A row between Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and his wife has brought cracks in the ruling party into the open as frustration grows over government inertia in trying to drag the country out of its first recession in 25 years. Aisha Buhari publicly criticised her husband’s record in office, saying she might not support him if he seeks re-election in 2019 unless he shakes up his administration, which she said had been hijacked by a “few people”.

The president tried to laugh off the rebuke from his wife of 27 years, saying “she belongs in the kitchen” – but without addressing the substance of her remarks, made last week in an interview with the BBC. The 73-year-old won last year’s election promising a new era in the West African nation, where graft has enriched elite while most of 180 million Nigerians live in poverty despite the OPEC member’s oil wealth.

Buhari came to power backed by his All Progressives Congress (APC) party, a broad coalition of politicians who united to remove his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, without having a joint plan on how to run the country. Now, 17 months into office, there are few signs of Buhari’s promised reforms to diversify the economy away from exporting crude, prices of which have halved since 2014.

Already the naira is down 35% this year, making it one of the worst performing currencies in the world, and the National Bureau of Statistics forecasts the economy will shrink by 1.3% in 2016. But criticism of the government goes beyond an apparent lack of urgency in tackling the economic crisis. A belief is growing that power is concentrated among Buhari’s chief of staff and an inner circle at the presidential villa, making it difficult for ministers to get the attention of the president.

The First Lady is not alone in her views. Senate President Bukola Saraki, the third most senior politician in Nigeria, took to Twitter to express his concerns. “It has become clear there is government within government of @MBuhari who’ve seized apparatus of executive powers to pursue their nefarious agenda,” he tweeted in June.

Buhari’s spokesmen declined to comment while the president himself has defended his economic record in general terms. “I believe this recession will not last,” he said this month. “We have identified the country’s salient problems and we are working hard at lasting solutions.”

Annual inflation accelerated in September to 17.9%, a more than 11-year high, and last week about 100 young people demonstrated near the central bank over the naira’s fall.

But, generally, discontent has yet to turn into mass protest. “Let me commend Nigerians for your patience, steadfastness and perseverance. You know I am trying to do the right things for our country,” said Buhari.

“SMALL CLIQUE”

Nevertheless, Buhari has not answered questions about how Nigeria is governed under his presidency. “People feel the country is being run by a small clique of people who have taken over and are acting in the name of the president,” said Clement Nwankwo, director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, a think-tank in Abuja.

Buhari has put Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a commercial lawyer, in charge of economic politics. But Osinbajo, who favours a more flexible currency policy to attract badly-needed foreign investment, has struggled to get his ideas heard.

“There is great worry that the input of the vice president does not seem to be taken into account in implementing policies, especially on the economic front,” Nwankwo said. Buhari has said as an ex-general he is no expert in economics, and yet he long rejected a devaluation of the naira – just as he did as military ruler in the 1980s when Nigeria was also in recession.

When the central bank finally dropped the naira’s peg to the dollar in June, the currency slumped 30% and many equity and bond investors had in any case long since gone. Even now, Nigeria is operating a “managed float” which is keeping the official naira rate at around 305 to the dollar, far stronger than Monday’s black market rate of 455.

As ever in Nigerian politics, the division of powers between the mainly Muslim north, where Buhari is from, and the Christian south is playing a role. Diplomats say members of northern circles known to Buhari for decades have resisted some ministers such as Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun, a southerner in her 40s who was not his first choice. A source close to the presidency described the accusations of inertia as grumbling by some in the APC who had hoped for jobs or contracts under a system of patronage which Buhari stopped under his anti-graft drive.

DIFFICULT CHOICES

Buhari needed to pick a cabinet from the APC but this was complicated because he was constitutionally bound to pick a minister from each of Nigeria’s 36 states.

To insert his influence he then brought in people he has known for decades. Members of his “kitchen cabinet” include his chief of staff Abba Kyari, whom Buhari has also put on the board of state oil firm NNPC, his uncle Mamman Daura and Babachir Lawal, secretary to the government of the federation.

“Buhari is deeply suspicious of politicians because of Nigeria’s history of graft,” said one Western diplomat. “There are few people he trusts or regularly talks to to seek their advice.” The pre-eminence of the inner circle has, say political insiders, created a rift between the president and Bola Tinubu, a former Lagos state governor who rallied southern Christian elites to help win power.  Tinubu has issued statements attacking APC chairman John Oyegun and oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, deepening divisions in the party.

