Energy subsidy reform key to Africa growth: IMF

Sub-Saharan Africa may have recorded sustained and robust growth since the start of this year but policy choices such as on energy subsidies will determine whether such progress would continue, an International Monetray Fund (IMF) official has said.

This was noted this week by the Director of the IMF's African Department, Antoinette Monsio Sayeh, while presenting the body’s outlook for the region in Cameroon capital Yaoundé.

The 117-page outlook, Building Momentum in a Multi-Speed World, projects a regional economic growth of 5.5 per cent between 2013 and 2014, compared with 5 per cent last year.

This makes Sub-Saharan Africa the second fastest–growing region in the world, trailing only emerging Asia even though growth patterns vary between countries.

Ms Sayeh said the region would have to guard against downside risks that hold down its economic performance but laid particular stress on reforming the region’s direct and indirect schemes that subsidise energy consumption.

These energy subsidies tend to be costly, crowding out spending on much-needed social and infrastructure projects, she said.

"Also, although subsidies may in some cases benefit the poor, most accrue to the more affluent segments of the population, making them an ineffective instrument of social protection," the IMF report states.

The report doles out lessons for countries like Nigeria where the IMF says energy subsidy reforms have not been successful and Cameroon which is in the throes of reforming its own scheme.

The study documents some cases of successful energy subsidy reform like Ghana’s well-communicated 2005 reform which was supported by an independent poverty and social impact analysis which assessed those who benefited and those who missed out on subsidies and subsidy removal.

'Best practices'

It also cites Kenya and Uganda’s multitude of reforms in the early 2000s which shot up the annual average power supply by 5 per cent and 9 per cent respectively, a boon for countries that rely heavily on hydropower and suffered from the adverse effects of drought between 2008 and 2009.

"The need for careful preparation and sequencing; the key role of strong institutions to support the reform process; and the importance of deploying well targeted social safety nets to offset the impact of the reform on the poor," are best practices, the IMF recommends.

Cameroon has been struggling to reach a consensus with unions about scrapping subventions on fuel since last year.

Some trade unions and opposition parties had threatened violent clashes if the government went ahead with plans to raise fuel prices last August.

But the government has already intimated the raise cannot be avoided. Prime Minister Philemon Yang met trade unionists and consumers’ associations in July 24 last year where he warned that the increase was "inevitable" but broached measures that he said would lessen the impact on the oil price raise.

Finance minister Mr Alamine Ousmane Mey has said a commission comprising the civil society, politicians and government officials has been set up to explore the issue.

Only when this commission presents its recommendations, the minister said, would government decide whether or not to scrap energy subventions.

Source: AFRICA REVIEW

Who Represents Senate at May 20 Celebrations?

Senator Nfon Victor Mukete

The twenty-five (25) member committee to be designated to draw up the standing orders of the pioneer senate of Cameroon is yet to be put in place. While members of the upper chamber of the Cameroon parliament are still waiting for the committee, Nfon Victor Mukete, president of the provisionary bureau of the house may represent the house at celebrations marking the 41^st edition of the National Day on Monday May 20, 2013.

The committee to draw up the standing orders would be made up of seventeen (17) senators from the CPDM, four (4) from the SDF and one (1) each from the NUDP, FNSC, ANDP, and MDR.

Senate Presidency

Constitutionally, the senate president is the second personality of the republic. In this case, it is a simple political logic that since the president of the republic is French-speaking; the senate president will obviously come from the Anglophone region (South West or North West).

A close look at the senators from these regions (elected and appointed) shows that three personalities could be tipped for the top job. They are; Simon Achidi Achu and Francis Nkwain from the North West and Peter Mafany Musonge from the South West

The eldest member, Nfon Victor Mukete, 95 and the two youngest members, Ahmadou Tidjani and Aboui Marlyse, each about 40 years old would not be eligible for any post in the bureau of the house.

At the opening of the first statutory ordinary session of the upper chamber of parliament in Yaounde on Tuesday May 14, 2013, Senator Nfon Mukete promised “this provisionary bureau will conduct the business of the house with wisdom foresight and sagacity during this first statutory session”.

The putting in place of the senate, the eldest member said will further strengthen democracy in Cameroon. He called for a harmonious coexistence between the upper and the lower chamber.

