Life

University of Buea: New management team installed

11, July 2017

University of Buea: New management team installed 0

The Newly appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Professor Ngomo Horace Manga and the new Pro-Chancellor, Professor Ako Edward Oben have been installed into their respective functions on Monday the 10th of July 2017.

They were installed at the Dorothy Limunga Amphitheatre 750 of the University of Buea by the Minister of Higher Education, Chancellor of Academic Orders, Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo. The Higher Education boss instructed both academicians to uphold peace, conviviality and security in a university that exemplifies the Anglo-Saxon culture of Cameroon.

Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo insisted that the new VC and the Pro-Chancellor have to ensure quality education at a time the Bachelor- Masters -Doctorate (BMD) demands flexibility and the professionalization in teaching.
The Minister congratulated Professor Ako Edward Oben, who is former Rector of the University of Maroua for his academic prowess that has spanned decades in Cameroon and abroad. He was challenged to ensure that UB “the place to be” upholds its reputed academic tenets in a peaceful environment.

To the New VC, Professor Ngomo Horace Manga, Associate Professor in Applied Chemical Engineering, the Minister exhorted him to transform the University Campus into an educational yardstick of professional excellence in a changing world. He was Secretary General in the Ministry of Higher education before his appointment. A cream of personalities and students watched the two distinguished professors take office.

The VC and the Pro -Chancellor from Ndian and Manyu Divisions respectively, received blessings from traditional rulers while dance groups and the UB choir immortalized the event with interesting displays. The two were appointed in a Presidential decree of 27th June 2017 to replace Dr. Nalova Lyonga Limumga and Professor Maurice Tchuente.

Source: CRTV


Surgery helps heal stigma in Cameroon

11, July 2017

Surgery helps heal stigma in Cameroon 0

After giving birth at the age of 13, whenever Amina Mba wanted to attend prayers in her local mosque, sheer terror would stop her from crossing the threshold. “I would go and hide behind the mosque in order to pray,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, as she lay under a flowery cover in a ward of the Catholic Hospital Complex of Batouri in eastern Cameroon.

The reason, she explained, was that no one could tolerate the terrible smell and leakages of urine and faeces caused by obstetric fistula, an agonising childbirth injury which Amina, now aged 20, developed when she had her baby in her early teens.

A refugee from Central African Republic who fled marauding gangs and highway henchmen as a 10-year-old with her nomad parents, Amina was married off by her family aged just 13. “It was a forced marriage. They wanted me to marry quickly, though I didn’t want to,” she said quietly.

After her fistula developed, her husband told her to go and live with her aunt, as her parents were on the move. “He did not visit me even once,” she said. After a few months, her aunt also kicked Amina out of her home, leaving her to fend for herself in the refugee camp.

Obstetric fistula is a hole that develops between the birth canal and bladder or rectum, caused by prolonged, obstructed labour, leaving women leaking urine, faeces or both. Girls who fall pregnant at a young age are particularly susceptible, as their bodies may not be mature enough to cope with the physical strain of bearing a child.

The social consequences are often severe. Girls and women are unable to work, becoming isolated and abandoned by their husbands, relatives and children, publicly shamed and even driven from their homes. Instead of getting support and medical help – which is often too far away, too expensive or simply unavailable – many are dubbed witches and shunned.

Some commit suicide. Others do it slowly, starving themselves to death in a desperate bid to stop the leaking. In Cameroon, every year around 2,000 women develop fistula, an average rate of more than 5 new cases each day, said Jean Pierre Tsafack, a health expert with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

But a new programme launched this week in eastern Cameroon, funded by the UNFPA and Fondation Orange, the philanthropic arm of the telecoms firm Orange, is offering free surgery to heal fistula victims and help them rebuild their lives.

The programme in Batouri is the second such initiative in the country’s East Region, and aims to provide operations for 120 women over two years. In addition, more than 600 women have been successfully treated at the fistula repair centre in Ngaoundéré, the capital of Cameroon’s Adamawa region, set up in 2013 with UNFPA support.

