Cameroon’s Elementary Schools With No Facilities

Female MP on Rescue Mission in Her Constituency

(Pictures :Above-GS Mapanja pupils dancing to welcome Hon .Monjowa & the wooden school building.Belowpart of material donation and Hon Monjowa speaking to the press)

ByChristopher Ambe Shu

Visiting Government School, GS Mapanja, an elementary school in Buea-Subdivison, Cameroon, you will be scandalized at the sight of the poorly constructed wooden structure that serves as the school. You will even be more scandalized when you enter one of the classrooms and see pupils seated on desks but their feet are "buried "in dust. No tables for teachers; classrooms without doors and windows; pupils without text books. This school, created in 2003, now has an enrollment of 61 with staff strength of six.
G.S Mapanja is just a good example of what many government schools in Cameroonian villages are. They beg for attention and much more, quick attention.

“The State shall guarantee the child’s right to educaton.Primary education shall be compulsory. The organization and supervision of education at all levels shall be the duty of the state”, so reads part of the Preamble to Cameroon’s Constitution.

There is no doubt that the Cameroon Government has been fostering elementary education by creating schools, staffing and equipping them somehow to near standards-especially in urban centers.

Cameroon has a population of about 18 million people and its overall literacy rate is 67.9%, according to official statistics. The literacy rate here considers only Cameroonians aged 15 and above who can read and write.

But the same government must be blamed-and seriously too, for not living up to expectation in rural settings, where the majority of Cameroon’s population reside. It is not as if the government does not create schools there. . She does! But the big problem is that, when such schools are created -most probably after the villagers have repeatedly asked for, it is now the villagers’ responsibility to identify where the school buildings will be erected and to recruit temporary teachers (Parents- Teachers Association, PTA teachers). Even when a site is chosen, putting up a building for the school is a hard nut to crack. Usually, a private building is hired or donated to be used as the temporary school until when Government will construct a permanent structure. And the permanent structure, most of the times, takes many years to come. Then equipping the schools with the necessary didactic materials is another Herculean task. The poor villagers have no option but to keep crying for help, to whoever bothers to listen. Sometimes their cries are quickly attended to.

Hon.Monjowa Lifaka Emilia is MP from Fako West Constituency, where G S Mapanja is found. She is also Vice President of (the ruling) CPDM Parliamentary Group at Cameroon's National Assembly. As is the case in Cameroon, Government gives MP’s micro-project grants to offer assistance where need be in their different constituencies. MP’s are scheduled to receive this year’s grants in April. Each Cameroonian MP receives a yearly FCFA Eight million for that purpose, an amount considered too small.
It is also public knowledge that, some constituents have always accused their MP’s of embezzling the grant or mismanaging it.

But Hon Monjowa wants to be known as an exemplary MP. This second- term MP had since identified needy schools as her area of intervention for assistance. She had before donated materials and equipment to several nursery and primary schools in her constituency worth millions of FCFA, drawing accolades from the beneficiaries and the general public

On January30,2008 Hon Monjowa traveled to faraway Mapanja Village to “ rescue” GS Mapanja by donating basic school needs such as tables, chairs.uniform, exercise and text books, blackboard rulers and card board papers, bold markers etc.
Her donation was valued at about one million FCFA. The village was happy with the MP’s “rescue mission”. The MP also plans to donate basic materials to GS Bova still in her Constituency. What a rescue mission!

“I want to thank Honorable for thinking about this school. We feel honored by your donation”, said Acha Ruben Achu, head teacher of GS Mapanja
Mapanja villagers including their caretaker chief John Ekema Molua and the pupils sang and danced in praise of Hon Monjowa, who stressed the importance of educating children in any society and pledged continued support. She also promised to complete construction of the village community hall and to lobby the government to improve on the deplorable state of road to Mapanja, which has been the cry of the entire village.
Here is the MP‘s reason for always focusing on children’s education: “This is because education is the best thing you can give to children. Knowledge brings about development. When you invest in the education of children you are investing for the future”
She felt sorry for the poor school building. “I cannot be comfortable seeing children studying in this kind of environment. I‘ll talk to the Minister of Basic Education to try and make sure these children have a befitting structure”, Hon Monjowa told reporters who witnessed her donation. She was upbeat that Government would gradually address the expressed worries of Mapanja.
Isn’t it high time that other Cameroonian MP’s whose constituencies have schools without basic facilities and other people of good faith started emulating Hon Monjowa’s example? Isn’t it time for the Government of Cameroon to fully take its responsibility of guaranteeing children’s right to education? It is honorable to give birth but more honorable to take care of the child.

Cameroonians Won't Allow Paul Biya Become Life President

An open letter to Paul Biya


Dear Mr President,

The Constitution is the supreme law of the State.
The Constitution is an all embracing, permanent, immutable body of rules which regulates the government of the State and guarantees the rights, freedoms, and duties of citizens.
Its provisions have the force of law and are binding on all institutions of government, the President, parliament, Judiciary, and all citizens of the country. In fact, the Constitution as the supreme law of the State, is at one and the same time a legal document, which judges interpret, the blue print of a machine which warring parties may draw their texts, and a shrine where resides most, if not all, of the political values which the nation cherishes.

When the President is sworn into power, he swears to uphold and defend the Constitution.

When soldiers make a coup d’etat, the first thing they do is to abolish the constitution, they abolish the presidency, (in many cases they kill the president) they abolish parliament, the judiciary, and rule by marshal law. Under marshal law, all rights and freedoms of citizens are suspended.

Civilian Dictators and tyrants act in the same way as military dictators, the only difference is that civilian dictators who eventually become life presidents, do so in a more subtle manner.

The colonial masters left their colonies with a multiple political system of government, but shortly after independence, the new native presidents, abolished political parties and adopted the one party system, following the communist system. The one-party system then bred the life presidents, who were re-elected with monotonous regularity.

With the fall of the Communist Soviet Union and the gradual introduction of Democracy globally by the United States of America and Europe, the one –party State disappeared and with it, most of the life president despots.

In Cameroon, Ahidjo left Biya with the one-party state- the CNU and Biya continued it under the new name –CPDM.

Even though, Biya had all power because there was no opposition party in the country, he was forced by the Cameroon people aided by the International Community, to allow multi-party politics in Cameroon. Biya devised a crafty means of staying in power even with a multi-party situation. He made sure that he was never defeated in any election by conducting the elections himself through his appointed Minister of Territorial Administration.

By refusing to appoint an Independent Electoral Commission, Biya has always been declared winner in all elections. In this way, Biya was sure to be a life President in Cameroon.

But then pressure was mounted on him from the International Community and from honest patriotic Cameroonians, for transparency and democracy.

Biya went to the Cameroon Constitution to give himself legitimacy to stay in power for another 14 years. He was certain that he would not last more than 14 years, so he amended the constitution to say that the President can only be elected for two terms of 7 years each, thereafter,

he cannot stand for election again.

In 2007, Biya suddenly realized that he had made a serious error, to restrict his tenor of office to 2011, he called for parliamentary elections, to be conducted by his appointed Minister of Territorial Administration. He refused to appoint an Independent Electoral Commission to conduct the election, and massively rigged the election to give his Party more than 85% of the parliamentary seats

Biya now wants to use this rigged majority, to amend the constitution again, by scrapping Article 6.2 of the constitution.

President Paul Biya, must be told in unmistakable words that he cannot be allowed to destroy the Constitution of Cameroon, and make it a tool in his hands. a thing which he can change at will, a thing he can manipulate at his convenience using his handclapping Parliamentarians

If Biya destroys the Constitution by ignoring it, abusing it or disrespecting it, then Biya has no legal or moral right to invoke the Constitution for his powers.

Biya can as well rule as a military dictator.

If Biya is allowed to amend the constitution at his convenience, then he is no more bound by the constitution.

Cameroonians will get up one day to find that their rights, duties and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution have been amended and abolished.

Even Religious bodies will be shocked to see amendments to the Constitution, banning them. Biya could amend the Constitution and legalize corruption and other abominations.

