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31, January 2020

Ambazonia Fighters Attack Reporters, Torch Media Offices ⁰

Journalists in Cameroon’s troubled English-speaking regions say separatists are attacking them because of critical reporting and refusal to broadcast rebel propaganda. Media organizations say separatist intimidation is intensifying as Cameroon prepares for local and parliamentary elections, which the rebels have vowed to stop.

Community radio station Stone FM, in Cameroon’s northwestern town of Ndop, stopped broadcasting Monday.

Manager and presenter Mbuotna Zacks Anabi says armed men stormed the station late Sunday night, firing shots into the air before setting the building on fire.

Speaking via a messaging application, he said the suspected separatists left nothing.

“Before burning, they first of all looted radio equipment. Then on the 27th of January 2020, they burned the radio house [station] as well as my own personal house – maybe because I have been against broadcasting their messages. I have been campaigning for schools to go back [reopen],” Anabi said.

Cameroon’s separatists consider the French-speaking majority’s state schools and teachers to be legitimate targets in the English-speaking west and attack those that refuse to close.

Anabi said after the attack, he fled to the English-speaking town of Bamenda, 60 kilometers away, and the station staff in 13 villages went into hiding.

Rebels have not claimed responsibility for the attack. However, on social media, they have threatened anyone supporting Feb. 9 elections in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

The separatists are fighting for an independent English-speaking state, and have vowed to stop any elections held by Cameroon’s French-majority authorities.

Twenty-four-year-old teacher Antoinette Melo, a Ndop resident, says without Stone FM, people in the town have little access to news and information.

“That was the only radio station that informed us and for the past days we have not been having any information. It is difficult because we are preparing for elections and we want to hear what candidates are saying,” Melo said.

‘Attack on democracy’

Jude Viban, president of the Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists, notes that Stone FM is not the first station targeted by the rebels.

He said separatists have been attacking reporters and media in the English-speaking regions for refusing to broadcast their propaganda.

“We are calling on the authorities of the country to make sure that they investigate and bring the culprits to book and we also want to let those who are attacking journalists as well as those who are attacking media houses to know that it is sad for our democracy. One of the core values of democracy is press freedom and each time a journalist or a media house is attacked, it is an attack on democracy,” he said.

Viban said journalists are reporting separatist intimidation for simply asking people to vote in the elections.

The government has repeated that it will protect all of citizens and is calling on the population to report any suspected rebels.

Stone FM is the third radio station to be attacked in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking regions in recent weeks.

The others were community radio stations in the northwestern town of Oku and the southwestern town of Kumba.

Since the separatist conflict broke out in 2017, journalists in Cameroon have complained of abuses from both rebels and state security. Close to 30 Cameroonian journalists say they have been detained or threatened while reporting on the conflict. Several were charged with terrorism before the charges were later dropped.

Journalist Macmillan Ambe was abducted by separatist fighters in the city of Bamenda in February 2019 after he criticized their call for families to keep their children out of school. He was released a day later unharmed.

Police last March detained the president of the Cameroon Community Media Network, Geraldine Fobang, for leading a peaceful protest for press freedom. She said police intimidated her before she was released after a few hours.

Military police arrested TV journalist Mimi Mefo in 2018 and charged her with publishing false information and terrorism. The charges were dropped only after Cameroonian President Paul Biya intervened.

Former Guardian Post reporter Amos Fofung fled to the United States in 2017 after he was arrested with three other journalists for allegedly supporting the rebels. He remains in the U.S.

The Reporters Without Borders 2019 World Press Freedom Index ranked Cameroon 131st globally, a two-position drop since 2018.

Source: VOA

31, January 2020

Cameroonian employers and tax authorities are at daggers drawn ⁰

The representatives of Cameroon’s top employers are calling for the sacking of Cameroon’s tax chief, a sign of deteriorating relationships across the business and government sectors as the economy underperforms.

The president of the Groupement Inter-Patronal du Cameroun (GICAM), Célestin Tawamba, in a letter dated 16 January and addressed to President Paul Biya, complained about the attitude of the current head of the Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI), Modeste Mopa Fatoing.

An observer of the country’s economic environment, summed up the letter, saying it was “an indictment and, above all, an explicit demand for [Fatoing’s] dismissal”.

