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Some angry villagers of Wone Bakundu, Konye Sub Division, Southwest Region, Friday, August 19, blocked the Kumba-Mamfe road in protest of the installation of a new chief.

Martin Njasomo Njemo, homologated through prefectorial order No. 72/2016 of March 3 was set to publicly ascend to the disputed Wone Bakundu throne but protesting villagers frustrated the occasion.

The Post gathered that while some villagers used tree trunks to block the road, Njasomo’s supporters struggled in vain to clear the road for the occasion to commence.

Vehicles traveling to Mamfe, Nigeria and Kumba were forced to park for hours waiting for traffic to resume.

In the face of the controversy, the Meme administration reportedly asked a delegation comprising the Second Assistant Prefect for Meme, Nelson Yongkhuma Gamsi, and other senior staff at the SDO’s office, who were denied access into the village, to return home.

It was reported that some visiting MPs were smeared with mud. Even traditional rulers who showed up for the event ended up running for safety.

Before Friday’s protest, unconfirmed reports had emerged of lingering mysterious actions including charms already buried in the ground prior to the installation exercise.

Shortly after the death of Peter Mukwelle Odine on February 12, 2011, WoneBakundu slumped into a crisis.

The race to succeed the former Chief pitted his son,Sone Nelson Odine, and Martin NjasomoNjemo.

The dispute split along the lines of whether the throne was hereditary or subject to elections.

The Divisional Officer, DO, for Konye,Hotison Babila auditioned three consultative talks on November22, 2012, March 30, 2013 and October 25,2014 but the results were contested.

Babila’s report is said to have favoured the son of the late chief on the grounds that the throne was hereditary. Two years later, on February 24, 2016, the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Meme, David Koulbout Aman,called another meeting at his cabinet.

Present at the meeting were the DO, seven kingmakers and the two aspirants to the throne. A few weeks after the meeting, a prefectorial order was issued to Martin Njasomo as Chief of Wone Bakundu.

This administrative ruling polarised the village. Those who supported the son of the late chief petitioned the Southwest Governor, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation and the Prime Minister over the decision.

Different families have manned the Wone throne: The first was Chief Lazarus Mindako (gazetted) in 1963; he hailed from the Bombessi family. The second was Chief Yonne Bernard Lobe through a prefectorial order from 1990-2000. He was a member of the Bianja family.

The third was Chief Simon Odine Obase, who ruled from 2000-2006.Obase was a member of the Bondongo family.And the fourth was Chief Peter Odine Mukwelle from 2008-2011 also from Bondongo family.

The Eye Newspaper

 

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Rita Akana

25.Aug.2016

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The mayor of the Batibo council TANJOH Fridrick Bahtoh shall tomorrow hand over prizes to students who passed with distinction at the 2016 GCE within his jurisdiction. The ceremony shall take
place at the Batibo council chambers in the presence of administrative and traditional authorities. Tomorrow's event shall be crowned with the finals of the 2016 Batibo mayor's cup. The finals shall be between Guka FC representing Batibo Central and Ashong FC.It shall be at the Batibo municipal stadium.

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Mokun Njouny Nelson

24.Aug.2016

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After the Fon of Nso’s ultimatum to the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Bui to demilitarise the Kumbo water installation, tempers flared over the weekend when the entire Bui Division was transformed into a military camp.

The Nso people, August 19 snubbed theSDO’s ban on public meetings, defied gun wielding police andthe heavy down pour to answer their Fon’s call on the water crisis.

Addressing his subjects, Sehm Mbinglo I said; “I am glad that not even the rain deterred you from honouring mysummon…we are in a month when Fonlon, a son of Nso who brought water to the people died.”

SehmMbingloregretted that“it is another son of Nso, who has taken our water and given to the Government… I have now been told that this water that we have been managing for over 40 years belongs to the Government…,”he said.

The Fon was categorical,“Kumbo water belongs to Nso people and will continue to be their property. 

From this moment, all Nso people should buy pipes and install water in their houses, free of charge, and report to me accordingly. Those who have meters should remove all of them and bring them to me immediately,” Sehm Mbinglo instructed.

The Fon had earlier written to the SDO of Bui demanding that troops placed at the various water installations in Kumbo should be removed.

But when the Fon convened a meeting with his subjectson August 19, military trucks were dispatched to Kumbo to foil the meeting.

Irked by the heavy deployment of troops around his Palace, the Fon said; “I have done everything possible to find a peaceful solution to this water problem. Now that I have been described as stubborn, I won’t step out of this Palace to Tobin or travel to Bamenda again for any discussion on the water crisis. I will die in this Palace.”

