Headline News

31, August 2020

Football: Clinton N’Jie on target as Dynamo Moscow hold FC Ufa ⁰

The Cameroon international scored his second goal of the season to help the White and Blues avoid defeat at Neftyanik Stadium

Clinton N’Jie found the back of the net to inspire Dynamo Moscow to a 1-1 draw against FC Ufa in Sunday’s Russian Premier League game.

The forward teamed up with the White and Blues last summer from French side Marseille but did not have the best time in his debut season in Russia.

The striker only scored one goal in 19 league appearances but has hit the ground running in the 2020-21 season.

N’Jie was handed his fifth start in this campaign by manager Kirill Novikov against Vadim Evseev’s side and made the most of the opportunity.

The centre-forward shone in the encounter to ensure his side avoided defeat and stretched their unbeaten run to two games after securing victory over Zenit last time out.

N’Jie opened the scoring in the 43rd minute for the White and Blues after both sides had failed to convert the few chances that came to their ways.

Timur Zhamaletdinov then levelled proceedings moments before the hour mark after he was set up by Aleksandr Sukhov.

The draw is Dynamo Moscow’s second this season, having also won three games and lost one in six outings so far.

N’Jie featured for 78 minutes before he made way for Vyacheslav Grulev while Nigeria international Sylvester Igboun was a second-half substitute for the White and Blues.

The Cameroon striker has played for French side Lyon and Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur before he signed for Marseille permanently in 2019 after impressing while on loan with the side.

N’Jie has been a key member of the Cameroon national team since he made a scoring debut for the West Africans against the Democratic Republic of Congo in September 2014.

The forward has featured 32 times for the Indomitable Lions, scoring seven goals and was part of the side that won the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations title.

N’Jie will hope to continue his fine start to the season when Dynamo Moscow take on Rubin Kazan in their next Premier League game on September 12.

Source: Goal.com

30, August 2020

Mali in crisis: Divisions emerge between junta, opposition leaders ⁰

Tensions mounted on Saturday between Mali’s military junta and the country’s longtime political opposition after the coup leaders failed to invite prominent opposition figures to a planned forum on the country’s political future.

The meeting ultimately was cancelled and the junta leadership instead met with imam Mahmoud Dicko, an opposition leader who on Friday urged the junta to speed up the transition to civilian rule so the West African country could avoid further crushing financial sanctions.

“I ask them to be part of the solution and not another problem,” he said.

Only a week earlier, the opposition coalition known as M5-RFP that includes Dicko had publicly backed the coup, with thousands of their supporters taking to the streets after the junta’s overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. M5-RFP had led several months of demonstrations calling for his resignation three years before his final term was due to end.

In a statement late Friday, one M5-RFP leader said the alliance regretted not being invited to take part in Saturday’s planned discussions between the junta and various political actors.

“The M5-RFP is and remains a major player in this desired change and must be at the forefront in determining the structure of the transition,” Choguel Maiga said.

The path back to democracy has been a stumbling point with West African heads of state, who on Friday urged the junta to restore civilian rule within a year. But the junta has proposed a three-year timeline. That has led to the unraveling of talks and more threats of sanctions.

The regional bloc known as ECOWAS already has cut financial flows to Mali, and neighboring countries have closed their borders in a bid to step up pressure on the coup leaders.

The international community has expressed alarm over the coup, fearing that the political vacuum could allow Islamic extremists to expand their reach. A similar coup in 2012 led to the militants overtaking major towns in the north where they implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law, amputating the hands of those charged with theft.

A French-led military operation in 2013 ousted the extremists from power but the Malian military and its partners have faced an insurgency ever since.

There are concerns that the new political upheaval could erode what gains have been made in the fight to stabilize Mali.

Source: AP

30, August 2020

French magazine depicts Black MP as a slave ⁰

French President Emmanuel Macron led nationwide outrage Saturday after an ultra-conservative magazine portrayed a black lawmaker as a slave.

The French presidency said Macron called Danielle Obono from the far-left party France Unbowed and “expressed his clear condemnation of any form of racism”.

The magazine, Valeurs Actuelles, which caters to readers on the right and far right, showed Obono in chains with an iron collar on her neck to illustrate a seven-page imaginary story.

Prime Minister Jean Castex said it was a “revolting publication that calls for clear condemnation” and told Obono that she had the government’s backing.

