Editorial

21, June 2025

Of Dr Patience Abangma, Nyeme Mawn and a certain social media activist ⁰

In many parts of rural Africa in the past, communities gathered every evening in the village square for elders to share wisdom through folk tales.

One of the lessons I took away from these gatherings with numerous senior citizens was that, in African culture, elders are the foundation of knowledge and wisdom, and those who respect great men and women pave the way for their own greatness.

Many in English speaking Cameroon have opined that times have changed and in 2025, values and respect are now elastic concepts. Still, the lack of respect for elders and the contempt for truth within the African structure is now alarming.

In a concerning video circulating on social media by one Joshua Ndip aka Ashu, unfounded allegations were made about a respectable Manyu citizen in the UK.

Dr Mrs Patience Abangma is a Cameroonian woman with solid personal, comprehensive private, academic and social accomplishments achieved over forty years in the United Kingdom.

Cameroon Concord News Group found the videotape unintelligent, incoherent and disturbing. Consequently, we opened an investigation into the motives of the author and those behind the criminal syndicate suspended from Nyene Mawn.

There are more than 30 Manyu women associations in the western world.

MOHWA, Manyu Women UK, Nyene Mawn, Manyu Daughters of Ireland, MOWA, Eyumema just to name a few and in all these assemblies, there are always misunderstandings and differences.

Nyene Mawn, a strong Manyu women’s group founded in 2024 by Dr Mrs Patience Abangma with hundreds of new Manyu generation ladies in Europe has recorded challenges that resulted to a kind of acrimonious relation deep within its ranks.

Breaking up a community meeting is a favourite Manyu pastime and Nyene Mawn is no different. Today, every Manyu village has a registered association in Europe begging Manyus and friends of Manyu for money.

This media house has uncovered that the six Nyene Mawn so-called chapter leaders who were suspended from the association on charges of theft and embezzlement have refused to leave the main group silently and peacefully.

The video on Face Book claims that Dr Mrs Abangma has intellectual property rights for Nyene Mawn. This claim is laughable as it is evident that the presenter presumably a container-loader somewhere in Sweden does not have a mastery of IP laws, patent procedures and the regulations governing the registration of businesses or meetings in Europe. It is obvious from the video that the said Joshua Ndip lacks the requisite intellectual aptitude to deal with the IP topic.

Our investigation found that the disgraced suspended Nyene Mawn members are desperate to keep using the Nyene Mawn brand but because Dr Patience Abangma has registered the group in the European Union already, they are facing enormous difficulties to realise their dodgy goals.

Frankly speaking, Nyene Mawn is a breakaway group from MOHWA. So, why does the breakaway gang from Nyene Mawn not leave peacefully and just create their new group?

A former MOHWA member in the city of Coventry who spoke on condition of anonymity hinted Cameroon Concord News Group that “the suspended Nyene Mawn women cannot organise a successful drinking session in a pub. They have never managed successful households and therefore cannot lead associations. They are loud jokes”

The maxim that starting a meeting is easy and hard to maintain cannot be overemphasised here. The disgraced members of Nyene Mawn saw their vision as an escape route but they have now been caught in the pangs of a monster they themselves created! They thought forming a new group was a cakewalk. None of them in that disgraced camp was raised up in Manyu Division! They are products of the numerous CDC Camps and Mondoni Oil Mill who lack the basic decency of respect for elders that every Manyu child that God in his infinite image created and planted in the Manyu constituency has!

The recruitment of another CDC Manyu social media activist extremely lacking in communication finesse remains shameful, disgusting and disgraceful.

In his video, Joshua Ndip, who is currently eking out a living in Sweden and who speaks all his English in the past tense said Dr Mrs Abangma had not achieved anything in Europe after forty years.

As a Manyu son raised up in Mamfe the chief town in Manyu Division, I want to draw his attention to the fact that Mrs Abangma has five children who are all graduates from Russel Group universities in Britain, with three of them in possession of master’s degrees. While we are at it, this failure of a woman has a daughter who studied at the University of Sorbonne before being called to the Bar Council of England and Wales, and Cameroon. These academic facts mean nothing to Joshua Ndip and his pay mistresses because success to them is the loading of containers and the driving of flashy cars.

Joshua Ndip, a man whose family home in Cameroon is dilapidated and infested with vermin is now in possession of a loudspeaker and a smartphone. He needs to invest time to improve their family home before talking about development in Manyu and Africa.

How has Mrs Abangma stalled development in Manyu? Over the last few months, Eyumema has been to Mamfe and invested in boreholes, a health centre and solar panels, while MOHWA has invested in school materials for needy children. These are all commendable acts from groups interested in Manyu development and empowerment. What is stopping these fraudsters suspended by Nyene Mawn from doing the same? Instead, they are investing their energy in fighting for a name that has already been registered.

Owning a name does not guarantee followers! Joshua Ndip’s pay mistresses know that people will not follow them because they lack the skillset and integrity required for leadership. Consequently, they have resorted to blackmailing a “seventy-something-year-old woman.” The impunity of the breakaway faction in withdrawing 23,500 Euros from the association’s bank account has encouraged them to take this treacherous and illegal course of coercion. But it will not work!

