Rev. Father David Fomanka Replies To Hon. Justice Ayah Paul On Distribution Of Assistance To Akwaya Civil Unrest Victims

In the WEEKLY POST issue N°0327 of August 20-26, 2008, this newspaper published an article titled: “Did Catholic Priest Misuse Money Intended For Akwaya Tribal War Victims?” which made allusion to an open letter Hon. Justice Ayah Paul wrote to the Prime Minister and Head of Government.

Rev. Fr. David Fomanka has therefore written a reply to the said letter, a copy of which was forwarded to the WEEKLY POST. It is thus obligatory for us to publish the said reply, which follows hereunder. The reply has been published unedited.

Publisher

DOES JUSTICE PAUL AYAH ABINE ALSO WANT THE BLOOD OF A PRIEST?

Fr. David Fomanka

Many people have called my attention to the “Open Letter To The Prime Minister: Collective Punishment On My People” by one who refers to himself as HRH Hon. Paul Ayah Abine, MP for Akwaya. The world is in need of the truth about his very serious “assertions”; an important exercise I cannot but do now if this would restore the confidence and trust people do have for priests in general.

I had originally thought I should not answer this “Hon” gentleman, if he deserves that title, but while silence may breed content, it may also mean consent.

I do not by this article intend to answer what kind of war is going on in Akwaya and who the warriors are, for this was answered already on several occasions, when we showed that the war in Akwaya was caused by all. In a meeting held in Mamfe with the Governor of the SWP, I strongly exemplified this point. In so far as Justice Ayah waged a war with the Law Courts over their way of handling legal matters in a place like Akwaya, then all those involved in such a debacle are guilty of remote provocation. In so far as prior to the advent to court some tribe has been nursing hatred for their neigbour, and a hidden agenda to outs the other in retaliation, may be, for what happened for instance to Justice Ayah at Big Nyang, then guilt is there present. In so far as there was a continuous effort to exploit persons related to such land disputes as a way of earning some extra income, guilt is to be bestowed on the orchestrators. In so far as after an election, a man who at the time of elections, so needed the votes of all those of the entire Akwaya Sub-division, merely to emerge there after and refer only to the Olitis as “My people”, there is even a mightier guilt. One would say it is the Paramount chief of Olitis speaking. But when would he speak as the MP of Akwaya people and stop nagging the non-Olitis?

The article of Justice Ayah has widened the Akwaya war. I now see a war between a Member of Parliament “from Akwaya” as it were, - (for he has never been to his constituency since he was elected) vs the Cameroon Government; War between Justice Ayah and the Truth as distorted to him by his subjects – to this war is associated the Church and its priest Rev. Fr. Fomanka David, whose name Justice Ayah would not even spell properly; A Personal War between Mr. Ayah Paul a certain Oliti man and every Non-Olitis which has its roots in the Big Nyang affair, now well known to even HRH Hon Tanyi Mbianyor Clarkson, Chief of Nchang and others; a war between Justice Ayah Paul and the Local Administration of Akwaya, with Mr. Stephen Ebombe at the head; a War between Justice Ayah Paul and the now Mayor of Akwaya, Mr. Ekwale Martin, as evidenced in this letter – which dates back to events that took place around the election of a new Mayor (details of which I would gladly withhold to leave our Hon. Ayah with still something for those before whom his credulity thrives); War between Okerika and Yive – which is the spark that set the Oliti/Yive crisis ablaze and about which the Hon Gentleman still need to convince those in his constituency that he is “hands-free” from fueling it, be it verbally or otherwise. We may go on and on with the several dimensions of this war and even touch on that between Justice Ayah Paul and an International Community that would not come to the aid of “his people” even when Nigeria is acknowledge to have so helped the Yives at Benue State and Olitis at the Cross River.