What will Biya not be capable of doing? He could amend the Constitution and abolish parliament and the Judiciary or any other organ of the government which is not conducive to him. Eventually he could abolish the Constitution itself.

If Biya has no regard for the supreme law of the State, then citizens have no legal or moral obligation to obey him. They will not have to pay taxes or perform their civic duties. The president will have to resort to force. He will be forced to rely on the army and security forces to rule, and eventually these forces too will overthrow him in a coup and rule by marshal law.

Cameroonians whether in the government party or in the opposition parties, must realize that this is a national issue and not a party issue.

The Constitution is above party politics, it is a question of our future and the future of our children and the future of our country.

We cannot allow President Biya to destroy this country. By 2011, Biya would have done nearly 30 years in ruling Cameroon. Our life style has grown from bad to worse. Our country is getting poorer and poorer every day. Our future is at stake. Enough is enough.

Biya must go in 2011.

If President Paul Biya is blinded by his inordinate ambition to die as life president of Cameroon, then he will find Cameroon ungovernable in his last days.

Cameroonians challenge Paul Biya, to call for a referendum to amend the Constitution. A referendum to be conducted by an Independent Body.

Mr. President please note that Cameroonians will not allow you to become life president. You must go on or before 2011.

The day that Biya sends a Bill to Parliament to amend the Constitution, so that he can continue to rule after 2011, the CDP will join all Cameroonians, (in CPDM and opposition parties), to make Cameroon ungovernable for Biya

Mr. President, the whole country will rise up against you.

May God save Cameroon.

By A.S Ngwana.

