South Africa Shames Africa Again!

By Tazoacha Asonganyi  in Yaounde 

Following the finalization of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa, Bishop Desmond Tutu kept explaining to the world that there was no “ghastly racial bloodbath, ... orgy of revenge and retribution against whites for all the degradations that black South Africans had suffered from colonial times to the apartheid era…because of the self-discipline, simple decency, and ability to forgive...of South Africans.”
      We all believed him, and thought that the “self-discipline” and “simple decency” were traits that would also determine the relationship between South Africans and the rest of us. This was especially because Thabo Mbeki, who eventually became president of South Africa, had in a speech to the United Nations University in Tokyo in 1998 titled “The African Renaissance, South Africa and the World” stated unequivocally that: “As South Africans, we owe our emancipation from apartheid in no small measure to the support and solidarity extended to us by all the peoples of Africa. In that sense our victory over the system of white minority domination is an African victory. This, I believe, imposes an obligation on us to use this gift of freedom, which is itself an important contribution to Africa's Renaissance, to advance the cause of the peoples of our continent.”
     Mbeki also stated in the speech as follows: “Many African peoples throughout Southern Africa sacrificed their lives to help us secure our freedom. Others further afield ignored the fact of their own poverty to contribute resources to guarantee our emancipation. I am convinced that this immense contribution was made not only so that we end the apartheid crime against humanity, but also so that we build a society of which all Africa would be proud because it would address also the wrong and negative view of an Africa that is historically destined to fail…Necessarily, therefore, we are engaged and will continue to be engaged in Africa's efforts to guarantee peace for her children, to feed and clothe them, to educate them and to bring them up as human beings as human as any other in the world, their dignity restored and their equal worth recognized and valued throughout our universe.”
And so it was a surprise to Africans in 2008 when television screens were beaming to households in Africa and across the world, images of angry South Africans mauling down Africans from other countries on the pretext that they were a social burden to their country! At that time, South African leaders said publicly that the “senseless violence” brought shame to South Africa.
      In reaction to the violence, I wrote an essay titled “South Africa: Mocking the TRC” in which I stated as follows:
“President Mbeki was one of those behind NEPAD, which is supposed to be a launching pad for the unity of Africa. So far, African leaders have been too jealous of the little parcels of power they retain in their individual countries to fully contemplate the effective unity of the peoples of Africa. These xenophobic tendencies are a call for them to remove the psychological barriers that block the different African peoples within the colonial entities created by the arbitrary lines drawn on maps by Europeans in 1884. They should stop using clever subterfuges to avoid their reckoning with these pressing calls and rise to their historic responsibility.”
       Following many such shocked reactions from around Africa and the world to the 2008 violence, and the public condemnatory declarations of South African leaders, we all thought that Thabo Mbeki and his peers were working hard to fulfill the promise he made in his 1998 UNU speech to ensure that "the colour black (is no longer perceived as) a symbol of fear, evil and death...(and to remove the burden whose) weight dictates that (the African) will never straighten her back and thus discover that she is as tall as the slave master who carries the whip, (and) have the opportunity to question why the master has legal title both to the commodity she transports on her back and the labour she must make available to ensure that the burden on her shoulders translates into dollars and yen…”
     We were wrong! Our television screens have brought to us during the last weeks, virtually the same images we saw from South Africa in 2008, this time showing even more intense violence against Africans, for the same reasons that were given in 2008! In his 1998 speech, Thabo Mbeki opened with the Latin saying, “Ex Africa semper aliquid novi!” (Something new always comes out of Africa). What we are witnessing from South Africa is only new because of its heightened intensity of hatred, anger, violence, and absolute disrespect for the “colour black”! What is new is the xenophobic declarations of even some prominent leaders of South Africa! This is a great pity not only for South Africa but for all of Africa.
     There is no doubt that the “burden whose weight dictates that the African will never straighten her back” is the outcome of a "long and painful history" symbolised by what Europeans did to Africa in Berlin in 1884. Indeed, in a recent reaction to this other show of “xenophobic South Africa,” Achille Mbembe re-echoed this fact when he wrote:
     “No African is a foreigner in Africa! No African is a migrant in Africa! Africa is where we all belong, notwithstanding the foolishness of our boundaries. No amount of national-chauvinism will erase this. No amount of deportations will erase this. Instead of spilling black blood on no other than Pixley ka Seme Avenue (!), we should all be making sure that we rebuild this Continent and bring to an end a long and painful history — that which, for too long, has dictated that to be black (it does not matter where or when), is a liability.”
      That is our burden. No one will help Africa to remove the burden. No one will help Africa to rebuild the continent. Not even the politics of pity of those for whom our burden is a highly priced resource. We will have to do it ourselves, on our own initiative. Only Africa can give itself the status, the image, the integrity, the prestige and the consideration it wishes for itself!

