Politics

15, June 2016

Gabon: President Ali Bongo’s birth certificate generates another political crisis ⁰

The opposition is working towards a coalition to have incumbent President Ali Bongo disqualified from running for the presidency. Casimir Oyé Mba, the candidate of the National Union (UN) party in the August 27, 2016 presidential election in Gabon is determined to ensure that incumbent President Ali Bongo is disqualified from standing for the second term of office in the election. This is because he claims that Ali Bongo has acquired the Gabonese nationality which in accordance with Article 10 of the Constitution prohibits him from running for the presidency, RI reported.

In an interview over RFI, Sunday, June 12, 2016, Mr Oyé Mba called on all other candidates to form an alliance to ensure that Ali Bongo’s candidature is rejected. Before the interview, he had challenged Ali Bongo, to defend before the two Houses of Parliament (Senate and National Assembly) his multiple birth certificates. He claims that Ali Bongo is not constitutionally qualified to run for the presidency of Gabon. Speaking during a press conference, he said Ali Bongo cannot delegate the powers to any other person to answer questions concerning his birth certificate saga.

In response to the claim by Oyé Mba, President Ali Bongo’s lawyer, Claude Dumont declared that the debate over the President’s birth certificate was over, RFI reported. The lawyer said justice should be allowed to take its course, assuring that the case concerning the civil status of Ali Bongo will be declared baseless and consequently null and void. The lawyer said they were waiting for the opposition to bring proves of their claims.

Cameroon Tribune

15, June 2016

Democratic presidential race comes to an end with Clinton winning the contest ⁰

The Democratic presidential race has officially come to an end with Hillary Clinton winning the primary contest in the US capital, gaining nearly 79 percent of the vote. Clinton, who already had enough delegates to be her party’s presumptive nominee, won the Tuesday primary in the District of Columbia. The former secretary of state also met with rival Bernie Sanders Tuesday night and talked about the Democratic Party platform to be drawn up at this summer’s convention.

“We’re going to have a wide-ranging conversation, because we share a lot of the same goals,’’ Clinton said Tuesday night in an interview with Telemundo, an American Spanish-language broadcast television network. “We both want to raise the minimum wage, we want to fight inequality of income, we want to make college affordable and we certainly want everybody to get health care.”

“I very much am looking forward to having his support in this campaign, because Donald Trump poses a serious threat to our nation,” she added. Sanders has not formally ended his campaign and has not endorsed Clinton either. He has promised to give every voter a chance to decide between the two candidates. Nonetheless, the Vermont senator has said he’s committed to working with Clinton to defeat Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. “Our goal must not be to allow politicians, Donald Trump or anyone else, to divide us,” he said outside his headquarters in Washington, DC.

Presstv

12, June 2016

Cameroon’s Higher Education reforms: Minister Fame Ndongo in hot waters ⁰

Cameroon Intelligence Report has learnt that the Universities of Buea and Bamenda have blatantly refused any harmonization of academic programs in state universities in Cameroon. The so called harmonization program was made public on May the 30^th 2016 by the Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo. The two Anglo-Saxon universities have clearly demonstrated their opposition to the move via a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister and Head of Government.

In one of the arguments against the harmonization, the signatories of the memorandum told the loud sounding nothing Minister Fame Ndongo that the presidential decree that established the University of Buea indicated that it was created in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. They further added that harmonization is not possible as the Buea University is run by a Vice-Chancellor not a president. Moreover, the unique teaching language is English, unlike other universities, where French and English are used.

Rita Akana

10, June 2016

Cameroon: Senators grilled cabinet ministers on bilingualism, electricity ⁰

The Senate Chamber at the Yaounde Conference Centre was yesterday June 9, 2016, the venue for Senators to check government activities as prescribed by law. Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji, in the presence of the Vice Prime Minister, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Relations with the Assemblies, Amadou Ali, called the House to order and announced that the plenary session was for questions to the Executive. Seven cabinet ministers were grilled on issues patterning to tourism, agriculture, bilingualism, water and electricity, environment amongst others.

