Menchum North MP, Zhoa Mayor No Longer on Talking Terms

(NewsWatch Cameroon)-A cold war currently exists between the Member of Parliament for Menchum North, Hon. Ndong Larry Hills and the Mayor of the Zhoa Municipality, Tem Peter, NewsWatch is reliably informed.

Hon. Ndong Larry Hills aka Wum Boy

 Months after his installation as Mayor of the Zhoa council, Tem Peter is reported to have inherited an attitude common with political opportunists towards his collaborators and other party officials, a councillor hinted Newswatch.
Council sources in Zhoa observed that since his installation, Mayor Tem has been running the affairs of the council as a private estate with high-handedness and opaque management and tends to dismiss anyone who tries to call him to order. He recently locked horns with the MP, Ndong Larry Hills aka Wum Boy during the visit of the Minister of Youth Affairs to launch Youth Week activities in Wum.

 As narrated by a councillor of the Zhoa council, Wum Boy had called the mayor some few days to the visit to find out how they will welcome the minister given that after the launching in Wum, the Minister had to visit Lake Nyos which is located in Wum Boy's own constituency (Menchum North). As the councillor explained, just a single invitation had been addressed to the constituency which happened to have landed in the hands of Mayor Tem who from every indication was determined to appear during the ceremony as the representative of the constituency.

This was not deemed acceptable by the MP who immediately called the mayor to set matters right. The mayor, we gathered, derogatorily informed Wum Boy he was not answerable to him and had no explanations to give. This act considered by the MP as gross insubordination did not however stop him from attending the launch in Wum. The Mayor is reported to have snubbed the MP during the event as he was throughout the event seen with the Divisional Officer of Fumgom raising questions about the closeness of this recent association.

Enters Kwa Donatus
 He is well known as Menchum. Kwa Donatus recently locked horns with the mayor following a misunderstanding during the latter’s installation. Kwa is reported to have mobilized the local press, seemingly out of good faith in order to give the event the widest possible media coverage. Mayor Tem however disapproved of the said proposal from Kwa Donatus, informing him that only the state media would be accredited to cover the event. It is reported that the mayor told some of his cronies that Kwa Donatus had come to defraud him in the name of mobilizing media coverage – an allegation Kwa did not take lightly.

Talking to this reporter, the District Chairman of Zhoa, Che Alexander said Kwa Donatus has been carrying out anti-party activities, adding that he risked being sanctioned by the party hierarchy. According to him, Menchum is actually the cause of the strained relationship between the mayor and the MP. He narrated that some weeks back, Menchum took some files to the mayor for the issuing of birth certificates, purporting that he was working on the instructions of the MP. Menchum explained to the mayor that the birth certificates in question were for individuals  who intended to procure  National Identity cards so as to register and vote for the party in the next elections.

This Article was also Published in NewsWatch Newspaper N°007

To Check Conflicts in NW: Traditional Rulers Join Atanga Peace Project

(NewsWatch Cameroon)-The Northwest Region of Cameroon is known to be hard hit by ubiquitous inter-tribal conflicts which result in loss of lives and property and to a greater extent, the destruction of peace and unity. To usher in lasting peace and unity, the Atanga Peace Project (APP) led by a U.S based Cameroonian medical doctor, Bernadette Atanga-Sab, has continued to embark on seminars and radio talk shows in the Northwest region.

General Tataw James (in suit) congratulates Dr. Atanga

After organizing conferences on peace with traditional and religious leaders of the Region, the Atanga Peace Project last February 2014, organized a seminar in Bamenda wherein, people, especially couples told their true life stories which touched on causes of conflicts in their respective families and how the conflicts were finally settled amicably for peace to reign.

Dr. Bernadette Atanga-Sab who opined that those confessions were intended to help others learn, noted that conflicts in the communities can usually be traced to families and so if people learn to remain peaceful in the family, their communities would ipso facto remain peaceful and unity would reign.

Beside the true life stories, Dr. Bernadette Atanga-Sab, a specialist in internal medicine and paediatrics with special interest in Emotional Health and Cultural Diversity, took the opportunity to drill the seminar participants on the causes of diabetes, high blood pressure, haemorrhage and barrenness amongst others. Although she disclosed that Atanga Peace Project volunteers will be dispatched to the field to check certain common diseases and sensitize the population, Dr. Bernadette advised each and everyone to go for medical check up very often.

