Special Criminal Court: Former Mayor of Douala 4 Acquitted

On March 29, 2016, John Ndangle Kumaze, SDF former mayor of Douala 4 was discharged and acquitted at the Special Criminal Court. He was found not guilty of three counts brought against him in the Special Criminal Court ( TCS). Accused of embezzling a total of FCFA 131 million CFA, the TCS could find evidences of these charges. Sources say the evidences provided by the defense were solid at the point where Emmanuel Agbor Ashu would find it difficult to appeal the court decision.  This is so because he could not provide evidence of things he accused Mr. Kumaze. Rather, the documents he presented in Court as evidence exonerated John Danle Kumaze.


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

CPDM Senators, MPs Under Strict Suveilliance

 CPDM Senators and Members of Parliament have been told to stay mute during deliberations at the National Assembly. The MPs according to what we gathered have been told that all their worries should be channeled through their group speaker and that anyone who violates the instruction will have his or herself to blame. It is now clear that the "foolish majority" has now been deprived of their freedom to express themselves. The Eye is aware that during a meeting at Yaounde Congress Hall, the  senators and CPDM MPs were told that they are not allowed to give their opinion on a topical issue without requiring the express permission of the President of their group and or Secretary General of the Central Committee of the party. Implicitly, they have lost the ability to control the action of the government which is a mission enshrined in the constitution of our country. 

Henceforth, they must obtain permission from the hierarchy to publicly express themselves on topical issues. Talking to journalists one of them who preferred not to be names said that" some members of the government believe that we disturb. But our colleagues who have had the courage to speak out on issues of concern to our society in recent times, were quite relevant in their positions". It is now clear that now CPDM Senator or MP will never raise a finger to ask a question on issues like the rampant electricity cuts, water cuts, scandals in hospitals, the phenomenon of inexplicable crimes and terrorism. It is alleged that the decision was provoked by Senator Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya who during the CPDM in Bafoussam posed pertinent issues that challenged the leadership of his party. 

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

Lesson from Nigeria: Dangote's New Refinery Will Sell Fuel at International Price

Dangote's proposed refinery has made a decision on a concrete pricing system that will be adopted when the facility becomes operational.

Aliko Dangote

 Mr. Mansur Ahmed, the Executive Director, Stakeholder Management and Corporate Communications, Dangote Group, has stated that Nigeria would be transformed from a fuel importing country to an exporting one by the time Dangote's new refinery births.

“That plant itself is the largest single refinery plant anywhere in the world. In addition to the refinery, we are also going to produce some petrochemical products from the same complex. These are polyethylene and polypropylene,” Ahmed said according to Punch.

He said the petrochemical plant, which covers 250,000 hectares of land and is located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, would gulp $14bn, with capacity to refine 650 million barrels of crude oil a day.

“One would prefer if it was deregulated so that we know that we are playing in the open market. The key issue is that if I buy crude, whether from Nigeria or anywhere else, I buy at an international price. If I produce a product and want to sell, I should sell that product at an international price.

“So, I will not be affected by the decision of local pricing; it is on that concept that we went into refining. We expect that we will buy our input, especially crude, for international market price, and that when we produce products, we will sell those products at international prices.

“The refining industry is a global industry; if you use those international benchmarks, you shouldn’t really worry about the price. It is about time Nigeria completely deregulated the downstream industry. The kind of reason that has compelled the government to fix petroleum product prices has not been tenable.”

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

Chibok Girls Are Not Missing - Fayose

Controversial governor, Fayose has accused the APC of lying about the 219 Chibok girls that are currently missing.

Ayo Fayose

  The Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has rapped the federal government for deluding Nigerians over the purportedly missing students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, accusing the All Progressives Congress of deploying the situation to defeat former President Goodluck Jonathan, according to ThisDay.

He said he viewed with amusement the advocacy of Dr. Oby Ezekwesili-driven Bring Back Our Girls movement, which has been pressing for the recovery of the missing girls.

“You can’t get what is not missing,” the governor said.

The girls were kidnapped in April, 2014 by Boko Haram and had since been declared missing by the federal government.

Fayose, who spoke in Ado Ekiti at a two-day workshop organized by Women Arise for Change Initiative, said the rumour of the missing girls was mere political fabrication meant to get Jonathan out of office at all costs.

“The cries over missing girls were just a political strategy. What could Boko Haram have used to carry those girls? However, if truly missing, they should be recovered . One thing I know is that what is not missing you cannot get,”he said.

On the erosion of the rights of women to hold political positions, Fayose begged Nigerian men to stop intimidating them and allow them to enjoy the freedom of association guaranteed to them by the 1999 constitution.

“It pains me that some of the human rights activists had gone since the advent of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government. They have lost their voices. Where were they when DSS invaded the Ekiti House of Assembly and arrested a lawmaker and locked him up?

“They were flouting court’s orders at will and victimising opposition. It is better we collectively speak up now or we are consumed.

“In some homes, men had cowed their wives and made them subservient. The wives have no rights to claim or defend. But before you can claim anything, the wives or female in general must be up to the task. You have to be intellectually and socially alert.