Chairman, CDP

Neo-Colonial Politics in Africa

A Constitutional Hold-up in Cameroon
By Nfamewih Aseh*

By neo-colonial politics in Africa I am referring to the situation whereby politics in Africa is articulated from offstage by Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” from the metropolitan centres of Europe and America; where those who call the shots in Africa are hidden in the shadows, away from the view of the population, unknown to them, after the end of formal colonial rule. To go by the words of Jacques Chirac, where “the White Man is the absolute master and the Black Man is the slave and the servant” (Aseh 2006: 248); where there is something at stake, known only to the ruling class who benefit from it and want to monopolise it to the exclusion of the common people, with the use of force and legal instruments. It is like there is a kind of contract or a secret pact between the ruling class of the White Man countries and those of the Black Man countries to maintain sealed leaps over that “thing” that makes the “elite” powerful and would prefer to die in power than to sever links with neo-colonialism in favour of common sense democratic principles; in favour of the will of the people to decide who should rule, what the limits of power should be, and how the liberty of the citizens should be guaranteed in the processes of governance. Or why is it that presidents in Africa have a tendency of hanging on to power for life? Neo-colonial politics in Africa can be understood from the historical perspective of the white man’s mission to “civilise” Africans, the “primitive natives”, a mission which gave rise to an anomalous situation in which only a few, the chosen ones, qualify to dialogue with the white man; where those who are outside the realm of the chosen ones are “ignorant”, unable to manage the affairs of “civilised” people. We have come to realise that this shadowy, behind-the-scene operations uses the law as its fetish to pull the strings, to manipulate the people to achieve the desired effect; to legitimise its course. It is like a circus show where the people are helpless spectators, held captive by legality. And even when they have to act their actions are controlled and/or tele-guided to produce the desired effect, which is to keep them under servitude, or kill them in their desire to seek political freedom, which is their struggle to emancipate themselves from the stranglehold of neo-colonial politics, which is the politics of the economy.
On Constitutionalism and the Contemporary State in Africa One of the neo-colonial instruments in contemporary Africa that has received a lot of controversy, sometimes leading to civil strife, has been the constitution. But what is a constitution? A constitution is something much more than abstract statements written down on a piece of paper that any single individual can toy with at any time that s/he wishes. A constitution should derive from and actually be a reflection of a people’s charter history, defining the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of each individual citizen within a particular political entity. A constitution, therefore, should be a people’s foundation charter. For example, a constitution should tell us about the number of groups that make up this encapsulating entity called Cameroon, what each of them contributed in making up what the entity is, and what each of them expects from it. If there are over 250 ethnic groups in Cameroon as we are told, then that should be reflected in the constitution, which actually means the foundation charter, which should become the foundation of the people’s history. In simple terms, a constitution should refer to the elements that make up a set, i.e., the constituent elements of a set, defining the laws that govern the relationship between them, and the rule each element should play in the set to achieve a clearly defined objective. But what we have come to know in contemporary Africa has been contentions about issues of governance within vague entities; entities which are defined only by territorial boundaries with no mention made of its content or constituent elements and why they chose to come together to form the entity, and the rules of transformation that govern the life of the entity. The critical question at this point in the history of a people is that of whether Cameroon is a country or a nation. Politically speaking, a country is a geographical space enclosed within territorial boundaries while a nation refers to a body of people, a social formation, which emerged out of a people’s desire to establish a union, constituting a determinant factor in the type of structure the union should take: a federal state, a confederation, or a centralised state. We therefore realise that Cameroon is a country and not a nation because the various peoples who make up the entity were not even consulted, let alone participated in its formation. It rather emerged out of the wishes and predatory activities of Europeans, in this case the Portuguese, Germany, Great Britain, and France with the minimal participation of a few local collaborators who became the “elite” wielding enormous powers over Cameroonians who have no control over their own destiny within the entity. Neo-colonialism in contemporary Africa feeds on this constitutional vagueness, which was intentionally made to be so for the purpose of using it as a political instrument of deception, of blind-folding the masses. The ruling class in Africa has used this instrument, passionately referred to as the “fundamental law of the land”, to bamboozle the population to prolong their stay in power. After all, it is something that was drafted by a few individuals to serve their interests so they can mutilate it at will to achieve their goal of continuous exploitation of the people for their metropolitan masters who determine the rules of the game from offstage, unaware by the people. From Mali to Nigeria to Congo to Uganda and so on, it has been the same swan song: revise the constitution to allow the President to seek another term of office. The most recent cases are that of Abdelaziz Boutteflika of Algeria who upon his return from France last December announced the revision of the Algerian constitution to allow him run for another term of office. Paul Biya, after he returned from France where he granted an interview on French 24 TV Channel in which he said the revision of the constitution was not his pre-occupation, has taken the cue, last December 31, by announcing that he will mutilate the constitution to seek for another seven year presidential mandate come 2011. The strangest thing about the case of Cameroon is that the country has just emerged from an election and the President has hardly served half of his mandate. Now, with the revision of the constitution debate, the country has been plunged again into an election mode, an election which is four years away. Is the life of a “nation” only about elections? Will Cameroonians spend their precious time only voting neo-colonialists into office? Politics in contemporary Africa has shown that elections do not build a nation even if the incumbents are re-elected a thousand times because people waste heir precious time and energy voting people into office they cannot hold accountable. This is precariously so because politics in contemporary Africa is rather about colluding with foreigners (whites, Japanese, Chinese) in their profit seeking adventures and sharing in the loot and not about governance, corresponding to Jean-François Bayart’s idea of African states that are governed by the “politics of the belly”. This could explain why the incumbents would want change the constitution as many times as they want to stay in power indefinitely. Did Paul Biya not say he was the best pupil of Mitterrand? Those who do not want to collaborate in this game of international racketeering and thievery like Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Kaddafi of Libya are given bad names and vilified in the media. Due to the neo-colonial nature of African politics, which is controlled from the shadows by an invisible hand, the situation in Cameroon, come 2011, is not only promising to be volatile but is also very pre-occupying. At least we can see the invisible hand of France behind the caucus which has come to be known as the Generation 2011, known for short as the G11, and propped up from within the ruling circle to fight Biya if he dares seek another term of office. They have accumulated enough wealth that can sponsor war in Cameron for over a quarter of a century. We can also see that Paul Biya himself is equally supported by France and that embezzlement has been a game plan to enrich the elite and to impoverish the masses in such a way that they can easily accept to go to war with the blind hope that it will reverse their condition. Both camps are well armed and in the event of war impoverished and innocent Cameroonian souls will be dying while France and the so-called “International Community” will be pretentiously talking about peace, fanning the flames, and selling arms to both sides, which is why no opposition political party or civil society organisation should ever sent its militants in the streets as a form of protest for any reason whatsoever. There is a tendency to provoke Cameroonians to go to war, a senseless war, and the events that are leading up to 2011 provide good indicators, especially that the regime in place has a highly motivated and well equipped military force (the police, the gendarmerie, soldiers, etc,) who are ready, at a command, to shoot and kill anybody who dares to take the talk of freedom to the streets. Governor Faï Yengo Francis, by banning all public demonstrations against the revision of the constitution to allow president Paul Biya to seek another term of office, has already sent signals from Douala of what awaits Cameroonians should they dare to choose the physical confrontation option by taking to the streets. Life is too precious to be lost in this way. Africa has lost enough of her children in neo-colonial politics in the Great Lakes, in Cote d’Ivoire, in Kenya (it is surprising that Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga could still afford to allow themselves to be used by the USA and Britain to transform Kenya into an inferno of carnage), etc. Let Cameroonians not make the same mistake and plunge themselves into the same abyss. The struggle must be fought and won only on the intellectual plane.
The Revision of the Constitution Gimmicks and the State in Cameroon As a legal-rational entity; an entity which is held together by pieces of manipulative legislation coupled with forces of coercion, Cameroon presents itself as a classical example of an ad hoc state; a state that is governed by way of contingency political arrangements. And as a country that sprang into existence from the activities of foreigners, who came in during the last quarter of the 19th century to enslave the people on their own soil and to rob them of their material wealth in which Cameroonians have come to be participating in the process only as passive spectators, with no powers to decide on issues of great importance affecting their political destiny, and as a way of maintaining Cameroon as a subjugated territory, one of the legal instruments through which the neo-colonial state has consistently maintained dominion over unsuspecting people has been the constitution. The history of the constitution in Cameroon reveals that the draft of what was to become the constitution of Cameroon was, ironically, submitted to the French parliament in 1946 and was, as would have been expected, rejected on the grounds that it tended to grant more autonomy to Cameroon. It was revised that very year. Based on the provisions of the revised constitution fresh elections were conducted on June 1946 for the election of a Cameroon deputy into the French parliament, which was a way of inculcating a false sense of French citizenship in Cameroonians; to make Cameroonians think that they were part of the “Great France”; the French dream. Consequently, Douala Manga Bell, first elected on October 1945 as the first Cameroonian deputy into the French parliament, barely a year ago, was re-elected in addition to Dr. Louis-Paul Aujoulat, a Frenchman, all of whom were sitting in the French parliament claiming to be representing Cameroon. Since then the constitution has been a legal instrument through which Cameroonians are manipulated to legitimise the project of domination. In 1951 the so-called constitution was revised to enable the number of deputies to be elected into the French parliament to be raised to three to represent the Douala constituency, the Yaoundé constituency, and the Northern constituency. This paved the way for the 1956 election which enabled Jules Ninine to go to the French parliament to represent the Northern constituency while André-Marie Mbida went to represent the Yaoundé constituency with Louis-Paul Aujoulat still hanging around as a Cameroon’s deputy to the French parliament. In October 1958 the Cameroun Legislative Assembly voted a resolution for the amendment of the constitution to permit the granting of what was called an internal self-government, which excluded defence, monetary and foreign exchange policy, and foreign affairs still to be controlled by France. That brought Councillor Ahidjo, who was instead opposed to the nationalist idea, to prominence as East Cameroon’s second Prime Minister appointed by French Governor to Cameroon Jean Remadier in February 1958 to replace Mbida who had become anti-France, who was himself appointed by French High Commissioner Pierre Messmer on May 9th 1957 as East Cameroon’s first Prime Minister. When French Cameroun became independent on January 1, 1960 with Ahmadou Ahidjo as Prime Minister, a referendum was conducted on February 21 of that year to adopt the first Cameroon constitution which, for the first time, carried the designation La Republic du Cameroun. The results of that referendum stood at 797.498 yes votes with 531.075 no votes. By that constitution, with provisions for the election of the President of the Republic by the then 100 deputies in the Assembly, general councillors and municipal councillors, East Cameroon became a Republic. And on June 5th, 1960 Ahmadou Ahidjo was so elected as the first President of La Republic du Cameroun. In 1961 Ahmadou Ahidjo shoved aside the Fumban accord, which laid down the modalities for the functioning of the federal structures, and revised the constitution to make provisions for the post of Vice President which he gave to J. N. Foncha, who was then Prime Minister of Southern Cameroons, as a way of co-opting Southern Cameroons into the French political arrangements, in line with earlier negotiations between France and Great Britain for the ceding of the territory to the former by the latter. The constitution of the United Republic of Cameroon, which was promulgated in 1972, was to be revised only three years afterwards in 1975 scrapping the post of Vice President and making the president of the National Assembly the constitutional successor to the President of the Republic in case of a vacancy. Between 1972 and 1996 the constitution has been revised nine times. In February 1975, during the CNU Congress of “maturity” in Douala, President Ahmadou Ahidjo, as a strategy to circumvent S. T Muna, an Anglophone, who was then president of the National Assembly, announced the creation of the post of Prime Minister, which prompted the revision of the constitution on May 9, 1975 creating the post of Prime Minister. On June 30th of that year Paul Biya was appointed Prime Minister. It should be recalled that Paul Biya, upon his return to Cameroon in 1962, after his studies in France, came with a special recommendation letter from Louis-Paul Aujoulat to Ahidjo to groom him as successor. On June 29th, 1979 the constitution was revised to make Paul Biya Prime Minister with rights to succession. In 1981 the constitution was revised granting retirement benefits to the President of the Republic promulgated into force by Presidential Decree of 10 September 1981. In 1983 the constitution was revised twice. The first revision was to permit the President of the Republic to organise an anticipated election and the second revision was to increase the number of parliamentarians from 120 to 150. In 1984 the constitution again was revised twice. The first revision was to change the name of the country from the United Republic of Cameroon to “The Republic of Cameroon”, while the second revision of that same year scrapped the post of PM and made the president of the National Assembly to assume interim succession in case of a vacancy for a limited period during which an election will be organised. In 1988 the constitution also underwent two revisions. The first revision was to increase the number of parliamentarians from 150 to 180, and the second was to permit President Biya to again organised an anticipated elections which he did an obtained a land slide victory. In preparation for the multi-party presidential election of 1992 Paul Biya, in 1991, with a comfortable majority of parliamentarians, asked for another revision of the constitution which re-established the post of PM with no rights to succession, imposed on him by the World Bank/IMF. Since President Biya has been more committed to the prolongation of his stay in power, the institutional reforms that were proposed by the Tripartite Conference of 1991 were shoved aside in favour of the revision of the constitution. And in 1996 the constitution was revised increasing the presidential term of office from five to seven years. As early as 2003 Françoise Foning and Gregoire Owona during a CPDM party meeting at the Congress Hall in Bonanjo Douala, like Delphine Tsanga in 1975, “pleaded” with President Biya to start thinking of presenting his candidature for the 2011 presidential election. In the course of last year speculations rented the air to that effect but Biya stayed mute until December 31, when he broke the silence and told Cameroonians, as a New Year message, that he was not insensitive to the call. From the look of things, it would appear it is President Biya himself who instigates such “calls”. For example, Jean Nkuete, the Vice PM in charge of Agriculture recently assembled all the parliamentarians from the West Province in Yaoundé in a meeting during which he told them that President Biya has ask him to solicit their support in his project for the revision of the constitution to enable him seek another seven-year term of office. If the president’s stay in power does not affect citizens, i.e., if in spite of that citizens could still go about their normal affairs unperturbed, that would not be a big issue. But the intriguing thing, as history has shown is that the revision of the constitution is rather used as a smoke screen to hold the country hostage by preventing the people from shaking off the heavy darkness in which they were plunged ever since the white man set foot on this soil. To be sure, if the white man’s money and the white man’s guns were not here such a prolonged constitutional hold-up will not happen. Those are the mitigating factors which render Cameroonians helpless in the face persistent official gansterism.