“After the operation, the women are completely transformed,” said Joseph Réné Boum, head of the UNFPA office in Bertoua in east Cameroon. “They become beautiful, smiling – they start their lives again.” Yet the fistula surgery is only the first step to recovery. The UNFPA also runs reintegration programmes for survivors, said Angelique Dikoume, a gender specialist with the agency.

First a series of conversations is held with the woman’s family and heath workers who explain exactly what fistula is, how it happened – and how it may be prevented from reoccurring. “We can advise families on contraceptive methods, and we also explain to the husband that after the operation, the woman shouldn’t have sex for six months, in order to allow the healing to take place,” said Dikoume.

On Tuesday, policymakers, donors and advocates will gather in London for a family planning summit that will discuss ways to reach an international goal to provide 120 million more women and girls with access to modern contraception by 2020.

The second part of the Cameroon programme is economic support for women and girls to identify business opportunities and provide vocational training. “Re-integration is very difficult as it often means starting again from zero,” said community health worker Marie Sebo. “Many women start by doing some farming, to keep malnutrition at bay.”

Fifty-year-old widow Sophie Makoro suffered with fistula for a decade – which not only isolated her socially, but also cut off her only source of income selling vegetables at the market. “People refused to buy anything off me. They were scared of me because of the smell,” she said.

To make ends meet, she would sell her crops to neighbours. “That was the only way people would buy my goods,” she said. Now, after surgery, she plans to expand her farm. But she is also anxious about the challenges ahead as she gets older. “I don’t have anyone to support me – no husband, no children. I rely only on myself,” she said.

In September, the world’s largest civilian floating hospital, run by international faith-based group Mercy Ships, is due to arrive in the port city of Douala to carry out thousands of critical treatments, including 500 fistula operations.

But UNFPA Cameroon head Barbara Sow is also seeking longer-term solutions, such as establishing a foundation for the treatment of obstetric fistula nationwide. “It’s so easy to do – to change the life of a woman.”

After Amina was abandoned by her husband and her aunt, Aya, a woman in her 60s and a fellow refugee from Central African Republic, met the teenager wandering alone in a camp and took her in to live with her and her daughter.

“Why? Because I’m a mother,” she shrugged, holding Amina’s hand. Until now, Amina has been home-bound, cooking, while Aya’s daughter sells water in plastic bottles collected by her mother. “That’s how we get by,” Aya explained, clutching a bag of empty bottles she had just gathered at the hospital.

Now that she is recovering, Amina hopes to start her own business. “I want to sell clothes,” she said. Asked if she would go back to her husband, Amina laughed, shaking her finger. “No way,” she exclaimed. “Never! Never!” “I will make new friends and start again,” she said.

Source: DNA


Peter Mafany Musonge: Star of the Cameroonian road

9, July 2017

Peter Mafany Musonge: Star of the Cameroonian road 0

The Grand Chancellor of the National Orders and senior politician in the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has infuriated many Southern Cameroonians in the poverty-stricken South West region by throwing a shockingly extravagant wedding.

The former Prime Minister got married to Mrs Mbangue, who moonlights as deputy general manager of the Conference Center in Yaoundé. The extravagant bash is thought to have cost the ex-CPDM Senator and current Chairman of the so-called Commission on Bilingualism and Multiculturalism huge amount of money. We are yet to establish the cost of bride Mbangue’s jewelry for the wedding.

Guests were invited to the wedding based on their loyalty to the ruling CPDM crime syndicate. Musonge and his wife were filmed lip-syncing to a song that was composed specifically for the nuptials. The lavish wedding was also an opportunity to show case the rich Bakweri culture.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News


Yaounde: Thieves make away with GCE scripts after break-in at Franky Comprehensive High School

6, July 2017

Yaounde: Thieves make away with GCE scripts after break-in at Franky Comprehensive High School 0

There are reports that hundreds of answer GCE scripts of students of Franky Comprehensive High School, a not-too-old but renowned institution in Yaoundé, have been stolen by unknown ‘night-jars’.

