Grégoire Diboule Affair:

Would Fru Ndi Suffer Fate Of Fon Doh Gwanyin?

By Chief Bisong Etahoben in Yaounde

The Social Democratic Front (SDF) and its leadership seems to have fallen headlong into a trap it helped the CPDM prepare for it over the years. As the case against twenty-four SDF militants led by their National Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi continued in the Mfoundi High Court Monday October 13, 2008, many are those Cameroonians who have been asking themselves whether the SDF chieftain is not headed the way of former CPDM parliamentarian and traditional ruler of Balikumbat, Fon Doh Gwanyin who was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment for a crime committed when he was far away from the crime scene.

He was tried and sentenced to jail for being the prime mover behind the death of an SDF militant, one Mfonteh. When the case was being tried, SDF militants staged demonstrations calling for the head of Fon Doh and put so much pressure on government that Fon Doh Gwanyin was arrested, stripped of his parliamentary immunity, tried and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.

By bowing to the pressure of SDF militants, government in some way, demonstrated that there is some rule of law in Cameroon. And SDF militants who wanted the fon’s head got it in a platter of gold. There was hardly any cry afterwards that Fon Doh Gwanyin was a victim of political machinations.

This time around, the National Chairman of the SDF Ni John Fru Ndi is being tried in connection with the murder of a militant of the then Ben Muna faction of the SDF, in the person of Grégoire Diboule. The said militant was beaten to death on May 26, 2006 around the Yaounde SDF secretariat in the Olezoa neighbourhood by armed individuals allegedly despatched from Bamenda with instructions to disrupt a Muna faction SDF congress that was due to hold in Yaounde on the same day a Fru Ndi faction SDF congress was holding in Bamenda.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Fru Ndi was not in Yaounde on the day Diboule was killed and so he could not have taken part in the murder. He is being tried for having allegedly master-minded the murder by arming and despatching the hoodlums who murdered Diboule from Bamenda to Yaounde.

Being the leader of the main opposition party in Cameroon, Fru Ndi’s trial under normal circumstances could easily be passed for some political vendetta by the ruling party against a vexing political adversary. This is what the SDF has been trying to make the trial look like.

Unfortunately however, because of that party’s utterances and actions during the Fon Doh Gwanyin trial, they have put water into their own wine as concerns the trial of their leader, which is being held under the same circumstances as that of Fon Doh Gwanyin.

The tendency here would be that should Fru Ndi end up being found guilty (we hope not) and sent to prison like happened to Fon Doh Gwanyin, any SDF attempt to make it look like political persecution would sound so hollow. Even the international community would find it hard to take any such accusations coming from the SDF serious because the CPDM would be quick to point out that its government had convicted one of theirs under the same circumstances and nobody raised a finger.

Some philosophers of old coined an adage that “Look before you leap”. Had the SDF leadership been foresighted enough, it would have anticipated the possibility of a Fon Gwanyin-type situation befalling one of theirs, as it has today, and tempered their utterances with wisdom. They did not do so and today, they might just be reaping the fruits of their own thoughtlessness.

Eto’o Duped Of 100 Million FCFA

By A Special Correspondent in Kribi

Cameroon’s international soccer star and goal-getter Eto’o Fils Samuel has dragged the people of Ebome, a village in Kribi, Ocean Division in the South province of Cameroon to court for dishonestly selling to him a piece of land, which as he has now discovered, belongs to government. The piece of land measuring about 72,914 square metres was being offered to Eto’o for 212.562.000 FCFA and the footballer had already advanced one hundred million (100.000.000) FCFA before he discovered that he was dealing with fraudsters.

According to the lawyer for Eto’o Barrister Gabriel Parfait Kaldjob, the soccer star is suing the families of Ngouondinjili Mawoung, Ngouondinjili Bemiyili, Messrs Mawoung Gaston, Mzambi Richard and Bemiyili Jerome as well as Lawyer Bemma Mandengue Din Marie Térence for being the prime movers behind the rip-off.

Close sources to Eto’o say he intended to use the land for infrastructures of the Samuel Eto’o Fils Foundation but even before work could start on the land, the Minister of State Property and Land Tenure, Mr. Pascal Anong Adibime who got wind of the transaction personally went to Kribi to see Eto’o and inform him that the land belonged to government.

Official sources in the Ministry of State Property and Land tenure told the WEEKLY POST that when Minister Adibime met with Eto’o, he proposed to him another piece of land elsewhere but it would appear the footballer did not like the location of the alternative land proposed to him.

But a spokesman for the families and population that sold the said land to Eto’o holds that the land belongs to them adding that their ancestors had settled on the land for over a century and they cannot remember when government formally asked for the land to be ceded to it neither has government ever compensated any of the land owners.

They continue to hold that they were still expecting Eto’o to complete the money owed them, i.e. 112.000.000 FCFA, when they were served a summons to appear in court.

“We are prepared to die for the land that belonged to our ancestors. The Minister of State Property and Land Tenure is personally involved in the mafia that now wants to dispossess us of our land and we are not going to take things lying down. The minister came to Kribi and did not even care to visit the site of the said land. He remained in his air-conditioned office and had the guts to say that this land, which our ancestors had been farming on long before we were born belongs to the state. This is not true. Before seizing the land from us, they would first of all kill all of us. We are ready for that”, a spokesman for the natives, Jérôme Bemiyili  who was one of the three signatories of the sale agreement between Eto’o and the natives told the press.

