11, March 2018
Former US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa says Cameroon must return to federal system abolished under Ahidjo 0
As the security and social crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone region rages, a former United States ambassador is advocating a return to federalism as the only viable solution. Herman Cohen, a former assistant Secretary of State for Africa says the government must go back for the original federal system that was in his view ‘illegally abolished’ during the tenure of the country’s first president Ahmadou Ahidjo.
Ahidjo the country’s first president governed with a federal system for the first twelve years of his presidency. But in 1972, the federal system was abolished for a United Republic of Cameroon directed from Yaounde. There has been a resurgence in the push by southern Cameroonians to secede from French-dominant Cameroon. A similar agitation started in the late 1990s. The recent one (October 2017 till date) started as peaceful protests against marginalization till the government cracked down on protesters.
It has now taken a violent turn as separatists elements have staged guerilla style attacks on security forces killing over twenty of them. The two Anglophone regions (North West and South West) have also been under curfew for the last few months.
Ahidjo stepped down as president in 1982 and Paul Biya took over the reigns. The current governance structure concentrates power in the presidency despite two chambers of the legislature – the 180-member National Assembly and the 100-member Senate.
The President is elected for a seven-year mandate. The presidency creates policy, administers government agencies, commands the armed forces, negotiates and ratifies treaties, and declares a state of emergency if need be.
The president appoints government officials at all levels, from the prime minister (considered the official head of government), to the provincial governors and divisional officers. President Biya is sure to run in polls scheduled for later this year.
Source: Africa News
11, March 2018
US Secretary of State cancels Saturday activities in Kenya due to low health 0
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is on a mini tour of Africa cancelled his Saturday program in Nairobi because he is “not feeling well.” He is will resume his normal visit on Sunday, the U.S. delegation announced.
“The secretary does not feel well after two long days of working on important issues like North Korea and he cancelled his events of the day,” said Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein.
Tillerson was scheduled to attend an event as part of PEPFAR, the U.S. program to help AIDS patients in Africa.
He was also to take part in a 20th anniversary ceremony of the attacks on U. S. embassies in Kenya’s capital city and Dar es Salaam, the economic capital of Tanzania, which killed 224 people and injured more than 5,000 on 7 August 1998.
In the middle of the afternoon, Steve Goldstein said that “the secretary feels better and will resume his normal program on Sunday.
Mr. Tillerson arrived in Ethiopia on Wednesday. He visited Djibouti on Friday morning and arrived in Kenya late in the afternoon. He is scheduled to go to Chad on Monday and to Nigeria on Tuesday.
*AFP*