Ama Tutu Muna Deserves Respect

Mafor Yaah Yefon Ama Tutu Muna

There is a lack of common sense in most musicians; this is typified by the way some of them do behave in public. The jeering of a former cabinet, Minister Ama Tutu Muna during state ceremony in Yaounde  is I may say, is a bit insipid and hazy, but the point would have been seen by a child anywhere else as stupid. When such a behavior is coming from those who consider themselves celebrities it raises alot of questions and confirms why some musicians are a laughing stock in the countenance of humanity. It is important to appreciate the mind-set from which such reproach is issued; and how public intellectuals are viewed. Every society produces its own public intellectuals. When a group of people without common sense is constantly torn by the dialectical tensions that exist between classes and interests, there is reason to doubt those who claim to be leaders of such a group of people. Musicians are supposed to be models in society hardly ever, those who pass for it in Cameroon operate from that same skewed mind-set that intellectualises the greater good as that which belongs to the overriding few. It is really pathetic that some musicians want to make a mountain out of a mole hill just because Minister Ama Muna was asked to leave office yet the same noise-maker hardly raise their voices over the atrocities. Shame…. This is the first time for this type of sadistic jeering has occurred and it should never happen again. For the society which tolerates this type of behavior, there is no hope of recovery until it wakes up and gets out of the darkness to offer and insist on the protection of all of the people, and preservation of human dignity, and rights, especially that of women.

Born on July 17, 1960, Mafor Yaah Yefon Ama Tutu Muna was the only English speaking female cabinet minister of the North West in the predominantly male cabinet. A linguist by training, from the University of Montreal, Canada. After more than 9 years in Government, Ama has set records in Anglophone Cameroon. She goes into history books in great names and deserves respect for her contribution in nation building.

Mafor Yaah Yefon Ama Tutu Muna became the new person in Momo politics in the late 90s when she revamped the Mbengwi Abi Fall Sub Section of the CPDM. Her successes led to the putting in place of the Mbengwi Women Cooperative that became her spring board in politics. Ama Tutu Muna suddenly became the most influential CPDM political figure in Momo when she staged the most successful sub section conference that witnessed the presence key personalities like Ismael Bidoung Mkpat and late Ateba Ayene.

Ama has had the passion of becoming a successful woman entrepreneur with her FEMI Construction company and left a mark of greatness she constructed the Bamenda High Court. She was able to connect with poverty sickened people as champion and founder of FEMI Construction. She also enjoyed a list of accomplishments to her accolades. Her open mindedness earned her several recognitions from renounced palaces in the North West Region. She crowned Yaah Yefon by the Fon of Nso and Mafor by Meta Fons.

To consolidate this, President Biya appointed Ama on December 8, 2004 to work under Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, the then Minister of Commerce as the Secretary of State in charge of Commerce. After her appointment, she made successful strides and revamped the CPDM in Momo Division. She also created the North West Women Forum-NOWEFF.  Mafor Yaah Yefon Ama entered into records as a woman emancipator.

In 2007, Ama was appointed as Minister of Arts and Culture. Apparently Ama’s love for the 'Kaba Ngondo' fashion and love of culture expect her to go beyond what can be deduced from her manner of dressing. Ama would be remembered as the first full flesh female minister from the North West Region and the first Anglophone female cabinet minister that served for almost 10 years. After all, she is still very young and her future is still in front of her, not behind.

But with all these knacks, where did she go wrong?

Her only wrong doing is that when she entered the Ministry of Arts and Culture, there was dust everywhere and she took time to make it neat. Since in Cameroon, everyone who is able to take a microphone and make some noise is considered a musician, Ama thought it necessary to improve on their lots. Yet the same lunatics have turned out to be her newly-forged critics dripping with Viagra and venom, and they have a clearly identifiable target: Ama Tutu Muna. These bunches were waiting on Ama Muna like lascivious and hungry dogs, ready to attack her person, her policies and her actions. Singing and jeering a stateswoman can only be described as an act of ingrates just because she toppled the sordid order from where they freely fed without any efforts.  

Her new critics are angry- not hungry yet- since the political limbo, no thanks to Ama for making this obscure ministry enviable.

Try to make something out of their baleful cacophony of distraught expressions of frustrations over Ama’s leadership and you hit a confusing bend. To these fellows, all the good things the ministry of Arts and Culture has pleasantly experienced since Ama came were done by Oyono while everything bad has been by Ama Tutu yet these woe-criers don't tell us that some of them have received millions as authors’ rights with the noise they make of microphones. We mourn a nation where political buffoonery became the norm.

Mafor Yaah Yefon Ama Muna deserves respect for what she has done for this nation as a politician. Whenever I think of these musical ingrates, their obscene nature of arrogance is reflected in the way some of them were brought up and the way they lived till date. The problem with these artists is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with some of them and the main problem is the unwillingness or inability for them to put a leadership who is able to rise to the responsibility and to the challenge which are the hallmarks of true leadership.

When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)