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2, June 2016

Cameroonians brace for impact, terrified by the uncertainties of a micro-managed succession ⁰

“Brace for impact!” Only few survivors of plane crashes live to tell the story of the sheer horror of those ominous words … heard through the Aircraft’s public address system, in the harrowing seconds, before the plane goes down.Yet, this is the same feeling most Cameroonians are now having, because of the sheer uncertainty of 82-year old Biya, whose succession has become another French-micro-managed scandal, like Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. Cameroonians generals and some well-placed members of Biya’s presidential guard have shipped their families abroad and are maintaining open-ended visas, to enable them leave on short notice.

Biya who has ruled the country from a Swiss hotel, like the absentee-landlord of a criminal enterprise, is now faced with in- fighting between his most trusted accomplices. Martin Belinga Eboutou, Rene Sadi, Alain Edgar Mebe- Ngo’o and other members of his close concentric circle of flunkies, are divided on how the succession process should occur. Of course, each group is supported by its own lobby at the Elysee in Paris.

Those who argue the Biya has signed a concealed order to be release in the event of his sudden death, claim that his chose of Rene Sadi as his successor is informed by his Baboute ethnicity- a small Muslim ethic group in the Mbam and Kim division, that will allow Biya to thwart the power ambitions of the Fulani royalty of the North, who claim the leadership in Cameroon as their birth right … on the threat of civil war.

The recent French rescue of Burkina Faso’s Blaise Compoare, and his exile in Yamoussoukro – Ivory Coast, is a recent indicator of the long arm of the French in its nominally independent former colonies, which are still treated as the oversees extension of the French empire. The ultra-militarization of the country has left Cameroonians terrified and cowered by the vicissitudes of daily survival, and the need to leach on the boss who may be linked to the winning lobby.

Cameroonians abroad are busy burnishing their images with Washington and Paris, and presenting lofty résumés’ as to what leadership skills and erudition they possess. Due to the centralization of power in Yaoundé, the common folk in the villages are left out in this succession struggle.

Anglophones are again being naïve in thinking that the French will be out of their mind to accept one of them, as a leader in one of their strategic neo-colonies, which is the gateway to their Central African Empire. With leaders like Fru Ndi, who has accepted bribes to play by the rules of French domination, the present crop of appointees shine only through their cowering and cringing attitude to their Francophone boses like Fame Ndongo who claims that Biya is a “tin-god” with Philemon Yang, Achidi Achu, Nji Atanga, the late Agbor Tabi, Ngolle Ngolle, as his “creatures”

Anglophones, the orphaned people handed over to the British after the second world war, have been described by Pierre Mesmer (Former French Governor in Cameroon and French Prime Minister in the 60s) as a little gift of the Queen of England to General De Gaulle. Crafty aspirants to Anglophone leadership have been hitching their hopes on a lucky Francophone master who could be picked by France to rule Cameroon- their private hunting ground.

The real problem of Cameroon, that the French have refused to deal with, is again rearing its ugly head. Will Cameroon finally accept the democratic and demographic solution of one-man, one vote?. That is the question that is plaguing power brokers like Joseph Owona and Amadou Ali who see the youth bulge that constitutes the majority of the country now, as a Bamileke problem.

According to some conservative Cameroonian pundits, with approximately 250 distinct ethnic entities, the Bamilekes who live in feudal fiefdoms do not seem to stand a chance, by dint of their control of the economic, financial and demographics of Cameroon. That is why the French “pacifier” of the Bassa and Bamileke nationalist movement, referred to the “Bamilekes” as the prickly pebble in the shoe of French colonization in Cameroon.

2, June 2016

Medical prescription for FECAFOOT Ulcer ⁰

Cameroon’s Minister for Sports and Physical Education, Pierre Ismael Bidoung Mkpatt, has insinuated that the Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration of the National Olympic and Sports Committee is incompetent to determine the validity of elections at the Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT. The Minister’s stand on the overdue electoral bickering at FECAFOOT was made known yesterday in Yaounde and broadcast nation-wide following fears that the perennial contesting faction of the federation led by former Vice President, John Begheni Nde was bracing up to take over management of FECAFOOT affairs less than 72 hours after the Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration of the National Olympic and Sports Committee had ruled that the recent elections that brought current President Tombi Aroko Sidiki to power was null and void. Can we therefore say the curtains have ultimately been drawn on the longstanding melodrama at FECAFOOT? We of Cameroon Concord News Group say NO! Needless taking you back to how we got to where we are now.

Rather, let us take the cue from when Tombi Aroko was sworn in as FECAFOOT boss. As celebrations went underway at the FECAFOOT headquarters in the Tsinga neighbourhood in Yaounde, the brain trust of the distraught faction was meticulously putting together files to challenge the decision to uphold the validity of the elections. One file bungled, while the other one convinced the Conciliation and Arbitration Committee of the National Olympic and Sports Committee to nullify the deliberations of the last FECAFOOT General Assembly, by implication, declaring the elections null and void.

FECAFOOT had 21 days to appeal the decision. But three days into the appeal opening, Minister Bidoung Mkpatt, the same one who had been sacked from Government in 2004 in the heat of the stand off between FIFA and FECAFOOT over the Indomitable Lions single outfit, undertook to hoodwink a carefully chosen group of officials to come up with what is currently tearing apart the football family in the country. Can someone explain to us why Abdourhaman Amadou and Co. who seem to be a particularly clever lot could not be cowed into submission by a conglomerate of learned men of the law? Without being a football astrologer, Cameroon Intelligence Report can safely conclude that Abdourhaman and Co. are already whistling foul and are certainly taking the matter to the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Lausanne who, before any other thing else, will raise an objection as to what we will be reminded of as being government intervention in football management in Cameroon.