“I share the indignation of lawmaker Obono,” he said.

“One is free to write a putrid novel within the limits fixed by the law. One is free to hate it. I hate it,” said Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.

Obono tweeted: “The extreme right — odious, stupid and cruel. In brief, like itself.”

The anti-racism body SOS Racisme deplored rising hate speech against African and Arab politicians and said it was mulling what legal measures could be taken to counter this.

The magazine however denied it was racist, saying the story concerning Obono was “a work of fiction… but never nasty.”

An official from France’s far-right National Rally party, Wallerand de Saint-Just, said the story was “in absolute bad taste”.

France witnessed several protests in June and July against racial injustice as well as colonial and police brutality, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and George Floyd’s death at the knee of police in the United States.

Macron, a centrist, who raised eyebrows when he gave an interview to Valeurs Actuelles last year and praised it as a “good magazine”, has pledged to root out racism.

But he also said France will not take down statues of figures linked to the colonial era or the slave trade, as has happened in other countries recently.

(AFP)

30, August 2020

Bakassi: Nigerian Group wants Buhari to probe ceding of peninsula to Cameroon ⁰

A group, Save Nigeria Movement (SNM), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to, as a matter of urgency, set up a judicial commission of inquiry to probe the circumstances that led to the decision of ceding the oil rich Bakassi peninsula to neighbouring Cameroun.

Convener of the group, Mr. Solomon Semaka, also stressed the need to revisit several unresolved incidents, including the tragic 1992 Airforce military aircraft C-130 Crash in Lagos State in which over 160 senior and middle level military officers and the entire crew died.

The group is seeking probe into the 2006 tragic occurrence of an airforce donier 228 aircraft crash in Benue State that killed about 15 senior military officers and the entire crew, as well as the sad incident of Boeing 737 plane crash that occurred in October 2006 in Abuja, which claimed the lives the late Sultan of Sokoko, Alhaji Maccido, his son, Senator Maccido, grand son, as well the then deputy governor, Alhaji Garba Muhammad, as well as 98 others.

Other probe requests, include the need to unravel the circumstances of the tragic crash of a naval helicopter in 2012 in Nembe, Bayelsa State, which claimed the lives of Governor Patrick Yakowa and Gen. Andrew Azazi, the circumstances surrounding the bombing and subsequent murder of the famous journalist, Dele Giwa, through a parcel bomb.

It also includes the need to unravel the circumstances surrounding the arrest of Gloria Okon and her subsequent mysterious death, “the circumstances surrounding the murder of Chief Bola Ige in 2001, the burning and killing of the Resident Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Commissioner and his family in Kano in 2015, the 2011 bombings of the INEC office in Suleja, which killed over 25 people and the annulment of June 12 election, among others.”

The group in the statement signed by Richard Oduma of Coalition of Minority Tribes in Nigeria and Dr. Ndubisi Okon, Center for Advanced History and Civil Right contended that the issues if left unchecked could pose grave danger to the corporate existence of Nigeria.

Source: The Guardian

29, August 2020

Yaounde: Captain Stephen Tataw going home to rest ⁰

Stephen Eta Tataw 57, the renowned Southern Cameroons footballer who captained the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon will be buried today Saturday, August 29, 2020, at 1 p.m. at the Catholic cemetery at Mvolyé, located in the 3rd district of the French Cameroun capital, Yaoundé.

The late captain of the 1990 Cameroon team will be accorded final tributes during a ceremony scheduled at the Yaounde Sports Palace, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi and a so-called personal representative of the Head of State.

In addition to the Requiem Mass, the late Javion as he was popularly known will receive a posthumous decoration after testimonies from his family, former teammates, FECAFOOT and the Biya regime.

Yesterday’s ceremony at the Yaounde Central Hospital was very popular, despite measures to limit gatherings because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several generations of the Indomitable Lions, including Samuel Eto’o and Roger Milla answered present. French Cameroun political and sports authorities also took part notably the Minister of Sports, Mr. Mouelle Kombi and Seidou Mbombo Njoya, the President of FECAFOOT.

Winner of the 1988 African Cup of Nations in Morocco, the man with 43 caps went down in history as captain of the mythical team that reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

29, August 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Hard-hit Presbyterian church leads peace efforts ⁰

Cameroon’s 27 million people have two official languages – English and French – but the people in the two linguistic groups are divided, adding to the nation’s woes and those for its church leaders, along with another affliction, Boko Haram extremists.