“I hear the SDO says we should drink free water just for three months. I am saying that we shall drink free water for… Nsosons and daughters of goodwill like Fonlon would provide chemicals for us to treat the water. Let none of my subjects provoke the soldiers,”he cautioned.

The Fon said this is not the first time soldiers have been deployed toNso land because of the water problem,“so we should look at the soldiers from a distance. “We shall all decide the fate of our water. Nobody shall decide on our behalf. That’s all,” the Fon concluded.

War In The Social Media

The Kumbo water crisis has ignited a social media war among Nso indigenes in the diaspora. While some are supporting the Mayor’s camp, others have backed the Fon, arguing that the already impoverished masses should not be coerced into buying a free gift of nature like water.

Shey Kaavi Wo Melim said there was a Council when the Kumbo Water Authority, KWA, was controlling the water. According to him, “any bonafide Nso man or woman sees the Fondom first as representing them before the Council or any Government organ.”

As the debate rages on, some Nso Diasporas are now blaming the Fon for endorsing the CPDM. According to them, the Fon is now reaping the fruits of his labour for supporting the Biya regime.

“When the Fon was supporting the SDF did you cry any foul?It would be a minute situation like this one that will kick start the war of independence, let the Frogs keep on toying with my Fon.”

Meanwhile, the on-going Kumbo water crisis and the deployment of armed militia is weeping up sentiments of the 1990 Ghost Town Operation across the Northwest Region. Many fear that the situation may degenerate if a solution is not sought.

Cameroonpost

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Rita Akana

24.Aug.2016

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On Monday,22.August 2016, Cameroon marked 30 years since its worst natural disaster ever, a toxic gas explosion at Lake Nyos in the northwest region that killed 2,000 people and 3,500 animals. The victims say they still have not received promised compensation. They also want to return to their homes, but the government says the lake is still toxic.

Lake Nyos and the surrounding land in northwest Cameroon appear to be completely dead. There is no sign of birds or other animals.

The lake was the source of toxic gas 30 years ago that killed by suffocation some 2,000 people and 3,500 livestock animals within 25 kilometers of the lake. Magma under the lake leaks carbon dioxide into the water, and a large cloud of the deadly gas escaped into the air on August 21, 1986. 

This camp situated 25 kilometers from the lake is now home to survivors.

Papa Saboum lost his 30-year-old wife at the time and still has fresh memories of what happened to him and his neighbor, a commissioner of police.

“I never saw her on the bed but on the floor. I said how, why has this woman decided to take poison inside this house," he said. "From there I heard the wife of the commissioner crying, saying hey my man eh, my husband eh.”

Residents say when the incident happened, the government of Cameroon promised to assist them by building new houses and giving them money to do farming and raise animals. The survivors say since then, they have been abandoned.

Human toll

Youssouf Mussa, 36, says he can now read and write only because he walked seven kilometers to the nearest school.

“I was six years old when this occurred," he said. "I did my primary school here and there was no secondary school here we had to go to Wum, that is seven kilometers to and from here for five years. At times I did not even have food to eat. I worked very hard and got my advanced level. So many of my school mates dropped out. I was very fortunate.”

Mussa raises nine goats behind his house to take care of his family. He remembers that his father lost two herds of cattle in the disaster.

“Now we don’t have animals but while we were in Nyos, the cows were there,” he said.

But today, 9-year-old Aissatou Wilsa may not be that fortunate. She is unable to cover the seven kilometers to the nearest secondary school because of ill health, yet she has a dream.

“I want to be a nurse if I have the means,” she said.

Lack of health facilities

Besides education, food, electricity and sanitation, the people say they are in need of adequate health facilities.

It has always been the wish of the survivors to return to the villages they left 30 years ago. But Bitta Benoit, an official of Cameroon's Ministry of Territorial Administration, says they still have to persevere.

He says the danger that Lake Nyos and its surrounding villages were exposed to is progressively being reduced because they are degassing the lake. He says it is only when the process is complete and they are sure of the people's safety and security that communities would be allowed to live in the zone.

Benoit refused to comment on the compensation program for the survivors and their children.

The government of Cameroon and some well-wishers do visit the people occasionally to give food to the scores of survivors living in the camp. Camp leader Tcha Ewi says they prefer to be empowered instead of receiving donations each year on the anniversary of the toxic gas explosion.

“Since you are here and you are a big journalist, I wish that you should transmit this to the government. That the government has abandoned us. They will come and give us some bags of rice and oil to eat," said Ewi. "Teach somebody how to catch a fish and don’t be giving him that fish. The government should give scholarships to students who want to study and tomorrow they will come back and build this village. I am not happy with the government.”