I write like a living witness, for the Lord, whom we hope to meet one day, gives his own verdict not on hearsay. If Justice Ayah had just for once been a man of his words, and not a mere bulldog that barks and cannot bite, then he would have joined the entourage with the Bishop of Mamfe and the Governor to move to Akwaya on 31^st May 2008, to seal the call for peace. This shying away puts to question the credibility of a man who now wants to know how much sacrifice the Church has put in Akwaya, as if he were the Bishop of Mamfe to question his priest, rather than acknowledging in humility his short comings and the enormous love Christ is manifesting to the people Ayah now calls his own. Indeed, if All of Akwaya were truly only Ayah, I would have voted that we treat them as pagans – (truly in need of re-evangelization and conversion).

Let Justice Ayah know today that if truly Akwaya is suffering from the torture, rape etc., it is a consequence of their refusal to accept the kind of peace the world cannot give, which the Church in all its love and innocence was offering in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord. If only they had not hardened their hearts, the First peace initiative of 10^th January would have brought a head strong people to practice an “unconditional forgiveness” and not spark the conflict anew. The same is true when, after embracing one another at the second peace talk inside the Catholic Church of Enjawbaw, the Akwaya people would not want to make that gesture a sacramental moment. At Okerika itself, the concession almost reached was foiled by yet a hard heated spirit of one who is said to have received instructions not to accept any other terms short of what he wanted. The peace offered by Christ is not what Akwaya wants at this time, and if truly Justice Ayah is the mouth-piece, then it is not surprising, for he is only effecting the designs of the Akwaya mentor.

Let us take a look at another assertion of his: He writes: It would be shameful for the Government to deny that they have had information that the local priest, one Rev. Forbanka David, one of the Government agents who fancies himself sitting by the right hand of Jesus at the Throne of Justice, received money from the United States of America, of which the figures have remained a mystery of the Trinity.

Who was this Rev. Forbanka David supposed to reveal the figures to? Justice Ayah? Did he find out from the Bishop of Mamfe and was told he was not aware? Did he ask the Akwaya people and was told the figures were not released? Or are there fears that I must have received 1 billion dollars and declared only 4,600? May God forgive whoever must have fed the Hon. with information that the figures remained a mystery. Those who deserved to know the figures are well informed. If it is any one’s to audit, let him present his credential and freely do the auditing. If it turns out that more money was spent than actually received, be as kind enough to make up for the deficit I incurred. Let the Hon MP of Akwaya also know that when I do eventually seat at the right hand of Jesus, if it were mine to occupy, I would dish out Justice with mercy, in imitation of my Master. So he need not be afraid.

If I am referred to as an agent of the Government, I am proud to say that every good citizen is supposed to be one. Indeed, in 1964, when Akwaya was created as a parish, it was nothing else but in response to an appeal from the then-Government of Cameroon to the Catholic Church of the then Buea diocese, to have this parish opened. The evangelization of the people and the alleviation of poverty were the basic preoccupation of the forces-that-be at the time. Whoever does not invite the Government to carry out its own part by supplying valuable information geared at the common good is failing in his duties as a good citizen. If the government misuses your good citizenship for other individual ends, that is a different matter. Silence in the face of brutal abuse of human values and dignity is not only a betrayal of one’s citizenship but an anti-witnessing for a Christian. Thank God who gave me the graces to proof myself worthy of this ministry.

Now when Ayah Paul writes: “Possessed of the fact that the Yives were hiring mercenaries, he still gave FCFA 100.000 to 3.000 Yives; and that money was used to hire mercenaries who burnt down Ehembado; shot and wounded several persons; and burnt a blind woman alive. Even from the Seat of Wisdom, the seven thousand displaced Olitis were given only FCFA 40.000 in accordance with heavenly mathematical calculations; and even then, only after lengthy arguments.” I have this reply to give him.

Refer to my letter to the MECA-USA DC chapter president, in which I explained the fears expressed by the Olitis, that after handing over 100,000 frs to Yives, it was alleged that they used it to purchase more weapons. It is interesting that these fears are now expressed by Justice Ayah Paul as given. However, together with the MECA presidents, we agreed that money should be converted to food, or medical supplies as the case may be. I here attach a picture of the representative and secretary of the Okerika traditional council, Mr. Ojini Lucas who received 40,000 frs in cash and 2 bags of rice and a 20 litres of Palm Oil.