* Nfamewih Aseh is a political sociologist/social science researcher and the author of the book Political Philosophies and Nation-Building in Cameroon: Grounds for the Second National Liberation Struggle (2006) in which he has analysed the political history of Cameroon from colonial times till date from a social scientific perspective.

Hypertension: A Silent killer Disease !

There Is Need For Regular Medical Check-ups

By Christopher Ambe Shu

James is a friend. He recently had sore throat and went to the hospital to consult and was warned to watch his lifestyle after the doctor measured his blood pressure and it read 185/100. “Your blood pressure is not good. It’s high,” the friend recalled what the doctor said. “You must pay greater attention to your health now.” The doctor then prescribed hypertension drugs for him, asked him to come in two weeks for check-up. The friend said he was not only stunned by the doctor’s diagnosis, but became worried because all along he considered himself young to suffer from hypertension. The friend, who is 30 years old, thought such a disease was for people above 50 years old. Many people of different age groups are at risk. In fact, almost everybody!
You too may be hypertensive, and because of your failure to do regular medical check-up, you are living in ignorance, just to discover one day that you are in a hospital bed. And upon finding out what brought you there, you may be told that you collapsed from high blood complications like stroke, and cardiac ailment.
Hypertension means very high blood pressure. It is generally defined as a level exceeding 140/90mm Hg that has been confirmed by health professionals on multiple occasions. High blood pressure means that there is tension in the arteries, the vessels carrying blood from the pumping heart to the rest of your body tissues and organs.
Health professionals say the systolic blood pressure (top number) represents the pressure in the arteries as the heart contracts, pumping blood into the circulation. The diastolic pressure (bottom number) stands for the pressure in the arteries as the heart relaxes after contraction. According to one medical source, “An elevation of the systolic and or diastolic blood pressure increases the risk of developing heart (cardiac) disease, kidney (renal) disease, hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis), eye damage, and stroke (brain damage)”. Hypertension complications are caused by chronic high blood pressure. This therefore suggests that the earlier an individual is diagnosed with high blood pressure, the better. Early diagnosis is vital so that efforts can be quickly made to normalize the blood pressure and, thereby prevent the complications.
But what causes essential hypertension? Medical researchers are yet to find the cause of essential hypertension. However, genetic factors are believed to contribute to the development of essential hypertension. Research holds that in individuals who have one or two parents with hypertension, high blood pressure is twice as common as in the general population. In the US, for example, the incidence of high blood pressure is said to be greater among blacks than among whites or Asians.
Although the cause of essential hypertension is not known, the cause of secondary hypertension can be detected thorough medical check-up. Secondary hypertension means it’s caused by a specific disorder of particular organ or blood vessel, such as your kidney or adrenal gland. Hypertension caused by diseases of the kidney, is called renal hypertension.
Generally, factors that contribute to high blood pressure include: emotional tension and stress, lack of physical exercise, overuse of salt, heavy consumption of alcohol, obesity and even aging. But why is hypertension described as a silent killer?
Hypertension is described as the silent killer, because, according to one health expert Dr Park Chan-joo, “It makes slow progress without any severe symptoms and eventually brings other serious diseases such as sclerosis of the arteries, stroke…heart failure. That is why it has to be treated or managed in the early stage for preventing any possible fatal complications in the future.” Chan-joo notes that, if you sometimes have slight symptoms in the morning, such as a headache, dizziness, or stiff neck, you might have high blood pressure. But he adds: “The fact that you have those symptoms does not always mean that you have hypertension. However, if your family members in a direct line have the disease, you should be more cautious as the potential for the disease is not only related to genetics, but to circumstances such as diet (preferring salty foods and meats) and obesity.
As you finish reading this piece, why not rush for your blood pressure measurement, and then follow your doctor’s advice. Remember that high blood pressure is a silent killer
(This article was first published by same author in The Herald Newspaper,Cameroon)

Cry The Beloved Mount Cameroon

By Mofor Samuel
Mount Cameroon(pictured), the highest mountain in Sub-Saharan West Africa, is an active volcano and located in the town of Buea, Southwest of Cameroon.
Many residents would agree with this view that in the past few years, this mountain town has witnessed an increase in temperature during the dry season. Many feel that the unusual weather patterns are evidence of global warming. Yet many others charge that man has unwittingly tampered with the natural process. It is reasonable to expect people to behave with respect for the environment. But getting people to make the needed change is not so easy.
The issue of bushfires on the mountain should be of great concern to both the residents and government authorities, not leaving out forest conservation organizations. In fact, in the months of January and February the whole mountain is as if there is eruption as bushfires spread across it.
Majesty, stability, and strength come to mind when one thinks of Mt Cameroon. Some find it hard to believe that the mountain could be in danger. The reality is that the mountain is under threat.
Mt Cameroon serves as water storage, wildlife habitats and biodiversity- it is a sanctuary for flora and fauna that disappeared in the lowlands. Gorillas, chimpanzees, drills and elephants and a number of plant species threatened with extinction depend on the mountain habitats. The mountain contains biodiversity from which everyone benefits. Since the mountain has protected areas because of conserved natural beauty, it is a favourite destination for tourists. The mountain communities benefit from the influx of tourists, though uncontrolled tourism can threaten the fragile ecosystem. And the traditional knowledge accumulated by mountain inhabitants may prove invaluable for protecting flora and fauna that we all depend on.
Conservationists cite several specific problems that undermine the bulwark of Mt Cameroon’s ecosystem. All are serious and are getting worse. Some of the problems threatening the mountain are development projects: The construction of roads causes erosion on the steep slopes and the roads provide access for loggers, who do more damage. Subsistence farming and poaching by the local population destroy the fragile vegetation. Population pressure is driving people to farm on unproductive areas. The tendency of bush fallowing, bushfires “the Ankara” i.e. the burning of grass covered with soil. This practice destroys the soil’s fertility. This type of farming brings marginal benefits. Another activity that is of great threat to the environment of this mountain area is poaching. Apes like gorillas, chimpanzees, drills, and elephants are now endangered species since they are threatened with extinction as a result of poaching. Bushfires ignited by villagers who want to harvest honey often leave several hectares of land burnt with all that this may have as consequences.
The consequences of man’s assault on the mountain’s ecosystem are already being felt. Floods, landslides, deforestation and even poverty and hunger are just some consequences of environmental devastation on the mountain. Less obvious is the role increase in temperature can play in encouraging the spread of infectious diseases. Mosquito-borne disorders are projected to become increasingly prevalent, since mosquitoes proliferate faster and bite more when the air becomes warmer. Buea area is heating up and mosquitoes are already expanding into this formerly “forbidden territory”, bringing illnesses with them. Finally, there are the effects of floods and drought, which can result in polluted water supplies.
No doubt, the Cameroon Government has begun to act. National parks have been created to safeguard the most spectacular scenery and most endangered species.
Forests are replanted and logging banned in some areas. Even protected areas of Mt Cameroon suffer from environmental pressure. Improving the livelihoods of mountain people, building their capacity to protect the mountain’s ecosystem and to use mountain resources more wisely can go along way to reduce the devastation on the mountain environment.

Cameroonian Researcher Confirms New Drug Cures AIDS

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By Christopher Ambe Shu
Professor emeritus and renowned Cameroonian medical researcher, Victor Anomah Ngu(pictured) has confirmed that, the anti-HIV vaccine, VANHIVAX, he produced several years ago has both preventive and curative effects. Anomah Ngu,82, confirmed to a conference of scientists on January 22 in Yaoundé-Cameroon that, 18 HIV carriers who took his vaccine later tested HIV negative and are doing well. The researcher and one-time Cameroon’s Minister of Public Health, who despite his ground-breaking discovery has not received any significant aid from the Cameroonian Government and funding organizations, strongly appealed for international financial assisitance, to carry out large-scale clinical trials of Vanhivax in order to convince the global community that his drug is the cheapest means of combating the HIV pandemic.
Anomah Ngu, who is a retired professor of surgery, had won ,many years back ,internatinal acclaim on his cancer research

Many critical minds continue to wonder why the Government of Cameroon is kind of reluctant to give Professor emeritus Anomah Ngu the huge support he needs to elaborate on his research when Cameroon has a high prevalence of HIV and considers the fight against the pandemic a priority concern.