In what was obviously a deliberate leak, the letter made the front page of the economic newspapers. One headline dated 22 January, stated: “Consummate breakdown of relations between the Directeur Général des Impôts and companies”, and carried substantial extracts from the letter. Naturally, this ignited activity on social media.

Gicam’s tax reform in question

According to a copy of the letter, seen by Jeune Afrique, the bosses’ boss openly criticised the DGI boss for, among other things, “his inability to engage in dialogue and to deal with contradiction, the refusal to issue administrative documents which has led to considerable delays in making investments, his inability to devise a short- and medium-term fiscal policy likely to boost growth while ensuring an appreciable level of revenue for the state, his lack of knowledge of the reality for companies”.

For Tawamba, it seems, the straw that broke the camel’s back was Fatoing’s “hostility to a GICAM tax reform proposal in which he [Fatoing] thought he perceived an attempt by the private sector to replace the state, despite instructions from his superiors”.

The cornerstone of GICAM’s 300-page tax reform proposal, submitted in 2018, was to reduce the minimum collection rate on turnover from 2.2% to 1.1%. This would provide companies with a tax break worth 51bn CFA francs ($8.7bn). Tawamba, who is also the founder of the Cadyst Invest Group, has continually advocated abandoning taxation based on activity in favour of a tax based on profit.

Cameroon and the IMF

DGI Fatoing dismissed the complaints. “The DGI is not opposed to anything,” he said.

A tax administration official said: “Arbitrations in budgetary and fiscal matters are made by the presidency” and pointed out that 71% of GICAM’s proposals were validated by a steering committee set up in 2018 by finance minister Louis Paul Motaze, most of which are gradually being implemented.

“The remaining 29% of the proposals, which include the issue of minimum collection, require in-depth studies of their impact, all this while Cameroon is under a programme with the IMF. Moreover, the minister of finance had made this known to employers on 3 November 2018, in Douala,” said our source.

Recipient of the letter, President Paul Biya, has remained silent.

Culled from The Africa Report

30, January 2020

Yaounde: SNH issues tender for seismic study provider ⁰

Cameroon’s state-owned Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures du Cameroun (SNH) has launched a tender for a feasibility study for a 3D seismic shoot, onshore in the Douala/Kribi-Campo Basin.

Interested parties must acquire the tender file by February 14 with a meeting to be held on February 17, followed by a site visit. Bids, in French or English, must be submitted to the SNH’s contracts unit by March 6, at 1 pm. The feasibility study is expected to take a maximum of four months.

Bids will be opened that day, with a first phase looking at administrative and technical bids. For those companies that get through this step, the bids will then be scrutinised on a financial basis. Bidders may attend the comparison, which will be carried out by the Special Committee for the Award of Contracts relating to Petroleum Operations.

Bidders must pay 763 euros ($840) to secure the tender file and 4,574 euros ($5,038) as a bid bond.

SNH expects to pay for the study from its 2020 budget.

Work will consist of collecting data and information from official agencies; mapping the various challenges that will need to be overcome; identify stakeholders; make recommendations on design and operational planning, including security and logistics; estimate the cost of the survey; prepare terms of reference for a quality assurance expert and for the selection of a seismic contractor, and finally submit the full report.

SNH is offering nine blocks for direct negotiations, of which six are in the Douala/Kribi-Campo Basin. CGG is offering data packages for areas in the country and is assisting with the licensing. The seismic company has 7,637 square km of 3D seismic in the basin, with another 12,571 km of 2D seismic.

Source: Energyvoice.com

30, January 2020

Why Southern Cameroonians are joining Vice President Yerima in boycotting the February twin poll ⁰

The leaders of the Ambazonia nation, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Southern Cameroons Interim Government have opined that the people of British Southern Cameroons have no reason to be optimistic about the future of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in La Republique du Cameroun.

From the vicious marginalisation and political victimisation to the systemic disenfranchisement of Southern Cameroons citizens inside the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon including the constant French Cameroun military atrocities in the Northern and Southern Zones of Southern Cameroons, from the daily killings and oppression of those living in Ground Zero to the routine humiliation of those living under its French Cameroun apartheid laws — not to mention the hundreds in French Cameroun detention centers and prisons in Mbouda, Buea, Douala and Yaounde— President Biya and his French Cameroun political elites continue to brazenly deny the people of Southern Cameroons their basic rights.

