consulting rooms

Security: Completely absent

Culture: Westernized

Politicians: Very greedy and self-centered

Religion: Hijacked by con men of god

Cameroon Concord News Group-Very worried

Cameroonian citizens: 10 percent sane and 90 per cent political comedians

18, July 2016

King Mohammed VI of Morocco announces plans to rejoin the African Union ⁰

Morocco has officially announced plans to rejoin the African Union more than three decades after it left the bloc in protest at the independence of Western Sahara. King Mohammed VI sent a message to the leaders of the union as they began a two-day summit in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Sunday, saying it’s time for his country to retake its position in the organization.

“For a long time our friends have been asking us to return to them, so that Morocco can take up its natural place within its institutional family. The moment has now come,” said the monarch. He said although Morocco left the club, “it never quit Africa.” In 1984, King Mohammed’s father, King Hassan II, pulled the North African country out of the union over the decision to accept the independence of Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a formal member.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975 and considers it the kingdom’s “southern province.” For decades, the United Nations has been seeking to hold a referendum on independence for the territory. While the government in Morocco continues to carry out multi-million-dollar development projects in the territory, several African countries recognize the area as the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Morocco has offered wide-ranging autonomy for the region, but the Polisario Front, the independence movement in the Western Sahara insists that a referendum be held so that the local population can decide their fate. Leaders of the movement warned in April that that if the UN Security Council fails to set a timetable for a vote on self-determination, war will be possible over the disputed territory.

Presstv

18, July 2016

Russia delivers advanced S-300 air defense system to Iran ⁰

Russia has reportedly delivered the first missiles of the advanced S-300 long-range air defense system as part of a military contract between Moscow and Tehran. According to a report published by Tasnim news agency on Monday, the first shipment of the missiles was delivered to Iran “recently.”

Russia had committed to delivering the systems to Iran under an 800-million-dollar deal in 2007. It, however, refused to deliver the systems to Tehran in 2010 under the pretext that the agreement was covered by the fourth round of the United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

Following Moscow’s refusal to deliver the systems, Tehran filed a complaint against the relevant Russian arms firm with the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva. In April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree, paving the way for the long-overdue delivery of the missile defense systems to Iran.

The decision to deliver the S-300 long-range air defense system came after Iran and the P5+1 group of countries — the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia plus Germany — reached mutual understanding on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2, 2015.

Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, the commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base, said on July 1 that the S-300 missile defense system is to go operational in Iran by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (ending on March 20, 2017).

Presstv

18, July 2016

Buea: UB lecturers suspend strike action ¹

Students in the University of Buea (UB) have continued writing their Second Semester examinations scheduled from June 28-July 18, 2016. On Monday, 11 July, lecturers went on strike, with examinations reportedly overseen mainly by support staff. According to the Registrar, Prof. Roland Ndip, the examinations have been going on hitch-free. He added that the University Senate meets on 3 August during which results will be discussed and approved before being published online. This is so that students in any part of the country and abroad can easily access their results.

Asked about the strike action by lecturers of the university, the Registrar concerted with another school official and then refused to make any statement. However, Cameroon Tribune was able to speak to the First Vice President of the National Syndicate of Teachers of Higher Education (SYNES), Buea chapter, Dr. Ndeh Martin Sango. He confirmed that they actually declared a strike, but it had just been suspended.

“We decided to strike during exams because of unpaid bonuses. These are bonuses for the supervision of long essays, leave claims, re-sit exams, supervision of Master’s theses, and bonuses related to extra working hours. These bonuses date back to 2013 and all attempts to get the university to pay them have failed,” Dr. Ndeh Martin Sango explained. He continued; “We suspended the strike after pleas by students and parents as some of the students will be writing public competitive exams. We decided to suspend the strike so that these students should not suffer innocently. However, we will continue with the strike by withdrawing our services from re-sit exams. We will not start lectures in October if the bonuses are not paid,” he warned.