We explained that since they had those fears that Yives used theirs to buy arms, we are reducing the money to enable them purchase condiments and not follow the example of the Yives. These items put together is certainly more than 100,000 frs, Justice Ayah, if the person receiving this gift would be honest enough to make that confession. This package was handed over to Mr. Ojini Lucas, your Okerika traditional council secretary by yet another Oliti and your relative, Mr. Atigi Jacob, catechist of the Catholic Church, who was president of the commission for the distribution of whatever aid package was received. If interest is still high, have recourse to these persons for honesty sake, and be humble enough to return to us with acknowledgements and apologies.

Indeed the MP links episode to that of the Government’s calculations for distributing 50,000,000 frs, seeing a coincidence which he expressed with a tongue in cheek, to demonstrate what intrigues lie behind the gestures. He writes: “The latter [Olitis] of course logically rejected the money as officially expected and designed in order to keep the conflict going. What coincidence! Rev. Forbanka from heaven gave the Olitis about a third of what he gave to the Yives. Months after that, the SDO uses the same ratio as the Father's will must be done on earth as it is in heaven. Machinations upon machinations! In heaven, in hell and on earth!”

Would this assertion and link be tenable were I to present the truth about my own “heavenly mathematics”! However, I wish I had remembered this idea that the Yives in diaspora even outnumber the Olitis who now stay with their relatives in villages that are not destroyed! Figure it out that more than 6 villages of the Yives (Pivel Quarter, Yive, Ekambejolo, Plateau, Agongolo, Ekwebwa and Upper Yive aka Lagos) were destroyed and now they have no home at all, but merely 2 villages of the Olitis (Okerika and Ogba) and Ehembado, which is not even an Oliti village, but an Oliti community settling in Enjawbaw land, suffered damages. There seems to be some justification in the Government mathematics though!

Indeed, when one reads Justice Ayah’s writing: “Who is that one person in your Government who can deny that some Nigerian State Governments and international humanitarian organisations in that country gave relief supplies to the Yive refugees; and that it is the internally displaced persons in Cameroon, who are essentially the Olitis, that have gone for over seven months without shelter, clothing and food? It suffices here to ask him “And what about the Honourable MP of Akwaya? Would something of his parliamentary package not help remedy this situation?” Throughout these seven months, I heard no one say: the Hon MP has sent us so and so as a solidarity gesture to relief our sufferings. Food for thought for the general public.

To conclude, I am equally pleased that Ayah ends up referring to the same “Supreme Judge” who would certainly judge all of us, even Ayah himself included. He does not only judge State Authority, Ecclesiastical Authority, but also will bring each and every one of us, individually, to the throne of Justice. Even those who monitor others from afar will receive more strokes of the lash, for Scripture says: Alas for him who leads any of these little ones astray. It were better a millstone be tied round his neck and cast into the sea.

Bravo Chief Etahoben For Column On Land Certificates

Dear Editor,

I write to say Bravo to Chief Bisong Etahoben for his column in the WEEKLY POST issue of September 24-30, 2008 concerning the voodoo that is involved in the issuance of land certificates. As Chief Etahoben pointed out, the public surely appreciated Minister Adibime’s decision to chase out individuals who illegally occupied government houses.

However, this has not been the main preoccupation of Cameroonians as concerns the Ministry of State Property and Land Tenure. As Chief Etahoben rightly held, Cameroonians are more concerned with being issued land certificates for land they rightfully acquired. That files for land certificates sometimes take up to ten years before certificates are issued should be cause for the raising of eyebrows.

What really accounts for the long delays in issuing land certificates? Why is it that land certificates still take long to be issued in spite of all the noise Minister Adibime and his collaborators have been making about easing procedures in that ministry? Chief Etahoben’s case is a living witness to the decay still going on in that ministry so Minister Adibime should stop chasing the shadow and concentrate on the substance that has been the big cry of most Cameroonians. Once again, thank you Chief Etahoben for your timely alarm bell.

