North West Fons Union-NOWEFU: End of Time for Kaduna Mafia

By Fai Cassian Ndi

Truth is like a heavy load thrown into the sky that must finally fall down. When the elective General Assembly of the North West Fons Union-NOWEFU of February 18 flopped, that was when the heavy load that the Kaduna mafia had thrown into the sky protect their interest started falling down. Matters came to a head when North West Governor, on Friday summoned the Executive of NOWEFU ahead of the Nkambe elective AGM and ordered its suspension after observing the flaws in the constitution.  This was the last stroke to stop constitutional manipulations at NOWEFU which was intended to give Fon Teche, the outgoing President of NOWEFU, the post of Honorary President General as observed by analysts. 

The crux of the matter is that the revised constitution had created the post of Honorary President General (who should be a member of government or anyone ranking as such). As to what happened to the revised 2005 edition of the constitution of  union with which it was registered in 2006 (acknowledgment  receipt No 00100/E.29/111/vol.8/APPB remains another misery that only the Kaduna mafia can tell.  Yet when the leadership crisis resurfaced the Mezam SDO's office was in difficulties because it appeared NOWEFU had three different constitutions at the level of the administration. To cut the matter short, Fon Chafah took the matter to court, and in suit No HCMB/13/2015, the High Court of Mezam ruled that: the Senior Divisional Officer of Mezam who is even the Supervisory authority of the Union, call a general assembly of all the members to regularize the issue of their constitution and thereafter hand over to the new executive that shall be elected therefrom. The Nkambe elective General assembly was then convened based on that court ruling. The argument that elections were carried forward because Donga Mantung fons are not united is not tenable at all. Donga Mantung has helped in revealing the practices of the one-time Kaduna mafia that used to decide on who should be elected as President of NOWEFU. In article 1 of the Internal rules and regulations defining the duties and functions of the various officers of the union states that: The Honorary President General 

* Shall be the laison person between the union and the administration of the Republic

*Shall work closely with the executive Bureau of the Union

* Shall be a member of Government or assimilated as such

*Shall be a former Executive Bureau Member 

* Shall be elected by the General Assembly. 

Implicitly, only Fon Teche fulfills the third condition and wins to remain in power. What reason accounts for the creation of this position when during his own reign the post was not there? Will Donga Mantung accept this? Elite of Donga Mantung Division we gathered have vowed to unleash a can of worms of that post is not deleted. PM Yang sources say has summoned the outgoing executive to explain after the warning signals. 

The Fon Chafah, Fon Teche Wahala

Despite being best friends through thick and thin since the creation of the North West Fons Union-NOWEFU, it is now clear that Fon Chafah of Bangolang and Fon Teche Njei of Ngyenmuwa have fallen out. It has finally emerged that the duo (formerly ring leaders of the Kaduna mafia) as they used to call themselves have turned their backs. This was confirmed by a release issued recently by Fon Chafah rubbishing his former ally (Fon Teche).

What is however intriguing is that these former ring leaders of the Kaduna mafia tacitly claim ownership over NOWEFU. At the beginning, Fon Chafah fired an unguided missile towards Fon Teche. In a letter to former Mezam SDO Nguele Nguele Felix, which several quarters were copied titled “Truth and Facts which may be bitter but necessary for posterity” (he) Fon Chafah outline the following points against his former friend:

*“Senator Fon Teche Njei has never convened a single General Assembly or Executive meeting of NOWEFU since his election in 2012, thereby leading the association single handedly with demagogy, manipulation, division and misinformation. He has even summarily put aside his Secretary General, Fon Ndofoa Zofoa of Babungo.

*Being the first Third Class Fon with a very tiny population to head NOWEFU, he has systematically excluded all the First Class Fons and Second Class prominent of the region from the affairs of the association, so as to continuously manipulate a few fons who run after him.

*Clandestine trips to Yaounde to harass state officials for pecuniary gains and self aggrandizement are frequent under his leadership, thereby putting the once respected Fons of the region to ridicule and disgrace.

*A grand fundraising was organized by him soon after his election to complete a multi-purpose secretariat complex of NOWEFU built up to 80% under my presidency, no work has been done and no account rendered of the ten million FCFA collected for that purpose. In fact reliably sources hold that huge sums of money were collected by him and pocketed from prominent state personalities amongst which are the Secretary General and Assistant Secretary General at the Presidency, and the delegate general of the National Security.

*Politics being a game of numbers and results, it is on record that he has never won any election for the ruling CPDM where he is Senator and Central Committee member through appointment. His Batibo Constituency has been in the hands of the opposition since the inception of multi-party politics. His colleague in the senate, Fon Doh Gayonga of Bali proudly has his Bali council under the control of the CPDM. I equally proudly have all the two (2) parliamentary seats, the Senatorial seat and all the three councils in my Ngoketunjia constituency under the CPDM. That is what we call support for President Paul Biya, National Chairman of the ruling party and not empty noise and demagogy. CPDM is the winning party in my Fondom Bangolan.

In light of foregoing sir, I retreat you to take this moment of truth in good faith and to support us to re-establish legality of NOWEFU.

With the expiration of Fon Teche’s mandate on the 16^th of March 2015, he no longer has the locus standi to act on behalf of NOWEFU and any attempt by him to convene any meeting to modify our constitution shall be considered as null and void. Any administrative authority or persons treating with him in that capacity are no longer doing so in the interest of the North West Fons. The Advisory Council of NOWEFU shall be meeting very soon to chart a way forward for the association with a view to putting in place a transitional committee to organize elections for a new President General from any of the two gaining divisions”.

Fon Chafah also revealed that NOWEFU is a legal structure and was duly registered by the then Senior Divisional Officer for Mezam, Jules Marcelin Djaga. Fon Chafah Issac finds faults with Mezam Administration for asking Fon Teche to organize a general assembly to adopt a new constitution for NOWEFU, even though former Mezam SDO Nguele Nguele is said to have been wondering why NOWEFU had three different constitutions.

To Be Continued

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