African leaders commit to improve public service delivery through ICTs

 Aiming to accelerate social, economic and political development through e-Governance

LONDON, April 29, 2011 – The 5th annual e-Governance Africa Forum, attended by  some 150  delegates from twenty countries spread across the world, especially Africa, ended today in Yaoundé, Cameroon, with both public and private sector stakeholders resolving to intensify all efforts to improve governance and service delivery through the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs).

Organised by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), and hosted by the Government of Cameroon through its Ministry of Posts and Telecoms and the Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB), the conference was under the theme “Governance, Service Delivery and Democracy through the use of ICTs”.
Discussions at the conference centered on important e-Governance issues from the perspectives of policy, regulation, infrastructure financing, network development and public-private-partnerships.

Declaring the conference open through a speech delivered on his behalf by the Cameroon’s Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Hon Jean-Pierre Biyiti bi Essam,  the Prime Minister and Head of Government of Cameroon, H.E. Philemon Yang said that Cameroon acknowledges the great potential that ICTs can bring to the country and has embraced a number of initiatives in a bid to expedite the development of programmes in various areas of the country. He said, “As a country we believe in the potential benefits of adopting governance processes that allow for greater participation of the people”. He also acknowledged that ICTs, through e-Governance can help the country and the rest of Africa to accelerate its socio-economic development.
H.E Yang listed a range of examples of ICT interventions undertaken by the Cameroonian government, and concluded by admonishing participants to offer their contributions in all forms to ensure that Africa’s e-Governance initiatives are successful to the benefits of the people.

In his welcoming remarks, the CTO’s CEO, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, emphasised what effective e-Governance was all about, noting that increasingly most countries have recognised the need to have a National e-Governance Policy in order to translate their e-Gov vision into reality. He noted the growing and enormous power of ICTs to transform nations and society, and urged developing countries, especially those in Africa to “cheetah pole-vault” policies, regulations and technology, and not just “leap-frog” them,  if they hoped to catch up with the industrialised world. He recommended that countries adopt the “PROFIT” model in examining what progress they were making in their e-government efforts.

 He described the model as permitting countries to examine their e-Governance policies (the P), their regulations (the R), their operating environment (the O), the available financing (the F), the state of ICT infrastructure (the I), and the technological choices (the T) that they need to make to make e-governance initiatives more affordable to citizens, businesses and communities. He expressed the wish that participants realize the importance of human resource capacity-building in making ICTs work for government, and the CTO over the years has done a lot to train many experts in its member countries to help implement e-Gov projects.
An address on “Smarter e-Government” by a representative of Huawei Technologies, Mr. He Ming, Vice-President of Network Solutions, focused on some of the partnerships and technological innovation that is making it possible for many countries to provide numerous e-Gov solutions that empower citizens and make governments far more efficient.  He noted that good e-Gov initiatives allow the public to enhance their trust in governments, and this in turn allows for smarter governments.

By driving transformation through ICTs, governments can “leapfrog” to higher service levels, he said. Emerging governments are now becoming more interconnected, he said. Progressively, such governments become interactive, integrated and finally, virtual. Mr. Ming further noted that e-Governance becomes smarter government when the public is able to take full advantage of government policies and services and where civil servants work efficiently on service based user demands, leading to enhanced quality of life for all.

Other presentations at the conference were made by government officials and business executives from Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, the UK, USA, China, Israel, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, Ghana, Botswana, Uganda, Sweden, Gabon, Chad and Central African Republic.

Among the sponsors and exhibitors at the Conference were Microsoft, Ericsson, HTT, MTN, Cisco, Kofax, 4DAfrica, IwayAfrica, Thales, Austria’s OSD, Nadra from Pakistan, and Huawei Technologies. -CTO  

Nigerian Elections: Well Done!

By Tazoacha Asonganyi inYaounde.

The readers would probably have already heard or read by now that both local and international election observers have praised the Nigerian elections as a great improvement over past elections. They probably also heard or read that I was one of the international observers of the elections. Since the Nigerian elections are a momentous event shortly before our own elections in October 2011, it is worth sharing some experiences.

The elections were organized within the backdrop of the 2003 and 2007 elections in Nigeria which Nigerians say have gone down in history as the most flawed and the most fraudulent elections in the history of elections in the world. They say this in the isolation of their own experience, not knowing that if those elections were to be placed on the same league of most flawed and most fraudulent elections with those in Cameroon, Cameroon’s would occupy places higher up in the league than theirs. In any case, when you are with election experts like were found in the NDI delegation and get the cynical questions they ask you about Cameroon elections, you know that those conversant with election history know what passes in Cameroon for elections.

“Well done!” This is a banal phrase in Nigeria that can be a greeting or the response to a greeting. After having observed the national assembly and presidential elections in Nigeria, I can say “well done” to Nigerians, this time to mean that they did very well. In the build-up to the elections, “free, fair, and credible” became like a password with every stakeholder mouthing it with abandon: officials of the independent national electoral commission (INEC), the paramilitary forces, journalists, and members of opposition and ruling parties, including Goodluck Jonathan himself. In the end, I can confirm that the elections were free, fair, and credible.