The scripts were kept in an office of the school pending transfer to the accommodation center of the GCE Board.

The men of the underworld are said to have found their way into and out of the said office through the ceiling.


Ask A Cameroonian Farmer How To Teach Your Kids Self-Control

3, July 2017

Ask A Cameroonian Farmer How To Teach Your Kids Self-Control 0

In the the 1960s, a Stanford psychologist ran an experiment to study children’s self-control. It’s called the marshmallow test. And it’s super simple. Kids ages 3 to 5 choose a treat — an Oreo cookie, a pretzel stick or a marshmallow. Then researchers give the child brief instructions: You can eat the treat now … but if you can wait for me to return, you’ll get two treats.

The researchers leave the room. And the child just has to sit there staring at a marshmallow — and deciding whether to exert self-control or to dig in. Psychologists have performed the experiment many times. In general, fewer than half the kids “pass” the test. Most kids can’t delay gratification: They gobble up the marshmallow.

The researchers followed these kids for decades and found that those who did wait were more likely to have better SAT scores and better jobs later on in life, the researchers reported. Now for the first time, there’s a study reporting on what happens when psychologists give the marshmallow test to kids outside Western culture, specifically 4-year-old children from the ethnic group Nso in Cameroon.

“The Nso are a community who live off subsistence farming, mainly corn and beans,” says Bettina Lamm, a psychologist at the Universitat Osnabruck, who led the study. “Most of the children live in mud brick houses without water and electricity. They have to work a lot to take care of younger siblings and help their parents on the farm.”

Guess what? These kids rocked the marshmallow test. “The difference was huge,” Lamm says. “The Cameroonian kids really behave very differently, and they were able to wait much better.” Lamm and her colleagues ran the experiment on nearly 200 Cameroonian and German kids. The Cameroonians kids were offered a puff-puff — a little doughnut popular there.

Compared to German children in the experiment, the Cameroonian kids waited, on average, twice as long for the second treat. And way more Cameroonian kids — nearly 70 percent — waited the full 10 minutes to snag the second marshmallow. Only about 30 percent of the German kids could hold out, Lamm and her team reported in the journal Child Development in early June. Lamm and colleagues watched the kids closely during the experiment and tracked their behavior. The German kids showed way more emotions during the waiting period, she says, especially negative emotions.

They whined more, cried more and squirmed more in their seats. “They were really fighting the waiting period — playing with their fingers, talking to themselves — trying any distraction they can to manage to wait,” she says. “In contrast, many of the Cameroonian kids simply sat quietly and waited,” Lamm says. “Ten percent of them even fell asleep.”

It’s almost like the kids were meditating. Lamm says they don’t know exactly why the Cameroonian kids were so good at the marshmallow test. Kid behaviors are complicated and sophisticated. But one reason may be the Nso parenting style, which is completely different than Western parenting.

“Nso children are required very early to control their emotions, especially negative emotions,” Lamm says. “Moms tell their children that they don’t expect them to cry and that they really want them to learn to control their emotions.”

This parenting style starts very early — when children are newborns. “The moms breast-feed their babies before they start to cry so they don’t need to express any negative emotion,” Lamm says. “This emotion is already regulated before it’s expressed.” Western moms spend a lot of time looking at their babies for signals to figure out what their babies needs. The Nso moms don’t do this.

“They believe they — the moms — know what is good for a baby, and they do what is good for a baby,” Lamm says. “They don’t need to look for signals from the baby.” As the children get older, this parenting style continues.
“Kids are really expected to learn to control their needs and not ask for their desires or wishes,” she says. These moms expect obedience and respect. And the kids are good at adapting to situations where they don’t get what they might want, where they have to wait.

“So they learn self-control,” Lamm says. “Maybe it’s a different type of self-control than Western kids learn. But it’s very effective.” But self-control might not be the whole picture, says Celeste Kidd, a neuroscientist at the University of Rochester.

A few years ago, she and her colleagues found evidence that the marshmallow test doesn’t involve just self-control. It also measures how much a child trusts his environment — how much they trust that the researcher is really going to return with the second marshmallow.