“Don’t just, because you are a woman, lose your voice. With this, women shall collectively regain what belongs to them”.

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

Official: Arrested Girl Suicide Bomber Not a "Chibok Girl"

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A Nigerian official says a girl suicide bomber arrested in Cameroon is not one of the 276 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from a school in the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok nearly two years ago, but is from a nearby community.

The official says Cameroonian authorities gave them the names of the girl and an older accomplice but are holding them for questioning about how the Islamic extremists operate. The official is in Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital, waiting for the girls to be handed over. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive.

In Nigeria, Chibok Parents Association chairman Yakubu Nkeki said he is waiting to go to Cameroon to see the child.

The girl, arrested Friday with explosives strapped to her body, appears heavily drugged and suffering injuries, Cameroonian officials said.

She said she was from Chibok and appeared to be about 10 years old. Nkeki's niece was one of the youngest students abducted from a government boarding school in Chibok. She was 14 at the time of the mass kidnapping in the early hours of April 15, 2014. Dozens of the girls escaped on their own but 219 remain missing.

Boko Haram continues to kidnap even as Nigerian troops have rescued thousands from captivity in recent months. None has been from the Chibok school.

Special:

The failure of Nigerian officials and the military to rescue the girls promptly brought international condemnation and helped President Goodluck Jonathan lose elections last year.

The Chibok kidnapping propelled Boko Haram into notoriety.

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

Monique Koumate and CPDM Politics of Numbers

Another March 24 has come and gone, and added a year to the age of the CPDM. And once again, the party spent the day in the folly of talking about one man, and counting “his” achievements. It continued to indulge in a simplification of politics that offers no real measuring rod of success and failure. Indeed, it continued to indulge in a type of mob action that betrays intellectual weakness, and a feeble mindedness that touts around uncertain means of achieving equally uncertain objective.

The party again indulged in the counting of their “greater achievements,” one by one, in the certainty that even if the rest of us can argue about a lot of things, we cannot argue about arithmetic. In this, they forget that quality is much more difficult to handle than quantity; that the exercise of judgment is a higher function than the ability to count and calculate.

Quantitative differences can be more easily grasped and certainly more easily defined than qualitative differences. The materialist philosophy on which CPDM arithmetic is based makes it liable to overlook the most important pre-condition that make all the difference between quantity and quality.

The fate of Monique Koumate in Laquintinie Hospital in Douala, and more recently the quintuplets in the Central Hospital in Yaounde tell us that what we see as a modern hospital, a factory, a seaport – a “greater achievement”! – are just the tips (the hardware) of complex infrastructures that perform the duties they are meant to perform. What we cannot see is the software – the discipline, the intellectual achievements behind the planning, the organization and the functioning of the structures; the great inputs that are the pre-condition for making what we see either an empty shell or a vibrant structure.

So we see only the tip of the structure; the greater part of the structure is invisible. The counting game the CPDM indulges in is usually based on what they become conscious of – the visible; and they easily overlook the invisible because they consider what they see as green pasture offered to some fanatical supporter of their politics. Yet it is the invisible things that make the visible possible, keep it going, and prevent tragedies like the ones we are living in our hospitals and in many other structures in our society.

With the hospital tragedies, many people are talking about the quality of training in CUSS – a Faculty I have taught in for the last 30-some years - as if the problem is at that level. Education cannot help us as long as it is detached from metaphysics - our fundamental convictions. Education is something more than mere training; something more than mere knowledge of facts. It is a process of giving ideas that would make the world more intelligible to the recipients. It is giving moral instructions that fill the inner spiritual space with some higher motivation of love, goodness, and truth. Otherwise, the space is filled with lower stuff like small, mean, and calculating attitudes to life which are rationalized in economic calculus centered on personal gains.

Emmanuel M.P. Edeh (Igbo Metaphysics) says that Africa had a Man-God-World conceptual scheme or relationship. Its culture was (is?) based on understanding and interpreting this scheme; on the influence of this relationship on life and existence. This confirms Tatah Mbuy’s (The Faith of our Ancestors) statement that African Traditional Religion (ATR) is the core of African culture, and constitutes the grammar of existence for Africans. It is the location at which the genuine African and his life-situation are encountered. This also confirms John S. Mbiti’s statement that Africa had no written texts as such; their religion was written in the history, the hearts and experiences of the people.

It is this religiosity that helped our forebears to appreciate metaphysical truths. It is usually said that Europe that sent forth the early Europeans that came to Africa, was shaped by education, organization and discipline that radiated from its metaphysics and ethics which brought forth its science and technology. Those early Europeans that came face to face with our culture came armed with the Judeo-Christian religion which was the basis of the metaphysics and ethics on which their societies had been built, and which was virtually congruent with our religious beliefs, in spite of its total exclusion of the black person from the imagery that the religion left in our minds. 