EWANG GEORGE

CHURCH STREET

LIMBE

Bravo Chief Etahoben For Column On Land Certificates

Dear Editor,

EWANG GEORGE

CHURCH STREET

LIMBE

The Good Example Of Mandela’s Wives

Dear Editor,

Thanks a million times for publishing the very educative picture of the Mandela wives on the front page of your newspaper of September 24-30, 2008. I guess your reason for publishing this picture was to send a message to Cameroonian households and especially to housewives that sharing a husband with another woman must not necessarily lead to war as is always the case here in Cameroon.

We here know of several cases where jealous housewives have resorted to juju in order to punish either their husbands for taking other wives or the new wives for daring to replace them in the matrimonial bedroom. That picture of Gracia Machel and Winnie Mandela sent a strong message to African homes that marriage is not a war front and just like a stage, actors come on stage and exit and should not declare war on those who succeed them on stage.

We thank you Gracia and Winnie for this very strong educative example.

AKUMAWAH DIANNE (MRS.)

AKWA - DOUALA

“Until Our People Learn Basic Hygiene, Hopes Of Totally Eliminating Malaria Will Be Futile”

Mrs. Jeannette Fongang Akeh Tebeh, a senior nurse working for a private clinic in Yaounde participated at a recent workshop on malaria control and treatment (See page four). She spoke exclusively to WEEKLY POST’s Augustine Uzoigwe on the outcome of the workshop:

WEEKLY POST: The three-day workshop on malaria control organised jointly by the WHO, Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health and UNICEF, has just ended and you took part in it. How do you evaluate it?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: My personal evaluation is that the workshop was good and beneficial to all doctors, nurses and other health personnel who took part in it. We were taught various forms of malaria control, treatment and prevention, especially on pregnant women and children under five years.

WEEKLY POST: Malaria continues to be a major killer in Cameroon and other countries within the tropics despite enormous efforts, financial and otherwise, made by governments to combat it. Why is malaria such an intractable disease? Why can it not be eliminated completely like in Cuba, a country within the tropics?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: For now, malaria seems intractable because mosquitoes, which carry and distribute the malaria parasite live and thrive in dirty and untidy surroundings. You look round our environment today and you find stagnant waters, dustbins full and sometimes unemptied for days or weeks, garbage cans littered here and there. These are breeding places for mosquitoes. There, they increase and multiply and through their bites inject the malaria parasites into our blood stream. No matter how much money governments spend to control malaria, until the population learns basic hygiene, the efforts of governments remain an exercise in futility. I do not know the case of Cuba, but if it is true that malaria has been eliminated in that country, you can be sure that the success was due to the preservation of the basic hygiene conditions of the Cuban people.

WEEKLY POST: The workshop seems to have laid emphasis on malaria and pregnant women. What were the main recommendations?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: The main recommendations were that pregnant women should be given preventive doses of anti-malaria drugs immediately they come for their first medical consultation and subsequent visits. Then from the 16^th week of pregnancy, through the time of delivery and until the baby starts to walk, the women should take at least two tablets of fansidar regularly. Pregnant women also should endeavour to sleep under treated mosquito nets to avoid all possible direct contact with mosquitoes.

WEEKLY POST: Malaria is said to be taking more lives today than HIV/AIDS, yet people are not as frightened of malaria as they are of HIV/AIDS. Is it because we are so used to malaria that it has become part of our lives?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: No. I do not think so. If a patient comes to me and complains of malaria, I know the patient has a cure for his illness. But if he complains of HIV/AIDS, I am frightened because the patient has no cure and is on his way to the grave. It is not because malaria is part of our lives. It is simply because we have two illnesses: one can be cured and the other cannot be cured.

WEEKLY POST: The deadliest kind of malaria is known as plasmodium falciparum and is said to be found exclusively in Cameroon and other Central African countries. How does this kind of malaria manifest and why is Central Africa its favourite habitat?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: Malaria is transmitted by two kinds of mosquitoes: the anopheles and the culex. I am not sure if plasmodium falciparum is found only in Central Africa. In an interview like this, it is not necessary to go into scientific or medical details, but it is true that plasmodium falciparum kills easily. It is a very malignant kind of malaria. It manifests in profuse sweating, high temperature, loss of appetite and restlessness. But it can be treated if the patient sees the doctor or other qualified medical personnel quickly on attack.

