Biya Grants Official Funeral for Mayor Patrick Ekema
-The official funeral in Buea on Saturday 14 December would
be presided over by the MINAT, Atanga Nji Paul, acting as the personal
representative of the head of state, The Median has confirmed.
By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde
 |
| Mayor Patrick Ekema (RIP) |
Patrick Esunge Ekema, the Mayor of Buea, who died on 27
October, would be buried in his private residence in Molyko, Buea, on Saturday,
14 December 2019.
The
‘Moto Nayimbe’, as Patrick Ekema was fondly called by loved ones in Buea, would
be buried like a king, as the head of state, President Paul Biya has approved
an official funeral for him
The
funeral to be bankrolled by the state is in recognition of the exemplary
courage and rare commitment of the dare-devil Mayor in defending the interest
and more importantly, the unity and territorial integrity of the state of
Cameroon, The Median understands.
The
head of State, Paul Biya would be personally represented at the official
funeral by a top collaborator, who would be welcomed at the funeral ground at
Bongo Square, Buea, by the SW Governor.
President
Biya and his wife Chantal would also send a special wreath that would be placed
on the casket of the fallen ‘warrior’.
Patrick
Ekema thus becomes arguably the first Mayor in Anglophone Cameroon, and about
the second Buea son, after the late Paramount Chief of Buea, the late Nakuve
SML Endeley, whose funeral would benefit such attention and minute-by-minute
concern from president Biya.
The
only other South Westerner whose funeral benefitted such attention and even far
more, from Biya, was the late ASG of the Presidency, Prof. Peter Agbor Tabi.
Across
Cameroon, another mayor whose death really touched President Biya as to merit
his special attention and concern was the late billionaire Mayor of Bana, Pa
Kadji Deffosso, who owned the UCB and other giant businesses in and out of the
country.
Because
of the importance of Mayor Ekema’s funeral, the University of Buea has been
forced to precipitate its convocation ceremony. Initially slated to hold on
Saturday 14 December, the convocation has been moved to Friday 13 December.
Ekema’s
funeral is expected to be a crowd puller, especially as thousands of mourners
would be coming to pay their last respect and honour to the man whom only weeks
to his death was conferred with the dignity of ‘Nyamoto Kwatolo’ (the Great
Warrior) by chiefs of the South region.
A
shrewd politician and no-nonsense administrator, Mayor Ekema ruled the Buea
municipality with iron fists. Some residents referred to him as Stalin (the
no-nonsense Russian leader who purged his government of all rivals and
eliminated the Kulaks as a class), while others likened him to Adolf Hitler
(the great German leader whose quest to conquer Europe led to the 2nd World
War).
Unfortunately,
if Ekema had any development plans for Buea, these were all short-circuited by
his untiring attention to the Anglophone crisis that was taking a serious toll
on Buea. The Mayor took his responsibility midway into his first mandate and
invested his every effort to restore and maintain order and vibrancy in ‘the
town of legendary hospitality’ now ‘the city of excellence’ this, in the wake
of a raging conflict that had brought socio-economic activities in the town to
near zero.
Thanks
to Ekema’s steadfastness and resilience, normalcy returned to Buea, even as the
conflict took a serious toll on most, if not, all other towns and cities in the
NW and SW region.
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