The Minister of State in charge of Tourism and Leisure, Bello Bouba Maïgari, was the first to mount the rostrum to respond to a question from NUDP Senator, Pierre Flambeau Ngayap, on the impact of the Boko Haram war on tourism in the Far North Region. The Minister of State said the impact is tremendous, not only on the tourism sector, but also on agriculture, education and health. Bello Bouba stressed that the government is preoccupied most with the pressing issue of securing the population and defending the national territory, which so far have been done with great success by the Defence Forces.

This notwithstanding, moves are being made to promote internal tourism, given that diplomatic missions had advised their compatriots to stay away from the Far North Region. Similarly, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Henri Eyebe Ayissi, was also quizzed on measures taken to pre-empt food deficiency in the Far North Region. He outlined short and long term measures adopted stating the Head of State’s special food donation worth FCFA 12 billion which has been partly distributed. Agricultural machinery and the development of production zones are part of long-term measures to ensure food sufficiency in the region.

On the imbalance in the use of official languages in communicating important information, Communication Minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary pointed out that the Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon provides for English and French as two official languages of equal status. He cited his press outings, which he said are always bilingual and the official newspaper, Cameroon Tribune, which publishes information in both languages.

Senator Simon Anja’s worry on the non-posting of French language teachers to some schools especially in Akwaya sub-division, Manyu Division of the South West Region, was also addressed by the Minister of Basic Education, Youssouf Alim Adidja. Meanwhile, measures to ease access to water and electricity were explained by Minister Basile Atangana Kouna who also said errors in the billing systems should be reported to the service providers. The Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, his colleague of Environment and Protection of Nature, Helé Pierre also provided answers to worries of Senators.

Cameroon Tribune

9, June 2016

Biya’s Continued stay in power: Constitutional amendment slated for next week ⁰

The bill for the precipitated constitutional amendment has been well prepared and will be presented to the National Assembly for scrutiny next week. Our senior intelligence officer in Yaounde hinted earlier today that the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the ruling CPDM, Jean Kuete met secretly with Senator Niat Njifenji yesterday and finalized the deal. We understand the leaders of both the Upper and the Lower Houses of parliament have been given standing orders to speed up the adoption of the said bill without arguments.

Special envelopes ranging from 5 to 10 million FCFA have been reportedly distributed to MPs and our elected officials have been told that their request for a 4×4 jeep will be met after the voting. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the bill will focus mainly on making President Biya hold on to power beyond 2018. As the day for the adoption of the purported bill draws closer, National Assembly Speaker, Cavaye Djibril has been seen pleading to all CPDM MPs to help guarantee Biya’s continued stay in power. The CPDM diabolic harsh ploy has completely left out MPs from the Social Democratic Front.

This story is still developing

By Cham Victor

9, June 2016

President Biya’s Court to make public the Mebara verdict ⁰

Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from reliable sources at the Special Criminal Court that the verdict on case number 003 / RG- TCS / 2016 involving the former Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, Jean Atangana Mebara shall be made public on the 22^nd of June 2016.

Minister Mebara was charged for embezzlement of 5 million US dollars in a presidential jet scandal that rocked the Cameroonian nation. Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer.

We call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit. An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused.

A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence. A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility. It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

CIR

9, June 2016

French Senate votes to lift EU sanctions on Russia ⁰

The French Senate has voted for a resolution aimed at lifting EU sanctions that were imposed on Russia over the crisis in eastern Ukraine and reunification with Crimea back in 2014. An influential senator says the future of the French Republic is “inconceivable without dialogue with Russia.”

The non-binding motion was approved in the Luxembourg Palace on Wednesday with 302 senators voting in favor of the proposal and only 16 against the move, which stipulates a gradual scaling down of anti-Moscow restrictive measures.

According to French media reports, the motion cannot pressure the government because the renewal of the embargo is made in Brussels and requires unanimity of the 28 Member States. During the Senate debates on the draft resolution, Jean-Pierre Raffarin (seen below), the French premier from 2002 through 2005 and currently a senator, said “France’s future is inconceivable without dialogue with Russia… The text of the resolution is well-balanced and that’s why I’ll vote for it.”

