Cameroonians suffer to earn salaries and they suffer to spend the money they earn

By Njousi Abang*

In the past two months it has been raining cats and dogs in Fako especially in the heart of the Southern Cameroon capital village city of Buea. Yes, Buea, the only regional capital whose divisional headquarters is located elsewhere with the sole purpose of making it remain backward so that some people can’t look back to it with nostalgia. This is Buea, the village city with only one main street that has been turned into a death trap. It was in this town that I boarded a taxi from Buea Town to Bakassi na Cameroon in Bomaka yesterday. While we were riding slowly and discussing about the failure of the UN to grant total independence to Southern Cameroon and thereby exposing us to another form of colonialism and annexation, it started raining heavily. 

The heavy rain drops flew through the open windows of the taxi and soaked us within the taxi. When I asked the driver to whine up the glasses, he complained that the mechanism for achieving that goal was dysfunctional. He however, appealed to me to bear with him until the end of my journey. Since only one side of my body was affected, I was compelled to heed because alighting from the taxi would have meant that I would be soaked entirely before I could seek refuge under someone’s veranda by the road side. While I stayed there contemplating my fate, I began to think about how Cameroonians suffer to work and earn meager wages and suffer to spend the money they earned.

     I also remembered a similar encounter when we got stuck with our beer bottles in our hands in an open air off license when the rain was falling and flowing unto the floor of the building. During that incident, we were forced to stand on our seats to avoid our shoes from being soaked by the waters. Guess what? We were actually thinking that we were enjoying ourselves in that squalid setting. Most Cameroonians don’t watch the setting where they settle down to eat or drink. Most are blinded by suffering to the extent that any thing goes. What is the use of launching complaints when nobody will listen or act in your favour?

    Indeed where do we begin to talk about the woes plaguing Cameroonians? Where is the space in an article like this to state all the details? What can we do to make a difference? To begin with the latter question, it is worth noting that Cameroonians have the wherewithal to change their lot but they lack the courage, spiritual and moral authority to do so. Back to my encounter with the taxi driver as I earlier mentioned, it is worth noting that the driver did not take it kindly when I alighted from the taxi and suggested that I was not going to pay for the horrible treatment which he had given me in his taxi. He rained abuses at me and insisted on getting his due which I had no option but to pay. He said he was not responsible for the misery that Cameroonians were going through and that he was only trying his best to survive and I should not be the one to put sand in his garri. I paid for all the inconveniences which I suffered and got into Bakassi na Cameroon bar, where the blast of the music from the speakers was so horrifying that I had to caution the bar attendant to spare my eardrums from destruction. I noticed that a host of the customers in the bar were unruffled by the wild blast of the music. Some were smoking profusely and drinking themselves to stupor. On one table, I noted that a group five people sitting on it with three bottles of beer each standing in front of them. The bar man had just be ordered to take away empty bottles of similar stuff which indicated that they had been drinking for quite a while. Cheah! I thought deep within that Cameroonians where poised for a healthcare disaster. With very limited means to take care of themselves, most of them are likely going to die early.

    Similarly, Cameroonians who have had the bad luck of traveling in a public transport vehicle know how much they pay for poor quality transport services. Cameroonians know how much they pay for unhealthy foodstuff displayed on the wayside or hawked along the highway. In urban areas, most Cameroonians eat on the streets under very horrible circumstances. Come to think of the shanty towns where the vast majority of our compatriots live in and pay huge amounts of money as rents. MTN and Orange networks, AES SONEL and Camwater take too much money from its clients who are constantly bombarded with adverts and poor goods and services but give so little in return for the customers’ hard earned currency. If you have ever cued up to pay any bills in an AES SONEL center, you will better appreciate what Cameroonians go through in order to pay bills for erratic services.