Rev. Miki Hans Abia, synod clerk of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, lives in the southwestern part where most of the minority Anglophones live as the result of the country’s complex colonial history and explains his church’s role in the peace process.

“I believe that the Church in Cameroon is part of the solution to bring about peace and reconciliation to these conflicts,” he said. The church has more than 500 pastors serving 1.5 million Christians in the country.

Most Anglophones live in the southwest, and they are a significant minority in the country, where about 70 percent of the population are Christians, and some 24 percent are Muslims.

“It is no secret that the once-admirable nation of peace in the African continent is today experiencing the worst crisis or conflict situation in her history,” he says. “I won’t dwell on the Boko Haram incursions in the northern part of our country. I would rather focus on the Anglophone crisis because it affects our community and the church directly.”

One million displaced

Increasing violence and insecurity in Cameroon has forced more than one million people from their homes. Since 2014, Cameroon has also struggled to support refugees fleeing violence and civil war in neighbouring countries, according to the International Rescue Committee.

The scourge of 2020, COVID-19, and the related conflict in Africa’s Sahel region have dwarfed Cameroon’s Anglophone-Francophone conflict in people’s minds.

“It is now at the level of violent armed conflict between the English-speaking militia (Amba Boys) and the nation’s military and security forces. The devastation is enormous.

“There are hundreds of thousands of persons internally displaced. Thousands are refugees in neighbouring countries, many brutally murdered, many more living in sorrowful conditions in faraway bushes, kidnapping and requests for huge ransoms, wanton destruction of property and whole villages burnt down,” said Abia.

News outlets report on the government cracking down on protests and political opponents.

Njie Samuel Kale is the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon’s education secretary and said that the church has struggled to convince parents to send the children to school in some safe areas due to threats, acts of arson, kidnappings and killings.

“Some scholarships and materials were offered to needy kids as well as continuous support to internally displaced persons. Over 60 percent of our operations are grounded in terms of schools, health facilities and even churches.

“We continue to witness a growing number of displaced people,” said Kale.

Peace proposals

The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon has submitted a list of proposals to the national president, Paul Biya.

These call for the holding of an inclusive national dialogue, release of all those detained in connection with the unrest, a decentralized government system, and conservation of the Anglo-Saxon system of education that was “adulterated.” It also seeks a ceasefire, withdrawal of the military from the streets, and protection of the English judicial system of common law.

“The clergy and top laity also took part in several top meetings called by the government to bring peace and held audiences with ministers, the prime minister and the head of state,” said Kale.

From the latter part of the 19th century until World War I, Cameroon was a German colony. During that conflict, the British invaded from Nigeria, and the French took the bigger northern part under League of Nations mandates, the start of the current linguistic divide.

Reunification started in 1961

Created in 1961 by the unification of a British and a French colony, the modern state of Cameroon has also struggled to find peace and unity. The mainly-Muslim far north has been drawn into the regional Islamist insurgency of the Boko Haram group.

Abia said, “The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, in communion with other churches and religious bodies, has played a very active role in an attempt to bring peace and reconciliation to conflicting parties and situations.”

He noted that the church is hard-hit in the country’s conflict because about 80 percent of its adherents, activities and economic ventures are found “in the war zone” and the church is predominantly English-speaking.

The Cameroon Presbyterians’ leadership has intervened and mediated in what he refers to as “the Anglophone crisis rocking the restive north-west and southwest regions of Cameroon.”

“The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon has organized, amongst others, interfaith services for all religious bodies in Cameroon. In some of such gatherings, her international partners were invited and actively took part in the peace discussions. Resolutions from such discussions aimed at peace and reconciliation were forwarded to the government of Cameroon,” explained Abia.

The church’s hierarchy championed by its head, the moderator, has regularly signed pastoral letters to its communion recommending “salient proposals” for the reinstitution of peace and tranquillity in war-torn areas in Cameroon.

“The church has been actively involved in peacebuilding initiatives from time immemorial and has continued to remain a cardinal point in preaching peace and reconciliation.”

Grand National Debate

For example, the church took part in actively organizing with the government a Grand National Debate (2019) to reinstate peace in Cameroon.

“Currently, the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon is a major player in the government-led Reconstruction Plan; advising that peace and reconciliation are prerequisites for reconstruction, that the minds of all parties and stakeholders must be reconstructed first before material things,” said Abia.