Manipulating images with digital technology

By Tazoacha Asonganyi in Yaounde.

In February 1994 the journal Scientific American published an article titled “When seeing is not believing.” The article showed a real photograph of Margaret Thatcher and George Bush that was used to create all types of images. The new images created from the original included an “angry” image and an “intimate whisper” image. Further, the article also discussed a faked photograph published in 1988 that showed PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat shaking hands with Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir, with President Reagan looking on.

All of this was to highlight the fact that the production of such images had become easy using “paint” and “image processing software to rearrange, recolor, and otherwise transform the elements of a scene,” and that “digital technology can become a novel form of spin doctoring.”

The article also highlighted a 1991 cut-and-paste photograph that turned a 1923 picture of three soviet farmers into “evidence” to “confirm” the continued imprisonment of three lost fliers in Vietnam. That "evidence" photograph caused me to focus attention on a photograph that was circulating in the military court in Yaounde in 1999 during the famed secession case that showed Ebenezer Akwanga and his co-accused carrying guns and other weapons. I made a photocopy of the Scientific American article and gave it to Joseph Mbah Ndam, a member of the defence team, to use as an argument against the veracity of that photograph. After discussing it with him, he also produced a cut-and-paste photograph that was circulating in Cameroon at that time showing Fru Ndi in a “Change” national football  team, and promised to submit it with the article in defence of the accused.

Multiple exposures and printing, cutting-and-pasting, and retouching have always been weapons in the hands of political propagandists for doctoring photographs to manipulate public opinion. With the advent of digital technology, it has indeed become even easier and quicker to produce false images for all types of propaganda and spin doctoring.

In politics, spin doctoring is the art of turning the reporting of real events to your advantage. A spin doctor is therefore a person (political aide, press officer, etc) whose job includes the effort to control the way some events are presented to the public, in order to raise the profile of the politician in the public mind. It is about ensuring a favorable interpretation of the activities of a politician. To be successful, a spin doctor should have a very fertile mind, and always think ahead of the general population.

But the spin doctor should never take the people for granted, or underestimate their alertness and intelligence. The spin doctor should always guard against creating events that did not occur or adding shouting, imaginary elements to real events. When they indulge in such overzealousness, they easily blow their spin.

A recent example is what is today described as “photomontage” on the website of the civil cabinet of the presidency of Cameroon showing Paul Biya bowing over coffins of our fallen soldiers in the Boko Haram "war" during a ceremony in which it was common knowledge that he did not physically participate. The newspaper, La Nouvelle Presse, reported that those in-charge of managing the website declared as follows: «John Fru Ndi n’avait-il pas déjà  usé du même subterfuge en janvier 1993 pour faire croire aux Camerounais qu’il avait salué Bill Clinton?» [Did John Fru Ndi not use the same subterfuge in 1993 to give the impression to Cameroonians that he greeted Bill Clinton?].

Well, maybe he did, but the difference here is that John Fru Ndi was effectively in Washington at the Clinton inaugural, so even if his own picture was manipulated, people were likely to believe it because they did not know the truth. As for the "photomontage" of the civil cabinet, Paul Biya was not at the ceremony so only illiterates would have believed that he could have been out of the country and still been present at the ceremony. Unfortunately for the civil cabinet, only literate people visit their website and could not take the picture for real.

To add insult to injury, when the “photomontage” started trending in various networks, the “spin doctors” that had created it failed to provide a positive spin for an explanation. Many actors were left to fumble through explanations based on the senseless accusation of third parties or the peddling of the lie that the civil cabinet does not indulge in “photomontage.” Unfortunately for them, there was abundant evidence from the website that “photomontage” is common practice of the web managers.

Issa Tchiroma who chose to become part of the mess has now taken upon himself to report journalists and newspapers that covered the “photomontage” scandal and other issues to the National Communication Council (NCC). The vogue today is to invoke the fight against Boko Haram and link all reportage and opinions that are not favorable to the regime to the anti-terrorism law; the same law that the same Issa Tchiroma swore to Cameroonians that it would not be used to suppress freedoms. I hope the expert journalists in NCC will know that the journalists did only their job!

