School attendance is improving in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions that have been ravaged by separatist violence since 2016, local officials said on Wednesday,

Schools, particularly in rural areas that shut down because of violence, are gradually reopening, according to Adolph Lele Lafrique, governor of the Northwest, one of the troubled regions, without giving further details.

“We are seeing students coming back to school in their numbers, schools are also gradually reopening. The situation is generally improving,” Lafrique told reporters after visiting some schools in the region.

“We want to believe that this year will be a normal year for schools. Security of the children is guaranteed. We are pleased with the number of children coming to school,” said Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of Southwest region.

Separatists enforced a school boycott in the troubled regions since 2016 to protest against what they described as educational injustices against English-speakers.

The four-year school boycott has left more than 800,000 children out of school, according to the UNICEF, also known as the UN Children’s Fund.

Last week, two key separatist leaders, for the first time in four years, called for school reopening in the regions, stressing that school boycott “is no longer a weapon” for the struggle for independence.

In 2017, separatist fighters began clashing with government forces in a bid to establish an independent nation they call “Ambazonia” in the two Anglophone regions of largely French-speaking Cameroon.

The new school year in Cameroon started on Monday.

Source: Xinhaunet

Attack and vandalism on Government School (GS) Kooh, Wum, Mechum County by French Cameroun army soldiers

It has been brought to the attention of the Ambazonia Interim Government that soldiers loyal to the French Cameroun regime in civilian fatigues reportedly attacked and vandalised Government School (GS) Kooh, Wum in Mechum County on the 07/10/200 to blackmail our Southern Cameroons Restoration forces.

The Ambazonia Interim Government condemn these acts of barbarism on our people in the strongest terms possible and call on our people to continue to be vigilant and stay safe.

Our position on school resumption has not changed. As a government, we value the rights to life and we have publicly observed that only parents can determine if the conditions are conducive for Southern Cameroons children to return to school. The Southern Cameroons Interim Government wants children to study in a calm and peaceful environment. Correspondingly, where it is unsafe to resume, we advise parents to let their children to stay at home. We will continue to support community schools in areas where there is peace.

It is vital that all Ambazonians at this point should ignore mentors of internal division and rancour amongst an embattled people. Every Southern Cameroonian in Ground Zero should watch out for a repeat of such acts of vandalism by La Republique du Cameroun military in other areas of our homeland. Ambazonians are advised and encouraged not to be distracted. Our citizens are more civilized and humane than the ruling French Cameroun CPDM crime syndicate and their military.

At this stage of emerging response to our consistently declared disposition for a peaceful and just solution to the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun” conflict, we need to focus our physical, intellectual and spiritual energies towards the following urgent tasks: –

1. Lobbying with the International community to force the invading French Cameroun forces to withdraw immediately from the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia territory.
2. Release all Ambazonia leaders and Southern Cameroons Prisoners of Conscience in various detention centres in La Republique du Cameroun.
3. An independent International fact-finding mission to be brought in to assess the human and material damage that the Biya French Cameroun war has caused.

These are confidence building measures of goodwill which will herald the finding of a lasting solution to the conflict and will definitely achieve a negotiated settlement that will provide Southern Cameroonian children their desired curriculum and not any imposed on the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Dabney Yerima

Vice President Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Primary and secondary schools in French Cameroun reopened on Monday after close to seven months of suspension amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The country’s Minister of Secondary Education, Pauline Nalova Lyonga officially launched the new school year in Mbalmayo, a town on the outskirts of the capital Yaounde.

Officials said classes commenced with every learner in class and teachers wearing face masks and maintaining social distance.

“I am pleased that teachers and students are respecting the anti-COVID 19 measures. We ask them to be more cautious because the virus is still there,” Lyonga said.

Universities will resume next week, according to officials.

French and Southern Cameroons have so far recorded more than 20,000 coronavirus cases. COVID-19 prevalence in the country is generally decreasing with a recovery rate of over 94 percent, according to the Ministry of Public Health.