“What also matters is kids’ expectations about whether waiting will be worth it or not,” Kidd says. Because if you think about it, if the child doesn’t believe that second marshmallow is actually going to arrive, then it makes sense to eat the first one.

“We have evidence that kids take under consideration the statistical nature of what has happened in the past,” Kidd says. “So for example, if a child is living in an environment where there’s a lot of uncertainty and instability, then they may think that waiting isn’t likely to pay off even though they have the ability to delay gratification.”
Nso parents are quite strict and consistent with their discipline. So, Kidd says, perhaps this consistent parenting boosts the kids’ trust in adults — that when the person in charge says they’re going to bring a second treat, they likely will.

Source: npr.org


34 years of appeasing the French: Adelè Mballa sacked over President Macron slip-up

30, June 2017

34 years of appeasing the French: Adelè Mballa sacked over President Macron slip-up 0

New officials have been appointed at the Cameroon Radio and Television following the successful holding the extraordinary session of the Board of Directors meeting on Thursday June 29, 2017 in Yaoundé.

The appointments were made in the Radio and TV departments including those at the regional stations and CRTV FM channels. Some former officials such as Ibrahim Cherif, the director of TV and Alain Belibi head of the radio were retained.

Of vital significance was the dismissal of Adelè Mballa as Director of TV News, as well as Jean Marie Nka sacked from his position as Editor-in-Chief. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the two were fired as a consequence of a costly mistake on the formation of the new French government under Emmanuel Macron.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News


Controversial appointments: Biya loses credibility on the Pondi-Daniel Abwa nomination, late Peter Agbor Tabi replaced

28, June 2017

Controversial appointments: Biya loses credibility on the Pondi-Daniel Abwa nomination, late Peter Agbor Tabi replaced 0

President Paul Biya on Tuesday carried out a major shake up at the head of state universities and higher institutions of learning in Cameroon. Four new rectors were appointed by the 84 year old leader. Adolphe Minkoa She, professor of law who after so many failed attempts has now taken the reins at the University of Yaoundé 2 in Soa, where he is now rector.

Florence Uphie Chinje Melo, former director of Mipromalo (a company specialize in the promotion of local materials), is now the rector of the University of Ngaoundéré. The historian, Idrissou Alioum, former inspector at the Ministry of Higher Education, is the new rector of the University of Maroua in the Far North.

A senior Chemistry lecturer, Prof. Horace Ngomo Manga, who moonlighted as Secretary General at the Ministry of Higher Education was appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea. Biya also made some changes in some of the faculties. Awono Onana left the directorate of the polytechnic school. He is the new Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Yaoundé I.

The University of Yaoundé 1 recorded a funny CPDM readjustment. The former Secretary General, Prof. Jean Emmanuel Pondi, was raised to the rank of Vice-Rector while Prof. Daniel Abwa was demoted from the post of Vice-Rector to that of Secretary General. Lucien Ayissi, Professor of Philosophy, is the new Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Yaoundé.

The so-called mathematician and former cabinet minister Maurice Tchuente was made chairman of the board of the University of Yaoundé 2 replacing the late Minister Peter Agbor Tabi. Salomon Eheth, formerly in charge of the civil cabinet at the presidency, is the new director of the Institute of International Relations of Cameroon (Iric).

Retirements:
Four rectors were sent to retirement. They are Nalova Lyonga, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Edward Ako Oben who reached the age limit but named pro Chancellor of the university of Buea, Henri Amvan Zollo ex-rector of the University of Ngaoundere and Ibrahim Adamou, former rector of the University of Yaoundé 2.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News


Biya appoints anti Anglophone University Don as rector of Yaounde University II

27, June 2017

Biya appoints anti Anglophone University Don as rector of Yaounde University II 0

The President of the Republic has signed decrees appointing new Rectors to some state universities. The decrees made public late today, Tuesday the 27th of June 2017 appointed:
Ngomo Horace Manga, Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea.
Idrissou Alioum, Rector of the University of Maroua.
Uphie Chinje Florence epouse Melo, Rector of the University of Ngaoundere.
Minko She Adolphe, Rector of Yaounde University II
Ako Edward Oben,(seen here on photo inside this report) is Pro Chancellor of the University of Buea.
Tchuente Maurice, Chairman of the Board of Administrators of the University of Yaoundé II.
President Paul Biya signed other decrees appointing vice Rectors of some universities.

