Fuh Calistus Launches FAINAP, Kick-starts Industrial Revolution in Donga Mantung

 By Fai Cassian Ndi

Dr. Fuh Calistus Gentry, Secretary of Mines, Industries and Technological Development, distinguished founder of the Frontier Agricultural and Industrial Programme- FAINAP called on the people of Donga Mantung Division set aside their political differences inorder to forge for sustainable development. Dr. Fuh Calistus made the clarion call while launching FAINAP activities in Nkambe, on November 4, 2015.

In his launching speech, Dr. Fuh Calistus said that FAINAP in its entirety is a non-governmental organization, non religious, non tribal and an apolitical organization which focuses on the development of Donga Mantung Division in the North West Region of Cameroon. According to Fuh Calistus, the organization seeks to reinforce and empower farmers as well as support them with adequate and relevant facilities. The support, he said will tackle production, transformation and marketing of farm produce.

Harping on the various speculation that have been chosen, Minister Fuh Calitus told the population that FAINAP has the mandate to boost the maize, cassava, cattle, beans and the palm sectors. Furthermore, he added that clusters of production would be created in the five sub Divisions which will be managed by a local committee. He used the ocassion to announce that some 40.000 chitted palm nuts will be bought to set up nurseries in the coming months. Besides, he also called on the fons of Donga Mantung Division to allocate land for the creation of the clusters which will also provide jobs for the youths. Through this method Dr. Fuh Calistus said that Donga Mantung farmers will add value to what they produce as well stimulate the imminent creatioon of an agro industrial zone. “If Government created the Ndu Tea plantation, it is because we have the potentials and if Government created the Dumbu Cattle Ranch, it is also because we have the potentials”. Accordingly, he continued that Donga Mantung will become an industial powerhouse in the country producing, transforming and commercializing several quality produce ranging from palm oil to grid, starch and dairy products.

On his part the Secretary General of FAINAP, Adamu Musa used the opportunity to extend a motion of thanks to H. E President Paul Biya for reappointing Dr. Fuh Calistus in a strategic ministry during the cabinet reschuffle that took place last October 2, 2015. To Adamu Musa, the project has kick-started the Donga Mantung industrial revolution. “We shall also take the advantage of the strategic position of Donga Mantung Division vis-a-vis our giant frontier neigbour, Nigeria”. On how the project will get its funding to carryout this vast vision, Adamu Musa was categorical that the successes of the FAINAP will attract goovernment and many international funding organization to provide assistance for the sustainability of the project. He expressed gratitude to Dr. Fuh Calistus for his innovative ideas who has generously done his part and “ the ball is in our court. The big question now is shall we make or mar”?

Another speaker Ruth Ali Eno thrilled the population with her expertise in project management and the expected results of the project. While Mabu Finian handled the commercial and transformation part given his wide experience in East Africa in working for a similar project.

Another key point at the launching ceremony was the handing of the belated “Lifetime Achievement Award” of The Eye Newspaper to H.E Dr. Fuh Calistus who was absent at the August 31, 2015 award ceremony in Nkambe. In a brief statement the Secretary of the Jury, Nji Ignatius and Samba Kingsley numerated some of the projects initiated by Dr. Fuh Calitus such as the African Model village, Gent Fund, the Scholarship Fund, the Misaje Business Initiative etc. They said it was not by error that he was voted to recieve this prestigious recognition. “This is a spur for you to do more”, Nji Ignatius said.

It should be noted that over 60 traditional rulers attended the launching ceremony in Nkambe.

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Hon. Awudu Mbaya Heads Delegation of African MPs to African Union

The President of Pan African Parliamentarians’ Network on Climate Change, Hon. Awudu Mbaya Cyprian

is leading a delegation of African Parliamentarians to Addis Ababa. According to a communiqué issued by the general secretariat of PAPNCC today, November 5, 2015, Hon. Awudu Mbaya left the country for Addis Ababa to attend the meeting of the African Union Economic Affairs.

Hon. Awudu is expected to address Members of the African Union Economic Affairs on critical issues ahead of the Paris Conference on Climate Change scheduled to begin next month. PAPNCC communiqué also specifies that Hon. Awudu will also address African MPs, Negotiators and other stakeholders on the role MPs will play and will continue to play on the on-going preparations for the Paris Summit. It should be noted that the Pan-African Parliamentarians’ Network on Climate Change is crusading for One Africa, One Voice, One Position in PARIS in a bid to seal a binding, equitable and fair deal for Africa.

