The Eye Newspaper

Monday, November 2, 2015

Red Feather Reception Given to Ta Nformi Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh by Wimbum Community in Bertoua (PhotoNews 1)

Ta Nfor Cameroon flanked by Exco of Mbum Abi Bertoua

Perfoming Nfuh dance

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

MTN Gets November Deadline to Pay N1.4trn Fine

As the controversy over the N1.4 trillion fine on MTN lingers, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has given the telecommunication giant a deadline to comply.

The NCC has given MTN a deadline of 16 November to pay the fine imposed on it for failing to register the personal details of 5.1 million subscribers.
Vanguard reports that this deadline is coming after the South Africa’s stock exchange, JSE Ltd, launched an investigation into the timing of the operator’s announcement of its penalty.
According to a report, the spokesman for the Nigerian Communications Commission, the country’s telecoms watchdog, was quoted as saying that the outcome of the discussion may affect the date.
A statement by MTN said its CEO is still in talks with the Nigerian authorities and its senior management and advisers also talking to JSE, after the announcement of the fine knocked around 20 percent off the company’s stock price.

‘‘That’s why they are having the discussion so that they can reach a solution,” the spokesperson said.
The report also said Nigeria’s presidency and internal security agency are involved in the talks.
As for the JSE probe, the head of the regulatory division, Andre Visser, said, “the investigation will follow due process to establish whether there have been any breaches of the listings requirements and can be a lengthy process.”

Under South African capital markets rules, companies are required to immediately warn shareholders of price-sensitive information.

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

US Hunt Burkina Faso Man For $12m Mosquito Net Fraud

A Burkina Faso man has been charged with defrauding the United States of America of more than $12 million.

Reports say 33-year-old Malamine Ouedraogo is being sought for defrauding more than $12 million out of the US government and a Swiss-based fund by supplying faulty, Chinese-made mosquito nets.

AFP reports that Ouedraogo, faces up to 20 years in jail if arrested and convicted on one count of wire fraud. He remains at large.
The Global Fund, which is supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), allegedly gave Ouedraogo $12 million to buy and distribute more than two million UN-certified mosquito nets as part of a USAID campaign against malaria in Burkina Faso.
The mosquito-borne disease is the biggest cause of death in the west African country.
But instead of buying the nets from the recommended manufacturer in Thailand, as promised, US prosecutors say Ouedraogo sourced the nets in 2010 from a much cheaper supplier in China.
The nets allegedly contained little or no insecticide, and were fraudulently packaged as if they had come from Thailand.
Nets not treated with insecticide fail to repel mosquitos and can develop holes over time that mosquitos can penetrate, therefore presenting a much greater health risk to users.
The indictment comes after John Ashe, a former president of the UN General Assembly, was charged in New York this month for allegedly taking $1.3 million in bribes from Chinese businessmen.

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

I Predicted the Russian Plane Crash - Prophet TB Joshua Reveals

Prophet T.B. Joshua has released a video claiming he predicted the tragic Russian plane crash in Egypt.

Prophet T.B. Joshua

It will be recalled that a Russian plane crashed on Saturday, while flying across the Sinai peninsula in Egypt en-route to St Petersburg. Unfortunately, all 224 passengers on board the plane were tragically killed.

Now T.B Joshua, the founder of the Synagogue Church of all Nations, appears to have predicted the Russian plane crash.

In a sermon he delivered in his church back on Sunday August 31, TB Joshua said: “It will not be between Ukraine and Russia this time but a close region, a neighbouring region. I am seeing a full load of passengers crash again.”

The prophet is famed for his alleged ability to foretell the future.

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

Red Feather Reception: Wimbum Community in Bertoua Honours Ta Nformi Cameroon Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh

By FC Ndi

Ta Nformi Cameroon Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh, President of The Fomunyoh Foundation has hailed the Wimbum Community in Bertoua for the spirit of togetherness and development orientations. Ta Nformi Cameroon made the statement during a red feather reception in his honour offered by the Wimbum Bong Abi in Bertoua. Present at the groundbreaking were all the Presidents of sister communities of the North West Region based in Bertoua to share in the joy.

Singing there was ago-go and dancing too. Those who could have the opportunity to express their joy in speeches did it in songs. It was total euphoria as the population sang and danced in ecstasy of the great happening. The population poured panegyric on their Ta Nformi and at the time called on God to grant him power energy, wisdom and good health for his humanitarian endeavours in changing and impacting lives. There was an explosion of happiness when Wimbum President Ngenge Victor disclosed that Bertoua was first Wimbum Community to receive Ta Nformi Cameroon since his coronation last August in Nkambe.

Ta Nformi Bertoua, head of the Nfuh House could not hide his emotions well. On his part, Ngenge Victor described Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh as a development luminary and added that he had the opportunity to have witnessed his humanitarian service to humanity at La Fondation Marie France. He saluted all these efforts by TFF in fostering development initiatives. He used the opportunity to present a vivid picture of their activities and added that they are putting up a scholarship scheme to encourage excellence and would like to collaborate with TFF. Before leaving, TFF President promised his foundation would spare no efforts in assisting such laudable initiatives.

