Senior Cameroon government officials, traditional rulers, political scientists, lawyers, economists, sociologists, and other prominent academics recently participated in a scientific symposium on the charity works of Chantal Biya, the wife of the President of the Republic of Cameroon.

Cameroon Concord News reporters were prevented from covering the conference that held at that Soa campus of the University of Yaoundé 2. Renowned Francophone Beti-Ewondo academics reportedly struggled for 3 days to have a thoughtful key to understanding the charity works of the first lady of Cameroon, Chantal Biya.

Cat calls from the civil society greeted the conference but it had to go ahead as the husband to the lady in question firmly holds the bar and controls all state apparatus in a country whose predominantly young population aspire to nothing.

Minister Fame Ndongo and a sea of pro Chantal Biya comedians moved that an honorary doctorate be given to the wife of the 83 year old dictator, President Paul Biya, the so-called “father of the nation.” The scientific symposium spent the sum of 65 million CFA francs collected from the public treasury in Yaoundé.

On the second day of the symposium, the participants announced the birth of a new philosophical doctrine in Cameroon called le “Chantalisme Biyayiste”. Our editorial board invoked the power of Google translate but could not still get the meaning of what the Yaoundes are saying within this new CPDM discourse of  the Chantalisme Biyayiste.

Our senior political commentator observed that it was the birth of a new personality cult that will drive the nation to a civil war. Schools and colleges in Cameroon will henceforth by studying “Chantalistes Biyayistes”.

At the end of the panel discussions, the “intellectuals” agreed to propose to the Cameroon government to design a legal status for the first lady. If the recommendation is adopted, the proposal will then be sent to parliament for a constitutional amendment. So, Chantal Biya is definitely Cameroon’s next head of state.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

After more than four decades after independence, the United Republic of Cameroon still struggles to operate part of the railway inherited from the German colonial masters even with French support from the Bolloré Transport & Logistics Group amid failed CPDM numerous contracts. This is also true of the road network in the country that still suffers intermittent breakdown.

There were high expectations when the Chairman and CEO of the Bolloré Transport & Logistics Group, Vincent Bolloré  met with President Biya some months ago and promised a Cameroonian version of the TGV-a high speed train between Yaounde and Douala. With more than a hundred people dead and more than 600 injured after a train derailed at Eseka on Friday the 21^st of October 2016, it has now turn out to be that of a dashed hope.  Minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o, born 22 January 1957 is a chartered member of the Biya Francophone Beti-Ewondo regime now running the transport sector of the country. For a man who sees himself as the next-of-kin to President Biya, Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o is now stagger-a-staggering.

Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o was removed as minister for defence and demoted to the transport department by the 83 year old President Biya. Undertaking a visit round some agencies under the ministry of transport, including the Cameroon Railway Corporation, Camrail, any observer could realize that this loud sounding nothing Francophone cabinet minister did not know if a functional train really exists in Cameroon.  The fault is not that of Minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o. It is also not that of the millions of Cameroonians who have never had a ride or drive on the trains and roads within the country. It is that of the government and the ministry of transport.

Ever since Cameroon Concord News was founded in Essen in Germany in 2000, we have been asking which professional school trains the technical force needed at the Ministry of Transport. To be sure, IRIC is responsible for grooming Cameroonian diplomats, Ecole de Postes trains our telecom engineers, Ecole Normale takes charge of our secondary and higher education teaching staffs, Ecole des police makes available some decent corrupt police officers and ESSTIC sends out pro Biya and CPDM comedians to the state radio and television. Which government academic establishment has the responsibility of training the manpower that runs the ministry of transport?

The Ministry of Transport is credited to have performed reasonably well under the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Analysts also credit the Ahidjo regime as playing a pivotal role in increasing the tempo of commercial activities in the many towns and cities in Cameroon along the motorways and rail routes. The success of Cameroon Shipping Lines, Cameroon Railways Corporation and Cameroon Airlines boosted inter-ethnic marriages, acquisition of new dressing habits, food and languages and caused the emergence of mega towns referred to as  T-junctions such as Mbanga, Kumba, Ngaoundere, Bali, Akawaya, Maroua and Tiko.

