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| Hon. Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine at press conference in Buea |
By Christopher Ambe Shu
The National President of Popular Acton
Party (formerly Peoples’ Action Party (PAP), Hon. Lordship Ayah Paul Abine, now
Advocate-General at the Supreme Court, has commended the Southern Cameroons
National Council, (SCNC), which is fighting for the restoration of the
independence of Southern Cameroons, for its relentless fight against the
falsehood that British Southern Cameroons ever legally joined La Republique du Cameroun to constitute what
is today known as the Republic of Cameron.
The outspoken Ayah was speaking at a press
conference, June 11 ,at king David’s Hotel, Buea ,convened by the PAP leadership to address an alleged power tussle at the helm
of the party that was registered in 1991 but only became active in 2011 when
Hon. Ayah became its National President and later the party’s presidential candidate ,emerging
in the fifth position at that
year’s election.
Hon. Ayah, who insisted that he
remains the legal and legitimate head of the Popular Action Party, despite an
allegation that he has been replaced as head of the party, in response to a
question about his opinion about the SCNC,said: “
I must congratulate the SCNC for
fighting illegality. As I have said time and again, there is no legal document
that British Southern Cameroon ever joined La Republique du Cameroun”
He, however, castigated the SCNC which,
he said, is fighting a genuine cause in law and history rather in dispersed
ranks yet asking him to become its president.
The super scale magistrate also
clarified the doubt of some journalists by saying that there is no law that
restricts him as a Supreme Court advocate-general from becoming a political
party leader
How PAP became a
reality
Hon. Ayah noted that “People’s Action Party (now Popular
Action Party) saw the light of day by expediency. The idea materialized on the
heels of the arrest and remand in prison custody of Barrister Yondo Black and
others for wanting to launch a political party in defiance of the one-party
system President Ahidjo had imposed. “The
international community did cry foul against President Paul Biya’s New Deal
government! In their characteristic falsehood, the New Deal denied that Mr.
Yondo Black and others were being held in prison custody for wanting to launch
a political party. They asserted that the Cameroonian law allowed for a
multi-party system.
“Availing himself of
the New Deal nervous entanglement, Mr. John Fru Ndi quickly issued a communiqué
that (since the Cameroonian law allowed for multi-parties), he had formed a
political party – the Social Democratic Front, (SDF) - and that he would be
launching it on May 26, 1990…
Ayah Paul Abine immediately met Mr. John Ndahne of Radio Buea
and the duo reviewed the prevailing national political situation and its
repercussion on the Southwest Province as it then was. They agreed that the
Southwest Province was most vulnerable from its disunity and cosmopolitan composition,
with the consequence that it was going to be fertile ground for political
hawks. Its protection therefore lay in the province belonging to a political
party that would speak in the name of the province so as to forestall alien
political hawks catching the Southwestern people as weak, defenseless
individuals… A few more meetings led to the founding of People’s Action Party –
PAP…
“As civil servant in active service, John Ndahne and Ayah
could not be at the forefront of the party, particularly in the face of the
hostile prevailing contemporary political circumstances. Getting someone in the
cloak of Yondo Black was absolutely indispensable. Then did it occur to Ayah
that some brilliant, courageous and knowledgeable professor, Victor Mukwelle
Ngoh, had taught Ayah Land Law in the University of Cameroon at Yaounde in the
seventies. Convinced he did meet the prerequisites, Ndahne and Ayah invited
Professor Ngoh from Kumba without disclosing the object of the invitation…
When fully appraised and possessed of the design, Professor
Ngoh was overwhelmed by our “bestowing confidence in (his) humble person”, and
did express his gratitude superabundantly… He however did not register the
party until April, 1991… Few can contest the incontrovertible fact that, apart
from occupying the seat of one of the rapporteurs generaux at the Tripartite
Talks some two years later, PAP never came to prominence even in Meme Division.
Nor did it seriously impact even the entire Kumba town! The situation was all
the worse after Professor Ngoh had died in a motor accident in Nigeria…
“All the same, Ayah
could find no better refuge than the political umbrella that was his
brainchild. And so did Ayah seek for a place in PAP when he resigned from CPDM
in 2010. In the fallacy that PAP was part of the estate of late Professor Ngoh,
the family held the registration certificate of the party close to their chest
until Ayah agreed in writing to some dictates under the auspices of some
national frontbencher of the party from Limbe…
“A few months later,
however, PAP national officials annulled the document in a resolution of May
14, 2011, that was signed, inter alia, by a prominent member of Ngoh’s family. Even
without any such annulment, the said document was bad at law and contrary to
public policy as a political party is defined by Cameroonian law as an
association.
“An association is a group of persons managed by a smaller
group of members freely chosen by the association. No particular member or
group of members has appropriated interest that can be bequeathed upon demise…
Any theory that PAP is the property of late Professor Ngoh’s estate that can be
hired; pledged and redeemed; or sold absolutely or on terms is merely fantastic
and based on misinformation or uninformed miscalculations…
“The long and short of it is that Ayah eventually became the
head of PAP. Acutely pressed by time, Ayah had to move absolutely quickly so as
to post PAP before Cameroonians in reality and in their dreams. Within days,
meetings were holding weekly here; daily there; and every other day elsewhere!