We of the Concord Group are cautioning that the actions of these CDC Camp and Mondoni Oil Mill children are un-Manyu. Their calculated blackmail is bringing damage to their already battered reputation and women with brains know that they will not be trusted in the future. They must stop now!

If this abuse and blackmail of a Manyu elder continues, the lesson will not be lost. So yes, the pay mistresses behind the empty video can look forward to more doom and gloom as their moves may never bring them what they want.

Let Joshua Ndip aka Ashu go back to loading his containers and take a part-time course in the use of the English language because he found it difficult to deliver a script that was written and given to him. Finally, let the suspended so-called six presidents find a new name and leave Dr Mrs Patience Abangma alone. The mouth of an elder may stink but out of it comes wisdom and true Manyu children have respect for their elders.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

26, May 2025

BBC says ‘Nowhere is safe’ in Southern Cameroons as Ambazonians trapped between separatists and soldiers ⁰

Ngabi Dora Tue, consumed by grief, was barely able to stand on her own.

The coffin of her husband, Johnson Mabia, sat amid a crowd of stricken mourners in Limbe in Cameroon’s South-West region – an area that had witnessed scenes like this many times before.

While on a work trip, Johnson – an English-speaking civil servant – and five colleagues were captured by armed separatists.

The militants were – and still are – fighting for the independence of Cameroon’s two anglophone regions in what is a predominantly francophone country. A near-decade-long conflict that has led to thousands of deaths and stunted life in the area.

When he was abducted four years ago, Dora struggled to reach Johnson. When she eventually heard from separatist militants, they asked for a ransom of over $55,000 (£41,500) to be paid within 24 hours in order to secure his release. Dora then received another call from one of Johnson’s relatives.

“He said… that I should take care of the children. That my husband is no more. I didn’t even know what to do. Tuesday he was travelling, and he was kidnapped. Friday he was killed,” says Dora.

The separatists responsible had not just murdered but decapitated Johnson, and left his body on the road.

AFP Demonstrators march during a protest against perceived discrimination in favour of the country's francophone majority on September 22, 2017 in Bamenda — What began as demonstrations in 2016 and 2017 then escalated into a conflict

The roots of the separatist struggle lie in long-standing grievances that stretch back to full independence in 1961, and the formation of a single Cameroonian state in 1972 from former British and French territories.

Since then the English-speaking minority have felt aggrieved at the perceived erosion of rights by the central government. Johnson was just an innocent by-stander, caught up in an increasingly brutal fight for self-determination and the government’s desperate attempts to stamp out the uprising.

The current wave of violence began almost a decade ago.

In late 2016, peaceful protests started against what was perceived to be the creeping use of the francophone legal system in the region’s courtrooms. The French- and English-speaking parts of Cameroon use different judicial systems.

The protests rapidly spread, and led to a call for the closing of shops and institutions.

The response of the security forces was immediate and severe – people were beaten, intimidated and there were mass arrests. The African Union called it “a deadly and disproportionate use of violence”.

Cameroon’s defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment on this or other issues in this article.

Armed groups were set up. And, in late 2017 as tensions escalated, anglophone separatist leaders declared independence for what they called the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

BBC

We used to wake up in the morning to dead bodies on the streets. Or you hear that a house has been set ablaze”Blaise Eyong
Journalist

To date, five million anglophone Cameroonians have been dragged into the conflict – equivalent to one-fifth of the total population. At least 6,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes.

“We used to wake up in the morning to dead bodies on the streets,” says Blaise Eyong, a journalist from Kumba in the English-speaking South-West region of Cameroon, who has produced and presented a documentary on the crisis for BBC Africa Eye, and was forced from his hometown with his family in 2019.

“Or you hear that a house has been set ablaze. Or you hear that someone was kidnapped. People’s body parts chopped off. How do you live in a city where every single morning you’re worried if your relatives are safe?”

There have been a number of national and international attempts to resolve the crisis, including what the government called “a major national dialogue” in 2019.

Although the talks established a special status for the country’s two anglophone regions which acknowledged their unique history, very little was resolved in practical terms.

Felix Agbor Nkongho – a barrister who was one of the leaders of the 2016 protests and was later arrested – says that with both sides now seeming to act with impunity, the moral high ground has disappeared.

“There was a time… where most people felt that, if they needed security, they would go to the separatists,” he tells BBC Africa Eye.

“But over the last two years, I don’t think any reasonable person would think that the separatists would be the ones to protect them. So everybody should die for us to have independence and I ask the question: who are you going to govern?”

But it is not just the separatists who are accused of abuses.

Organisations such as Human Rights Watch have recorded the brutal response of the security forces to the anglophone independence movement. They have documented the burning of villages and the torture, unlawful arrests and extrajudicial killings of people in a war largely unseen by the outside world.

Examples of state-sponsored brutality are not difficult to find.

A photo of John's hands clasped in his lap. You can't see his face — John, who talked to BBC Africa Eye on condition of anonymity, was tortured and forced into signing a document without being allowed to read its content

John (not his real name) and a close friend were taken into custody by Cameroonian military forces, accused of buying weapons for a separatist group.

