Cameroon: ASSYOUTH Urges Youth to be Agents of African Unity & Development

By Christopher Ambe Shu
Association of Youth for The Promotion of Peace, Democracy, The Millennium Development Goals and Africa’s Unity (ASSYOUTH) based in Buea-Cameroon last July 25 organised a one-day seminar on the theme "Galvanising Youth Power for the Promotion of Peace and Development in our communities,country and Africa."

The seminar, which brought together youth leaders, graduates and students, took place at the Alliance- Franco Camerounaise conference hall in Buea.It was the first in a series of seminars,forums and activities that ASSYOUTH will organise between July and December.

The seminar came several weeks after ASSYOUTH officials called a press conference and presented the new association to the public.
At the press conference, ASSYOUTH president, Song Stephen Mbangtang, had publicly vowed that the association would mobilise and activate youth especially Cameroonian youth, in the promotion of peace and development in African communities.

Nsang Rosette, Secretary-General of ASSYOUTH, moderated the seminar, whose resource persons included Dr. Canute Ngwa, Head of History Department of University of Buea.
Dr Canute who spoke on "The Role of Youth in the Promotion of Pan-Africanism and Regional Integration," challenged the youth to encourage, in different ways, African unity and love. He argued that if in the past the cry for African unity was not a great success all African youth are now better placed to bring about this much-needed unity.
"Youth now have the mandate to right the wrongs of the older generation", he noted, adding that pioneer Pan-Africanists such as Kwame Nkrumah had had done their best.
Dr Canute also urged youth to say "No" to corruption, nepotism, ethnicity, tribalism and other vices that promote disunity in African Communities.

For his Part, resource person Mbah Njong Ano-Ebie harped on "Networking and Entrepreneurship: A Great Source of Youth Power".
Mr.Njong Ano-Ebie defined networking as "an act of always meeting and communicating with other people who may be useful to one’s work and progress". He gave tips on networking and urged youth to start and or enhance their networking since such helps one to achieve his/her goals.

Talking about entrepreneurship, Mr .Njong Ano-Ebie challenged youth to take risks that result in the creation of new opportunities for individuals and/or organisations.

He noted that the spirit of entrepreneurship is naturally endowed in youth, citing Bill Gates, now a noted billionaire, who at 19 entered the business world and together with his friend, Paul Allen, started the first micro-computer software company.

Another Resource Person was a government official Judith Moffa Liengu Luma, who is Southwest Regional Delegate for Women Empowerment and the Family. She dwelled on "The Role of Youth in Promoting Affirmative action, Gender Equity and Women Empowerment", stressing the important role women play in nation-and peace-building.
Mrs Liengu Luma urged young women to identify role models and emulate; and above all, should be self-disciplined, respectful and duty-conscious to become successful in life

Earlier,Song Stephen Mbangtang, ASSYOUTH President, in his seminar opening reamaks, reiterated that, unlike many other organisations with similar goals, ASSYOUTH will "greatly and actively get youth and communities involved in their own development".

ASSYOUTH, he insisted, is a catalyst of youth development and change.Mr. Mbangtang invited all youth to be strong advocate of peace, development, democracy, the millennium Goals and Africa’s Unity.

"The responsibility must not only be that of our elite/leaders to create an enabling environment for peace and development in our various communities, country and Continent, the youth must also show a sense of civic and moral responsibility. Depravity is the order of the day. Youth spend 2/3 of their precious time either in bars, internet cafes, not for research, but on the premise of scamming and looking for boy friends and girl friends. There is no meaningful interchange among our youth both internally and externally. All they dream of is having money and money at all cost with little or no effort to work for, " noted Mr.Mbangtang,adding that for a commuinty, country, or continent to be healthy community the fear of God must reign supreme.

He stessed that, change begins with self and it is the onus of every community member, citizen to become the change he or she wants to see in society as advocated by Mahatma Gandhi.

"For this to be possible families, communities, and society in general have to play a crucial role, in the up -bringing of the youth through various education forums, both formal and informal; civil society helping out in the education and sensitization in various areas of civic responsibility, while at the same time disseminating information on the various opportunities for the youth in areas of peace, human rights, democracy, the MDG’s that will help built a more responsible and pro-active youth with a civic responsibility and moral obligation, to promote peace and development in their various communities, country, and continent."

He announced that ASSYOUTH will launch a giant activity- the Soppo youth Road Development project next September 30, and organise The Cameroon National Youth Forum on Plan Jeunesse, form November 1-6. 2009.It will also organise the African Youth Forum from December 6-11, 2009.

Song Stephen Mbangtang, is also the executive director of Federation of African Youth Leaders-headquartered in Ghana.

Climate change: NKONG HILL TOP facing the change

By MOFOR SAMUEL
The new epoch offers new challenges and new global problems, such as environmental catastrophes, exhaustion of resources, bloody conflicts and Transport, electric power, telecommunications and water and sanitation, and waste disposal are vital to development.
Yet performance is often poor, inadequate maintenance leads to premature deterioration of facilities and services frequently do not match users’ needs and willingness to pay. The potential for infrastructure services to contribute to poverty reduction and environmental improvement is often neglected.

Petroleum and natural gas are crucial at every step of modern agriculture from making fertilizers to the distribution of crops.

But how secure are these energy sources from which modern society draws its life and livelihood? Are there cleaner alternatives available?

NKONG HILL TOP ,a Common Initiative Group, in Buea-Cameroon, which has among its objectives, the improvement of rural livelihood through sustainable agriculture; and the promotion of community use of renewable energy and participation in environmental protection and GREEN STEP e.V., Germany, whose vision is to contribute to sustainable development and to empower individuals through the promotion of environmentally friendly technology at the grassroots level, say yes!

By jointly coming up with the Renewable Energy Project in Cameroon, with the aim to establish small renewable energy businesses which sell wind and / or water turbines to rural areas which are not connected to the national grid, the two organizations are just giving this year’s World Environment Day’s theme: ‘Your planet needs you, unite to combat climate change’, its rightful place.

The first locality to benefit from this project was M’mouck- Fosimondi in Alou Subdivision, Lebialem Division of the South West Region. A water turbine is currently supplying power to the Fon’s Palace and in Mbelenka; a wind turbine is providing energy for household consumption. Reacting to this new development, Dr. Fozao Kennedy, M’muock Development and Cultural Association (MUDECA) Coordinator of the M’mouck Project said that GREEN STEP e.V., has done a lot in the area as far as renewable energy and environmental issues are concerned.

Still concerning renewable energy, the first wind turbine in Buea was constructed and mounted on the campus of the National Advanced School of Public Works.

It was the culmination of a three week Renewable Energy Training Workshop on Wind Turbine Construction held at the National Advanced School of Public Works, organized by the two partners. The workshop was part of a one year project and aimed at training craftsmen and multipliers from NGOs as well as teachers in the construction of wind turbines. After the training, the two partners will make micro loans available for trainees to start businesses on wind turbine construction.

It should be noted that mankind had long harnessed the power of the wind to propel sailing ships; turning mills, and pump water. In recent years enthusiasm for wind power has swept the globe. High – tech wind mills now generate enough non polluting renewable power worldwide to provide electricity for 35 million people. Denmark already generates 20% of its electricity from wind power alone. Germany, Spain and India are rapidly adopting wind power capacity in the world. The United States currently has 13,000 wind mills generating electricity.

Some analysts claim that if all suitable sites were developed, that country could generate more than 20% of its current need from the wind.
Going by the inability of Aes Sonel to guarantee constant power supply, coupled with the intermittent power cuts, drying up of major dams due to little or no rain, load shedding and the fact that hydro electric power is non existent in most of rural communities, this initiative by both organizations to promote the use of renewable energy technology in rural areas of the South West Region is very much welcomed at this point in time. All one can ask the powers that be is to throw their full weight behind this laudable initiative.

According to technical explanation, the wind turbine is powered by the wind. The power of the wind makes the turbine to turn. The generator in the turbine will be turned and produces electricity. Electricity is stored in car batteries. One turbine can charge up to ten batteries per week depending on the wind speed / regularity of the wind. One car battery can run in one house hold for up to a week, powering bulbs, radio, mobile phone and other small applications. When battery is empty, it is recharged at the turbine.