The population says they are mobilising to massively attend the court session of October 16, 2008 when the case is scheduled to come up.

Retired Colonel Says Tribalism And Corruption Are Responsible For Intertia Within The Military

By Our Military Staff Correspondent in Yaounde

A retired senior military officer, Colonel Réné Bikok has said the indiscipline that currently reigns within the ranks of the military in Cameroon is as a result of tribalism, corruption and nepotism. The retired military man who made these allegations during a phone-in programme “Zapresse” on Radio Tiemeni Siantou (RTS), a local FM station in Yaounde Monday September 6, 2008 revealed that recruitment into the military is not based on merit as politicians intervene to get even ex-convicts to be recruited into the military.

Shortly after the broadcast of Colonel Bikok’s declarations, security forces from the military intelligence unit of the Military Headquarters in Yaounde Monday raided the studios of Magic FM, another private radio station in Yaounde and harassed workers and guests invited to participate in an interactive programme ostensibly in a bid to arrest the retired army captain whom they alleged had made tendentious statements on the military in Cameroon over the radio station. But, alas, as many things involving the military in Cameroon these days, it turned out that the men in fatigues had misidentified the radio station they were after. In fact, the radio station that broadcast the declarations of retired Colonel Réné Bikok was Radio Tiemeni Siantou (RST) and not Magic FM.

For over one hour, the more than fifteen military men who came in a military pick-up and motorcycles intimidated, harassed and threatened the journalists and invitees to the Magic FM phone-in programme “Température” as inhabitants of the neighbourhood watched aghast thinking the radio station was the object of another lock-up as happened after the February hunger riots when the station was accused of fanning the riots and locked up for several months.

As it eventually turned out, the military had misidentified the radio station and programme involved and had it been a punitive search-and-kill operation, innocent people should have been killed for nothing. The phone-in programme involved was “Zapresse” aired by RTS from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the same time as the “Température” programme on Magic FM and the military did not take their time to fully investigate and know the actual radio station involved before descending on innocent individuals at Magic FM.

What did the said retired Colonel Réné Bikok say over RTS that so angered the military? Retired Colonel Bikok was one of other invitees who took part in the interactive programme. The others were Prof. Mathias Eric Owona Nguini, Simon Meyenga, Issa Mamoudou and Junior Binyam who had been invited to the programme to give their opinions on the several accusations currently being made against the military especially after the Limbe banks invasion during which over two hundred million FCFA was carried away by individuals who launched a military-style raid on four banks in that OPEC city in the night of September 27-28, 2008.

The bandits, it would be recalled, conducted the Limbe operation for about four hours and went away undisturbed by our military though there are several military detachments around Limbe which could have intervened to stop the bandits.

What annoyed the Limbe population most later was the declaration by the Minister of Armed Forces Réné Ze Meka that he knew of the impending operation – and did nothing to put in place the necessary disposition to repel the attackers.

Giving his opinion on the Cameroon military, the retired Colonel who now does farming in his village of Pouma and also consults on the prevention and management of crises in West and Central Africa, said the military is being unjustly accused of inaction.

He declared: “Cameroon opted for a policy of popular defence. This is to say that defence is so serious that it cannot be left in the hands of the military alone”.

As concerns the Limbe operation, retired Colonel Bikok said people have said that the invaders came by sea and from out of the country adding that “naval operations are very complex. All indications point to the fact that this operation was prepared here several days before the actual operation”. He said the stolen money from the banks might have been carried away by sea but it was certainly not a military operation.

On the climate that reigns within the Cameroon military, retired Colonel Bikok recognised the fact that tribalism, corruption and inertia were very rampant within the military enumerating some of the problems that militate against the prompt deployment of the military, top amongst which is indiscipline. Also contributing to this inertia is the manner in which recruitments into the military are carried out.

Retired Colonel Bikok revealed that military recruitments are not done on merit as politicians intervene to get their people recruited into the army without passing through the normal morality tests and other relevant pre-requisites. In this way, rogues and persons of doubtful characters, including ex-convicts get recruited into the army and end up by their ways ruining the reputation of the military. Another disturbing aspect, the retired captain revealed, is the lack of equipment and follow-up training.

The former military officer said the morality of the military is low because of the less than normal living and working conditions of the military citing the lack of proper housing such as barracks and the absence of adequate health facilities for the military.

Finally, retired Colonel Bikok spoke of the aloof way in which the military hierarchy treats their troops. He said the military commanders are not close to the rank and file and promotion is done without respecting the norms in force.

“When you take a newly-recruited individual and promote him to a higher rank over the heads of his colleagues or senior persons without passing through laid down due process, this is bound to destroy moral within the ranks of his colleagues” retired Colonel Bikok opined.

As so whether he whom the military security persons were actually searching for had been got at by his former colleagues, Colonel Bikok said he had not been disturbed since the radio programme.

“I take responsibility for all what I said and it is with a light heart that I would go to prison if it comes to that … what I said is known by the military hierarchy”.