In addition, they came with a “new” metaphysics enunciated in Darwin’s theory of evolution, competition, natural selection and the survival of the fittest; Marx’s concept of class struggle; the idea of relativism enunciated by Sophists that denied all absolutes; and the idea of positivism that sought to extend the positive sciences to social facts and so denied the existence of God and repudiated metaphysics.

It is mainly these “new” metaphysical ideas that were left with us and have congealed in our consciences. By the time of “decolonization” and “independence”, we were full of wrong ways of thinking and living, which only bred/breed alienation. We were left in great confusion as to what our convictions are. This is why the repeatedly stated idea of an education system based on “African culture” – African metaphysics - is attractive to us, but our hearts are somewhere else. We want to develop, to achieve happiness by neglecting our true spiritual realm; we want to satisfy the body, neglecting the deepest feelings of our soul. And so we hear often from those who govern us – from Africans with religion as the core of (their) culture, and the grammar of (their) existence – proclaiming: candidates should have so many GCE O/A Levels, except “religion”!  With nothing to take the place of “religion”, the emotional part of our nature is enfeebled and our moral character is injured.

The key factor of all development comes out of the mind of humans. Development is not about visible structures that are counted and boastfully proclaimed as “greater achievements”; it is about people, their education, organization and discipline. The emergence of a country is secondary to the emergence of its people; just as the development of a country is secondary to the development of its people. People emerge when they themselves are the owners and producers of what they see around them: the ports, the roads, the stadiums, the industries. Society emerges when its leadership is reconciled with democracy; clever formulae that promote leadership without democracy cannot work because they lose the very quality of human nature and human life. Power that excludes its opposite - the opposition - can achieve nothing concrete.

As is usually said, we should always let Athena spring out of the head of Zeus. The cacophony in the implementation of “emergency plans” and “greater achievement” projects, produce countable structures that are created for us, without us; these cannot compensate for arrangements that insult our self-respect and impair our freedom.

The feeble responses of the CPDM regime to the tragedies in Laquintinie Hospital and the Central Hospital are a result of our living with a kind of metaphysical disease. The tragedies are a reminder that the primary cause of extreme poverty is immaterial; it lies in certain metaphysical deficiencies; in deficiencies in education, organization and discipline.

Even if ‘old dogs cannot learn new tricks’ as the saying goes, ‘new dogs’ grow up all the time; they will be well advised to learn what ‘old dogs’ are unable to learn – that we need to integrate African metaphysics as the foundation of the education we get. Only this can make our education useful to our daily existence as a people with dignity, and prevent tragegies of disorganisation and indiscipline that bring us so much shame.

Tazoacha Asonganyi

Yaounde

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

Army Recovers Heavy Arms and Ammunition in a Coffin at a Checkpoint (Photos)

Vigilant Nigerian soldiers intercepted some heavy arms and ammunition concealed in a coffin to beat security intelligence at an undisclosed part of Nigeria. 

 

Facebook user, name Bello Abdulrasheed Afolabi shared a disturbing report of how the Nigerian troops stationed at a checkpoint nabbed some criminals involved in arms trafficking.

 The weapons were concealed in a coffin as they pretended to be headed for a burial ceremony.

 Read the words of the news poster:

 "Ladies and gentle men of the house just take a look at what Army personal recovered yesterday on check points. We should advice our police men on the high way to take Note with this kind act. This guys carrying arms and armunetions one of them acted as a Pastor and even carrying a copy of Holy Bible my God forgive them."

 

See more photos from the crime scene:

 

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

After Long Wait on President Biya to Supervise Tarring of the Ring Road, Donga Mantung People Go Hoes, Spades in Hand

On March 28, 2016 an estimated 5,000 people cued along the Ndu-Nkambe stretch of the Bamenda Ring Road with spades, hoes, cutlasses, buckets, digging axes and wheelbarrows. Four trucks and a front-loader hired thanks to the contribution made by business owners in Nkambe. This was someone puts it, an act of covenant with humanity and the future of man. 

All transport cars were grounded, no one was allowed to go to the farm. As early as 5 am, Jujus could be seen in all the quarters in Nkambe, Binshua, Binka, Mbot and Tabenken villages mobilizing the population. Youths, elders and even kids defied the busy planting season to rescue the ring road which has been in tears begging for Yaounde to make a statement. Everybody was there, including the Divisional Officer for Nkambe, the Mayor of Nkambe as well as the Divisional Delegate of Public works who all assigned to themselves the role of coordinators. They did not only supervised but worked all day long digging and transporting stones. On the other hand the fons of Nkambe, Kungi, Mbot and Binshua were also very active moving from one spot to another to encourage the population. By 8am, the 19 celebrated spots that have been a nightmare between Nkambe and Ndu received the visit of unwanted quests. While women and children were busy collecting gravels, men were busy evacuating the poles of water in the middle of the road. From Nkambe end of tar to the most celebrated Yamba hill and Chory, truck loads of gravels were poured and tampered. To Ndi Evaristus, this intervention is a worthwhile action given that it cuts beyond the political divide. "I think those who failed to be part of this communal action would be judged by their consciences. There is no need for us to continue to wait for manners from heaven when we can provide food for our families", he concluded. 