    In addition, I would like to know if you have ever worked for an employer for a long period without a salary? If you haven’t, then ask a civil servant in Cameroon who after spending so many years without a penny finally gets a bank cheque or payslip. Just let him narrate what he has gone through before getting his arrears of salary paid. It is a story rippled with a lot of bribe-taking sprees from day one to the end where he ends up losing at least 40% of his wages. The story does not end there. He has to continuously go to Yaounde to ‘oil the lips’ of the pay masters or else he will have more hitches on his way to retirement when the dead toll rings.

   Furthermore, who does not know that Cameroonians suffer get a job? Who does not know that Cameroonians suffer to keep the job? Who does not know that Cameroonians suffer to earn retirement benefits when their services are no longer needed? Cameroon has suddenly become synonymous to corruption and suffering. Although things may seem so bleak, there is hope in the pipeline as some people continue to wrestle for the good in Cameroon to stand out. Meg Biram says, “you can’t expect to see change if you never do anything differently.” A negative mind will never give you a positive life. Make a difference wherever you are. Cameroonians deserve a better life.

*Njousi Abang is a senior official of People's Action Party, PAP,Cameroon and a social critic.

US-based Cameroonian Sponsors Football Tournament for Bonavada Youth.

Bova FC(female team in red) & Ages Ladies  of Bwitingi (in blue)

By Christopher Ambe

US-based Cameroonian philanthropist, Dr. David Njie Makongo, has launched a football tournament for youth of the BONAVADA Area in Buea Subdivision.

 The on-going two-category soccer tournament, which began on August 3 and will end on August 31, is dubbed “Dr.Makongo Bonavada Youth Tournament”.

Some eight male teams and six female teams are competing for the trophies, which will carry cash prizes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of FCFA.

   The tournament is taking place in Bokova, village of former Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge.

   The launching of the football tournament this year, comes barely one after the same Dr. Makongo launched a scholarship program for Bonavada university students to encourage academic excellence.

  BONAVADA is a development association of some 13 villages along the slopes of Mt Cameroon in Buea subdivision and Dr. Makongo hails from Bova, one of the villages that make up BONAVADA, whose current president is Dr. Mbome Njie Victor (Southwest Regional Delegate for Public Health).

According to Mbua Emmanuel Mbua, president of the tournament’s organizing committee, Dr. Makongo’s intention is “to foster unity among Bonavada youth, keep them usefully occupied during this long vacation and help develop and expose young talents in the community”

He described Dr. Makongo as an all-time advocate of development, unity and peace, whom Bonavada is proud of.

  The chiefs of the Bonavada area, according to Mbua Emmanuel, have lauded the initiative of their illustrious son Dr. Makongo, who while in far USA is always contributing to the development of the Bonavada area.

   It was not clear whether the football tournament will now become a yearly event, just as the scholarship program.

Cameroon Rally Targets Suspected Gay Bars

By DIVINE NTARYIKE, Associated Press 

DOUALA, Cameroon August 21, 2013 (AP) -More than 100 young men and women in Cameroon's capital posted anti-gay signs on bars suspected of being gay-friendly during a rally organized amid mounting threats and acts of violence targeting the country's sexual minorities.

   The rally organized Wednesday by the Association of Cameroonian Youth called for stricter enforcement of anti-gay laws, even though rights groups say the country already prosecutes more gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents than any other in sub-Saharan Africa.

   Demonstrators also placed signs saying "Homosexuals Forbidden" and "No Gays in Cameroon" on various school buildings.

Moving in four groups of about 40 people each, the demonstrators paraded Cameroon's green, red and yellow flag through the streets of Yaounde while distributing pamphlets and T-shirts with anti-gay slogans. They occasionally paused to speak to onlookers about what they described as the dangers of homosexuality.

   "A society without morals and ethics is a lost society. What's accepted in the West is not necessarily good for everyone," read one pamphlet. "Homosexuality is a crime against humanity and a serious violation of human rights."