Housewife Accuses Manyu Police Commissioner Of Being Responsible For Death Of Husband

By A Special Correspondent in Garoua

The wife of a police officer who died in the Jamot Hospital Yaounde October 2, 2008 has accused a Police Commissioner of Manyu origin in the Southwest province of being responsible for the death of her husband. Mrs. Anne Marie Oumarou, wife of Officier de Police Oumarou Sanda holds that her husband contracted the lung disease that finally killed him whilst following dossiers in Yaounde. She says her husband was infected in Yaounde because he frequented and slept in unclean environments because he did not have money to properly lodge himself whilst in Yaounde.

According to Mrs. Anne Marie Oumarou, her late husband, a father of four had spent the last three years in Yaounde following his terminal benefits after being dismissed from the police force for habitual absenteeism. During the time he was in Yaounde, he left behind his wife and children in Garoua, his last place of service before he was dismissed.

Mrs. Anne Marie Oumarou says accusations of absenteeism levelled against her husband, which led to his being axed from the national security services were false and were the handiwork of Commissioner William Tabogo, whom she accused of having been biased against her husband.

The distraught housewife told the press and all those willing to listen to her that the first time her husband had an absenteeism problem at work was when he took five-days permission to go to Yaounde and follow his dossiers but on getting to Yaounde, the process was so slow that he ended up spending about twenty days away from service.

He was first accused of having abandoned his place of duty from November 8, 2001 to January 2, 2002 and after disciplinary action and a warning, he was posted to Bibemi in 2003 where his new bosses there also levelled the same accusation of absenteeism against him. He was finally sacked from the police force on February 28, 2006.

But Oumarou’s wife holds that Commissioner William Tabogo of Manyu origin in the Southwest province was responsible for all her husband’s woes, which finally led to his death. She accuses the police commissioner of having written to the bosses of her husband in all the stations to which he was posted warning them that her husband was a perpetual absentee and so an extra eye was put on her husband, which eventually led to his being dismissed.

“With no work and no money to stay in Yaounde and follow his forceful retirement benefits, my husband was forced to sleep in very unhealthy environments which led to his being infected by the lung disease that finally took away his life”, Mrs. Oumarou insisted.

“My husband died because of the hatred of certain persons who did not want to see him in their midst”, she says.

She declared: “Tabogo William is one of those who put my husband in difficulty. Before working in Garoua, my husband had never had any problems with his bosses but from when he arrived Garoua, all his problems started.”

Mrs. Oumarou accuses Commissioner Tabogo William of having developed hatred for her husband because he refused to obey Tabogo whenever he sent her husband to go and be hassling motorcycle riders for money to bring back to him. This refusal, she holds, was the main reason behind the open conflict between her husband and Commissioner Tabogo William.

The WEEKLY POST could not get Commissioner Tabogo for his own side of the story and is hereby calling on him to contact this newspaper with his own side of the story against the allegations made against him by Mrs. Anne Marie Oumarou.

Did Magistrate Receive Bribe In Order To Release Chief Who Masterminded Cow Theft?

By Tchwuijang Samen Appolene in Yaounde with Bureau Reports

Ngaoundere police have been called in to re-investigate the case of cow theft involving the chief of Nyambaka village about 85 kilometres from Ngaoundere after the chief was initially arrested but was ordered released by an investigating magistrate whose only name our Correspondent got as Oumarou.

Judicial sources in Ngaoundere told this Reporter that sometimes in August this year, one Alhadji Hassan, a cattle rearer in Mayo Nangué reported the theft of eleven of his cows. Investigations later led to the arrest of four individuals namely Issa Sanda, Amadou Abbo Rabiou and Abakar Sanda, all butchers in Nyambaka as well as Daouda Bouldouga the cattle herd.

Upon serious interrogation, the four revealed that they stole the cows on instructions from Chief Haman Yaro. The said chief was arrested and detained by the police and after investigations, the case file was transferred to the State Counsel. However, to the surprise of all those involved in the case, the Investigating Magistrate Oumarou ordered the release of Chief Haman Yero and turned over the case file to the gendarmerie to open a new investigation into the matter.

After several weeks of waiting for the results of the investigation without success, Alhadji Hassan lodged another complaint with the President of the Ngaoundere High Court who ordered another investigation.

In between the various investigations, two other individuals were arrested on suspicion of the cattle theft and they too revealed that they stole the cattle on orders from Chief Haman Yaro. They further revealed that three of the eleven stolen cows were sold on orders from Chief Yaro for a total sum of 450.000 FCFA. They revealed that of this amount, Chief Yaro gave each of them 100.000 FCFA and kept 150.000 FCFA for himself. Issa Sanda and Amadou Abbo who bought the three cows were among those who were arrested.

After the new complaint by the cattle owner, the Ngaoundere High Court judge ordered the re-arrest of Chief Haman Yaro and two of his accomplices for theft. Chief Yaro and one of the accomplices are now being held in the Ngaoundere Central Police Station while one of the accomplices is said to have gone on pilgrimage to Mecca.

Our sources revealed that Chief Yaro tried to escape arrest by hiding in the house of a renowned parliamentarian who is said to be his godfather.

As we went to press, it was reported that one of the arrested suspects has posted bail in the sum of 500.000 FCFA while some senior militants of the ruling CPDM led by the Lamido of Ngaoundere had led a delegation to Alhadji Hassan to plead with him to withdraw the complaints against Chief Yaro to enable his being released.