Mention should also be made that the turbines are produced out of locally available materials such as: wood, iron, old car hub, magnets, copper wire, pipes and others. Materials to construct one wind turbine can cost a maximum of 200,000FCFA.

The environmental benefits of adopting cleaner energy sources is obvious. However, the cost of doing so on a large scale is likely to remain prohibitive.

Giving that impounded water to provide hydroelectricity frequently covers valuable, agriculturally productive, alluvial bottomland, and dams alter the existing plants, animals and microbes in the ecosystem, our best bet is the adoption of cleaner and renewable energy such as the one produced by the wind turbine.

Cameroon: Presbyterian Church More Concerned About Climate Change

By Christopher Ambe Shu
The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) is not only worried about the negative and disastrous effects of global climate change but is now determined to make more contributions to help address the problem।

It was in this light that the PCC held a two-day conference (from 22-23 July 2009) at its head-office in Buea with senior officials and workers of the church to brainstorm on the problem of climate change and draw a plan of action to follow. The PCC will soon also be participating in a London Conference on Climate Change, prior to another Conference on same subject next November in Denmark

The Buea conference, organized by the PCC Development Secretary, Kumbo Denis, brought together over 40 participants from within the national territory.
Mr. Kumbo said it was intended to come up with contributions on how the church could better help in reversing the negative effects of climate change
Reverend Dr। Nyansako-ni –Nku, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon opened the Buea Conference, which was later characterized by paper presentations on climate change and group discussions.

Drawing inspiration for the Bible, the PCC Moderator noted that when God created man he asked him to go multiply and fill the earth। But he regretted that, while man has been multiplying and filling the earth, the same man has been reckless in making it fruitful.

He further regretted that some activities and actions of man are only helping to make the earth barren despite the warning from scientists about the negative effects of global warming.
The Man of God recalled that it was about twenty years ago that the PCC started paying much attention to environmental protection, by introducing the church’s tree-planting week in effort toward making the city cities greener।

"We should be concerned with what we as a church can do to make sure that the environment is fruitful; we should not only be concerned with our greed, but our needs," the moderator remarked, calling for more commitment to the sustainable management of the environment

Of course, there are both natural and man-made causes of climate change.
Some natural factors responsible for climate change include volcanoes, ocean currents, continental drift and the earth's tilt।

But more worrying are the human causes, which include deforestation, the emission of gases into the air and population increase
According to EduGreen, " the energy sector is responsible for about ¾ of the carbon dioxide emissions, 1/5 of the methane emissions and a large quantity of nitrous oxide। It also produces nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) which are not greenhouse gases but do have an influence on the chemical cycles in the atmosphere that produce or destroy greenhouse gases"

"Carbon dioxide is undoubtedly, the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Changes in land use pattern, deforestation, land clearing, agriculture, and other activities have all led to a rise in the emission of carbon dioxide."
The conference ended with a call to all Christians to contribute, in one way or the other, in reversing the negative effects of Climate change by doing what is legally and morally right.

Buea: Rapid Urbanization As Cause For Concern

By Mofor Samuel
With the advent of the University of Buea, since 1993, the town has witnessed a tremendous influx of people. But for students who come every year in their thousands, job seekers, businesses and other commercial activities have flooded the municipality. Most of the towns created by colonial administration were designed for colonial administration and trading centres rather than commercial centres equipped to support large population. Buea as a very fast growing town is not exempted from some of the headaches of urbanization, giving that it was once under colonial administration and since then, it is more of an administrative town than a commercial one. Today with the rapid increase in the population, the social amenities in the municipality are unable to keep up with the explosive growth of squatter communities and shanty towns. Presently the town is facing housing problems water is rationed, experiences low voltage, and sanitation problems amongst others.

With an estimated population of about 200,000 people, Buea became the colonial capital of German Cameroon from 1901-1909. With the defeat of the Germans in World War One, the British came in and made it capital of Southern Cameroons and then between 1954 to 1972, Buea was the capital of West Cameroon. Buea is presently the capital of the South West Region.

The municipality is today facing serious environmental problems with untold impact on the health of the population. Environmental and Health problems arise from the improper human waste disposal, poor system of garbage disposal, air pollution, unsafe water supplies, inadequate housing, building on slopes and along flood plains and other areas vulnerable to pollution, overcrowdedness, blocking of water ways and passages, water shortage and crisis, blocked drainage system, encroaching the forest on the mountain slopes, poor town planning and non-respect of expert advice and laid down regulations of proper town planning, inadequate health care facilities etc.

Air pollution levels are neither monitored nor controlled in Buea eventhough air pollution is still low compared to other areas, it is fast becoming a problem to the town. Burning of fuel wood, fires, exhaust fumes from vehicles etc, cause air pollution.

Malaria is the commonest disease spreading as a result of unplanned urbanization. Others being STDs and HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and water and food borne diseases. The anopheles mosquito has adapted from its natural forest environment where it breeds in tree holes containing rainwater to urban environment where it breeds in drains, water cans, discarded tyres, pots and bottles etc.

Owing to these many environmental factors, areas settled by the urban poor are often fragile and the concentration of population contributes to degradation. Owing to the rapid urbanization, infrastructure designed for specific population levels break down under the stain of trying to serve too many. Currently, 30-60% of the world’s population are in low-income countries and lack adequate housing with sanitary facilities, drainage systems and clean piped water.

Located at the foot of Mount Cameroon, an active volcanic mountain with the last major eruption taking place in 1999,Buea is a disaster prone area hence the need for adequate town planning measures to be taken into consideration as far as the construction of human settlements are concerned. These measures if well respected will prevent and minimize the damage caused in case of an eruption since eruptions are normally preceded by earthquakes and tremors.

Such is not the case today as people build in any and every available space. The basic problem is that successive administrations have not been committed to achieving and sustaining a healthy environment. In many instances, the necessary policies are not formulated or published, outdated policies are not revised and policy implementation is sometimes inappropriate. Laws and regulations are not always based on informed evaluation of perceived problems, the population is not empowered to comply with the laws and enforcement is neither impartial nor sustained.

In most of Cameroon’s urban and semi-urban municipalities, planlessness is much widespread and where plans exist they are most often than not, not respected. Do not be surprised to see structures erected on plots or areas reserved for sewer lines or the conversion of streets to open markets. For example some greedy local government authorities including that of Buea often allocate any and every available space for the construction of shops. No thought is given for the provision of toilets for shopkeepers or shoppers or to the collection and disposal of the solid waste which are inevitably generated.

Open drains which criss cross the municipality constitute a major health hazard. The local government should enforce laws which control the standards for design, construction and maintenance of open drains. Land lords, proprietors and tenants should be liable to prosecution if the open drains around their houses or premises are blocked.

Efforts to provide potable water for our towns have been constructed almost exclusively on large schemes which are very expensive and involve laying of pipes over long distances. Very little attention has been paid to small schemes which are cost effective.

The disposal of solid waste is the final treatment given to the waste in order to make it stable or environmentally friendly. Buea council practices controlled tipping but this is untrue. They merely dump waste into depressed areas without compacting or covering it which are the key features that make the method sanitary.

Although all tiers of government must share the blame for the present deplorable state of environmental health due to inadequate or poor urbanization, the local governments, Buea inclusive, are undoubtedly the worst offenders. For example the standard excuse of councils for failure to perform is often attributed to no allocation of funds.

Since urbanization has adverse effects on the environment and preventing it is next to impossible, slowing rural to urban drift by developing rural centres would allow the latter to enhance their employment capabilities.

Cameroon :RUMPI Project Asks For Extension To Ensure Full Implementation

By Christopher Ambe Shu
The FCFA 17 billion Rumpi Project -placed under the Southwest Development Authority, SOWEDA, has requested for the extension of its execution period by one year in order to ensure full implementation of its activities.

The Rumpi Project, conceived for a six-year life span, kicked off in 2004,with the goal of reducing poverty in rural areas of the Southwest region by increasing their incomes in a sustainable manner, through improving agricultural output as well as their socio-economic environment.