 



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Standing Ovation for Ta Nformi Cameroon Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh at GBHS Abong Mbang (PhotoNews)

 There was euphoria at Government Bilingual High School Abong Mbang  as Ta NformiCameroon Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh, President of  The Fomunyoh Foundation donated books to improve on the learning and teaching programme in that institution. Before handing the donation to the principles of the school,  Ta Nformi Cameroon told students that education is the most precious gift one can give to humanity today. He told the students that " I see future teachers, professors, medical doctors, engineers, Jurists, judges, lawyers, statesmen and women, etc. To achieve this you must read these books", Christopher Fomunyoh said. On his part the Principal of GBHS Abong Mbang, Mr. Kwang Rostand expressed gratitude the President of the Fomunyoh for the timely gift that will go a long way to change lives. "This is the first time that this school has benefit from such a largess. we salute the efforts of Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh in his humanitarian mission". Before leaving GBHS Abong Mbang, Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh Promised that he will bring more books if the students read them ..."I would like to see this book looking old. That will be ample proves that you have been reading them".(PhotoNews)

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Euphoria at College Prive Jean Paul II as Fomunyoh Foundation Makes Huge Donation of Books (PhotoNews)

 There was euphoria at Government Bilingual High School Abong Mbang and College Prive Jean Paul II as Ta NformiCameroon Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh, President of  The Fomunyoh Foundation donated books to improve on the learning and teaching programme. Before handing the donation to the principles of the two institution Ta Nformi Cameroon told students that education is the most precious gift one can give to humanity today. He told the students that " I see future teachers, professors, medical doctors, engineers, statesmen and women, etc" On his part the Principal of school expressed gratitude the President of the Fomunyoh for the timely gift that will go a long way to change lives...(PhotoNews)

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Drama in Senate Over Buhari's N5,000 Promise to Unemployed Nigerians

The senators of the APC have objected to the motion to ensure the compliance of President Muhammadu Buhari to his campaign promise of offering financial palliatives to unemployed youths in the country.

 

There was mild drama at the senate on Wednesday, as All Progressives Congress (APC) senators and those of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) squabbled over a motion by Senator Philip Aduda, urging President Muhammadu Buhari to fulfill his party’s promise of paying N5,000 monthly to unemployed Nigerian youths, according to The Cable.
The motion, which was seconded by Godswill Akpabio (senate minority leader), generated hot air, as APC senators shot it down. Aduda’s motion followed an earlier motion‎ on the need to curb unemployment in Nigeria by Bassey Akpan (Akwa Ibom northeast).
Akpan had observed that the rate of job creation in Nigeria was grossly inadequate to keep pace with the expanding working age and labour force population. He said he believed that if the nation’s unemployed youths‎ were effectively engaged in gainful employment, vices such as terrorism, kidnapping and armed robbery would be reduced. ‎
Akpan therefore urged the senate to call on the “federal government and sub-national governments to intensify their effort on employment generation activities in line with their various campaign promises”.

 

The motion was adopted, but the however adjourned to next Tuesday.

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Meet Waa Nkeng Musi, The Image Hunter

 By FC Ndi

Waa Nkeng Musi: The Image Hunter

Aristotle one of the greatest philosophers once developed an idea of virtue ethics that relies substantially on the effects role models have on people. According to Aristotle we learn to be morally (virtuous) by modeling the behavior of moral people. He believed that it was the moral duty of every citizen to act as a good role model. This was especially true for people who were most likely to be in the public eye, since these people had so many eyes on them that is why when asked, many youths would say that they want to be like their role models. Aristotle would argue that this is not a choice a person can make. Since these people are so prominent in our society they are role models and should take this responsibility seriously.

One person who is taking his leading role seriously is Waa Nkeng Musi, founder of MUSINASH Image Central, an audiovisual firm based in Bamenda, regional capital of the North West Region. Waa Nkeng Musi is a super-mega photographer, a profession in which he has gained fame. As the world celebrates World Photography, Musi should as well be acknowledged for clouting a weighing scale in the sector.

The most interesting thing about this energetic young man is that he looks beyond the horizon that appears to be the end of the world for others to see other opportunities that nobody imagines can exist. From a humble photographer with a small Kodak pushed by the passion to preserve images and the quest to earn a living, Waa Nkeng Musi moved out of the madding crowd to becoming a professional photographer, Movie Maker, Senior Audiovisual consultant. Talk about photography in Anglophone Cameroon and the first name that comes to mind is Waa Nkeng Musi. “My motivation to do photography came as a result of my love to preserve events in images”.