The union leader alleged that the University of Buea is going through serious administrative crisis, reason why the authorities were not open to dialogue. “We gave the administration a one-month notification before the strike. If the administration was proactive, they would have called the executive of SYNES for dialogue and probably, we would not have declared a strike. In the absence of dialogue, there is always an alternative and we saw strike action as an alternative,” Dr. Ndeh Martin Sango said. Meanwhile, the UB authorities have on several occasions declared their openness to constructive dialogue.

Cameroon Tribune

18, July 2016

Cameroon arrest 4 fake price controllers ⁰

Four suspected fake price controllers are presently in detention at the Special Unit for the Control of Services at in the General Delegation of National Security in Yaounde. The suspects who are yet to be identified were arrested at 2:00 p.m. on Friday July 15, 2016 in Nkolfoulou, Soa, in the Mefou and Afamba Division of the Centre Region. Some of the traders immediately informed the Control Brigade of the Ministry of Trade in the Mefou and Afamba Division who immediately informed the police.

Reports say, the suspected fake price controllers who claimed to be on an official mission of the Ministry of Trade harassed traders in the area and seized some of their goods such as cartons of whisky, wine, and other household goods. According to the reports, the fake price controllers produced fake documents showing their belonging to an Association for the Protection of the Rights of Consumers. The group is made up of two men, one woman and was accompanied by a police officer who works in the Centre Region.

One of the suspects disappeared into thin air while at the police station. A man hunt was immediately put in place to get the fugitive. Sources in Soa said the suspected fake controllers have been harassing traders in the Mfoundi Division for the past three weeks and were only caught in the fourth week in the Mefou and Afamba Division.

The Centre Regional Delegate for Trade, Ombele Nama Alain called on traders to be vigilant and to always verify whether the service note provided by the controllers have been signed by the chief of brigade for trade before attending to them. He said traders should always be in direct contact with the chief of brigade so that each time there is a control team before them they will be able to contact the brigade to be sure that the team is legal. He also called on the public to report to the services of the Ministry of Trade in case of any fake products for action to be taken.

Cameroon Tribune

18, July 2016

South West journalists to boycott Prime Minister Philemon Yang’s visit today in Buea ⁰

Journalists in the South West region have announced a boycott of Prime Minister Philemon Yang’s visit to the region today. Cameroon Concord News was reliably informed that the media gurus and journalists are protesting against the arrest of one of their colleagues, Teke Julius serving with the Cameroon Radio and Television.

The South West reporters revealed that coverage of the Prime Minister’s visit that begins today in Buea will only go ahead if the head of government or the Senior Divisional Officer for Fako issues an open apology and order the immediate release from illegal detention since April the 9^th 2016 of Teke Julius.

Nfor Hanson Nchanji, a long standing Cameroonian journalist championing the release of Teke Julius observed that the journalist was arrested on lame and ridiculous reasons that he recorded a conversation of the Prime Minister and a contractor.

Chama Victor Bama (Cameroon Concord News Group)

17, July 2016

President Putin condemns recent botched military coup in Turkey ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a phone call to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to condemn the recent botched military coup attempt in Turkey and express hope that the country would soon embrace stability. In the phone call on Sunday, Putin described as categorically unacceptable the “anti-constitutional acts and violence” in the life of a state, saying that he “wishes for a speedy restoration of strong constitutional order and stability in Turkey.”

The Kremlin said in a statement that the Russian leader also offered condolences on the death of 161 troops and civilians killed during the coup attempt. The Turkish government and the military say more than 100 coup plotters were also killed in the course of state action against the military intervention which unfolded late Friday and was declared as failed a day later.

Russia and Turkey last month restored ties which had been badly strained following Ankara’s shooting of a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border last year. The restoration came after Erdogan apologized to Putin over the incident and passed on his condolences to the families of the jet’s pilot and the crew member killed after the downing.

The Kremlin said the two leaders also confirmed during the Sunday phone call plans for a personal meeting in the nearest future. Turkish officials said earlier this month that Erdogan would fly to the Russian resort of Suchi to meet Putin in August. The Sunday statement said Erdogan also vowed to take “all necessary steps” to ensure the safety of Russian tourists visiting Turkey. Later on Sunday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, quoting presidential sources, reported that Erdogan and his Russian counterpart will meet in the first week of August.

Presstv