It is vital to observe that Prof. Minkoa She Adolphe waged a vicious war against Prof. Ephraim Ngwafor during his time as rector of the University of Yaounde II and is noted for his anti Anglophone pronouncements.

Camcordnews Desk


Biya Computer Hoax: Anti Anglophone Minister shifting the goalpost

22, June 2017

Biya Computer Hoax: Anti Anglophone Minister shifting the goalpost 0

The Francophone Minister of Higher Education, Jacque Fame Ndongo has said that the production phase of the 500,000 computers promised to students by the Head of State, President Biya will begin soon in China. Jacques Fame Ndongo, who is now acting as a representative of the Chinese company, also revealed that the firm Sichuan telecom will first make available 30% of the 500,000 computers. The anti Anglophone cabinet minister has been under fire particularly from the French speaking student community over the delay recorded in the project.

This time around, the CPDM baron lied that Exim Bank China has eventually released the funding for the project and reassured the student community that it was now possible to launch the operational phase. Cameroon Concord News sources say the Biya regime is broke and things are falling apart.

In one of its dubious moves, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime signed an agreement with the Chinese company Sichuan Telecom Construction and Engineering Co LTD for the manufacture of computers and the construction of nine digital university development centers. Regarding the second point of this agreement, each of the eight state universities was expected to have a digital development center. Another center was supposed to be built at the interstate university of Cameroon and the Congo.

As for the delay in the project, Jacques Fame Ndongo indicated recently that it is linked to the complexity of many financial issues involved especially about the release of funds by the Chinese bank. On June 20, 2017 Qian Wen Feng, the Managing Director of Sichuan telecom construction and engineering Co.LtD was granted an audience by the 84 year old dictator. However, no date for the distribution of the first computers to the students has been made public.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News Group



Cameroon Cheetah
use this one

Anglophone Problem: Righting the wrongs of the past

20, June 2017

Anglophone Problem: Righting the wrongs of the past 0

The Anglophone crisis that has put Cameroon in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons is still playing out across the entire Anglophone region. Despite current efforts by the government to placate the rebelling Anglophones, most Anglophones hold that the current political dispensation neither protects them and their culture nor does it guarantee their rights. They have been victims of government marginalization for five decades and they hold that the current unitary state has only concentrated powers in a few hands, leaving many Anglophones out of the country’s corridors of power. To buttress their assertion, the citizens of former Southern Cameroons point to so many appointments. They assert that Francophones run the political show and have no regard for the English-speaking minority. An Anglophone has never headed the country and all the top positions in the country are always occupied by Francophones. No Anglophone has ever occupied the post of finance minister. The post of defense minister is a no-go area for Anglophones, while the foreign affairs ministry is a preserve of Francophones even when there are very qualified Anglophones. They hold that each time an Anglophone is appointed as the country’s Prime Minister, he is always surrounded by Francophones whose objective is to neutralize his powers. Sometimes, the government even appoints several deputy prime ministers and places a powerful secretary-general at the Prime Minister’ Office to ensure the Anglophone Prime Minister does not wield the power and authority he deserves.

