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Inhabitants of Njeke, a village in Eyumojock Sub Division in Manyu division were on Thursday 24 July all smiles as they received a water scheme from the South West Development Authority (SOWEDA). The village has gone for more than 25 years without pipe borne water. As such, they were at the mercy of their neighbouring villages for the precious liquid.

Handing over the water scheme that was constructed in a period spanning from May to July 2014, the General Manager of SOWEDA, Dr. Eneme Andrew Ngome told the people of Njeke Village that for the project to last and serve its intended purpose, they must all work together to ensure its proper management. He stated that with the government policy to transform Cameroon to an emergent economy by 2035, it is the place of SOWEDA to accompany the government towards the realization of this lofty dream and projects like the Njeke water scheme is an indication of progress.

The project that cost FCFA 20.5 million has been achieved thanks to the funding provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. On the functionality of this water scheme, SOWEDA Infrastructural Engineer, Ashu Stephen, explained that it has a pumping skim that is designed using renewable solar energy. "Contrary to diesel engines that were used in the past and posed fueling problem to the villagers, we have used solar energy in Njeke wihch is the first of its kind in Manyu. Solar energy is affordable naturally and there will be no problem to the villagers. We installed the direct radian source collector and it shall pump water only during the day using energy from the sun" he stated.

Receiving the Njeke Water Supply Scheme, the First Deputy Mayor of Eyumojock, Ndip Nelson Mboh expressed gratitude to SOWEDA for a job well done and lauded the structure for its Developmental leadership throughout the South West Region. The Chief of Njeke village HRH Arrah Thomas Takang thanked SOWEDA for the water that has brought smiles on the faces of all his subjects. He promised to ensure sustainability of the water as it shall be appropriately used.

A ten man management committee was installed by the Chief Executive Officer for Manyu, Peter Tieh Ndeh who presided over the handing over event. He cautioned them to work for the interest of Njeke village. The committee members have as task to mobilize villagers to participate in community work, put in place a realistic management maintenance action plan and raise funds for the maintenance of the water scheme.

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Ngwa Bertrand

31.Jul.2014

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The Boeing 737-700 of the Cameroonian Airlines Corporation (Camair-Co) which was seized in France, has been returned to the company.According to the sources the happy ending came after the payment of $1.4 million which the US-based Aviation Capital Group (ACG) had been asking from the Cameroonian company for a long while with no one taking responsibility.

To date the Camair-Co float is made up of three aircrafts which enables her services across Africa  and stopovers in France which serves as its so called Godfather.

The airlines which is 100 percent owned by the Cameroonian State re-launched its activities on 28 March 2011.

The national career has since witnessed countless resignations of its managers with heavy debts estimated between $19 and 20 million,corruption and interfearance from  Government officials occupying passenger seats with their girlfriends for free  on weekend trips to France.

According to observers the difficulties of the company are mainly linked to such demise , coupled with uneasy social atmosphere.

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Ngwa Bertrand

23.Jul.2014

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  Cameroon Concord's Arrey Echi Agbor-Ndakaw speaks of the prevailing situation since the Biya regime decided to increase the price of fuel--------- 

 

For some few months now, the talk on everyone’s lips is the cost of fuel and transportation. The sudden price hike in fuel means people have to make some drastic changes in their mode of commuting and going about their daily business of survival and putting food on the table.

For those accustomed to going about in plush comfortable cars, the price hike means very little or nothing for them. However, for the average citizen who has to go through a day hopping from one taxi to another, the pinch of this hike is solely felt and what a painful pinch it is.

In big cities like Douala and Yaoundé where the cost of living is generally high, commuting thro and fro is one of the constant headaches for the Johns and Janes Doe. Add this to dealing with insolent taxi drivers especially during a long tiring day and a glaring picture of what all this means to the average person forms into the mind.

Picture a scenario where being used to paying 400-800 frs a day, a person earning 200,000 or less starts spending between 500- 1500frs a day. Sometimes, trying to bargain a price especially for short distances, while some drivers readily accept and take you, others insult and look down their high horse on you as if by making that bargain you committed the worst crime ever heard of in the history of transportation.

In cognizance of the difficulties this price hike may cause to the average Doe, the government released a statement to readjust the salaries of its workers by about 5%. This may be all good if the press release is actually true and not one of those many rumours plaguing the mainstream media. It might actually help some of the commuters in the quest and struggle for survival.

