As part of activities marking Queen Elizabeth II of England’s 90^th birthday, a Cameroonian has been selected to receive the Queen’s Young Leaders’ Award on Thursday, June 23, 2016, at Buckingham Palace, London. David Morfaw, 22, was selected “for taking the lead in transforming the lives of others and making a lasting difference in their communities,” says the release from the British High Commission in Cameroon.

As Queen’s Young Leader, Morfaw will join other winners from 45 Commonwealth countries in London for five days of high-level engagements designed to enable them further their life-changing work. Prior to receiving the award, winners will visit Number 10 Downing Street and the UK headquarters of global social networking company, Twitter, as well as meet senior executives at the BBC World Service. They will also meet Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth Secretary General and visit projects for the vulnerable in the UK, amongst others.

This year’s Queen’s Young Leaders’ Award recipients are working on variety of issues such as education, climate change, gender equality, mental health and improving the lives of people with disabilities. Meanwhile, the application process to be among the 2017 Queen’s Young Leaders’ Award winners opens on Friday, June 24, 2016. The contest is intended for young people between 18 and 29, dedicated to creating positive changes in the lives of Cameroonians. Application details are available at www.queensyoungleaders.com.

Cameroon Tribune

The Board of Directors of the National School for Penitentiary Administration (ENAP), Buea, has resolved to enter into partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education to foster quality training for those in charge of reforming prisons. The Board equally frowned at indiscipline in ENAP and cautioned the school management to be more vigilant against unruliness, especially as a new intake is currently undergoing entrance requirements.

The Board met in Buea on 10 June 2016 in its 27^th ordinary session and considered cases of indiscipline. As a former colonial Prison Warder School transformed into ENAP in 1992, the worry about indiscipline in the 24-year-old school followed the recent dismissal of four students for gross indiscipline by the Minister of State, Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals. The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice in charge of the Penitentiary Administration, Doh Jerome Penbaga, sat in for the titular Minister at the meeting.

The salient points on the agenda included the day-to-day running of the school, improvement of the school curriculum, the general well-being of students and staff, ENAP’s budget and its projected new site at Lysoka, Buea. Penbaga expressed satisfaction with ENAP staff and Director, Fonkem Immaculate, for working tirelessly in spite of insufficient resources. He underscored that the architectural work was on course to move ENAP to its new site at Lysoka, Buea.

Board members evaluated activities and appraised the level of implementation of recommendations from the preceding 26th Ordinary Session of the Board. The Board further resolved to sign an agreement in the days ahead with the Ministry of Higher Education to foster quality training of penitentiary personnel. This falls in line with the new vision of the State regarding penitentiary reforms. The National School for Penitentiary Administration has as main mission the training and retraining of penitentiary personnel, with the Board of Directors as the highest administrative organ. It has a current enrolment of 585 students and 74 staff.

Cameroon Tribune

The Cameroon Radio Television CRTV has started training some newly recruited journalists and reporters to work for the News and Information Channel.  Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the 38 beneficiaries will be trained for nine weeks on news coverage, treatment, editing, and broadcasting at the CRTV Audiovisual Centre in Ekounou- Yaounde.

In a typical CPDM pattern, the Minister of Communication Issa Tchiroma Bakary together with CRTV’s General Manager Amadou Vamoulke, have urged the new comers to be diligent as the corporation awaits them with excellent results.

The News and Information Channel is one among the six new channels of CRTV created purposely to provide news and information from home and abroad. It will effectively go operational in 2017.

CRTV

Two thousand Youths of the Penka Michel Subdivision of the West Region have received their National Identity Cards free of charge. The donation was made by an economic operator native of the Subdivision Guillaume Mbakam. While handing the official certificates, Guillaume Mbakam urged the youths to be responsible citizens as they use the documents for official purposes and others.

The natives including beneficiaries lauded the great initiatives saying that it has come a long way to ease their travelling and participation in official examinations and other civic responsibilities. The ID cards were produced alongside voters’ registration cards for youths ranging from 20 to 25 years. The donor and his entourage visited the identification and electoral offices which will thereafter host the campaign indoors.

CRTV

Ever since the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates took over the running of political affairs in Cameroon, the textbook market has been immersed in a veritable mafia system where education authorities, publishers including school officials come together to enrich themselves at the detriment of parents each school year.  Books in the school curriculum are increasing and regularly change and the prices too are exorbitant. This disastrous situation was recently brought to the attention of the Prime Minister and Head of Government by MPs. Correspondingly; Prime Minister Philemon Yang on the 10^th of June 2016 unveiled an action plan in response to concerns regarding textbooks.

Philemon Yang announced an unprecedented free distribution of Mathematics books to the Basic Education sector students.  Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the Government has already implemented a number of measures including the creation of school libraries, the construction of multimedia centers and installing digital documents. The operation for the next school year will cost Cameroon, two billion 260 million FCFA.

Ebong Kingsley

Professor Njiale Pierre Marie, lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, Yaounde University 1 has been convicted by the disciplinary board for sexual harassment and given a 4 year ban. Njiale Pierre Marie was trapped by his student through a telephone recording in which admissions were made. Cameroon Intelligence Report was told that his suspension may be extended if obligation to respect professional ethics are not met before 2018.  We gathered that Professor Temdjim, Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine and Bio medical Sciences (MNF) and Dr. Fridolin Nke  have also been suspended for similar offenses.

Female students in Cameroonian universities have been at the mercy of President Biya and his appointees.  Many cases reported previously recorded no sanctions because some of the rectors feared reprisals from the regime. Ever since his appointment as Secretary General of the University of Yaounde 1, Professor Jean Emmanuel Pondi has been waging a real battle against this scourge. He has also written extensively on “Sexual Harassment and academic ethics.”

CIR

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa has reported that most Cameroonian city dwellers still live below UN poverty line.  The declaration was made public during the fourth dialogue on development planning in Africa. The three day forum that focused on integrating urbanization in national development planning in Africa was also geared at sensitizing all 54 African countries on practical urbanization policies.

During the atelier, the UN body hinted that the percentage of Africans living in urban areas has increased to 40% with 55% GDP. The UN Economic Commission for Africa further observed that Cameroon’s rate of urbanization was 55% including 312 towns. The UN regretted that most city dwellers still live in abject poverty and are subject to economic, social, cultural and environmental difficulties which most at times leads to social instability.

The diversified seminar was attended by the Ministers of Urban Development and housing Jean Claude Mbwentchou and that of Economy Planning and Regional Development Louis Paul Motaze, under the chairmanship of the Resident Coordinator of the UN Moussa Abari.

CRTV