LITTLE ACTIVITY

Buhari has won plaudits from ordinary Nigerians by saying he will target a hyper-rich elite accused of massive corruption. He has also managed to retake most territory lost to the Islamist militants of Boko Haram and negotiated the release of 21 of more than 200 girls kidnapped in 2014, although suicide bombings remain part of life in north-eastern Nigeria.

But much of his first year in office was beset by slow progress. A five month wait for his cabinet to be formed was followed by wrangling with parliament over the 2016 budget, which was only signed off by Buhari in May.  Efforts to make Nigeria more business-friendly have stalled. Trade Minister Okechukwu Enelamah wants to ease visa rules, acknowledging complaints from foreign executives about obstructive embassy officials, but has given no timeframe.

Nigeria could have earned as much as $8 billion in travel receipts this year, instead of the $500 million booked in 2014, had it adopted visitor-friendly visa rules like Ghana, Renaissance Capital said in a report.  Some investors have expressed frustration over hard currency curbs. “You can’t even discuss a rational foreign exchange policy,” David Lapido, director at Amaya Capital invested in Nigeria’s power industry, told a panel debate.

Leading economists recently met Buhari, stressing it was high time for action as there were just 18 months left before the next election would paralyse politics. “We were very frank,” said Bismarck Rewane, CEO of Financial Derivatives consultancy who attended the meeting. “The president is paying serious attention to the economy. I am now more optimistic.”

Culled from DefenseWeb

The former body guard of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Captain Bouba Simala, is reportedly dying in a military detention centre in Yaounde. Detained ever since June 2015, the nephew of Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, President of the National Assembly was accused for attempted kidnapping, terrorism and incitement to robbery.

Captain Bouba has been brought before the military tribunal several times on charges concocted against him by his uncle Cavaye Yeguie Djibril. Recently, the facts were reclassified as mere threats and insults to the speaker of the National Assembly. These new developments hinted our Yaounde city reporter, are simply a game of hide and seek.

The trial of the captain has been politicised and is not advancing. The last hearing, held on the 13^th of October resulted in another referral. The Speaker of the National Assembly has reportedly hired Barrister Fostine Fotso Chebou Kamdem who is only interested in keeping the captain in police drag net as long as Cavaye stays on as Speaker of the National Assembly.

It is hard to believe that the men and women protecting the regime would allow one of their own to be humiliated in this manner. Lieutenant-Colonel Mefand was compelled to suspend the hearing indefinitely after House Speaker; Cavaye Djibril’s lawyer moved a motion to that effect.

According to Article 598 of the Criminal Procedure Code, once the magistrate receives a copy of the application in conformity with the provisions of Article 594 (2), it is tenuous to suspend the proceedings until a decision is made.

This CPDM action has now led to a postponement of the trial to the 10^th of November 2016. The defense lawyer, Barrister Emmanuel Simh has made it clear that the current suspension was a means to extend the duration of his client in the military detention centre in Yaounde. Will Cameroonian military officers please stand up!!

By Rita Akana

Cameroonians are now showing so much indifference towards the complete absence from the national territory of President Biya. The population appears to have withdrawn from the nation-state. So, the continues absence of the 83 year old leader who has already spent 34 years as president seems not to bother anyone! Nobody talks about Biya’s continued stay abroad in a hotel in Geneva and the few individuals, who speak, do so only on television debates or in some obscure political discourse.

The movements of President Biya are now a non-event. His presence in Yaounde sometimes surprises even his kinsmen and collaborators. There is no limitation or accountability on his private trips abroad. In just five months (May-October 2016) Biya has spent 76 days out of Cameroon on lame and ridiculous reasons.

The bulk of Biya’s trips as often announced by state radio and television are devoted to private stays with no added value to the development of Cameroon. It appears Biya and First Lady Chantal are acting a Nollywood movie and the morally bankrupt Cameroonian society is watching.

We call it a Nollywood movie because on the 27^th of May 2016, Biya left Cameroon and returned on June the 25^th after spending 30 days abroad. On August the 24^th, 2016, Biya again including some of his close associates left Cameroon for Switzerland. The delegation returned to Yaoundé on September the 9^th after a 17 days relaxation in Geneva. This time around, they returned with a coveted trophy—- Chantal Biya, who had left the country ever since May, 2016.