In this instance therefore, those who will really feel the pinch of this fuel price hike will be those in the private sector unless, the powers that be follow suit with the government press release and readjust salaries as well. It just might be too much to ask for considering the fact that many of these private bodies feel they are doing people a favour giving them jobs and as such what they are paid is enough. Others devise all kinds of means possible to delay paying their workers and yet, they expect them to be at work daily.

This begs for some explanations!  How are people expected to be at work day in day out when they are yet to receive salaries for upwards to three or four months at most? Will they be expected to fly or use the natural vehicles God gave them aka ‘Leggdisbenz’?

When one thinks about the repercussions of this price hike, people somewhere in a rural community feel the pangs doublefold. In addition to the scarcity of cars and roads in most of our rural areas, the few available ones will probably be charging passengers an arm and a leg. This makes it extremely difficult for people in rural communities who probably have to trek long distances from scarcely accessible roads carrying heavy farm loads. While those with cars will continue to enjoy their plush rides, the Johns and Janes Doe will continue to brave the elements, unruly taxi drivers and benskineurs as they adapt or hope for a silver lining in regards to the price hikes while wondering if this will be the only hike or if more will follow?

 

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

21.Jul.2014

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Petrol Price Hikes, Bravadoes and Negotiations
 
Issa Tchiroma is in town again, professing his usual incongruities. As always, he is accompanied by political lackeys, hatchet men, spooks, conspirators and all types of dealers.

They are trying to manage the mood of the nation by sending us to wild-goose-chases following the price hikes in the petrol sector. They are peddling one confusing idea after the other, making the best effort to fool all of us.
 
And so noises about strikes, negotiations and agreements are filling the air. Mark you, there are no strikes, and there are no real negotiations. It is all about the lackeys and others we have  mentioned above trying to increase the volume of currency notes they will take home by the time attention is turned to other issues to let the price hikes have their desired effects.
 
Those who know the story of South Africa know that it is trade unionists like Cyril Ramaphosa that used skills they had honed in negotiations with powerful mine bosses to bring an end to apartheid. He was head of the most powerful African trade union, the National Union of Mineworkers. It is in that union that he learned how to cut a deal, and about power which he regularly wielded "to bring mines to a standstill through strikes." As he says himself in "Anatomy of a miracle" by Patti Waldmeir, "The bosses outclassed us. We were not sophisticated in our approach to negotiation; all we had was a sense of injustice and a mission to improve the lot of workers, and the raw power of a strike…After being caught a few times with our pants down, we learned to do our homework…"
 
And so by the time the negotiation paradigm moved to centre stage in South Africa, Ramaphosa and his colleagues "had been through negotiations par excellence in the mining industry" as his opposite number Roelf Meyer would later recall, referring to the effectiveness of Cyril Ramaphosa in their negotiations.
 
All this is to say that the acts of bravado from so-called trade union leaders here in Cameroon lodged in air-conditioned offices are bereft of any negotiating power. Since they are always "negotiating" when their members are not active in bringing anything to a standstill, the "negotiations" always last just hours and the bosses – most of the time the government  – always come out the winner. No real negotiated settlements; no real skill honed; no deal cut!
 
The years of structural adjustment (SAP) dealt a serious blow to our development, and left us with a new habit that ignores social policy in economic decisions. The set-up and management of the state in Cameroon condemns us to the reality that, increase in the prices of commodities like petrol enriches the state, but does not transform the lives of citizens. This is because of rampant embezzlement of state funds, filthy corruption, impunity and the greedy appetite of members of a regime that lacks vision, a conscience and a heart for a bleeding nation the regime has taken hostage.
 
We are suffering from the consequences of the policies of a regime that for over thirty years has shown a frightening incapacity to diversify our economy to broaden the tax base. This has left us with poverty and suffering because the economy depends too much on a mismanaged commodity like petrol. We are suffering the effects of the policies of a regime that daily trumps creativity and hard work by ensuring that individuals gain wealth mainly by embezzling state resources. We are suffering from the obscurantism of a regime that lacks exemplary leaders, while notion-of-support midwives abound. Indeed, they use motions of support as a parapet for regime failures.
It is no longer news that the claim that high petrol prices are subsidized by the government is false. The high prices are the result of the numerous taxes levied by the government on the very cheap commodity before it is sold to us. The low prices of petrol in oil producing Gulf and Middle East countries are testimony to this.
 