Indeed, when Goodluck Jonathan took over the presidency of Nigeria following Yar’Adua’s demise, he promised he would deliver among other things, credible polls to Nigeria. Not many people believed him because in Africa, many of those who seek public office would not want the public to put them there.  It was feared that he would use the power of incumbency to influence the process in his favour, like his predecessors had done. The end has vindicated him, showing that he chose to be remembered as a serving president in Africa who did not use his office to influence an election in which he was a candidate. He achieved this by picking the right caliber of persons into INEC, providing the commission with over 88 billion Naira (some 264 billion FCFA) for registration of voters and other logistics, publicly promising to leave office if he was defeated, and telling everybody who wanted to listen that “in the election not only (would) votes count, all the votes (would) be counted.” Since the successful national assembly elections came before the presidential election, they served him well because they gave him the tag of a candidate that matches words with action; who delivers on promises…

Before these successful elections, elections were said to have become the political Albatross of Nigeria’s democratic journey. Their bitter electoral experiences had taught them to distrust all public officials, and to suspect their motives. But here was a university don, Professor Attahiru Jega who had been thrust on them. He enjoyed their trust and confidence, probably because of the saying that the character of an individual can influence the structure he or she heads. His arrival at the helm of INEC caused Nigerians to place their hope in the saying that political mediocrity may prevail for a while, but in the end, it is exposed and shamed by the changing times.

In a way, times had changed, and Nigeria’s time seemed to have come. Nigerians seemed to be confident about the power of their vote; everybody was talking about the need for their voices to be heard. In that, the boisterous press was whipping them on, and the advent of people power that was being played out in North Africa added a feeling of great power and confidence, and strengthened their belief that a determined people can change their destiny at any time. And so when Jega postponed the national assembly elections of April 2 when the people were already lined up in their polling stations to vote, there was fear for the worst. It turned out that the people’s patience and trust in Jega were seriously bruised, but they remained hopeful, not without crying out that Nigeria had again been “disgraced and messed up” in the eyes of the world. The enthusiasm with which they received international election observers seemed to indicate that “the eyes of the world” they were talking about were provided by us, international election observers.

Apart from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) observers that were there, I also saw observers from the European Union (EU), the Commonwealth, the International Republican Institute (IRI), the African Union (AU), and the Economic Commission for West Africa (ECOWAS). There were also thousands of Domestic Election Observers from various civil society organizations including the CLEEN Foundation for monitoring the security services, and coalitions like Election Situation Room Monitoring, Election Incident Report Platform, Project Swift Count 2011, etc.

Upon arrival in Abuja the NDI took its 50-plus observers through a three-day seminar of sorts, during which the atmosphere around the Nigerian elections was presented to us. The electoral framework and overall political environment was presented by experts including the renowned Justice Mohammed Uwais of the Uwais electoral reform commission fame; some civil society activists presented non-partisan views on the elections, while other activists discussed citizen engagement, voter education, and citizen election monitoring groups. Media insights and perspectives were presented by renowned newspaper editors and publishers, and the security plans around the elections were presented by some of the highest security officials in Nigeria, including the Director General of State security services and the chief of policy at the office of the national security adviser.

There was also dialogue with religious leaders, including the Chief Imam of Abuja national mosque and the Catholic Bishop of Abuja. We also had briefings from some of the 63 registered political parties (20 of the 63 parties fielded candidates for the presidential election), and the special assistant to the INEC chairman who briefed us on the plans, procedures, and operations adopted by INEC for the elections. These briefings were crowned by insights from NDI Long Term Observers who had been in the field in Nigeria since January 2011 to observe pre-election

PART II:

Nigerian Elections And The North-South Divide.

Before his appointment, Jega was reputed for his integrity and uprightness; he was known to be a bold, no-nonsense man. The pre-electoral briefings we got left us with no doubt that he enjoyed the trust of Nigerians across the political divide. Once he was appointed head of INEC, he made demands on the executive and legislative arm of government that he felt would allow the commission to organize free, fair, and credible elections.  He was given the budget he needed, and the electoral act was adjusted many times to meet his requests.  INEC, like ELECAM in Cameroon is not a legislator, but Jega did not spend his time reminding people about that!

He bought Direct Data Capture equipment which allowed him to register 73.528.040 Nigerians in a short period of time using the biometric system. All those registered went away with their voter’s cards bearing their photos and other identification information that showed the state, local government area, polling unit, and the polling station of the voter; the same information and the photograph appeared automatically in the general register in the central processing unit. At the end of the exercise, some 870.612 registered voters were identified as multiple registrations; those registered were classified into 119 973 polling units, and some 245.000 polling stations with each polling station having some 300 voters. Some critics saw the over 73 million figure as raw and inflated, claiming that it was not verified to weed out multiple registrations through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). However, some voters with voters’ cards that did not find their names in electoral registers on Election Day were said to be people whose names had been weeded out because they registered more than once.

I was sent to Gombe state for the national assembly elections and to the Cross River state for the presidential. As an election observer, you want to observe all the stages of the election in the area to which you are sent. The strategy is to carefully choose a few polling stations at representative areas at which you can observe how the elections are conducted for all the key stages. For the Nigerian elections such key stages included: 1) opening of the polling station during which the accreditation procedure is explained to the voters, 2) accreditation or verification of the eligibility of voters using their voter’s card, 3) opening the polling station for voting, 4) voting, closing the poll, counting, public declaration of results, distribution of result sheets, and posting of results at the polling station, 5) transfer of results from the polling station to the collation unit, 6) collation or addition of results from different polling stations in the unit, declaration of results at the collation unit, and posting of results at the collation unit. By the time you have gone through these stages, it is time to call it a day because the NDI is very strict on security. The collation that continues at the Local Government Area, at the constituency, state, and national levels as the case may be, were all done in public with the security services, representatives of political parties, the press, and observers present; results were declared, distributed and published at each stage.