The Senior Divisional Officer for Donga Mantung who took time off the busy schedule to encourage the population said that he has given firm instructions to the Divisional Officer for Ndu and the mayor to make sure that the population is also mobilized to work on the celebrated spots from Tatum to Ndu. Ngone Ndodemesape Bernard expressed gratitude to the population for their act of maturity and self-reliance. 

Pa Michael Nformi lamented that President Biya promised he was going to personally supervise the tarring of the ring road but its rather unfortunate that the promised has not been respected. " We are ready to contribute money to tar this road. I think government is a people, and we are a people. We have been constructing schools and I see no reason why we cannot tar a road". 

Nfor Nsakwa on his part was of the opinion that it is pathetic that in the 21st century people still do road maintenance with hand tools. "We here on National Road Number Eleven, and as you can see, I am working. We are the ones suffering and we cannot fold our arms until Yaounde decides when to work on the road. This road is a predicament to development of this areas, we cannot sell our farm produce, we cannot evacuate patients to hospitals, etc. I am satisfied that we have been able to provide a temporal cure to our cry". 

That the people of Donga Mantung Division have been tempered with carelessness by the Biya government is an indisputable human rights abuse. Since 1948, in the days of the Nkambe Division, government has reluctantly accepted the slow shame of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed to and which the nature of this country and the powers that be have imposed. In fact if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it can never save the few who are rich, says Samba Kingsley, the Freelancer.

When government institutions were the pillars of moral value, any statement made publicly by the Head of state of this great nation, Cameroon was never suspected to be an “April fool” kind of merrymaking. Any public pronouncement of the Head of State was considered by all and sundry as part of the Presidential largess that the President dishes out every time he visits any locality. Such a pronouncement was considered as a symbol of decorum because such promises were immediately followed up and realized within the shortest time possible. I remember my father once told me that President Biya once declared that he was personally going to supervise the construction of the Bamenda Ring road. Yet 24 years have come and past since he made that promise and the Bamenda Ring is still in patches like achaba tubes. 

That the people of Donga Mantung Division decided to construct a road with hand tools demands a week of serious fasting and prayer. At The Eye we do not know whether it is the influence of the Western culture that has transformed government institutions into negating its people or influence of politics that has made Head of States to forget what they say immediately it is done. However, anyone signing any motion of support without mentioning the state of this road from Donga Mantung should be considered as being in a state of sin and or not upright up stairs as Tamngwa Marcel says outrightly. Being a respecter of the institution that President Biya incarnates and the powers that he wields, the pressure suddenly became unbearable when everyone saw the need for collective work on that road.

SDO for Donga Mantung 

Mayor of Nkambe

DO for Nkambe

Divisional Delegate of Public Works

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

BREAKING News: EgyptAir Jet Carrying 82 Passengers is Hijacked by Man Wearing Suicide Vest

A suspected terrorist hijacker wearing a suicide vest, has forced an EgyptAir jet carrying 62 people, including eight Brits and ten Americans to forcefully land in Cyprus.

The EgyptAir was enroute to Cairo, carrying 62 people when it was hijacked by a man in an explosive vest

 

An Egyptian passenger plane carrying British and U.S. citizens has made an emergency landing on Cyprus after being hijacked by a man wearing a suicide vest.

 

EgyptAir MS181 was en-route from Alexandria to Cairo when it requested permission to make an emergency landing at Larnaca Airport on Cyprus. 

 

The Airbus 320 is reportedly carrying 62 people, including eight Brits and ten Americans, according to Egyptian media.

 

At least one man on the plane is believed to be armed, and explosives have been found onboard, Cypriot officials said.

 

The Egypt Air jet  was en-route from Alexandria to Cairo when it  was reportedly hijacked

 

The hijacking of the plane, carrying 55 passengers and a crew of seven, was confirmed by EgyptAir on Twitter at 7.40am GMT.

 

The plane diverted to Cyprus after a man on the flight threatened to detonate an explosives belt, Egypt's civil aviation authority said.

 

Hijackers demanded that authorities leave the runway 'in order to release women and children passengers',former EU Commissioner for Education, Androulla Vassiliou, tweeted.

 

Some 20 people have been allowed off the plane, but the hijacker is believed to still be holding more than 40 people hostage.

 

One armed hijacker took control of the Airbus A320 at 8.30am (6.30am GMT), police spokesman Andreas Angelides said. 

 

The hijacking occurred in Cyprus's flight information region and the airliner was diverted to Larnaca, where the plane currently sits on the runway.

 

Source: DailyMail 

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

Nigerian Police Releases Photo of Captured 'Chibok Girl' Bomber for Verification

The full identities and family roots of the bombers arrested in Cameroon with one of them claiming to be one of the abducted Chibok school girls has been confirmed by the Nigerian government.

  

Investigators have revealed the identity of a would-be suicide bomber arrested in Cameroon. She is not one of the 219 Chibok schoolgirls, according to the Nation.

Cameroon released the identities of the girl and another would-be female suicide bomber to Nigerian security agencies and a delegation to Yaounde.