John recalls that after being incarcerated, they were given a document which they were told to sign without being given the chance to read its contents. When they refused, the torture began.

“That is when they separated us into different rooms,” says John. “They tortured [my friend]. You could just hear them flogging everywhere. I could feel it on my own body [too]. They beat me everywhere. Later they told me he accepted and signed and they allowed him to go.”

But that was not the truth.

A month after his arrest, another man arrived in John’s cell. He told him that his friend had, in fact, died in the room he had been held and tortured in. Months later John’s case was dropped and he was released without charge.

“I just live in fear because I don’t really know where to start from or where it is safe to start from or how,” says John.

Part of the separatists’ strategy to weaken the state and its security forces is to push for a ban on education which they say is a tool of government propaganda.

In October 2020, a school in Kumba was attacked. No-one claimed responsibility for the atrocity but the government blamed separatists. Men armed with machetes and guns killed at least seven children.

The incident sparked, for a brief moment, international outrage and condemnation.

“Nearly half the schools in this region have been shut,” says journalist Eyong.

“A whole generation of kids is missing out on their education. Imagine the impact this will have for our communities and also for our country.”

A man in shorts and a bullet-proof vest walks along a dirt road, lined with houses, with a Cameroon flag behind him. He is with two others similarly dressed. — John Ewome (R) can be seen patrolling the streets of Buea in anglophone Cameroon looking out for separatists

As if the violence between the government forces and the various separatist groups was not enough, an additional front has opened up in the war. Militant groups in the separatist areas have emerged to fight the Ambazonians in an effort to keep Cameroon united.

A leader of one of these groups, John Ewome (known as Moja Moja), regularly led patrols in the town of Buea in search of separatists until he was arrested in May 2024.

He, too, has been accused of human rights violations, of public humiliation and torturing unarmed civilians thought to be separatist sympathisers. He denies the accusations. “I’ve never laid my hands on any civilian. Just the Ambazonians. And I believe the gods of this land are with me,” he told the BBC.

Meanwhile, the cycle of abductions and killings continue.

Joe (not his real name) was – like Johnson – taken hostage by a separatist group, keen to maintain control through fear – and to cash in.

“I walked into the house, and found my children and my wife on the floor while the commander was sitting in my kitchen with his gun very close. All around me, my neighbour had been taken, my landlord had been taken. So when I saw them, I knew it was my turn,” says Joe.

He was led into the forest with 15 other people where he witnessed the execution of two of his fellow captives. But he was eventually freed after the military discovered the camp.

Johnson was not as lucky and, about two years after his funeral took place, news arrived that neither were his five colleagues kidnapped with him. Their bodies had just been found.

More families will now have to try to come to terms with their enormous loss. For Ngabi Dora Tue, sitting with her young child in her lap, the future feels almost overwhelming.

“I have debts I have to settle I don’t even know how to settle,” she says.

“I thought of selling my body for money. And then I Iook at the shame that would come after, I just have to swallow the difficulty and then push forward. I was very young to become a widow.”

The BBC has asked for a response from the Ambazonia Defense Forces (ADF), which claims to be the largest separatist force.

It responded that there are a multiplicity of separatist fighters now operating in the anglophone region.

The ADF said it operates within international law and does not attack government workers, schools, journalists or civilians.

Instead it has blamed individuals and fringe entities acting on their own accord who are not members of the ADF for these attacks.

The group also accuses government infiltrators of committing atrocities while claiming to be Ambazonian fighters to turn the local populations against the liberation struggle.

A map of Cameroon showing the English and French-speaking areas.

19, May 2025

A Suit Is Not Leadership: On the Love of Nation ⁰

In a truly patriotic nation, leadership is measured by service, not by status. But in Cameroon today, the reality is heartbreaking.

Walk into many government offices—grand from the outside, but rotting within. You’ll find cracked walls, broken chairs, dusty files piled high, and toilets that haven’t worked in years. The buildings themselves are a metaphor for the state of governance: neglected, mismanaged, abandoned.

And yet, the men and women who inhabit these spaces wear the finest suits and drive the latest luxury vehicles. They are surrounded by aides and convoys, protected by tinted windows and distance. They wear the uniform of power, but not the spirit of leadership.

This is not love for country. This is love for comfort. Love for self.

True love for nation means putting the people first. It means walking into that same office and asking: What do my people need today? It means sacrificing privilege for progress. It means fixing the broken chair before buying the next luxury car. It means listening more than commanding.

Our leaders were not elected or appointed to decorate themselves. They were called to serve. When that service turns into self-enrichment—when public duty becomes private profit—then what we witness is not governance. It is betrayal.

Cameroon is rich in resources and even richer in people. What we lack is not talent, nor capacity. What we lack is leadership rooted in love.

And so we raise our voices—not out of hate, but out of hope. Because to speak out against injustice, decay, and indifference is the greatest form of patriotism. It is because we love this country that we demand better. It is because we believe in her future that we hold her leaders accountable.

A true leader wears the weight of the people before they wear a suit. A true patriot walks with the nation, not above it.