Cavaye envy senate

Being the pioneer senators of Cameroon, they were given a standing ovation as they received their attributes at the National Assembly in Yaounde on Tuesday. Everyone present at the National Assembly stood and applauded as the senators wore their sashes except the president of the National Assembly, Rt Hon Cavaye Yegui Djibril.

The president of the lower house of parliament had wished to be senator but his candidacy was not endorsed by his party, the CPDM.

Rt Hon Cavaye Yegui Djibril, president of the lower chamber of parliament has been acting as the second personality of the republic before the putting in place of the senate last May 14.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi

Six injured, Cars Destroyed as University of Buea Students Strike

Dr. Nalova Lyonga-Vice Chancellor

Six persons have been injured following a second spate of unrest in less than four months in state-run University of Buea in southwest Cameroon.

The injured are campus security guards and at least three vehicles belonging to the institution were destroyed by striking students, an official of the university who asked not to be named said.

Another official said the students mainly want charges at a Buea court against 12 student leaders dropped and for fresh first semester examinations to be set for the suspects who were rounded up during the examinations period.

The students were charged to court for holding the Vice Chancellor, Dr Nalova Lyonga, hostage for over three hours in her car on campus during a strike in February.

The students also want the institutions leadership to let the union elect its leadership before May 20 and demand that the union be accorded funding, a release on Saturday from the University of Buea Students Union (UBSU) stated.

The latest strike comes after talks ended in a deadlock on two occasions.

The vice chancellor rejected the demands of the students at a meeting on Monday.

Security forces are reported to have forced their way through barricades mounted by the students and was dispersing them with tear gas.

Contacted on phone a while ago, Dr Nalova told NewsWatch she could not comment on the issue because she was on the highway.

She was spotted at the National assembly in Yaounde late yesterday, Tuesday May 14 during the first statutory ordinary session of the senate.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi

We Are Not Newspaper Politicians-Senator

Senator Ngi Christopher

(NewsWatch Cameroon)-A free press has often been touted as the oxygen of democracy because one
cannot survive without the other, notes Deborah Potter.

This view is upheld by French political writer Alexis de Tocqueville when he says “you can’t have real newspapers without democracy and you can’t have democracy without newspapers”.

Surprisingly, an alternate senator and CPDM militant from the Donga Mantung division says the press has no place in ensuring that government is run transparently.

At the launch of campaigns for senatorial elections in Ako, Donga Mantung Division of the North West Region on April 7, 2013, Mr Ngi Christopher Ntoh told councilors and everyone present that he and other party bigwigs were not newspaper politicians.

Speaking at the MBECUDA hall in Ako, Mr Ntoh said a senatorial hopeful from the same division who lost in his bid to grab a seat in the Upper House asked him, ‘what are people doing?’ He simply told him ‘we are not newspaper politicians’.

He further told his unlucky colleague that newspapers mean nothing to them as they (politicians) are concerned about their people.

Though Senator Ntoh did not mention the name of the unfortunate colleague, political observers who listened to him had their minds drifting towards ‘Senator’ Nick Ngwanyam.

However the worry many reporters like this reporter left with from Ako was how a politician can succeed without the press.

The third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson in 1787 wrote “the basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”.

Those who snubbed the Press

Though many politicians will not choose a government without newspapers, there are still some politicians in the Donga Mantung Division who would prefer a government without one of its invaluable limbs, the press.

Earlier on April 14, 2013 before the vote tallying could begin in Nkambe, the Substantive CPDM senatorial candidate, Professor Jikong Stephen Yeriwa turned down a request for an interview. Even when the preliminary vote count was over, journalists were unable to locate him to get his appraisal of the polls.

Besides, given that his alternate Ngi Christopher Ntoh had earlier declared that they were not newspaper politicians, no journalist cared to get his opinion on the conduct of the polls.

Meanwhile another CPDM bigwig and communal campaign president to Nkambe Central, Honourable Shey Jones Yembe who journalists spotted in the crowd jubilating snubbed journalists without any remorse.

A jubilant Mr Yembe who ranted and raved that a similar defeat of the SDF will surface soon at local elections shocked journalists who trailed him to his residence. All they got from Honourable Shey Jones Yembe was brazen refusal to talk to the press.

Nkemda Simon Sunde, Mayor of Misaje is also reported to have fled from an interview with pressmen.

