From bull dog to Ngong dog:

Chicken-hearted SW politicians have killed SWELA

-Prince NdokiMukete

One-time national scribe of SWELA, Prince NdokiMukete has indicted some “chicken-hearted, self-seeking” SW politicians and civil servants of killing the once vibrant and proactive regional pressure group

By Johnson Batuo in Kumba

Former SWELA Scribe and current chairman of the Kumba Traditional Council, Prince NdokiMukete, has blamed South West politicians and civil servants for the near demise of the South West Elite Association SWELA. 

                Speaking to the press recently, the 70-year old veteran journalist said ever since these pseudo-politicians infested SWELA and took confortable seats within its ranks in the late 1990s the association has gone comatose and has become somewhat of a “ngong dog”.

                 “It is unfortunate that SWELA that was once the sole voice and pride of the South West people has been arrogated by the wrong people……pseudo-politicians and civil servants who have killed the once vibrant and powerful association.”

                Prince NdokiMukete laments that these Yaounde barons are so chicken-hearted that they cannot pressure the powers that be with the problems of the people of the South West region.

                “Because these civil servants and pseudo-politicians are so beggarly and overly ego-centric they cannot stake their careers and jobs; as a result they have killed SWELA. Today the South West region cannot make her voice heard, even as other regions are pressuring government and grabbing huge chunks from the national cake.      

                As the countdown to SWELA’s silver jubilee in October 2016 narrows, it is hoped that Prince NdokiMukete’s diagnosis will be revisited and given due attention that is if there must be a revival of SWELA.

It should be recalled that no sooner was SWELA created in 1991 at the behest of its emblematic protem chairman, the late Kumba-based Barrister, A.T. Enaw, than it took centre stage in the political arena of Cameroon. SWELA rapidly became one of the most powerful pressure groups in the country, mounting pressure on the Yaounde regime about the problems of the South West people and making lead stories in both Francophone and Anglophone newspapers and radio.

                Needless to point out that if the South West region eventually grabbed the PM’s Office and kept it for 13 long years, it was thanks in great part to pressure from SWELA and SWELANS both at home and abroad.

                Unfortunately, those who profited, perhaps undeservedly, from the war gains of SWELA, were the same persons who later worked tirelessly to see it dead.

                Prime Ministers Peter MafanyMusonge and Thomas Ephraim Inoni who acceded to the Star Building thanks to pressure from SWELA did little or nothing to ensure its sustainability. Before long, these Biya appointees easily transformed SWELA into an appendage of the ruling CPDM party. And because the South West at the time was majority opposition, SWELA fragmented. 

                Yet, even latter day South West elite have still not seen the urgent need to revamp SWELA. It was no wonder therefore that projects like the Limbe Deep Seaport, Tiko Airport, the Kumba-Mamfe road, Loum-Tombel-Kumba-Mundemba road etc were not given priority in President Biya’s greater ambitions program.  

                Little wonder why in most SWELA meetings today, SWELANS only talk in the past tense, lamenting how successive leaders of the association have failed to make more gains for the region.

                Like the veritable ‘ngong dog’ that SWELA has become, the present Etukeni Joseph Moki-led executive bureau of SWELA only barely afford to bark without being able to bark.

                Moki’s critics have refused to pardon him for excesses planted on ‘lack of collaboration’ among members of his team and some SWELANS. Within the Moki Joseph executive, lawlessness has been registered first-hand. The divisional coordinators are accused of being all-assuming, all-knowing and too ambitious to serve as the people’s representatives.

                The deputy secretary general for Meme, for example, is said to be perpetually and publicly undermining his boss, the secretary general, and has repeatedly flouted all disciplinary sanctions taken against him.

                As a therapy to arrest future and further disasters dragging the reputation of SWELA in the mud and installing a SWELA exco capable of talking and fighting for the region’s interests, very concerned South-Westerners are already advocating for the ‘NdokiMukete diagnosis’ to be given a hearing and applied in the next SWELA general assembly.