Cameroon deserves no less.

Barrister Agbor Balla

8, May 2025

Canticum Africae – The Case for the First Black Pope ⁰

On Saturday, April 26, 2025, the earth reclaimed a humble servant of God. Pope Francis, the great bridge-builder, the pilgrim of mercy, now rests with the Apostles. His passing leaves the Throne of Peter vacant at a moment when the Church stands, once again, at the crossroads of history. In the hush of the great cathedral, beneath the vaulted frescoed ceilings of the Sistine Chapel; incense rising like a prayer, a silent yearning stirs the Body of Christ. It is a yearning not for novelty, nor for mere symbolism, but for the full consummation of the Church’s universality – a universality long proclaimed, yet never fully embodied. The question before the College of Cardinals now in conclave, is not simply who shall wear the white vestments, but what kind of Church shall rise from this hour of reckoning. And to that sacred inquiry, Providence itself seems to whisper: it is time, it is fitting, it is just; that the next Vicar of Christ be chosen from Africa. The Church must be universal not only in name, but in soul. A pontificate rooted in African soil would remind a weary world that the Gospel is not a relic of the past but the beating heart of humanity’s future. The time has come; indeed, it is long overdue, for a Black Pope, an African Pontiff, to ascend the Throne of Peter. Not as an act of tokenism, nor as a sop to modern sensibilities, but as a recognition of a truth that has stood shimmering, quietly undeniable, across the ages: that Africa, cradle of faith, cradle of humanity, must now, too, be the cradle of leadership.

The Forgotten Cradle of the Faith

Africa is no stranger to the early light of Christianity. Long before the faith crossed the forests of Germania or the icy fields of Britain, the faith that built Rome once flourished in Alexandria, in Carthage, in Hippo and along the Nile. When Peter was yet securing the infant Church in Jerusalem, African theologians were already carving the foundations of Christian thought. Was it not in Africa that Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, penned his Confessions and the City of God, shaping forever the heart of Christian philosophy? Was it not in Alexandria that the Catechetical School first taught the mysteries of faith and reason side by side? It was on African soil that saints like Augustine, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Athanasius – giants of orthodoxy -shaped the very doctrines that the Universal Church holds sacred today. Africa, ancient and enduring, is not a newcomer to the faith, but one of its first and noblest stewards. The Church’s early councils bore African blood and breath; her creeds, her understanding of Christ’s dual nature, were hammered on African anvils. Thus, the notion that Africa is a periphery to Catholicism is a fiction – a calumny against history itself.

Demographics as Destiny

Today, the face of Catholicism is no longer exclusively European. It is brown, and black, and golden. It beats with the drums of Lagos and the hymns of Nairobi.The largest Catholic seminary in the world is Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu, Nigeria, with a capacity of over 1,000 seminarians. According to the latest Vatican statistics, Africa is experiencing the most significant growth in the number of priests, although Europe maintains the highest total number, amid a continuing decline. The global distribution of Catholic priests, shows Europe with 157,577 (- 2,745 from 2022). The Americas -119,145, (-164); Asia – 72,911 (+1,160); Oceania – 4,438 (-69). With 53,659 priests, an increase of 1, 676, Africa now produces the highest number of priests in terms of growth rate. By 2050, according to Pew Research projections, Africa will house over 40% of the world’s Catholics. Priestly vocations are booming in Africa, while they wane across Europe and North America. The seminaries of Abidjan are full; the seminaries of Brussels and Milan are echoingly empty. Shall the mother church ignore where her lifeblood flows most freely? No organization, divine or human, can survive if it refuses to recognize where its heart beats strongest. In ecclesial terms, demography is not just destiny; it is revelation, a sacred whisper of the Holy Spirit, beckoning toward renewal.

The Gifts of the African Church

Today, while secularism nibbles at the roots of faith elsewhere, the African Church blooms with astonishing vitality. It is in the crowded cathedrals of Kinshasa, the vibrant parishes of Nairobi, and the humble chapels of rural Nigeria that the fervor of early Christianity finds its modern echo. Vocations are rising, pews are filled, and hope is alive. Africa offers the Church not merely numbers, but conviction -the deep, muscular faith that the Gospel demands in every age. African Catholicism is not merely growing; it is flourishing with a vibrancy, a sacramentality, and a communal spirituality that many Western parishes have lost. Where Western secularism advances like a cold, sterile tide, African Catholicism remains rich in ritual, in song, in the thick texture of life lived with God. Moreover, African theologians are offering the Church fresh wisdom – voices who understand suffering and resurrection not as abstractions, but as lived realities. Consider the profound witness of Nigerian Catholics who attend mass even under threat of terrorist bombs. Consider the Congolese priests who walk barefoot into villages abandoned by governments but not by grace. Is it not fitting, is it not providential, that from a land so intimately acquainted with the cross should come he who must wear the Fisherman’s Ring?