   An organizer of the event, dubbed the "Day Against Homosexuality," said it was intended to honor the memory of a 31-year-old student who was "sodomized and killed by homosexuals" in August 2006 at a Yaounde hotel.

   "It is a struggle to push the authorities to clearly assert our rejection of homosexuality as a nation, and to increase the punishment," said the organizer, Sismondi Barley Bidjocka.

Homosexual acts are punishable by up to five years in prison in Cameroon. In a March report, Human Rights Watch said charges had been brought against at least 28 people under the law in the last three years.

   Bidjocka said the Association of Cameroonian Youth was calling for authorities to increase the maximum sentence to 20 years in jail.

Last month, prominent Cameroonian gay rights activist Eric Ohena Lembembe was tortured and killed in Yaounde in an attack his friends suspect was related to his activism. He was the most high-profile African LGBT rights activists to be killed in two years. No arrests have been made in the case.

   In the weeks since Lembembe's killing, a number of gay rights activists have received threatening text messages, said Michel Togue, one of the few lawyers in the country who will defend people charged under the country's anti-gay law.

Last week, two transgender women who have previously been prosecuted for homosexuality in Cameroon were attacked by a mob in Yaounde before being rescued by local police, Togue said.

   Togue said the government appeared to be in favor of Wednesday's rally because large-scale gatherings must have government approval or risk being broken up. A government spokesman could not be reached Wednesday.

"I have the impression that the persecution of homosexuals is sharply on the rise since Lembembe was murdered. A demonstration like the one today is clear proof," Togue said. "If I tell you I'm not scared, then I'm joking. I'm scared for my security."

ELECAM: Voting and the Biometric Voter’s Card.

  By Asonganyi Tazoacha

      The Cameroon biometric voters’ cards that have been printed by ELECAM have the following features: Card number; Name of bearer; Date of birth; Father’s name; Mother’s name; Council area; Polling station; Registration number; Residence; Profession; Photograph; Fingerprint; Barcode. 