Besides this intrusion of politics into the chief’s arrest, there have been rumours that a lot of money has been changing hands since the case was first reported to law enforcement authorities.

We would bring you more on the matter as the facts unfold.

Former Ambassador Jerome Mendouga - The Dog That Must Return To Its Vomit

By Avitus Agbor in The U.S

Former Cameroonian Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Jerome Mendouga, made a petition for political asylum in the United States recently. That petition, based on its demerits, was declared ‘dead on arrival’ by the United States Immigration Services, a division of the United States’ Department of Homeland Security. His previous official position as plenipotentiary of the Government of Cameroon to the United States; a priceless actor in the political affairs of Cameroon on the international terrain; a member of a ‘state gang’ that has perpetrated gruesome atrocities against its people; a disciple of the disastrous socio-economic and political policies of the CPDM regime, and currently a person of interest in the investigation of the Albatros affair; no wiser decision could have been reached by the asylum officer than denying the petition.

H.E. Jerome Mendouga resided in the United States, one of the countries in which the number of petitions for asylum (political) by Cameroonians is skyrocketing. As a seasoned diplomat who was misled to believe in the perpetuity of his tenure, he insulated himself from the contextual realities; with regards to the bases upon which such petitions are made, and secondly, who, in practical terms, deserves protection in the United States. Having perused the cap that articulates the eligibility for asylum, he must have been lured to think that not being a permanent resident or citizen of the United States, he would obviously be eligible to make such a petition. However, eligibility to petition for asylum does not necessarily mean approval of that petition.

Had he reflected much on the contextual framework within which asylum petitions are made; he would have understood that different routes could take him to the destination (approval) without electing the option of political beliefs or affiliations. An apostle of a government that has no regard for bono mores, an incarnation of deceit, manipulation and segregation, he could have taken the extra mile to spin his individual circumstances to give some credibility to his claim. To rely on social grouping could have been a viable option. That could have been wiser and better, considering the fact that Cameroon’s persecution of homosexuals has earned the contempt and dismay of the international community. Governors in the United States have openly denounced their families as they change their sexual orientation. Not suggesting what may amount to a conspiracy, he could have engaged in a surreptitious transaction with his family, openly changed his sexual orientation to gay or bisexual, and made his claim. Could he have predicated a case on the UN Convention against torture? Apparently, that is not a remote possibility. However, he was once a distinguished official in a government that is a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Torture, but is in constant violation of its international obligations as torture (and cruel and degrading treatment and punishment) remain meted to Cameroonians. He who seeks equity must do equity. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. How clean are his hands if he has to count on protection based on the UN Convention against Torture? Not being streetwise, he could not devise any way to bend the law without breaking it.

To have been appointed an ambassador to the United States, performed the duties articulated in his job description, condoned and endorsed the gruesome political violence and atrocities of a regime he represented, defended a system that is indefensible, and shuttled from one nation to another as chief diplomat of the CPDM regime, the entire world is a living witness to the fact that he actively supported the system and vice versa, and it is too late for him to wash his hands like Pontius Pilate.

Even if he were to wash his hands, the bloodstains remain indelible. The prosecution of Nazi criminals following the surrender of Germany in 1945 was made easier by a simple but effective strategy developed and implemented by United States Supreme Court Justice and Counsel to the International Military Tribunal, Robert H. Jackson. The Allied Powers accused the Nazi regime of criminal conspiracy that led to the perpetration of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Considering the commission of the crimes to be the offshoots of a criminal conspiracy, the Nazi regime (the Party, its leaders, and affiliate organizations like SS, SA, Gestapo) was labelled a criminal enterprise, and its members criminals based on voluntary membership. Applying that approach, strict senso and mutatis mutandi, the economic and political crimes committed by the CPDM regime would make it a joint criminal enterprise, and its key leaders and members like Jerome Mendouga, would be brought to justice.

As chief diplomat to the United States where Cameroonians seek political asylum based on past or well-founded fear of future persecution, Jerome Mendouga stiffened services to those who authored or benefited from such petitions. He established a system that penalized such individuals, confiscating passports sent to the embassy for renewals. With a staff that could not contain its callousness towards Cameroonians with an English accent; arrogance, disrespect and unprofessionalism were the pillars upon which it built its customer service. With live cables building an unattractive cobweb, the embassy building looks desolate and inhabitable. Well located in the heart of metro Washington (DC), it is the epicentre of the healthiest and heaviest roaches, shamelessly and boldly harassing visitors and interrupting conversations. With the staff adapted to such working conditions, any visitor to the embassy down Mass. Avenue ends with an avalanche of pity for those who work there. Circulars dated in the late 90s decorate the walls, at times struggling to secure themselves to the paint that is being eroded by even the gentlest wind. A visit to the embassy building, an assessment of the services rendered, the customer service relationship, and the facilities within the building automatically dictate to the visitor that an intense and undiluted opposition to change resides in the ambassador. Cameroon’s embassy in Washington (DC) is a glimpse of the infrastructural cesspool and decay of the country’s socio-economic and political institutions.