From February the 7^th to the 12^th, Southern Cameroonians with slavish minds including Ministers Paul Atanga Nji, Paul Che Elung, Paul Tasong, Victor Mengot and a certain Lady Nalova will go to the polls in a French Cameroun teleguided elections, we of the Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report will be joining Vice President Dabney Yerima, the Ambazonia Interim Government and millions of Southern Cameroons citizens both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora in boycotting the French Cameroun contest — refusing to participate in our own marginalisation and declining to serve as a pawn for a state that exists for and of the French Cameroun people only.

In the French capital Paris last year, the French Cameroun head of state, Paul Biya told an audience during a Mo Ibrahim Show that La Republique du Cameroun is not a state for all its citizens: According to the ailing leader who will be 87 this February, La Republique du Cameroun is the nation-state of the Francophone people, and French speaking people only. Biya reiterated his message, telling the world that the French government and the UN gave French speaking Cameroonians a mission to assimilate British Southern Cameroonians.

Biya wasn’t wrong as notorious French Cameroun political elites such the current Minister of Higher Education, Fame Ndongo, Minister Issa Tchiroma, television host Ernest Obama, Dr. Owona Nguini and Justice Minister Laurent Esso have officially designated Southern Cameroonians — more than 20 percent of the country’s population — second-class citizens. So, La Republique du Cameroun is a nation only for its French speaking citizens.

Biya and his political allies have had no worries blasting anti Anglophone and anti Southern Cameroons messages from the rooftops of the state owned radio and television. Biya’s inflammatory rhetoric and a sea of other anti Southern Cameroons declarations have been constant on air ever since the Southern Cameroons crisis took a dramatic u-turn.

The recent massive deployment of Francophone soldiers and elements of the French Cameroun gendarmerie force was pushed by Beti Ewondo political elites advocating that the Francophone dominated regime in Yaoundé should be forcibly moving Southern Cameroonians to neighbouring Nigeria. In a final bid to gin up support, the Biya Francophone government over the weekend dished out huge sums of money to all political parties taking part in the elections.

Biya detest the very idea of universal suffrage and has governed for over 37 years as a Monarch. But how can this be surprising? For more than two decades, Biya and his French Cameroun acolytes have supported the settlement of thousands of French Cameroun citizens on towns and cities populated by Ambazonians — who, unlike the native Southern Cameroonians, enjoy government protection from French Cameroun civil administrators, French Cameroun police commissioners, French Cameroun gendarmerie bosses, French Cameroun judges and of course French Cameroun army soldiers.

Southern Cameroonians living in French Cameroun have hardly fared any better. Since the so-called reunification, senior French Cameroun politicians have portrayed Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia citizens as enemies from within, a demographic time bomb, and a fifth-column population.

The late mayor and government delegate to the Yaoundé City Council, Ema Basile even developed a diabolic harsh ploy that prevented Southern Cameroonians from acquiring land in the Center Region and in the nation’s capital. Those who succeeded in the purchase of land in Yaoundé passed the CPDM imposed loyalty test of speaking the French language fluently.

Senior French Cameroun political elites have in many occasions challenged Southern Cameroons pro Yaoundé leaders to go and live under Nigerian rule, citing their lack of loyalty to Biya and the French Cameroun discriminatory state institutions.

Let it be told that for 58 years, Southern Cameroonians in La Republique du Cameroun have been living under what can best be described as Ahidjo-Biya Military Government which with the backing of successive French governments has slowly but surely suspended most of Southern Cameroons’ civil rights and legal protections.

Is it any wonder that many Southern Cameroonians continue to view their La Republique du Cameroun citizenship as a mere political fiction?

Unfortunately, it hardly matters which political party prevails in the February 7-12 elections. None of the parties and their candidates including those of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate has a program for peace in Southern Cameroons. None seeks to end the marginalisation and military occupation and atrocities, let alone the killings and burning of Southern Cameroons towns and villages. All the political parties have received money from Biya and his gang and all have committed to the silly idea of a military solution to the crisis in Southern Cameroons. And all see Southern Cameroonians including Prime Minister Dion Ngute as second class citizens. Why should Southern Cameroonians lend their imprimatur to a twin poll that will only elevate those who would exclude them from political power?

Whether or not Biya and his consortium of crime syndicates win in February, French Cameroun’s trajectory is clear: continue with the extermination campaign in Southern Cameroons, force Southern Cameroonians to flee to Nigeria, recruit fewer Southern Cameroonians as civil servants in the one and indivisible Cameroon and continued demonization of Southern Cameroonians everywhere.