The church works with its foreign partners to help counsel the Cameroon government and other conflicting parties.

For example, in March 2020, the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon led an international delegation for a meeting with the prime minister of Cameron to brainstorm on concrete measures to resolve the crisis in Cameroon.

“The prophetic voice of the church through her pastors and other preachers of peace have been of great importance to de-escalate the conflict in the two Anglophone regions,” said Abia.

The church has a committed group called the Peace Office that engages in peace workshops with a variety of funding partners.

“I believe that the church in Cameroon is part of the solution to bring about peace and reconciliation,” said Abia.

Culled from World Council of Churches

28, August 2020

US: Trump closes Republican convention with defiant White House campaign speech ⁰

Facing a national moment fraught with racial turmoil and a deadly pandemic, President Donald Trump accepted his party’s renomination on a massive White House South Lawn stage Thursday night, boasting of helping African Americans and defying his own administration’s pandemic guidelines to address a tightly packed, largely maskless crowd.

As troubles churned outside the gates, Trump painted an optimistic vision of America’s future, including an eventual triumph over the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 175,000 people, left millions unemployed and rewritten the rules of society. But that brighter horizon can only be secured, Trump asserted, if he defeats Democrat Joe Biden.

“We have spent the last four years reversing the damage Joe Biden inflicted over the last 47 years,” Trump said.

Presenting himself as the last barrier protecting an American way of life under siege from radical forces, Trump declared that “Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic, and social injustice.””

“So tonight, I ask you a very simple question: How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?” Trump said. “In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just, and exceptional nation on earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins.”

As his speech brought the scaled-back Republican National Convention to a close, Trump’s incendiary rhetoric risked inflaming a divided nation reeling from a series of calamities, including the pandemic, a major hurricane that slammed into the Gulf Coast and nights of racial unrest and violence after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot by a White Wisconsin police officer.

He was introduced by his daughter Ivanka, an influential White House adviser, who portrayed the famously bombastic Trump as someone who has shaken up Washington with little record for norms or niceties.

“Dad, people attack you for being unconventional, but I love you for being real. And I respect you for being effective,” she said.

The president spoke from a setting that was both familiar and controversial. Despite tradition and regulation to not use the White House for purely political events, a huge stage was set up outside the executive mansion, dwarfing the trappings for some of the most important moments of past presidencies. The speaker’s stand was flanked by dozens of American flags and two big video screens.

Trying to run as an insurgent as well as incumbent, Trump rarely includes calls for unity, even in a time of national uncertainty. He has repeatedly, if not always effectively, tried to portray Biden — who is considered a moderate Democrat — as a tool of the radical left, fringe forces he has claimed don’t love their country.

The Republicans claim that the violence that has erupted in Kenosha and some other American cities is to be blamed on Democratic governors and mayors. Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday said that Americans wouldn’t be safe in “Joe Biden’s America.”

That drew a stern rebuke from his predecessor in the post.

“The problem we have right now is that we are in Donald Trump’s America,” said Biden on MSNBC. “He views this as a political benefit to him, he is rooting for more violence not less. He is pouring gasoline on the fire.”

Both parties are watching with uncertainty the developments in Wisconsin and cities across the nation with Republicans leaning hard on support for law and order — with no words offered for Black victims of police violence — while falsely claiming that Biden has not condemned the lawlessness. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney and New York City’s former mayor, declared that Democrats’ “silence was so deafening that it reveals an acceptance of this violence because they will accept anything they hope will defeat President Donald Trump.”

Though some of the speakers, unlike on previous nights, offered notes of sympathy to the families of Black men killed by police, Giuliani also took aim at the Black Lives Matter movement, suggesting that it, along with ANTIFA, was part of the extremist voices pushing Biden to “execute their pro-criminal, anti-police policies” and had “hijacked the protests into vicious, brutal riots.”

Along with Biden, running mate Kamala Harris offered counter-programming for Trump’s prime-time speech. She delivered a speech a half mile from the White House, declaring, “Donald Trump has failed at the most basic and important job of a president of the United States: He failed to protect the American people, plain and simple.”