A regime that is saturated with intellectuals who know how to bend the law without breaking it, they possess uncommon skills in a different kind of administration. They record their activities with Teutonic thoroughness. With their records being examined and details of transactions verified, the stage is now set for the settlement of political differences. In what seems to be the scandalum magnatum of the decade, some of Cameroon’s key political actors are now facing the wrath of the master and the judicial system. Needless to name names, surreptitious transactions of unimaginable consequences have been exposed, and political reprisals in the form of accountability before administrative and judicial authorities seem to be the sweet wages for their allegiance to, and betrayal of their master. The Albatros Affair seems to be akin to a Judas Iscariot kiss, both in the nature and consequences contemplated. However, unlike Judas Iscariot, the perpetrators’ master (and his family) did not perish. He survived in order to see them face-to-face and appreciate the nature of their bond. Political tit-for-tat in different forms must come as the unavoidable consequences. Ambition kills, and absolute ambition kills absolutely. It is not new in African politics to see the authors of a political storm identified and victimized in the ensuing calm.

Jerome Mendouga sought to gain political asylum in the USA as a means to circumvent investigation and possibly prosecution. A perfunctory decision that conveys imbecility and naivety, for, had he read Asylum 101 thoroughly, he would have understood that asylum is not, and can never be used by an ex-diplomat like him to evade prosecution. Having lived and worked in the United States, it was commonsensical for him to know that the United States is a country of law, and is built on the rule of law, distinct from the country he represented, which is built on rule by law, and is a country of people and passions. As a country of people and passions, founded on rule by law, he took no positive step to make the judicial system better. Having lived and worked in a democratic country, he must have learned that rule of law is a key institution to the democratisation of a country. If the administration of justice did not bother him because he had been raised to the apparatchik of CPDM, he now sees himself as a potential victim of what he failed to make better. Having coated himself in different layers of self-deception, inevitability and superiority above the legal system, he oscillated between impunity and immunity. Today, he occupies an uncertain position as he vacillates between vendetta with the master, and the wrath of a judicial system that will probably intern him.

No matter how long the extradition process will take, Jerome Mendouga should be bold enough to return to the country he proudly served. He deserves a colossal pension for his extraordinary service to CPDM. It is practically unwise and politically incorrect to castigate a system that he once served when there has been no major change in circumstantial realities. He should go to Cameroon, then, consider returning to the USA to petition for asylum. That would actually give him a sense of what others have experienced, or fear when they make a case based on a well-founded fear of persecution. Jerome Mendouga should return home and drink the cup of coffee he made. Asylum seekers have detested the situation, and he may as well be part of the bandwagon. He should return to Cameroon, reconnect with the political ancestors, see eye to eye with his accomplices, and get the benediction of his long time pal, brother and master, before returning to the United States. As moral author of the atrocities of the regime, he must return to Cameroon to eat, and if possible, choke in his own vomit. Yes, Jerome Mendouga will be the perfect exemplum of a washed sow that returns to its wallow, and as he does that, one lesson he did not know but must learn is that a political system that does nothing to protect the oppressed is a political system that will do nothing to protect the oppressor.

My Inquisitive Pen

Minister Adibime’s Upmanship And The Rot Inside His Ministry

By Chief Bisong Etahoben

For the past several months, only ministers who have a clear conscience and do not see exalted public office as an inheritance to conserve for yeas on end (like my friend) have been sleeping soundly. What with persistent rumours of a cabinet reshuffle, ministers who yesterday saw ministerial office as some place to sit on the throne and pass orders, have been forced to put on their work shoes and hit the road.

One minister on whom a lot of attention has been focused recently, has been the Minister of State Property and Land Tenure Pascal Anong Adibime. Honestly, I think that man has been doing some brave things that others before him dared not do perhaps for some reasons the public may only know afterwards. He has succeeded in chasing away illegal occupants of state houses, some of which were brazen-facedly seized and rented out for commercial purposes by people who have never even worked for government, not to talk of ever occupying them. Minister Adibime seems to have succeeded in dismantling a network of individuals who were making millions from renting out state houses to private individuals.

However, this aspect of his job has only come to the forefront because of his activism in throwing these unscrupulous individuals manu militari from properties that did not belong to them.

The axe the average Cameroonian has had to grind with Mr. Adibime’s ministerial department over the years has been that concerning the issuance of land certificates. It is no secret that getting a land certificate from Mr. Adibime’s ministry has always been as difficult as finding a hen with teeth in a poultry. And this problem continues to this day in spite of all the noise on radio, TV and newspaper columns by the minister himself and his assigns.

One would have thought that with all the arrests of highly-placed government officials for bribery, corruption and embezzlement, those in office would by now be sitting upright doing their job and only their job without having to extort money from users of public services. No! Corruption and bribery are still very much alive and well in the Ministry of State Property and Lend Tenure in spite of all the noise by Minister Adibime. Workers in that ministry still openly ask for bribe before even tracing one’s file there, not to talk of treating files promptly.

I am writing this with all the authority because I am a victim of the evil machinations of Ministry of State Property and Land Tenure operatives who have been holding my documents for a land certificate for about five years now. Living and working in Yaounde, I have made several trips to that ministry, following my documents which were forwarded there from Limbe for a piece of government land allocated to me but to date, I am yet to be issued a land certificate.

In fact, but for the official stamps appended on the letter forwarding my documents to Yaounde in the various offices through which the documents have passed, one may be forced to think my documents are missing. Each time myself or any of the persons I send there to follow up the documents gets to the ministry, we are openly told that to even start searching for the documents, we must give bribe! The woman in the said office asks for the bribe with such alacrity that one would think it is a debt.