It is high time CPDM militants and their regime, know that a CPDM militant may be the president of Cameroon today, but the presidency is not the CPDM’s. Issa Tchiroma and others like him are giving the impression that Cameroonians have become so irrelevant to their exercise of power that they are not obliged to give any explanation or offer any apology for any actions that demean the presidency.

2015 Cameroon GCE Examinations to begin on May 5

Registrar dismisses claim payment of 2014 examiners' dues   now is to pre-empt strike action

 By Christopher Ambe

 Sir Humphrey Ekema  Monono, registrar of the Cameroon General Certificate of Education (GCE) Board has said the 2015 session of the  GCE exams  will begin on May 5 with  practicals,noting that all is set.

Sir  Ekema Monono

      But  the registrar has dismissed  claims from detractors that the on-going payment of the balance of out-of-station allowance for 2014 examiners is intended to pre-empt any strike action that examiners may be planning  to  mar the smooth running of this year’s exams.

       Sir Ekema Monono was responding, last Tuesday April 14, to questions from The Recorder concerning this year’s GCE Exams, in his office in Buea.

      Asked if the on-going payment of 2014 examiners’ dues was to pre-empt any possible strike action by teachers, Sir Ekema Monono, replied:

    “The 2014 examiners’ out -of -station allowance that we owed was their deserved right. And we thank Government for having made the money available at the right time. Teachers needed it as well as other examiners.

    “But this was not to pre-empt any strike action, because I don’t think my teachers were building up any strike action against the GCE Board. They trust and believe in their Registrar and for now what binds us is the truth; money was owed them and the money has been given; if they were preparing for that, then it is time for them to let go  such as an idea; it is not necessary because the Board is there to carter for their interests”

       The Registrar said the number of candidates for the exams is always on the increase. “This year we have more than 180,000 candidates up from 164,789 testees who sat for the exams last year.”, he said

     The Registrar regretted that some dishonest people are reportedly trading fake question papers, claiming that there are this year’s leaked examination questions.

 “Candidates and parents should be warned not to be tortured or deceived by detractors who purport to have the GCE question papers; so those circulating such papers should be discouraged by both parents and students,” he appealed, emphasizing, “ Question papers of the GCE will only reach candidates in examination rooms, not through some other source.”

     Sir Ekema  Monono  disclosed that one major challenge facing the GCE Board now is the non-production of last year’s examination certificates. “Certificates for 2014 haven’t been printed because we have a hitch: managerial problem of contract award procedure. But I am certain that the problem will soon be overcome and our candidates will be served appropriately”

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Homosexuality gaining grounds in Cameroon ?

By Tanji Ntonifor

 Homosexuality is a crime in Cameroon yet it appears to be gaining grounds in this Central African country.

      According to Section 347 of Cameroon penal code, "Whoever has sexual relationship with a person of the same sex shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to five years and a fine from 20.000Fcfa to 200.000 Fcfa"

     But a good number of Cameroonian youths are reportedly falling for this outlawed sexual orientation for various reasons with some arguing that it is a legal practice in civilized countries such as the USA and parts of Europe.

      Surprisingly in Cameroon, some Human Rights Organizations that are fully conscious of the position of the Cameroonian law on homosexuality and lesbianism publicly back this same-sex sexual orientation on grounds that it is a Human Rights issue.

Even international organizations such as   Amnesty International have on several occasions chastised Cameroon for prosecuting persons perceived to be homosexual or lesbian.

    Amnesty International has even appealed to Cameroon to de-criminalize homosexuality, yet it remains a crime in this country.

     It is public knowledge that in some Cameroonian villages those found guilty of homosexuality or lesbianism are treated as outcasts and given the treatment reserved for witches and wizards.

      Many youths have been molested, detained and prosecuted for allegedly being gay.

According to reports, Nanje Semobia Ernest, who campaigning for the de-criminalization of homosexuality in Cameroon was picked up in Limbe last March 10  by security agents.Nanje was doing the campaign after they organized a seminar on “Sexual minorities and Homosexuality”, which was interpreted by local authorities as promoting homosexuality.

     It would be recalled that a certain Namondo Yvette Koffi was last March 2014 reportedly detained in Limbe suspected of lesbianism. She told human rights advocates how she was molested in detention.