But a steady process of decline was said to have crept into its operation after President Biya took over as head of state. This, according to experts, became worse with the systemic decay of the country’s entire infrastructure and manpower.  The disaster that recently occurred on the Yaounde-Douala highway followed by the Eseka train derailment crisis has been attributed to the lack of maintenance, policy inconsistency, corruption and management inefficiency. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group believe and fervently too that it all hails from the workforce at the ministry of transport. The ministry has become a dumping pit for civil servants who fail to climb up the administrative ladder in other ministries.

Frankly speaking, the late President Ahidjo did not perform any magic in running our roads, railways and Airlines Company.  He succeeded only because he appointed those who had adequate training in transportation and logistics and provided the ministry of transport with adequate funds. The Ministry of Transport reportedly is the busiest in the entire Cameroon government set-up. It has never had any bad publicity because the workers render only one service to the nation and which is that of collecting money from the Cameroon people.

They collect money for number plates, they collect from toll gates, they collect from weighing heavy vehicles, they collect wind screen tax, they collect road tax, and they collect from our airline company and also from Camrail and our maritime sector. It is all about money.

From the current minister of transport right down to divisional delegates, none of them has successfully executed a transportation and logistics project in any part of the country let alone knowing what prevails in our railways and maritime industry. The Ministry of Transport in Cameroon is the only government department where technical directors and regional delegates have university degrees in Biology and Home Economics and we expect them to manage more complex railway, airlines, roads and maritime projects in the country. So, it is easy to understand why no one thought of establishing a heavy security presence around the train station in Yaounde immediately when news of the collapsed bridge on the Yaounde-Douala highway had been made public.

The military administration currently running the ministry of transport has been applauded for transporting three cabinet ministers by helicopter to the scene but failed to use the same helicopter to help victims of the derailment who were seriously injured. When Biya conceived the idea of Emergence 2035, many thought the strategic vision involved the roads, the railways, the shipping industry and the airlines.

To be sure, emergence 2035 was meant to be a systematic development of the health, education, transport and housing sectors of the country. It was specifically designed to provide a global framework and benchmark for the expansion and modernisation of Cameroon as a nation. And Biya reportedly paid a princely sum to a panel that delivered the package.  After the recent incidents, the emergence 2035 plan can best be described as an ambitious plan that was never implemented. So, our so called emergence 2035 project has now been abandoned by the Biya regime after some people have pocketed huge amounts of money being the initial payment made by the government for the design of the scheme.

With too many manual blunders and Minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o fighting for his political survival, only a new head of state will give a considerable attention to our roads and railway infrastructures. Biya has finally admitted that the ministry of transport has suffered from a criminal neglect ever since he took office as president.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Intercity train service 152 left the nation’s capital at 11:15 am for Douala the economic metropolis. The technical service of Camrail- a subsidiary of the Bolloré Transport & Logistics Group operating the rail sector in Cameroon did not check the front wheels of the locomotive to see if they had the ability to pull a surplus of 8 additional coaches which were added hastily after the disaster on the Douala- Yaoundé highway that made transportation by road impossible.

The brakes of the train were checked before the 8 wagons were added. A rail technician sounded a note of caution and reportedly opposed the idea of additional coaches. A Camrail carrier with 88 seats and 20 standing places was now code named Intercity service with 8 new coaches and on that Good Friday, had 1350 passengers on board.

The tragedy happened around 11:45 am at Eseka- a small town located some 120km from Yaoundé. Camrail was quick to set up a crisis unit led by its senior management and it mobilized rescue teams. Three cabinet ministers: Transport, Public Health and Territorial Administration arrived the scene by helicopter and claimed they were sent by the President of the Republic, who is on holiday with his wife and kids in a five star hotel in Geneva for 35 days now.

Minister Edgar Alain Mebo Ngoo, the Minister of Transport attempted to score some political points for himself in order to buttress his case of becoming Cameroon’s next head of state. He announced earlier that no train had derailed and after some 55 minutes, Edgar Alain again came back on the airwaves of the state radio and television to provide a fictitious death toll.

 70 people died and 600 were injured. The bodies of our departed citizens were taken to mortuaries in Edea, Douala, Eseka and Pouma. Our cream of reporters covering this story have all opined that the toll is expected to rise, given the many serious injuries recorded and the several passengers who are still trapped in the carriages that fell apart. The bodies of 14 passengers are still inside some of the wagons in the ravines. The government has ordered special equipment from the military headquarters to help pulled out the coaches.