Source: Xinhaunet with additional editing from Camcordnews

Dear Rwanda,

I will always remember you. A small but beautiful and amazing country nestled in the bosom of Mother Africa like a well-loved child.

I will always remember the five years I spent with you, enjoying your cool climate, lush green lands, serene lakes, and majestic mountains.

I will remember your leaders for the vision, principles, values, and integrity that characterized the management of this land. While I lived here, I saw leaders more focused on the needs of their people than on their own.

I will always remember the outstanding Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Director-Generals and government staff that I worked with, and the way they embraced me as a partner in their nation’s development. I will always remember the great work we did together, the strength of the partnership we forged, and their warmth and friendship.

I will always remember your murakoze cyane and muraho neza, and the Rwandan smile that always accompanied these words, making me feel like a brother among family, rather than a stranger in a foreign land.

I will always remember the way your leaders and your people shook my hand and then held on to it – at first, this was strange to me, an outsider, but then I understood that it was a sign of friendship and brotherhood.

I will always remember my team – fine, outstanding Rwandans who believed in their country and its leaders, and the expatriate staff who came and made Rwanda not just a home but a mission. It was an honour to serve alongside these wonderful women and men.

I will always remember the development partners I collaborated with – some exceptional Ambassadors, Heads of Cooperation and their staff, the wonderful UN Resident Coordinator and Heads of UN Agency with whom I had the honour to serve and many of whom I have the privilege to call friends.

I will remember all the partners, both those who believed in Rwanda and those who didn’t, because, like you, I always knew that what was truly important was that you believed in yourselves.

I will always remember the days I spent by the shores of your lakes, basking in the glory of God’s creation.

I will remember seeing the mountain gorillas, our close relatives, living under the protection of not just God, but a government that believes in their preservation. And what a sight it was to behold these rare and regal creatures!

I will remember the delightful grilled tilapia and the heavenly mizuzu which reminded me of home. I will remember the sambaza, deeply fried with a touch of lemon and Akabanga chili. I will remember going night fishing on Lake Kivu, with the fishermen who caught these tiny specks of delight and sang songs that their ancestors sang to the star-filled nights.

I will remember everything that we did together, with the aim of building this great country. In some areas we may not have achieved all that we hoped for, but in so many other areas we made huge progress, our sleeves rolled up, working side by side, giving encouragement and feedback to each other, always with the past at our back and the sun shining towards the future.

Among other things, I will remember how we strengthened the media and civil society, championed the cause of the disabled, promoted gender equality, protected the environment, fostered unity and reconciliation, facilitated young entrepreneurs and innovators, tackled Covid19, and worked to build one country for everyone. I will remember the Drones and the Robots, and so many other innovations

In Jamaican patios we’d say Rwanda’s ambition “cyan dun”, meaning your ambition is endless. But you not only dream big, you act and you implement your vision.

I will remember you Rwanda, because I was blessed to have been here, to join you in your remarkable journey of transformation.

Who could have known that the country the world ignored, would one day become a lighthouse showing the way for others to follow. The stone that the builder rejected, has indeed become a cornerstone for the development of this continent.

I will always remember you Rwanda.

And I hope that you will always remember me, as a friend. I hope that you will always know that wherever in the world I may be, if there is anything at all I can do to help, I will. I will always be a friendly ear that still listens, and a warm heart that still cares.

I will remember you Rwanda, for all the days of my life. I will always remember you, with love

Source: Newtimesrwanda.com

The University of Yaounde II, Soa, announced on Tuesday, 8 September 2020, the passing to eternity of renowned sociologist Prof. Michaël Aletum Tabuwe. He died on Monday 7 September 2020 in Washington DC in the United States.

According to the head of Communication of the Ministry of Higher Education, Jean Paul Mbia, Prof. Aletum (86) was admitted to a private hospital in Washington DC a few days ago.

Prof. Aletum was one of the pillars of the Political Science Department of the University of Yaoundé II, where he lectured for almost 40 years.