But with just one year remaining, the physical realization of activities stands at 40% and financial realization at 25 %, said officials who attended the Project’s 8th Steering Committee that met last July 22 in the Conference Hall of the Delegation of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, Buea,to evaluate the progress of the poverty- alleviation project and further strategize.
According to Rumpi Project Coordinator, Ogork Ntui Besong (pictured), “we have already written to the African Development Bank (ADB) through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER) in Yaounde, asking for the extension of its execution period।”


The Project is jointly financed by the African Development Bank (ADB 75%), Technical Assistance Fund (TAF 8 %), Government of Cameroon (GOC15%) and the beneficiaries (2%).

“ If we have an extension by one year we will finish project implementation by June 2011”, the Project Coordinator told reporters after the 8th Project’s Steering Committee, which now has as new Chairman, the Governor of the Southwest Region.

Mr.Ntui Besong said even though the project has so far realized only 40 % of its physical realization, project implementation will rapidly increase within the time left.

Dr Andrew Eneme, General manager of SOWEDA, who chaired the 8th Steering Committee on behalf of the statutory chairman (now the Regional Governor), said there are projects in the pipeline which when carried will cost more than 50% of the total cost of the RUMPI Project. Dr Eneme cited some water schemes that will consume over FCFA 500, and road construction estimated to swallow about fcfa4.5 billion. He added that several markets had already been constructed and that more were still under construction. “ I am sure if all works well, with the time remaining we shall achieve our goals, living up to expectation”, he told reporters

The slow execution of the Rumpi Project could be attributed, among other factors, to the fact that the ADB had once suspended the disbursement of funds to the Project when it realized that the former project management was not fully complying with its directives.

ADB disbursement only resumed after the coming in 2007 of a new project coordinator, Mr. Ntui Besong, who worked extremely hard to regain the confidence of the ADB.

The Rumpi project covers the six Divisions of the Southwest Region of Cameroon.

"The Biya Code " used to rally support For The Cameroonian President

By Christopher Ambe Shu
Senior officials of the ruling CPDM party and some Members of Government, who double as university dons, Friday July 24, at the University of Buea, used the presentation of The Biya Code or Le Code Biya, to the Southwest Public to rally massive support for President Biya, apparently in his alleged bid for re-election in 2011 presidential.

They took turns to describe The Biya Code as a must-read for everybody (and not only for Cameroonians.)

These officials who spoke on the occasion included Professor Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, Minister for Forestry and Wild life; Professors Fru Angwafor and Leke Tambo, Secretaries-General in the Ministries of Public Health, and Secondary Education, respectively; Dr Fuh Callistus Gentry, Secretary of State for Mines and Industrial Development and Dr Dion Ngute, Minister in charge of Commonwealth.

Professor Fru Angwafor moderated the discussions. Neither the author of The Biya Code, François Mattei, nor the subject (protagonist) of the book, Paul Biya, was present at the public presentation, which was massively attended among other top-ranking personalities by Hon Emilia Monjowa Lifaka, deputy speaker of Cameroon’s National Assembly.

However, at the end of the book presentation, the repeated calls for support to President Biya started yielding fruits as some pro-CPDM mayors such as Charles Mbella Moki of Buea, chiefs, and other elite of the Southwest Region, instantly signed and issued a statement styled Buea Declaration, in which they reiterated their unconditional support to President Biya and urged him to stand for reelection at the 2011 presidential election

The Biya Code is a biography of the Cameroonian president, written by Francois Mattei,a French journalist and writer.

The 344-page book, published in English and French, sells at FCFA 16,000 per copy. Mostly senior civil servants and CPDM partisans bought the book, which reportedly sold over 200 copies during the presentation

The author in his book observes that, President Biya has accomplished a Herculean task in nation building, succeeding where many of contemporaries and peers in the African Vineyard have failed.

According a reviewer Hon. Ray Peter Ikundi, the author’s aim in the book is “to break down wrong ideas and provide interesting reading on the true story of the extraordinary life of a head of state that is different from the rest”

He adds, “Although the book focuses on Biya as President of the Republic of Cameroon, the author flashes back to give the reader a gist of the environment, home and education backgrounds that nourished Biya to become this giant of Cameroon politics in the 21st century”

The author brings out clearly the innate characteristics of the president, the rigorous discipline he went through in the institutions, his vision, and his world view; in short the President’s nature

Mattei describes Biya as “serious, discreet, modest, always meticulous, elegant and unpredictable”; qualities, which he says, have been “the rock on which his marvelous achievements as statesman stand”

Drawing inspiration from The Biya Code, the book presenters such Ministers Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, Dion Ngute,and Fuh Callistus Gentry reduced themselves to praise-singers as they spent time citing the socio-economic, political, diplomatic as well as other achievements of Biya.
In his remarks, Southwest Regional Governor, Eyeya Zanga Louis, likened the book to a bible.
“The Biya Code is like a bible. It is through this book that we know who Biya truly is to Cameroon”, he said.

Chief Esoh Itoh, president of Southwest Chief s’Conference (SWECC) described Mr. Biya as a Godsend president who should be allowed to rule Cameroon until such time that God deems it necessary to remove him from power.

Professor Vincent P.K Titanji, Vice-Chancellor (VC) of University of Buea, in his welcome remarks said, “The University of Buea feels honored to be the first campus to host the presentation of this important book that highlights the political philosophy of the head of state, President Paul Biya”.

The VC also used the occasion “to thank the Government for providing resources for the development of the university’’

Cameroon:Parliament in the News!

By Tazoacha Asonganyi,Yaounde.
The June session of parliament came to a close some weeks ago। The closure coincided with the much news about what is today known as the UK parliamentary expenses scandal, even if it was drowned by the announcement of a "new" government in Cameroon. Judging by the stir the scandal caused in the UK, it is clear that lack of transparency in the financial management of such institutions invariably leads to the abuse of public money, preventing the institutions from adequately discharging their assigned duties. The scandal led to "diminishing parliamentary and public confidence", and the resignation of the speaker of the UK House of Commons, especially because of his role in the expenses scandal.

Cameroon’s poor score of 5% on the 2008 Open Budget Index shows that the financial activities of public institutions in Cameroon are usually shrouded in secrecy that encourages corrupt practices. The strong current of public opinion that discouraged what was then known as the "radical opposition" from taking up its seats in parliament following the 1997 parliamentary elections in Cameroon, was based on the fear that the secrecy in financial management in the Cameroon National Assembly would be used as a cover to silence MPs of all political leanings, especially those of the opposition. The state of the opposition today, especially of the parliamentary opposition seems to have vindicated this fear of the public.

There is no doubt that lack of transparency in financial management has serious consequences on the ability of parliament to exert its full weight in the governance checks and balances equation. This is confirmed by an opposition MP who once complained that although he submitted 31 amendments prior to the adoption of the now moribund decentralization laws, they were all voted down in the Constitutional Laws Committee (to which he belonged), and not discussed in plenary because the Speaker stated that he had "agreed with my Parliamentary Group Leader" to limit debate on the bills in plenary... The MP left no doubt that there had been shady deals!

Indeed, shady deals abound in the Cameroon National Assembly. Unfortunately, in Cameroon, we do not have a Freedom of Information Act, which in the UK, allows members of the public to request disclosure of information from public institutions; and which was the basis on which the public was able to get information on MPs’ expenses claims.

We have always said that when such disclosures about expenditures in parliament become possible in Cameroon, the public would be shocked by the much money that changes hands in parliament to buy off MPs on various issues, and more. There is great need for a Cameroon Freedom of Information Act, to accompany the present lackluster fight against corruption.

Another issue that was in the air when parliament was in session was related to by-elections to fill vacant positions in parliament. With the advent of Barack Obama, Ghana seems to have become Africa’s measuring rod. The Ghanaian constitution of 1992 has this to say about by-elections: "...Whenever a vacancy occurs in parliament, the clerk of parliament shall notify the Electoral Commission in writing within seven days after becoming aware that the vacancy has occurred; and a by-election shall be held within thirty days after the vacancy occurred except that where the vacancy occurred through the death of a member, the by-election shall be held within sixty days after the occurrence of the vacancy..." This is time-bound and practicable. So what does our own 1996 constitution say about the matter? Nothing! And the electoral Law?