The self-confessed bomber is Aissatou Musa and her accomplice is Mamma Sali. But the girls were yet to be handed over to the Federal Government as at press time last night.

According to sources, after debriefing and profiling of the two girls, the Cameroonian authorities communicated their findings to Nigerian security agencies and the delegation to Yaounde.

It was learnt that the two girls have no Western education. A report said: “Available information as regards the acclaimed Chibok girl indicated as follows: Aissatou Musa, who claimed to be one of the Chibok girls, is the daughter of Musa Bladi and Fanta(mother) of Mandara ethnic group.

“The second girl is Mamma Sali. She is the daughter of Sali Chetima and Hajiya Bintou of Kanuri tribe.

“Both hailed from Bama and speak in Mandara, Hausa and Kanuri. They have never been to Western school, except Koranic schools. They have no relationship with the 219 Chibok girls.”

But as at press time, the two girls were yet to be released to the Federal Government. A source said: “The girls have not been handed over to the Federal Government because the Cameroonian Government is still probing some clues on Boko Haram from them.

“You know, Northern Cameroon town have been attacked many times by Boko Haram since the insurgents were displaced from their bases and cells in the Francophone country.”

The #BringBackOurGirls group on Saturday gave the Federal Government 24 hours to unveil the true identity of the self-confessed bomber.

Cameroonian health and security officials yesterday started treatment on an arrested suicide bomber who claimed to be one of the 219 missing Chibok Girls. The girl was found to be heavily drugged and bore several injuries on her body.

The girl’s health condition delayed her movement to the far north regional capital of Cameroon, Maroua, as earlier planned. Pictures of the arrested suspected bomber obtained by Nigerian officials indicated that the girl was likely a minor, between ages nine to 12 years.

Her accomplice was about 30 years or more, and both spoke only in Kanuri language.

Considering the well-known guidelines regarding the publication of photography of minors, the statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said it was decided to forward the pictures of the suspected bomber to the Murtala Mohammed Foundation for verification by interested Chibok community stakeholders.

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

Stretch of the Bamenda Ring Road Kumbo-Tatum-Ndu-Nkambe-Misaje: Truth That Must be Spoken

By Fai Cassian Ndi

When I posted pictures of people (including kids of less the 5 years) working on the stretch of the ring road Ndu-Nkambe using hand tools on the social media yesterday, a friend asked me whether we have a department in my country that oversees road maintenance. I said, well all this is happening in a country where there are several agencies, including the Ministry of Public Works which is responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads. In fact the response I got almost angered me when my friend said that Cameroonians are routinely being put at risk everyday as a result of the failure of the state to provide adequate amenities for its citizens and that all the authorities involved in road construction and maintenance should buckle down and do something to remove this blot on Cameroon’s image. 

He concluded by insinuating that those who have been signing letters and sending them to Yaounde on behalf of the people should even be arrested and detained by their consciences if found guilty in influence trafficking. In fact I was so annoyed that by the time of putting down this piece I completely forgot the names of several of our elite(s). This matter is important because our country cannot develop with rickety political gansterism. Notwithstanding, I know some of them who are good and are endowed with character and conscience. Yet overshadowed by the self-seeking rickety wayward spins. But this is not our interest for now. 

However, before the people of Donga Mantung (Nkambe, Binshua, Binka, Tabenken, Mbot, Kungi) decided to work on this road using hand tools, traveling from Kumbo to any part of Donga Mantung Division was not just a nightmare but demands a week of serious fasting and prayer because you never know when you will get to your destination. However, anyone who would maladroitly sit on the fence to declare that the stretch of road from Kumbo to Donga Mantung is not a necessity or a priority should be considered as being in a state of sin. 

Even though there is a statement in the Bible which states that people should not pass round for judges on others, I believe it is often quoted out of context because the Bible still tells us that people should be judged if their acts are injurious. I am aware that this critical judgment analysis is badly needed. It is imperative because the people of Donga Mantung are in tears again and the bells of anguish are being heard signaling that Donga Mantung Division may cease to exist in the map of this country. I am also aware that this bit will offset many people but it is a fact. Even so, who is even going to twist my arm for speaking the truth? 

Is it not a right for the people of Donga Mantung to have a good access road and even enjoy more as a border Division? It pains and kills my imagination as well as the picture post-card I got from my father that they decided to unite with La Republique because of what was happening up the road. Approximately 54 years after reunification the situation of this road is more pathetic than before to the point that the population has to donate money to hire truck and caterpillars to work on this road. That in the 21st century people still work on national roads using hand tools. Oh Yes, life is not a choice. It is what you see that you adapt to. 