It is usually said that "black gold," as petrol is called, often brings hardship and misery to the societies where it is found. This seems to be the case in Cameroon because rather than being the motor of development and social advancement, the commodity is a major source of enrichment of regime barons, puppets, sycophants and peddlers of motions of support.
 
The future stability of Cameroon may need skilled negotiators to get us out of the impasse in which the society is immersed today. Trade Union leaders have to learn the tactics of generating standstills to gain the power of negotiation that they need to cut good deals for the people they claim to represent. Who knows? Those skills may also turn out to be useful to us all tomorrow.
 
Tazoacha Asonganyi
Yaounde.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

10.Jul.2014

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On June 24, 2014 in Cameroon’s economic capital, Cameroon Railways (Camrail) announced in a press release that the railservice concession holder has officially ordered 25 tank cars manufactured by the Indian company Texmaco which specialises in railway material construction.

With a pricetag of 1.6 billion FCfa for the Bolloré Logistics subsidiary, the new tank cars “are equipped with cutting-edge technologoy and align safety and environmental protection.”

The new tank cars, which have a per-unit capacity of 55 m³, will enable the improvement of Camrail transport capacities as the company “serves, through its railway network, the SCDP (Société camerounaise des dépôts pétroliers or Cameroonian Oil Depot Company) in Yaoundé, Bélabo and Ngaoundéré,” indicated the company.

In addition, the Cameroonian rail transporter ordered on the same June 24, 50 new platform cars built by the Chinese manufacturer, CSR. These new acquisitions are intended to “to strengthen the container transportation capacities of the Douala-Bangui et Douala-N’Djamena.” The total cost of this latest investment is 2.6 billion FCfa.

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Ngwa Bertrand

26.Jun.2014

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                                                                  By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Cameroon Diaspora has, over the last two decades, grown exponentially as many people from Cameroon seek new ways of kissing goodbye to the humiliating poverty that has become the hallmark of their country.