The performances by the Nfuh, Mbaya and Njuh dance groups were tremendous and colourful. By the time he was leaving the Nfuh gave him and his team a standing ovation and gave their blessings to the man of hope. (More soon)

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

Hundreds Join Ta Nformi Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh in Bertoua to Pray for Peace

FC Ndi

Happening as one with the visit to Land of the Rising, Bertoua, Regional capital of East, by The Fomunyoh Foundation the mass service for peace and security in Cameroon took place at the Saint Famille Cathedrale. Bertoua Catholic Cathedral was chock-full to capacity as hundreds joined in the mass service at the behest of The Fomunyoh Foundation –TFF, which is on a humanitarian mission to the East Region. The massive attendance was indicative as Rev. Fr Bruno Anyangma, administrator of the Bertoua Catholic Cathedral in his homily said that peace and security were indispensible for God’s people to serve humanity. Drawing his inspiration from the Book of God, Rev. Fr Bruno said God will always listen to his people. This explained why in his homily he hailed actions like those being carried out by the TFF President Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh. Sunday’s mass service was just a continuation of the choral fiesta by Rhumsiki Choir, where members who for peace and security while glorifying God the Almighty.

In continuation of its humanitarian mission, TFF team after the church service also visited Fondation Nazareth, an orphanage in the capital city where gifts were handed. This was immediately followed by a memorable visit to Moghamo Family meeting and Wimbum family meeting (See separate story)

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

Governance and Political Party Schools

Tazoacha Asonganyi

Asonganyi

Society is in permanent flux, with new patterns of needs and interests emerging continuously. A great challenge of political parties is usually how to harmonize what is good for the party with what is good for the society as a whole. In spite of blueprints and programs that political parties adopt from time to time, leaders have to act continuously like catalysts that fasten the emergence of new policies to address the changing patterns in society.

This is why political parties are usually faced with the problem of nourishment – the generation of new ideas. Such new ideas depend on the vision and thought patterns – some would say ideology - that order(s) the course of the party. And such nourishment is best sourced from structures not animated by timeservers – those who for selfish reasons adapt opinions to the times and comply with the humors of the powers that be.

Kwame Nkrumah was one of the main actors at the fifth Pan African Congress that held in Manchester in October 1945. The congress adopted the principle of African socialism based on African humanism as a means of resolving the African colonial question. Nkrumah later adopted the principle as the ideology he used to lead the fight for the independence of Ghana. The political party, the Convention People’s Party (CPP) he created in 1949, had an ideology he later described as “consciencism” or “scientific socialism.”

When Nkrumah became the president of Ghana, he formed a youth wing of the CPP, the Young Pioneer Movement (YPM) in June 1960 in primary and middle schools; it had as a pledge to “live by the ideals of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Founder of the State of Ghana and Initiator of the African Personality…” Students in high schools learned trades and ideology in scientific socialism in their extracurricular activities, while students in university institutions belonged to the National Association of Socialist Student Organization (NASSO) which had branches in colleges and universities. Further, there was a Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute (KNII) founded at Winneba for the reeducation of adults and public officials.

Nkrumah’s efforts to “teach” his “conscienscism” in these “schools” failed because he equated the state to his political party and imposed himself as a strong executive president that controlled a weak legislature and a weak judiciary. This undermined his vision of emancipating and developing Ghana. Robert Yaw Owusus’s glowing description of Kwame Nkrumah’s philosophy in his book - Kwame Nkrumah’s Liberation Thought - does not diminish Cameron Duodu’sopinion in a recent issue of New African Magazine that Nkrumah’s government considered the people’s enjoyment as a superficial aspect of life; only industrialization and other abstract words usually ending in “-tion” or “–ment” mattered to his socialist government. The CPP government enacted the undemocratic and repressive Preventive Detention Act that allowed it to detain “dissidents” for five years without trial! How this all sounds like the way power and “dissidents” are treated in Cameroon!

As defined by Joseph Ernest Renan, a nation is a moral conscience created by a big aggregation of people, pure in spirit and warm hearted. The dictionary definition of conscience usually turns around a sort of force within us which decides on the rightness or wrongness of our own actions and affections. And the word moral is also usually defined as the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong as determined by duty. Each component of the aggregation of the component people - the citizen - is assumed to possess a moral conscience. This guiding idea of moral conscience and people with pure spirits and warm hearts should be regardless of the temporary occupants of the power positions within the nation.

In such nations, moral conscience, purity of spirit and warm heartedness may be taught to children through the mainstream school system. In society, it is nurtured not through “schools” but through free debate and discussion in the free press, free association of citizens and the abundant existence of other freedoms – which all breed a “common sense” and feelings of solidarity among the aggregated people.

The Labour Party in the UK is nourished by the Fabian Society, an independent group of free thinkers founded to promote the “reconstitution of society so as to ensure the general welfare and happiness.” The Fabian Society promotes socialist principles and produces socialist policies that it circulates to the public through regular reports, tracts and essays. The Labour Party benefits from it not because the policy documents are directed exclusively to it but because it has adopted socialism/social democracy as its guiding principles.

It is obviously quite difficult for a thirty-something years old regime to initiate a shift to a new policymaking mode - to disrupt its usual way of thinking and action. A party that has created more martyrs of misgovernment than heroes of ideas cannot be trusted to engage in reflection on democracy and related issues. A party school or whatever it is called of a party like the CPDM that has shown itself to be incapable of facilitating the emergence of a constructive democratic society, and seeks to “give" democracy to society through imposed laws and commissions, will surely end like the Kwame Nkrumah “Schools”.

We can expect very little or nothing from any political “school” that will influence the allures of the CPDM government in Cameroon. What we urgently need is a change at the helm of the state to provide a fresh impetus to state matters that upholds the nation as a moral conscience.

TazoachaAsonganyi

Yaounde.

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