For a man whom President Biya, against all odds, decided to offer some political rehabilitation, it is regrettable that Minister Bidoung Mkpatt should consciously create more problems for an octogenarian leader suffering from insomnia. Which way out? It is a matter of common sense that in such a long drawn out problem, a lot has been wasted and destroyed in material, financial, ego-tripping considerations. For one thing, the Government will not allow itself to be dragged endlessly in the mud with impunity.

The incumbent is certainly unwilling to let go the golden fleece after coming so close yet so far. And Sheik Abdourhaman Amadou who has demonstrated with outstanding finesse how well to read and interpret mere texts will for nothing at all slant from being The Cameroonian of the Year to a toddler. However, the complicated polynomial which otherwise should necessitate mastery of the Binomial theorem takes just knowledge of a simple linear equation to resolve: Summon Tombi and Abdourhamann to an eyeball-to-eyeball closed door discussion and ask them to grant a press conference after the secret meeting during which they will announce the joint decision and subsequently jointly supervise its implementation. This is our medical prescription to cure the cancerous ulcer lethally gnawing away at the FECAFOOT substrate.

2, June 2016

Dark Friday April 6th, Our Right Royal President lives on ⁰

On the night of the 5th and 6th of April 1984, gun shots were heard around the presidency of the republic. On the 6th of April, a message was read over state radio which Cameroonians were later on told was limited only to the residents of Yaounde the nation’s capital by a brave technician. The message indeed had confirmed that a coup had been staged and the Biya regime was now a thing of the past. Forces loyal to the regime came to the fore and on April the 7th, President Biya Biya was back in action. He took the floor and addressed the Cameroonian people informing them that he had survived a coup fomented by troops still loyal to his predecessor, the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo.

Following these “sad” events, the remnants of the Ahidjo men in the presidential guard were executed and ever since the attempted 1984 coup, the 83 years old dictator now approaching his 34th year in power is still holding firmly the helm of the Cameroon ship. He has resisted every form of opposition. He survived the civil disobedience campaign in March and April of 1991. He successfully neutralized Ni John Fru Ndi and the Social Democratic Front. Biya was victorious after the ghost town operations. Since 1984, the Cameroonian strongman has organized 4 presidential elections. In 1992 he declared himself winner and placed his main challenger , John Fru Ndi under house arrest. He says he genuinely won the presidential elections of 1997, 2004 and 2011. In April 2008, he changed the constitution of the nation and made himself head of state forever and ever.

Whatever Biya wants, Biya gets!! He launched the so called anti corruption campaign known as “Operation Sparrowhawk”, ostensibly to clean up the malpractices in the management of public affairs. When age started telling on him, he carriedout his own version of “A Hundred Flower Campaign” when he dished out news that he had passed on in a Swiss hospital. His agents identified those within his ruling council who celebrated when the news was made public and immediately he made a dramatic u turn and transformed Operation Sparrowhawk into a reckoning tool and eventually eliminated potential dolphins for the post of president of the republic. Since then several barons of the regime have been imprisoned, ostensibly for “embezzlement” of public funds. Now he wants another constitutional amendment to enable him hold early presidential elections. Our Right Royal President lives on

2, June 2016

EgyptAir jet with 66 on board crashes off the Greek island of Karpathos ⁰

Greek authorities say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board crashed off the Greek island of Karpathos in Egyptian airspace. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry exchanged condolences with France over what it called the “fall” of the Airbus A320 in the first official admission that those on board were likely to have died.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said the search was underway to find the plane and it was too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism. “We cannot exclude anything at this time or confirm anything. All the search operations must be concluded so we can know the cause,” he said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was to chair a national security council meeting, a statement from his office said. The aircraft was flying at 37,000 feet (11,300 meters) on Thursday when it went missing over the eastern Mediterranean, 10 miles inside the Egyptian airspace.

An official said the plane lost contact with radar at 02:45 Cairo time (00:45 GMT). The airline said the flight sent a distress message before vanishing from radar screens that was detected by the military. The message was received at 0226 GMT, less than 10 minutes before the flight disappeared, AFP quoted it as saying.Passengers on board included 30 Egyptians, 15 French and one Briton, Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry said.

Greek authorities said the captain of a merchant ship had reported a “flame in the sky” some 130 nautical miles south of the Karpathos island. The country’s civil aviation chief said the flight disappeared from radars two minutes after leaving Greek airspace. It is not yet known what happened to the plane. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said nothing can be ruled out regarding the possible cause of the crash.

European air traffic network manager Eurocontrol said there were no weather issues at the time and in the vicinity of the area where the plane went missing.An Airbus A321 operated by Russia’s Metrojet crashed in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on October 31, 2015, killing all 224 people on board. The plane was likely brought down by a bomb, and the Daesh Takfiri group said it had smuggled an explosive on board. In March, an EgyptAir plane flying from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus by an “unstable” man who demanded to see his ex-wife.

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2, June 2016

Cameroon Air Force to deploy 19 Aircraft during National Day celebration ⁰

The Cameroon Air Force will deploy about 19 aircrafts to take part in the airshow on 19th May 2016 and during the Military Parade on National Day on 20th May 2016. The much bigger deployment of combat helicopters and fighter jets will take part in the highly coordinated air spectacle in the skies of Yaoundé.