The traditional rulers at the seminar who doffed their caps for the Atanga Peace Project (APP) were all unanimous that the initiative which started over a decade ago, has helped the communities a great deal. One of the traditional rulers, king Martin Forbuzie Asanji of Chomba, the erstwhile Secretary General of Northwest Fons (Chief) Union (NOWEFU) said he received Cameroon Queens’ Peace Award a couple of years ago thanks to the Atanga Peace Project initiative
“Through the conferences Atanga Peace Project organized with the traditional rulers of the Northwest Region, I am proud to say that Northwest traditional rulers have started eradicating obnoxious traditions and cultures especially those which abuse widows’ or women’s rights among others”.
Stressing that Atanga Peace Project has come to stay, Dr. Bernadette Atanga said she hails from a family of 10 children and they decided to form the Atanga Peace Project in the year 2000 as a special gift to their parents, Mr and Mrs Atanga who celebrated 50 years of peaceful marriage that year. She said because their parents are ardent Christians and love giving or assisting, the Atanga Peace Project is also centred on donating and working for peace, unity and development in communities.

Dr. Benardette has held similar seminars with Christians, students, couples, traditional leaders and top military personnel like General James Tataw in the Northwest and Centre regions of Cameroon. 

This Article was also Published in NewsWatch Newspaper N°007

UN Listens to Southern Cameroons Problem

(NewsWatch Cameroon)-After much talk about the plight of Anglophone Cameroon aka Southern Cameroons’ in La Republique du Cameroun, ranging from their marginalization to the deliberate destruction of their cultural, economic, political and social values by the successive Francophone Cameroon regimes of Amadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya, the United Nations has started listening to this perennial problem with keen interest.
During the 2014 United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which took place at UN head quarters in Geneva from February 9 to 27, 2014, Chongsi Joseph Ayeah, the Permanent Mission Representative at the United Nations who triples as the Director of Centre for Human Rights and Peace Advocacy (CHRAPA) with special consultative status at the UN cum the President of the Union of North West Human Rights organizations, was exceptionally given 10 minutes to present the plight of Southern Cameroons in La Republique Du Cameroun. 
During a one-on-one with this reporter in Bamenda, Chongsi Joseph Ayeah recounted his succinct presentation at the United Nations which was heartrending and pregnant with emotions. Instancing the 1972 unification which he described as very loose, he disclosed that he brought the United Nations to realize that despite all the talk about peace in Cameroon, stability in the country is hanging in the balance and could fall apart at any moment. He said the UN was informed that out of about 60 members of Government in Cameroon, there are just about four Anglophone ministers with portfolio. “And of course, I let them know that each time an Anglophone is appointed as Prime Minster, he must be given several deputies and a Secretary General - something which does not happen when a Francophone occupies that post”.Besides, Chongsi intimated that he equally explained how Anglophone corporations like Powercam, WADA Wum, Santa coffee estate and the Marketing Board amongst others had all been closed down, seemingly as part of a deliberate attempt to marginalize Anglophones and render them powerless.

This Article was also Published in NewsWatch Newspaper N°007

Biya’s Lethargy Condemns 400 Magistrates to Unemployment

(NewsWatch Cameroon)-For the past three years, more than 400 graduates from the National School of Administration and Magistracy have been twiddling their thumbs at home, waiting in vain for the call-up by the President of the Republic whose dismissal of this issue has not only bred frustrations for these “ghost workers” but above all has repercussions for the wider Cameroonian community.
The problem stems from the fact that as the ultimate head of the judiciary in Cameroon, President Paul Biya is the sole person who must convene the meeting of the body that would thereafter integrate the graduates in question into the legal corps and render them fully operational. However, the Head of State has not done so since 2012 and consequently, two classes have been waiting for twenty-four and twelve months respectively with a third class poised to join them once they graduate in a few weeks.
While a few of those concerned go to the courts and try to help their predecessors in some capacity and keep abreast of legal affairs, others dismiss  such an approach, since they can perceive no real benefits and in any case, it entails a lot of expenditure for people who are “not on a regular salary”. 
The problem has been aggravated because the population of those awaiting integration is a lot bigger than it would have normally been; usually, the state enrolls 50 students in the magistracy department each year; however, in a bid to enhance the legal process in Cameroon, the European Union in 2008 engaged in a partnership with the government aimed at training nearly 200 magistrates annually over a three-year period. Although the first batch was integrated in 2012, that was not the case for the following two classes which have had to stay at home ever since.
Many question whether the government is getting cold feet over the European Union initiative possibly because there are not enough funds to recruit such a huge number of legal experts. On the other hand, the plight of these graduates makes a mockery of claims by the authorities about the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs annually – if even those destined to be recruited by the state are finding things that tough, it does not bode well for other job seekers.
Even more importantly, the inaction of the president is extremely costly to Cameroonians because the EU sponsored initiative was designed to bring about the recruitment of more personnel so that legal processes could be expedited. This failure by Paul Biya to render them fully operational means Cameroonians must continue paying the price in terms of clogged courts, legal delays and disastrous errors by overburdened magistrates who must each cater to a disproportionately high percentage of the population.
   