Obstacles, Real and Perceived

Yes, there are challenges. Skeptics will whisper about “inexperience,” about “cultural divides,” about Africa’s supposed “unreadiness” for the burdens of Peter’s Chair. But these are the same tired arguments once raised against non-Italian Popes, against John Paul II from Poland, against Francis from Argentina. Each time, the Spirit confounded the cautious. Moreover, African cardinals are among the most learned, multilingual, and diplomatically seasoned leaders within the College. Cardinal Peter Turkson (Ghana), Cardinal Robert Sarah (Guinea), Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besengu (DR Congo),and others have long been voices of theological depth and global perspective. If anything, it is precisely an African Pope who knows both suffering and hope, who could speak most authentically to a fractured world. He would understand migration not as a policy debate, but as a brother’s burden. He would see climate change not as an abstract theory, but as a personal lament for the fields and rivers of his youth.

The soul of the Church hangs now in a delicate balance, between a weary past and the fierce winds of an uncertain future. And so, we plead: Lift your eyes toward the rising sun. Look to Africa. Africa – that ancient land baptized by the blood of martyrs long before many parts of Europe knew His name. Africa – where the faith blooms not from nostalgia, but from living waters that spring from the thirsty earth. Africa – where the Gospel is not a weary ritual but a blazing fire that ignites hearts from Lagos to Luanda, from Yaoundé to Dar es Salaam. The Church in Africa sings while others grow silent. She multiplies while others dwindle. She weeps with the poor, wrestles with injustice, dreams new dreams beneath suffering skies. In Africa, the Church is young and vibrant, as the Christ she serves is forever young, forever alive.

The Poetic Fulfillment of Catholic Universality

Imagine then, and Picture it: white smoke curls into the Roman sky. Saint Peter’s Square holds its breath as the announcement is made:”Habemus Papam!”And from the Loggia of Blessings steps forth a Shepherd with skin kissed by the African sun, eyes burning with the fire of Pentecost. Imagine the millions of black boys and girls across the world, from Harlem to Harare, from Soweto to São Paulo, who would see themselves, perhaps for the first time, in the Vicar of Christ. Imagine the world seeing, not a rupture, but the beautiful continuity of a Church finally, fully Catholic: universal, whole, complete. This is not about politics. It is about providence. The Holy Spirit, ever restless, is moving again across the waters. Will the Church, ancient and ever new, listen?

The Throne of Peter cries out for a shepherd who understands both Calvary and Pentecost. A Pope who knows exile and hope, scars and resurrection. A Pope whose very life tells the story of a Church not retreating, but marching forward with joy. Africa offers you such men: Wise as the desert fathers, joyful as the first believers, tested as gold in the furnace of trial. Electing a Pope from Africa would not be a novelty; it would be a return – a return to the universal heart of the Church that beats in every language, every tribe, and every nation under heaven. And it would be a prophecy: that the Church is not dying; she is moving. That the Spirit has not abandoned us; He has gone ahead to Galilee, to Nairobi, to Kinshasa, to Abidjan, to Kampala. Therefore, O Princes of the Church do not seek merely to preserve what was. Dare to proclaim what can be. Breathe deep the Spirit that once shattered the barriers of Babel. Follow not the compass of caution, but the bright and burning star of Providence. The time for a Black Pope is not a political slogan. It is the flowering of history’s long-buried seed. It is time to let Africa give back to Rome the gift she once so freely gave: faith, resilience, and a leadership born not of conquest, but of the Cross.

The hour has come. The call is clear. Africa awaits. Christ awaits.

In filial hope,

By Valerian Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

30, April 2025

Africa has no resource curse! ⁰

African natural resources have, for decades, triggered huge armed conflicts, giving the impression that there is a massive resource curse on the richest continent in the world.

Many reports on Africa’s unfortunate situation, most of which are written by Westerners, usually avoid pointing out that the resource curse on African countries is fuelled by bad governance, foreign intervention and unpatriotic leadership.

Most of the fighting in Africa is a distraction designed by certain Western countries for them to exploit the continent’s resources without playing by the books.

African countries have been theaters of bloody fighting because of their natural wealth. Resource-rich African countries have spent most of the last century fending off jihadist and terrorist attacks, thereby perpetuating the notion that there is a resource curse on Africa.

No, there is no such curse. Greed and foreign interference are to blame for the armed conflicts which have become the continent’s hallmark.

African governments must take control of their mines to ensure that they do not fall into the hands of terrorists and other illegal miners. Illegal mines are important sources of revenue for terrorists and jihadists.

Securing every illegal mining site will rob the terrorists of the money they need to recruit young, innocent and naive fighters. If terrorism has to be rolled back in Africa, African countries must be intentional in fighting this scourge that is destroying the continent.

African governments must be strong, they must create jobs for their young people and they must be present in every part of their countries.

African countries must stop thinking that a country is safe if the political and economic capitals are safe. Terrorists and jihadists thrive where there is no state authority.

However, African governments must also put in place transparent systems for the management of the resources. Corruption at the highest level only renders a country vulnerable.

Corruption weakens the police; it demoralizes the military and drives the continent’s best and brightest to other parts of the world where they are underpaid and underemployed.

The continent’s decolonization also implies that leaders must be selfless and young people who are conscious and intellectually alert are given a chance to fully participate in their countries’ politics.

