Prime Minister’s Office:

Meme Wants Post of Director of Cabinet… But Can Ndian Let It Go?

- Who are the potential candidates?

Prime Minister Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute

Following the appointment of last week of Chief Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute from Ndian division of the SW region, as Prime Minister, Head of Government of Cameroon, a maelstrom of excitement and speculation immediately crept into the political landscape of the South West region. The subject in issue is the imminent appointment of a director to manage the new PM’s cabinet, which naturally and traditionally should go to the PM’s region of origin to say the least.

                However, political bookmakers have reduced the area from where the new director of cabinet of the PM’s office should come to just the Ndian division, which is the division of origin of the PM.

                Yet other political speculators say the PM may just decide to pick his director of cabinet from Meme division, if just to afford the division a ministerial position.

                Meme has gone for 27 long years without a minister in government. The last minister from Meme was Benjamin Mutanga Itoe who was dropped in 1992. Picking a Meme son as director of cabinet could help soothe the hearts of the the disappointed CPDM elite of Meme.

                As speculations and counter speculations continue to animate political discourse in Yaounde and especially the South West region, the names of potential candidates for the post of DICAB of the PM’s Office has kept increasing by the day.

                The names that have been coming up include Fritz Gerald Nasako (Senior Civil administrator and current SG of MINMAP), Godlive Mboke (Civil administrator and SDO), Ndoh Bertha (University lecturer serving as Special Adviser at the PM’s Office), Justice Mokwe (Senior Magistrate and current GM of ISMP Yaounde), Dr. Peter Masumbe (Senior civil administrator, University Don and senior staffer at the PM’s office) and senator Otte Andrew Mofa (senior Customs Inspector and Questor of the senate).  

                All these candidates have the requisite pedigree for the enviable job. So, it will depend on who amongst them is the most trusted by the PM.

                Yet, President Biya could also decide to impose a Meme son on the PM if just to satisfy the aggrieved CPDM electorate in Nfon Mukete’s division, who until now, are feeling forgotten and abandoned.

                But who says a Francophone cannot be made the director of cabinet? Recall that when Mafany Musonge was appointed PM in 1996, he picked Peter Mokoko Mbonjo from the Nkam in Littoral as his director of cabinet. Surprised at the development, Churchill Ewumbue-Monono remarked that Musonge might have done so under the guise of an imaginary Sawa solidarity.