On September the 16th, the president left the capital again for New York in the United States. The official statement indicated that he was invited to the 71st session of the General Assembly of the UN. While the heads of state, government and delegations present in New York, have all returned to their respective countries after the meeting of the UN, the President of Cameroon is still out of the country. Today Friday, October the 14^th makes it nearly 30 days after his last trip. Our nation may fall into the hands of a military thug. The country needs a decent man-a very decent man to run its affairs.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

When the nationality question was raised at the ICJ during the hearing of the Cameroon v Nigeria case Cameroun and Nigeria as well as the Court dodged the question. Cameroon in particular pleaded with the court not to defer a decision on the matter to allow the matter to be settled through bilateral negotiations. The Court made a note of this plea in its judgment and left a potentially explosive matter unresolved.

The failure to resolve this issue left the so-called Bakassi judgment inconclusive deferring the most important matter that emerged during the case unresolved. There exists therefore a reasonable ground to believe that the supposed peace and closure that the ICJ judgment purported to bring was but the peace of the loaded gun as the news report forwarded with this comment and many others attest.

 The question arises, therefore, why did Nigeria which proposed a referendum to resolve this matter and Cameroun which opposed the referendum shy from allowing the ICJ to resolve this component of the case even when they would reasonably have anticipated that the nationality issue is one of the most explosive in international relations and international law? The answer may be hidden in the little talked about interpleader which Fon Gorgi Dinka filed on behalf of Ambazonia which was duly acknowledged but no further action taken on it during the trial.

The legal and/or technical grounds on the basis of which the interpleader would have been entertained or rejected were never seriously considered during trial by the parties. The interpleader therefore remained part of the court records in the case. If anything, the interpleader was reasonable notice to the parties in the case that Ambazonia was laying claims not just to the resources in Bakassi but also to the population residing in Bakassi.

Considering the state of agitation of the people of Bakassi during the case and thereafter, and their threats at one moment to declare independence; their commitment to Ambazonia nationality, Cameroon and Nigeria found the matter so explosive to allow the court to take a decision on. That is why the court deferred to a negotiated settlement which has not and will never take place as long as the wider issue, the Ambazonia question is not comprehensively resolved. This matter therefore is another sore of international justice left unaddressed.

By Chief Charles A.Taku

Cameroonians have demonstrated some questionable judgments before, but many around the world now think the recent publication of photos of Rigobert Song, former skipper of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon by Cameroonians on social media as he was being resuscitated in a Yaounde hospital outdid the integrity of our hospitals, its staff and our nation.

In an apparent attempt to connect with his fans all over the world, some Cameroonians released intimate photos of the African football legend as he laid in a coma on his sick bed in Yaounde. Some of Rigobert Song’s fans requested prayers via those photos, but some also screamed, concerned that our hospital authorities should not have allowed anyone including family members to take photos of a patient in such pathetic condition.

The incident has been roundly condemned all over the world but no apologies or statement has so far been issued by the Emergency Centre in Yaounde. Cameroonians publish regularly photos of even dead relatives taken inside mortuaries on Face Book. The AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE thinks, this on Rigobert Song was alarmingly irresponsible behaviour and pretty careless to say the least. Journalism has rules!! So too is the social media.

In this edition of the AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE, we are asking our readers if Yaounde prosecutors should investigate the incident.

Remember how Nazi German troops tugged Jews into trains and shipped them off to death camps in Auschwitz? That is exactly how 19 young people from Wum in Menchum Division were snatched from prison cells in Bamenda and bused under military escort to Yaoundé under the cover of darkness, ordered by a military judge. They have since been languishing in the notorious Kondengui prison, which in reality is a death camp with killers TB, HIV AIDS, hunger, AIDS, homosexuality, and water borne diseases reigning supreme.

The Jews never knew why they were ever taken to Auschwitz, neither do the 18 Wum boys and one pregnant girl know why they were whisked away like war captives, from their home Northwest Region to far away Yaoundé. It is mind bugling to understand why the government would sanction such a transfer of suspects from the Bamenda highlands whereas there exist competent military courts with jurisdiction in Wum and Bamenda where they allegedly committed the crime – razing of a military barrack in Wum following riots triggered by the stabbing of a moto taxi driver by a soldier in a liquor bar. We ask, in whose interest has the military justice transferred the suspects from Bamenda to Yaoundé? Clearly it is not in the interest of justice. It is not even in the interest of the governing francophone elite of this country? The holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Ellie Wiesel asked this same rhetorical question – in whose interest was the holocaust? It was not even in the interest of the Germans.