A country ruled by old people cannot be innovative. Such a country will stagnate. African youths must be part of their governments. Today’s youths are more informed, tech-savvy, confident and bold enough to help their countries to fly into a bright and beautiful future.

The imaginary resource curse on Africa can be deleted if African leaders rule their countries like real patriots. They must be models to the continent’s youths. Where there is good governance and responsible leadership, hope and peace prevail.

Where leaders prioritize their people’s well-being over their own personal and parochial interests, there is no room for coups d’états. Coups are today being viewed as consequences of maladministration and corruption on the part of civilian leaders who have driven their people to the abyss of poverty. Their presence on the continent today simply speaks to the failure of the pseudo-democracy imposed on Africa by the West.

Source: Dr Joachim Arrey

28, April 2025

Manyu Division: A new path is possible ⁰

Manyu’s underdevelopment has been a major issue and generations of Manyu citizens both at home and abroad have been seeking, albeit individually, to come up with possible solutions.

Manyu needs a facelift. It is long overdue. Its major towns and villages need development projects which will give the Division’s economy the wings it needs to fly into modernity and prosperity.

Though there is a wave of construction in the Division, there is no order in the way construction is taking place in many of the Division’s towns and villages. Town planning is still a foreign concept in Manyu and the Division’s residents are not doing much when it comes to playing by the book. Chaotic construction is playing out in Manyu, robbing the Division of its beauty.

Discipline, a key ingredient in development, is conspicuously absent in the way the people of Manyu do their things. They have embraced development but they have rejected discipline. No initiative succeeds without discipline.

Another issue ruining the Division is the people’s penchant for disagreement. Disagreement, though as old as time, has become the hallmark of the people of Manyu. Most people from this Division seem to have mercurial temperaments and the least disagreement always turns into a civil war, making it hard for any collaborative efforts to succeed. The people of Manyu seem to hold that division is strength while unity is a weakness and this unfortunate thinking is hurting the Division in a big and bad way.

Could this despicable behavior be attributed to the Division’s liberal culture, or is it because of the lack of strong political and cultural leadership? Why is it that the people of Manyu are yet to understand that there is power in numbers?

Can this solo mentality be ascribed to Western education or is it genetic for the people of Manyu Division to be only united when there are drinks and food?

Despite this gloomy picture, there is still some hope on the horizon. It is still possible for the people of Manyu Division to engineer new ways which will enable them to walk away from their solo mentality and the underdevelopment which has been stalking them like a stubborn shadow.

The new generation is different. Young men and women of Manyu descent have understood that things could be done differently. They want to work together. They want to change the Manyu narrative. They want to demonstrate that they have embraced new ways; ways which could give the Division’s economy a shot in the arm. They have seen their peers around the world making giant strides towards economic progress and financial independence. They no longer want to be mere sorry spectators of life and events in their own country. But the need sound and informed leadership which they see as the missing link.

They say the need strong, smart and determined leadership from their economic and political leaders; leaders who are conversant with global financial, economic and development trends. Leaders who can confidently shine the light for them to follow. In their view, this is the missing link which they are currently looking for and from every indication; they are looking for a small needle in a huge haystack.

In their quest for modern and purposeful leadership, young men and women of Manyu descent are looking to the Diaspora for a significant change in their Division.

They hold that with the Diaspora, the Division will be able to walk a new path. In their view, members of the Diaspora do not only have the transformative ideas which are capable of triggering economic and political prosperity, they also have massive financial resources which can create jobs for the Division’s cash strapped youths.

However, despite this optimistic view, it must be pointed out that it will take time for things to actually take shape. The Manyu mindset must change if real transformative change has to be a reality. For the Diaspora to play its investment role effectively, the people of Manyu must start seeing investments by the Diaspora not as opportunities for them to embezzle but opportunities for them rebuild their Division and to regain their confidence.

They must start seeing members of the Diaspora as investment partners and not cows that they must milk to death. A new path is possible but it must be preceded by a new and constructive mindset.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey

14, April 2025

Burkina Faso: Where vision meets discipline ⁰

Burkina Faso is in the news and spotlight for all the right reasons. A once desperate nation is pointing many African countries in the right direction. The message from Ouagadougou is clear – No initiative succeeds without discipline and vision.

African countries are not poor; they have simply allowed others to design a narrative of poverty for them. For centuries, the “lords of the universe” have planted poverty in our minds and we seem to think that our poverty is divine. No, it is not. All money comes from Mother Earth and only those who understand the science of money are wealthy.

The young Burkinabe president, Ibrahim Traore, understands how wealth creation works. He has the vision and discipline to generate wealth. That is what is putting his country on the path to wealth and admiration.

Given his age, not many gave him a chance when he came to power. Many thought that without the regular allegiance to the West, Traore would not last six months in power. But the young man had his priorities properly arranged. He knew that the development of his country without Western support would be an uphill climb; he also knew that no wealth is greater than a people’s support and he has attracted his people to his side.

In this regard, he charmed his people with his simplicity and charisma. He drafted a magnificent communication strategy, knowing that his opponents and enemies were adept at manipulation and that effective communication would be their weapon of choice. His counter-offensive is working. The captain is the man of the moment around the world.