   This makes the Cameroon biometric voter’s card very similar to those in places like Ghana and Nigeria.     
   The law requires that a voter goes to the polling station with both the voter’s card and the national identity card. 
  The Cameroon national identity card has the following information: Name of bearer; Date and place of birth; Father’s name; Mother’s name; Profession; Place of residence; Height; Sex; Serial number; Identity card number; Date of issue; Expiry date; Photograph; Fingerprint.   
   This means that the voter’s card has the following information that the national identity card does not have: Registration number (number in the electoral register); Council area; Polling station; Barcode. It also means that the most important information needed on Polling Day – name of polling station and the registration number on the electoral role is only available on the voter’s card.  
   There has been some argument on whether or not the national identity card can be enough to allow a registered voter to cast a vote on Polling Day. This is because the electoral code is ambiguous on the issue. But there are more advantages of going to the polling station with the voter’s card than are usually stated.
     Indeed, there are many advantages for coming to the polling station with the voter’s card; such advantages are cancelled out if the voter has only the national identity card. The national identity card alone delays and confuses the electoral process on Polling Day. This is because:
1)      The procedure for voting at the polling station starts with verification that you are in the right polling station. If you belong to the polling station, this is followed by verification of your name in the electoral roll which is recorded in the polling station electoral roll in alphabetical order. Since the pictures in the polling station registers are usually quite small, they are not very reliable for identifying a voter, but the roll in the polling station also has the registration number of the voter, so the number which is only on the voter’s card provides a double check of identity. Following the identification and other routines, the process ends up with the casting of the vote and the signing of the electoral register against the name of the voter.
2)      In spite of many precautionary measures, many voters usually go to the wrong polling station before they are re-directed to their polling stations by polling officials or other voters, if the voter’s card is available for quick verification of their polling stations.
3)      If the voter is literate and bears a voter’s card, they would easily know that they are in the wrong polling station; if they are illiterate, they would have to wait on the line and enter the polling station before they are informed after verification that they cannot vote there.
4)      Both the literate and illiterate voters would not easily reorient themselves to their rightful polling station if they brought along only the national identity card. Indeed, their presence will block the voting process because the polling station officials would have to look for their names on the polling station roll to verify if their names are on it. If the voter’s name is not found, it would be difficult to direct them to their polling stations, since their national identity cards do not have such information.
5)      Counterfeits of the national identity card can be made and successfully used, like in the past, but a counterfeit of the voter’s card would easily be detected because of the many identity accessories on the card.
6)      In general, if every voter had their voter’s card, the voting process would be smooth and fast; those with only the national identity card would slow down the process. Such slowing down of the process may cause the voting to go into the night if there is still a long line by the time the polling officials have to close the poll. This means that the counting process may be bedeviled by darkness which is common in areas that do not have electricity, or that are deprived of electricity by the regular outages of AES-SONEL.    The electoral code is ambiguous on the role played by the national identity card on Polling Day. However, the national identity card is a double check on the voter’s identity, and the voter’s card in addition to identifying the voter, facilitates the identification of the polling station.   In general, although we have the biometric electoral cards, there is no doubt that champions of electoral fraud are scheming to use well known methods used in the past in Cameroon and in other countries with biometric cards, to turn the verdict of the ballot box to their advantage. These include:
1)      Using violence to disrupt activities at the polling station at the close of the polls.
2)      Buying or renting of the biometric voter’s cards from poor voters to use fraudulently.
3)      Since most people in the townships returned to their villages of origin to register, the frauds are collecting the biometric cards from those who will be unable to travel to the village to vote on Polling Day, to use the cards fraudulently.
4)      Such notorious frauds usually get the ballot papers of the party of their interest – by hook or by crook - and stamp and fingerprint them before Polling Day! They then use all types of fraudulent tactics – including violence - to introduce the ballot papers in the various polling boxes. If ex-convicts can succeed – with impunity - to establish a “criminal record (Bulletin No. 3), not more than three months old” and “a declaration” by which they testify on honour that they are not the “object of any of the disqualifications provided for by this law,” what more of buying voters’ cards and obtaining the ballot papers of their parties to use fraudulently?
5)      In the past, towards the end of the voting process, some polling station officials asked “voters” loitering around the polling station to collect any card from the pile of uncollected cards at the polling station to cast a vote. They then randomly marked and signed the electoral register to ensure that the marked voters on the voters’ roll tallied with the number of votes cast!
6)      In the past some presidents of the polling station commissions decreed that the counting would be done at the DO’s or SDO’s office, where the administrative officials took the ballot boxes hostage, and prevented some polling commissioners from entering their “premises.” We hope the advent of ELECAM puts a stop to such exploits.
7)      ELECAM representatives at polling stations and other sensitive areas in the electoral chain may be poor and easily corruptible, like was the case with NEO officials in the past.  Thus, some polling station result sheets could be manipulated along the chain; and since ELECAM’s copies are considered “authentic,” this could cause a lot of confusion and injustice. 
  ELECAM has issued biometric voters’ cards that meet international standards. Whether these cards will contribute to delivering a free, fair and credible electoral process on Polling Day will depend, above all, on the vigilance and integrity of the polling station officials, especially the representatives of ELECAM.

Cameroon Takes Total Control of Oil-Rich Bakassi!

Both Nigerian and Cameroonian Authorities Call for Continued Peaceful Co-existence 

Governor Okalia Bilai (in suit) & Consul-General M.H.Akan

By Christopher Ambe

 As Cameroon finally took full sovereignty over the disputed, oil-rich Bakassi peninsula today 14 August, a symbolic ceremony to that effect was hosted by Southwest Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai-representing the State of Cameroon and in attendance was Mohammed Hendrick Akan, Nigerian Consul-General in Buea, representing the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    During the solemn ceremony at Buea Governor’s office, witnessed among others, by Cameroonian security and administrative authorities  as well as a delegation of Nigerian officials from their Consulate-General in Buea, both Governor Okalia and Consul-General Akan,stressed the need for both countries to continue to be good neighbors and co-exist peacefully as had  been before.

