Few weeks ago, Anglophone lawyers met in
Bamenda to decry the fact that they were told to make their submissions in the
North West and South West Regions (courts) exclusively in French. At the end of
the conference, a memo was addressed to government in which they (the lawyers)
expressed their disgust over the attempt to assimilate Anglophones. Another incident
that took the Anglophone community aback was the poor translation of police
exam questions into slippery English, which public opinion held that it was a
well calculated move to eliminate Anglophone candidates. Furthermore, for years
now, the Anglophone community has been crying helplessly that all transfers and
appointments are only read on the national station in exclusively French and
that Francophone teachers are being deployed to teach in the North West and
South West Regions a language they have little or no mastery. The Cameroon
Teachers Trade Union-CATTU and TAC have decried it to no avail.
Hon. Awudu Mbaya Cyprian, Member of
Parliament for Donga Mantung Centre and Questor at the National Assembly went
on rampage a forth night ago at the Ayaba Hotel where he pulled off signs
directives that were exclusively in French. The Member of Parliament we
gathered started asking the management of Ayaba to place sign directive in both
French and English as far back as 2013. Every time he lodged in the hotel, he
would remind management of it. At one time, the Director of Ayaba, Doume
Zacharie is said to have promised that he will make sure that the bilingual
nature of the country is respected when renovation works will be carried out. On
May 27, the MP discovered that work was over but the sign directives were still
hanging there and exclusively in French. When he sorted from the Director why
he had not done what he promised, Doume Zacharie is quoted to have said that he
(Doume) met them like that and has no other option than to allow the sign
directives in one language. Taken aback by the reply from the Director, Hon Awudu
took time to remove some of the sign directives. He even promised that he would
destroy any signpost in a public place that is written exclusively in one
language. Using only one language, he said is a violation of the Constitution. Access
to information he said is a right that all Cameroonians should enjoy. He said
in Ayaba you can only imagine things around you because the word swimming pool
is boldly written as piscine, toilet
as toilettes, exit as sortir, suggestion box as boite de suggestions, lifter/elevator as
ascensceur etc.. Hon. Awudu Mbaya said
at the time he was removing the sign directives that he laid hands on if the
staff decided to squeeze the life out of him, he would have died a honourable
death and for a cause.
It should be recalled that when Bernard
Njonga cried out on corruption in the Ministry of Agriculture, he was arrested
and detained. Not long, the Special Criminal Court called him up as witness for
the state. “Some of the embezzlers have been picked up and are actually in
prison. Ayaba Hotel in Bamenda has been suffocating in silence. Hon. Awudu has
just lashed out the last stroke that will expose the obnoxious practices in
this structure”, another staff who preferred not to be named told us. “Costumers
have been complaining especially those who do not read French and Management
has always given a deaf ear to it. I do not understand why whereas we claim
that our role is to satisfy their needs”, she concluded.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
2 comments:
I want Hon Mbaya to understand that this is a great move that will trigger unimaginable courage from the masses to join in. This is a new approach that people have been waiting for too long. I am greatly behind you and will encourage people to do same.
Hon. Awudu goes down in history as the one reigning MP of West Cameroon extraction to stand up and tell these frogs that "enough is enough"!!! Just know, Hon., that your name will be remembered long after. You make us proud. We will fight on and join with our lawyers to finish the race!!! Hon. Joshua Osih made a wonderful contribution on Morning Safari as well!!! Kudos!!!
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