The electoral law states that: "...Where one or more seats become vacant either because of death, resignation of the substantive..., by-elections shall be held within a period of twelve months following the occurrence of the vacancy...in the manner specified here..." Everybody knows that "in the manner specified here" means the list system! This is why we hear often from MPs of the New Deal that "we have a list system, so we cannot conduct a by-election for one person in a list"! Was this not known before the legal provision was written and adopted? Of course, it was known; but since a defining characteristic of the New Deal is the sabotage of the rule of law using sophistry to render some laws, rules and regulations inapplicable, the law was written and adopted this way to leave the field wide-open for the whims and caprices of one man to triumph! Indeed, the New Deal is involved in a game of self-deceit, to kill time so that the Prince can rule for life...

Another parliamentary issue that has been in the news is the lifting of the immunities of certain MPs. It is well known in Cameroon that parliament is usually a hide-out for crooks because of the parliamentary immunity MPs enjoy. Last week, there was much noise about parliament’s blocking of the lifting of the immunities of some MPs to allow for the due process of the law to take its course. And the shouting headlines in Newspapers included one that the opposition "botched" the lifting of the immunities. At first sight, one would applaud "the opposition" for the lame effort to show that parliament is not under the beck and call of the executive, especially as the reality is that the Cameroon parliament is a typical example of a rubber-stamp-parliament that exists just because Cameroon is said to be a Republic.

Yet, looked at more closely, the act of the opposition is nothing short of unprincipled politics that led them to be carried away by the illusion that two wrongs can make a right. Indeed, the argument that government ministers are usually arrested only after they leave government is frivolous; so too is the one that other investigations usually take longer! If the opposition wants to show that they want parliament to be independent of the executive in fact, they should do so more honourably. What they have done all looks like a botched lobbying assignment! The signal they have sent to a people that is restless about corruption does not speak well of the leading party of the opposition!

Parliament in a republican government is supposed to be the eyes, ears and voice of the people. Since elections that select MPs are usually marred by many types of electoral fraud, parliament ends up being just a regulator of the affairs of those who fraud themselves to power, to the detriment of the people who remain just pawns in a political "power" game. As the French usually say, "there is nothing more permanent than the temporary". What is going on now in parliament may look permanent, but by all measure, it is a temporary transition to a period when MPs will actually carry the proxies of the people, and listen to what they are saying.

BUFFOONERY

By AYAH Paul ABINE
When we wondered whether Cameroonians are of unsound mind or of average intelligence, some self-proclaimed omniscient lord was quick to condemn us। But our query was more a matter of deduction from patterned grotesque buffoonery than from solecism.

Cameroonians may bury their heads in the national triangle and, like the ostrich, imagine that we have concealed our ignorance and social filth from the world.

But the difference is telling when we find ourselves on the lowest rungs of the ladder in international organizations while Senegalese, Malians, Ivorians, Chadians etc are issuing instructions to us from above; in sharp contrast to the fact that we were the first bilingual country in the world.

Nor can we pretend that we are honoured when at international airports Cameroonians with diplomatic passports are sorted out of the queues and ordered to take off their coats, shoes and even socks on the ground of mistrust. No rational man would deny that honesty and integrity pay after all.

The true Cameroonian therefore would be the one that raises questions about our national integrity; and on why we have failed or are unable to capitalize even on our bilingualism.

Who can deny that our celebrated pride on the international arena today is predicated on multi-faceted corruption which we have institutionalized as our sparkling national apparel? Or that corruption now spices all aspects of our national life so much so that we are reduced to automatons or offspring of intellectual inertia by official distortion of the natural and the real?

We should not pretend we do not know that to qualify as corruption, money must not necessarily change hands; and that this fact does not admit of disputation. Undoubtedly, refusal to be real before the obvious and procuring another so to be for tangible or intangible consideration amounts to corruption.

Let us illustrate the point we are struggling to make with the current wave of “motions (motions?) of support” calling on the national chairman of CPDM to contest the 2011 presidential election as the party’s candidate.

No honest member of the party with unimpaired reasoning faculty is unaware that the party’s constitution provides unambiguously that the national chairman of the party is automatically the presidential candidate. As it is not in doubt that our party has an uncontested current national chairman, that person is logically the presidential candidate for 2011. Calling on him to stand the 2011 election is as superfluous as preposterous. Such absurdity smacks of false pretences, and is colossal buffoonery.

Even if the persons calling on him to stand had information that the current national chairman wanted to stand down as the chairman of the party, the answer would not be clamouring in the news media for him to stand as a candidate.

We would be bound to follow the party’s constitutional process which requires the holding of an extra-ordinary congress in the circumstance for the purpose of maintaining the person in the position of our national chairman. Upon his accepting his being maintained in that position, he would automatically be the party’s candidate in the upcoming presidential election as per the party’s constitution.

The whole exercise would be an in-house party affair and not an occasion for media and public manipulations. The current clamouring in the news media is even at variance with the very chairman’s recent caution that important decisions are not taken in the streets, or by the news media. Those calls, to say the least, could well not be less than ambitious designs behind a façade of disinterest.

One is at liberty to opine also that those superfluous calls are from people of bad faith. It is not illogical then to deduce that the calls are ridiculously provocative of the current national chairman. It is like telling the world that our chairman is uninformed about his constitutional right; therefore are those persons getting him informed.

And it is all the more ridiculous when one puts things in the context of the call by the so-called elite of the Centre Region. We all know that the Central Committee is the live wire of our party. It is the supreme organ that directs the day to day functioning of the party, and ensures conformity with the party’s constitution by the party’s organs. If the Secretary General of that supreme organ went along with the others to contradict the Constitution of CPDM by resorting to such pejorative political claptraps, one can only feel vindicated in questioning the intellectual integrity of Cameroonians and their good faith.

The English wisely use the word “head” aptly to depict positions. Common examples are “head of the Commonwealth, head of department, village-head”…Their first reason for choosing that term, I would imagine, is that the reasoning faculty is in the head. So too are thought and conception. Above all, four of the five senses are in the head. The head logically is eighty percent of the human being or grouping.

Any malfunctioning of the head can only mean total derangement below. When one is the head, therefore, so much is expected from one that level-headedness must be one’s mightiest weapon. That helps the person to attenuate the pangs of irrationalities and illogicalities in the body of which he is the head.

As the Cameroonian’s conduct most often begets oddities and absurdities, we feel justified to raise questions about his intellectual integrity, with little intention to hurt.

ARTIF ICIAL CAMEROONIANS

BY AYAH Paul ABINE

Despite our shabby depiction by the International community, Cameroonians have remained glued to artificial respectability। Many there are who are attired in perforated garments of the Opposition only as a springboard to bargaining for positions that are of no higher value than the sewage waste। Difficult to comprehend that a Cameroonian intellectual would play the dunce before a mere five-hundred-franc note. Or that the unemployed, masked with artificial joy, would chant hosanna, hailing misery at sweltering noon in consideration of the opium in a small bottle of Guinness. What a contradiction abusive of the intellect!

Love of country should be priceless। Such love does repel betrayal. And it shuns the bartering of the truth for the inexpensive acquisition of vanities. Otherwise, values and ethics become interred for temperamental attitudes to thrive. The result is that internal decay matures into universal surrender to cupidity with the loss of sovereignty as the irreversible fatality.
That is the foundation of our apprehension। For, to our mind, it is unimaginable that some Cameroonians would up to now pretend that anticipated presidential election in our country is a possibility. If the argument of course is that our constitution is no longer in force, we have no quarrel with it. If the argument is that law is made by man and so man can ignore it as it was once adumbrated by some tough Cameroonian, then so be it. But if, as it is apparent, some news media are nurturing such gargantuan violation of our constitution for pecuniary advantage, then so much the worse for the fatherland. More than once have men of the “fourth estate” declared that “the sun shines above and on earth journalists”. Is that imagery consistent today with journalists’ notorious inconsistencies that liken them to quicksilver?

We beg to state just one more time that there can be NO anticipated presidential election in Cameroon as per the 1996 constitutional revision, except in three specific instances। Limiting the occasions of anticipated presidential election to just those three situations was certainly intended to prevent a sitting president from taking advantage of his incumbency to organize election by ambush to the detriment of other candidates. There can be no better judgment or greater equity than that!