He did not just stop at talking. He knew Burkina Faso had a rich sub-soil which if properly managed could bring about instant economic transformation. He and his team immediately called for a reform of the mining sector which was in the hands of foreigners who were robbing the country blind.

Many of those companies did not pay their fair share of taxes and the former corrupt politicians prioritized self-interest above national sovereignty and economic progress. Today, the country’s gold is being refined in the country and most artisanal mining has disappeared, leaving the government with a huge revenue stream.

Reforming the mining sector has not only cut off the supply of money to terrorists, it also nets the country over USD 7 billion dollars a year. In 2024, Burkina Faso earned USD 6.48 billion dollars in gold sales alone, with Switzerland spending over USD 5 billion to obtain Burkina Faso’s gold.

But Burkina Faso does not only have gold. There is bauxite, there is iron, there is manganese and, above all, there is the right mindset. Of all the resources God has put on the surface of the earth, the human mind is the largest and the most sophisticated and Burkina Faso leaders are clearly buttressing this point.

Besides, the natural resource, governance is also a key factor. The country’s governance has improved ever since Traore and his patriotic friends took over. The country’s new leaders are transparent and determined to pull the country out of the jaws of poverty and many things are already falling in place, increasing the popular support he enjoys. Traore understands that no security system is stronger than the people’s support and he is making the most of this support by implementing projects which are pro-poor.

Captain Traore understands that much money without manufacturing could lead to inflation. He also understands that a restless youth without jobs is a huge pool of willing fighters who can easily be manipulated. Poverty hardly breeds virtue! That is why he is setting up factories which are creating jobs for young Burkinabe. He understands that a hungry man is an angry man who can easily be manipulated. He is not giving his enemies the least chance for them to manipulate his people. He is making the most of social media and the results on the ground are a faithful representation of what he says. His word is his bond!

Factories are popping up every day. Housing projects are taking shape while road construction once considered a rocket science by many Africans has been demystified. The young captain has declared that his government will be tarring 3,000 km to 5,000 km of road each year and he means it and this is music to many ears in Burkina Faso.

But manufacturing is just one sector. The young captain has adopted a holistic approach to development. His government is underscoring the importance of agriculture. Recently, it imported over 400 pieces of farming equipment which were handed over to enthusiastic farmers. The country is today one of the largest producer of wheat on the continent and the wheat is being transformed into flour.

The new leaders in Ouagadougou have packaged agriculture differently, making it more attractive to young Africans who once thought it was for the poor and illiterate. Even the country’s military is proudly involved in food production today. These efforts have put the once hungry country on the path to food security and sovereignty. Hunger is slowly being rolled out of the country and the nationals of this desert country are proud of their leaders.

No African country is financially poor. Corrupt and incompetent leadership is what is keeping many African countries in humiliating poverty which is pushing the continent’s youths to deserts, jungles and seas where they are dying in their bid to reach the Western world.

The continent’s sub-soil is rich. The continent accounts for more than 50% of the world’s mineral resources. It also accounts for 60% of the world’s arable land. Its demographic dividend is wealth other continents do not have.

Burkina Faso’s silent revolution and transformation should be a wake up call to other African leaders. Captain Traore is clearly demonstrating that wearing military fatigue is not a sign of incompetence. On the contrary, he is proving that democracy is not designed for civilians alone. Real democracy, according to him, implies loving your people and your country.

Democracy, the one run by civilians which is unnecessarily expensive, has hurt many African countries. Costly elections will not take Africa out of poverty. Africa needs leaders with a clear vision and the right discipline if this continent has to make grinding poverty a thing of the past. Captain Traore is a living example of humility, patriotism and determination. Many African leaders need to take a leaf from his book if they must kiss poverty goodbye.

By Dr Joachim Arrey

4, April 2025

Prosecution of journalists in Cameroon: European Parliament says enough red flags have been ignored ⁰

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted human rights resolutions on Cameroon.

Prosecution of journalists in Cameroon, including the cases of Amadou Vamoulké, Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka, Mancho Bibixy, Thomas Awah Junior, and Tsi Conrad

The EU Parliament condemns the systematic violations of journalists’ human rights by the Cameroonian authorities and calls on them to ensure press freedom ahead of the country’s 2025 presidential election.

MEPs demand the immediate and unconditional release of Amadou Vamoulké, Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka, Mancho Bibixy, Thomas Awah Junior, and Tsi Conrad.

They emphasise that their rights and access to medical care must be guaranteed. Parliament urges the EU and its member states to raise these cases with Cameroon’s authorities; as well as to apply diplomatic and economic pressure to improve the respect for human rights in the country.

Additionally, MEPs demand an end to military trials for civilians and to the misuse of terrorism and ‘fake news’ charges against journalists. They call on the EU to support a UN fact-finding mission, and demand the offer of humanitarian visas for journalists at risk of persecution.

25, March 2025

1982-2025: How long will Biya hang on? ⁰

President Paul Biya may not be ready to give up power any time soon, according to Cameroon Intelligence Report sources. The country is at the mercy of Biya and his appointees and remains in the limbo of an uncertain presidential election moment. Biya’s prolonged grip on power has generated crises. Cameroon Intelligence Report is aware that a crackdown had begun that included the arrest of journalists and senior opposition militants.