    Both Governor Okalia and Consul-General Akan hailed President Paul Biya of Cameroon and President Olusengun Obasanjo of Nigeria, signatories to the UN-supervised Green Tree Accord, which paved the way for the handing over of Bakassi to Cameroon.

 Nigerian authorities witnessed the Aug.14 ,2013 Buea symbolic  ceremony

Nigeria formally ceded Bakassi to Cameroon on August 14, 2008, bringing to an end 15 years of border clashes between both countries over the ownership of the oil-rich territory.

   Then, a UN-backed period of transition was agreed by the two countries, during which period Cameroon embarked on heavy investments in the territory, making its administrative presence in the area more obvious.

Bakassi peninsula projects in to the Gulf of Guinea and is believed to contain up to 10% of the world’s oil and gas reserves,

   There is a significant number of Nigerians living in the Bakassi area, majority of who are Nigerian fishermen. It is now expected that Nigerians living in the peninsula will apply for a visa or apply for Cameroonian citizenship.

Cameroon and Nigeria had disputed over the legal ownership of the peninsula for years.
    But conscious that Bakassi belongs to Cameroon, President Paul Biya brought the matter before the International Court of Justice, ICJ, which is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

Some Cameroon Security Chiefs  also witnessed the Buea event

   In October 2002, the ICJ, drawing wisdom and strength from a March 11, 1913 colonial agreement between Britain and Germany, ruled in favor of Cameroon.

 The Court ruled that the sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula lies with Cameroon
The Court judgment  was final, without appeal, and binding for both parties-Cameroon and Nigeria

    Surprisingly, a defeated Nigeria, raising various concerns, challenged the ICJ verdict.

But it took high-level diplomacy and peace negotiation for Nigeria to eventually come to reason; thus the signing on June 12, 2006 of the UN-brokered Green Tree Accord by Cameroon and Nigeria on the implementation procedures and schedules of the ICJ ruling on the Bakassi peninsula.
  And so, on August 14, 2008, Nigeria handed over the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon to end a 15-year dispute over the oil- and gas- rich territory .The handing over ceremony, which was initially to take place in the Bakassi area, was moved to Calabar in Nigeria over security concerns.

   The Recorder learned that the August 14, 2013 symbolic ceremony rather took place in Buea instead of Bakassi over security worries-although Cameroon elite soldiers are stationed in the territory Bakassi.

Cameroon Passport Goes Biometric

(Business in Cameroon) - Now more secured, the passport will be officially launched in Yaoundé on Wednesday, August 14, 2013.

    On July 15, the first copy of the biometric passport with the technical specifications of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) was issued. The information emerged from a final preparatory meeting for the launch of the travel document in Yaoundé on Monday, chaired by the Secretary General of National Security, (DGSN) Victor Ndocki. Up to July 26, the DGSN said 5,000 of such documents have been issued.

  Cameroon becomes the first within CEMAC to comply with the standard, before January 1, 2014 - the end of the visa requirements for the citizens of this sub region - in accordance with the resolutions of the Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Libreville in June.

   Officials of DGSN say passports issued before are still valid, even if they do not provide the same facilities as the biometric passport said to be a reliable travel document.

Mugabe faces growing fallout after disputed election win

Locals read newspapers in Mbare township, outside Harare August 4, 2013. Photo - REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

     Robert Mugabe looked Sunday to a seventh term as Zimbabwe's president after winning elections denounced by the opposition as "stolen" and criticised by Western powers.

    Mugabe, 89, who has run the country since he helped end white rule in 1980, trounced his long-standing political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, in Wednesday's election, Zimbabwean election officials said.

    By the time he completes his new tenure, he will have ruled the former British colony in southern Africa for 38 years.