When I look across the river and see the road network, I cry for my Division. I wish I could put down on paper the picture that comes to me from the restrained of anger. I need not dwell upon the authenticated horrors of the Nazi internment camps and death chambers for Jews. That is tragic but a kind of insane horror like our ring road. The essence of tragedy is not the doing of evil by evil men but the doing of evil by good men, out of weakness, indecision, sloth, inability to act in accordance with what they know to be right. The ring road, until now, presents the classic existential argument about the existence of God or a higher power: if he did and does exist, then the only natural choice is to become a disciple; but if he did not, and there is no afterlife, then life is meaningless outside the present moment for the people of Donga Mantung given that wise people have often said and proven that where the road passes, development follows. Hence, there is nothing to be done except to live every moment without a thought to the next but look only to God Almighty for Divine Intervention. The state of nature of the Ring Road almost made Donga Mantung an Island on land.

But then Today, thoughts and feelings are more and more separated from each other, and this separation leads either to an almost schizophrenic intellectualism or to a neurotic, irrational emotionalism. Only if emotions and reason are brought together like what happened yesterday (that more than 5.000 people came out to work) can man function in a way which makes life interesting and hence creates the possibility of a productive life. To put it briefly, the lesson is that emergence of Cameroon has started from Donga Mantung Division, the land of hard working people. Kudos to the Fon of Nkambe for the great mobilization, the SDO for Donga Mantung for igniting hope, the DO for Nkambe Central and Mayor of Nkambe for personally supervising, the Cameroon National Youth Council for communicating, the Kwifons of the various dynamic population of the various villages, business owners, the Fons of Binshua, Tabenken, Kungi, Mbot and Binka. Hopes are not lost, instead of waiting, lets forge ahead with our development in action not rethorics

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

Stretch of the Bamenda Ring Road Kumbo-Tatum-Ndu-Misaje: Truth That Must be Spoken

By Fai Cassian Ndi

When I posted pictures of people (including kids of less the 5 years) working on the stretch of the ring road Ndu-Nkambe using hand tools on the social media yesterday, a friend asked me whether we have a department in my country that oversees road maintenance. I said, well all this is happening in a country where there are several agencies, including the Ministry of Public Works which is responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads.  In fact the response I got almost angered me when my friend said that Cameroonians are routinely being put at risk everyday as a result of the failure of the state to provide adequate amenities for its citizens and that all the authorities involved in road construction and maintenance should buckle down and do something to remove this blot on Cameroon’s image. 

He concluded by insinuating that those who have been signing letters and sending them to Yaounde on behalf of the people should even be arrested and detained by their consciences if found guilty in influence trafficking. In fact I was so annoyed that by the time of putting down this piece I completely forgot the names of several of our elite(s). This matter is important because our country cannot develop with rickety political gansterism. Notwithstanding, I know some of them who are good and are endowed with character and conscience. Yet overshadowed by the self-seeking rickety wayward spins. But this is not our interest for now. 

However, before the people of Donga Mantung (Nkambe, Binshua, Binka, Tabenken, Mbot, Kungi) decided to work on this road using hand tools, traveling from Kumbo to any part of Donga Mantung Division was not just a nightmare but demands a week of serious fasting and prayer because you never know when you will get to your destination. However, anyone who would maladroitly sit on the fence to declare that the stretch of road from Kumbo to Donga Mantung is not a necessity or a priority should be considered as being in a state of sin. 

Even though there is a statement in the Bible which states that people should not pass round for judges on others, I believe it is often quoted out of context because the Bible still tells us that people should be judged if their acts are injurious. I am aware that this critical judgment analysis is badly needed. It is imperative because the people of Donga Mantung are in tears again and the bells of anguish are being heard signaling that Donga Mantung Division may cease to exist in the map of this country. I am also aware that this bit will offset many people but it is a fact. Even so, who is even going to twist my arm for speaking the truth? 

Is it not a right for the people of Donga Mantung to have a good access road and even enjoy more as a border Division? It pains and kills my imagination as well as the picture post-card I got from my father that they decided to unite with La Republique because of what was happening up the road. Approximately 54 years after reunification the situation of this road is more pathetic than before to the point that the population has to donate money to hire truck and caterpillars to work on this road. That in the 21st century people still work on national roads using hand tools. Oh Yes, life is not a choice. It is what you see that you adapt to. 

 When I look across the river and see the road network, I cry for my Division. I wish I could put down on paper the picture that comes to me from the restrained of anger. I need not dwell upon the authenticated horrors of the Nazi internment camps and death chambers for Jews. That is tragic but a kind of insane horror like our ring road. The essence of tragedy is not the doing of evil by evil men but the doing of evil by good men, out of weakness, indecision, sloth, inability to act in accordance with what they know to be right. The ring road, until now, presents the classic existential argument about the existence of God or a higher power: if he did and does exist, then the only natural choice is to become a disciple; but if he did not, and there is no afterlife, then life is meaningless outside the present moment for the people of Donga Mantung given that wise people have often said and proven that where the road passes, development follows. Hence, there is nothing to be done except to live every moment without a thought to the next but look only to God Almighty for Divine Intervention. The state of nature of the Ring Road almost made Donga Mantung an Island on land.