The overall HIV prevalence among resident adult Cameroonians aged 15-49 years is about 5.5%.The Prevalence is higher in Women (6.8%) than in men (4.1%).

Among measures taken by the Government of Cameroon to combat the pandemic in the country is the free-treatment of HIV/AIDS patients with Anti-Retroviral Drugs (ARV)

Ensuring Sustainable Consumption To Reduce Waste Deposits

By Mofor Samuel

It is possible to consume while protecting the environment. The manner in which we handle our needs, waste, domestic and recyclable products can create a balance with environment. This can be done by putting into place a sustainable and environment-friendly strategy.
As consumers, every purchase we make has a direct effect on the quantity of waste that we generate. Choosing what we consume must be done in such a way that it contributes to the reduction of waste and conservation of resources. Following are some ways of making environment- friendly purchases. They are in line with these three principles: reduction of waste from the source, recycling and reusing of others.

Adequate assessment of your needs
A simple arithmetic calculation will help you get rid of unwanted construction materials or residues of dangerous products like paint or pesticide. Before buying a new model of sewing machine, cooker, radio-cassette, think of how to get rid of the old one. Buying your dream apparatus can be useless when you take into consideration the amount of financial sacrifice you must make to enable it function. Always think of where to place the mirror that you want to buy from the auction sale before buying one.

Choose products requiring little or no packaging
The different materials used for packaging items for home consumption represent a great chunk of household waste in towns. We can reduce this kind of waste by buying in bulk and doing the packaging ourselves; by buying family size of products- fruit juice, toothpaste etc, rather than individual size, and by buying products sold in concentrated form.

Use green leaves for packaging
The biloria leaf used in wrapping cassava paste- miondor and bobolo, gives them a good presentation, nice taste and aroma and a colour that is very much appreciated by consumers. Pawpaw leaf used for packaging meat makes it tender, thanks to the enzyme papaine that the leaf secretes. The leaves of banana and plantain tress, colocasia and sugar cane are also used in rural areas to protect, cook or transport food- kwacoco, achu, khoki etc. Nowadays, kitchens in town are filled with waterproof papers (sachets) and aluminum foil that are not biodegradable. The abovementioned example, though encouraged in Cameroon, can be adapted in other parts of the tropical world and even beyond.

Avoid products that are disposed of after use

But for hygienic and medical products used only once, it is necessary to use sustainable products – cutlery, plates, diapers, napkins, towels and cotton hand towels to their substitutes that are disposed of immediately after use. Use rechargeable lighters, interchangeable or electric shaving stick, and net bag as market bag, containers that can be refilled such as bottles of alcoholic and soft drinks.

Look for substitutes to dangerous domestic products

To clean your pots, use home made vim fabricated from egg shells and wood ash. Make your liquid gum from fish bones, skeleton and heads of fish. Protect your garden with insecticide made from tobacco and pepper. Use calculators and toys which function with electricity, if you are connected; solar batteries that are rechargeable, than those that are disposed of after use. Look for information around you in specialized newspapers on how to avoid toxic chemical products to the environment.

Reusable products
Instead of dumping objects in the dustbin, reuse them in different forms. Use glass jars or plastic bags to preserve and refrigerate food items or to arrange objects.

Learn to use your hands (hand work)
Empty old batteries, patch leaking saucepans, cut out tyres to make flower pots etc. make needlework bags, purses, and stuff your poff with cutting from materials. Work with children to make toys.

Share with the others
He who is not in need, at one moment helps that in need. Things that we want to dispose of can be useful to others. You can give your old dresses to orphanages, prisons or leprosy centres, for example. Give your old newspapers to public libraries, waiting rooms in offices, to traders/shopkeepers in your quarter. Giving is much more acceptable than throwing.

No reason for wastage
It is not always necessary to buy brand new items. It is often possible to rent or buy items that are already in use. Do not crowd yourself with a camera, video camera that you will never use, better go for the service of a professional in the domain. For second- hand goods, visit markets or sales points where multiple items are being auctioned due to breakage or exchange items with friends or family members.

Repair faulty objects
Where possible, get your electrical appliances and furniture repaired. Stitch your dress, visit shoe menders, go to technicians who can help recover your damaged appliance and above all know how to use your imaginative resources.

Billions of People Without Toilet Facilities

A Global Sanitation Worry

By Mofor Samuel

Since time immemorial man had very few patent problems. He was conscious of his need for food. Nature herself implanted in him the desire for food as one of the involuntary processes and urges which combine to ensure his survival.
To satisfy his food needs, he engaged in hunting animals, picking wild fruits and edible roots. To accomplish these ends, he was obliged to lead a migratory, hazardous and unstable life.
As one millennium after another passed by, man moved from the primitive existence of hunting animals, picking fruits, and digging roots into other revolutionary eras-farming, pastoralism, iron working, house building for shelter, discovery of fire and its use for cooking and warmth, and stable economic life. In these new eras, he moved from a nuclear family to clan life living in the same village or town. With these phenomena, a new set of latent and patent problems emerged, complicated by unsolved problems of thousand years ago, such as mental and moral underdevelopment, disease and lack of personal hygiene and environmental sanitation.
Presently, some 2.6 billion people worldwide, that is about half of the world’s population do not have latrines or toilet facilities. In most parts of India and the developing world, residents can be seen squatting in the open to empty their bowels. The oceans, rivers, streams, swamps, lakes, water holes, nearby bushes, open fields, markets, motor parks, school premises, footpaths, roadsides, gutters, backyards, drainage patterns and culverts, farmland, pig sty etc serve as points for defaecation.
Human faeces can be highly infective material and when wrongly disposed of, poses a serious public health threat to the population as the soil is contaminated by indiscriminate defaecation. This condition leads to such diseases as dysentery, typhoid fever; hookworm and other helminth (worm) infections. As a student on field study, this commentator had the experience of discovering that most of the houses constructed along the banks of the Koke stream in Muea, Buea subdivision, had no toilets or latrines. Another interesting discovery was that most of the landlords disappeared or incited their dogs to chase away any stranger when news went round that sanitary inspectors were to visit the vicinity. Today, certain persons do not eat vegetable cultivated in Muyuka or even drink water there because of the fear of the cholera epidemic that severely hit that town some years back.
Are you one of those who do not have access to toilet facilities, or is your council area lacking in this aspect, then there is every reason to rethink your strategy as you are exposing yourself and others to infections related to indiscriminate disposal of human faeces. The simple truth is that excreta is a waste that the body no longer needs, that is why it is disposing it in its present form. How can the body refuse something because it does not need it only for the same thing to be abandoned where it poses a serious threat to the body?
Clearly, much need to be done in the field of environmental sanitation and the training of people to publicly and personally adopt the habit of cleanliness .The standard of sanitation to be aimed at should be one that it is possible to attain in the circumstances and towards which every member of the community can be expected to strive. It is a common mistake to set too high s standard to begin with.
Design should be based on sound principles but kept simple -so that construction can be effected with the minimum of trained staff, making maximum use of locally obtained local materials. Any latrine system involves a certain amount of maintenance, but the less maintenance a system calls for the more likely is it to prove successful. Furthermore, no matter how cheap and simple a latrine system may be, it will not succeed in its objective unless there is cooperation on the part of the people, and this is most likely to succeed if they are made to understand the reason for it. It is important to remember that the type of latrine must be one which is acceptable to the people and does not offend their religious or social customs. The number of latrines provided must be adequate for the needs of the community; for they will not function satisfactorily if they are expected to serve many more people than they were designed for.
Finally, no handling of infected material is involved in a latrine in which faeces are voided directly into an excavation in the ground, and there are two forms of latrine of this type which have proved their worth over a long period of time; these are the deep trench or pit latrine and the bored-hole latrine. Neither type is expensive nor difficult to construct .And, of course, little maintenance is required

Limbe II Council Budgets FCFA One Billion For 2008

By Christopher Ambe Shu

The newly created Limbe II Council of the Southwest of Cameroon, will work with FCFA one billion as its budget this year, a budget that has been described as ambitious. But Limbe II Mayor ,Andrew Motanga Monjimba, in his speech at the second ordinary and budgetary session ,which took place in the Limbola Community Hall last December 27 said, “At first sight the budget looks unrealistic but operating as an ordinary council and with hard work this budget is very realistic”. The 25 councilors of the municipality proudly adopted the one billion as their 2008 budget, of which 463 million (43.6%) is allotted for investment and 537 million (56.4%) for recurrent expenditure.
The joint council session was presided at by Bernard Okalia,SDO for Fako.He reminded the council of its mission and stressed need for meaningful development and poverty-alleviation projects.
Limbe II Council (carved out from former Limbe Urban Council) is made up of villages such as Botaland, Wovia,Mokunda,Ngeme,Mokundange and Batoke. After the July 22, 2007 municipal elections, the council took off on 1 August 2007 with the installation of the mayor and his deputies. The operation of the council was made possible thanks to a financial package of FCFA 30 million received from the State as subvention and an extra FCFA 9 million from the mother council .Limbe 2 Council has an estimated population of 40,000 people and is where SONARA and the Limbe Shipyard project are found.