According to a hint the patience of the ruling CPDM party in Misaje is increasingly ebbing out with his stewardship of the local council.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi

Police Detain High School Principal For Child Trafficking

GBHS Nkambe

The principal of Government Bilingual High School Nkambe in the Donga Mantung Division of the North West Region of Cameroon is currently detained at the Buea judicial police station for alleged child trafficking.

Mrs Lucy Ngwe was picked up by the police at the Mount Mary health Centre in Buea, South West Region of Cameroon on Friday May 10, 2013.

According to The Post Newspaper No. 01430 of Monday May 13, 2013, the school principal was arrested following the persistent cry of a week-old baby she was carrying that caused a stir in the hospital.

Mrs. Ngwe reportedly went to the hospital like every other nursing mother. While in the there, her supposed baby cried ceaselessly, but to the surprise of other nursing mothers and hospital nurses, Mrs. Ngwe could not breastfeed ‘her baby’.

Questioned on why she was not breastfeeding her baby, she reportedly answered that her breast was not flowing. This raised suspicion causing officials of the health facility to call the police who afterward arrested Mrs. Ngwe.

Mrs. Ngwe, NewsWatch is aware had abandoned her duty post without permission and had gone for a fake maternity leave. Reports say while in school, Mrs Ngwe wore dresses indicative of a pregnant woman but she left Nkambe town in hiding. Neither her school nor the indigens of Nkambe knew the where-about of the principal.

According to The Post Newspaper, the principal allegedly returned from Nigeria with a baby she claimed she had given birth to. She travelled back to Cameroon by sea through the vessel Achouka, and arrived at the Tiko Wharf when her supposed child took ill. Then she decided to take the baby to Mount Mary Health Centre for medical attention.

The paper further reports that Mrs Ngwe confessed she had been receiving concoctions from a certain traditional healer in Nigeria for an apparent pregnancy. Before her mystical pregnancy, she had never been known to have any previous record of ever being pregnant or delivering a baby. She disclosed that she had actually been nursing “a pregnancy” and went to Nigeria as had been instructed by her traditional doctor there. After a process that seemed like she had put to bed; a baby was later presented to her as hers.

It is alleged that a baby might have been stolen and given her considering she had been keeping a bogus pregnancy.

While the judicial police pursue investigations in the matter, the baby is currently being taken care of by the management of Mount Mary Health Centre.

Back in Nkambe

Reports from Nkambe say the educational authorities have a negative impression about the principal. She is considered amongst other things to be very arrogant and annoys her hierarchy and Nkambe elite because it is alleged she has links in high quarters.

Students of Government Bilingual High School Nkambe where Mrs. Ngwe is principal on Monday May 6, 2013 went on a strike claiming that the principal had collected money from them for computer studies and laboratory practicals, yet they had never taken computer lessons nor enter any science laboratory.

The principal allegedly collected CFA 3500 F from each student of the school as computer fees and CFA 5000 F from second cycle science students as laboratory fees.

While their mates were preparing for the General Certificate of Education Examinations, the students went on the street to protest. At the time of the strike action, the where-about of the principal remained unknown.

According to The Eye Newspaper, the students reportedly stormed the offices of the Divisional Delegate for Secondary Education and the Senior Divisional Officer to express their worries. They demanded for the reimbursement of the computer and laboratory test fee they paid but did not have lessons in computer sciences nor carry any laboratory experiment.

Besides, the irate students also told the SDO that some of them contributed a widow’s mite for a condolence visit to one of their mates who kicked the pocket, yet the administration has been adamant to carryout the visit.

Even though the Senior Divisional Officer for Donga Mantung Division, Mr. Ngone Ndodemesape Bernard tried to clam down flaring tempers, the students, we learnt have vowed that if the administration doesn’t take stringent measures, there is going to be a rundown.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi

Appointment of Senators:Opposition Party Militant Under Threats for Refusing Appointment by Regime

Youmo Koupit Adamou

In a rather questionable decision on May 8, 2013, one of the 30 alternate senators that president Biya appointed is Youmo Koupit Adamou, militant of the Cameroon Democratic Union, the CDU of Adamou Ndam Njoya.

Youmo Koupit Adamou headed the CDU list for the April 14 first ever election of senators in the West Region but his party did not win. Surprisingly, barely a couple of days after the proclamation of the official results of the election, Biya appointed a CDU militant as alternate senator.