Some demonstrations took to Washington’s streets Thursday night, ahead of a march planned for the next day. New fencing set up along the White House perimeter was to keep the protesters at bay, but some of their shouts and car horns were clearly audible on the South Lawn where more than 1,500 people gathered. Soon after Trump began talking, the horns and sirens — which came through occasionally to the millions watching at home — caused some people in the last row to turn around and look for the source of the disturbance.

Those chants, coming from masked faces, intruded on another illusion that the Republicans have spent a week trying to create: that the pandemic is largely a thing of the past. The rows of chairs on the lawn were tightly packed, inches apart. Protective masks were not required, and Covid-19 tests were not to be administered to everyone.

But Trump, who has defended his handling of the pandemic, touted an expansion of rapid coronavirus testing. The White House announced Thursday that it had struck a $750 million deal to acquire 150 million tests from Abbott Laboratories to be deployed in nursing homes, schools and other areas with populations at high risk.

Most of the convention has been aimed at former Trump supporters or nonvoters, and has tried to drive up negative impressions of Biden so that some of his possible backers stay home. Many of the messages were aimed squarely at seniors and suburban women.

Among the more emotional moments: testimony from Alice Marie Johnson, who was granted clemency from her life sentence on nonviolent drug charges, and from Carl and Marsha Mueller, whose daughter Kayla was killed while being held in Syria by Islamic State militants during the Obama administration.

“Kayla should be here,” said Carl Mueller. “If Donald Trump was president when Kayla was captured, she would be here today.”

Four years ago, Trump declared in his acceptance speech that “I alone can fix” the nation’s woes, but he has found himself asking voters for another term at the nadir of his presidency, amid a devastating pandemic, crushing unemployment and real uncertainties about schools and businesses reopening.

Another one million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, in numbers released Thursday. And the US economy shrank at an alarming annual rate of 31.7% during the April-June quarter as it struggled under the weight of the viral pandemic. It was sharpest quarterly drop on record.

(AP)

28, August 2020

ECOWAS demands civilian transition in Mali, elections within a year ⁰

West African countries on Friday demanded an immediate civilian transition in Mali and elections within 12 months as they considered sanctions after rebel troops toppled the country’s president and seized power.

The demands were spelt out after the new junta released ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, seized in the August 18 coup, but also apparently granted their new chief the powers of head of state.

The coup shocked Mali’s West African neighbours and ally France, heightening worries over instability in a country already struggling with an Islamist insurgency, ethnic violence and economic stagnation.

After a video summit, the 15-nation Economic Community of West Africa State called on the junta “to initiate a civil transition immediately” and the “rapid establishment of a government to (…) prepare the legislative and presidential elections within 12 months.”

In a closing statement, Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, who also chairs ECOWAS, said sanctions would be “gradually lifted depending on the implementation” of the bloc’s requests.

“Staging coups is a serious sickness for a country,” he said in earlier remarks. “To cure them, there’s only one prescription: sanctions.”

ECOWAS slapped sanctions on Mali after the August coup, including a closure of borders and ban on trade and financial flows.

It demanded the release of Keita and other detained leaders and insisted on a swift return to civilian rule.

Keita, 75, was elected in 2013 as a unifying figure in a fractured country and was returned in 2018 for a second five-year term.

But his popularity crashed as he failed to counter the country’s raging jihadist insurgency and brake Mali’s downward economic spiral.

After an escalating series of mass protests, young army officers mutinied on August 18, seizing Keita and other leaders and declaring they now governed the country.

They have called the junta the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP), led by a 37-year-old colonel, Assimi Goita.

Friday’s video summit came after a three-day ECOWAS visit foundered over a timetable for civilian transition, and the junta’s announcement on the eve of the conference that Keita had been freed.

Issoufou said Keita had told the ECOWAS envoys “that he resigned quite freely, convinced that this decision was necessary for peace and stability in Mali.”

Handover issue

Within hours of taking control, the junta promised to enact a political transition and stage elections within a “reasonable time.”

According to the chief ECOWAS envoy, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, the coup leaders wanted a three-year handover period.

This was rejected by the ECOWAS team, which called for an interim government, “headed by a civilian or retired military officer, to last for six or nine months, and maximum of 12 calendar months,” Jonathan said on Wednesday.

ECOWAS on Friday said that the person overseeing the handover should be “an individual, civilian, recognised… for their intellectual and moral standing” and that there should be a “civilian prime minister.”

“No military structure should be above the transition president,” it said.