Biya and French Cameroun political elites have publicly proclaimed La Republique du Cameroun as the only functional democracy in the Central African Sub region. But in the end, elections in a country where candidates go for campaigns in armored vehicles surrendered by heavily armed French Cameroun soldiers and that only one group of people (French speaking Camerounians) enjoy full rights as citizens are nothing but a fig leaf for apartheid.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

30, January 2020

Coronavirus: Chaos in China’s sporting calendar ⁰

China suspended all football in the country Thursday, hours after the World Indoor Athletics Championships and World Cup skiing were postponed, adding to a long list of sports events hit by the coronavirus outbreak.

The world’s most populous country has become an increasing powerhouse in hosting international sport in recent years but has had its 2020 sporting calendar thrown into chaos.

Here, AFP Sport lists the events already affected and those potentially under threat:

Cancelled, postponed or moved

— Football: China on Thursday suspended all domestic football and postponed indefinitely the top-flight Chinese Super League season kick-off due on February 22 in order to “carry out prevention and control of the pneumonia epidemic,” said the Chinese Football Association.

— Athletics: The World Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, were postponed for a year. “It is with regret that we have agreed with the organisers … to postpone the event to March 2021,” the sport’s governing body said in a statement Wednesday.

— Football: The Asian Football Confederation announced Wednesday that home Champions League group stage games featuring four Chinese clubs would be switched to away fixtures for the first three match days in February and March. A decision on venues for each club’s three home group matches will be made at a later date.

— Women’s football: A women’s Olympics qualifying event between China, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia scheduled from February 3-9 in Wuhan, the disease epicentre, was moved initially to Nanjing then to Sydney. The China women’s football team were quarantined in a Brisbane hotel on Wednesday after arriving in Australia for the tournament.

— Boxing: A qualification event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics initially scheduled from February 3-14 in Wuhan was rescheduled for Amman in Jordan from March 3-11.

— Women’s basketball: Another Olympic qualifying tournament, a four-team battle for three Tokyo places between China, Great Britain, Spain and South Korea was moved on Monday from Foshan, in southern China, to Belgrade where it will run alongside another four-team group on February 6-9.

— Aquatics: The Chinese leg of the Diving World Series, scheduled for March 7-9 in Beijing, “has been cancelled,” Cornel Marculescu, president of the international swimming federation, told AFP on Monday. He said the World Series of synchronised swimming, scheduled for Suzhou from April 23-25, was also in question.

— Cycling: The Tour of Hainan, due to be promoted to the second-tier ProSeries this year, was scheduled from February 23 to March 1 on the southern island of Hainan. It has been cancelled “due to the health situation in the country”, the International Cycling Union said on Monday but could be rescheduled later in 2020.

Under threat

— Formula One: The Chinese Grand Prix race weekend is scheduled for Shanghai from April 17-19, an event which attracts tens of thousands of fans.

“We are monitoring the situation in close collaboration with F1, the promoter and with the Federation of Automobile Sports in China, which is our conduit on the ground in China,” governing body FIA said in a statement.

“We are all monitoring it together. At this stage not much we can do except watch the situation and react if necessary, if recommendations are made by the relevant authorities.”

— Formula E: The electric car racing series is also due to stage a race in China, on March 21 on the southern island of Hainan.

A Formula E statement read: “Given the current health concerns, we are continuing to closely monitor the situation as it develops on a daily basis. We have requested that our regional partner works together with the local motorsport federation, to liaise with the relevant authorities in Hainan province to further analyse and assess the situation and provide recommendations on preparations for the race.”

— Football: China is due to host the Maldives in a World Cup qualifying match on March 26 and travel to Guam for another on March 31 and said despite the postponement of all domestic football any decision on international fixtures would be made at a later date.

“The CFA will continue to maintain close communication with national authorities, and decide each event’s timing separately based on the actual development of the epidemic situation in each locality,” a statement said.

— Wrestling: The Asian Olympic qualifying tournament scheduled for March 27-29 in Xi’an could be cancelled. “We are following the situation closely and we are in close contact with the Chinese federation and local authorities,” Nenad Lalovic, president of the International Wrestling Federation, told AFP on Monday. “We will take a decision within 15 days.”