By Rita Akana with files from CIN

The state owned University of Bamenda (UBa) which has suffered from poor management since its creation has dashed the hopes of the proud people of the North West Region. The VC Prof. Theresia Akenji has absconded from her responsibilities. Reports reaching our newsroom indicate she has taken refuge in the United States of America.

Since Prof. Akenji went to the US to bury her father who died in the there, she has failed to return, claiming she’s been blocked by the lock down restrictions under the covid 19. Our sources indicate the real reason for her flight is the corruption charges being prepared against her and some members of her team. Reports indicate she got wind of her file on corruption which has gone through CONAC, Supreme State Control and now TCS. Her arrest and dispossession of her passport is imminent, for unaccountability and misappropriation of almost 5 billion francs. “UBa is now on massive panic and corrupt officials are busy cleaning financial files, while the bold ones are still doing shady contracts with corrupt contractors,” a close source has indicated.

The stress on the university has increased following the death of the registrar Prof. Victor Banlilon Tani, a protegé of the VC with whom she’s reported to have connived to swindle billions of francs from the university. The poor management of UBa has destroyed teaching, learning and research at the university. No physical face to face lectures have taken place at UBa for almost 2 years now. The University of Bamenda is reported to be proud of teaching and examining students online using barely whatsapp for the past 3 years. How effective this can be is an answer for the gods of Menchum.

Unimpeachable sources report that lecturers at UBa are at daggers drawn, threatening to kill each other, setting each other up with the Ambazonia separatists’. Lecturers are reported of siding with separatists to make the Nkwen, Bambui, Bambili road a death trap for professors and students who are now working from home for the past 2 years.

Even the death of Prof. Victor Banlilon, the mastermind of revenge and corruption was poorly attended at the mortuary and at his up-station residence as his colleagues spent energy hiding from being identified by enemy camps and Amba separatists’. According to an expert on Education Quality and Assessment, if urgent actions are not taken by the government of Cameroon, the most cherished UBa shall collapse.

The campus which is dirty with bush and mud seems clearly abandoned. Other administrators of the university are quietly consuming the university’s budgeted subvention without effectively teaching and training students.

Culled from Cameroon Chronicle Newspaper

Cameroonian students studying in Morocco on government grants have been demonstrating, saying they have been “abandoned for years” because the government has stopped paying their rentals and other expenses it should cover.

The students set up camp outside the Cameroonian embassy in Rabat, reported Camer.be, which quoted sources from the union of Cameroon students (UGEC) that said the students were ‘angry’.

Stephane N, a protesting student, told Camer.be that students were having to “sleep out in the open because the Cameroon government, which should have been paying their rent and other expenses relevant to their grants since 16 August 2018”, had stopped responding to their demands.

“Not being able to pay the grant-holders’ expenses under the Cameroon-Moroccan cooperation agreement, the Moroccan authorities found themselves having to throw us out into the street,” he told Camer.be.

Maxime Petnga, a Cameroon student in Oujda, said: “On average, we need 1,800,000 francs [US$3,160] a year, that’s 150,000 francs a month, to live decently. For former grant-holders Morocco paid its share each end of the month but, on the Cameroon side, there’s nothing,” reported Camer.be.

Camer.be reported that the problem for Cameroonian students on government grants abroad was becoming increasingly common, for example in China, Russia and Italy.

Camer.be said that nobody at the Cameroonian embassy in Rabat would comment on the situation. – Compiled by Jane Marshall.

Culled from  University World News

Kenya has reported a sudden surge in teen pregnancies in one single county over a period of five months thus threatening to cut short the pursuit for education among school-going girls.

Machakos county, located in the north eastern province in Kenya is leading several other counties in terms of teenage pregnancies in Kenya according to Kenya Health Information System survey

The data shows that a total of 3,964 girls aged 19 years and below were reported pregnant within that period.

Machakos County Children Officer Salome Muthama said the reported pregnancy cases among school girls are a much less than the actual numbers.