The first of the three instances is where the president dies in office। Another is where he reigns. The final case is where the Constitutional Council ascertains that the sitting president is incapacitated to the point that he is unable to conduct State affairs as president. In every such situation, the President of the Senate (National Assembly as of now) takes the chair and organizes anticipated presidential election within 120 days of the event taking place. Outside those three cases, there is, we repeat, no other constitutional allowance for organizing anticipated presidential election in the Cameroon of today.

Unlike anticipated election, delayed presidential election is completely ruled out। The intention of the legislature here again was surely to prevent some smart sitting president from putting off election in order to hang on to power. Reading the present Cameroon’s Constitution literally, one can reasonably contend that even a state of war cannot be invoked to delay presidential election. Only the impracticability to organize such election in the circumstance would, in Equity alone, justify delay.

From the foregoing, a reasonable man would hold that the repeated insinuations by the news media about anticipated presidential election in Cameroon in 2010 is suggestive of some Cameroonians being influenced to start preparing the minds of their fellow-countrymen for another massacre of our constitution। Ordinarily, no one can pretend that he is unaware that the constitutional provision on the point is clear and unambiguous.

Cameroonians may wish not to forget that God so loves us that he has given us a territory with huge endowments. No one Cameroonian should arrogate to himself the right to toy with that gift which our loving father has given to all his children in equal shares.

CAMEROON: NGWANA's OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BIYA ON ABORTION

Chief A.S. Ngwana(Pictured),National Chairman,Cardinal Democratic Party(CDP) of Cameroon and Human Rights defender ,is not letting go his spirited Fight Aganist Legalisation of Abortion in this Central Afriacan Country.
After several articles in the Cameroonian Media -some posted on the Internet,in which he describes abortion and homosexuality as pure evil,he has come face -to -face with the Cameroonian Pressident,by way of an open letter adressed to Mr. Paul Biya.Following is Chief Ngwana's educative and informative mail.


"Mr. President Sir,

ABORTION IS THE GREATEST HINDRANCE TO OUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTAND PROGRESS
Mr. President, I want you to reflect on what a great loss it would have been to the CPDM and to Cameroon if your mother had aborted you. What a great loss to the Democrats and to America if Barak Obama had been aborted by his mother. The world would not have seen a black man in the white house. In fact if any of us had been aborted by our mothers, we would have missed all the good things of life.
To be is better than not to be.

The world’s population as of now stands at 6.707 billion people on this planet.
In 1945 after the Second World War the population of the world was about 2 billion. In 10,000 BC the population of the world was just about 1 million.
At the creation of man (which could have taken place between 10 million and 10,000 years ago) the population of the world was 2 people : ADAM and EVE.

According to the Holy Bible, God blessed them, saying to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it”. “Thou shall not kill”. These two people Adam and Eve, man and woman, have been able to fill the earth and now their descendants are today about 6.707 billion people. In fact it is estimated that since man inherited the earth there have been about 110 billion people on the planet.

The human population can only increase through births. Individuals have sought to increase their families for economic reasons as during the agrarian age to enable them produce more food and become rich. Countries and governments have sought to increase their populations in the past by enacting laws and regulations which encouraged Births and discouraged Deaths. The motivations have varied.

Governments have been influenced by economic arguments to bolster their working force, so ensuring that the working population was big enough to sustain dependents; they have been persuaded that national defense requires a larger pool from which to recruit troops; and they have been seduced by the notion that national greatness is linked to population.

In 1873 the U.S. Congress enacted the “Comstock Law”, which regulated public access to birth control devices, medicines, or information for the next 60 years. It was illegal to distribute any device, (condoms etc), medicine or information designed to prevent conception, this was applicable even to physicians.

In Europe totalitarian regimes of far-left and far-right and fascists regimes, imposed taxes on unmarried adults. State loans were giving at weddings, only to be written off when a couple produced children. State childcare and subsidized goods for children were meant to further encourage reproduction. In France in the 1920s, laws were introduced to limit the sale of contraceptives and payments were allocated to women who stayed (giving birth ) at home

All countries and governments encouraged their population growth, and treated abortion, manslaughter, euthanasia and murder as serious criminal offences, punishable in some cases with the death penalty.

The world population increased 4 times faster during the 20th century. In 1945 the world population was about 2 billion, but within the last 64 years the world population is now 6.707 billion. This phenomenal growth of world population has been accompanied by immense wealth, economic development, technological progress and production of surplus food. From 1900 to 2000 world population has almost quadrupled, from 1.6 billion to 6.2 billion, while gross domestic product (GDP) increased 20 to 40 times, allowing the world not only to sustain the larger population, but also to do so at a vastly higher standard of living.
This of course disproved the fallacy of the Malthusian theory that utopia would be spoilt by fertility.

That if everybody were happy, fed and peaceful, they would breed until there was not enough food to go round. According to this false hypothesis, this was mathematically inevitable because food supplies increase arithmetically (1,2,3,4…) and population increase geometrically (1,2,4,8…) Malthus was wrong when he said people would starve to death as a result of population growth running ahead of food production; so were the 1970s population-controllers who said massive famines would sweep the populous Third World and wipe out millions. This has been disproved by historical facts. The false Malthusian theory was grasped by the agents of death, and they started advocating “population control” (Contraception, Sterilization, the pill, condoms, abortion etc.)

Mr. President, the fact is that the world has developed so quickly and become so rich because the world population has exploded in the past 64 years, from 2 billion to 6.707 billion today. GDP has increase by nearly 40 times.

The world is much more richer today than it was 64 years ago despite the great increase in population.

MAN is the center of development. Development is by people for people. Where there are no people there is no development. This is the basis of economic development. People produce technology and capital; they are discoverers of resources, the makers of communities, cities, the creators of wealth.

As the population increases, it creates more needs and demands, forcing economic development and generating wealth. As the population increases, there is demand for more houses, more roads, more cars more schools, more markets, more hospitals etc.

Increased population pressure and density provide the impetus for industrialization and development, which do not take place without pressure of expanding population. No population pressure, no development. A fast growing population makes it easier to acquire needed infrastructure like roads, electricity networks, accommodation etc. This is what happened to Europe during the industrial revolution, there was a population explosion in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is what is happening to China and India today.

Population density is directly linked to economic development and wealth.
Mr. President, Cameroon is under populated and poor. To develop and get out of poverty we require a dense population like that of our former colonial masters.
Today, Germany has a density per square kilometer of 236 people and an income per capita of $46,350.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain has a density per square kilometer of 250 people and an income per capita of $45,731.
France has a density per square kilometer of 114 people and an income per capita of $32,700.

Cameroon has a density per square kilometer of 39 persons and an income per capita of $2,300. Compare the disparity of population and wealth between us and them. We have all the natural resources and we can acquire all the technology we want for development if only we can increase our population growth and control all the corruption, looting and stealing by functionaries.

Mr. President look at what is happening to all the developed countries including our former colonial master, all of them are trying to increase their populations and stop “population decline” by paying their women to have more children. But they are not succeeding because decades of false propaganda of “over population” have now taken effect and the “contraceptive and abortion mentality” are now part of their lives. They are afraid of the ageing problem, which has a great effect on their declining populations with disastrous economic and societal consequences.

Japan is a typical example. The “Industrialize world or Civilize World” have legalized abortion, homosexuality, and other anti-life atrocities, and flouted the Natural Law and God’s Divine Positive Law. Today all the “civilized world” is regretting the consequences of ageing and declining population on their economies and wellbeing.

The Maputo Protocol is a veil attempt to stall our population growth, an attempt to slow our economic development. Looking at it closely, article 14 of that protocol is an attempt to destroy marriage, the family and all our moral values and respect for the dignity of life.

Abortion is a crime punishable under section 337 of the Cameroon Penal Code. Abortion is against Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Every person has a right to life, liberty, and security”

The fact that more than 90 countries have abused this fundamental right of man and legalized abortion, does not make their action right. We cannot imitate all the evil, all the wrong things, all the stupid things that they do.