Because of past experiences with ballot box snatching by political thugs, INEC adopted a “modified open ballot system.”  There are separate periods for accreditation and voting. Voters arrive at their polling stations between 8 a.m. and 12 noon and line up for accreditation during which the polling agents ensure that the information on the voter’s card conforms to that in the register of voters; the name of the voter is then ticked in the register, and their fingers are marked with indelible ink. They remain in the polling zone until 12 noon when they line up and come forward one by one for their identities to be verified, their fingers marked again with indelible ink, before they collected the single ballot paper from the polling station officials; they then put their fingerprint against the party/candidate they want and cast their vote. Those who are not on the queue at the start of the voting process are not allowed to join the line later. In principle, voters were directed to stay at the polling station after voting to “protect their vote.” Counting started at 4 p.m. or when everybody on the line had voted. During the pre-election period the security services expressed fear that massing up at the polling stations after voting would cause security problems, but in the end, there was no violence or disorder related to that process.

Gombe is a state in the northern part of Nigeria, Cross River in the south. The areas I covered in these two states showed clearly the divide between North and South, with the CPC of Mohammadou Buhari calling the shots in the north while the PDP of Goodluck Jonathan called the shots in the south. Although this divide was not very clear following the national assembly elections, it came out very clearly during the presidential election. However, Jonathan’s gains in the north during the presidential election were far more than Buhari’s in the south. I doubt that with the electoral process we observed, there was any computer programme to defraud Buhari of his votes, or that his votes were not counted in the south, as he is claiming. Buhari seems to be just a bad loser!

No human endeavour can ever be 100% perfect, especially when it involves thousands of people required to act in synergy. The shortcomings were highlighted by the NDI and the other observer teams that were in the field. In my assessment based on what I personally observed in the areas where I was present, INEC performed very well. The fact that the results were declared and displayed publicly at the various levels, including distributing copies to security officials, and representatives of political parties, left very little leeway for manipulation of the results from the ballot boxes. Indeed, Project Swift Count 2011, a joint initiative of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Federation of Muslim Women Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN), and Justice Development and Peace/Carritas Nigeria (JDPC) scored the national assembly elections 96% in credibility index. It is certain that the score for the presidential election is not too different.

 

PART III:

Nigerian Elections: Security, Violence, and Symbolism

By the time the elections were taking place, there had been the twin bomb blasts around Eagle Square on the 50^th Anniversary of Nigeria, and many others without a clue as to who was behind them. Over 130 people had been killed with over 400 injured in pre-election related violence since July 2010. Property worth billions of Naira had been destroyed. Therefore the greatest worry of Nigerians during the whole electoral process was violence. There was a bomb blast at Suleja on the eve of the April 9 national assembly elections, and in Maiduguri on Election Day.

The paramilitary services – Nigeria Prisons Services, Nigeria Customs Services, Nigeria Immigration Services, Nigeria Police, etc. – all came together under the command of the police, and provided security officials that were present at polling stations. They had all received thorough training with respect to the elections, and sworn to respect a code of conduct during the elections. At the polling stations I visited both in Gombe and Cross River, I saw at least three security officials per polling station, each wearing a special identification batch. They succeeded to make the process violence free, until Jonathan was declared winner of the presidential poll by the president of INEC Attahiru Jega.

Buhari had since said that election riggers are worse than armed robbers and so in 2011 they would deserve the same treatment reserved for robbers...He had since directed his supporters to “lynch” election riggers. Following the presidential election, here was the man claiming that the presidential election had been rigged in favour of Jonathan! In addition, the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) had been saying that Jonathan’s presidential interests would “cause irreparable damage to the peace and oneness” of Nigeria. Now that there is post-electoral violence in the north, everybody is condemning the violence, forgetting that in the words of James Brice, they had already sown the seeds (of violence) in the embryo beneath their feet, like seeds hidden in the snow of winter, which will shoot out under April sunlight…

Eleventh hour allies always have something incongruous about them. The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) of Buhari and The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) of Akande/Tinubu tried to enter into an eleventh hour agreement to see how they could work together to wrest power from the ruling PDP by preventing Jonathan from winning. The two parties agreed initially that between them, the party that would win more National Assembly seats would produce the presidential candidate while the other party would produce the leadership of the Assembly. This was when the CPC looked forward to sweeping the north.

When Atiku Abubakar the consensus candidate of the north for the PDP primaries was beaten by Jonathan, the hope of the north of retaining the presidency seemed to have turned to Mohammadou Buhari of the CPC. Unfortunately for the CPC, the shinning lights of the party were crossovers from other parties that had put in place the system the CPC was promising to bring an end to once it got to power. In the eyes of the electorate, the same people who were around Buhari promising them heaven and earth to be delivered by the CPC, were the same people who yesterday were in the PDP and other parties, lording it over them. Therefore the image the CPC was reflecting was not different from that of the ruling party it was claiming it wanted to dislodge.  Many analysts are pinning the poor performance of CPC candidates during the national assembly elections in the north on the people’s view of the candidates as opportunists.

The poor performance of the CPC at the national assembly polls seems to have jilted the northern elite who still hoped that in spite of the northern consensus candidate losing the PDP primaries, the presidency could still return to the north. This is why a few days to the presidential election, it was reported that the CPC and ACN were negotiating to produce one presidential candidate between them. This of course, was not the real news. The real news was the involvement of 3 former presidential candidates – General Babangida, General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, and Alhadji Atiku Abubakar – a group referred to as G3 – all PDP members! What was interesting about the G3 is that all three had signed the agreement of the Mallam Adamu Ciroma-led Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) to produce a consensus candidate of the north to challenge Jonathan in the PDP primaries. G3 probably saw in Buhari a joker to meet the fading goals of NPLF, which were to complete the second presidential term of Umaru Yar’Adua which was considered a northern presidency.