I have personally written a number of letters to the minister but I am yet to be honoured with even one reply. People working there behave as if they are in their family estates. Even greeting someone who greets them back seems like a luxury they cannot afford to spare.

Perhaps the day public service workers realise that the offices they work in belong to all the people of Cameroon and that they are only wage-earners in the employ of the people of Cameroon, they would start respecting service users who come to public offices.

The English in their knowledge called government workers ‘civil servants’, which implies they are supposed to serve the public. But in Cameroon, they have gradually elevated themselves to civil masters and today, they are the bosses to the public they are supposed to serve.

Mr. Adibime is doing a great job freeing state property from the pangs of rogue individuals but he needs to do a bigger house-cleaning job in his ministry so that people are better served without being obliged to give bribe money.

Police Demand 100 Million FCFA Bribe To Return Fotso’s Passport

By Our Economic Affairs Reporter

Mr. Yves Michel Fotso, heir to the Fotso business conglomerate and one-time General Manager of Cameroon Airlines who has been in the news recently in connection with the presidential plane the “Albatross” and other alleged misdemeanours, has categorically declared that he had nothing to do with the “Albatross” affair adding that the affair broke after he had already left Cameroon Airlines.

Mr. Fotso who has decided to give his own side of the story after several media stories accusing him of many wrong-doings and interrogations by the press and the police respectively revealed that on being appointed General Manager of CAMAIR he met a file on the purchase of a presidential plane that had been conferred on his predecessor Mr. Atangana Etoundi. He said he continued negotiations for the plane, a Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) and the sum of 31 million U.S. dollars – 21 billion FCFA at the time -  (about 40% of the total cost of the plane) was eventually advanced to the Boeing company for the manufacture of the plane.

“In fact, the plane was actually manufactured, according to the specifications of the Head of State, i.e. fitting it with the various security gadgets such as anti-missile capabilities etc., inspected by Cameroonian authorities and received by a team from CAMAIR and the Etat Major of the Presidency of the Republic. At the last moment however, for reasons not known to me, the presidency decided not to take delivery of the plane after all”, Mr. Fotso revealed.

Mr. Fotso revealed that having made the Boeing company to manufacture a plane according to particular specifications and deciding not to buy it afterwards must necessarily involve wasted expenditure, as the manufacturer would not return the exact amount of money deposited as advance.

Pressed to say why he thought the presidency decided not to take delivery of the plane, Mr. Fotso said it would appear some people in the presidency thought he had been paid a commission on the purchase of the plane and felt he had to share the commission with them. However, since he did not ask nor receive any commission, there was nothing to share and so the head of state’s collaborators decided to torpedo the arrangement in the hope of starting a new arrangement from which they would harvest huge kickbacks. They actually did by way of the Albatross.

As concerns the Albatross which is today making headlines and to which he is being linked, the Fotso empire heir declared that he had nothing to do with the Albatross affair adding that he had already left CAMAIR when arrangements for the plane were decided upon.

Asked whether he was sacked from CAMAIR and why, Mr. Fotso revealed that he thinks the decision to send him away from CAMAIR was informed by the fact that he refused to allow CAMAIR planes fly without being insured. He said CAMAIR was owing several millions by way of unpaid insurance and so the insurer informed the company that it would no longer cover its planes. However, pressure was put on him to let the planes fly, a thing he refused to do as this was illegal and against the interest of the passengers. CAMAIR planes, he said, remained grounded for 48 hours during which time the president was pressurised into signing the decree replacing him.

The former CAMAIR boss who revealed that since leaving CAMAIR in 2003 he has never spent more than a week in one country said his passport has been seized since April this year and so he has been forced to remain only within the national borders for the last five months.

Some media houses had alleged that Mr. Fotso had taken refuge under his father’s armpit in Bandjoun their ancestral home since his passport was seized in the hope that his father would protect him from arrest. To this Mr. Fotso replied that he needed time to prepare his response to all the allegations being made against him, and revealed that so far, he has released about 25.000 pages of documents to Cameroon’s judicial authorities to help them in their investigations. Nevertheless, he said, those making such allegations seem not to understand that whether he stays in Douala or in the village, so long as he is in the country, he can be arrested wherever he is. And too, he went on, whenever he is in Bandjoun, he lives in his own house and not with his father.

Also talking about his passport, Mr. Fotso confirmed that some individuals had approached his father demanding the sum of one hundred million (100.000.000) FCFA for them to cause the release of his passport but his father, whom he said believes in the rule of law, has reported the matter to the competent authorities including evidence. “It is now left for the competent authorities to decide on what to do”, he declared.

Mr. Fotso categorically denied rumours that he intended to escape and to live in Singapore adding that he had long before the present imbroglio wanted to go stay in Singapore simply because Singapore is the principal financial centre of the world after New York and he being involved in banking, it was just normal. “I never said I was going on exile”, he insisted.

As to allegations by one Francis Nana, said to be the Director General of a financial outfit known as Sygma that he was a money launderer, which led to investigations being opened against him in Switzerland, Mr. Fotso said he had never ever met the said Francis Nana. He said he did not know why Nana had to make such damaging allegations against him. All the same, he said the allegations were untrue adding that there is no separate case against him in Switzerland but rather, the same allegations Nana made here in Cameroon were deposited at various diplomatic missions here. He said he has never committed a crime in Switzerland.