“During this coronavirus pandemic we do have 4000 impregnated girls. These are so many innocent girls,” she said.

She further reiterated that most of the cases were as a result of defilement by close family members

She adds that about 200 of these girls are aged 14 years and below.

“How can a 12 year old girl become a mother?” she posed.

“All the people who have impregnated these children needs be arraigned but it is becoming a challenge. We need special court sittings to address and deal with these cases,” Salome appealed.

She further blamed both the parents and the ineffective justice system for the prevailing crisis.

“Most of these cases you will find involve children who were taken from urban centres in the wake of Covid-19 and left in the hands of their grandmothers in the countryside as the parents returned to the towns,” Ms Muthama told reporters in Machakos Town.

Source: Africa News

Since late 2016, the Republic of Cameroon has been going through a devastating armed conflict that has worsened what was already a fledgling economy.  Historically, this civil strife can be traced to constitutional crisis in the governance process of the entire nation (Konings & Nyamnjoh1997). The blatant disregard for the culture, traditions and customs of the Anglophones were fundamental threats to the rule of law that heightened tensions leading to the current socio-political impasse.  A Transparency International report identified Cameroon’s judiciary system as the most corrupt in Africa. In the larger study of seven countries within the continent, one out of five persons interviewed admitted they had offered gifts to judges or related judicial matters. In Cameroon 80% of those interviewed perceived the judicial system is rather very corrupt (Koschel,2007). 

Moreover, the dictatorship style of leadership and the unchecked power of the executive branch of government that undermines major cooperation and inclusion of the various regions have been counterproductive economically. According to Douglas North, social and legal norms and rules are foundations for the basis of institutions that underlie economic activities (North,1990). 

This memo seeks to examine how institutional change can revive Cameroon’s economy. Institutional economics is defined as a study in economic history which focuses on the costs of human coordination and cooperation through time, which is essential in bringing about change in the society (North,1990). We will achieve this objective by looking at some principles of governance that can positively influence economic activities for growth and development. Among other things, this memo will consider the rule of law and economic growth, abuse of power, and social cohesion as essential elements in economic activities.

What is at stake?

 In consideration of the fact that effective institutions promote economic growth by reducing transaction costs of operating in the economy, whereas ineffective institutions dis-incentivize market participants and lead to economic decline (North, 1990), how can Cameroon revive its institutions in order to foster economic growth?

Evaluation of Findings and Conclusions

 The rule of law is essential for the regulation of markets, property rights, checks and balances of the executive branch of government, all of which are foundational to economic growth. In this regard, North indicates that formal constraints such as laws and a constitution are necessary in the harmonious functioning of every institution. In addition to these formal constraints, culture and ideologies make up informal constraints of the institutions. The absence of the rule of law often leads to anarchy and this is true of most countries that are going through civil wars. It has been established that civil war tends to reduce growth by around 2.3% per year; with civil wars (in his dataset) averaging seven years in duration, the typical war leaves a country 15% poorer than it otherwise would have been (Collier, 2005).

Collier’s findings further buttress the position that the ongoing civil war in Cameroon has led the nation to financially disastrous condition.  In fact, “many countries in Africa without any system of good governance in place show an association between conflicts and poor law enforcement in protecting the natural resource base and in observing human rights” (as cited in Yiew et al., 2016. Pg. 3744).

According to a UN report, corruption, illicit trade and money laundering contribute to State weakness, impede economic growth and undermine democracy. These activities eventually create a permissive environment for civil conflict.” (UN Report,2004).

The absence of the rule of law has far reaching effects on the efficiency and effectiveness of institutions. Lessig (2013) explains that “institutional corruption is manifest when there is a systemic and strategic influence that undermines the institution’s effectiveness by weakening its ability to achieve its purpose, including to the extent relevant to its purpose, weakening either the public’s trust in that institution or the institution’s inherent trustworthiness.”(Lessig, 2013 p. 553).