According to Mayor Andrew Motanga, his top priority projects to execute will be the supply of pipe-borne water in some villages of the municipality and the building of the council office. ‘We have a serious problem of water here. There are villages like Mokunda that have never seen a drop of water unless it rains.Mokunda people trek some four kilometers to Karata just to fetch water. It is a challenge for me to see pipe-borne water flow in Mokunda,” he told The Recorder. “Another priority will be to build a befitting council building to house council offices. We are still renting and spend between 400 to 500 thousands per month for rents”
The councilors, in a deliberation, empowered the mayor to seek loans from FEICOM and other international donors to quickly realize the Mokunda and Mokundange water projects and the building of council offices. The mayor was also authorized by the councilors to register the council with the Union of Cities and Councils of Cameroon and other similar but international unions. Deliberations were also adopted pertaining to revenue generation, improvement of health and sanitation, roads and education.
The councilors thanked President Biya for creating the council with a corresponding subdivision, and pledged their unalloyed support to his program of Greater Achievements.
Limbe II Council is blessed with Eloundou Marie-Therese, a development agent and former director of Local Government Training Centre (CEFAM-Buea), as one of its councilor. According to the mayor, “we count a lot on Mrs Eloundou’s experience as former director of CEFAM.She is a principal civil administrator to trust”
Mayor Motanga, in chat with The Recorder, called on citizens of his council to be patient, noting that their development problems would be tackled step by step

The Curative Power of Laughter

By Christopher Ambe shu

If you don't laugh much, you may be reducing your chances of living longer

Jones is your good friend. You have not seen him for years. You shared a lot of secrets and happy moments together as undergraduate students. He got a scholarship and went to further his studies abroad. You weren't so lucky and remained at home. You are haunted now by memories of the good moments you shared together. Distance is a barrier to your being together, physically. Then all of a sudden, Jones, back from abroad, pays you a surprise visit. How would you react to such a visit?
There is no doubt that at first sight of each other, the atmosphere would be filled with warmth and shouts of joy and ecstasy. You would, most probably, embrace and hug each other. Laughter by both of you would be very audible. No surprise that passersby or onlookers who find you in such a happy mood will join in the laughing. Laughter is sometimes like a contagious disease! Many of us will laugh when we see someone else laughing. Indeed, it is nice to laugh and laugh well.You laugh when you are happy at something or with someone. If you are one of those who hardly laughs, you are missing out on a lot. In fact, you are not doing your health any good. It has been medically proven that laughter is the "best" medicine to all kinds of diseases.
Writing on the subject, Valerie Brett noted: "Laughter is good for you. It is a very powerful force that positively affects the whole body … Laughter stimulates the brain, the nervous system, the respiratory system, the hormonal system and the muscular system. Studies show that it lowers blood pressure, lightens depression, increases muscle flexion, can reduce allergy symptoms, strengthens the immune system and reduces stress."
In his book, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, Sigmund Freud describes laughter as the body's way of safely releasing anxiety, aggression, fear and anger.
Health professionals admit that laughing decreases stress hormones, including adrenaline, and the growth hormone, allowing them to return to normal levels. Stress hormones constrict blood vessels causing high blood pressure and heart problems. So when stress hormones are reduced, the body effectively fights against diseases.
"Laughter is your body's built-in stress releaser. When you laugh, even chuckle, your entire body is working to help improve your health and well-being. Another way to reduce stress and improve your overall health is to exercise," wrote Valerie Brett. "A good, hearty laugh is equivalent to an 'internal jogging.' Laughing gives the diaphragm, abdominal, intercostal, respiratory accessory, and facial muscles a complete workout … Laughter not only provides stress release and exercise, but reduces pain as well. Laughing triggers the release of endorphins, which are the body's natural painkillers, and provides a temporary distraction from pain"
An article in Reader's Digest on the heath benefits of laughter notes that scientific evidence has shown that laughter helps people breathe easier and massages the heart and other vital organs. Laughter, the author remarks, may also increase the release of disease-fighting cells in the immune system. Like exercise, laughter quickens the pulse and stimulates the cardiovascular system. "A positive outlook also guards against illness and may even increase longevity," according to the article.
In a piece on the importance of laughter, author Karen Elizabeth Angus, remarks, "People who laugh are pleasant to be with; pull a long face all day and you will soon notice that others try to keep out of your way. Laughing speaks of humor and the importance of laughter can never be underestimated. It is a part of life.
"On the scientific front, laughter makes for good health. When a person laughs, chemicals named endorphins are released. These are the same chemicals triggered in response to sexual stimulation. They make a person feel good, relieving stress and indirectly reducing one's risks of suffering a heart attack and other health problems."
When you laugh you help relax facial muscles that can become very tense after long hours of work. Plenty of laughter, Angus notes, creates "laugh lines" in a person's face, giving the person a kindly look, as opposed to wrinkles and creases caused by stress, unhappiness and hardship, which age a person and give him or her a hard and angry appearance: "Laughter is uplifting. It enriches a relationship by taking it to a deeper level where there is understanding and a mutual letting go of a person's inhibitions and reservations."
Valerie Brett has this recommendation for you: If stress is taking over your life, if you are feeling unhealthy or you just want some relief … LAUGH! Watch a funny movie, hang around a funny friend, read the comic strips in the newspaper or read one of those funny forwards that your friends e-mail to you.
"If all else fails and you can't seem to get a laugh anywhere … fake it!" Brett advises. "Pretend to laugh … out loud. It is the action of laughter, not the mood that your body reacts to, so you can get all of the benefits of laughter even if you're not in the mood to laugh. The more you laugh the better. The harder you laugh the better. So let it out … your health could depend on it."
Simply put, the more you laugh the more you increase your chances to live longer. The Bible strongly recommends a positive outlook: "Being cheerful keeps you healthy. It is slow death to be gloomy all the time" (Proverbs 17:22). Laugh, laugh and laugh! It feels good.
(First published by OhmyNews Internatinal in July,2007 )

Tiko Council Hails Mayor’s Development Drive, budgets FCFA 515 Million for 2008

Tiko Councillors at Group Work during the session

By Christopher Ambe Shu

Residents of the coastal town of Tiko(in Cameroon), the local administration and visitors are agreed that, Richard Tita Fombon, alias American Boy who has been Mayor of Tiko, just for several months, is matching words with action and will go far with the realization of projects should he continue to enjoy the support and collaboration of those who matter.