As the number of Cameroonians living abroad increases, many development experts are still wondering why the country is one of the most underdeveloped in Africa. The country's roads leading to all the regions – are really begging for an extreme makeover. During the rainy season, these roads are simply non-existence. This has affected the country's trade with neighboring countries such as Gabon and Nigeria and farmers, in particular, are feeling the pinch as most of their produce decomposes in their homes as they cannot move it to other parts of the African continent which serve as a good markets for Cameroonian produce. It is estimated that post-harvest losses in Cameroon alone stand at about 70% as the country is noted for its perishables such as oranges, mangoes, cassava, cocoa and coffee. But getting highly needed foodstuff such as beef, cabbage, maize from other nearby African countries such as the Central Africa Republic and Chad into Cameroon is proving to be very challenging as the main roads to the country remain impracticable.
This unfortunate situation is causing food process to escalate, making life unbearable for residents of nations like Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Chad. With regard to healthcare,Cameroon has divisional and provisional hospitals some which became operational in 1972. Over the years, the hospitals have been reduced to consultation clinics with many Cameroonians ending up in the mortuary for little health issues such as constipation and seasonal flus. The outdated equipments and lack of commitment on the part of the Cameroonian medical staff have made Cameroonian hospitals a gruesome environment whose main role is the issuance of dead certificates. Also, as education in the area is unfortunately underfunded, the country which is noted for its talented people has taken a huge blow to the liver. The educational infrastructure is suffering from acute ageing and most of it is crumbling with Cameroonians looking helplessly. This, coupled with the grinding poverty, unemployment and despair is making many Cameroonian to simply bid farewell to formal education which was in the past, the region’s hallmark. However, many development experts remain hopeful, especially as the Cameroon Diaspora grows exponentially, with the majority of them living in Europe and in North America. But what role can and will this growing Diaspora play in efforts at reshaping life and mentalities in Cameroon that is begging for meaningful economic and social investments?
Making the Diaspora part of the development process in many developing countries is an idea whose time has come, even in Cameroon. While Asian communities have been using their Diasporic communities since the 1970s to boost their development efforts, African countries have just recently embraced the idea and, in Cameroon, there has been some reluctance even among members of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate due to past experiences and mentality issues. However, there are efforts underway to help members of the Cameroonian Diaspora to embrace this new idea. Members of the Cameroonian Diaspora have to understand that there is power in numbers and that their little contributions could, if well managed, turn things around for their beloved country. The Diaspora, it should be recalled, constitutes a huge treasure trove of development information, experience and investment resources.Cameroon is mired in abject poverty and the country's Diaspora can work towards rebuilding modern schools, upgrading hospitals and clinics in the region. Their contributions could transform these clinics from glorified mortuaries into life-saving institutions. Cameroonians living abroad have the means to help make their country an earthly paradise. This is, if they change their thinking and believe that working together is an idea whose time has come. They must understand that development ideas might not necessarily be theirs. They should rather look at the merits and good such projects will spin out to the people in the Cameroon. They have to quit their old squabbling and bickering mentality to embrace collective effort which is a notion that is very much alive in their new countries. Little contributions of about US$50 a year from every member of the Cameroonian Diaspora will go a long way in changing things in the country. This implies paying US$4 a month. This sounds small, but its impact will be marvelous. With such contributions, school infrastructure can be built, hospitals could be equipped, scholarships could awarded to smart kids on a yearly basis, programmes to transform mentalities could be launched, and mayors in all major Cameroonian cities could be given an opportunity to travel abroad and learn from mayors in large Western cities. The Cameroonian Diaspora could work for twinning projects with cities in the West. Other Diasporic communities such as those of Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria are already making the most of these opportunities.
Furthermore, the collective efforts of those living abroad can help transform the mentality of those back home. A bad mentality is a poverty generator. Our people are mired in poverty because their thinking has not evolved for decades. They still believe in having many kids and wives including a harem of mistresses! The days when people were proud to have large families are long gone. Fighting poverty requires sharing information with those who are not lucky to have access to that information. With Cameroonian Diasporic communities setting up many organizations abroad, they should understand that those organizations could be used as NGOs for the sensitization of those who have been caught in humiliating poverty back in the Cameroon.
With some Cameroonian organizations clearly playing significant roles in Cameroon's development efforts, these organizations could be empowered to play an educational role in the whole of Cameroon. Our people could be helped to understand that there are educational courses in life that can open more doors. Besides, the students could be made to understand that it is not just enough to have certificates. It is a lot better to have a certificate and be knowledgeable to defend the certificates we have. And this can only be achieved through continuous reading and research. If the Cameroonian Diaspora can build libraries back home in Cameroon, it will be able to make reading a culture and many poor kids in Cameroon will have reliable places where they can conduct research and have access to information that can help transform their lives.
This does not apply that the Cameroon Diaspora is not doing a lot back home. There is much going on right now at the individual level, but most of these efforts are personal and the results are hardly visible. Currently, capital flows from particularly the Nkwen, Manyu, Fako, Kumbo, Lebialem,Bali, Metta, Mankon,Douala, Bassa, Bamilike, Ewondo, Beti and Fang Diaspora are currently spent on education, hospital bills and the consumption of foreign-made goods such as TVs and clothes. However, if the country has to benefit from its large population abroad, the numerous Cameroon organizations abroad have to work hard to bring the Diaspora together. The leaders out there must embrace new ways which are predicated on reliability and transparency. Back home, the Diaspora must ensure that it has reliable partners to work with. Without reliable partners in Cameroon, the Diaspora’s efforts will only go that far.
All across the Sub Saharan African region which I covered as a news reporter some two decades ago, there are huge infrastructure gaps which have made the region less competitive when it comes to trading with neighboring regions and countries. Poor roads, unreliable energy systems and declining state-owned telecommunication systems clearly explain why Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and even mighty Nigeria cannot put its best foot forward against other regions of the African continent. But some of these shortcomings can be reversed through the transparent management of Diaspora remittances and the Cameroonian Diaspora must shake off old ways of thinking and embrace new ones. Consensus building is an idea whose time has come. Cameroonian leaders – both at home and abroad – must ensure that they and their people are reading from the same script when it comes to development projects. If Cameroon has to develop, the Diaspora must understand that it has a significant role to play and living abroad comes with a huge price tag – that of reaching out to those who are unfortunate in life. That is where annual individual contributions come into play. Cameroon has a chance to move forward as its people migrate. There is power in numbers, but Cameroonians have not yet seen those benefits. The Cameroon Diaspora must ensure that huge development opportunities do not pass the country by. Other Diasporic communities are transforming the lives of their people. The Cameroon Diaspora has to wake up from its slumber and indifference if it has to be counted among the important Diasporic communities across Africa. It must be united and purposeful. Squabbling and bickering will not take anybody anywhere. Like my mentor Chief BisongEtahoben of the Weekly Post newspaper regularly observed " A stitch in time, saves nine"

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Jun.2014

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