    Official results showed Mugabe won 61 percent of the presidential vote and his party got a super majority in parliament that will allow it to change the constitution. He routed Tsvangirai who trailed heavily with 34 percent.

   But 61-year-old Tsvangirai, who has unsuccessfully tried to unseat Mugabe three times, condemned the vote as "fraudulent and stolen".

   The reaction in the Sunday press was divisive with state-controlled newspaper The Herald proclaiming "President Mugabe romps to victory", while the independent Daily News said "It's a crisis". 

   US Secretary of State John Kerry meanwhile described the election as "deeply flawed" and said the US "does not believe that the results ...today represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people."

   British Foreign Secretary William Hague added his own "grave concerns" over the conduct of the vote in the former colony.

    On Sunday, Australia called for Zimbabwe to go to the polls again.

"Given our doubts about the results, Australia calls for a re-run of the elections based on a verified and agreed voters roll," Foreign Minister Bob Carr said in a statement.

   Tsvangirai vowed to challenge the result in court and said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would boycott government institutions.

"We will not join government," he said. "We will go to court."

"The fraudulent and stolen election has plunged Zimbabwe into a constitutional, political and economic crisis."

    With gentler assessments from African observers who nonetheless noted flaws, President Jacob Zuma of powerful neighbour South Africa offered his "profound congratulations" to Mugabe on Sunday.

"President Zuma urges all political parties in Zimbabwe to accept the outcome of the elections as election observers reported it to be an expression of the will of the people," a foreign ministry statement said.

    Tsvangirai has been in a coalition with Mugabe since 2009. He defended the decision then to enter into an uneasy power-sharing government with Mugabe, who has had him arrested, beaten and charged with treason.

"Our participation rescued this country. Schools had closed, hospitals had closed. We were using the Zimbabwe dollar which was worthless, there were no goods in the shops, everyone was desperate," he said.

   But Mugabe's ZANU-PF party says there is no more need for the MDC in the new government.
"We have received over 60 percent of the vote, we have two thirds majority, why would we want to bring someone else on board," State Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi said to AFP.

    The MDC now has until Wednesday to present evidence of fraud to the high court, but finding a smoking gun may prove difficult. Inauguration is expected within 48 hours of the court's decision.

    Tsvangirai said he would submit a dossier of "all irregularities and all the illegalities" to the influential 15-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) and called for an urgent summit.

   The European Union, which had been moving toward easing long-standing sanctions, expressed concern about "incomplete participation, as well as the identified weaknesses in the electoral process and a lack of transparency".

   But Emmerson Mnangagwa, defence minister and a key Mugabe lieutenant, hit back at these accusations and argued the result was a game-changer.

"The West will now have to climb down, they must find a ladder and climb down... A democratic election has taken place in Zimbabwe," he told AFP.

   The SADC, which engineered the power-sharing government, said it was "free and peaceful".
"We did not say it was fair ... we didn't want to jump to a conclusion," said top SADC election observer Bernard Membe.

    However, the poll's credibility was further called into question by the resignation of one of the nine official electoral commissioners.

    In a letter seen by AFP, Mkhululi Nyathi quit over "the manner" in which the polls "were proclaimed and conducted".

    Tsvangirai stopped short of calling his supporters onto the streets, fearing a repeat of the bloody crackdown that followed his win in the first round of 2008 polls.

    There was calm in the capital late Saturday, with little sign of protests or pro-Mugabe victory rallies. Streets remained quiet on Sunday.

    Even before the official election results, Mugabe followers were planning how to use a parliamentary majority.

"The new constitution will need cleaning up," said Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, referring to a text approved in March that introduced term limits and curbed presidential powers.

    Chinamasa said Mugabe's government would also press on with controversial efforts to bring firms under black ownership.

  Investors have expressed fears that may mean rolling back the power-sharing government's efforts to stabilise the economy after crippling hyperinflation and joblessness

Courtesy:AFP