Mr Tita Fombon had promised to transform Tiko for the better if elected Mayor and the Tiko Population, believing him ,elected him. Even when he was installed as Mayor he reiterated that promise.
During the Second Ordinary Session of Tiko Council, last December, for the examination and adoption of the Council’s 2008 budget and the examination of the administrative accounts for 2006, the councilors-just as the general public has been doing, praised the mayor for what he had done in just few months in office to improve the quality of life in the municipality. They exhorted him not to relent in his efforts to help develop and modernize Tiko.
The session adopted as the council 2008 budget- in revenue and expenditure, FCFA 515 million, 5.85% higher compared to the 2007 budget which stood at FCFA 486 million FCFA.Of the FCFA 515 million, 284 million is for investment budget and 231 million is recurrent expenditure.
But what has the mayor achieved to draw accolade from the public?
The achievements of Mayor Tita Fombon in the few months include: the rehabilitation of some major roads and the Tiko municipal stadium; the renovation of council offices for conducive working environment; the control of civil status documents by use of the dry seal; the daily cleaning of streets of Mutengene,Likomba and Tiko and the speedy evacuation of refuse in partnership with HIGH-TECH.;the maintenance of street lights in Mutengene;the transformation of speed brakes to be more adaptable; the commencement of the settlement of some crucial debts; discussion with CNPS to give staff problems a final solution. 
 The Mayor prepared the ground work for community –based project proposals and ensured the reduction of school accident rates by assigning workers to assist children crossing the road s during early rush hours. He also reorganized council services to ensure checks and balances among other projects.
According to the mayor ,in his welcome at the session, “For the 2008 financial year, we intend to maximize our local revenue collection following new strategy put in place to handle recoveries from the motor park fees, parking taxes, building permits and the reinforcement of hygiene and sanitation. We hope to increase our revenue from the exploitation of council property; indirect council taxes and fiscal revenue to enable us attain our target”
He stressed that the council would continue to strengthen partnership with foreign cities. “We have had encouraging and favorable responses from the city councils of Dallas and Oklahoma in the US, Manchester in Great Britain and other cities in Europe and America. I have been receiving favorable messages from our brothers and sisters in the United States for financial and material assistance in realizing some of our development initiatives.

“The Council’s intention is to twin with these foreign councils which will serve as the bridge towards the development of the Tiko municipality”

Projects Earmarked for 2008

Mr. Tita Fombon announced projects for 2008, which include: the computerization of all council services, construction of stores in Mutengene Motor park and markets, the follow-up and acquisition of vehicles for hygiene and sanitation service and the general administration, the follow-up of land titles for all council lands and follow-up on the construction of a grandstand at the municipal stadium; the construction of a modern council hall; the introduction of a mutual health scheme for workers; the naming of streets; the training of councilors and council staff; the maintenance of road within the municipality; the provision of electricity to villages such Modoni and Moquo

Mayor’s Vision

“My vision is for Tiko to become clean, attractive and welcoming, giving equal opportunity for all its sons and daughters. Our population should be proud to stay and live in Tiko.we have to do all to achieve these objectives which of course can only be attained with your collaboration,” the mayor told councilors.
The SDO for Fako, Bernard Okalia Bilai, who addressed the session, stressed the importance of the Municipality and called on the councilors to be selfless in serving the public. He advised them to work in a spirit of maturity, harmony and unity so to achieve their development goals with ease.

Of the 41 councilors of the Tiko, two are former mayors of the town viz;Rosine Toto and Chief Sone Dipoko.Both were very active contributing ideas on how to better develop Tiko. Chief Dipoko, a noted critic, admitted that Mr Fombon had proved that he is development –conscious, but warned that the mayor would only receive their total support if he would work according to Plan.
“The mayor has done a lot in four months…he has done much more than expected. I am one of those who would always give him the needed support”, Chief Kombe Richard of Modoni and Councilor told reporters after the session.

RUMPI Set For Concrete Project Execution This year

By Christopher Ambe Shu
The RUMPI Area Participatory Development Project( fondly called Rumpi project) ,which is intended to alleviate poverty in the Southwest province of Camroon and which was launched in 2004, has already lived half of its six-year lifespan with just little achievements to show. But concrete project realization will only begin this year, The RECORDER has learnt.The 5th Project Steering Committee of RUMPI meeting that held recently in Buea, adopted the project’s 2008 work plan, and budget which stands at 6.5 billionFCFA .The entire Rumpi project is estimated to consume some 17 billion FCFA,but the ADB (bank) ,its major financier, had actually disbursed only 174 million, before suspending further disbursements in May 2006 to express its dissatisfaction with the non-compliance to the bank’s conditions.

With Besong Ntui Ogork (pictured)as new project coordinator things have started working out well as the bank recently lifted the suspension on the disbursement of funds .But Mr.Ogork would not take the credit alone. He also thanked the ministries for Agriculture and Economy for working hard to satisfy the bank’s conditions which occasioned the lifting of the suspension.Mr. Ogork told the press that in addition to the 174 million FCFA disbursed by the ADB “if one were to go only by contracts signed so far, we can say the bank is already committed to over one billion francs”. The project coordinator said in 2008 RUMPI will effectively take off with the execution of concrete projects such as road and market construction and water projects.RUMPI would also boost agricultural production especially as the Steering Committee recommended at its 5th meeting, Mr Ogork said.
The mid-term review for RUMPI took place last November. “Based on the orientations given by the mid-term review, that would be the future of the RUMPI project”, he remarked. “We hope God will give us the wisdom and strength to work according to bank regulations, with the Cameroon Government always supporting us”

Eko’o Akouafane Jean Claude, Secretary –General in MINADER Yaoundé, who chaired the 5th RUMPI Steering Committee Meeting, in the conference hall of SOWEDA -Buea, noted that RUMPI “is now at a crucial moment of project execution as it is about to complete the first half of its life span.” He remarked that RUMPI activities in the field are “still few and far between” .Mr Eko’o called for more duty consciousness, emphasizing the importance Government attaches to the project as a developmental tool of the south west province. “It is incumbent on us to ensure that this project achieves its set objectives of effectively contributing to poverty reduction among rural households of the Southwest province, by increasing the income of small holders of the Project area in a sustainable manner.”

He had earlier announced that the suspension measures that were slammed on the Rumpi project by the ADB were now lifted. He warned the project coordinator that the lifting of the sanctions is not an achievement, but rather should be taken as a challenge.Mr Eko’o hoped the project implementation team would take advantage of the resources made available by the Government to effectively achieve project objectives”

Cameroon: British Researchers For Increased Monitoring of Village Projects

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By Christopher Ambe Shu
Cultural and development associations in Cameroon have been called upon to put in place a strong mechanism for the proper monitoring and evaluation of projects they are executing in the villages, so to get a better impact of their activities. They have also been advised to design real strategic plans to ease the achievement of their development objectives.
These recommendations have been made by a team of British researchers who used BANDECA (Bali Nyonga Development and Cultural Association) and MECA ( Manyu Elements Cultural Association) as their case study to dig into the operations of village development associations in Cameroon.
“At the moment, there is no systematic evaluation that is trying to make the work more professional and learning from mistakes and sharing good practice”, research leader, Dr Ben Page(pictured) of the University College of London, said.
The research was carried out in 2005, and had Dr Claire Mercer and Dr Martin Evans as co-researchers.
The research titled Development and the Diaspora; Hometown Associations in Cameroon and Tanzania was sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, a government agency within the UK.
Dr Page presented the research findings to an audience of Buea varsity dons, leaders of cultural associations, and the press recently at Capitol Hotel in Buea. The presentation followed a similar workshop in London last September. Why such a research now?
“The research has been carried out because there is a lot of interest now on how Cameroonians abroad can contribute to the development of their country,”Dr Page told The Recorder. “And, we chose BANDECA and MECA primarily because they have strong groups in the UK and face the same challenges”
The research recommended the formation of larger associations to cover areas that are falling behind in terms of development or have no associations.
It recommended that ways be made easier for those especially Cameroonians abroad to invest in Cameroon
The research found that, there are a lot of individual remittances -people sending money home to the village. But it noted that, the challenge is how to convert those remittances into public good such as water supplies, health facilities etc so that they are useful for everybody in the village. It found that cultural and development associations could be good vehicles for taking money from people over seas and converting into welfare facilities. It also noted that, as it stands now it is really the people inside Cameroon –that is, members of the associations who are doing most of the development work and not those outside the country.
Dr Page told The Recorder that, data collection for the research was quite easy because as he said “people like talking about their hometowns”
The audience, after listening to and commenting on the research findings, hailed the researchers for such a brilliant initiative. They admitted having learnt from the findings. “We must say we have learnt much from your findings and congratulate you on this”, remarked Agbor Meg, president of MOHWA(a Manyu women’s group), on behalf of the participants.