The colonial days are over, we are masters of our own actions. Abortion is against Cameroon culture, Abortion is against Natural Law, Abortion is against Divine Positive Law, “Thou shall not kill”. Abortion is very much against our economic development it stalls our population growth, Abortion is against our Spiritual Interest.

Mr. President, if article 14 of the protocol is not removed, then you must take Cameroon out of the Maputo Protocol.

Mr. President, The Cardinal Democratic Party, and all Cameroonians of goodwill, call on you to withdraw Cameroon from the Maputo Protocol. Cameroonians will never accept the legalization of Abortion, Homosexuality and other anti-life legislation.
Mr. President, we trust that you will pull Cameroon out of this obnoxious Protocol before you go, or the next president after you will do so immediately.

We remain,
Your Excellency,
For Cardinal Democratic Party
Chief A.S. Ngwana
National Chairman "

G8 Must Travel the Shortest Path to African Food Security: Through Africa’s Breadbaskets

When the leaders of the G8 countries met in L’Aquila, Italy, they had the opportunity to make good on their commitment to boost aid for Africa. They did not disappoint. The world’s wealthiest countries committed to raising $20 billion over three years to promote food security and agricultural development in poor countries. The question now moves from whether one should invest in Africa’s farms to how to invest.
The G8 recognized the need to align development with a country’s own plans and priorities, particularly through coordination with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, and it acknowledged the positive contribution of African-led public private partnerships such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). We are delighted that world leaders at the G8 summit recognized the positive contributions AGRA has made. Our work is just beginning and will now focus on scaling up successes with African governments.
Investments in African agriculture must focus on the continent's high-potential breadbasket areas. These areas have relatively good soil, rainfall, and infrastructure—and could rapidly transition from areas of chronic food scarcity to breadbaskets of abundance. Such investments must support the millions of smallholder farmers who grow the majority of Africa’s food; nurture the diversity on their farms; and bring about comprehensive change that strengthens the entire agricultural system.
At the same time, we must boost farm fortunes across wider and more challenging environments, working to minimize disparity in development, and to reward innovation and spread success wherever it is found.
Integrated investments and government policies that provide Africans with finance and markets, good seeds and soils, and supportive trade policies will allow smallholders to transform their small-scale farms into commercially viable and sustainable enterprises. To realize such a transformation, Africa needs support on par with that rendered to agriculture in Asia and South America in the 1960s and 70s, which averted famine and spurred national economic development.
Africa is ready for its own uniquely African Green Revolution, one which rapidly increases the productivity and incomes of smallholder farmers, most of whom are women; protects the environment and helps Africa’s farmers adapt to climate change.
In Africa we have seen successes. There is Tanzania, where the Minister of Agriculture reports that 700,000 smallholder farmers have produced five million tons of the country’s major food crop, maize—despite drought conditions in the northern part of the country. And then there is Malawi, which doubled its spending on agriculture, and transformed itself from a net food importer to a net food exporter, and grew its national economy by seven percent.
The G8 and other international partners must move rapidly to support Africa’s agricultural development. By investing in strategic partnerships, the G8 can greatly accelerate the ability of Africa’s breadbaskets to meet the continent’s food needs, and beyond that, to help ensure global food security in the decades ahead.
To achieve our goal of a food secure and prosperous Africa, AGRA will work with African governments, G-8 and other governments, farmers, and regional and international development partners such as NEPAD's CAADP, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, the World Food Programme, International Fund for Agricultural Development, the US government's Millennium Challenge Corporation and others to bring about an African Green Revolution that will unlock the continent's agricultural potential.
Courtesy:AGRA - Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africahttp://www.agra-alliance.org/

Buea: Third Edition of Luma Stephen Football Tournament Launched

By Christopher Ambe Shu.
Holidaymakers and residents of Buea, capital of Southwest Region of Cameroon, last July 8 started watching the third edition of the Luma Stephen-Sponsored Inter-quarter Football Tournament for Buea Youth

The opening match, at Old Buea Municipal Stadium, was between Babouti FC of Buea Town and Fans’ Club Eto’o of Soppo, with the former defeating the latter by 3-0.
Hon. Adolf Ngale, MP for Buea, accompanied by Charles Mbella Moki, president of FECAFOOT for the South West region, did the launching, with a kick-off

Some ten youth football clubs in the subdivision are competing for the tournament, which carries a trophy of FCFA 500,000 donated by Luma Stephen, CPDM politician and alternate Member of Parliament (MP) for Buea

According to Mr Luma(pictured chatting with Mayor Moki holding sash), the tournament is intended to keep youth busy and useful during this long vacation, by developing their skills in football, which is a famous game. He added that, the tournament would serve as a form of entertainment for residents and holidaymakers, as well as promote unity among youth of different backgrounds.

Pleased with Mr.Luma’s efforts to promote and develop football in the Region, Charles Mbella Moki, who doubles as Mayor of Buea and the Regional Boss for FECAFOOT, announced that he would support the tournament with an additional sum of FCFA 250,000,which amount will take care of special prizes to players and officials.

Mayor Moki promised to persuade the National President of FECAFOOT to also back the competition.
He called for fair play and true sportsmanship।

Mayor Moki, joined Njie Mbua,chairman of the tournament’s Organizing Committee, to shower praises on Mr. Luma for making the tournament a yearly event

CAMEROON:CHIEF NGWANA AGAINST LEGALIZATION OF ABORTION & HOMOSEXUALITY

Chief A.S. Ngwana,Chairman of Cardinal Democratic Party(CDP),and a noted Human Rights Crusader ,has spoken out strongly against the legalisation of abortion,homosexuality and other abominations.
At a well-attended Press Conference this morning in Douala,Cameroon,Chief Ngwana insisted that abortion is evil and warned that Cameroonians will rise up against any atempt to legalise it.The press conference was attended by both journalists of the Public and Independent Media,who bombarded Chief Ngwana with biting questions,and got answers to their worries।The Chief Urged the meda to join him and other moralists to fight the good fight to preserve lives and protect human dignity.
Following is Chief Ngwana's address (a Must- read)to the Journalists,titled:


WHY WE CAN NEVER ACCEPT THE LEGALIZATION OF ABORTION, HOMOSEXUALITY, AND OTHER CRIMINAL ABOMINATIONS



Members of the Media I have called you here this morning to inform you of a situation which we consider very serious for the wellbeing of Cameroon.
The UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS is a common standard of achievement for all peoples and Nations, bearing in mind that human rights, dignity, freedom equality, solidarity and justice constitute the spiritual and moral patrimony on which the union of peoples and Nations is based.
The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights is applicable to all human beings, male and female. ARTICLE 3 states: “Everyone has the right to LIFE, LIBERTY, AND SECURITY of person”
The first and the most important fundamental human right, the basis of all human rights, is the RIGHT TO LIFE. Without human beings we can not talk of human rights
Every human being has a right to life and to live, from conception to natural death. Each child has the right to be conceived, born and educated within the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, the family being the natural and fundamental group unit of society.

ABORTION. Abortion is the deliberate killing of a human being after conception and before birth. Miscarriage ( or spontaneous abortion) is the accidental death of a human being after conception and before birth.

Science and religion agree that human life begins at conception, when the ovum is fertilized by the sperm. After conception, the human being is complete, and only grows. From conception the human being is only called different names as he or she develops. He develops or grows from an embryo, fetus, baby, toddler, infant, boy or girl, man or woman and finally ends up as an old man or an old woman.
In abortion, a human being is deliberately deprived of his/her life. And that is nothing, but murder. Abortion is an attack on life itself.

The 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the United Nations states that the child “needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.” A principle, which is in keeping with a previous declaration by the World Medical Association to “maintain the utmost respect for human life, from the time of its conception.”
The 1966 International Convention on Civil and Political Rights states that “sentence of death shall not be carried out on pregnant women, and that the express intention of this Article is inspired by consideration of the interest of the unborn child.”

Abortion is a crime against natural law, abortion is a contravention of the UN Charter on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , abortion is a terrible abuse of the Rights of the Child, an abuse of the Fundamental Right of every human being to life and to live. Abortion is a crime against humanity and cannot be justified
Abortion is the most despicable, callous, heinous and inhuman method of killing. The child is killed by the very persons who are supposed to protect the innocent, harmless child, their parents and doctors. Think of the barbaric and brutal method called “partial-birth abortion”, usually performed in an advance state of pregnancy.
It allows a partial delivery before the baby is killed, in some cases using a small hammer or cudgel to crush the skull of the baby while still crying.
Yes this is inhumanity of man to man.

