Fako Division

Fako Division:
Bureaucrats and professional elite eclipsed in politics
Young Fako administrative and professional elite in the central administration in Yaounde have accused the political class of alienating and completely sidelining them in the politics of the division. These bureaucrats and technocrats say the politics of hate, exclusion and revenge practiced by their political elite only augurs ill for the progress and development of Fako
By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde

Mbella Moki Charles

Longman’s Dictionary of contemporary English defines elite as “a group of people who have a lot of power and influence because they have money, knowledge, or special skills e.g political, social, economic, traditional etc elite. It adds that an elite group contains the best, most skilled or most experienced people or members of a larger group e.g an elite group of politicians, artistes, administrators etc.
    So, because of the special qualities and/or skills they possess most communities look up to their elite for guidance and orientation in their quest to grab their fair share of the national cake. It is the elite of any community that represent them at the national stage and at those arenas where decisions that affect the interests of the community are taken.
    But this general rule seems to have an exception in Fako Division of the South West region. Here a section of the elite class, notably the political elite, either by design or by omission, have decided to alienate the professional and administrative elite from the political scene of the division. And this is a potent source of real frustration for these young professionals especially when they see how their peers of other divisions are recognized, respected and given their rightful place in the politics of their areas.
    Interestingly, these young professionals, in their disappointment and frustration, have elected to sit back and watch how their politicians are going and hitting their heads on the wall all the time.
    Many young Fako bureaucrats complained to this reporter that more often than not their opinion is never sought whenever important political decisions are taken in the division. They grumble for instance that unlike in other divisions where decisions affecting the lives of the community are taken by the elite in Yaounde and only implemented at the base, in Fako the local politicians have arrogated this strategic role to themselves; they are the ones that decide for the community, “and most often these politicians do not even master how to go about lobbying for things in Yaounde.”
    Fako administrative elite wondered aloud that despite being one of the most strategic divisions in the SW, Fako has the smallest investment budget package in the region. They say if the administrative elite were recognized, respected and given their rightful place, they would also develop a sense of community and constitute themselves into a strong lobby force for their division, like is the case with bureaucrats of other divisions. Unfortunately this is not the case with Fako.
    “In Fako, unlike in other communities of the SW where elites in Yaounde are looked up to as torch-bearers to fight for and protect their people’s interest in the distribution of the national cake, Fako political elite have carved out the division as a niche reserved exclusively for themselves, to the exclusion of all others,” remarked one of the administrative elite, who opted not to be named here.
    This young professional noted albeit sadly that most of these Fako politicians never had formal university education.             “And this is the bane of politics in our division, But we have decided to sit back and watch them do,” he maintained.    

    With these observations of some Fako professional elite, it becomes easy for one to understand why today Fako cannot boast of even a secretary of state in government, after two successive cabinet reshuffles and after they kept the post of PM for over twelve years.
    “Our politicians spend their time pulling down the young professionals in Yaounde. They keep writing petitions to the presidency and tarnishing the image of their bureaucrats and professionals. But they fail to understand that it is from this pool of bureaucrats and professionals that Yaounde authorities rely to pick those to occupy strategic positions and functions in the country,” noted another elite, who questioned for example why the names of Yaounde-based Fako elite did not appear among the list of those who signed the recent motion of support calling on president Biya to anticipate presidential election and also be candidate.
    “I tell you my brother; it was not an omission that our names were left out in that list; it was by design. If they published the list without the names of the Yaounde-based elite it is because they wanted it to be so,” lamented the young elite, who observed that in other areas people who are even sick and bed-ridden and some who could not attend the meeting for one reason or the other, had their names included in the list.
    It is believed that this disconnect between Fako politicians and their bureaucratic and professional elite also accounts for the insidious land grabbing phenomenon in the division and even the recent restructuring of CDC, which has only dispossessed Fako people of what was in fact and by right and by law, their property (we will come back to that in a subsequent edition).
    When this reporter called some prominent Fako politicians and bureaucrats to seek their opinion on the issue they all elected not to comment. Hon. Emilia Lifaka for example said she had taken note of the complaints but has nothing to say. Churchill Monono, for his part, replied to our SMS saying: “No comment”.
    But we of The Median see this silence of the actors as suspect; we interpret it to mean acceptance that there is a problem.
    We also had Senator Mbella Moki on phone but he could not talk because of the bad network.

Enter Mafany Musonge,
    Before Hon. Emilia Lifaka even told us she would not comment she hastened to ask if the people who came and complained to the press have gone to see Mola Musonge. I explained to her that I also put the question to them but they said Musonge after serving as PM is now a statesman, a national figure; they do not expect him to reduce himself by playing an active role in local politics in Fako. The young bureaucrats also said as political leader of CPDM in the South West, Musonge can only give advice to the young politicians of Fako that is if his advice is sought.
    But they said as for hon. Lifaka, she is now the undisputed leader of local politics in Fako. That she and others like Senator Mbella Moki, Andrew Motanga, Patrick Ekema etc have a case to answer.
    And we of The Median share the opinion of the complainants about Mola Musonge. This is because Musonge can be termed the father of Fako (Bakweri) empowerment. Before Musonge became PM you could hardly find a Bakweri graduate from ENAM; there was not even one Bakweri police commissioner or captain of the gendarmerie; there was just one Bakweri civil administrator. But no sooner did Musonge become PM than Bakweris started going into the so called ‘grandes ecoles’ in their numbers. In fact during the Musonge PM’s office a meeting of Bakweri students in ENAM was formed and the membership at one time was 25. Musonge also got many Bakweri sons and daughters recruited in the various government parastatals and institutions of sovereignty like CRTV, CDC, National Assembly, Labogenie, Matgenie, Camtel, SCDP, SIC etc. All these bureaucrats and professionals are in fact Musonge’s creatures, as Prof. Fame Ndongo would put it. 
    Unfortunately, this Bakweri empowerment strategy initiated and master-minded by the Rt. Hon. Mafany Musonge, has not been adequately followed up; it was abandoned by those who took over from him.
    Today, while a few of the Bakweri sons and daughters that were empowered by Musonge have had seemingly good careers in the administration, the bulk of them have been abandoned to themselves, with virtually no body to godfather them. Very few of these technocrats have attained the rank of sub-director in the administration. This reporter can site the case of one of the first Bakweri ladies to graduate from ENAM as civil administrator. Ever since this young lady left ENAM and was posted to the presidency, nothing is heard or said about her. She has not had the career one would have expected her to have, coming from an area that has very few of her calibre. How many women civil administrators do we have in this country for this lone Bakweri lady to be so forgotten? The case is akin of young tax inspectors, treasury inspectors, journalists etc. Perhaps those that Mola recruited in  CDC are an exception; they are having very wonderful careers.

The way forward
    Politics they say is a science of leverage, and leverage depends on numbers. Therefore, one cannot expect much from politics if one does not have the requisite numbers. That is why it behooves us of this newspaper to call on Fako politicians to stop looking at themselves as champions but rather as leaders and servants. They should copy the good example of other divisions and be the embodiment of the hopes and aspirations of their community. They should see the urgent need to recognize, work with, protect and project their young aspiring bureaucrats and professionals in the administration, if just for the sake of progress and development of Fako division. One hand cannot tie a bundle, as the adage goes.
    Until Fako politicians do this, we fear it may be long for the division to rise again and assume the greatness it is usually  associated with. These politicians should not let Fako to be relegated to the background, as it now seems to be the case.