But a new document posted on Mali’s Official Journal, a gazette which publishes new laws and regulations, invests the head of the CNSP with the powers of the head of state.

Named “Basic Act N°001/CNSP,” the document was posted online on Thursday.

The CNSP “designates a president who assures the duty of the head of state… embodying national unity… and guaranteeing national independence, territorial integrity… (and) respect for international agreements,” it says.

This individual appoints senior civil servants and military and “accredits” foreign ambassadors, according to the document. AFP has asked the junta’s spokesman to confirm its authenticity.

Jihadist warning

In other remarks, Issoufou lashed the Malian military for launching the coup when the country was in the throes of an eight-year-old jihadist insurgency.

Thousands of lives have been lost, hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes and swathes of the country have been abandoned to armed Islamists by the state.

The junta “is refusing to return to the barracks at a time when, more than ever, the army is required to focus on its traditional mission,” Issoufou said.

He warned that the jihadists sought to “exploit the current institutional void” — a scenario that happened after Mali’s last coup in 2008.

(AFP)

28, August 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: “Wilfred Tassang had crossed the reddest of the red lines” Dr Joachim Arrey ⁰

“Mr. Tassang had crossed the reddest of the red lines. He should have understood that while in prison with other people, he is supposed to work for the group’s solidarity and not to tear the group apart. He might think he is raising issues that need to be addressed, but he is also failing to understand that he is shooting the group in the foot. As a teacher, he should have understood that in the circumstances in which he finds himself, unity of purpose is a fortune in affliction,” says Dr. Joachim Arrey, a Canada-based translator and technical writer in this soul searching interview with Chi Prudence Asong

Cameroon Concord News: You recently sent a message to Mr. Wilfred Tassang which many people truly appreciated. What really prompted you to write to him?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain a few things about my response to Mr. Tassang, who through his letters has been arrogating to himself the status of a saint and a speaker of the truth. His last letter to the President of Southern Cameroons, Sisisku Julius Ayuk Tabe, wherein he raised a number of issues which I found to be so trivial was one letter too many, especially in the context in which the country finds itself. I understand that when people are working together, there are bound to be differences, especially differences of opinion, but I hold that when I work with other people, there are differences that could be overlooked in the interest of the group’s unity and interest. It is hard to find a very united and well-oiled team, but that does not imply that the group’s dirty linen must be washed in public. In my view, Mr. Tassang had crossed the reddest of the red lines. He should have understood that while in prison with other people, he is supposed to work for the group’s solidarity and not to tear the group apart. He might think he is raising issues that need to be addressed, but he is also failing to understand that he is shooting the group in the foot. As a teacher, he should have understood that in the circumstances in which he finds himself, unity of purpose is a fortune in affliction. His failure to understand this simple philosophy was actually what prompted me to respond to one of his many write-ups that do not really make a lot of sense to me.

Cameroon Concord News: But some people hold that your disagreement is more ideological?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Mr. Tassang believes in the total independence of Southern Cameroons. He has a right to his opinion and there are many Southern Cameroonians who think like him and will not bulge an inch. Like the government, they are frozen in their positions and this attitude is what is feeding the rebellion and carnage that are taking place in the country’s two English-speaking regions. I respect Mr. Tassang and his view, but this does not imply that he is beyond reproach. I hold that the parties involved in the fighting back home could meet each other halfway through constructive and purposeful dialogue. I clearly stand for federalism and I think this system of government could help the country address those issues that triggered the disagreement and fighting.

What all Southern Cameroonians agree on is the fact that they have faced marginalization for more than five decades and they want it to stop so that future generations do not face the same issues. I must recall here and now that if there are more than three million Southern Cameroonians out of the country, it is because of the systemic and institutional marginalization that has robbed the people of Southern Cameroons of so many opportunities. However, this can be addressed if the government and those who are calling for total independence demonstrate exceptional flexibility. But with people like Mr. Tassang frozen in their positions, it will be hard for genuine peace to return to our own part of the country.

In his letter to President Julius Ayuk Tabe, he clearly stated that Barristers Paul Ayah and Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla were not fit to negotiate for the people of Southern Cameroons because of their moderate stance, but he fails to understand that those two barristers have much to offer because of their sound knowledge of legal justice and their involvement in the struggle. There won’t be a better negotiator than a lawyer. Furthermore, Mr. Tassang like the Yaounde government holds that victory will be obtained in the battlefield. I think he is simply oblivious of the reality on the ground. His knowledge of history is either inadequate or it is failing him. No war has ever ended without talks and negotiations. The Treaty of Versailles sanctioned the end of the First World War while the Yalta and Potsdam agreements remain in history as those negotiations that ended the Second World war.