Some big men in Yaounde call the ministers have announced the opening of a judicial inquiry to establish what caused the accident. The independent media has been barred from the scene and no one is allowed to take photos. Some reliable sources including travellers have stated that more than a hundred were killed in the incident. However, President Biya in a condolence message to the bereaved families agreed with our intelligence officers that 70 people have died as a result of the derailment.

By Sama Ernest, Rita Akana and Eyong Johnson

The presidential elections in the United States have never resembled a true democracy and the nation requires a political revolution to be able o function as a republic, according to an American scholar.  “US presidential elections have absolutely nothing to do with anything that resemble democracy,” said Kevin Barrett, an author and political commentator based in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Americans need to wake up and see that their nation has become a criminal empire rather than a republic as was setup the founding fathers,” Barrett told Press TV on Thursday. Republican and Democratic nominees, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, facef off in the last one-on-one debate on Wednesday in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has challenged the legitimacy of American democracy, declaring that he might not accept the results of the November 8 presidential election if there is evidence it was rigged. “I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking at anything now,” Trump said during his final presidential debate.

Barrett cited several examples that show American elections have been rigged since the 1940s. “I don’t know if Trump is the man to lead the second American revolution, I think he isn’t, but if he can continue to speak these unspeakable truths and destroy Americans’ misplaced faith and the big lies of their almost infinitely corrupt system, then we will get that much closer to second American revolution which is what this country needs,” Barrett stated.

Over the last week, Trump has intensified his criticism of the American electoral system. He called the election process rigged, and said the media is colluding with Clinton in order to beat him. He has strongly questioned the legitimacy of the US elections, saying that he believed the vote was already being “rigged” at many polling places. According to a new poll released on Monday, 41 percent of American voters are saying the 2016 election could be “stolen” from Trump due to widespread voter fraud.

Presstv

A row between Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and his wife has brought cracks in the ruling party into the open as frustration grows over government inertia in trying to drag the country out of its first recession in 25 years. Aisha Buhari publicly criticised her husband’s record in office, saying she might not support him if he seeks re-election in 2019 unless he shakes up his administration, which she said had been hijacked by a “few people”.

The president tried to laugh off the rebuke from his wife of 27 years, saying “she belongs in the kitchen” – but without addressing the substance of her remarks, made last week in an interview with the BBC. The 73-year-old won last year’s election promising a new era in the West African nation, where graft has enriched elite while most of 180 million Nigerians live in poverty despite the OPEC member’s oil wealth.

Buhari came to power backed by his All Progressives Congress (APC) party, a broad coalition of politicians who united to remove his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, without having a joint plan on how to run the country. Now, 17 months into office, there are few signs of Buhari’s promised reforms to diversify the economy away from exporting crude, prices of which have halved since 2014.

Already the naira is down 35% this year, making it one of the worst performing currencies in the world, and the National Bureau of Statistics forecasts the economy will shrink by 1.3% in 2016. But criticism of the government goes beyond an apparent lack of urgency in tackling the economic crisis. A belief is growing that power is concentrated among Buhari’s chief of staff and an inner circle at the presidential villa, making it difficult for ministers to get the attention of the president.

The First Lady is not alone in her views. Senate President Bukola Saraki, the third most senior politician in Nigeria, took to Twitter to express his concerns. “It has become clear there is government within government of @MBuhari who’ve seized apparatus of executive powers to pursue their nefarious agenda,” he tweeted in June.

Buhari’s spokesmen declined to comment while the president himself has defended his economic record in general terms. “I believe this recession will not last,” he said this month. “We have identified the country’s salient problems and we are working hard at lasting solutions.”

Annual inflation accelerated in September to 17.9%, a more than 11-year high, and last week about 100 young people demonstrated near the central bank over the naira’s fall.

But, generally, discontent has yet to turn into mass protest. “Let me commend Nigerians for your patience, steadfastness and perseverance. You know I am trying to do the right things for our country,” said Buhari.

“SMALL CLIQUE”

Nevertheless, Buhari has not answered questions about how Nigeria is governed under his presidency. “People feel the country is being run by a small clique of people who have taken over and are acting in the name of the president,” said Clement Nwankwo, director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, a think-tank in Abuja.