WEEKLY POST: The kind of workshop you have just participated in is often held in the big cities and hardly, if ever, in the villages. Don’t you think such workshops are better held in villages where people are more vulnerable and where basic knowledge and treatment are non-existent?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: You are right. But I am not going to answer for those who have organised the workshop here. Hopefully, they would repeat the same exercise in the villages. But I must stress that malaria attacks everybody whether in the village or in the city and everybody is entitled to know the havoc malaria inflicts on the lives of people.

WEEKLY POST: You are a nurse in private practice. What help or facilities do you receive from government or from those who organised this workshop to enable you propagate what you have learnt to those who did not participate?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: This is rather a difficult question. But I think that the first help we have been given is to give appropriate and efficient treatment based on what we have learnt to those who consult us. By treating them, we are propagating what we have learnt. We ourselves, can also go ahead and organise similar workshops in our villages, in our family meetings and groups etc. Let me also mention that throughout the duration of the workshop, we were provided with taxi money to and from the place of the workshop in Efoulan District Hospital, not to mention the numerous books and literature we were given and encouraged to read even after the workshop.

WEEKLY POST: There is an anarchical proliferation of anti-malaria drugs in the market. Some are said to be fake. How do you advise patients on which drugs to take?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: I advise patients to consult a doctor or qualified medical personnel who will carry out necessary tests and prescribe appropriate and effective drugs. Patients should avoid self-medication.

WEEKLY POST: What about traditional herbs and plants and the so-called native doctors who say that malaria is a native disease and is better treated with native herbs and not drugs from Europe where mosquitoes and malaria do not exist? Do you sometimes prescribe native herbs and plants for malaria patients?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: I am aware that there are effective native treatments for malaria but we must differentiate between good native doctors and charlatans who, for example, administer excessive doses of native herbs to patients. Some of these people do not carry out laboratory tests to make sure the patient is suffering from malaria. It is not necessarily when you have high temperature or fever that it can be said that you are suffering from malaria. A great number of other illnesses have these same symptoms so it is necessary to go for tests and have good treatment, which would eliminate the malaria parasites from the blood and check the after effects of the infection.

WEEKLY POST: You have recommended that people should sleep under mosquito nets in order to avoid mosquito bites. But asthma patients, for example, would complain that the nets would prevent them from breathing freely. What advice do you give to that kind of patients?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: I think that the nets have small holes that allow in oxygen to enable people sleeping under them breathe. But the holes are too small to allow mosquitoes to penetrate and inflict bites. However, I would advise asthma patients to see a doctor or any qualified medical personnel who may recommend them to wear long clothing that could cover the whole body down to the toes.

WEEKLY POST: What about such products like moontiger, which emit smoke that drives the mosquitoes away but which are said to be toxic and dangerous to human respiratory organs?

MRS. FONGANG AKEH TEBEH: In as much as I do not intend to condemn any products manufactured for the purpose of malaria control, yet I would say that products that could be dangerous to human respiratory organs should be avoided especially in rooms where babies and children sleep. Instead, treated mosquito nets or long clothing should be used, not forgetting periodic administration of preventive drugs and medical consultations.

Regional And Tribal Discrimination In Employment At Embassies In Cameroon?

Dear Editor,

I am a university graduate from the Southwest province and I have been living in Yaounde since I graduated from the Anglo-Saxon University of Buea. It is over five years now since I left school and I have been searching for a job in our national capital in vain.

One disturbing thing I have noticed during these my years of job-hunting is that most international organisations and foreign representations in Cameroon are not equal opportunity employers as some of them (especially the Americans) claim. I have discovered that because people from certain regions of this country found their ways into these diplomatic missions as employees when they were just installed in this country, they did and have been doing everything to ensure that only people from their provinces of origin have ended up being employed there.

