Cameroon: SW Regional Council Blessed with Effoe Limunga as Secretary

Effoe  Limunga Rebecca : Bounces back to nation-building.

By Christopher Ambe

Effoe Limunga Rebecca-fondly called Aunty Bex, a retired Cameroonian civil servant and former Director of  Intensive Vocational Training Center for Office Employees(IVTC),Buea,is pioneer Honorable Secretary (No.1) of the eight-member Executive Bureau of the Southwest Regional Council.

Many have likened Aunty Bex to an asset for the secretariat of the  Southwest Regional Council. 

As secretary, Aunty  Bex  is  otherwise known as  the “Clerk of the House ”

Regional Councils are institutions provided for by the 1996 Cameroon Constitution, but pioneer elections for the said councils only took place on December 6, 2020, close to 25 years after.

 Each of Cameroon’s ten regions has a regional council, made up of ninety (90) members, and the various executive bureaus of these regional councils were elected on December 22, followed suit by their oath-taking in court.

Effoe Limunga Rebecca, who is one of two Hon. Secretaries of Southwest Regional Council, had retired from Cameroon Civil Service in 2016 amid calls from her many admirers to seek other avenues and continue putting her wealth of experience at the service of the nation, since they considered her as a committed nation-builder.

It would be recalled that in September 2016  when  colleagues organized a sendoff party for this likeable,  patriotic and   workaholic  who just retired then  from her  civil service career as Director of the State-owned Intensive Vocational Training Center for Office Employees(IVTC),Buea, a fervent  appeal to her  to remain useful to the state was made by  many people.

 Executive Bureau of SW Regional Council after oath-taking in Court of Appeal,Buea

One of those who made the appeal was John Atosoh, then Southwest Regional Delegate for Employment and Vocational Training, who chaired her sendoff party on IVTC Campus and lauded her resourcefulness in nation-building.

    Aunty Bex, now in her 60’s, had said goodbye to Cameroon Civil Service, after serving impressively, in various capacities, for 30 years.   

Aunty Bex holds a Diploma in Secretaryship from Pitman Central College-London and another Diploma in International Business, as well as a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management Studies from Kingston Polytechnic (today Kingston University in London).

    Before becoming Director of IVTC, Aunty Bex had served dutifully for years as Private Secretary to four different Cameroon Members of Government after her further studies in London.

   For several years, she was Private Secretary to two  Ministers of Higher Education, Professor Peter Agbor Tabi (1994-97) and Jean Marie Atangana Mebara;and later  Private Secretary and Research Assistant to two Public Health Ministers respectively: Professor Gottlieb Monekosso( now of Blessed memory) and Laurent Esso(now Minister of State for Justice).

   Even before becoming Private Secretary to the mentioned  ministers, Aunty Bex on her return from studies  in London, worked at the then University of Yaoundé as Administrative Assistant. She had earlier worked in the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication before traveling abroad for further studies.

Effoe Limunga  being awarded state medal by SW Governor Bernard Okalia /file

   The Hon.Secretary No.1 has to her credit three different categories of state medals: Knight of the Cameroon Order of Valor, knight  of Cameroon Order of Merit and Officer of Cameroon Order of Merit.

   After the Executive Bureau of the Southwest Regional Council, on January 14, took their   oath of office, the Hon. Secretary No.1 of the Southwest Regional Council, reacted to her post-retirement function:

“When I retired many people thought that I should just go on working because they said I still looked very strong and young. But there comes a time in our lives that we all need to take a break from active service. And that I did.

“During this period of my retirement I have been quite active to keep my brain very alert. But all what I did was at my pace-no pressure, no stress, no tension. That is the beauty of retirement.

“Now that I have been given the mandate by my people of Southwest region, I’d work with a lot of zeal because I had rested enough. The civil service chapter ended and a political chapter has started.

“I am poised for it and God being my guide, I believe we shall make it.”

It should be  noted that Aunty Bex  has a cherished British family who guided and sponsored her professional studies in the UK.

 Mr.Chuka Umunna,one of the two children of this British  family whom she assisted in their childhood , was recently voted  as  Member of Parliament in the UK .

.Hon. Chuka  Umunna brilliantly  served as MP for three terms.

Observers and  relations  of Effoe Limunga are confident that this former British MP  would serve as a huge  inspiration to the Hon. Secretary No.1,as she sails through the "Special Status" Regional Assembly.

A soft-spoken Fako elite and a Committed Baptist Christian, Aunty Bex before her new office, was a CPDM strategist.

She was also President of SOWEDA Tenders Board. SOWDA is short for Southwest Development Authority, Buea.

With Aunty Bex as Hon.Secretary no.1, many are confident that the Southwest Regional Council will face no problem keeping records and archives for reference.

The members of the Executive Bureau of the Southwest Regional Council are:Zacheus Bakoma Elango , President; Chief Atem Ebako, Vice president(also president of  House of Chiefs); William Elangwe Itoe,Commissioner for  Health and Social Affairs ;Gobina Mokoko, Commissioner for Economic Development; Tarkang Walters, Commissioner for Education, Sports and Cultural Development; Madam. Effoe Limunga Rebecca,Secretary No.1; Fon Foto Felix, Secretary No.2 and Dr. Mbencho Andrew Tazi  as Questor.