Over 500 NW youths empowered to change society

Some 500 youths on 25-27 August 2015 took part in the first Annual Millennial Empowerment Conference aimed amongst others to empower youths to effect change in society.
    Addressing participants at the three-day conference at the St. Louis University Institute Bamenda, the organizer of the event and founder of New York based False Labels INC, Cameroonian-born Marie-Claire Nabila Kuja said the conference was aimed at inspiring and empowering Cameroonian youths to be the change they want to see in the world.
    She explained that the project was a fallout of another project “The Princess Recognition Award” which was created to recognize, honor and celebrate the power of unsung heroes who may have ignited change and improve the lives of others in their various communities across Cameroon.
    She said the conference thus aimed at equipping the youngsters to take the relay in the nearest future through this innovative approach.
    The workshop is intended to be a forum, discussion and networking place for academics, researchers, professionals, administrators, educational leaders, policy makers, industry representatives, all students, and others.
    Speaking at the opening on Tuesday August 25 Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh, President of the Bamenda-based ‘The Fomunyoh Foundation, TFF’, encouraged the youths to aspire to great heights and maintain their determination and optimism despite the challenges of the day.
    He said he saw in Marie-Claire Nabila Kuja the Cameroonian version of Maya Angelou who was an American author, poet, dancer, actress, and singer.

CBC health school sends out 296 para-medics

Some 296 students on 22 August 2015 graduated from 14 programmes of the Baptist Training School for Health Personnel (BTSHP) excluding the ear, nose, throat (ENT) with 3 graduates and 3 nursing practitioners.
    Out of the 302 graduates, the CBC Health Services shall employ all except one. Yet, the Director of Health Services (DHS), Prof. Tih Pius Muffih said, ‘It is still not enough’ for the 5 hospitals, 33 health centres, over 50 primary health centres and the numerous programmes that constitute the CBC Health Services.
    This explains why the school undertook the challenge to train more students this year. Prof. Tih was particularly impressed with the return of midwifery training, which according to him, is the need of the time to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of putting an end to infant and maternal mortality at child birth.
    Although only six midwives graduated this time (5 females and 1 male), the DHS charged them to go out and work like 60 midwives put together.
    The DHS used the occasion to appreciate the support and collaboration of the Ministry of Health, the Bui administration and the parents and students for choosing BTSHP. He cautioned the audience about the danger of non-communicable diseases like hypertension that tops the list of diseases bringing people to the hospital after malaria.
    Taking the rostrum, First Deputy Mayor of Kumbo as well as the Assistant Divisional Officer (ADO) for Kumbo congratulated BTSHP Banso for assisting government in training clinical personnel in 14 specialized nursing programmes. The municipal and government officials equally appreciated the CBC Health Services for employing the large number of graduates representing families.
    A representative of the Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN), James James Mireri brought greetings from the EPN Secretariat in Kenya. James lauded the BTSHP for constantly updating EPN on the progress and activities of the 7 pharmacy technicians they sponsored last year and 6 this year. He encouraged the graduates that ‘Life is a promise, fulfil it’.
    Dr. Ing Stanley Mungwe, Chairman and CEO of IT Kamer Ltd thrilled the audience in an academic discourse entitled, ‘Understanding the Time – the use of Information Technology. The motivational speaker and IT expert challenged the CBC Health Services to embrace IT and rip the benefits of speedy services. He lamented government’s misuse of huge amounts of money not only in purchasing luxurious cars but also in paying IT software abroad that can be built here in Cameroon.
    For their part, the graduating para-medics through their prefect appreciated the school authorities for moulding them from novices into professionals. They outlined challenges of inadequate staff and infrastructure at the school and appealed on the CBC authorities to do something in order to create a better learning environment for those coming after them.
    A spice of the BTSHP graduation was the presentation of foreign degrees and diplomas obtained by some CBC Health Services leaders. Kangong Joce, Fabombi Dickson and Gabe Victorine presented their MBA degrees from Germany while Pastor Bambo Denis, Ndosak George and Warri Denis presented diplomas they obtained in a short management course they undertook in Ghana recently.

Parody of justice:

Sisters sentenced to public rape, naked parade
Amnesty International has called on Indian authorities to ensure the safety of 23-year-old Meenakshi Kumar and her 15-year-old sister after a village council sentenced them to be gang-raped and paraded around the village naked with blackened faces as punishment for their brother’s actions. The all-male council, the Khap Panchayat, made the ruling in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, after their brother, Ravi, ran away with a married woman from the village’s dominant Jat caste. The sisters and their family belong to the bottom of India’s society, the Dalit caste, historically known as the ‘Untouchables’.
    According to family sources, Ravi and Krishna, both in their early twenties, had been in a love relationship for two years when both families did their best to keep them apart. Krishna’s family warned Ravi severally, beat up Krishna a lot and later forced her into a loveless marriage. At first, Ravi encouraged her to go on with the marriage. He later eloped with her after she ran away from her one-month marriage, with claims of being unhappy and treated as a maid.
    Under threat, the Kumar family has fled the village to seek refuge in the home of the Meenakshi’s elder brother, a police constable in Delhi. Meenakshi has filed a petition to India’s Supreme Court and applied to the police for protection while Amnesty International has written to the Prime Minister, Human Rights Commission and Schedule Caste Commission, but no help is forthcoming while the villagers only grow more aggressive.