      Later, Namondo, said to be a member of Human rights NGO, was reportedly dragged to court to answer charges against her for promoting lesbianism. It is not clear  whether her alleged partner was finally picked-up and how the matter ended.

    Despite the pressure being mounted on Cameroon by some Developed countries to legalize homosexuality, many still hold it is not everything that is done in the Europe and or America that Cameroon must copy blindly.

Exclusive Interview: Hon Ayah Paul Castigates SCNC !

* Says he has never been its member!

In a previously exclusive interview with The Recorder, Hon.Justice Ayah Paul, whose services were highly solicited by the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) that is fighting for the independence of Southern Cameroons, chose not to answer questions about the pressure group, preferring to address such in a subsequent interview. In the following interview with Recorder Editor Christopher Ambe, Hon Justice Ayah, now Advocate-General at the Supreme Court of Cameroon clears public doubts about his link with the SCNC. He says that although he has been insistent and consistent that, there is no legal document on the British Southern Cameroons having ever joined the Republic of Cameroon, he has never been an SCNC member, as purported. The Magistrate of Exceptional Class, in this interview, castigates the SCNC for its lack of the sense of direction and leadership. Hon.Ayah also talks about his new job.  

Hon.Justice Ayah Paul /Photo Credit:Ayah Paul

Excerpts:

 Honouble Justice Ayah, before serving as two-term MP, you had put in a total of 24 years in the judiciary: you were on the bench for 20 years and only four years in the Legal Department. Now you are back in the Legal Department-this time at the highest level, the Supreme Court, as Advocate-General. Professionally, how do you feel just a few weeks in your new office after your swearing-in?  What is the job of an advocate-general?

                                      

Ayah: Some 37 years ago, I took the oath of the legal profession to do justice to all manner of people without fear or favour. After twelve years of recess during which I served as a member of parliament, I have now returned to my profession to continue to do justice to all manner of people in keeping with my oath. Just that my jurisdiction now is essentially appellate. That means that my new duty is to appreciate the judgments of the lower courts. In other words, cases will come to us essentially on appeal. To elaborate a little, when a judgment is given by a court for the first time, a party dissatisfied with the judgment may appeal to the Court of Appeal having jurisdiction. If that party or some other party to that same case is dissatisfied with the judgment of the Court of Appeal, the party so dissatisfied would appeal to the Supreme Court.

      The Supreme Court comprises the Bench and the Office of the Attorney General, (what we call Procureur General’s Chambers in Cameroun at the level of the Supreme Court). The main duty of the Office of the Attorney General is to file submissions in the Supreme Court, stating whether the two lower courts have applied the law properly or not. An “advocate general” is a deputy of the Attorney General. He does file submissions in the court on cases assigned to him by the attorney general just as it has been explained. He then argues in defense of his submissions during oral arguments in open court or in camera (i.e. when sessions of the court are not public).

     How do I feel? It is to me business as usual, having served in the legal department for four years previously. Yet is my jurisdiction far more extensive as it now covers the entire national territory. In other words, the burden may be much more onerous; much more challenging.

      Whatever the situation, you are not without knowing that everything on earth grows up to God. One cannot help feeling a certain sense of fulfillment when one is appointed to the highest court of the land; let alone when, as in my case, the appointment is preceded by promotion. You may have learnt that, about half a year ago, I moved up to index 1.400 which is the highest index point in the country’s public service. Even the highest cold-blooded introvert would not remain indifferent to such a rare development. Therefore can I never ever thank God enough!

In our last interview, you did not want to comment on the widely-circulated allegation that you were elected new SCNC chairman; whether you accepted the post or not. I hope you would like to comment on the subject now to put the records straight.

To begin with, are you an SCNC member? Why do you think SCNC supporters are desperate that you become their leader?

Ayah: On December 31, 2009, the President of the Republic of Cameroun, in his traditional end-of-year speech, was emphatic that the only documents deposited in the secretariat of the United Nations on the independence of Cameroun are those relative to January 1, 1960. That was the position I had had the courage to hold publicly. The most authoritative voice of the country making such a public pronouncement in the name of the people for international consumption was a happy convergence of assertions between us; and a logical booster to me! Courageously reading everything into Article 102(2) of the UN Charter, which provides that, should the boundaries of a member state at independence subsequently change, the change should be evidenced in writing and the relevant document(s) deposited in the UN secretariat, I saw before me a road free of speed brakes. I was insistent and consistent that there is no legal document on the British Southern Cameroons having ever joined the Republic of Cameroun; and that “reunification” was consequently a fiction”. My reasoned opinion was published in a variety of media, and that apparently endeared me to a considerable number of Southern Cameroonians.