That went not without pecuniary consideration. Expenses multiplied several
times over in the fortnight of Ayah declaring his candidacy for the upcoming
2011 presidential election that was just six months away. Party cards were
produced in tens of thousands. Radio and television interviews held weekly on
the average. Hundreds of thousands of propaganda cards as SMS went to all the
four corners of Cameroon. Not any less mufflers, t-shirts, manifestos,
magazines! Musicians were sponsored and PAP music rent the air nationwide. CDs
and PAP soap were extensively distributed far and wide for free…
“And here was the most curious! Apart from one or two other
members of the party, Ayah Paul sponsored everything singlehandedly – at 90% at
the least! That was not surprising though: the bulk of the members of the party
were students, the unemployed youths, and the rural peasant masses! But then
came what looked like a very welcome relief: an invitation from PAP North
America for Ayah to visit the United States of America in June, 2011.
Immeasurable sacrifices were made by devoted men and women for the trip! Aside
from a free round trip by air of course, the visit was entirely sponsored. Ayah
visited Washington, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Atlanta, Chicago… But
Ayah subsequently had to send money to the main organizer in order to bail her
out of expenses incurred.
Ayah justifies use of
party funds
“By the time Ayah was to be formally invested as a
presidential candidate, Ayah’s saving account had been wholly depleted. Loans
were obtained at 360% interest rate per annum; even from some viable members of
the party. There was such inescapable compulsion! The caution fee alone was 5
million francs. And for a presidential election, before Ayah was the huge
country to be covered. Some journalist even called Ayah “Penniless Ayah”. Yet
was the campaign aggressive, thorough and unprecedented! The mere fact that
Ayah came 5th speaks volumes for the honest. Only the unreasonable,
the biased and imbeciles would want Ayah to dwell on the obvious: how one could
cover the national territory with the mere sum of 15 million that was given
before the poll! Really so curious!
“Obviously, by the time the remaining 15 million came, Ayah
was in messy debts – having received less than 150.000 from internal friends
and supporters; and under 500.000 from friends and admirers abroad! Even as
only a tiny percentage of the debts could be serviced, a team of national
officials of the party undertook a “thank you” tour of Ayah’s strongholds. The
team visited Kwakwa, Mundemba, Mbonge, Kumba, Konye, Manyemen, Nguty, Ebunji,
Tombel, Ngusi, Nyassoso, Bangem, Allou, Menji, Bakebe, Tinto, Tali, Ndekwai,
Ossing, Kembong, Mamfe, Eyumojock, Ekok, Kajifu, Mukonyong, Akwa, Ballin,
Mavas, Akwaya… All these trips were sponsored virtually entirely from the 15
million…
Seriously speaking, does it not beat the imagination that the
state gives money to a candidate for campaign and some officious bystanders
arrogate to themselves the prerogative to demand to know how the money was
spent? Is it not all the more facetious and wholly ridiculous that someone has
the effrontery to make such demand where the candidate performs so
spectacularly well in the manner of Ayah’s resounding performance? … Seriously,
every person of unsound mind would know that only the giver reserves the right
to demand an account!
The 'power tussle'
“The question then is who are those making noise in Kumba? It
is clear that they are only hungry boys seeking to secure public compassion.
And this to do, they have secured the complicity of some quacks passing for
journalists. But how else can one explain it? No career journalist, much less a
professional one, would publish such trash as three miserable individuals
calling a press conference and purporting to expel a member from the party, let
alone when such member is the head of that party. Are party decisions,
especially momentous decisions like such that terminate one’s membership, taken
at press conferences; and by three ordinary members of a party? … A journalist
once said that the sun shines above and on earth journalists. That is at
variance with what obtains nowadays, the has brought journalism to such abysmal
disrepute. Cameroonian journalism, they name is mediocrity!
"Let it be known to all men and women that the hungry
boys in Kumba who are only crying over spilt milk have long been expelled from
People’s Action Party. The least the present party leadership would do in their
maturity and compassionate disposition is to reconsider their decision should
those misguided boys repent and borrow a leaf from the prodigal son.
Change of party name and hungry Kumba boys
“As of now, People’s Action Party is known as and called
Popular Action Party with His Lordship Ayah Paul Abine as the sole legal and
legitimate national president. In keeping with the law in force, the change of
name and the general current status of the party have been notified to the
relevant Cameroonian institutions. And so it is!
“Some confounded journalist did make mention of the annual
funding of political parties. The most one can say is that, to the best of our
knowledge, belief and information, no one party in contemporary Cameroon has
made a statement of accounts to the press. For our purpose, the PAP constitution
has laid down rules on how such issues have to be dealt with. We do not propose
to depart from those constitutional provisions. The hungry boys of Kumba may
wish to join the fold and follow due process for the purpose of obtaining any
such information.
It can only be added that we learnt our lesson during the
2013 municipal and parliamentary elections when “prominent” members of the
party could not raise as little as 50.000 francs for their candidacies at the
municipal election. We do not propose to surrender to blackmail from whatever
source for the purpose of gratifying those very persons who do desert us in
times of election in favour of lands flowing with milk and honey elsewhere.
Permit us to borrow the common saying that the first fool is not a fool.”