The separatist SCNC (Southern Cameroons National Council) and SOCALIM (Southern Cameroons Liberation Movement) describe the move as an act by the occupation forces of La Republique du Cameroun on a captured territory of Southern Cameroons. Is this not the same heavy handed acts that fuels Anglophone Cameroonian anger and frustrations in this marriage of convenience between the two Cameroons? How can the regime explain the displacement of people from one part of the country to be tried for a crime they committed in another part of the country where the judicial institutions exist? What explains this insensitivity to the feelings and cries of the people west of the mungo? Haven’t their brothers east of the Mungo read Prof. John Nkengong Nkengason’s “Across The Mungolo?”

 Well, to the former, the transfer of the Wum detainees to the Yaoundé Kondengui concentration camp remains to this day, a source of shock and astonishment. We salute the opposition SDF legislators for taking up this matter with the interior minister, Prof Rene Sadi. They confronted him with two crucial issues on their plate: The mystery of transferring suspects to Yaoundé and the land grabbing ventures of the rich and influential Francophone Africa’s billionaire, Baba Danpullo. The latter has been tussling with the people of Esu, a rural farming community in Menchum who would not surrender their land to the billionaire cattle and horse ranch owner who despite 31 years of business on Esu soil, they people say he boast of employing the sons and daughters of that peasant community.

 The traditional ruler of Esu and several youths of his kingdom are now frequent guests to Bamenda where judicial officers are endlessly grilling them for a matter that could jolly well be handled by the ecurity department and courts in Wum. That again is another puzzle. Minister Rene Sadi has promised to delve into the matter. So too for the Wum detainees in Kondengui. Yet the interior minister claims he was not aware the Wum youths were transferred to Kondengui. Who can believe him?

The SDF parliamentary group leader, Joseph Banadzem told the BBC that the minister spoke candidly. But it remains to be seen how much action he would take to uphold social justice in the case. The detainees include a pregnant lady who now has no possibility to ensure the health of her unborn child by attending ante natal clinic. If Minister Sadi is unaware of her case, can his colleagues of justice and defense ministries feign the same ignorance? Are they blind to the banner headlines on newspapers on the matter? He must however be aware that this is not the first time Anglophones are being carted to Yaoundé for military court trials. It happened to former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Nyoh Wakai (late); SCNC chairman Nfor Ngala Nfor and several other champions of democracy and Anglophone nationalism. Many of them survived the harsh environment in Kondengui, but some died. Some came out of jail, eaten up by diseases and too weak to live.

Nazi holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel survived the death camp when the Russian Red Army liberated them in 1945. He lived on to write 50 books detailing the evil man did to man in the camps. He was just 15 years old – like many of the Wum detainees – when he and his father and other relatives were taken away in smoky trains. The Wum detainees are in great difficulty, their families unable to bring them food and comfort. At least one of them is now allowing interested male inmates to despoil his flesh as he put it, just to keep body and soul together. Their human rights to fair justice and feeding are being abused. They are being heard by a military investigating magistrate and affording a lawyer is too much a luxury. Yet many of them are in high spirit. Like Elie Wiesel they must keep the will to survive and wait in joyful hope for the day the prison gates will be flung open for them to walk through.

By Randy Joe Sa’ah

Operation Sparrow Hawk launched by President Paul Biya seems to have attracted a group of prominent French lawyers into the country. The French lawyers who are currently defending the former barons of the Biya regime are now referred to as the “white marabouts in black dress.”

Those who have been indexed as luxury prisoners by the president’s court prefer to entrust their defence to these European lawyers, rather than those of the country. Many French speaking Cameroonians with ill-gotten wealth are more chic to be advised by French or a star of the Paris Bar Association.

French Barrister Christian Charriere Bournazel, the lawyer who defended Lydienne Yen Eyoum recently pardoned by President Paul Biya had complete and total access to both French President François Hollande and Hélène Gal, the Special adviser to Elysée on African affairs. The AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE understands Lydienne Yen Eyoum, the Franco-Cameroonian lawyer has now gained her freedom thanks to diplomatic negotiations conducted among others by Christian Bournazel.