He revealed that he was convinced the intention is to destabilise the Fotso Group of Companies adding that Nana Francis is a fraudulent individual who claims to be a financial expert owning Cabinet Sygma. He categorically declared that Francis Nana who claims to be a chartered accountant in France is not known as such within French financial circles and the President of the French Accounting and Auditing Commission says he is unknown in France and as such is an impostor.

Mr. Fotso spoke at length on his stewardship of CAMAIR, where Nana is said to have accused him of having embezzled billions of FCFA. He revealed that he was appointed General Manager of CAMAIR on June 20, 2002 and met CAMAIR in “a catastrophic financial situation”. CAMAIR, he said, had been ordered to hand over two of its Boeing 737 latest June 21, 2002 because of debts owed. The Boeing 747 at the time was held up for several months in France because CAMAIR could not pay for its repairs and there were arrears of salary unpaid including penalties on the hire of one CAMAIR plane.

He said when he arrived at CAMAIR, the company had not been audited for over five years and as such, the company had no financial records to treat with.

He finally discovered that the company was 72 billion FCFA in debt when he took it over and some of these debts were fictitious. He said before leaving the company, he had reduced the debt to 49 billion FCFA. Mr. Fotso revealed that he was appointed to head CAMAIR because government wanted him to rescue the company from total collapse. He said contrary to other appointments where people get up to hear their names announced, he was invited by President Biya to discuss the appointment before it was made. He said he is not and was not a civil servant so his was the first appointment of a purely private sector individual to head a state corporation.

Without wanting to call names, Mr. Fotso revealed that after his audience with the president and his subsequent appointment, he set to work to save CAMAIR from total collapse with the conviction that the president’s close collaborators linked to CAMAIR would work in the same spirit. “But it would appear some of his close collaborators were not as faithful to him as they should have been. They rather used their positions to feed their ambitions”, he revealed, insinuating that the Cabinet Sygma headed by a fake financial expert is patronised by some of the president’s close collaborators.

The former CAMAIR boss revealed that immediately he arrived at CAMAIR, he ordered an audit and established accounting records from the 1995/96 fiscal year to 2001/2002 but these records disappeared immediately after he left.

He said he saved CAMAIR about 400 million FCFA monthly by renegotiating some of its hire and rents contracts. Citing one example, he said when he arrived, CAMAIR had a Boeing 737-200 that it was hiring from Ansett at 484.000 dollars (about 217.800.000 FCFA at today’s exchange rates) a month. He eventually renegotiated and brought it down to 295.000 dollars (about 132.750.000 FCFA) thus saving the company about 85 million FCFA monthly on that arrangement alone. He revealed that when he arrived CAMAIR, its annual turnover was 56 billion FCFA, which during the less than two years he worked there, he increased by 64% to 92 billion FCFA.

Talking about fictitious debts, Mr. Fotso cited Mobil Oil, which was billing them more than double the actual amount of fuel consumed and since there were no accounts, the individuals involved in the scam pocketed huge sums of money.

By Kombe Erick in Yaounde

Cameroon’s lone Olympic gold medallist Françoise Mbango may undergo another anti-doping test and should she fail it, she may be stripped of her medal. Fortunately however, Mbango is sure she would not fail the test and has reassured Cameroonians that should another anti-doping test be necessary, it would be normal Olympic procedure. She revealed that she is in regular contact with the Beijing Olympics Organising Committee should she be needed for further tests.

Mbango who was speaking during a press conference at the Yaounde Hilton Friday August 29, 2008 revealed that during the Athens Olympics in 2004, she underwent four anti-doping tests and passed them all with flying ties adding that this time would be no exception should it be decided that she be further tested.

Contrary to the very belligerent Françoise whom Cameroonians saw before the Beijing Olympics who spared no opportunity to lambast the Cameroon Athletics Federation and its president Ange Sama, Mbango who spoke August 29 at the Yaounde Hilton was conciliatory, pouring praises on the Athletics Federation and the National Olympics Committee for contributing to her success at the Beijing Olympics.

“Everybody in his/her own way contributed towards my victory. The Cameroon Athletics Federation contributed by registering me for the Olympics; I have a 2008 licence, and it is still the Federation that recognised my requisite output to enable me take part in the Games. The same thing applies to the National Olympic Committee. I would say that they essentially performed their duties”, Mbango told the press.

The Olympic gold medallist however said the Cameroon Athletics Federation and the National Olympic Committee would have to examine their consciences and ask themselves why a sporting nation like Cameroon could only win one medal at the Olympics though it sent up to 30 athletes to the competition.

Françoise Mbango nevertheless  reserved her ultimate gratitude for the presidential couple whom she said contributed most towards her success by offering her 80.000.000 (eighty million) FCFA to enable her prepare for the Games.

“That is why I have dedicated my medal to the President of the Republic”, Mbango said.
Françoise Mbango revealed that her ultimate goal is to beat the world triple jump record adding that her determination at the Olympic Games had been to do just that but regretted that she did not succeed in that regard.

“I am satisfied with my performances but I think I can do better. There is still the world record to be beaten and that record should be held by a Cameroonian”, Mbango said with determination written all over her face.
The 32-year-old world champion revealed that she would be going to Germany on September 14 where she would take part in an athletics competition in Stuttgart.