The injustice against Anglophones does not start and end with ministerial appointments. The appointment of senior police and military officers speaks to the marginalization that has become the Anglophone’s daily fate. Anglophones also point to the running of state-owned corporations and they contend that the appointment of managing directors to head those state-owned corporations calls for a total overhaul of the country. An Anglophone has never been the managing director of the country’s oil refinery, SONARA, even when the refinery and oil fields are located in Anglophone Cameroon. 95% of SONARA employees are Francophones and the employees of this state-owned corporation have been treating the locals with disdain and contempt. Anglophones have some of the finest petroleum engineers Cameroon can boast of, but because of government marginalization and injustice, many of these world-class engineers are plying their trade in distant lands such as Canada and the United States. Canada’s Alberta oil sands bear the hallmarks of Anglophone Cameroonian petroleum engineers. Houston, the United States petroleum headquarters, is home to some of the finest Anglophone Cameroonian petroleum experts, many of whom are occupying senior positions. Unfortunately, they cannot go back home to serve their country because of flagrant injustice against a minority that has a lot to offer.

Similarly, the Société Camerounaise des Dépôts Pétroliers (SCDP) known in English as the Cameroonian Oil Depots Company and the Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures(SNH) known in English as the National Oil and Gas Company of Cameroon are totally being run by Francophones as if there are no qualified Anglophones in the country and this is hurting Anglophones so badly. While SCDP builds oil depots around the country, SNH, established in March 1980, operates in partnership with international oil companies and it is responsible for selling the government’s share of oil output. It holds stakes in projects operated by international partners and all of these operations occur without the knowledge of the Anglophone population which survives thanks to remittances from the Anglophone Diaspora that has made it a duty to support the English-speaking minority back in Cameroon.

While the country’s oil wealth comes from the South West region, the south-westerner has been reduced to a sorry spectator of events in his own region. The closest he gets to the oil is when he is buying fuel at the pump or when he sees oil tankers carrying away his natural wealth into East Cameroon. Cameroon’s oil fields are located in Ndian Division in the South West region, but the people of this region are the least educated. The region is begging for good roads, hospitals and schools for its people and children whereas, it is thanks to Ndian Division that the country has been receiving huge amounts of petro-dollars from the sales of its oil.

It was based on these frustrations that Anglophones called for a federal system that will help address some of the issues created by the corrupt unitary system that has only succeeded to spread death and poverty in the country. Though in recent months, there have been calls for the total independence of Southern Cameroons, many Anglophones will still settle for a federal system that will put in place reliable checks and balances and give the different regions the opportunity to grow at their own pace. The south-westerner is surely waiting for that moment when all the issues will be on the table for him to call for the establishment of a derivation principle that will automatically give him a right to a percentage of the oil that is being taken away from his region.

Currently, things are at a standstill in the country. Ghost town operations are still taking place and courts are still closed in the Anglophone region. The government has been struggling to give the impression that all is well, but Anglophones are working hard to cast the government in very bad light. As a means to prove its willingness to address some of the grievances presented by Anglophones, the government has recently transferred many Anglophone judges and magistrates to the Anglophone region. A special entrance examination into the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM), the school that trains administrators and magistrates in the country, has been announced and registrations are currently under way. Some 80 Anglophones will be admitted into the school this year as a major step towards to the withdrawal of Francophone administrators from the English-speaking region of Cameroon. This has been one of the many bones of contention and the government is bending over backwards just to ensure peace returns to the country.

However, many young Anglophones have been wondering if they should sit the exam because of the prevailing political atmosphere in the country. Some think that taking the exam will be like betraying the Anglophone cause which is designed to compel the government to right the wrongs that have led to massive frustrations among Anglophones who, justifiably, think that they have been victims of marginalization over the last five decades. This type of thinking on the part of young Anglophones speaks to the level of unity within the English-speaking minority.
The government is today faced with a huge crisis. It must reestablish its authority in the Anglophone region. However, if that has to happen, the government must make the most of the carrot and not the stick. The stick has failed it, as Anglophones have clearly proven that a minority can bring about significant change in a country. Government authority has been called into questions in the Anglophone region and chaos is gradually replacing the pseudo-peace that has prevailed for more than fifty years. In many parts of the Anglophone region, the government is totally absent. Government authority is on the decline. Police officers are too scared for their lives and many are not working as they would, in normal circumstances. They have been erring on the side of caution in order not to incur the wrath of a frustrated Anglophone population.

