These long-serving General Managers of state corporations…

 Article 47 of the law of 22 December 1999 pertaining to the general statutes of public establishments and companies of the public and para-public sector specify that directors general and, if need be, their assistants have a maximum of nine years to occupy their respective positions. However, it is most surprising that President Paul Biya who promulgated this law has refused to respect it to the letter. He allows many of these DGs to exercise their functions for as long as possible for reasons best known to him alone. In the following analysis, we take a look at four of such personalities, one of whom has been in his post of responsibility for as long as 23 years!

AdolpheMoudiki, DG of SNH

AdolpheMoudiki, DG of SNH

AdolpheMoudiki, the all-powerful director general of the National Hydrocarbons Corporation, SNH, has been in that enviable position since 1993! This means that for 23 uninterrupted years, he has been at the helm of the state corporation that manages Cameroon’s oil and which, to a very large extent, strategically ensures the economic and even political stability of the country.

                Although the hand of age is now playing tricks on him, to the extent of rendering his physique rather groggy, he remains a key figure in the Biya administration as he has an unquestionable influence on some very important decisions of state.

                Moudiki literally acts for the most part behind the scene, but his influence was greatly felt by the general public when, in his capacity as the SNH boss, he supplied most of the funds (out of the state budget) for the purchase of the presidential plane as well as the yatch christened Rio del Rey.

                It also filtered out to the public that it was this illustrious son of the Littoral region who vehemently opposed the appointment of his closest collaborator, Bernard Bayiha, as DG of Chantier Naval of which the SNH is the biggest shareholder. It should be recalled that after the former minister of Transport, Robert Nkili, had recommended Bayiha for that position, President Paul Biya signed a decree appointing him. However, AdolpheMoudik raised a strong argument to the effect that his collaborator’s presence by his side at SNH was absolutely imperative. This caused President Biya to replace Bayiha with Alfred NforgweiMbeng as DG of Chantier Naval.

                Indeed it takes only a dinosaur of Moudiki’scalibre to cause the President to budge in this manner!

YaouAïssatou, DG of SNI

                Commonly referred to as the “Iron Lady” of the Biya administration, YaouAïssatou has been manning the National Investment Corporation, SNI, since 2003. However, even before her appointment to that post of responsibility, she had worked in the corporation for long years. She actually joined it on 3 November 1975 as deputy director of finance. 

                On 4 February 1984, barely 15 months after Paul Biya took office as President of the Republic, she was appointed minister of Women’s Affairs. A few years later, she became minister of Social and Women’s Affairs.

                She was later to be dropped from government after serving as minister for more than 15 years. Nevertheless, on 18 May 2000, the president of the women’s wing of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (WCPDM) resurfaced at SNI, this time as the assistant treasurer of the house. On account of her discretion and near anonymity in this position, little was said about her in public.

                YaouAïssatou began making headline news again when she was propelled to the topmost position at SNI in 2003. However, she had some tense moments when she was suspected of mismanaging public funds and was convoked a number of times for quizzing at the special criminal tribunal. Sources say the suspicion came not because she truly manifested financial rascality but rather owing to her alleged closeness to MarafaHamidouYaya.

At one point in time, she was the longest-serving member of government. Who knows if she will end up being the longest-serving DG of a state corporation too?

David NkotoEmane, DG of CAMTEL

               

David NkotoEmane, DG of CAMTEL

Third on the list of directors general whose stay in office is raising eyebrows is David NkotoEmane of Cameroon Telecommunications, CAMTEL. A computer engineer by profession, he joined the state company in 1990 and gradually rose to positions of higher height until 2005 when a presidential decree raised him to the post of DG. But that was not before he had a stint at the National Social Insurance Fund, CNPS.

                Today, the CAMTEL DG has one of the most daunting challenges as far as Cameroon’s emergence programme is concerned, and it is that of installing the optic fibre all over the national territory.

                Although he has spent 11 years as boss of CAMTEL, the most important public telecommunication company in central Africa, things have not been all rosy for NkotoEmane. And though linked with an eminent move to the presidency as Director of Cabinet, NkottoEmane has had to battle with officials of the Supreme State Audit (CONSUPE) as well as those of the special criminal court after his name featured in the list of alleged corrupt state barons.

                He has however remained at the helm of affairs and seemingly unruffled, all the same. But for a couple of months now, a CONSUPE mission has set up a makeshift office at Camtel with the sole purpose to put NkottoEmane’s management under the scanner.

Michael Ndoping, DG of NCCB

                He is quiet and discreet, almost invisible. Many know little or nothing about him. Yet Michael Ndoping has been director general of the National Cocoa and Coffee Board, NCCB, since 30 January 2006. Before he was elevated to that position, the Senior Inspector of Taxes was chargé de mission at the Presidency of the Republic.

                The principal mission assigned him at the time of his appointment was to restore order in the sector as well as to draw up a plan for the re-launch of a profit-making cocoa and coffee sector. Put differently, Ndoping was given the arduous task of making these two products as vibrant as they were in the 1980s when they generated the most income for Cameroon’s economy.    

                More than ten years after he was appointed, Cameroon’s cocoa and coffee sector is still unable to acquire the much-needed vibrancy of yesteryears. The sector that came before the petroleum sector 30 years ago has continued to remain the laughing stock of the country’s economy as the quality of the two products leaves so much to be desired.

                Critics are of the opinion that it is high time the policies of the Board and men in charge were changed if the country envisages any improvement in the sector.

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AdolpheMoudiki, DG of SNH