But then Today, thoughts and feelings are more and more separated from each other, and this separation leads either to an almost schizophrenic intellectualism or to a neurotic, irrational emotionalism. Only if emotions and reason are brought together like what happened yesterday (that more than 5.000 people came out to work) can man function in a way which makes life interesting and hence creates the possibility of a productive life. To put it briefly, the lesson is that emergence of Cameroon has started from Donga Mantung Division, the land of hard working people. 

Workdone

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

24 Years After President Biya Promised He was to Supervised the Tarring of the Ring Road,Donga Mantung People Have Decided

carrying stones 

Filling potholes

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

Nigeria sends Members of Chibok Community to Cameroon Over Claims by Arrested Female Suicide Bomber

Source: Premium Times

The Federal Government is to send some members of the Chibok community to neighbouring Cameroon, to verify whether a female suicide bomber arrested on Friday, is one of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.

This information is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday by Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari.

The statement said already the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, and the Nigerian high commissioner in Cameroon had swung into action and were receiving a lot of cooperation from the Cameroonian authorities.

“It has been confirmed that one of two girls is claiming to be among the girls stolen from Chibok on April 14, last year, although doubts have creeped into the claim following new information from Cameroon that the two girls are aged about 10 years,’’ it stated.

According to the statement, one of the two is also believed to be heavily drugged and therefore not in full control of her senses.

It said that the Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Cameroon, Hadiza Mustapha, confirmed that the arrested girls might be brought to the Cameroonian capital, Younde, by Monday, at which point the High Commission would seek permission to meet with them.

The statement said that the Murtala Mohammed Foundation had offered to cooperate with federal government in sponsoring two parents from Chibok, who were selected to embark on the trip to Cameroon.

“The two are Yakubu Nkeki, Chairman of the Parents of the Abducted Girls from Chibok association, and Yana Galang, the group’s women leader.

“The Nigerian High Commission will receive the two and will facilitate their access to the two girls once permission to meet and verify their identity is obtained from the Cameroonian authorities,’’ the statement added.

About 250 Chibok schoolgirls were reported to have been abducted by members of the Boko Haram terror sect at the Chibok Government Secondary School in Borno about two years ago.

About 51 of the affected schoolgirls were also reported to have escaped from their abductors, who were transporting them to unknown destinations, on the fateful day of their abduction.

Meanwhile, reacting to the arrest of the arrested girl in Cameroon, the BringBackOurGirls movement urged the government to “adopt and utilise our citizens-developed tool the Verification, Authentication, and Reunification System (VARS) designed by our movement for such scenarios as these.

“This tool was accepted by the federal government on 8 July 2015 during our meeting with the president, but has not been deployed.

“Likewise, the Missing Persons Register which would have been useful in tracking this young victim in order to commence her rehabilitation, reunification, and reintegration process with her family and community.”

In a joint statement by three of its leaders, Aisha Yesufu, Oby Ezekwesili and Hadiza Bala Usman, the group said,

“We received news yesterday Friday 25 March, of an arrested girl-child suicide bomber in Cameroon who identified herself as one of our abducted Chibok girls.

“We are presently unable to respond to this news conclusively until we have facts from the Nigerian government; from whom we requested and have eagerly been awaiting official information on the matter.

In the interim however, our thoughts are as follows:

1.
i. The claim by the young woman that she is a Chibok girl should reawaken the Nigerian government to the zeal and commitment necessary for ensuring that they are rescued and brought back;

ii. This development suggests that we now have a possible source of credible intelligence as to what transpired, where the others are, and other leads required to facilitate their rescue.

2. Regardless of whether she is one of our Chibok girls or not, our thoughts and sentiments remain the same:

i. using children, girls who should be in school (or any humans at all) as suicide bombers is not only tragic and cruel, it is completely reprehensible and we denounce it;

ii. these children suicide bomber are themselves victims, and must be seen and treated as such;

iii. we all must hasten to free all those in captivity. For as long as they are with the monsters, we all are ourselves unsafe and equally in captivity;

iv. a few weeks ago, a girl suicide bomber did not detonate her device at an IDP camp because she knew her family was most likely in that camp, and she could not kill them.

It is important to send out messages that counter the programming of the terrorists. This may help in empowering these victims from detonating the explosives and accessing help;

v. this particular experience highlights the importance of building not only a regional coalition among neighbouring countries to counter terror, but a global one.

3. The Nigerian government as a matter of urgency, needs to swiftly act to ascertain the facts of this matter and make them public. It is getting to 24 hours since the news broke.

We need to know her name and identity, her parents’ names, where she is from, possibly extract DNA samples for quick testing and matching, etc.

4. This should be a wakeup call to the Nigerian government to adopt and utilise our citizens-developed tool the Verification, Authentication, and Reunification System (VARS) designed by our movement for such scenarios as these. This tool was accepted by the federal government on 8 July 2015 during our meeting with the president, but has not been deployed.

Likewise, the Missing Persons Register which would have been useful in tracking this young victim in order to commence her rehabilitation, reunification, and reintegration process with her family and community.

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

Medical Prescriptions: Making Millions by Killing Millions

Source: The Colbert Factor

 ‘…I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability...’