Presstv

9, June 2016

Cameroon: Prime Minister Philemon Yang meets Sao Tome envoy ⁰

The Prime Minister Philemon Yang has met with Sao Tome and Principe’s former Prime Minister, Gabriel Arcanjo Ferreira da Costa. Cameroon Radio and Television reported that the 8^th of June 2016 meeting was intensive and productive.

Gabriel Arcanjo Ferreira was bearer of a private message from President Manuel Pinto da Costa of Sao Tome and Principe to Cameroon’s Head of State, Paul Biya.

The Republic of Sao Tome and Principe is a Portuguese-speaking island nation located in the Gulf of Guinea. It has a population of about 190.00 people and its capital city is Sao Tome.

CRTV/CIR

8, June 2016

Nigeria to stop military campaign in Niger Delta ⁰

Nigeria will scale down a military campaign in the oil-producing Niger Delta and talk to the Niger Delta Avengers militant group which has claimed a string of attacks there that sharply cut crude output, officials said. But the militant group said in a statement, without mentioning the government initiative, its mandate was “to liberate the Niger Delta people.” The government has also decided that the military presence in the region, which had been increased in the last few weeks, should be scaled down, a statement issued by the vice president’s office said on Tuesday.

The southern Delta swamps, where many complain of poverty and oil spills, have been hit by militant attacks on oil and gas pipelines which have brought Nigeria’s oil output to a 20-year low, and helped push oil prices to 2016 highs on Tuesday. President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed a team led by the national security adviser “to begin the process of a very intensive dialogue with those caught in the middle of this,” Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said late on Monday.

“I want to call on the militants to sheath their weapons and embrace dialogue with government,” he said. “We are making contacts with everybody who is involved, the ones that we can identify, through them, the ones that we can’t identify so that there is a lot more inclusiveness in this dialogue.” “Probably we will suspend the operations of the military in the region for a week or two for individuals in the creeks to converge for the dialogue,” he said. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who had been expected to travel to London to meet investors on Tuesday, instead met Niger Delta state governors and military chiefs to discuss ways to end the militancy.

A statement from Osinbajo’s office said it had been decided at the meeting that the military presence in the region should be “de-escalated,” although forces would be kept to provide security for the talks. Adding to the problems of authorities trying to stem the violence, a group in the southeast calling for secession declared support for the Avengers. “We support the Niger Delta Avengers,” said Uche Madu, a spokesman for the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) which wants secession for the region which fought a civil war from 1967-70.

A former militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which laid down arms in 2009 under a government amnesty, accused the army of a “disproportionate use of force.” MEND, which was one of the largest militant groups, also said the Delta Avengers had attracted some of its former fighters. So far it has been unclear who is behind the Avengers. There was no immediate direct response from the Avengers on the dialogue initiative. On its Twitter account it only issued a statement framing MEND leaders as criminals. “Our struggle is focussed on the liberation of the People of Niger Delta from decades of divisive rule and exclusion,” it said. Kachikwu also said Nigeria’s oil output was between 1.5 million and 1.6 million barrels a day, down from 2.2 million barrels at the start of the year. “Over the last two months, we have probably lost about 600,000 barrels from various attacks of militants in the area,” he said.

DefenceWeb

8, June 2016

CPDM Senate approves Paris Climate Change Agreement ⁰

The bill to authorize the President of the Republic to ratify the Paris Agreement on Climate Change was yesterday, June 7, 2016 declared admissible for scrutiny by the Chairmen’s Conference of the Senate chaired by Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji. The bill was submitted by government, represented by the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation in charge of Regional and Local Authorities, Jules Doret Ndongo.

The Paris Climate Agreement was adopted during the 21^st session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21) that held in the French capital from November 30 to December 13, 2015. The agreement, which was later signed in New York on April 22, 2016, aims at strengthening global riposte to threats posed by climate change within a context of sustainable development and the fight against poverty.

According to government, the ratification of the agreement by Cameroon is the expression of its will to synergize with the international community to fight climate change and could enable the country benefit from financial opportunities offered by its partners for the implementation of decisions taken at COP 21.

Cameroon Tribune