“I am 11 centimetres away from the world record and it is necessary that I beat it”, she said.

Asked how she thought she would use her Olympic glory to help young Cameroonians, Mbango revealed that she would soon begin touring various schools in the country to encourage young Cameroonians to take part in triple jumping.

She revealed that she brought along some sporting equipment from China, which she intends to distribute to various schools for the promotion of triple jumping.

The press conference ended with a one-minute silence in honour of a man who died in Biyem-Assi whilst taking part in a debate on the Mbango phenomenon. The said man was on the side of Mbango against other debaters who were on the side of the Athletics Federation president Ange Sama. A fight ensued during the debate and the man was mortally wounded.

As we went to press, Mbango was still camped in the Yaounde Hilton waiting to be received by President Paul Biya on a date yet to be announced.

Column – My Inquisitive Pen

By Chief Bisong Etahoben

Making Cameroonians Feel At Home In Bakassi

I have always told friends that if there truly is reincarnation, then in my second coming on earth, I would not go to school. That way, you live a happier life like my kinsmen have been living in the village over the centuries. They grow older and die happy. Yes, they do because they are not involved in all the skulduggery that “book” people and town dwellers are artists at.

In my village, folks get up in the morning, wear their farm dresses, pick up their cutlasses and hoes and head for the bush. Those who have their felled palms tap them and during rest time, their wives roast some cocoyams, which they jointly eat with red oil and salt and finally, they take sweet seeps of the palm wine. By evening they are done for the day and head home with the foodstuff they have harvested which they cook on arrival at home and feed themselves and their children with. The same exercise starts all over again the next day and so on and so forth.

Try to discuss some complicated political issues with them like the embezzlement of public funds, nepotism, bribery and corruption and all the ills in our society today and sometimes some of them even ask you how that concerns them and you!

The Bakassi hand-over thing once again aroused my worries about the way that part of Cameroon is being treated. Some years back after the Nigerians had put in about five years in Bakassi, I travelled to Ubenikang and had the opportunity to discuss with some young Cameroonians from that area. Honestly, I was shocked by what they told me. They informed me for the short time Nigerians had been in their area, they had done enough development to last them the lifetime of all Cameroonian administrations. Besides infrastructures, youths from the area had been granted scholarships to enable them attend school and some had even been sponsored to universities in Europe.

In fact, I was shocked to hear a compatriot say they would rather that Bakassi is not handed back to Cameroon! “What did they do for us for the whole time we were under Cameroon?”, the young man asked. Though shocked, I was honest to see with him there. What really had the Cameroonian government been doing for the Bakassi people until the Nigerians came? Nothing!

I know many Cameroonian administrators who were supposed to lead the way for the Cameroonisation of Bakassi who rather remained in Kumba or Ekondo-Titi at most than go to Ubenikang, Kombo Abedimo, Kombo Etindi etc when posted there. Most government functionaries who were supposed to lay the groundwork for the movement of Cameroonian people, goods and services to Bakassi remained in other divisions in the Southwest province and some even in Yaounde from where they wrote fictitious reports about their activities in Bakassi.

Even treasury officials who were posted there and who were supposed to oil the investment machinery by disbursing funds intended for the development of the area stayed away from there but connived with administrators and other government services to embezzle budgetary allocations meant for Bakassi.

Nobody cared about Bakassi and even as we make noise about the place today, so many things are still happening there yet our big talkers turn their faces the other way. One big tool of sovereignty is the national currency. In most parts of the Bakassi peninsula today, the Cameroonian currency is not legal tender. Even our military posted in those areas use the Nigerian naira!

One may be forced to ask: What is the difficulty imposing our currency in our territory there? Over the years, even the military posted to Bakassi went there only to extort money from the few Cameroonians and majority Nigerians living there. In fact, the Cameroonian military did a lot to chase away the few Cameroonians who were trying to compete with the Nigerians in Bakassi.

I knew a classmate of mine who was hurried to his grave because of the treatment he received from the Cameroonian military in Bakassi. James Tambe, whose other family now lives in Mile 4 Bonadikombo in Limbe, was a tailor who had a workshop in Gardens. He eventually raised enough money and decided to buy a canoe and venture into fishing in Bakassi. That was about twenty years ago. He started off very well and shortly afterwards, bought another canoe. Then the Cameroonian military one day swooped down on him. They seized his two canoes ostensibly to use them in tracking down Nigerian military infiltrators. Tambe’s canoes were never returned to him! With everything he had taken away from him, he was forced to leave Bakassi and headed back to Manyu, his division of origin where he died shortly afterwards because of frustration.

To date, nobody has asked to know where he is. Granted that his two canoes were commandeered in order to help our military secure Bakassi for us, did it mean the owner of the canoes did not merit any compensation? You know of my classmate’s case now because I have written about it here. There are so many other Cameroonians who were chased out of Bakassi who left the place and went away to die in silence and despair.

Francophones have always treated Anglophones as Biafrans. And those Cameroonians who were in Bakassi who tried to liase with our military there were always treated with suspicion and branded “Biafran” spies.

We have taken back Bakassi but unless we make it Cameroonian and treat the Cameroonians living there as compatriots, militant Nigerian groups would continue to call the shots there.