The downward slope regarding the rule of law is closely related to abuse of power.  Prior to the ongoing conflict in Anglophone Cameroon, even to this day, the executive branch has abused power with impunity. Throughout our nation’s history, presidents have targeted their political opponents as we see it unfold in the ongoing conflict (Tumi, 2006). This is detrimental to the nation’s economy because abuse of power is a guaranteed source of dissension and frustration; some of the ruling elites must be aware of impending political instability from a culmination of these negative feelings (North, 1990).

Moreover, political scientists and legal scholars attest that institutional checks on executive discretion, including through independent judiciaries, are integral to the very concept of the rule of law. Such checks and balances are economically important because of the classic time-inconsistency problem (Kydland & Prescott, 1977). In the same vein, Haggard & Tiede maintain that “the rule of law, property rights, and contract enforcement cannot be credible unless there are effective limits on executive discretion” (Haggard & Tiede, 2011. p.674).

In consideration of the heavy toll of corruption in Cameroon, evident not only in the judiciary, but in the widespread of bribery in contracts, taxation of imports, and the embezzlement of state funds, the economy cannot thrive because: “A predatory government acting on its self-interest is prone to squander the wealth of the country and exploit the business community through unjust taxes and misappropriation of resources and profits. In the long run, these self-preservation strategies can eventually lead the ruling dynasty to its destruction.” (North, 1997, p. 154). The World Governance Indicators, specifically the indicator on control of corruption, placed Cameroon in the lowest 10 percentile, while also ranking it low (25 percentile or lower) for the remaining indicators (Broadman & Recanatini, 2001).

 On the other hand, social cohesion and the prevalence of justice provide a favorable environment for businesses and investors. The inevitable result is security of life and property which in turn encourages integrity, hard work, entrepreneurship and technological progress, while its absence defeats economic motivation. In line with institutional economics, transaction costs of doing business escalates with the prevalence of injustices. And, in the end, more complex contracts and the alliance between business and politics become the norm, causing the economy to suffer (Khalid, 2015). Khalid further argues that the “crowding out” of investments is bound to emerge and tax collections will decline as enterprises reassess their risks and returns from operating in that economy (Khalid, 2015).

In reality, social cohesion does not only attract investors, but it equally provides a flourishing socio-political environment that boosts both investors’ and consumers’ confidence. It is within such environments that institutions and markets thrive. As Khalid (2015) points out, social cohesion and institutional efficiency consistently have an equal and important effect as does resources endowment in bringing about economic development and higher civilization.  

Recommendations

In order to restore some credibility to institutions, there is urgent need to revisit the training of administrators and legal experts. It is well known that admissions into the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM) is fraught with political machinations, and for this reason, the performance of the graduates who run most of our institutions is mediocre.  In this regard, Lasswell & McDougal (1943) insist on the vital role of training those who provide legal service in a democratic society because of the enormous influence on attitudes toward the law.  

Transparency and accountability are foundational to economic activities. How can a nation regain the trust and confidence of its people who are distraught due to a lack of transparency and accountability? For years Cameroonians have been constantly disgruntled with parliamentarians and other community representatives who singlehandedly execute projects after having embezzled substantial sums of money. This lack of accountability and transparency hampers cooperation and coordination, both of which are essential in the chain of production and the wellbeing of all.  

In conclusion, having been endowed with rich human and natural resources like other African countries, such as Rwanda, that have walked down the path of civil war, Cameroon has a potential for an economic future. However, our country cannot realize its full potential if the ruling government does not chart a new path marked by patriotism, the rule of law, and the common good. Such an aspiration can only succeed to the extent that government officials learn from history and rise beyond the inordinate desire for personal aggrandizement. It is important, in this regard, for all branches of government to be in sync with unwavering determination to implement changes that are most needed to restore the ethics and nobility of our nation’s institutions.  There is no better way than relying on the tested and proved findings that have been clearly outlined in this memo.    

Culled from Pan African visions