Talking and negotiating to end a conflict are as old as man. Mandela negotiated to bring about racial parity in South Africa. Colonial Africa had to negotiate to end colonialism. Why does Mr. Tassang hold that talking with the Yaounde government is tantamount to treason? Why would he chide those who had accepted an invitation for talks with the government when he knows that without talks, the current situation in Southern Cameroons which is close to an apocalypse will linger for a long time? When a man invites you, go and listen to him. You will surely have your turn to talk and you will tell him how you feel and why you do not buy their perspective of things. If you turn down the invitation due to anger or inflexibility, then your point of view will never be known and that could be used against you. A reasonable person will not want to go down in history like someone who lacked foresight and a vision. That is where I disagree with Mr. Tassang, but we agree that we are all victims of the government’s marginalization policy.

Cameroon Concord News: But even after the informal meeting and the international community’s pressure, the killing has continued, and many people are still fleeing the region.

Dr Joachim Arrey: I am indeed unhappy about the way things are playing out in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Right from the beginning, I was against any armed conflict because such conflicts easily start but linger for a long time. The government had an opportunity to avoid such a catastrophe in our country, but it opted for violence. Southern Cameroonian fighters, for their part, felt they had a right to self-defense, and this has left the country in the grip of Kafkaesque violence that has already consumed more than 5,000 lives and reduced many villages to ashes. What the government and Southern Cameroonian fighters thought would be a walk in the park has turned out to be Sisyphean task. There is no end in sight, especially as both parties are stuck in their positions. The mindset must change, and all Cameroonians have to work and pray to bring about sustainable peace in our country. I have been seeing pictures of Southern Cameroonian fighters killing soldiers and there are also pictures of soldiers killing innocent civilians. It is even alleged that soldiers now arrest civilians just to make a fortune out of them, especially after the ministerial order banning the purchase of machetes without authorization from a senior divisional officer. I do not know how residents of those two regions will be going about life, especially as 80% of them are farmer and machetes are part and parcel of their lives. I believe that there is a better way to do things. Both parties should be open to dialogue so that the local population can go about its business without fear.

Cameroon Concord News: You have written a lot about this conflict, but we are not seeing an improvement. Do you think your writing is having any impact on the parties involved?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thanks for acknowledging my peaceful role in efforts at seeking a lasting solution to the Southern Cameroons conflict. As a writer, my primary role is to make both parties see the mess they are creating in their country. I have always stated that fighting and destruction will not address any issues. I believe in talks and if we can talk, we will spare so many lives. This is not the time to demonstrate that we are tough. History has no respect for people who believe in destroying the lives of others. History has a good place for people who turn to seek solutions and that is why people like Mandela, Koffi Attah Annan, Bishop Desmond Tutu, etc will always be remembered. While they oppose oppression in any form, they hold that oppression, no matter how hard, could be defeated at the negotiating table. Apartheid was defeated at the negotiating table and not in the battlefield. South Sudan gained its independence at the negotiating table and not necessarily in the battlefield. Canada addressed its issues with Quebec at the negotiating table and not on the streets. Southern Cameroonians can learn from Quebecers and the Canadian government. Like Canada, we can have one country, two systems where each linguistic group uses its culture to address its problems. Federalism has never threatened Canadian unity. It has only made Canada the envy of the world. The Yaounde government and Southern Cameroonian fighters should use the Canadian example to bring peace to Cameroon.

Cameroon Concord News: I have always asked you this question and you have always been evasive. When will you return to Cameroon to put your vast experience at the service of your people?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thanks for asking this question. As I have always said, when it comes to human resources, Cameroon has more than enough. I might be experienced, but I hold that my place is in my native Ossing where I can positively impact many lives. I would let others do the politics while I watch them from the sidelines. I could carry out an analysis of their actions and publish for the public to gain a better understanding and maybe draw its conclusion. Spectators could also influence players and I want to be that spectator who holds sway over players through writing. That is my role as a writer, and I love it. Thanks indeed for recognizing that I have the experience that can help others. I will however take it to my native Ossing where I can help the farmers to be better and encourage kids to go to school. I will certainly go back, but that is if the fighting ends.