Buhari has put Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a commercial lawyer, in charge of economic politics. But Osinbajo, who favours a more flexible currency policy to attract badly-needed foreign investment, has struggled to get his ideas heard.

“There is great worry that the input of the vice president does not seem to be taken into account in implementing policies, especially on the economic front,” Nwankwo said. Buhari has said as an ex-general he is no expert in economics, and yet he long rejected a devaluation of the naira – just as he did as military ruler in the 1980s when Nigeria was also in recession.

When the central bank finally dropped the naira’s peg to the dollar in June, the currency slumped 30% and many equity and bond investors had in any case long since gone. Even now, Nigeria is operating a “managed float” which is keeping the official naira rate at around 305 to the dollar, far stronger than Monday’s black market rate of 455.

As ever in Nigerian politics, the division of powers between the mainly Muslim north, where Buhari is from, and the Christian south is playing a role. Diplomats say members of northern circles known to Buhari for decades have resisted some ministers such as Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun, a southerner in her 40s who was not his first choice. A source close to the presidency described the accusations of inertia as grumbling by some in the APC who had hoped for jobs or contracts under a system of patronage which Buhari stopped under his anti-graft drive.

DIFFICULT CHOICES

Buhari needed to pick a cabinet from the APC but this was complicated because he was constitutionally bound to pick a minister from each of Nigeria’s 36 states.

To insert his influence he then brought in people he has known for decades. Members of his “kitchen cabinet” include his chief of staff Abba Kyari, whom Buhari has also put on the board of state oil firm NNPC, his uncle Mamman Daura and Babachir Lawal, secretary to the government of the federation.

“Buhari is deeply suspicious of politicians because of Nigeria’s history of graft,” said one Western diplomat. “There are few people he trusts or regularly talks to to seek their advice.” The pre-eminence of the inner circle has, say political insiders, created a rift between the president and Bola Tinubu, a former Lagos state governor who rallied southern Christian elites to help win power.  Tinubu has issued statements attacking APC chairman John Oyegun and oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, deepening divisions in the party.

LITTLE ACTIVITY

Buhari has won plaudits from ordinary Nigerians by saying he will target a hyper-rich elite accused of massive corruption. He has also managed to retake most territory lost to the Islamist militants of Boko Haram and negotiated the release of 21 of more than 200 girls kidnapped in 2014, although suicide bombings remain part of life in north-eastern Nigeria.

But much of his first year in office was beset by slow progress. A five month wait for his cabinet to be formed was followed by wrangling with parliament over the 2016 budget, which was only signed off by Buhari in May.  Efforts to make Nigeria more business-friendly have stalled. Trade Minister Okechukwu Enelamah wants to ease visa rules, acknowledging complaints from foreign executives about obstructive embassy officials, but has given no timeframe.

Nigeria could have earned as much as $8 billion in travel receipts this year, instead of the $500 million booked in 2014, had it adopted visitor-friendly visa rules like Ghana, Renaissance Capital said in a report.  Some investors have expressed frustration over hard currency curbs. “You can’t even discuss a rational foreign exchange policy,” David Lapido, director at Amaya Capital invested in Nigeria’s power industry, told a panel debate.

Leading economists recently met Buhari, stressing it was high time for action as there were just 18 months left before the next election would paralyse politics. “We were very frank,” said Bismarck Rewane, CEO of Financial Derivatives consultancy who attended the meeting. “The president is paying serious attention to the economy. I am now more optimistic.”

Culled from DefenseWeb

The former body guard of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Captain Bouba Simala, is reportedly dying in a military detention centre in Yaounde. Detained ever since June 2015, the nephew of Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, President of the National Assembly was accused for attempted kidnapping, terrorism and incitement to robbery.

Captain Bouba has been brought before the military tribunal several times on charges concocted against him by his uncle Cavaye Yeguie Djibril. Recently, the facts were reclassified as mere threats and insults to the speaker of the National Assembly. These new developments hinted our Yaounde city reporter, are simply a game of hide and seek.

The trial of the captain has been politicised and is not advancing. The last hearing, held on the 13^th of October resulted in another referral. The Speaker of the National Assembly has reportedly hired Barrister Fostine Fotso Chebou Kamdem who is only interested in keeping the captain in police drag net as long as Cavaye stays on as Speaker of the National Assembly.