It is probably for these reasons that when the G3 got involved, the initial deal that the party that performed better at the national assembly polls would provide the presidential candidate was reneged on. The ACN and its presidential candidate Nuhu  Ribadu were convinced to accept that they would give up their presidential candidacy to Buhari. So the rumour mill was set in motion that Ribadu had stepped down for Buhari!

Symbols are a vehicle of political communication. Symbols and symbolic acts ascertain deep seated political values far beyond the public expression of political views. Buhari, Babangida, Gusau, and Atiku have never been good political bedfellows. I think that the involvement of G3 to promote the candidature of Buhari was a highly symbolic political act that was meant to send a strong message to the grassroots in the north that the northern agenda was still on, and depended on Buhari. The negotiation probably failed because its success was not the main aim of G3; their main aim seemed to be to send the message to the northern grassroots that the northern agenda still enjoyed their blessing. The results of the presidential poll in the north showed that the northern grassroots received their message 5 on 5. The violence that broke out in the north is a reflection of the hope that their veiled message generated in the grassroots.

Displacing a ruling party needs a lot of hard work, sacrifice, sincerity of purpose, good faith, the ultimate motive of promoting the national interest, and being prepared to give something when various interests are tabled. Before the presidential election, both the ACN and CPC, the two leading opposition parties, had acknowledged that neither of them had the strength and national spread to take on Jonathan’s PDP. They had acknowledged that an alliance was their only saving grace. The ACN, the strongest opposition party according to the national assembly election results, was even prepared to give up its presidential ambition to encourage the CPC to enter the alliance. In the end, the two parties went to the election separately, and were soundly defeated by the PDP. This has lessons for opposition parties elsewhere, especially in Cameroon where the playing field is not as level as Nigeria’s.

Cameroon:Aid plea to fight cholera outbreak

[UKPA] -A cholera outbreak in west Africa could claim hundreds of lives a day without urgent aid to prevent the spread of the disease, a charity has warned.

More than 3,000 people have been infected and around 150 people are known to have have died in an outbreak of the waterborne bacterial disease in Cameroon since it took hold in the centre and south west of the country in March.

The outbreak is steadily gaining pace, with the worst affected district of Mfoundi reporting 500 new cases and 46 deaths in the last week. The capital of Yaounde has seen more than 1,500 cases.

Baro Famari, country director for charity Plan International, said without government aid the outbreak could spread rapidly and, in a scenario similar to that in Haiti in 2010, claim up to 300 lives a day.

Government forecasts say it will take four to six months to bring the disease under control and the outbreak could be spread to neighbouring countries by the movement of infected people, he warned.

"It might get out of control if no action is taken," he said. "We need more support. We don't have enough public toilets, access to clean water is limited and people don't see the link between hygiene and disease spreading."

The disease is spread through water infected with human waste and can kill within six hours. Children under four are most at risk.

If untreated, mortality rates can be up to 60%.

An outbreak in northern Cameroon last year killed 600 people.

Plan International is spending £120,000 disinfecting latrines and water pumps, providing medical aid and educating locals. Aid workers from Unicef and the World Health Organisation are also in the country.

Cameroon Experiences another Outbreak of Cholera

By Prakash Sharma
The West African country of Cameroon is experiencing another cholera outbreak after one last year killed around 600 people.
Since this specific outbreak took hold of the population in March, around 3,000 people have been infected with the disease and around 150 have died. In Mfoundi, the worst-affected district of Cameroon, 500 new cases and 46 deaths were reported last week alone. The capital of the nation, Yaounde, has had more than 1,500 cases reported.
Cholera, which is spread by water infected with human waste, can have mortality rates up to 60% and can kill in as little as six hours.
Baro Famari of Plan International said that government aid is necessary in order to stop the outbreak from reaching 300 deaths per day like it did in Haiti in 2010. "It might get out of control if no action is taken. We need more support", he said. "We don't have enough public toilets, access to clean water is limited and people don't see the link between hygiene and disease spreading".
In order to help suppress and constrain the outbreak, Plan International is spending £120,000 to disinfect water pumps and latrines, along with providing medical help and educating the locals on proper hygiene to avoid the disease.
According to government estimates, it will take anywhere from four to six months before the disease is able to be controlled, and neighboring countries could be affected by the outbreak from the movement of infected people crossing borders-TOPNEWS

CPJ warns Cameroon to "stop punishing journalists probing public corruption"

New York, United States - The Cameroonian government should initiate reforms to guarantee journalists’ ability to report on issues of public interest without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said in a letter sent Friday to President Paul Biya one year after the death of a local journalist in pre-trial detention for reporting on corruption allegations. 

CPJ holds the government responsible for the death of Germain Cyrille Ngota Ngota, a probing editor with the monthly Cameroon Express, who perished in prison on 22 April, 2010, due to a lack of medical attention despite repeated requests for help. 

The organization is seeking an investigation into the case. Ngota was initially detained in February 2010 after he and three other reporters questioned a government official regarding allegations of embezzlement of public funds at Cameroon’s state oil authority, SNH.

The government’s own investigation revealed that the official ordered state intelligence agents to arrest the journalists and unmask their sources.

Another journalist has accused state intelligence of torturing him while in detention.

In the letter, CPJ urged president Biya to end the practice of abusive detentions and criminal prosecutions that allow for settling scores with critical or probing journalists.

The organization also called for a reform of the “criminal code so that defamation, libel, and press offenses are adjudicated by civil courts. In the interest of public accountability, transparency and democracy, we call on you to take all necessary steps to hold to account officials and security services who abuse their authority in reprisals against their critics in the press.”

Unfortunately, Ngota’s case is part of a broader climate of repression for reporting that sheds light on the management of public resources.

Earlier this month, a provincial governor in Cameroon had a journalist detained after he made routine inquiries about the arrests of two employees at the state-run palm oil company. The authorities later said the reporter had been detained for his own protection.

Authorities also banned a newspaper amid legal harassment of journalists investigating public corruption.

With a score of 2.2 out of 10, Cameroon’s public sector is ranked as highly corrupt on Transparency International’s index.

Pana 23/04/2011

Cameroon GCE Syllabus Reforms: Brightening and Equipping Students for Success in Life



Monono Ekema :GCE Registrar



By Christopher Ambe Shu

The review of some subjects of the Cameroon GCE may have come late. But the review has brought commendable syllabus reforms, intended to prepare students for success in life, and not merely to pass certificate examinations.

The review, carried out recently in Limbe during a three-day conference organized by the Cameroon GCE Board in partnership with the Ministry of Secondary Education, was opened by Bapes Bapes Louis, Minister of Secondary Education.

 The minister who justified the review, challenged participants to emerge from the conference with syllabuses that keep pace with changes in policy orientation and are capable of propelling Cameroon into an emergent economy by 2035 as per the aspiration of the Head of State, President Paul Biya.

That is exactly what was done. And participants went home satisfied, now awaiting the implementation in the near future of these reforms.

“Created in 1976, the Cameroon GCE is 35 years old in 2011. For the first 17 years it was managed by the Ministry of National Education. Since 18 years it has been managed by the GCE Board under government supervision,” remarked Professor Ivo Leke Tambo, Secretary-General in the Ministry of Secondary Education, in his keynote presentation at the GCE Review Conference in Limbe, which held from April 4-6, 2011.

“During these 35 years, the GCE system has undergone some changes, especially in management and administration, but it has remained essentially a university preparatory examination in a school system where less than 10 percent of secondary school leavers go to university,” said Professor Tambo. “This situation creates a psychological problem for school leavers who fail and tend to see themselves as failures in life. Either the GCE system is modified to take care of the majority of secondary school leavers or another system of validating graduation from secondary school will emerge to take care of the 40-50 percent of the students who fail the GCE each year.”

The GCE system has controlled examinations that lead to graduation from English-speaking schools and therefore curriculum and teaching in those schools, said Professor Tambo.

 He challenged the GCE Board to “undertake reform that would open up learning avenues in schools so that these schools abandon teaching for success in examination and embrace teaching for success in life"

Professor Tambo, whose proposals to guide the review were applauded, thought that to ensure effective implementation of the reforms, the GCE Board should forge new partnerships for capacity -building and for sourcing of resources available within the Ministry of Secondary Education and other government departments.

Over 110 university lecturers and professors, veteran educationists, other resource persons, and some US and British experts converged on Saker Baptist College, Limbe and reviewed the syllabuses of the selected subjects. Other subjects, we gathered, will be reviewed in the future. Such a broad review of subjects was coming decades after the introduction of the GCE in Cameroon.

Justification for Syllabus Review

The Recorder learned that, on the instruction of Cameroon Government, the GCE Board, in collaboration with the Ministry of Secondary Education, organized the review conference to achieve the following objectives:(1) Tailor the syllabuses towards the attainment of President Paul Biya’s vision of transforming Cameroon into an emerging economy (2) Align syllabuses to current global trends and the realization of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in education (3)Ensure that there is smooth transition from the Ordinary Level syllabuses and those of the Advanced Level within the different subject areas (4)Keep pace with changes in education at the tertiary level geared towards professionalization and (5) Render the syllabuses more accommodating to concerns of inclusive education.

Input of Foreign Experts

   For the Cameroon GCE which enjoys international recognition to be reviewed, there was need for foreign experts to be on board. That is why two experts in educational matters came all from the USA and Britain

   From the UK, came Dr. David Davis of Educational Excellence (EDEXCEL). In his brief presentation, he said in the UK, syllabus review is every five years in order to effectively accommodate changing trends in the society and the world. He pointed out that in the UK attention is given to the fact that, not all students are good in English, Science and Mathematics and as such, vocational training is encouraged right up to the university level.

Dr.Davis lauded Cameroon GCE Board for developing a citizenship syllabus, noting that, UK is already moving away from national citizenship to embrace global citizenship concerns. He stressed that university recognition of the work of examining bodies is vital, adding that EDEXCEL is affiliated to many universities in the UK. He urged teachers not to be apprehensive of what will happen to their old notes with the introduction of curriculum innovations -because there is always room for training. He looked forward to continuous collaboration with Cameroon GCE Board, especially in the area of teacher training.

For his part, Mr. Jonathan Sills of Massachusetts, USA in his intervention, recommended a paradigm shift in the quality of education given students. He cautioned that skill development in a curriculum is not a matter to be given to chance, insisting that conscious efforts be made to concentrate on teaching thinking, using content rather than just imparting information

Subjects Reviewed

Monono  Ekema Humphrey, Registrar of the Cameroon GCE Board, in his opening remarks, said due to lack of means only some subjects were short listed for review  now, adding that others would be considered later. He called for a learner-and teacher-friendly review.

The following subjects were reviewed either at Ordinary or Advanced Level or at both levels:

1. Citizenship Education: This new subject is born to the GCE Board at the Ordinary Level. It treats current universal concepts such as human rights, democracy , child labor, terrorism, civic responsibilities, HIV/AIDS,etc aimed at transforming a person into a complete responsible national and a universal person.

2. French Language: It was recommended that, French should be taught in French at all times and not teaching French in English. That emphasis should be placed on Listening, Speaking, Reading and Written skills. Other changes were effected

3. Philosophy: O- Level Logic was born, whose proposed course content is basically introductory. At the A- level, the hitherto overloaded syllabus content was reduced- giving rise to a more focused program.

4. Geography: For O- Level, the geography of Cameroon is now a syllabus area emphasizing human and physical aspects. This reinforces the need of learners to have better knowledge of the country and highlights the potentials for and challenges to the economic growth of the country; now introduced basic ideas of models in both physical and human geography in order to bridge the gap between the Ordinary and Advanced Levels; themes  re-arranged into subject areas. Modification goes a long way to align the Ordinary and Advanced Level syllabuses. The new syllabus has equally put in place the impact of processes on man and the environments as well as their mitigation strategies. Also, more emphasis has been put on aspects such as global warming, desertification, internet communication and poverty spiral so as to stress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Hence the subject is made more applicable and relevant to society so as to make it more attractive.

Field work has been eliminated from Ordinary Level .Its elimination forestalls the school based assessment which was highly subjective.

 For A-Level, the 3-paper examination maintained with the following modifications: Some aspects of former papers 2 and 3 were integrated with paper 2 now based on physical and human geography theories and concepts. Paper 3 now deals exclusively with Cameroon, Map work and Techniques. Formerly, only the human aspect of Cameroon was emphasized, but with the review, Cameroon is considered in its entirety. Case studies in Human Geography have been restricted in order to lighten the syllabus content. Also the scheme of assessment is a novelty in the syllabus plan. Furthermore, to meet up with global trends and the realization of MDGs such as Global warming, desertification, globalization, food security, poverty spiral etc. have been given more emphasis.

5. English Language: A- Level English Language has been instituted and syllabus proposed. New syllabus structured into 2 parts: 1) School- based in the form of continuous assessment involving evaluation of school based projected and spoken English (2) Testing reading comprehension, grammar vocabulary, and summary and text reconstruction, composition and prescribed texts.

For O-Level English emphasis was placed on grammar and vocabulary. A major innovation was the inclusion of a school based project and spoken English to be assessed on set down criteria to avoid subjectivity.

6. Physics: 780 – A- Level Physics: Options added to reviewed syllabus to enable candidates orient themselves towards a career.  Content of each of the three papers modified as well as the weighting.

 7. Computer Science and Information and communication Technology:

– Computer Science (Ordinary Level)

Main innovations: broad scope with 50% of the syllabus devoted to Computer Science and 50% to ICT.

 Change in name from ‘Computer Science’ to ‘Foundations of Computer Science and Information Technology’ to reflect the new content.

 Greater visibility of key foundation concepts and relevance of content to industry.

Introduction of a section on electronic logic gates which form the foundation of computer hardware.

– Information and communication Technology (Advanced Level)

 Main innovations of syllabus are: clear and more precise specification of the practical content of the syllabus; Greater emphasis on the internet as a tool for providing a range of services for the modern economy; Introduction of concepts which facilitate an understanding of e-services such as: e-banking, E-commerce, e-government, e-governance.; need for candidates to develop skills in the use of multimedia; Greater awareness of the predominance of Information Systems including Health Information Systems, Management Information Systems, Library Information Systems.

– Computer Science (Advanced Level)

Main innovations of the syllabus are: Greater visibility of key concepts; Awareness of recent evolutions in processor technology; Awareness of novel operating System models; Greater emphasis on web technology

 8. Mathematics:

570 – Ordinary Level

At this level, the 2 Mathematics were maintained – 570 Mathematics and 575 Additional Mathematics. For the 2 Mathematics, changes were effected in terms of the structure of the examinations and the content. For the structure, unlike in the past, now all questions are compulsory.  Innovations were made to have a bridge between O-and A- Level by introducing certain new concepts.

Advanced Level

All A- Level Mathematics maintained:

          765 – Pure Maths with Mechanics (PMM)

          770 – Pure Maths with Statistics (PMS)

          775 –Further Maths

New topics introduced to adapt syllabuses to those of similar examination bodies and above all, new concepts such as logic and Boolean algebra have now been incorporated to enable candidates compete favorably for professional schools.

 9. Food Science and Home Economics:

 Changes effected to give a scientific background to better equip students for Food science and 740-Nutrition. Others who cannot further their education can be self-reliant. Changes made to take care of students who may not be able to continue after Ordinary levels, making them self reliant.

Course content of other countries was compared to give the content a global view and then adapt it to suit our environment. Emphasis on the practical aspect was reinforced by introducing new topics and also on student based assessment. Assessment Objectives were also restructured in line with Blooms taxonomy level of evaluation to meet technological trends. The structure of the examination was slightly modified as well.

Before the conference rose, participants were all agreed that Cameroon GCE Board is on the right path by professionalizing the courses that it offers, so to take care of those may be unable to proceed academically.

They were also unanimous that the reforms would be effectively implemented if all teachers on the field are recycled; if the Minister of Secondary Education liaises with his counterpart of Higher Education for Teacher Training Schools to incorporate the reviewed syllabuses into their training programs.

It should be noted that the Cameroon GCE board was went operational in 1993 and started its first exams in 1994, with Azong Wara as Pioneer Registrar, then came Omer Weyi Yembe.

Monono Ekema Humphrey, a seasoned educationist is incumbent GCE Registrar while Professor Peter Abety, GCE Board Chair

A. Patassé Dies at 74; Led Central African Republic

DOUALA, Cameroon (AP) — Ange-Félix Patassé, who led the desperately poor nation of Central African Republic for a decade before being ousted in a 2003 coup, has died at a hospital in neighboring Cameroon, officials said. He was 74.

Ange -Felix Patasse in 2005

Mr. Patassé returned from exile in late 2009 and finished second in January’s presidential election. He lost to the current president, François Bozizé, who as head of an insurgent army that seized the capital in a hail of mortar fire had overthrown Mr. Patassé.

Mr. Patassé’s spokesman, Guy-Simplice Kodegue, said the cause of the former president’s death was unknown. Hospital officials said he died of complications of diabetes.

He had been blocked from leaving the country for medical treatment on two occasions and had only been allowed to depart on Saturday, Mr. Kodegue said.

Mr. Patassé served as minister and then prime minister under the former dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa before becoming president in 1993 and winning re-election in 1999.
Opponents accused Mr. Patassé of rampant corruption, and he survived repeated attempted coups as well as military mutinies over unpaid salaries and labor disputes.

Then, in 2003, he was toppled in a coup while outside the country and went into exile in Togo. Thousands of people could be seen ransacking his lavish private residence, shouting "Patassé out!" as the invading fighters looked on.

Mr. Patassé was born in Paoua in the Central African Republic on Jan. 25, 1937, and was the country’s last surviving former president.

Central African Republic has suffered five coups and myriad army mutinies since independence from France 50 years ago.

Despite the nation’s wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium, Mr. Bozizé’s corruption-beset government remains perpetually strapped for cash. Its authority is mostly limited to the capital, Bangui, and armed bandits and insurgents roam the anarchic countryside.

Cameroon trims electoral body's powers before vote

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Cameroon's parliament stripped its electoral body of the right to
announce provisional results in future elections, and opposition parties called the move a
"foul game" by President Paul Biya to steal another term.

The government proposed the change in light of the violent post-election crisis in Ivory
Coast, where electoral commission results showing incumbent Laurent Gbagbo lost were quickly
reversed by the country's highest court.

Cameroon's new law gives the Constitutional Council exclusive power to release results from
future elections, stripping the electoral body ELECAM of the right to issue partial and
provision numbers as ballots are counted.

"We foresee the ruling party being up for another foul game as presidential elections are
expected later this year," said Joseph Banadzem, an official in the main opposition party
Social Democratic Front (SDF).

"The president of the constitutional council can just sit in Yaounde and declare anything he
wants," he said.
Biya, who took office in 1982, is one of Africa's longest serving leaders and is expected to
seek another term in a vote to be held this year in the oil-producing Central African state.

The new law also expands the number of positions on the electoral commission's board from 12
to 18. New members have yet to be appointed to the body, and opposition groups said they
hoped the members would be neutral.

The 12-member body in its current form includes 11 hardline members of Biya's CPDM party.

Cameroon: Cholera epidemic linked to acute poverty

By Mofor Samual Che,Health Correspondent

Ensuring good health requires many good actions.One of which is consuming a sufficiently balanced diet.Others include: social security and domestic stability. 

These must be provided by socio-economic policies, which lie outside the direct sphere of action of the medical profession. Living standards ,for example ,are directly linked to income levels and educational status- and these in turn depend on social and economic policies.

Physical environment and in particular sanitary environment has for long been recognized as having a profound influence on health. Cholera is a classic example of a waterborne disease among the 80% of diseases associated with unsafe water and poor environmental hygiene. It spreads along man’s route of travel from the endemic area as a result of contaminated water supplies along the route. 

According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Health, the fact file for cholera epidemics in 2010 reads as follows: total number of cases affected: 10000; number of deaths: 600; start of epidemic: May 2010; most hard hit region: northern region; other areas affected: Yaoundé, Buea, Douala, Bafoussam etc; peak of epidemic was in the Far North with 150- 200 cases per day; 8830 of the 10000 cases were registered in the northern region of the country; of the 600 deaths, the northern region recorded 573 deaths. 

The causes of the epidemic was the consumption by the local population of contaminated water and food, poor hygiene and sanitation, drinking from the same source with animals, drinking bilibili(local gin) produced with water of doubtful quality with people drinking from the same calabash. UNICEF says only 5% of the people in the Far North have access to latrines; while less than 30% have access to safe drinking water.

As far as this year’s World Water Day is concerned, it was being celebrated against the backdrop of another cholera epidemic right in the heart of the seat of state institutions. Currently there are 2052 reported cases by the Ministry of Public Health as Yaoundé and the Centre Region as a whole was the scene of action. Here again, 14 deaths were recorded. Only close to 44% of Cameroonians have access to potable water and the coverage rate in the national territory is 36%. Authorities of Camwater Utilities Corporation talk of stepping up the coverage rate to 60% by 2015. 

The science of preventive medicine is now being directed more and more towards a study of the relationship between man and his environment; and it is becoming increasingly evident that the ultimate elimination of disease must depend on the adjustment between them. This adjustment can be effected in two ways- either man must alter his way of living to suit his environment or he must modify his environment to suit his way of living. The ultimate objective must be the creation of conditions of living in which disease cannot survive. These conditions can be brought about only by coordinated progress in economic, cultural and social spheres leading to a better pattern of living, since the process is an evolutionary one it must be watched and guided if the final result is to be integrated whole.

   

The decline of communicable disease in the more educated and wealthier countries followed this pattern because, as they advanced in culture, people demanded such sanitary amenities as pure water supplies, safe disposal of human waste and adequate housing and could afford to live in conditions which reduced the degree of contact between members of the community and disease-producing agents. A minimum standard of living was accepted by public opinion and was enforced by legislation governing working conditions and wages, housing, environmental sanitation and control of communicable disease; and by instrument of social welfare such as free education, free medical treatment, old age pensions, unemployment benefits and financial help for those in need.

The history of the recession of communicable disease in advanced countries has important lessons for those concerned in promoting the health of people in tropical countries like Cameroon. Medical science alone cannot eliminate ill health and disease from a community. 

Poverty and the diseases with which it is associated can be abolished only by a long term policy of education and economic advancement resulting in better standards of living. The campaign to improve conditions of life requires the combined efforts of agriculturalists, educationists, doctors, engineers, economists and others, and their efforts must be integrated in such a way that development is balanced and continuous.

In many cases faulty habits of living are important factors in maintaining a disease in a community. Low economic and social levels as is the case in Cameroon, particularly in the northern half of the country and most urban communities, are associated with apathy, ignorance and low standards of personal hygiene. A system for disposal of human excreta, no matter how well planned, will not succeed so long as individuals continue to see no evil in indiscriminate defaecation in the vicinity of their dwellings.

Low standards of personal hygiene are reflected in low standards of public hygiene, and efforts to raise the latter will have little effect if the former remain low. The end result being the creation of a fertile ground for endemic communicable disease like cholera to thrive as is the case with Cameroon where the disease is on a ten region ride having “walked across” eight regions already. 

Community development designed to help people to help themselves is one of the most successful ways of raising standards of living in Cameroon. All important environment conditions fall within scope and self- help schemes of various kinds can be started. These schemes have an important cultural influence because they are educational and they develop initiative, cooperation and a sense of responsibility in those who participate in them. 

Specially important are programmes connected with agriculture, housing and sanitation. Public health activities which are suitable for self-help schemes are: the construction of protected wells, protection of springs, composting of wastes and construction of houses of better design. 

With assistance and supervision improvements can be effected in all of these, and since they have been carried out at the wish and by the labour of the people themselves they will be valued. Such is the kind of doctrine that has to be inculcated into the minds of Cameroonians. Secondly before any decision is made as to the object of the community’s activities, public opinion should be consulted about a number of improvements needed locally and these should be widely discussed. The people should be led to select the objective which is most necessary and desirable. 

Cooperation in the programme will be facilitated by forming a committee of locally influential people who will lead the community and be responsible for organizing its purpose and value. It should be noted that the standards set should be reasonably possible of attainment by a poor and uneducated community (as is the case with some communities in the Far North); and the type and construction and method of usage must be related to local social, educational and economic levels. 

Large scale, forceful development schemes imposed on a population from outside have often failed in the past. Real development must be for the people and achieved through the people if it is to be stable, advance and bring the benefits hoped for.

Unless development schemes are broadly based and cover all important aspects of human activity, they tend to lead to unbalanced progress and create fresh problems. 

In order to put these cholera epidemics under control the powers that be, must aim at the development of appropriate water and sanitation systems technically adapted to local skills, materials and economically feasible, culturally acceptable and environmentally sound. Greater emphasis should be given to sanitation development and to closer links with water supply and solid and liquid waste management in the planning of new programmes.

                                                                            

CAMEROON:LAUNCHING OF NEW HIV/AIDS CURE: AOT

                                                PRESS RELEASE

 Cameroon,Buea April 2,2011-Dr Fru “s Garden of Eden International Healing and Research Foundation (Dr Fru’s GEIHR Foundation), Wonya Mavio-Buea is delighted to announce to the national and international communities that, it  has discovered a new and very effective medicinal product named Anti-Oxy-Toxin (AOT) used in the rapid treatment of HIV/AIDS cases.

The launching of AOT is billed for May 27, 2011 at the Foundation’s Headquarters Muea-road, Buea, to be attended by people of all walks from all over the world.

AOT supplies the body with both natural and supernatural energy to quickly revitalize itself.


AOT acts in dual capacities by releasing instant light energy and acts as a raw material for the body to process and release other forms of energy.


It revives the cells of immune-depressed individuals.AOT is a combination of extracts of over 80 life-saving medicinal plants. It has a holistic approach in handling HIV/AIDS or a variety of immune-depressed diseases in the body.


AOT has been discovered by renowned Cameroonian health researcher Dr.Richard Fru, who is also the producer of Try-Me, a miraculous and holistic healing panacea.




Journalists scramble to interview Dr.Fru on his Breakthrough!!

Dr Fru is the founder of Dr Fru’s Garden of Eden International Healing and Research Foundation, Wonya-Mavio, Buea -Cameroon.

It is worth noting that, AOT is anti-oxidative, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal.anti-parasitic, anti-viral, anti-toxin and anti-negative radiations.

It cleanses the blood and boosts the immune system both naturally and supernaturally.

“Everything is possible with God, Here comes the long-awaited drug for the treatment of HIV/AIDS: AOT, " remarked Dr Richard Fru after the discovery.

For more Information contact :

Tel + 237 77 62 89 80 or +237 99 95 88 93

Email: doctorfru@yahoo.com

        : gaeinamed_cam@yahoo.com
Face book: Dr Fru’s GEIHR foundation


Dr. Richard Fru