Biyiti bi Essam, the Military and the Media

Human beings always want to be seen to be innovators. When "new" ministers or others come to the stage -however they get there - they always want to look and act different from their predecessors. They make even slight changes in the predecessor’s approach in order to give the impression that they are different. Check the "renouveau communicationnel" of Mr. Fame Ndongo(former Cameroon’s Communications Minister) and the "new deal communicationnel" of Mr. Biyiti bi Essam( present Cameroon’s Communications minister)! In this effort, Mr. Biyiti bi Essam should not forget that truth is universal, and is unchanged by the fact of being known by one, many or none. He should also not forget that the goings-on in the government today deprive any government minister of the platform to preach patriotism to ordinary Cameroonians. Indeed, his recent preaching on his” new" communication policy seems to give muscle to the belief that totalitarian temptation is always embedded in the self-critical society that emerges when liberty trims the confines of Power to create space for self-expression. In such societies, the paths are usually democracy or the rebirth of totalitarianism.He seems to want to drag us down the same path we have treaded before and want to forget!He should know that in republican government, the military is subordinated to civil power. Therefore the first rule of the soldier is unquestioning allegiance to the civil power; providing disciplined service tothe civilian power. In other words, the army is not supposed to dictate policy in a republic. The leading military virtues have always been discipline, courage, loyalty, respect for authority... Mr. Biyiti bi Essamseems to be treating this as a new discovery and drumming into our ears that the army is "le grandmuet" [the corps that never speaks]... therefore nobody should talk about it!
There is no doubt that a good government needs ministers who can fight battles in the media as wellas in other areas. But Mr. Biyiti Bi Essam is leaving us with the impression that he came to office notbecause he persuaded anybody that he could fight the right battles, but because he was a beneficiary of the New Deal negative politics of changing ministers very often to let the national cake benefit as many cronies as possible. The battle he is warming up to fight is the wrong one, and he will lose woefully. His new communication policy may turn out to be his personal apologia for his own role in the great dramas eating into the flesh of Cameroon. He seems to be calling onjournalists to paper-over the cracks; a wrong message when the mood of the country is for change, forrebuilding the foundation. Indeed, he seems to be sending the sorry message that he might be ill-suited for his job!For the general good, debate on public issues should always be uninhibited, robust and wide-open. In such debate, errors are inevitable; they should be protected, not used as an excuse to impose self censorship. It is the people who have empowered the government to act on their behalf; they deserve to retain their sovereignty over government action. Invoking simplistic patriotism to deny them thatsovereignty is obviously not in the interest of the country.The media in every society not only informs the public on what policies its government is pursuing and how those policies are being executed, but also keeps records of what happens in society for later sorting out by historians. Therefore it is the media that provides the vital link between the people, the government and the Army. In a way, the media is the people’s representative in the government and the Army; it is an estate that enters into the checks and balances equation of a society.
Military literature informs us that censorship of media products and controlled access to the battle area are the methods used by armies to maintain operational security. The military has usually controlled battlefield access and publication of media-held information deemed a threat to operationalsecurity. In doing this, armies have the historic responsibility not to lie to the people and to always provide all the information possible, truthfully and as early as possible, in order to short-circuit the media penchant for conjecture in the wake of an information vacuum. Therefore, the handling of the Bakassi murder of 21 of our valiant soldiers was and has remained most unprofessional, and has left the field wide-open to speculation. No one has the right to control the media and what the media appropriately produces about the goings-on in the army, especially in peacetime. It is in the interest of the military to exploit the capabilities of the media in order to beable to use it as a weapon in war. Mutual mistrust has always dominated the relationship between soldiers and journalists in time of war, but this has usually only reinforced their inevitable, mutualaccommodation.The information age is definitely overwhelming every aspect of governance and must impact military-media relationships. Media reports usually raise legitimate questions and concerns, to which the military must provide responses quickly and accurately. Whether Mr. Biyiti bi Essam likes it or not, new technologies have made the media a direct and influential participant and a factor in all conflicts - military and social. The military’s effective communication with the media and the public has become as important as effective use of their weapons in conflicts! The military’s image as "le grand muet" belongs to the past. The military has no choice but to educate the media regarding current military tactics and systems, how the enemy might exploit them for propaganda purposes, the concept of limitation of access with sufficient rationale, etc. The army should also make their elements aware of tactics of dealing with the media. Modernization of our army to cope with millennium changes was supposed to be about all these and more!If I have any good advice for Mr. Biyiti bi Essam it would be to remind him not to be thin-skinned aboutthe media! And he should nurture the military-media relationship, not destroy it!!
By Tazoacha Asonganyi in Yaounde.

Cameroon NGO's Against "Selfish" Country's Constitutional Amendment

CAVOD Statement Against "selfish " Cameroon's Constitutional Amenement at a Press Conference on January 16 in Buea,Cameroon.The statement was presented to journalists of both the public and independent media by CAVOD National Coordinator,Victor Epie Ngome ,in the presence of many members of CAVOD.

Following is the statement:
· In a bid to contribute to the ongoing debate sparked by calls for the amendment of Cameroon’s Constitution;

· Noting that President Biya, in his end-of-year address on December 31, 2007, formally endorsed these calls with particular reference to Article 6(2) which he described as “undemocratic”,

We, members of the Civil Society network known as the Cameroon Alliance of Voluntary Organisations for Development (CAVOD), met in extraordinary session in Bamenda on Saturday January 12, 2007, and after an exhaustive examination of the subject, came out with the following preliminary statement:

1 That the present constitution does indeed warrant revisiting by reason of the following serious shortcomings among others:

a. It gives the head of State sweeping powers including the power to appoint members to elected bodies. For instance it empowers him to appoint 30% of the Senate, to sit with 70% elected members, thus undermining the regulatory power of this body over the functioning of the Executive;
b. It makes no provision for independent candidates for Presidential elections, or for the participation of the Civil Society in policy formulation and implementation, thus making public policy a monopoly of political parties;
c. It lends itself to manipulation, notably with regard to Article 66 which provides for the declaration of assets, but whose text of application makes such declarations a private matter);
d. It leaves the appointment of members of government to the president’s unqualified discretion whereas elsewhere these appointments are made from amongst elected legislators;

2 The above shortcomings have, over the years, informed wide-ranging calls for the present Constitution to be revisited, but the President has ignored them, only to spring into action now because a tiny fragment of his own party seeks the amendment of one article to favour his own ambition.

3 Those calls, it is to be noted, emanated from a small, negligible caucus that is demonstrably unpopular even in its own base and, considering the low voter turnout at the last legislative elections, the nation runs the risk of seeing them validated with the support of less than 30% of the electorate.

4 Allowing this to happen would deny the vast majority of Cameroonians the right to participate in the making of a major decision with far-reaching consequences. It is thus at variance with the government’s avowed commitment to the letter and spirit of international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Fundamental Human Rights in its Article 21(3)

5 The present Constitution is the 1996 revision of the 1972 constitution, and even with the above flaws, basic logic demands its full implementation before another amendment is considered.

6 Even in the event of any such amendment, we deem a review of Article 6(2) unwarranted, especially as applied to the incumbent who has been in power for over a quarter century.

7 Just as the selective implementation of the present Constitution, notably the by-passing of the Constitutional Council, is tantamount to a constitutional Coup d’Etat, its selective amendment to suit the designs of the incumbent would amount to unacceptable tinkering with the fundamental law of the land.

8 The President, by allowing or being party to these violations of the institutions of State of which he is the sworn guarantor, can be deemed to have exposed himself to impeachment.

9 In the face of the current threats to the fundamental instrument of our existence as a State, it behoves the people of Cameroon, in whose hands lie the sovereignty and destiny of the Nation, to make their voices heard through every lawful means.

10 We count on all friends in the international community to throw their full weight behind the restoration of sovereignty to the Cameroonian masses.

Done at Bamenda, January 12, 2008