Hon. Abe Prepares Homecoming, Declares Himself “Man of the People”

(NewsWatch Cameroon)-The Member of Parliament for the Ako/Misaje special constituency says “When something good comes your way especially from your people, it is but normal culturally and socially to go and say thank you”. Hon. Abe Michael was speaking to NewsWatch’s Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde on Monday March 17.
In this light, Hon. Abe revealed that he is going home from March 22 to thank his electorate for the confidence they gave him at the September 30, 2013 elections in which he was voted as their representative at the lower house of Parliament, the National Assembly.
The MP said he will be received in Ako sub division on Saturday March 22 and in Misaje subdivision on Monday March 24.
His homecoming is not however a campaign rally of the CPDM: “I am going to thank them for the confidence given me at the last legislative election and to encourage them to continue giving me the confidence and that we shall work together  for I need their support; they should not relent in their efforts”.
The homecoming of the MP for Ako/Misaje comes at a time critics say the MP and Minister Fuh Calistus Gentry, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Mines, Industries and Technological Development and elite of Misaje are locked in acrimony. “We are in democracy and people have their rights; where such allegations are coming from, I have no idea. I am only hearing from you now. I wine and dine with the Minister everyday; people are even jealous of my relationship with the Minister”, the MP responded to his detractors.
According to Hon. Abe Michael, a parliamentarian does not work alone; “I am not going to work alone, apart from voting good laws, we have to move round the corridors of the various ministries to lobby for one or two projects”. These projects the Ako/Misaje MP said would benefit the people he is representing.
Asked why he did not organise his homecoming during Christmas as a Christmas gift to his constituency, he said “the Christmas gift of my electorate is the brand new MP who they know very well shall deliver”. However he reiterated that he cannot deliver what is expected of him alone: thus, besides saying “thank for your votes”, he will be calling on his electorate to be open in telling him what is not going on well so that together they can get their own share of the national cake.
Reacting to allegations that his native Ako council is controlled by the opposition SDF and his reception in Ako may not be as hilarious as he might have wished, Hon Abe said, “That is the opinion of the people you are talking of; as we talk here now (Monday March 17) the crowd that is already in Ako is unimaginable. I have been receiving calls and my phone since the weekend has been a hotline. Anybody who has a negative opinion will be surprised”. He added that he is a man of the people, “I am a man of the people and the people know whom I am and they are already cleaning their stomachs to eat and drink. Like I said, those from further villages are already in Ako town waiting”.
Quizzed on the future of the Ako/Misaje constituency in the next five years, the MP unequivocally said “in the next five years, Ako/Misaje will not be the same. There must be some remarkable changes. We have to leave a legacy, God being our helper. There must be something to show that this man was there from this period to that period. We are going to transform the area development wise, God being our helper”.

Obituary: Minister Dies on Eve of Her Birthday

(NewsWatch Cameroon)-Catherine Abena , former State Secretary of State for Secondary Education died

Catherine Abena-RIP

this Wednesday, March 19, 2014-the eve of his Sixtieth Birthday .

Close family sources have revealed that the former member of government was rushed to the National Social Insurance Fund (CNPS) hospital in Yaounde this morning. According to hospital sources, Catherine Abena died just minutes after she was admitted into the hospital.

Teacher by profession, Catherine Abena joined the Biya government on June 30, 2009 when she was appointed as Secretary of State to the Minister of Secondary Education.

But on January 08, 2010, she was arrested and incarcerated at the Kondengui maximum security prison under operation hawk for alleged embezzlement of public funds amounting to FCFA 250 million.

While at the prison, the former Secretary of State in the Ministry of Secondary Education embarked on a hunger strike. A week later, she reportedly went unconscious and was moved to the Yaounde Central Hospital for medical care. She left the hospital on February 7, 2011 and did not go back to prison following persistent illness. Since then, close family sources say, she has been sick.