Prof. Asonganyi’s “Difficult Choices in a Failed Democracy”:

A Well written, amply documented Memoir!
                 - A review by Prof. Ndiva Kofele Kale, SDF lawyer, shadow Minister

Prof. Ndiva Kofele Kale

Prefatory Remarks
When I found out that my boyhood friend, the Very Rev. Dr. Nyansako-ni-Nku,  PCC Moderator Emeritus, would be chairing this occasion, I couldn’t help but break into a smile and crack a chuckle as I allowed myself to reminisce on how he and I have come full cycle.  Fifty years ago this August, fresh out of college, contemplating our next move, the Reverend and I together with many of our college mates were members of the Buea Youths Social and Dramatic Club. We staged plays, organized debates, book reviews and even ‘tea-time’ dances.  Then we were  sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year old kids, venturing where even grown-ups feared to tread, struggling to read and make sense of Nkrumah’s Consciencism,  Nyerere’s Ujamaa, Sekou Toure’s African Socialism, and Senghor’s Negritude.  This Book Launch brings back many fond memories of those halcyon days!
    Mr. Chairman, the organizers of this Book Launch recognize that I wear many hats: law professor, lawyer, political scientist, and politician. In the latter role, I happen to occupy the posts of Shadow Minister of Justice and National Legal Adviser (one of ten) of Cameroon’s leading opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF).  An occasion such as this which touches on the very essence of the intellectual enterprise—and I use the term “intellectual” in its purest sense to mean the production and dissemination of knowledge—it is of crucial importance that my political persona not be allowed to distract from the message. Therefore, the views and opinions I express here today are solely mine and do not in any way reflect the official policy or position of the SDF.
    Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, the tradition in the Academy is that friends do not review books written by their friends. Because this gives rise to a conflict of interest which forces the reviewer friend to make a difficult choice: provide a positive review to a poorly-conceived and badly-written book in order to keep a friendship or tell it like it is and risk losing a good friend. My bona fides for reviewing this book rides on whether I should be treated as a friend of the author, therefore presumably biased, or someone who could be considered an impartial referee. The author dedicates his book “to all those who caused [him] to feel good or bad about [his] engagement in the SDF” and includes my name among a few others! So, am I a friend of the author, thus disqualified to review his work following the tradition of the Academy?
Mr. Chairman, I read the language just quoted as placing the burden on those whose names are cited to determine for themselves what side they fall on the equation. In discharging this burden, I am persuaded that for the period that I knew the author in the SDF, I may have caused him to feel good, and then again I may also have caused him to feel bad; which puts me squarely in the middle or on both sides of the fence! Mr. Chairman, being neither friend nor foe or both friend and foe makes me eminently qualified to review Professor Tazoacha Asonganyi’s book, which I will now turn my attention.

Deaths rock Cameroon Professional League

The ugly and cold hands of death have recently been snatching players of the Cameroon Professional Football League.
    The most recent victim was Leopold Oben Ngon, a player of Dynamo of Douala. Ngon died on August 22, 2015, during day 31 of the League II Championship.
    Ngon died after scoring the lone goal in the encounter pitting Dynamo of Douala against Colombe of Dja and Lobo at the Douala Reunification Stadium.
    The striker collapsed on the pitch and after receiving shoddy First Aid attention, he was rushed to the Douala General Hospital. But he died even before the ambulance arrived at the hospital.
    Ngon’s demise came barely 11 days after his teammate, Ferdinand Mbog, passed away.
    Another player who succumbed to death is David Njock Njock of Njalla Quan Sports Academy.
    Death came knocking when Njock Njock was watching from the stands as his team was being led by Apejes of Mfou at the Limbe Centenary Stadium. He slumped to the ground and died en route to the Limbe Regional Hospital.
    As soccer fans in Cameroon were still struggling to digest the mishap, death stroke again, this time claiming Alexis Dankam, a defender of UMS Loum. Dankam died in a car accident along the Yaounde-Douala highway.
    These and many other deaths have raised the issue of health care services for footballers in the various leagues in Cameroon. Medical experts and observers have accused clubs of paying little attention to the health and insurance of their players.

Lions stay put on FIFA ranking

The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon have dropped following the FIFA Coca-Cola September ranking released Thursday September 3, 2015.
    Following the ranking Cameroon occupies the 43rd position down from 42nd occupied last month and ranked 7th in Africa.
    The African hierarchy is dominated by Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana in the first, second and third positions respectively.
    The world top 10 also witnessed the ascension of Chile in 8th place, while Argentina maintains its crown ahead of Belgium and Germany.
Congo (42nd, up 1 place) are in their best position since 1993.

League One:

Njalla Quan FC relegated 
After spending just three years in Cameroon top flight football, Njalla Quan Sports Academy, NQSA has finally dropped to League Two. Promoted to MTN Elite 1 in 2012, and after just three straight seasons in the League One, NQSA is returning to the League Two Championship. The team from Victoria needed to defeat UMS of Loum on Wednesday to keep her survival dreams alive while heading into the season’s final day, but it wasn’t to be, as visiting USM of Loum defeated NQSA 3-1. Combined with Canon’s win, this mathematically eliminated the Victoria side and relegated them to the League Two championship for the 2015/16 season.
    It was a season that started badly for NQSA, with the club in the hands of the son of the founder, Junior Njalla Quan after the demise of his father, Henry Njalla Quan, the club has been limping since the dead of the founder. They have been complains of recruitment of inexperience players, poor condition of players among others that have plaque the team so far.
    These have so far been reflected in the results of the club.