By Christopher Ambe
Mr. Christopher Tiku
Tambe, 48, is now a household name in Cameroon especially in the Southwest Region
from where he hails, resides and works in different capacities.
This out spoken father
and native of Manyu Divison is a Board member of ELECTIONS Cameroon (ELECAM), a
University of Buea lecturer and Southwest Regional Secretary, National
Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms (NCHRF), which duties he performs with
total commitment and professionalism, drawing the admiration of the public and
hierarchy.
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| Christopher Tiku Tambe/Photo Credit :Chris Ambe |
Truth be told: Even
if Tiku Tambe, who holds a Masters degree in International Human Rights law
from the University of Hull,England and is currently a University of Buea Ph.D
student ,was already popular as a Board member of ELECAM and or law teacher
years back, that popularity only peaked recently ,when he -courageously and
using all available avenues including
the mass media, advocated for the land rights of Fako indigenous people.
Large portions of CDC
surrendered lands to Fako indigenes were reportedly grabbed by local
administrative officers with the connivance of some traditional rulers, thereby
depriving many Bakweri indigenes of their right to own parcels of land on which
to build.
Strangely, in the face
of this ugly situation some Fako elite who were in positions to protest against
such land rights violation against their kin and kith rather looked helpless;
it was Tiku Tambe, in his capacity as Southwest Representative of the NCHRF,
together with retired UN legal Consultant Barrister Ikome Ngongi and CRTV Buea Press Club moderated by
Senior Journalist Matute Menyoli,who sounded the alarm bell repeatedly until
the matter became a national concern.
Despite threats which
Tiku Tambe received from some alleged land grabbers, this devout Presbyterian
Christian became even bolder and more outspoken, citing names of high-profile
Fako administrators such as Fako SDO Zang III and Southwest Governor Bernard
Okalia Bilai reportedly implicated in the land-grabbing scandal.
So vigorous was the Tiku Tambe –led anti-land grabbing campaign that the
Government could not stay indifferent, as it set a commission of inquiry to
investigate into the alleged abuses; the Minister of State Propriety and Land
Tenure even went a step further by signing an order suspending any further CDC
land Surrender to applicant villages pending findings of official
investigations.CONAC and other investigators have since been grilling those
implicated in the land mafia as the public is anxiously awaiting their
findings.
A fearless Tiku Tambe
would later sue a host of Fako Traditional rulers, who allegedly influenced by
some personalities implicated in the land mafia, published a defamatory
statement against his person. As the case against the chiefs is being heard in Court, The
Recorder has been reliably informed that the accused chiefs are now begging for
an out-of –court settlement with Tiku Tambe.
By citing names of
local administrative officers, by threatening to cause the arrest of chiefs who
didn’t honour his summonses in relation to complaints against them on land matters,
and by even initiating a legal action against traditional rulers, Mr. Tambe has
reiterated the fact that, nobody is above the law; that everybody is entitled
to human rights protection; that might is not necessarily right.
The Recorder has
learned that so frightened are some land grabbers that they are considering
returning parcels of ceded indigenous land which they illegally got, even
before findings of the various commissions of inquiry are made public.
As a committed Human
Rights activist, Mr. Tambe, last November also led a group of Africans who
staged a protest in the USA, in front of the White House to protest the inadequate
support given to victims of the deadly Ebola
virus in West Africa by West ,which he said has the resources needed for greater attention.
So passionate is Tiku
Tambe about rights issues that his name is now synonymous to Human Rights
promotion and protection!
(First Published in
The RECORDER Newspaper, Cameroon, of April 2, 2015)
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