Worthless Reunification celebs

 John Fru Ndi

The SDF chairman has said that Cameroonians stand to gain little or nothing from the reunification anniversary celebration. Fru Ndi made the remark shortly after the official ceremonies at the grandstand at Bongo Square in Buea.

 

John Fru Ndi, SDF chairman

    “The celebration does not bring anything new to Cameroonians,” Fru Ndi said, questioning how many Anglophones were involved in the organization of the event. He noted that Anglophones were not the least happy and wondered why the 50th anniversary should be celebrated in 2014 and not in 2011.
    Fru Ndi recalled how in his address to the youths on 10th February President Biya promised creating 250.000 new jobs. “How do you create jobs without industrializing the country,” Fru Ndi wondered aloud, noting that the message read out by Biya in Buea was out of place. “Cameroonians are fed up with Biya’s lies,” he said, wondering why nothing was mentioned about Ahidjo, Foncha, Endeley, Muna and why their photos were not also pasted all over the place like Paul Biya’s. “What then are we celebrating,” a visibly disappointed Fru Ndi wondered aloud.

50th Anniversary of Cameroon’s Reunification

Great Expectations, hollow outcome

The people of the South West expected a surprise package from the President, and he served them in truckloads. Without mincing, every South-westerner without exception, even the zealots and hallelujah singers who went on air the day following the main reunification event, should naturally be dissatisfied with the address delivered on the occasion by the President of the Republic, H.E. Paul Biya.

From the editor’s suite

With the curtains now drawn on the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Cameroon, time has come for a first appraisal of the event. The people of the South West expected a surprise package from the President, and he served them in truckloads. Without mincing, every South-westerner without exception, even the zealots and hallelujah singers who went on air the day following the main reunification event, should naturally be dissatisfied with the address delivered on the occasion by the President of the Republic, H.E. Paul Biya.

Great Expectations
    A translator friend once told me that “Great Expectations” should have been a more acceptable rendering for “Grandes Ambitions,” which were the compass of President Paul Biya’s maiden seven-year tenure. And since then, wherever he went, the President announced projects which, at the beginning of his second seven-year mandate in 2011, became “Grandes Réalisations” which should translate as “Major Achievements.” These were to be given concrete expression through the integrated projects, better known by the French appellation “projets structurants.”
    It was thus normal for South-westerners to expect much from the President’s address during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Cameroon in Buea. Speculation was rife, and with good reason: transformation of the Buea Council into a City Council, transfer of the regional transport office facilities from Limbe to the regional headquarters in Buea, official confirmation of the construction of the Limbe seaport, creation of a referral hospital in a town in the South West, establishment of more professional and higher educational institutions in the Region, construction of roads to link up the inaccessible divisions of the South West region, construction of a reunification road to glue the reunification pact, appointment of a son of the soil to appease the region  prior to the celebrations and following the incarceration of Chief Ephraim Inoni. South-westerners dreamt of all these and much more.

Embarrassing Outcome: SW emerges as best losers of Reunification!

By Ojong Steven Ayukogem, on special assignment in Buea

Beyond the fanfare, colour and thunderous drum-beats of a successful celebration of the reunification 50th anniversary, the event has gone down in the annals of history as one during which president Biya reneged on his old tradition, when he failed to announce any important projects for the host region, during his 5-day stay in Buea to preside over the sovereign events. The president in his anniversary address did not as much as promise even a single project for the South-West region neither did he give assurances that some projects long announced by his appointees would be realized at term.

Teachers’ strike grounds schools in B’da

By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda

As promised government teachers of basic and secondary education have embarked on a nation wide strike which has grounded classes in institutions in the country with Bamenda getting its own share.
    The industrial action was announced at a press conference in Yaounde on February 5, 2014. According to a release issued after the conference signed by 11 Trade Union Leaders of the Basic and Secondary Education sectors, the strike which started on February 17 is expected to end on February 22 for the first phase and another to start from April 28 to May 2, 2014.

Mutengene: Woman survives gunshots from armed bandits

By Sarah Nkongho Ojong in Mutengene

Tuesday February 4, 2014 barely some few minutes after 7pm, a woman selling fruits whose name we got as Bodeh Marceline was ambushed by some two armed bandits while she was returning from the market, at quarter four b in Mutengene.
    Found in their middle and facing directly one of the armed bandits, Marceline was asked to hand over the waist band she was carrying, but before she could do so, she was shot in the stomach. According to report from the victim, she fell on the ground helplessly and watched the bad guys struggle to remove the waist band they had asked for as they also asked her to roll down her trousers. Faced with death, she could only indicate with groans that everything was in the waist band as she pleaded for help from the same guys who removed the band and disappeared into thin air.

Endemic Infant malnutrition in North Cameroon

44.7 percent of children in the North, Far North, East and Adamawa regions are highly malnourished, according to medical statistics.

By Morine Ncheke Tanyi in Yaounde

A sensitization campaign that will run from February 17 to 28 February is under way in the North, Far North, East and Adamawa regions of Cameroon. Organized by the Ministry of Public Health in partnership with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization and UNICEF, the campaign is aimed to boost the fight against an alarming incidence of malnutrition in these parts of the country.

Curbing Infant and maternal mortality: UNFPA donates 10 million dollars to Cameroon

By Morine Ncheke Tanyi in Yaounde

With maternal mortality rising sharply in Cameroon, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has offered to help the Cameroon government reduce the phenomenon. The announcement was made public during a press conference granted in Yaounde by the Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, Kate Gilmore.