— Sport conference: The SportAccord annual convention, which brings together the presidents of the major international sports federations and the heads of the Olympic movement, including IOC President Thomas Bach, is due to take place in Beijing from April 19-24.

SportAccord is “closely monitoring the situation” and “is following the recommendations of the Chinese authorities and the WHO concerning travel to and from China,” a spokesman told AFP on Monday.

Source: AFP

30, January 2020

US: White House threatens to ban Bolton’s book over ‘security concerns’ ⁰

The White House has warned former national security adviser John Bolton not to publish his book containing evidence about President Donald Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rival.

National Security Council officials sent a letter to Bolton’s lawyer, saying the unpublished book “appears to contain significant amounts of classified information” and couldn’t be published as written.

The “top secret” information “reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security,” the letter read.

Bolton has reportedly written in his book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” that Trump demanded Ukraine investigate political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, in exchange for millions of dollars in military assistance to the European nation, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Trump denies telling Bolton Ukraine aid was tied to investigations

Under the commencement Bolton made when he accepted the job as Trump’s national security adviser, “the manuscript may not be published or otherwise disclosed without the deletion of this classified information,” according to the letter.

The manuscript was sent to the Nationals Security Council (NSC) a month ago for a standard review.

The Trump administration officials said the president and his legal team have not seen the manuscript and did not participate in the review.

Bolton’s attorney Charles Cooper disputed the claim about “top secret” information, saying that “any of that information could reasonable be considered classified.”

The NSC, however, said it would work with Bolton on revisions to the book.

Trump panics at Bolton’s potential testimony at Senate impeachment trial

The dispute between the White House and Bolton comes as the news of the book prompted demands for Bolton’s testimony in the Senate impeachment trial.

Bolton said he would be willing to testify in the Senate trial if subpoenaed.

Trump, however, has threatened to assert executive privilege and block Bolton’s testimony, if necessary.

In a Twitter message on Wednesday, Trump attacked Bolton’s reputation as a military hawk, describing the book as “nasty and untrue.”

Trump fired Bolton in September last year, over what he said had been “disagreements with many of his suggestions.”

Source: Presstv

29, January 2020

European Parliament gives final approval to Brexit deal ⁰

Britain’s departure from the European Union was set in law Wednesday as, amid emotional scenes, the bloc’s parliament voted to ratify the divorce papers.

After half a century of sometimes awkward membership and three years of tense withdrawal talks, the UK will leave the EU at midnight Brussels time (2300 GMT) on Friday.

MEPs voted by 621 votes to 49 to pass the withdrawal agreement, which sees Britain leave the EU institutions but remain under most EU rules during a transition until the end of the year.

Following the vote, MEPs burst into a chorus of “Auld Lang Syne”, a traditional Scottish song of farewell.

The transition will see Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government try to negotiate an ambitious—unprecedented in the timeframe—free trade agreement with his 27 former partners remaining in the bloc.

“Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depth of love,” EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told the chamber, quoting British author George Eliot.

“We will always love you and we will never be far. Long live Europe.”

In other words, as French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said: “The hardest part lies ahead… we’re going to get down to brass tacks now.”

In the Brussels parliament, many MEPs made it clear that they were voting for the withdrawal deal not out of any support for Brexit, but to avoid the disruption of a chaotic no deal divorce.

Some expressed real anguish and regret, and pointed to Britain’s role not only in the development of the European unification project but also to its historic battles against tyranny on the continent.

“If we could stop Brexit by voting ‘no’ today I would be the first to recommend it,” former Belgian premier and chairman of the parliament’s Brexit steering group Guy Verhofstadt said.

“It is indeed a sad issue,” he said, turning to the World Wars of the first half of he last century. “We’re sad to see a country leaving that twice liberated us, twice has given its blood to liberate Europe.”

The day began with Britain’s permanent representative to the EU Tim Barrow—from Saturday to be its ambassador—handing back the withdrawal agreement signed by Johnson, to be stored in Brussels.

“This step ensures that the UK has fulfilled its legal obligations regarding our exit from the EU,” the British mission said.

Leaving the church

But it was still an emotional day in the European Parliament in Brussels, steeped in a mixture of nostalgia, political carnival and historical metaphor.

Nigel Farage, veteran MEP and leader of Britain’s Brexit Party, was in triumphant mood after two decades as a thorn in Brussels’ side.

After his final speech in parliament, in which he described Brexit as a victory for populism over “globalism”, Farage and his MEPs brandished British flags, in contravention of the rules, then left.