It is hard to believe that the men and women protecting the regime would allow one of their own to be humiliated in this manner. Lieutenant-Colonel Mefand was compelled to suspend the hearing indefinitely after House Speaker; Cavaye Djibril’s lawyer moved a motion to that effect.

According to Article 598 of the Criminal Procedure Code, once the magistrate receives a copy of the application in conformity with the provisions of Article 594 (2), it is tenuous to suspend the proceedings until a decision is made.

This CPDM action has now led to a postponement of the trial to the 10^th of November 2016. The defense lawyer, Barrister Emmanuel Simh has made it clear that the current suspension was a means to extend the duration of his client in the military detention centre in Yaounde. Will Cameroonian military officers please stand up!!

By Rita Akana

Cameroonians are now showing so much indifference towards the complete absence from the national territory of President Biya. The population appears to have withdrawn from the nation-state. So, the continues absence of the 83 year old leader who has already spent 34 years as president seems not to bother anyone! Nobody talks about Biya’s continued stay abroad in a hotel in Geneva and the few individuals, who speak, do so only on television debates or in some obscure political discourse.

The movements of President Biya are now a non-event. His presence in Yaounde sometimes surprises even his kinsmen and collaborators. There is no limitation or accountability on his private trips abroad. In just five months (May-October 2016) Biya has spent 76 days out of Cameroon on lame and ridiculous reasons.

The bulk of Biya’s trips as often announced by state radio and television are devoted to private stays with no added value to the development of Cameroon. It appears Biya and First Lady Chantal are acting a Nollywood movie and the morally bankrupt Cameroonian society is watching.

We call it a Nollywood movie because on the 27^th of May 2016, Biya left Cameroon and returned on June the 25^th after spending 30 days abroad. On August the 24^th, 2016, Biya again including some of his close associates left Cameroon for Switzerland. The delegation returned to Yaoundé on September the 9^th after a 17 days relaxation in Geneva. This time around, they returned with a coveted trophy—- Chantal Biya, who had left the country ever since May, 2016.

On September the 16th, the president left the capital again for New York in the United States. The official statement indicated that he was invited to the 71st session of the General Assembly of the UN. While the heads of state, government and delegations present in New York, have all returned to their respective countries after the meeting of the UN, the President of Cameroon is still out of the country. Today Friday, October the 14^th makes it nearly 30 days after his last trip. Our nation may fall into the hands of a military thug. The country needs a decent man-a very decent man to run its affairs.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

When the nationality question was raised at the ICJ during the hearing of the Cameroon v Nigeria case Cameroun and Nigeria as well as the Court dodged the question. Cameroon in particular pleaded with the court not to defer a decision on the matter to allow the matter to be settled through bilateral negotiations. The Court made a note of this plea in its judgment and left a potentially explosive matter unresolved.

The failure to resolve this issue left the so-called Bakassi judgment inconclusive deferring the most important matter that emerged during the case unresolved. There exists therefore a reasonable ground to believe that the supposed peace and closure that the ICJ judgment purported to bring was but the peace of the loaded gun as the news report forwarded with this comment and many others attest.

 The question arises, therefore, why did Nigeria which proposed a referendum to resolve this matter and Cameroun which opposed the referendum shy from allowing the ICJ to resolve this component of the case even when they would reasonably have anticipated that the nationality issue is one of the most explosive in international relations and international law? The answer may be hidden in the little talked about interpleader which Fon Gorgi Dinka filed on behalf of Ambazonia which was duly acknowledged but no further action taken on it during the trial.

The legal and/or technical grounds on the basis of which the interpleader would have been entertained or rejected were never seriously considered during trial by the parties. The interpleader therefore remained part of the court records in the case. If anything, the interpleader was reasonable notice to the parties in the case that Ambazonia was laying claims not just to the resources in Bakassi but also to the population residing in Bakassi.

Considering the state of agitation of the people of Bakassi during the case and thereafter, and their threats at one moment to declare independence; their commitment to Ambazonia nationality, Cameroon and Nigeria found the matter so explosive to allow the court to take a decision on. That is why the court deferred to a negotiated settlement which has not and will never take place as long as the wider issue, the Ambazonia question is not comprehensively resolved. This matter therefore is another sore of international justice left unaddressed.

By Chief Charles A.Taku