      When my tour in the National Assembly came to the end, delegations upon delegations of Southern Cameroonians approached me physically, by mail, by telephone calls and/or by resolutions, entreating me to take over the leadership of Southern Cameroonians. This included accepting the position of the National Chairman of SCNC; acceding to the position of the national head of a coalition of the various groups the international community had been urging the government of Cameroun to dialogue with; and taking the position of the person endorsed by several smaller groups of the Southern Cameroons’ external elite to speak in their name.

        My reluctance or, perhaps, hesitation to take a public stance hinged on three main points. In the first place, SCNC was in far too many factions: at least five at the material time. I insisted that SCNC should first keep its house in order. The counter argument was that my leadership would automatically generate order consequent upon a large following. But then, the teething issue was how to bring the various factions together to give birth to the leadership. “I never can tell people I am your leader”, I kept harping. “People should tell me you are our leader”. And there did I rest my case.

        The second issue was that I was not yet a formal member of SCNC as I had not registered. Nor am I a formal member even now. As I made this point abundantly clear in my public pronouncements, many were those who contended that SCNC was not a political party, and so registration was not a legal requirement. While I was being encouraged almost worldwide to lead Southern Cameroonians, persons with sordid interest took to the press, claiming I wanted to enter a storey building through the window. Just imagine the contradiction: whereas many persons were virtually begging me to take up leadership, a tiny few claimed I was using unorthodox means to accede to leadership!

      Also did sectarian publications take the central stage – warning that “another South-westerner” would only become the next national chairman of SCNC over the dead bodies of “north-westerners.”  A certain Nwachan Thomas even unilaterally purported to [have] appointed himself “One of the Three National Chairmen of SCNC”. He fraudulently went ahead and wrote to a number of international bodies in that fictitious capacity, shamefully impervious to ridicule.

      Thirdly, SCNC was not solidly on the ground. Some of the several so-called national chairmen were only busy grabbing money from wherever and from whomsoever upon fraudulent political misrepresentations. (I prefer not to elaborate on that for the moment)... But not without standing on the one serious issue, namely, the Chia factor: the so-called UN State of Cameroon. Nothing has ever been as destructive to the Southern Cameroons’ unity of purpose as Chia’s fictitious doctrine that, by a unique departure from the usual, a territory has exceptionally been ceded to an individual without any UN debates, let alone a resolution of the UN Security Council!

      It is of course elementary knowledge that the UN takes decisions only by way of public debates ending in resolutions? How come that a good many educated Southern Cameroonians have been dragged into some dream land on the total fallacy that Southern Cameroons has been handed over to some individual by a secret decision of the UN Secretary General? What seriously speaking is the value of the pieces of paper the ignorant masses have been deceived to buy in the name of UN State of Cameroon’s identity cards? Where do they use them, and for what purposes?

      It is perhaps a matter of gullibility stemming from enduring frustrations. But the overall effect of such machinations is that many are Southern Cameroonians who have been turned away from crusading for dialogue as ordained or recommended by the international community. These misguided fellow-countrymen are ignorantly glorifying in the hopeless expectation of imaginary UN intervention in a hypothetical distant tomorrow. All that only does lead to the contemptuous gloating of the present dispensation over our ineptitude or ineffectiveness! You would agree with me that few reasonable persons would go headlong into such disgusting cacophony. Caution was therefore of the utmost essence.

      Aside from these proximate events was the distant but telling story of Southern Sudan! They had fought solidly together against the common enemy, only to turn their weapons against each other before the dust over their common victory had settled .The question then was: if we are already on one another’s throat even before the elephant has been killed, was it worthwhile going hunting? Very like fighting for victory with intent to destroy the victory! 

      When therefore SCNC was said to have elected me in Kumba, there was absolute need for introspection before ever coming out with a public pronouncement on my position. My stance had to be the issue of my own sovereign and unadulterated volition after careful contemplation. Within days, however, some empty vessels had resorted to hollow virulent disparaging attacks... I just do hope they have come back to their right senses by now !

Some SCNC supporters think-and strongly too, that by accepting the appointment as Advocate-General at the Supreme Court, you are now qualified to be called a traitor. What is your take on this?

Ayah: I know the portion of deciderata that advises us to listen to others, “even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story”. But overlook not the preceding caveat that “as much as possible WITHOUT SURRENDER...” When, therefore, the dull and the ignorant force themselves into the dazzling limelight that blinds their vision instead, we would be failing in our duty of love of neighbour to gratify their pomposity. I took oath to do justice to all manner of people... I alone reserve the right to call off that oath at the time I will appoint in complete sovereignty. I refuse to accommodate being led by the blind and the ignorant in a domain where I can lay some modest claim to a reasonable degree of masterly expertise. The only day I shall betray my resolve to do justice to all manner of people is the day the devil may influence me to voluntarily contradict that oath prematurely.

      As of now, my integrity has not and cannot be shaken by hungry, idle and envious cowards in the marketplace who recklessly call on others to sacrifice for them always. Nor by beggars at foreign international airports who have volunteered into neo-slavery from cowardice! Much less by those who unabashedly take cover in hideouts during the day only to vent their frustrations under cover of darkness in senseless and ineffectual internet war.

      You may wish to see with me that it was right of some Southern Cameroonian senior citizen to state that SCNC stands for Southern Cameroons National COWARDS. Of all the self-proclaimed saintly judges, tell me anyone you know that can courageously only pronounce the name Southern Cameroons in public. It all boils down to the one truth that the grape is not sour just because the hare had struggled unsuccessfully to pick it. Ayah remains as tall as ever, perhaps even taller today! My courage is relatively unparalleled, all from my unfettered and singular volition. That volition shall never lean on the indistinctive voices of some cowardly criminal mobs.

You have often argued that what the SCNC is fighting for is true in law and history. Do you still hold that opinion now that you are at the Supreme Court?

Ayah: The law does not fall into desuetude. I have told you in strong and direct terms that the President of the Republic himself has declared that there is no document in the secretariat of the UN on “reunification”. Nor are you unaware that Mr. President did set up a panel of Camerounese intellectuals to probe the situation, and that the panel came out with the conclusion that there is no document showing that there ever has been “reunification”. I was not a member of the panel. But they came to the same conclusion like me. The panel and I are simply emphasizing a notorious legal exactitude that does not suffer any assertion to the contrary.

      The Supreme Court, you say? But that is the apex of justice! It is from there that the cerebral legal fountain should profusely eject soothing rills down the slopes to quench the thirst for justice. It is a platform not only to wash clean legal filth from the lower courts, but a pedestal where justice has to be dispensed in colossal abundance.

Hon.Justice Ayah, now that you are at the Supreme Court, if you were given an SCNC matter to prosecute, how would react?

Ayah: The question is too general, and unclear. If you mean a case against SCNC activities, I would tell whoever has ears to hear that international law prevails over domestic law. With an international ruling in favour of SCNC as against Cameroun; and with international calls for dialogue between the two parties, domestic law must be held in abeyance. To put it in the other official language: l’international tient en état le national... I would otherwise decline jurisdiction.

      Let me add this bit: dialogue is the taproot of peace. The wise readily avail themselves of dialogue in order to spare the community the destruction of property and human lives. The resources saved in consequence are used to build today for tomorrow. The foolish and the proud precipitously plunge their communities into conflict, destroying property and human lives. At the end of hostilities, they borrow to rebuild yesterday today.

      And forget not that every instance of hostilities necessarily ends up at the table for dialogue. What can be wiser than going straight for dialogue and preventing destruction and the waste of resources? Those crusading for dialogue are peace-builders and therefore the children of God. They deserve our support and encouragement.

Can you confirm the allegation that you are senior in rank to the new Procureur-General of the Republic, yet you are one of his assistants whereas professional seniority is supposed to be taken seriously in the judicial corps when appointments are concerned?

Ayah: So much has been published about that situation that I prefer that others talk about it than the interested party that I am.

Are there some other doubts in the mind of the public that you want to use this medium to clear?

Ayah: We never know what is on others’ minds. Even the devil doesn’t. If the devil knew, the devil would not begin by tempting you. Like Christ, the devil would simply tell you: Get up and follow him. But the devil does tempt you because he/she cannot read your mind. Some eminent English judge succinctly put it this way: “It is common knowledge that the thought of man shall not be tried; for even the devil knoweth not the thought of man.”  So let them ask and I will give them the proper answers!

NB:This Exclusive Interview was First Published in The RECORDER Newspaper, Cameroon, of April 1, 2015 as lead story)