Musi Waa’s success story as a professional photographer,(image hunter) could be traced as far back as the early 90s when he was a student of Government Bilingual High School Mbengwi. One of teachers, Jaji Manu (Bilogy teacher) having discovered the knack young Musi had to images nicknamed him MUSINASH “Branche” which today a trademark in Cameroon.

With a lot of innovations in the sector, Musi says “the challenges are enormous now that digital equipments have been simplified and functions like robots leaving users just with the option to point and shoot”. This, he says attracted adventurers to the point that almost everyone with a Smartphone thinks his/herself a photographer.  However, the principalities according to Waa Musi must be applied by the professionals in order to make the difference. “We have kept our mark as seen in our art so as to meet up with international standards.  In order to strive as a professional, I have kept my skills wanting as well as upgrading them and above all, respecting the norms”. In fact, this could be seen through his work. Those who have had the opportunity to visit his office would agree with this reporter that Musi is as perfect as a mathematician.

  To say that Doumana has rescued the population from the pangs of useless drivers is to use one of the weakest diction ever to describe the work of a workaholic. But to say he has rescued the population from the pangs of useless driver and holders of fake drivers’ licenses makes his actions to similar to those of William Still.

Seemingly, these fascinating acts of transforming, acting and realizing positive multiplier upshot are gifted.

Rudyard Kipling, one of the finest English writers once said that “if you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs and if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat the two the same, yours is earth and everything that is in it”. This is a clear-cut veracity justifies why has earned him several recognitions. He has won several national and international awards in photography and film making. In 2006 he was the Best Photographer in the North West in a competition organized by the then Ministry of Culture. This was prior to the National Festival of Arts and Culture. At a national exhibition held at the Hilton Hotel in Yaounde in 2008, Musi won the second national prize on photography. In 2006, he took part in an international photo exhibition, Ono Bursary Photography of the Year organized by The Duke of Edinburgh where he picked the crown of runner-up of the 150 participants representing their respective countries. His exploits at that exhibition gave him the opening to participate in the International Gold Event in Hong Kong and China where he took official pictures for the event.

What is important about this award winning dynamic young man is that he is resourceful, down to earth and fertile in expedients. In the year 2006, he started a jump-start career in the movie industry. His first film “Grains of Honesty” won the Best Feature Film for Africa at the Abuja International Film Festival. The following, he was selected Best Virtual Artist of the North West for his innovative ideas expressed through the Bring The Noise Project Africa by the British Library.  

Musi’s trappings can only be best captured through the lenses of John Quincy Adams who said that if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. Musi is not just a self-motivated person hunter with unparalleled qualities. In getting to where he is today he is also leaving a mark of greatness in his approach to empower young Cameroonians. “I have trained a lot of young people both in studio training that is long term as well as through Government sponsored project. My studio graduated 15 trainees and 6 others under the sponsorship of a government programme PAJER’U”. Majority of his trainees are settled in business both within and outside Bamenda. I have a trainee who is a photographer in the USA”. Some budding filmmakers and photographers like Bobmarli Muluh, Asanji Emmanuel, Eboua Mark, Billy Val, and the seasoned filmmaker Musing Derrick are his former students.   If Musi is building common frontiers for all segments of society as a photographer, it is thanks to his commitment to do just the right thing in sector that has recorded a lot of evolution. In keeping his head high, Waa Nkeng Musi followed the principle outlined by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that ‘heights by great “men” reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight but, while their companies slept, they were toiling upward in the night’ burning the midnight candle to change lives around. This is also thanks to the training that he acquired at the Duke of Edinburgh’s program UK majoring in Photography and Filmmaking.

Harping on the major challenges at this year’s Photography Day commemoration in Bamernda, Waa Musi said that not everyone with a camera is a photographer. To him, a photographer is that person who is able to pull out a good image that speaks. Yet the sector is full of untrained photographers. Elaborating on the nomenclature of images, he said “most media houses exploit images without hiring the services of professions and at the end result is that they return home with extremely poor pictures for their publications and jeopardize the profession. However, he recommended that society should embrace photography as a profession and see photographers as preservers of history. “Government must give us the opportunity to proof our work by allowing us to have access to publication of arts in public space.  A good example is the municipal space in Yaounde around the Chinese center and the ministry of external relations where photos of our national integrity are displayed. In effect, it will sell our cultural values”.