People marry to enjoy satisfaction of mind and body and to have children. In some cases where a woman can not have children or enough children as desired by the couple, the man sometimes marries another wife to have more children.
The African love for many children considers abortion as an abomination. Abortion is against African culture and tradition.

Abortion is a crime punishable under the Cameroon Penal Code, section 337: “Any woman procuring or consenting to her own abortion shall be punished with imprisonment for from fifteen days to one year or with a fine of five thousand to two hundred thousand francs or with both such imprisonment and fine”.

All Religions consider Abortion as a serious offence against God. Islam forbids abortion and Moslems consider abortion an abomination.
Christians are forbidden to commit abortion. The Holy Bible says “thou shall not kill”. On creation, God commanded man to be fruitful, increase, multiply and fill the earth. At the same time God commanded man, “thou shall not kill.” Abortion is a violation of God’s commandment “thou shall not kill” For Catholics, this crime is so serious that “A person who actually procures an abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication” (can. 1398)

Homosexuality is a terrible sin for which God wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah from the face of the earth.
Governments throughout history actively encouraged their population growth. The motivations varied from economic, defense and social security. Consequently they treated abortion, murder, manslaughter, and euthanasia as serious criminal offences, punishable in some cases with the death penalty.

In 1873 the U.S. Congress enacted the “Comstock Law”, which regulated public access to birth control devices, medicine or information, for the next 60 years. It was illegal to distribute any device (condoms), medicine or information designed to prevent conception, this was applicable even to physicians.
The most notorious policies introduced to boost birth rates and population growths were deployed by totalitarian regimes of Far-Left and Right। In Ceausescu’s Romania the Marxist dictator instituted monthly pregnancy tests to see if women were performing their patriotic duty, and provided more generous subsidized housing to larger families. Across the communist block pro-birth policies were applied, including the gearing of child benefit to give progressively more generous payments to larger families. In Communist Czechoslovakia child benefit kicked in when a mother had two children and those after the second earned progressively more from the State. State childcare and subsidized goods for children were meant to further encouraged reproduction. Fascist regimes, however, went further. Mussolini introduced tax on bachelors above a certain age. (Presuming that once single men had graduated to the tax-favored state of marriage they would get down to procreation) In Nazi Germany the pro-birth programme was, as might be expected, ruthless. Information about contraception was suppressed. Unmarried adults face tax penalties. State Loans were given at weddings, only to be written off when a couple produced children, tax concessions were tapered to favour lager families and housing concessions were shaped to the same end. Totalitarian regimes may have been fanatical in pursuit of higher birth rates and population growth, but democracies have also pursued pronatalist policies. In France in the 1920s, laws were introduced to limit the sale of contraceptives and payments allocated to women who stayed (giving birth) at home.

The upsurge of population growth and density increased pressure on existing resources and ushered in the Industrial Revolution which began in Britain in 1780-1880. People moved from the rural areas into the cities and towns, increasing congestion and necessitating more development, and industrialization. The Industrial Revolution transformed Europe from a predominantly agrarian society into a predominantly manufacturing world. During this period there was a population explosion and Europe alone increased from 190 million to 423 million. Great development took place and people grew rich.
The size of the population and density, determined economic growth, wealth and military strength. Population and density are directly linked to economic development, growth, wealth and power.
Simplistic as it may sound, it is a truism that as the population increases, it creates more needs and demands, forcing economic development and generating wealth. As the population increases, there is demand for more houses, more schools, more roads more hospitals, more cars, more food, more industries, more markets, etc.
Hence increased population pressure and density provide the impetus for industrialization which does not take place without pressure of expanding population. No population pressure, no development. A fast growing population makes it easier to acquire needed infrastructure like roads, electricity networks, accommodation etc. Africa can only develop and industrialize quickly if there is a fast growing population. This is what happened to Western Europe during the Industrial Revolution, there was a population explosion in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is what is happening to China and India now. China for the past decade has remained the fastest growing economy in the world.


As of 2003, the statistics show that the developed world or the industrialized world was densely populated and rich, while the developing world especially Africa was sparsely populated and poor. Japan had a population density of 335 persons per square kilometer and an income per capita of US$34,313, the European Union then
(15 countries) had a population density of 115 persons per square kilometer and an income per capita of US$23,660, while a cross section of 15 African countries had a density of 25 persons per square kilometer and an income per capita of US$637.
When the populations of Europe, Japan, and America, were growing fast, they also enjoyed great economic boom. Now the populations of China and India are growing fast. India has a GDP growth rising by about 6% yearly while China for the past decade the GDP has been growing by 9.2%, the fastest in the world. Africa has the lowest about 0.1%
It is obvious that if Africa is to develop fast and get out of poverty; the African population density must grow fast. Development is by people for people. Where there are no people, there is no development.

The current world total fertility rate or TFR is 2.48 children per woman not far above replacement. The African population is growing steadily at a fertility rate of about 5.6 children per woman. The global TFR will drop to 1.54 children per woman by the year 2050. At that time, the U.N has projected that the population of India will be 1.53 billion people, so that it becomes the world’s most populated country, China, which has vigorously enforced its “one child policy” will be relatively modest, from 1.3 billion now to 1.4 in 2025, and then falling gradually. The African population will rise from 851 million (2003) to 1.803 billion in 2050, while Europe will fall from 726 million (2003) to 632 million by 2050.

The political and economic implications will be very serious. Africa, India, and China will become Demographic Superpowers resulting in a Shift in the Balance of Power.
All the countries and governments now already suffering “population Decline” are worried and are doing everything possible to reverse this situation, but the ageing process has begun and the consequences are frightening. They are not succeeding, because decades of false propaganda of “overpopulation” have now had their effect. The “contraceptive and abortion mentality” is now firmly established. Their women do not want to have children. The consequences are the negative population growth, with all the economic and societal problems this implies.
Humanity’s long-term problem will not be too many children, but too few children. Too few children to fill the schools and universities, too few couples buying homes and second cars, too few consumers and producers to drive the economy forward, and too few workers to provide support, through their tax dollars, for the ballooning population of elderly.
Some countries are worried that they will soon be “an endanger species” and will be an extinct race in the next two centuries.

On January 2003, President Bush declared in a broadcast that the United States “must protect the lives of innocent children waiting to be born”. In 2009, Obama/Clinton declared that “the full force of the U.S. government will be used to get governments to change their laws on abortion all over the world”
The world today is in two camps: the culture of death - anti-life (pro-choice),
in a way anti-God, (the agents of the devil), which rationalizes promiscuous relationships, abortion, sterilization, homosexuality, egg-donation, euthanasia and many other practices contrary to the culture of life, marriage and the family.
The second camp is the culture of life, which is against all anti-life practices, promotes the sanctity of life, marriage, the family and all family values.
The culture of death has such devastating effects on the growth of the human population because it is financed by many rich governments and non-governmental organization like the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN agency that helped set up and run the Chinese “one child policy” which is responsible for millions of horrible coercive abortions, (20 million Chinese men now are looking for women to marry), and the International Planned Parenthood Federation, with branches all over the developing world.
The anti-life governments and ant-life people want to control the growth of the African population for two reasons: they want to keep Africa as a reserve for their raw materials and politically they fear that Africa will become a demographic Superpower in the next 50 years. They have pumped into Africa, trillion of contraceptives, pills, condoms and abortifacients to control the growth of the African population and failed, so now they want to use all their might to ensure that Africans kill their children by abortion. By conniving, colluding, and bribing some corrupt elite class, they lie that Africa is over populated and that is why we are poor. By conniving and colluding with some African corrupt dictators and some corrupt and ignorant leaders, billions of dollars are stolen, misappropriated, corrupted and looted from the continent and kept abroad in banks, properties and shares.
When aid is given to Africa, most of it is poison quoted in sugar. Think of condoms distributed to youngsters, when the donors know that condoms prevent pregnancies thereby stalling our population growth and that condoms promote the spread of AIDS which kills people thereby stalling our population growth. They encourage promiscuity and openly advertise the use of condoms, but they silently discourage abstinence and fidelity.