Another French lawyer is Eric Dupond-Moretti operating in Cameroon. He defended Michel Thierry Antagana and the Franco-Cameroonian was also released from prison by presidential pardon.

Barrister Richard Sédillot, the legal counsel for Alanguena Urbain Awono, former Minister of Health, recently decried the political manipulation of justice in Cameroon under the pretext of Operation Sparrow Hawk. He has followed from beginning to end the legal proceedings of Olanguena at the High Court of Mfoundi to the Special Criminal Court and to the Supreme Court.

Jean-Paul Benoit is a former Prefect and now a French advocate who specializes on Africa through networks developed in the continent.  His personal friend, Mr. Mignard, is a close and trusted friend of French President François Hollande. Benoît is currently defending the former Ivorian head of state, Laurent Gbagbo and has legal matters in Cameroon.

The AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE is asking our readers to make public their opinions on why French speaking Cameroonians do not trust their Made in Cameroun legal practitioners

Files from Cameroon-info.net

The Cameroonian Senate has indeed reached its point of high comedy. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are not really exaggerating when we say these. Our senators regularly appear completely unprepared for questions concerning the day-to-day running of the country. With age telling on them, they are very sluggish, tongue-tied and practically weak. For lack of a better word, the Cameroonian so called senators are an embarrassment for all concerned.

Several elected officials in Cameroon have died, but they have not been replaced as provided by law. Recently, Senator Delphine Medjo passed away raising once again the issue that calls into question the functioning of the Senate. Our senators have treated Cameroonians to a risible array of hyperbolic, ill-informed and to be sure, gotcha questions and answer sessions of narrow parochial concerns that have almost nothing to do with what the great Barrister Bernard Muna noted as the “Challenges of the 21^st Century” facing the nation.

Ever since its creation not too long ago, the senate members have been dying like flies.  Youssoufa Dawa in October 2015, Steven Jikong Yérima in November 2014, Francis Nkwain in October 2014, Fon Fontem Njifua Lucas in April 2014 and Illiassou Ntieche Mouchili, who even travelled to the land of his ancestors before the maiden session of the Senate. None has been replaced. So, it is evidently clear that the Senate is operating illegally.

Veteran Cameroonian journalist, Chief Bisong Etahoben had opined that there was no need writing these laws if we do not want to respect them. The provisions of Article 219 of the Electoral Code, which provides in Article 1 that in case of death of an elected senator and in accordance with provisions of Article 155, the procedure for by-elections in the constituency will prevail has hardly been respected.

Paragraph 3 of the same section also specifies that in case of death of an appointed senator, a new senator is appointed to complete the term, at the behest of the President of the Republic. Yet for now, none of these provisions has been respected. The nation is governed from a hotel room in Swiss.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Some Cameroonian political analysts have recently opined that President Biya 83 will be unable to attract foreign investors to Cameroon as he approaches the end of his mandate as President of the Republic. Many have argued that with age telling on him and with no clear succession plan, everything in Cameroon now creates a doubt and deters potential investors.

The uncertainty on the political transition currently prevailing in Cameroon is not likely to encourage foreign businessmen, and even Cameroonian nationals who which wish to invest in the country.  Emmanuel Mpouma, a senior economist hinted that there is no provision for a peaceful transfer of power if Biya were to disappear from the political stage.

The President of the Senate, Marcel Niat Njifenji, who appears to be the next-of-kin to lead the country in case of vacancy at the presidency of the republic as provided by the Constitution, will be 82 years old on October 26, 2016.  Another Cameroonian political observer, Dr. Louis-Marie Kakdeu was quoted as saying that “this kind of second personality of the republic is not likely to encourage foreign businesses to rush to the gates of Cameroon.”

The issue of the separation of power involving the executive, the judiciary and the legislature including a free press is another pebble in the business environment in Cameroon. Several court decisions, some of which emanate from the highest Cameroonian judicial body, the Supreme Court, so far remain unimplemented. The nation is at the mercy of Mr Biya, his Francophone Beti-Ewondo clan and his appointees.

Dr. Ariel Ngnitedem believes that the age of the President of the Republic is not a factor that can encourage development. The Head of State is much older and his health issues has given the nation a rather vague electoral calendar which is problematic especially that nobody is able today to say whether there will be early presidential election in Cameroon, much less whether Paul Biya will run again for president in 2018. The nation is going, going, gone!!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Cameroon-info.net