“We’re going to wave you goodbye,” he declared, as deputy speaker Mairead McGuinness cut his microphone.

“If you disobey the rules, you’ll get cut off,” she retorted.

At an earlier news conference, Farage said he had loved playing the “pantomime villain” in the Strasbourg assembly, feeding opposition to Europe at home with theatrical YouTube clips.

But he insisted on the seriousness of Brexit, comparing its significance to king Henry VIII taking Britain out of the Catholic church in 1534.

“He took us out of the Church of Rome, and we are leaving the Treaty of Rome,” he said, referring to the EU’s 1957 founding document.

Later in the day, Farage’s fellow MEPs gathered for the historic vote to incorporate the withdrawal agreement into EU law.

This was the last legislative act of the 73 remaining British MEPs, and departure was hard for some.

Bagpipe serenade

Iratxe Garcia Perez, the Spanish leader of the Socialist group, choked back tears as she said farewell to her British Labour Party comrades.

After Brexit the United Kingdom will be what the EU calls a “third country”, outside the union, but the political and economic drama will continue.

Britain and Europe will apply EU rules on trade and free movement of citizens until the end of the year, while negotiating a free trade agreement.

In the face of scepticism in EU capitals, Johnson insists he is optimistic that a comprehensive free trade deal can be done before the next cliff-edge.

But negotiations between the world’s sixth biggest economy and a 27-nation single market with a population of 450 million will be tricky

Fishing rights, residency and working rights for citizens, tariff free trade, access to Europe for Britain’s huge services sector: all will be on the table.

“We are considering a free trade agreement with zero tariffs and zero quotas. This would be unique. No other free trade agreement offers such access to our single market,” von der Leyen said.

“But the pre-condition is that European and British businesses continue to compete on a level playing field. We will not expose our companies to unfair competition,” she warned, to applause.

UK goes solo

Johnson’s government hopes more trade with the United States and Asian powers can help offset the costs of Brexit.

But the British premier was facing difficult talks on Wednesday with President Donald Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

Trump backed Brexit, but Washington opposed Johnson’s decision to allow Chinese telecoms giant to work on Britain’s 5G telecoms network despite security fears.

(AFP)

29, January 2020

Nigeria: President Buhari surprised by Boko Haram resurgence ⁰

Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari says he is baffled by the resurgence of the terrorist group, Boko Haram who have recently carried out attacks against civilian and military establishments.

‘‘I was taken aback by what is happening in the north-west and other parts of the country. During our campaigns, we knew about the Boko Haram. What is coming now is surprising.,’‘ Buhari said, according to local media portal, Vanguard.

“It is not ethnicity or religion, rather it is one evil plan against the country.”

Buhari’s government has repeatedly claimed to have defeated Boko Haram, a key pledge that was made to the Nigerian people in the 2015 and 2019 elections.

“We have to be harder on them. One of the responsibilities of government is to provide security. If we don’t secure the country, we will not be able to manage the economy properly,” Buhari said.

Boko Harm has intensified attacks in the Northeast region, especially the Maiduguri – Damaturu that has been described as a death trap.

Source: Africa News

29, January 2020

Coronavirus: Cameroonians in China write to Paul Biya ⁰

To His Excellency Mr. Paul BIYA,

President of the Republic of Cameroon

Your Excellency,

We your compatriots schooling and working in Wuhan~ Hubei Province in China, bring our warm wishes for the year 2020. We pray for good health, happiness and peace in our fatherland.

Your excellency,

We are writing to you directly, because the situation forces us to do so outside the established protocol.

Indeed we are Cameroonian nationals residing in the People’s Republic of China where for the most part we are students and workers.

We are here to steal the flame of knowledge in order to come and help our country overcome the challenges of development.

Your Excellency, we are about three hundred (300) Cameroonian residents in Hubei Province which happens to be the epicenter of the Coronavirus 2019-nCov epidemic that is currently affecting our host country and others.

With shopping centers, markets, and transportation at a standstill, we are therefore very anxious about the future of events. Wuhan has been in quarantine since 23 January 2020 Mr President. Despite our many approaches (phone calls and correspondences) to the Cameroonian Embassy in Beijing, we remain without news or official answers to reassure us or give humanitarian instructions.

Your Excellency,

The Chinese government is working to contain this virus but however, it continues to gain ground and psychosis too.