The appointment provoked a Political Bureau meeting of the CDU in Yaounde on May 9, 2013 where the appointment was condemned and rejected.

In a press conference in Yaounde on Monday May 13, 2013, Youmo Koupit Adamou revealed his life is under threats ever since he rejected the appointment. The disdain CDU political bureau member revealed further that he has been promised CFA 25 million F should he accept the appointment.

Though Mr Koupit did not reveal the identities of those who promised him CFA 25 Million F, he described their move as stupid. The CDU militant explained that on Sunday some purported journalists came to his residence and told him “We know that if you resign from your party you could have some difficulties but we are ready to give you some money to facilitate your life.” That money, he says, was FCFA 25 million.

 “I reaffirm my unperturbed militancy towards the Cameroon Democratic Union. I remain Youmo Koupit Adamou, Politic Bureau Member of the great CDU party in which I was born and through which I bring my modest contribution to the construction and consolidation of our democracy” , he said.

Mr Koupit, 45, said he cannot accept Biya’s appointment when his regime manipulated elections in the West leading to their defeat.  The CDU petitioned the Supreme Court to cancel the elections in the West Region, but the court rejected the petition. The court decision left the CDU very bitter with the CPDM.

Worst still, Mr. Koupit Adamou was appointed alternate senator to Sultan Ibrhahim Mbombo Njoya of the CPDM. Ibrhahim Mbombo Njoya and his cousin, Adamou Ndam Njoya, National Chairman of the CDU also haven’t shared a good relationship and do not share the same political ideology.

The Cameroon Democratic Union has never collaborated with the Biya regime since its creation in the 1990s.

The National Chairman of the CDU, Adamou Ndam Njoya described the appointment of his militant as an attempt to destabilize his party.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi

Tamfu Arison Tamfu Resigned From Equinoxe TV And Not The Media

Tamfu Arison Tamfu Presenting the 6:00PM News

Relinquishing his duties as editor with the English Desk of Equinoxe Television, does not mean he is quitting journalism all together, Tamfu Arison Tamfu has said.

Tamfu is without exaggeration one of Cameroon’s best English Language TV presenters in recent times. After plying his trade at one of the country’s leading audiovisual media for about six years, the 2005 Journalism and Mass Communication graduate from the University of Buea resigned in order to freelance.

“I tendered my resignation fundamentally because I wanted to freelance. And in part because I was displeased with the conditions of work [at Equinoxe Television],” he said.

Low pay, political manipulation, death threats, failure to keep pace with technological advancements and the sidelining of English-speaking journalists to marginal roles in most francophone-dominated media houses are the main challenges in a long chain of impediments journalists of English expression in Cameroon need to surmount on a daily basis, Tamfu added.

He spoke at the 17th edition of the open days of the Association of Student Journalists (ASJUB) of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Buea in June 2012.

Asked whether it was the aforementioned challenges that led him into dumping his job, Tamfu said “the deplorable conditions contributed in part. However, they become very devastating when they impede your professional growth and at that moment the wisest decision is to step down and out”.

One of Tamfu’s fans who talked to NewsWatch in Yaounde regretted that he is going to miss favourite presenter on the prime time 6:00 pm English news.

William said he ‘fell in love’ with Tamfu when he did a live report on the Wouri Bridge in Douala about military men and firefighters who had mounted a manhunt for fleeing suspects in the Douala Ecobank bank heist.

But William could miss his television personality not for too long. Tamfu may stage a comeback one of these days.

“I have been approached by some local TV Channels in Cameroon and I am currently reflecting on their proposals,” Tamfu says.

He explained that while reflecting on the proposals of media who have approached him, “I am now into full freelance reporting. So far I report for three international media as a freelance journalist”.

To his teeming enthusiasts, Tamfu says “it is most likely that, if things unfold as I desire, my fans to who I owe much will see me on air again. And if I return to local broadcasting it will be one hundred percent due to the demand of my admirers”.

Tamfu’s resignation last December 2012 brings to two the number of journalists who have ditched that institution. The first within the same year was Polycarp Essomba who abandoned his duties as editor-in-chief in October 2012 and now works and lives out of the country.
By Ndi Eugene Ndi