“Etang-ti moh manyang”

Bonu Innocent was “bayangi” after all!

Bonu Innocent

Tribute to a fearless, assiduous, highly intelligent and militant advocate
By Maquens Balemba in Yaounde
Bonu Innocent was in every way a South Westerner, in many ways a North Westerner: He referred to himself as “etang-ti moh manyang” (strong bayangi boy), owing to his up-bringing and his school-boy days in Nchang village near Mamfe town in Manyu Division. Bonu spoke sparkling and impeccable Kenyang (the language of the bayangi people).
    He also imbibed a little from the coastal bakweri people. His Bakweri was lucid and said.

    Whenever Bonu met with his pals and contemporaries he would hardly call them by their names; he addressed them simply as “nkwa’ neh” or “mola”, but rarely as “oo woh” or “iyie’eh”, irrespective of whether they hailed from the North West or the South West region.

True, Bonu’s parents hailed from Bambui in the North West region. But our own Bonu was a Bayangi boy who lived all, if not the better part of his life in Mamfe and Limbe in the South West region. Bonu is (or should I say was) in fact, a South Westerner. Very few South West indegenes can claim to have invested more for the development of the SW region and particularly the sea-side town of Limbe than Bonu Innocent.
    But the million dollar question is: Why should a man live all his life in a particular place and invest so much for its development only to be taken to a far away destination and laid for eternal rest after his death? Will Bonu Innocent behave true-to-type (he is an avowed bayangi boy) and allow his body to be taken to his native Bambui village, as the manyu people are wont to do, or did he ask to be laid in the place where he not only invested the most but spent and enjoyed his life the most- Limbe? 
  
Facts of the case
    The very assiduous and fearless advocate and member of the Cameroon Bar Council passed on to eternity on 17 April 2014 at the CNPS Hospital in Yaounde. According to information we got, he succumbed to a malaise. Even though, many are still wondering and trying to figure out what could so suddenly take away the life from an otherwise spritely, courageous and energetic man.
    Lawyer Bonu travelled to Yaounde where he and some other colleagues were busy correcting the scripts of candidates who sat the Entrance Exams into the Bar Association. He suffered a malaise in active duty. He was rushed and put under reanimation at the CNPS hospital in Essos Yaounde. But doctors’ efforts proved inadequate to save his life; he died few days later.
    The entire Cameroonian legal community is devastated by Bonu’s sudden and premature signing out, this we can affirm. Reports said the populations of Buea, Mutengene and Limbe screamed and then held their breath when the news of his death came.
    And when his mortal remains passed through Mutengene to Buea later the same day, hundreds of colleagues, friends and sympathizers lined the main road; others rushed to and crowded the Buea mortuary, to witness how a once great, renowned, courageous and fearless lawyer was being ushered into the quiet solitude of the “cold room”.
   
 A sport lover and promoter
    Apart from being the Representative of the Bar Council President in the South West Region, Barrister Buno Innocent was also a sport promoter and business man. He founded the Victoria Shooting Stars Football Club and was caretaker/manager of a chain of hotels in Limbe. Bonu also sponsored and spearheaded many other developmental and charitable projects in the town of Limbe and the SW. In fact, Bonu was easily a household name in Limbe, Fako Division and the entire South West region.

 A militant politician
    Controversially (did some body say that controversy is reserved only for the very intelligent?), Bonu was a militant supporter of the opposition SDF party and at once a thorn in the flesh of CPDM party barons in Fako division. Yet, we cannot immediately affirm whether he ever ran for any political office.

Bonu the journalist
    A multi-talented and multi-dimensional persona, Buno Innocent was also a journalist. He once worked as reporter and desk editor for the National Daily, Cameroon Tribune. He also later co-founded the once famous Cameroon Life Magazine.
    Bonu’s talent as a lawyer was sublime. His reputation in legal practice could hardly be challenged both in Cameroon and abroad especially in Nigeria where he did his legal studies.

A veritable “etang-ti moh manyang”
    Even though Buno Innocent actually hails from Bambui in Mezam Division of the North West Region of Cameroon, he was in every way a South Westerner and in any way a North Westerner: He grew up and did his primary and secondary education in Nchang village near Mamfe in Manyu Division; he referred to himself as “etang-ti moh manyang” (strong bayangi boy); he lived the rest of his life in Fako Division notably Victoria, now Limbe. His Law Firm (Liberty Law Chambers) was situated in the junction town of Mutengene, otherwise referred to as Cham (what ever that means). Yet, and in spite of his attachment to and investments in the SW region and Limbe in particular, Bonu might still be taken to Bambui for his final rest. If that was his will then so be it. But you and I know that Bonu was of Bayangi extraction and not Bambui; he not only avowed his ‘bayanginess’ but lived and acted like one all his life.
    That said, one would be stating the obvious to say that Bonu’s untimely death has created a vacuum in the Cameroon Bar Association and the Fako Lawyers’ Association, FAKLA especially. But no matter how cruel death has always proven to be, it only tells us how powerless and helpless we are in front of Allah. It shows that however great a man can be he can never be greater than Allah. 
    So, go well grand frère, and see you when we meet again.