Our frustration is even greater when our colleagues from neighbouring countries receive both moral and physical support from their hierarchy. We refuse to believe that we have been abandoned, which is why we want to seize this opportunity to cry out for help from you.

We wish to suggest that we be provided with a Hotline or Emergency number for all Cameroonians in China via the Embassy.

Above all, Your Excellency, we pray to be provided with the most urgent necessities at this time of crisis: masks, disinfectants and food. Most shops have been emptied and many of us have already exhausted our reserves and are completely stranded.

We know as our father, you cannot see your children being confronted with such an unfortunate situation without being moved. Help us, Your Excellency, we pray you.

We would have loved to be evacuated from here, but understand that circumstances may not permit, and so kindly pray to be assisted with the basic necessities that can sustain us here till things get back to normal.

We are confident, Mr. President, that this message will reach you in good faith.

May God continue to bless, protect and guide you.

Signed:

Members of the Executive Bureau,

Cameroonian Community in Hubei, China-

1. Dr. Pisso Nseke

2. Jum Francis

3. Christian Manga

29, January 2020

Biya and the February twin poll: Reshuffling in CPDM ⁰

While the crisis in Anglophone Cameroon shows no real signs of letting up, on February 9th Cameroonians will nonetheless head to the polls for legislative and municipal elections. The international community’s weak commitment to mediation, the factionalization of the Anglophone movement, and the government’s scorched earth tactics have perpetuated a slow-burning conflict that shows little signs of letting up. The most important Anglophone groups boycotted a Major National Dialogue held in October. The recent legislation of a “special status” for Northwest and Southwest regions has failed to attract support from the most prominent Anglophone groups, who now see federalism as the negotiating starting point.

Nonetheless, Paul Biya is pushing ahead. At stake are 180 seats in the National Assembly and 374 local government councils. The exercise is entirely devoid of sincere democratic meaning. Maurice Kamto and the MRC – only recently released from lengthy detentions following the contentious events of 2018’s presidential election – have boycotted. The SDF’s decision to participate has fractured the party and led to violent threats against their candidates. The UPC’s entire legislative slate was temporarily deemed ineligible to run by the electoral management body. Other parties have lamented the severe security restrictions placed on the electoral process, while separatist groups have threatened to disrupt any attempt to hold an election.

What is the point if the outcome is not in doubt and no credible election can be held? The election will reveal very little about how popular Paul Biya is, and no international observer could sincerely believe that the election will be free and fair. 2020 will be yet another year Cameroon’s long history of authoritarianism.

Scholars increasingly identify such elections as opportunities for autocrats to replenish internal support and build a more compliant political elite. Burgeoning literature has identified legislatures as key institutions that help perpetuate authoritarian rule. Authoritarian legislatures generally lack the capacity to actually legislate and are subservient to the presidency. Therefore, rather than joining the legislature to pursuit policy aims, the legislature offers elites institutionalized access to a steady stream of formal and informal material benefits. In exchange for this access, members of parliament (MPs) are expected to mobilize electoral support and demonstrate loyalty to the regime in public forums. Nomination on the ruling party’s ticket usually means that an MP will win the general election, so all the drama occurs behind the scenes during the candidate selection process.

But, selecting people to serve in the legislature is tricky. To mobilize support, especially in poor countries like Cameroon, MPs must expend significant resources on campaigning. Once in office, MPs are also expected to divert the state budget to the benefit of their constituents, and to themselves spend money to meet constituent demands. Across Africa, this quality of elections has led to a dramatic increase in the number of business elites who have entered the legislature. In authoritarian settings, this is often referred to as “competitive clientelism.” The problem for autocrats is that business elites are not always vetted by a credible selection process. Under certain circumstances, business elites could simply be the highest bidders rather than true regime loyalists.

How do regimes cultivate a candidate base that can simultaneously mobilize electoral support while also ensuring loyalty to the regime?

In my research, I argue that Cameroon’s ruling party has banked on a steady stream of candidates from the civil service. The civil service in Cameroon has historically served as a main avenue for socioeconomic advancement. Cameroon’s first president encouraged the creation of prestigious grand ecoles, in particular a civil service training academy called ENAM, to recruit a new political class into the regime. Admission into these schools was informally based on ethnic quotas, and graduation generally ensured a promising career for aspiring elites. For an authoritarian regime like Cameroon’s, the civil service structured career paths provided a mechanism for monitoring that new elite and identifying those deserving of promotion to other institutions like the legislature. This tool was, arguably, particularly important in Cameroon, where the ruling party lacked cohesion and did not have a robust grassroots presence to recruit and vet candidates.