Diplomats are expected to know the political, geographic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds of the countries in which they serve. With this hindsight, they are expected to employ on merit with due consideration to avoiding turning their embassies and diplomatic representations into tribal and regional work stations. Unfortunately however, this has not been the case with most embassies in this country.

I say this with special reference to the embassies of English-speaking countries which have become playgrounds for regional political and tribal discrimination. I believe that within the two Anglophone provinces in this country, there are enough university and high school graduates from each of the provinces that it would not be just for a foreign embassy to have an Anglophone ratio of 20 to 1 in favour of one Anglophone province. This is not equal opportunity employment at all.

I know that those who mislead foreign diplomats who do recruitment, into recruiting only their tribesmen and provincial brothers and sisters would say the recruitment is based on merit. This cannot be true. How is it possible that out of twenty job opportunities in the embassy or diplomatic mission of an English speaking country, only one Southwesterner would qualify for employment as compared to nineteen Northwesterners? This is impossible.

I think what usually happens, and this is true, is that whenever there is a job opportunity in some of these embassies, those already working there make sure that applications from those who are not from their provinces of origin never reach the tables of recruiting officers of the embassies. I know this because I have been a victim of this sort of evil machinations myself.

I write here to alert the foreign missions based in Cameroon to ensure that recruitment in their missions is done to the satisfaction of their hosts and gives equal opportunities to all segments of the Cameroonian population. They should not allow themselves to be manipulated by regionalists and tribalists already working with them.

EBUNE MARTIN EPOLE

OBILI

Road Construction Coy Uses Eyumojock Sub Prefect To Cheat Njem-Akarem People.

By Andy Effimoben in Eyang-Emanghe

Three communities in the Njem-Akarem area of Eyumojock sub division in Manyu division were recently at war with SODIC, a road construction company that was involved in the construction of the Ndebaya-Abat road, over unfulfilled promises.

According to the concerned communities, when SODIC got the contract to construct an earth road from Ndebaya to Abat about three years ago, the whole Njem-Akarem area felt their problem of disenclavement was going to be over. Luckily, at Eyang-Emanghe and Onaku, the company found a huge quarry. These two communities which are not within the Ndebaya-Abat road axis, were not included in the road construction project. However, thanks to the quarry, SODIC undertook to bulldoze a road to these villages, grade it and put three wooden bridges over the three streams on the road. Furthermore, the company was to grade the school field at Onaku.

Some Inokun people who were to lose their cocoa trees as a result of the passing of the road to Onaku had to have some compensation from SODIC. The company was also to grade a handball pitch and create a roundabout in Inokun.

The SODIC company has now negated on all these points. It merely made a small track to enable its vehicles cart away the stones at Eyang-Emanghe and Onaku and did nothing else.

When the indigenes realised that they had been tricked, they stood up for their rights. Ekpe injunctions were put on all the heaps of stones gathered by SODIC ready for transportation, so as to prevent the company from carting the stones away.

SODIC reacted very sharply. It reported the indigenes to the Eyumojock administration and as usual, the D.O. for Eyumojock Ndubi Shadrach Abono who is ever so ready to be bribed into intimidating the local populations, sent a contingent of gendarmes to intimidate the people.

Today, it is on record that SODIC carried away about one hundred twenty-ton loads of stones from this area with the connivance of the Eyumojock Sub Prefect Ndubi Shadrach Abono and the gendarmerie brigade commander without fulfilling it own part of the contract. The company has since parked its equipment and vanished from the area without compensating the local people for their God-given natural resource, thanks to money received from SODIC by Sub Prefect Ndubi Shadrach Abono and the gendarmerie brigade commander.

This writer is of the opinion that the Eyumojock administration did these communities a great wrong. It is simply scandalous.

To show the ill intentions of the company, some young men from the villages who were working with the company and were owed about three months’ wages were abandoned without being paid. A sub contractor, whose name the WEEKLY POST got as Joseph Ntui Ambang is also in a legal battle with the company over unpaid money for work done.

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