The question as to how much of Cameroon as Africa in miniature is preserved in pictures abound high. This he said will expose them and will permit professional photographers to also participate in international exhibitions. It is for this reasons that young photographers have been chopped by the syndrome of on-spot shot collection. The reasons why photographers are hired abroad to do the job that can perfectly be done is also a major hindrance. Besides, authors’ rights are not also respected.    

As to whether photography is a sustainable job, Musi said “I am a proud photographer and my family goes by my sweat sweat as an image hunter just like a tapper who sustains his family from the rip of palms. From all indication, you will judge without doubts that I am happily living a blessed life. Though it is challenging to get there, it is all about steadfastness, honesty, respect for costumer ship,  duty conscious and above all surrendering it under God’s protection”.

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MTN Bows to Pressure, Agrees to Pay N1.04trn Fine by Nigerian Communications Commission

MTN has finally agreed to pay the controversial and mammoth fine slammed on it by the NCC

 

News reports say MTN has finally bowed to pressure and accepted to pay the N1.04 trillion fine slammed on it last week by the telecoms regulatory authority, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), while pleading for staggered payment model.
Accordingly, the telecoms operator was fine for violating its directive on SIM deactivation.
This follows series of meeting held between MTN management team from South Africa and Nigeria with the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
The telecoms operator which has largest subscriber base in Nigeria, it was gathered, may have agreed to pay the fine to sustain the interest of its telecoms business.
Industry sources who confirmed the new arrangement, disclosed that the federal government is already yielding to the plea, which according to him, was part of the agreement reached at the series of meeting held at the weekend in Nigeria.
“There have been series of meeting at the Presidency between the Vice President Osinbajo and MTN team both from South Africa and the Nigerian arm. MTN wanted a waiver considering their level of investments in the country, but government did not buy the idea of waiver. Instead, I think there will be concession, but certainly not a waiver. At the conclusion of the meeting, the MTN people negotiated on how to stagger the payment. The Presidency is even angry because MTN was a signatory to the regulation, but they are failing to comply with rules.”, the source added.
It would be recalled that NCC had said that MTN would not escape the fine, owing to the enormity of its implication to national security.
Although NCC had hinted that the issue is being handled by the federal government, the telecoms authority also noted that MTN would risk withdrawal of its licence if its fails to comply with the fine.
Even with the widespread calls for the intervention of the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), on the N1.04 trillion fine, Chief Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had last week called on the NSA not to intervene in the matter, adding that NCC regulation must take its course.
NCC said it had consistently engaged Mobile Network Operators, (MNOs) to strictly adhere to the regulations and its business rules in the registration of their subscribers.
Following several engagements, the Commission had confirmed various cases of violations of the regulations and sanctioned appropriately.

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Meet the Twin Sisters Who Are Married to One Husband

Twin sister who grew up sharing virtually everything in life decided to marry the same man.

The Twins on their wedding day

 

A weird romance story narrates how twin sisters decided to marry the same man for the rest of their lives to the amazement of many.

The twin sisters from South Africa have actually gone ahead to marry the man after he acceded to their requests, and with polygamy being accepted in their country, the marriage took place in a big way.

According to The Drum, for identical twins Owami and Olwethu Mzazi, it was their life-long dream to marry the same man. They stated that during their childhood days, they shared everything, washed the dishes, played, and went to school together. They even bathed side by side.
One of the twins, Owami, told the magazine: “We have always done everything together…that is how our grandmother raised us. So when we decided to marry, we said any man that wants to marry one, will marry the other.”

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My Abong Mbang, La Meilleure Ville de la Vieille

 By FC Ndi

Abong Mbang council area

Abong Mbang, headquarters of Upper Nyong is the window to the regional headquarters of land of the rising, Bertoua. The old Abong Mbang like Nkongsamba, Lolodorf made during the pre-colonial era. Current trends might have forgotten them but history has it on record. But I remember Union of Abong Mbang, a soccer team that has contributed enormously in our yesteryear football glories. Abong Mbang, the road junction for the numerous timber exploitation companies. Abong Mbang “La belle ville". 

However, the old town is fabulous! Interesting quirky bush meat sellers and a great selection of good people too. Truck drivers contemporary adds to the flavour its busy nature.

 Created in 1955, as headquarters of Upper Nyong Division, it located 144 km from Bertoua and 236 km from Yaounde. With a population of more than 30.000 inhabitants, the Abong Mbang council area covers 11 340 km2. It is made up of 34 villages.

It is in this municipality that The Fomunyoh Foundation in its humanitarian mission will be donating books to some schools today November 3, 2015. The beneficiary schools include GBHS Abong Mbang and Catholic College of Abong Mbang.

 (details soon)


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