Cameroon Concord News: Thank you for your time!

28, August 2020

Biya regime is not learning the governance lessons offered by Covid-19 ⁰

One might suppose the coronavirus pandemic has given African leaders an opportunity to rethink their approach to governance. This particularly holds true for Cameroon, which appears to have suffered the brunt of the virus in Central Africa, registering close to half of all 1 025 fatalities in Central Africa as of Monday. By this same date, the country had 18 762 confirmed cases, surpassing its neighbours Chad, Congo, the Central African Republic and Gabon combined.

But with the coronavirus, the more things seem to have changed, the more they seem to have remained the same. Despite the free lessons offered by the pandemic, Cameroonian officials appear not to have learned to build on public trust to better prepare for future crises like the climate crisis, which is slowly grinding, but devastating in its effects.

For any response to a crisis of the magnitude and complexity of the coronavirus to succeed, it will largely depend on the contribution and collaboration of the masses. President Paul Biya, 87, presumably understands this, which is why, when he managed to address his compatriots on the coronavirus for the first time on May 19, he called on them to remain united, supportive and disciplined.

“I, therefore, call on Cameroonians to have trust in public authorities,” Biya said. But Biya himself has not earned the trust he is requiring of citizens; because of that, the country’s citizens have not made “a lot of effort” to fight Covid-19, as he implored them to.

As part of measures to contain the coronavirus in Cameroon, the government made the wearing of face masks in public mandatory; limited gatherings to 50 people; and closed all land, air and sea borders. But the president has, on several occasions, appeared in public without a mask. Other public authorities, such as MPs, have flouted the restriction on gatherings, and the country’s airspace was opened to Air France to run commercial passenger flights from France — a high-risk country at the time.

Such behaviour by public authorities during a pandemic nips public trust in the bud. It means people are less likely to trust the same public officials asking them to make sacrifices by giving up certain rights and privileges for the sake of the nation.

It is, therefore, not surprising to see Cameroonians ignoring the preventive measures put in place by public authorities. Many citizens have become carefree. They no longer put on face masks in public, nor observe the hygiene and physical distancing measures set out by the government. The outcome is that the contagion keeps rising and there are no indications when the curve will flatten. Manaouda Malachie, the minister of public health, recently warned of a second wave of the coronavirus in the country if strong action is not taken.

In future, this lack of public trust is going to frustrate responses to potential crises, should the tide not be reversed. People who mistrust their leaders in ordinary times can’t trust them one bit in extraordinary times.

In addition, the government has not been proactive in shining a light on the management of resources contributed by the public to help fight the coronavirus, putting its transparency in handling the pandemic in question.

In July, some citizens took to social media to question the whereabouts of about 4 000 bags of rice that had been donated in March by Orca, a home goods retail store. It was only then that the minister of public health communicated information about the donation. Yet the minister only shifted the burden of clarification from himself to the 10 regional governors: he said the bags of rice had been dispatched to the regions for further distribution. How or whether the bags of rice got to the intended beneficiaries is still unclear.

The health minister also offered an explanation of how about 21-billion CFA francs ($38-million) of funds designated for the Covid-19 response had been spent only a few days after an opposition MP raised an alarm over suspicions of corruption. Jean-Michel Nintcheu of the Social Democratic Front had expressed concerns that the money — contributed by the public through a national solidarity fund — had been subject to corruption, citing overbilling and conflicts of interests within the public health ministry and among its officials.

Cameroon has a longstanding problem of corruption. It has emerged as the world’s most-corrupt country on two occasions, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. Systematic corruption continues to be a problem. It would have, therefore, been surprising if the coronavirus didn’t come up against the all-pervasive corruption in the country.

The public health minister created a commission to investigate corruption in relation to the Covid-19 response, even though several anti-graft structures already exist in the country. But this doesn’t translate to a serious intent to fight corruption when a lack of transparency in the management of public funds leaves a perception of corruption in the minds of the people.

Giving room to citizens to perceive corruption in the response to a pandemic is exactly how not to handle a crisis. It will certainly affect future handling of crises. It is apparent that there is no one to compel these public officials to be transparent at all stages in their management of the current crisis — and their own consciences don’t appear to be sufficient.

Culled from mg.co.za