Senatorial Election:

CPDM Campaign Gets Unenthusiastic Response from Buea Councilors

Invited for a campaign meeting through a bailiff, the councilors of the Buea Municipality snubbed the invitation, saying due procedure was not respected. They rallied instead with the Mayor for a parallel meeting at the City Hall.

By Boris Esono in Buea

David Mafany Namange, CPDM Fako III-Buea Section President has said he would invite
the Buea councilors properly next time

Councilors of the Buea Municipality stayed away from a meeting called by the Buea CPDM section president to launch senatorial campaigns in Buea, last Thursday, 15 March 2018, preferring instead to attend a parallel meeting at the city hall called by the Mayor, Patrick Ekema Esunge, on the same day.

            The Median learned that 33 of the 38 councilors of the Buea municipality snubbed David Mafany Namange’s invitation and stayed away from the meeting at the CPDM secretariat, while only four honoured the invitation. The four included Prof. Victor Julius Ngoh, Dr. Mrs. Ojong-Nkpot Comfort (4th deputy Mayor), WCPDM President Hannah Etonde Mbua and Chief Njie Mandengue.

            It emerged that the 33 councilors did not take kindly the fact that they were served invitations for the meeting through a bailiff, something which they considered unedifying.

            “Why should bona fide supporters of the party be served invitations for a party function through a bailiff? Is that what the party texts stipulate?” wondered one of the ‘dissident’ councilors, extrapolating that the president by his action did not trust that they would attend the meeting if ever he invited in the appropriate manner.

            Reacting to the boycott by the 33 councilors, the section president, Mafany Namange told reporters in Buea that it was a non-issue. He said it was a campaign planning meeting which did not require all the councilors to be present.

            Mafany said he invited just the CPDM section executives and the Mayor and his assistants for the meeting. He however regretted serving them the invitations through a bailiff, promising to invite them properly for another meeting billed for Tuesday 20 March.

            “Councilors were not expected to attend this meeting. The meeting was just a gateway for us to meet them in person on a later date. We invited only the section executives and the Mayor and his deputies. It is unfortunate that the mayor and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd deputies did not show up. But the meeting went on as planned,” noted Mafany Namange, adding that “in every human society there are discrepancies from time to time.”

            He called on the various campaign stakeholders to start working immediately, noting that the time ahead of them is short.

“We might not be friends or acquaintances in the quarters but we are militants of the same party and we should all work for the interest of the party. We should have respect for party hierarchy and texts; we should build bridges and not create division. We should always put the supreme interest of the party above individual interests,” prayed the rather benign and soft-spoken Mafany. 

            Meanwhile, the Buea Mayor also said in a release sanctioning his meeting that he too invited the councilors so that together they could brainstorm on the forth-coming election and also discuss other issues affecting them as councilors.

            Patrick Ekema during the conclave at the council chambers cautioned the councilors to demonstrate a high sense of maturity, consciousness and dedication during ‘these trying and defining moments’, as well as eschew all forms of provocation, slander and intimidation.

            The councilors in turn reaffirmed their resolve to enforce their rights and obligations as the elected representatives of the people. They frowned at efforts by some stakeholders to undermine the resolutions of the Session, which is the de facto deliberative organ of the council. Above all, the councilors underscored the need to put party and republic before self when voting on 25 March.

            But observers have expressed reservations about the sincerity of the Buea councilors when they said they will put party interest before individual interest on voting day.

            Many said ever since the quarreled reorganization of party structures in 2014, which saw the Buea Mayor’s ambition of becoming section president of CPDM Fako III technically short-circuited, thereby creating a lee-way for Mafany Namange to be elected by acclamation, the Mayor has yet to digest that fateful outcome; he has since played the role of “enfant terrible” of the CPDM in Buea.

            Commentators have however been wondering aloud why senior officials of the party in Fako have since not tried to pacify the mayor and cause him to forget the past and reintegrate the fold. They note that this complacency of Fako CPDM bigwigs is in spite of the mayor’s unquestionable popularity and his proven mobilization capacity and prowess.        

Mbella Moki’s disturbing candidature

            Yet, an inside source at the Buea council told The Median that the reticence and disinterestedness of the Buea councilors in the senatorial campaign is because they do not approve of the choice of some candidates endorsed by the party for the election.

            The source said incumbent Senator Mbella Moki Charles for example was not the choice of the council for the election, reason why his birth certificate and certificate of residence were certified not by the Mayor, Patrick Ekema Esunge or any of his 2nd or 3rd deputies, but by the 4th deputy mayor, DR. Mrs. Comfort Ojong-Nkpot, whom the Buea councilors had since taken a resolution ejecting her from office as 4th deputy mayor. 

            It however emerged that the Buea councilors did not follow-up their dismissal resolution to the end. They lost sight of the fact that a council resolution is not enough to fire a sitting Mayor; and that it is the exclusive prerogative of the Minister of Territorial Administration to destitute Mayors and/or their deputies.

            And it was this oversight that the ‘political Fox’, Senator Charles Mbella Moki, capitalized on and outsmarted the councilors to once again secure his place in the list of seven candidates for the Senate election for the SW.

            It is understood that ever since it became evident that Mbella Moki had succeeded to dribble past the Buea council, the councilors have continued wriggling their fingers in awe and wallowing in disappointment.

            But politics, they say, is a game for the smart; actors gain in experience and become better players only as they stay longer in the field of play. And this is perhaps where Mbella Moki has an edge over the Buea councilors.