The demise of the former member of Government has just come to add to that of the many ‘VIPs’ who have died in Cameroon recently; Abel Eyinga , economist and politician who died on January 16, 2014 , Adolphe Papy Ndoumbé journalist, writer and Secretary General of the UPC  who died on January 29, 2014, Abanda Kpama President of Manidem (Political Party) who left this world on January 30 , the late outspoken Charles Ateba Eyene, writer and politician who died February 21 ,2014, singer and song writer ‘Lapiro de Mbanga’ on March 16 ,  and the Honourable Jean Claude Mpacko CPDM MP and businessman who died yesterday , amongst others.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde

Cameroonian Singer, Lapiro Dies on Assylum in the USA

 (NewsWatch Cameroon)-Lambo Sandjo Pierre Roger better known as Lapiro de Mbanga, was a Cameroonian singer who is noted for his 1985 recording of “Pas argent no love” and for being imprisoned in 2008 after criticizing Cameroon president Paul Biya in the song “Constitution constipée” (“Constipated Constitution”). Born in 1957 in Mbanga, Littoral Cameroon Lapiro died on March 16, 2014 in Buffalo, New York.

Music career

For several years, Lapiro lived in self-imposed exile in Nigeria and Gabon. He returned in 1985 to Cameroon, where he proceeded to compose and record what Index on Censorship has described as “a long list of biting texts on the socio-economic realities in his beleaguered country.”
Nicknamed “Djinga Man,” Lapiro became “the idol of the downtrodden and forgotten workers who people the slums and bus stations of Cameroon” and “the spokesman for the youth of his country.” His hits of that period included “No Make Erreur,” “Pas argent no love,” “Kop Nie,” “Mimba We,” and “Na You.” He was regularly censored by the Cameroonian government.

Imprisonment

In 2008, Lapiro criticized Cameroon president Paul Biya in the song “Constitution constipée” (“Constipated Constitution”). The song denounced the proposed amendment of Cameroon's constitutional clause, which limited presidents to two seven-year terms. The Cameroonian government banned “Constitution constipée” from the airwaves, however thousands of Cameroonians students used the song as an anthem as they rallied and rioted in the streets in February 2008 in protest against the proposed constitutional change, which would allow Biya to run for a new term in 2011.
Lapiro was arrested on April 9, 2008, and charged with “complicity in looting, destruction of property, arson, obstructing streets, degrading public or classified property, and forming illegal gatherings.” Two days later, the Cameroonian parliament adopted the new constitution that Lapiro had attacked in “Constitution constipée.”
On September 24, 2008, Lapiro was sentenced by the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) to three years in the New Bell prison near Douala. In December 2009 he contracted typhoid fever and nearly died of that disorder and respiratory complications. When authorities refused to send him to a hospital, his wife brought medications that helped save his life. In an interview, Lapiro said that he and his fellow prisoners had “penal rations twice a day. At 1pm we are given boiled corn and at 5pm there’s rice in some warm water. It’s the same every day. It’s way below minimum requirements.”
Freemuse, a Danish-based NGO, mounted an international campaign for Lapiro's release. In a 2010 interview from prison, he said that “If my wife didn't travel four hours here and four hours back every day to give me food and if Freemuse hadn't publicised my case worldwide, I'd have been dead long ago.”
In addition to Freemuse's campaign, the U.S.-based lawyers' organization Freedom Now monitored Lapiro's case throughout his incarceration. In April 2010, the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN also launched a campaign to help win Lapiro's freedom. In 2011, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that Lapiro's arrest was an infringement of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
During his detention, Lapiro repeatedly appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. On March 17, 2011, he refused to take advantage of an offer from the Supreme Court to be released on bail.He was released from prison on April 8, 2011, one day before the official end of his sentence.

Post-imprisonment

In a July 2011 interview, Lapiro described the prisons in which he had been incarcerated as “rotten” and insisted that he had never encouraged young people to damage and steal other people's property. “I've never done anything of the sort. Instead, I did everything to prevent that from happening.” He called his trial “Kafkaesque,” saying that his fate had been “decided in advance,” despite the utter lack of evidence against him.
On July 13, 2011, in Lille, France, Lapiro returned to the stage for the first time since his release from prison. During the summer of 2011 he also played in Lausanne, Brussels, Paris, Barcelona, and at various venues in the United States, Canada, and Britain.
On September 2, 2012, Mbanga, his wife, and five of their six children left Cameroon for the United States, where they had been granted asylum. They arrived in the U.S. on September 14.
In late 2012 it was reported that Lapiro was seeking a publisher for his book Cabale Politico-Judiciaire Ou La Mort Programmée D’Un Combatant De La Liberté (Politico-Judicial Cabal Or The Planned Death Of A Freedom Fighter).
In 2013 Mbanga's case was reopened before the Cameroonian Supreme Court.
Culled from WIKIPEDIA with News Watch Jottings