The potential for the crowd to explode at the slightest provocation is very high, especially in the North West region, where the people are known for their mercurial temperament. The government holds that this is time to appease instead of causing the situation to escalate. But Anglophones are not interested in the government’s appeasement policy. They want the form of the state to be discussed. They hold that if the government keeps on dilly-dallying on this issue, then it has opted for chaos. They also argue that the government must release all Anglophones arrested and taken to Yaounde. Both the secessionists and federalists argue that Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla, Dr. Fontem Neba and Mr. Mancho Bibixy must be released as they did not commit any crime. Sentencing them even to the shortest jail term will be considered by Anglophones as a declaration of war and groups such as SCNC are simply looking for such opportunities to put their well-oiled machines of destruction and violence into action.

Anglophones point out that the country would not be where it is today, if the government had placed dialogue above violence. They claim that the government’s handling of the situation when it all started playing out was, at best, dismal. The nauseating arrogance displayed by government surrogates served as highly inflammable fuel that had been poured into a burning house. The ferocious brutality that was unleashed on students, lawyers and the population spoke to the government’s determination to bring a violent past into the future. These unfortunate circumstances are making it hard for the government to really please Anglophones, especially those whose relatives have been killed or arrested and taken to Francophone Cameroon for trial in courts regarded by Anglophones as Kangaroo courts.

The government’s initial denial and the arrogance of government ministers such as Fame Ndongo, Atanga Nji and Issa Tchiroma make it hard for Anglophones to trust their government. Seven months after University of Buea students were made to drink raw sewage and many young Cameroonians killed, the government of Cameroon is yet to publicly apologize for these brutal actions committed by the country’s police and military. Many Anglophones hold that the government is still not repentant about the loss of human life and without the recognition of police excesses, it will be hard for any real and genuine dialogue to take place. Anglophones want Fame Ndongo, Atanga Nji and Issa Tchiroma to be dismissed from the government as their attitude and arrogance have put the country in the tight spot in which it is today. Leaving them in government is a clear indication that the government does not intend to apologize for the loss of lives. It also implies that it will continue to count on people who have displayed gross disrespect and contempt towards Anglophones to run a country that clearly needs profound and extensive political renewal.

With these men still in office, the government will continue to lose face and its authority in the Anglophone region will continue to take a nosedive. The government’s waning authority is unfortunately giving criminals the courage to carry out their operations in broad day light. Many schools are being burnt down and students who are attempting to write the General Certificate of Education (GCE) exams are being threatened by members of some cloak-and-dagger organizations who hold that until the form of the state is brought up for discussion, Anglophones will not collaborate with the government, especially as they accuse the government of having the bad habit of speaking from both sides of the mouth.

If the government of Cameroon wants peace to return to the country, it must listen to Anglophones. It must seek to right the wrongs of the past as the Anglophone minority is determined to put an end to the patronizing system that has hurt many Cameroonians. Anglophones have legitimate grievances. These are grievances that the old, corrupt unitary state cannot address. After fifty-five years of marginalization, Anglophones hold that the form of the state must change. The reunification John Ngu Foncha and Solomon Tandeng Muna had worked for has brought happiness only to a few. Anglophones are tired of burying their loved ones due to the inefficiencies of the Unitary State. They want federalism and in the absence of federalism, they are prepared to walk away from this hastily stitched marriage that has caused them a lot of pain and suffering. They hold that the ball is in the government’s court, and the longer it delays to find peaceful solutions to the issues, the more chances it creates for secessionists who have taken their gospel of total liberation of Southern Cameroons to the international arena. The government should, at this juncture, understand that those who make peaceful change impossible, only make violent change inevitable. It is time to walk away from the unitary state that has robbed Cameroon and Cameroonians blind. It is time to right the wrongs of the past.

By Joachim Arrey, Ph.D.
Contributing Editor
Cameroon Concord News Group

About the Author: The author of this piece is a keen observer of Cameroon’s political and economic landscape. He has published extensively on the country’s political and economic development, especially in the early 90s when the wind of change was blowing across the African continent. He has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.


«< 89 90 91 92 93 >»