This Hippocratic Oath which affirms the obligations of medical doctors toward patients is today  simply a hypocritical oath as very few patients in Cameroon and especially in Bamenda would not want to respect doctors while they live or ‘remember with affection thereafter’ the hospitals they went to for treatment.

In-exhaustive protocols more for money than for effectiveness

They charge that most medical doctors are not different from police officers. ‘The Bamenda General Hospital is just like the police station where before you enter they tell you bail is free but once inside, you must pay huge sums of money before you leave’, says Bernard, a regular customer to the General Hospital. I decide to fact-check the claim. As I move toward the Hospital Director’s Office I am attracted to an ugly scene at the pharmacy where a women of over 60 is crying out that all the money she brought to buy drugs have been stolen. She would not know whether the money was stolen in the pharmacy or in the laboratory. This woman is one of the few that is fortunate to be directed by the doctor to carry out lab tests in the hospital laboratory. Patients complain that each time they go to consult they are systematically directed to laboratories in town or in neigbouring Baffousam. Dare go and do it in a different laboratory. Hospital authorities are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the situation and reveal the hospital lab losses close to 30 million per month from such referrals. Patients too are not indifferent given that tests in the Bamenda Hospital laboratory are far cheaper than in private laboratories. Hear Bernard: ‘The doctor will not attend to you if s/he discovers you went and did your lab tests in a different laboratory other than the one s/he directed. They would ask you for one lab test after another’. Dr. Ngwanyam of the St. Louis says the cankerworm has gone beyond public hospitals. ‘There is a serious problem with medical practice now. It’s not just about public hospitals. I know of an internist here in Bamenda who has a private clinic. Whatever the illness you have, be it simple malaria, you must do laboratory tests for close to 300.000’. 

Patients are at the mercy of doctors

 Bernard sees in what is happening now a way for doctors to continue to kill rather than cure patients. ‘You know as patients we are like flies in the hands of wanton boys. You want to get well quick and leave the place so as to go about your daily business. They play on your psychology knowing that you have very little choices to make’.So, what do they benefit from all this? Tim is a vendor of words in Bamenda and has had his own fair share of such treatment from medical doctors: ‘The fact is the private clinic owners share the money with these doctors. The more referrals you make the more money you also make.’ If that were to be the only problem Tim would not be that bothered: ‘The worse thing is that they prescribe you a long list of scarce and expensive drugs and some of the nurses steal drugs and other health accessories from patients and in turn sell back to the same persons. This is corruption, pure and simple’. 

You must take all these or......

 Shelly has a practical insight: ‘I had an encounter with a nurse who insisted I must buy drugs from her. When I refused and bought them from the hospital pharmacy, she refused to administer them. A quarrel broke out between the two of us and she only reluctantly administered the drugs when I threatened to report her to hierarchy. In that anger she wrongly administered the drugs and it almost led to an ugly scene.’

Shang thinks the corruption in public health facilities is diabolical in its nature, inescapable in its reach and overwhelming in its dimensions. ‘Since the patient thinks that reporting a medical doctor to hierarchy may endanger his/her health, most patients prefer to suffer and die in silence. Some prefer to opt out of the system to the less expensive tradi-practitioners. Kain Rufine, 65, is mother of five and lives in Abuh: ‘I was coming back from the farm and fell down and had a fracture, was rushed to Mbingo Hospital and for two days doctors would bot attain to me on grounds that I have not paid a deposit of 300 000. I ask my children to take me back to a native bone doctor in Fundong who finally treated me for less than 100 000.’ Through such unorthodox means, doctors and nurses here make millions for themselves by killing millions of unsuspecting Cameroonians. 

Bernard still recalls vividly: ‘When my wife was about to put to birth, we were asked to pay 4500 for a drip which was finally not administered, yet my money was never refunded. The other time we were asked to deposit 90 000 for my wife to be operated as she came to put to birth. I objected and took her to Mbingo and while there the doctor asked her to do some simple exercises and just within an hour she put to birth’.

without money, you are gone in such a health care system

Dr. Arrey is in charge of the disciplinary committee otherwise called anti-corruption unit at the Bamenda Regional Hospital. He is overwhelmed by the magnitude of the perception the general public has of doctors and nurses in the Regional hospital: ‘We cannot just act without official complaints from clients. Each time we receive a complaint about a doctor or nurse, we drag him or her to the disciplinary committee. We cannot just act on rumours.’ To show the commitment of authorities of the Bamenda Regional hospital to cleansing the bad image of the hospital he declares that ‘some cases of wrong-doing reported by patients are currently being investigated and once wrong-doing has being ascertained, the culprits would be seriously dealt with.’

While waiting for this to happen, Cameroon remains one of the unhealthiest countries in the world as per the revelations of an American conglomerate, Bloomberg that puts Cameroon  at the 139^th position out of the 149 countries investigated. Dr.Ngwanyam reasons that the situation may go from bad to worse if the root cause of the problem, poor training of medical personnel, is not addressed and urgently. While it last, doctors and nurses will continue to kill millions so as to make millions.

Gwain Colbert

Freelance

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