Why the Cardinal Democratic Party and all its supporters reject the Maputo Protocol and call on all Cameroonians to reject this obnoxious protocol is because it was teleguided from abroad by those governments and people who want to control the growth of the African population. The Protocol was smuggled through Parliament either through ignorance or corruption, and quickly signed by the President.
Article 14 of the Protocol is unacceptable and completely contrary to Natural Law, contrary to Divine Positive Law, contrary to the Cameroon Penal Code, and contrary to our Culture and Tradition. While the protocol highlights, protects and defends women’s rights which are already protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Protocol flagrantly undermines the most important and fundamental Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “everyone has a right to life, liberty and security of person”

By advocating abortion, homosexuality and other abominations, the Maputo Protocol is a veil attempt to destroy marriage, the family institution, and the sanctity of life। The family is the cell of the society, on which a prosperous, viable and veritable country can grow and develop. The Maputo Protocol is a weapon to stall our population growth and keep us in perpetual poverty. The Maputo Protocol is against our economic and spiritual interests.

The Cardinal Democratic Party calls on President Paul Biya, to withdraw Cameroon from the Maputo Protocol. Cameroonians will never accept the legalization of Abortion, homosexuality and any anti-life legislation.

A.S. NGWANA,
National Chairman,
Cardinal Democratic Party – CDP

IMF Approves US$144.1 Million Disbursement for Cameroon Under the Exogenous Shocks FacilityPress

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved an SDR 92।85 million (about US$144.1 million) disbursement under the rapid access component of the Exogenous Shocks Facility (ESF) to help Cameroon weather the effects of the global shocks on its balance of payments. The approval enables the disbursement of the full amount immediately.

The IMF financial assistance will help contain the decline in Cameroon’s foreign reserves and ensure that priority outlays (investment, health, and education) are protected।
The ESF is designed to provide policy support and financial assistance to low-income countries facing exogenous but temporary shocks।
It is available to countries eligible for the
Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)—the IMF's main instrument for financial assistance to low-income countries—but that do not have a PRGF-supported program in place. Financing terms are equivalent to a PRGF arrangement and are more concessional than under other IMF emergency lending facilities.
Following the Executive Board’s discussion of Cameroon, Mr. John Lipsky, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, stated:
“The Cameroonian authorities are to be commended for their recent economic achievements। Prudent management of oil windfalls under the recently completed PRGF-supported program has allowed the authorities to accumulate government deposits at the BEAC and contribute to the regional pool of foreign exchange reserves. These savings now provide some welcome buffers that can be used to alleviate the impact of the global crisis.

“The global crisis is however presenting the Cameroonian authorities with a difficult set of challenges। Lower oil prices are reducing exports and fiscal revenues. Considerably weaker external demand is adversely affecting key exports. Tighter external financing conditions have delayed important investment projects. As a result of these sizable shocks, growth is expected to be slower, and the overall fiscal and external balances are projected to turn into a deficit. In the absence of appropriate social safety nets, the social costs of the downturn could be severe.

“Against this background, the authorities’ efforts to deal with the effects of the crisis with Fund support under the rapid access component of the Exogenous Shocks Facility are welcome। Their commitment to preserve macroeconomic stability and tackle structural impediments to growth will contribute to making the country’s economy more resilient in the future.

“The implementation of the 2009 budgetary priority spending plans will help to avoid a public sector contraction in a year of slower economic growth। At the same time, efforts will be stepped up to achieve greater nonoil revenue mobilization and strengthen public expenditure management and transparency. Decisive actions are needed to improve governance, make the business environment more attractive, and enhance the role of the financial sector in the development of the economy. The authorities’ commitment to address these challenges through a medium-term economic program in the context of a new Poverty Reduction Strategy under preparation is welcome. Although tackling the structural impediments to faster growth will be more challenging in a crisis environment, it will put the country on a stronger footing to reduce poverty in a sustainable way.

“Continued vigilance will be required against downside risks to the financial sector, which could be negatively affected by a protracted economic slowdown। Close monitoring of developments in cooperation with regional supervisors will help ensure that corrective actions are taken as needed,” added Mr. Lipsky.
Source: Press Release No. 09/250July 2, 2009

Fako Celebrates Hon. Lifaka’s Political Achievements

By Christopher Ambe Shu
Proud of the political achievements of Hon. Emilia Monjowa Lifaka, MP for Fako West constituency and elite of Fako Division of the Southwest region of Cameroon, the Buea Sub- divisional Conference of Traditional Rulers in collaboration with their peers in the towns of Limbe, Tiko and Muyuka, as well as Fako elite, last Saturday June 27, organized in Buea what was generally described as a hectic civic reception in her honor

Hon.Lifaka, a second- term parliamentarian is currently Deputy Speaker of Cameroon’s 180-member National Assembly, elected in March this year. But before ascending to the rank of Deputy Speaker, Hon Lifaka was Vice-President of the ruling CPDM Parliamentary Group. She is also the National Coordinator of Cameron’s female MP’s who are 25 in number.

In his speech, Chief Linonge F.Kinge, President of Buea Sub- divisional Conference of Traditional Rulers, described Hon Lifaka as a duty-conscious, committed and development-focused MP.Chief Kinge said the MP has carried out development projects aimed at empowering constituents- especially rural women and school children, and has been “supportive of our efforts as traditional rulers”
The chiefs’ president reminded the MP that “ to whom much is given much is expected ” and called for continued accountability in the execution of her functions.

He urged the Deputy-Speaker to intensify efforts in ensuring that the National Assembly “corrects the injustices suffered by minority groups”. Chief Kinge pleaded with the MP to persuade President Biya to upgrade the status of traditional rulers who act as auxiliaries of the Administration and give them befitting allowances. Hon Lifaka was also told to press for effective national integration and bilingualism, as well as the provision of adequate social facilities for Cameroonians, and job opportunities for the thousands of unemployed youth.

Chief Kinge, nonetheless, hailed Government for carrying out some projects already in Fako Division such as roads, schools, health facilities, water schemes, and electrification of localities.

But he said Government needed to do much more to make life easy for citizens.

In her response, the elated Deputy Speaker Hon Lifaka, said, “I hope to continue working with you now, tomorrow and for forever”. She vowed not to disappoint her electorates and Cameroonians as a whole.

“I promise to be of good conduct that will make you proud of me and also to channel to the appropriate authorities the difficulties that we share.”.

She particularly assured the chiefs that the Government was working to see how to improve their status.
The Deputy Speaker called for reinforced unity, duty-consciousness and love for the country.

Hon Lifaka is noted for her constant touch with her base, for making material and financial donations to needy schools and other groups, for supplying farm equipment and seedlings to women, for counseling women on what to do, for sponsoring underprivileged but deserving school children. For example, last year she paid tuition fees for 25 female children at the Buea Women’s Empowerment Center and pledged to take care of same number every year until her mandate ends.
She is hailed for her transparent and judicial use of her micro-project grants given by the National Assembly, for small development projects.

Earlier, in his welcome speech, Charles Mbella Moki, Mayor of Buea, lauded President Paul Biya “ for recommending Hon Lifaka for election into the prestigious and coveted office of Vice-president of the national assembly”.

The Mayor described Hon. Lifaka as a faithful citizen, successful civil servant and a good example of a party militant who has been winning one election after the other

Hear Mayor Mbella Moki:“Honourable, you have been caring, inspiring, innovative, generous and a cheerful person who could contain the challenges of a politician, a mother and worker with great skills and dedication to the development of your community”

Other speakers at the massively attended ceremony at the Buea Independence Square, included Humphrey Monono, Fako elite and Registrar of Cameroon GCE Board who, speaking on behalf of Fako elites, had kind words for the Deputy Speaker.

Director of Cabinet at Prime Minister’s Office, Paul Meoto Njie, and the Southwest Regional Governor Eyeya Zanga Louis, were among a college of dignitaries who witnessed the ceremony, which was enlivened by, libation by traditional rulers , colorful traditional dances and choral songs, as well as presentation of gifts to Hon.Lifaka