The Cameroon government says in the 1980s, the population of Nyos was over 3,000 and growing fast as many people moved to the area for agriculture and cattle ranching. Thirty years after the incident, the population is still estimated at several thousand, but they live far from the killer lake, even though some are ignoring warnings from the government and returning closer to the lake.

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Rita Akana

23.Aug.2016

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About two months to the Female African Cup of nation, to be hosted in part by the seaside resort town of Limbe, the Limbe I electoral district of the SDF has launched a campaign  for a chief to be enthroned before the continental jamboree.

In a letter dated 13 August 2016, signed by the electoral District Chairman,Ndenge Godden Zama and addressed to the Prime Minister, the SDF notes that “ It has been more than a decade since the passing away of HRH Chief Ferguson .Billa Manga Williams. Ever since then the great city of Limbe has suffered due to the lack of a traditional and cultural leadership. Now, the city of Limbe is on the verge of hosting a major football competition and it would be a sacrilege to the good people of Limbe if an event of such magnitude comes to town without a traditional ruler”.

The letter continues that “it is not new to you that the vacancy in the 1^st Class Chiefdom of Limbe has led to numerous problems and conflicts of interest. It is improper for administrative procedures to hold hostage the traditional needs of an entire peoples that is why we recommend that you use your high office to make the dreams of the people of Limbe come to reality. This move would awaken the gods and bring about an outburst of joy of momentous proportions that would give the African nations cup the colour, pomp, gusto and pageantry it deserves.”

It should be recalled that ever since the death of Chief Ferguson Billa Manga Williams in 2005,Limbe has not had a traditional ruler. Prolonged consultative talks between and among the ruling families of Limbe have not yielded fruits. Internal wrangling have continued to crop up ,leaving the 1s class chieftaincy stool vancant. 

During the official opening of the Limbe Omnisport stadium by the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Pierre Ismael BidoungMkpatt,it is the 3^rd class chiefs of the many small villages in Limbe that took part in the pouring of libations for the opening of the stadium. This absence of a chief has left many of the city’s denizens worried that it would be an abomination for the city of Limbe to host the continental soccer dance without a chief The SDF goes further to say “ that is why we are initiating a people’s campaign to have a new Paramount Chief of Limbe before the start of the Female African Nations Cup”.

In July 2016,one of the contenders to the throne, Prince Jerry Manga Williams in a correspondence addressed to the administration sought the authority incharge of 1^st class Chieftaincy in Fako to commission warrant kingmakers.

In his correspondence, he intimated that the commissioning of warrant kingmakers and a Chieftaincy Advisory Committee will ‘demise the long and lingering stalemate regarding the succession of the last Paramount Chief of Limbe’ and shall be ‘in accordance with the Bakweri tradition of Chieftaincy succession and in recognition of the Cameroon Chieftaincy Law’

The SDF letter which comes to add to these earlier calls is also addressed to the administrative authorities of Limbe in particular and Fako in general as well as elite and politicians in different political parties.

The Eye Newspaper

 

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Rita Akana

22.Aug.2016

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Officials of the Kumba City Council, KCC,recently blocked hundreds of students offered holiday jobs from receiving payment unless they proved that they were registered voters.

Samuel Anoke, an agent of ELECAM in Kumba I, said the Government Delegate, Victor Nkelle Ngoh, took the decision in a bit to boost the registration of youths on the voters roll.

Anoke refuted allegations that the students were forced to register on the electoral roll. He said there is no provision binding ELECAM to forcefully register citizens.

According to the official, the decision of the Council encouraged the youths to register. He said at least 20 youths registered within an hour on the same day the decision was announced.

”Most of them seem to be angry with their forefathers. We have not forced anybody to vote.In less than one hour we have registered some 20 youths on the electoral register,” said Anoke. 

Quizzed on the reluctance among youths of voting age to register, Anoke said some say they do not trust the system. He said often, some say that with the current setting in Cameroon, their vote cannot count in an election.

Others, Anoke said, admitted to the ELECAM agents that it was their first time hearing about voter registration. Some claimed it was their first time of hearing about ELECAM.

On how the voters’ card will reach the students, the ELECAM official said the data collected carries specific information relating to the neighbourhoods where the students reside. He said a door-to-door distribution approach will be used to reach out to the potential voters.

As the decision from the City Council authorities went into force, the holiday workers battled to get paid, criss-crossing the Council to get registered.Upon registration, they rushed back to the treasury department of the City Council and received their payment of FCFA 25,000.

News of the decision gave the youth leaders of some political parties the opportunity to canvass for militants.They even assisted ELECAM in setting up the bio-metric kits and other registration gadgets.

The Kumba City Council strategy has received acclamation from public observers, while others think the measure was too spontaneous.

Cameroonpost

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Rita Akana

22.Aug.2016

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