With the transition to multiparty election in 1992, the ruling CPDM began to use local primaries to select legislative candidates. The result was an explosion in candidacy and severe intra-party tensions over the selection process. Some of the criticisms were over the influx of cash into primaries, which benefitted the wealthiest candidates. Others claimed that local primaries helped entrench local ethnic groups in power. While the CPDM’s central committee ultimately endorsed the final candidate list, overturning local results proved equally problematic. In an effort to re-exert control, in 2013 the CPDM did away with primaries and began to adjudicate all electoral lists within the central committee. This same selection system was used at the end of 2019 to choose the 2020 legislative (and municipal) slate. In practice, local party members still have sway over the nomination process, and the CPDM at times encourages lists to merge for the sake of local solidarity.

In one of my research projects in Cameroon I track how the occupational backgrounds of MPs has evolved between 1972 and present day. I do this by tapping into difficult to access resumes and biographical records of over 800 MPs. Commensurate with expectations, since multipartyism the proportion of business elites has grown substantially. During the single-party era most legislative candidates came from a very narrow elite. These early MPs were primarily petty civil servants or public-school teachers. There was no business class to speak of. This changed dramatically in the 1990s with the liberalization of politics and the Cameroonian economy. By my estimate, business elites have risen from just 6% of the legislature to over 30%.

However, a second trend is the concurrent rise of MPs with government service backgrounds. This group of MPs primarily includes individuals who joined the civil service at a young age (often with degrees from ENAM) and worked in generic positions like Customs Official or Post and Telecommunications Engineer. MPs with government experience are once again the largest occupational category in the legislatures, at 48%. Notably, there was a big shift in 2013 when the CPDM changed its candidate selection process. Of the 51 regime MPs who were not renominated between 2007 and 2013, 43% were from the business community while just 29% came from government service. Their replacements were twice as likely to be former government workers than businesspeople. The below figure summarizes these trends. Note that the category “professional” includes business adjacent occupations like doctor or lawyer, while “other” is a residual category that captures occupations like “taxi driver” or “secretary.”

Why would a regime prefer candidates with civil service backgrounds? Given the historical role of the civil service in political recruitment it makes sense. As noted, civil service careers offer career ladders up which an eventual nominee must climb. Since the process is likely politicized, this provides an opportunity for aspiring elites to demonstrate their trustworthiness and partisan loyalty. Concurrently, government service provides eventual candidates with opportunities for wealth accumulation and provides them with familiarity with the bureaucratic workings of government. Consequently, once in office they can mobilize electoral support without all of the baggage that comes with a more independent business career. MPs with government service backgrounds can compete with business elites, while providing greater assurance to the regime.

The available data for 2020 reveals a similar story. While the occupational backgrounds of the new candidates are still unknown, we do know which MPs lost or retained their seats. The regime has stated that it was seeking to renew political blood in the legislature and encouraged the local party chapters to consider younger candidates. Indeed, more senior MPs were not renominated in 2019 than in 2013 (even though the overall age of the MPs retained is similar). Moreover, despite local competition, many long-serving MPs retained their seats, like the Speaker of the House Cavaye Djibril. Managing inter-generational tensions is another reason the regime has exercised more control over candidate selection, and another key function of this legislative exercise.

We also know that of the 56 regime candidates not renominated in 2019, 26% had professional backgrounds, 25% had business backgrounds, 20% had government backgrounds, 20% had educational backgrounds, and 9% came from other occupations. Once again, this indicates a slight preference for candidates with some form of government service. Categorizing the occupational backgrounds of their replacements is currently ongoing.

These legislative elections have been delayed for nearly two years. During that time the security situation in Northwest and Southwest regions have not improved. Yet, the pressure to gain access to the resources that a legislative seat conveys have not changed. Likewise, as the regime faces greater international scrutiny of its activities during this conflict, it needs strong allies to advocate for it in the public sphere. The 2020 legislative election primarily serves this function. It allows Paul Biya to reshuffle the political elite, use his control over candidate selection to position stronger allies, and present the illusion of a legitimate democratic process.

Culled from Presidential-power.net