Our editor-in-chief Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai says at 92, Paul Biya is not in any hurry to leave office. He spoke to Cameroon Concord News in an interview after reports came out that the Minister-Secretary General at the presidency of the republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh had met the Archbishop of Douala, His Grace Archbishop Samuel Kleda.

As members of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate close ranks around their beleaguered president and suggest that he will face off with any opposition candidate, Soter Agbaw-Ebai, is one of the few Cameroonian journalists with insight into Biya’s thinking and a willingness to share it.

“Mr. Biya has lived and ruled Cameroon from the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva for 42 years, and that is his problem,” says Soter Agbaw-Ebai.

“Frankly speaking, Biya’s acolytes are giving him the impression that people love him and I don’t know if there is anyone deep within his entourage who can muster the courage and make him understand that the people have taken the decision to vote against him in October.”

Cameroonians will reject Biya this 2025, Soter Agbaw-Ebai says, but Biya and his men are likely to seek a way to hang on to power. “I personally think the elections will be rigged and there will be an uprising that will put Biya to shame.”

“Biya’s government is broke and doesn’t have the money to pay for any elections. Parliamentarians are happy that he extended their failed mandate and they are pushing Biya to use presidential powers and develop plans to work in his favor against the Cameroonian people” Agbaw-Ebai concluded.

By Chi Prudence Asong in Dublin

25, February 2025

How Biya and Archbishop Nkea protected the sanctity of the family in Cameroon ⁰

Biya did not sign any Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law and he also did not give homosexuality a life sentence. But the “old fox” was actively involved in many behind-the-scenes actions with powerful religious voices including Archbishop Andrew Nkea to prevent former US President Joe Biden from making numerous strides to uplift the LGBTQ community deep within the Central African region.

Joe Biden’s pro-LGBTQ highlights included numerous professionals he reportedly assigned to US federal agencies. His administration made numerous comments in support of the LGBTQ community and on April 15, 2021, Biden announced that his administration was sending a gay person, Christopher John Lamora, to be the next United States Ambassador to Cameroon.

The decision did not go down well with many people in Cameroon. In Cameroon just like in many African countries, the business of being gay is a risky business. It is not fashionable in Cameroon for a man to bend over forward for another man but the Biden Administration wanted to change that. African men love their beautiful women and their best style is the missionary style.

The fight to undermine the American gay stance was not easy and everyone in the West African country was aware that the American gay ambassador would leave the country bruised and frustrated. His business lacked a market in Cameroon.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that on April 19, 2021, John Lamora’s nomination was sent to the US Senate. Hearings on his nomination were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 9, 2021. The committee reported him favorably on June 24, 2021 and on December 18, 2021; Lamora was confirmed by the United States Senate by voice vote.

The gay arrived in Cameroon on March 5, 2022 and presented his credentials to foreign minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella who is not really young on March 21, 2022. An unprecedented fracas had occurred in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital. Biden and his men knew that if Cameroon fell, the entire CEMAC region would fall too!

The Metropolitan Archbishop of Bamenda, His Grace Archbishop Andrew Nkea fired the first salvos and sounded a note of caution to the regime in Yaoundé. Archbishop Andrew Nkea also sent powerful signals to the Vatican saying marriage was a union between a man and a woman and anything outside that was witchcraft in its superlative degree.

Many CPDM regime insiders were concerned about a gay US ambassador in Yaoundé and the impact that may have on the wider CEMAC region. Four secret meetings were held inside the Unity Palace on how to deal with the situation without destroying the long standing relations with the United States of America.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the CPDM wise men supported by a well placed Cameroonian citizen in the US successfully identified the so-called “husband” of Ambassador Christopher John Lamora and included his name on the list of people banned from entering Cameroon. Etoudi decided not to make it public for fear of reprisal from the Biden administration. Cameroon will not tolerate homosexuality and the business of gay sex was not lucrative in Cameroon.

Life in Yaoundé became boring for Ambassador John Lamora to the extent that he was heard murmuring privately that he wanted his tenure to come to end for him to leave. Yaoundé had become a massive living Hell to him. He had a choice – Enjoy organic sex with a beautiful Cameroonian lady or spend time masturbating in his bathroom.

His saving grace came when Donald Trump, a man who has a bone to pick with homosexuals, asked all of them to resign and return home where they can engage in their ungodly habit.

President Biya and Archbishop Nkea successfully protected the sanctity of the family in Cameroon through strategic thinking and determination. Homosexual sex is not admired in Yaoundé. It is hated more than the garbage heaps which have become the town’s hallmark.

Yaoundé might be dirty and it is disgusting. But throwing homosexual sex into the mix will ruin any morality which still exists in the country. Who says Biya is not working? Fighting homosexuals is not a walk in the park. Biya has won a battle. He however still has many more challenges to deal with. He has rolled back homosexual sex in Yaoundé; at 92, will he be able to roll back the opposition that is advancing to Etoudi?

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai