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Dr Nfor N. Susungi, A Southern Cameroon Patriarch And A SHESAN Gives His Opinion On The Fire Incident At SAHECO.

If a theft or arson takes place at night the prime suspect against whom an arrest warrant must be issued by any prosecutor is the night watchman. Under Common law he will still benefit from the presumption of innocence. But under Civil law, he is presumed guilty until proven innocent.
In the bizarre case of the torching of my Alma Mater Sacred Heart College which I attended from 1963-78, I know the geography of the campus quite well even after more than 50 years. The only New element is the presence of nearly 100-200 soldiers who are based at the airport in Ntahmbeng near the Fon of Mankon's palace. Pictures are wonderful things because you can see the long line of soldiers who invaded sacred heart college.
These soldiers invaded the campus under instructions from their commanding officer, with the obvious complicity and or consent of the principal. No question about it. Military doctrine requires that when so many soldiers congregate anywhere, standard procedure requires that they must have sentries and night vigil at various strategic locations on a campus as large as Sacred Heart College, if their mission is to secure and protect.

Details: Dr. Nfor N Susungi; 21.Sep.2017; Hits: 2869

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In response to Ambe Emmanuel's "Bamenda drinks of its blood but Buea gets drunk….Bamenda burns but Buea gets the benefits."

I read with lavish amusement, the ranting of Mr. Ambe Emmanuel and his misguided effort to fan the embers of the graffi-coastal problem, aka the NW-SW divide. Let me begin with one caveat and one explanation. First, the explanation: the unsuspecting reader of this rejoinder might be surprised to learn that after the release of Agbor Balla and co, Mr. Ambe went to town with his conspiracy theory of how: “When it came to the release of detainees which was called for by Bamenda, Buea was favored while Bamenda was left to lick its sores.” When his attention was drawn to the fact that Fontem Neba was not a SWesterner, he rationalized his baseless allegation by arguing that Fontem Neba was based in the SW, where he is a lecturer in UB. The caveat I wish to make is that although I am not holding brief for any SWesterner, I am a bona fide SWesterner; and I have neither regrets nor apologies to detractors of the SW. This is as it should be!

I am compelled to respond for two reasons. One, Mr. Ambe mentioned my name in his Fb write-up; but most importantly, to present the facts, lest the public be misled into believing the errant lies, half-truths, jingoistic and provincialist verbiage he has been propagating. It is obvious Mr. Ambe is paranoid about anything SW, evidence by the confusion and incoherence in his hallucinating tantrums. With a distinguished pedigree as a NW provincialist, Mr. Ambe has launched a barrage of churlish invectives and malicious attacks against SWesterners with the intention of blackmailing and questioning their commitment to the Anglophone struggle, as evidence by this question: “How many Facebook leaders are from the South West? A certain WALTERS KIMAH, EKINNEH AGBOR, AKOSON PAULINE DIALE, the rest are from the North West as the Anglophone problem has become a Graffi struggle. The majority from the south west are against the struggle.”

Such baseless allegations like much of what Mr. Ambe said, is no more than gross misrepresentation, and a campaign of calumny by someone suffering from delusions of grandeur. The halting grammar and rambling syntax is ornamented with banal aspersions and vituperative grandiloquence presenting Swesterners as lazy and indolent. This is an affront on the collective sensibilities of SWesterners and all level-headed Anglophones ought to develop a sense of outrage. Mr. Ambe has exposed himself as a fifth columnist fanning the embers of Anglophone disunity, while pretending to do otherwise.

I would relish engaging Mr. Ambe in an honest debate on the NW/SW divide, free of all his garrulous anti-SW banter. But the illogical absurdities in his knowledge of Cameroon history, betrays a lamentable ignorance, which I find truly remarkable. Hear Mr. Ambe: “On 26th may 1990 the SDF was launched and LRC sent death squads to shoot and kill at will as les biafrens were about to divide the country. 6 died in process and many were maimed and handicapped for life as we already know. While the Ntarikon youths were catching live grenades with their bare hands, our brothers in the south west were singing DIMABOLA at Bongo Square and BENJAMIN ITOE mounted the podium in pink CPDM regalia and challenged anyone who wanted democracy to come out. Though ALBERT MUKONG created the SDF to defend the interests of the Anglophones, spin doctors from the South West like AGBOR TABI were dispatched to quickly distort and divide popular opinion in saying that the SDF was a [Graffi thing] and that the South West should not adhere to it. Even though the people heeded to their plea, they ended up voting the UNDP which was the lesser devil between the unpopular CPDM on the one hand and the graffi SDF on the other hand. That is how the UNDP swept almost all Parliamentary seats in south west, for a party that was far removed in interests and in leadership from the Anglophones. Divide and rule made the south west to choose a distant francophone party over their Graffi brothers. If the Ntarikon youths did not defy their fears and come out en mass to catch live grenades, Cameroon would not have had the more than 300 political parties we have today including the UNDP that was highly favored at the time. MUSONGE took the relay from AGBOR TABI and as Prime Minister and political godfather of the region, he heightened tribalism in outlandish proportions.”

To begin with, the ridiculous assertion that Albert Mukong founded the SDF to defend Anglophone interests; and Ntarikon youths catching live grenades while the Southwest counterparts were singing Dimabola in Buea, is laughable and should attract no further comment. It stretches disbelief and reading the excerpt above, would cause laughter were it not absurdly and hypocritically tragic. As an eye-witness to history, I don’t remember Mukong being an accused in the Yondo Black trial. Besides, your thoughts are so convoluted about events that you are ignorant of basic facts. It was not “divide-and-rule” that “made the south west to choose a distant francophone party (UNDP) over their Graffi brothers.” It was the ill-advised SDF decision to boycott the March 1992 legislative elections.

You berated Swesterners for voting the UNDP in the 1992 legislative elections, but saw nothing wrong with NWesterners overwhelmingly voting for the CPDM in that same election. Unlike the NW whose 20 seats were all “won” by the CPDM, the UNDP won the SW, (but contrary to what you stated) the UNDP only won Fako with a relative majority and obtained two of the four seats - Mme Mokeba and Litumbe (UNDP); Ray Ikundi (CPDM) and Omer Betow (UPC) were the other Fako MPs. Mr. Ambe, I must remind you that while Swesterners like DO Beteck refused to rig the elections in Meme and was sacked; NWesterners stood by and cheered as then NW Governor, John Ebong Ngole (SW) stole the election from the UNDP led by Ngohbessing Suh Romanus and gave it to his CPC Bali classmate, Achidi Achu (NW); who was subsequently appointed PM based on the CPDM victory in the NW. Before you talk about tribalism, please check the ratio of NW/SW staff at the Star Building while Achidi Achu was PM and spare us the noise. Besides, in the October 11, 1992 presidential election, the SW overwhelmingly voted for Fru Ndi, the Union for Change candidate. And in the January 1996 Municipal elections, all major councils in the SW were won by the SDF; so your claim about Swesterners not supporting the SDF because it is a “graffi thing” is baseless and entirely without merit.

Maybe I am missing something here, but I still cannot fathom why anyone can afford to employ such sophistry to rationalize his disdain for Swesterners as Mr. Ambe stated below: “When workers were sought to till the soils for the implementation of the CDC, the colonizer was met with resistance, apathy and untold indifference from the SAWA indigenous people. The Sawa man with his immaculate white shirt, 3 fardon sanja and British hat could not imagine himself folding his long sleeves to till the soil nor could he bear the inconvenience of getting up at the 4 am cold to catch the plantation truck to ferry him to work that earned him peanuts at the end of the day. The SAWA man preferred to get up at 9 am, spend an hour ironing his white shirt, sipping some red wine on the balcony of his hut over a game of draft or fishing out the news from the latest publication. When the colonizer got in touch with workers from the North West extraction, they were surprised at the level alacrity to do hard work, dedication and seriousness they got in exchange; as a consequence, the North Westerners were preferentially sought over the indigenous Sawa people to toil in the CDC farms. The North Westerners were also appalled by the highly fertile nature of the Sawa soils which required little or no tiling, little or no fertilizers or watering and maize could be planted around the year with reasonable productivity as opposed to their native Graffi lands where maize could only grow between May and September. While the Sawa man saw dirt in the black volcanic loam soils, the Graffi man saw a golden opportunity to farm the lands to the fullest around the year and get enough harvest for fufu corn and nyusi-ji or kati-kati if you like. It is through these that the Graffi man went home and called his brothers to join him till both the CDC farms and other farms in order to make a living.”

Just for the records; these apposite remarks, acerbic as they are, points to a cantankerous mind, and gives fodder to SW provincialists who pander to the trite narrative of the Nwesterner as bogeyman for all the problems in the SW. I consider such feeble-minded resort to blackmail condescending. I find the animus put forth by Mr. Ambe against Swesterners astounding and I am disappointed that someone who claims to be championing the Anglophone cause would be undermining the struggle with patronizing and condescending comments that will only alienate Swesterners. This is indeed pathetic, and an unbelievable shame! Is Mr. Ambe saying PM Philemon Yang, Atanga Nji, Achidi Achu, Vincent Ndumu and other NW CPDM elite who oppose the Anglophone struggle are SWesterners?

While I concede Mr. Ambe’s right to free speech, I don’t understand why he is flogging this NW/SW dead horse, with such condescending display of empty grand-standing. His lack of civility, matched by a penchant for name-calling, seems to be animated by a primitive vendetta of self-abnegation and a certain blind, narrow-minded hate, borne of an unseemly disposition and prejudice against Swesterners, which transcends the realm of free speech into hate speech. I don’t know on what authority he claims that Chief Mukete killed Lawyer Eseme, but such unguarded remarks have no redeeming value to the present struggle and strip his message of its significance. These double-standards wherein NWesterners attack SWesterners have been used by SW CPDM elite to stoke fears of a hidden NW agenda which is counter-productive to our collective aspirations. Therefore, anyone pandering to this narrative should rightly be considered as an enemy of the Anglophone nation.

Mr. Ambe, in conclusion, your circumlocutious bloviating is spurious and your warrantless attack on Swesterners betrays an angry and cantankerous man with a high nuisance value, seeking to be noticed. As much as I tried to rationalize the motivation in your diatribe, permit me say at this time and point, Anglophones cannot afford to be distracted by people who speak the language of yesterday with such profound recklessness; without any due consideration of the consequences of projecting such a narrow provincialist agenda. That someone of your age and standing would join this category of ego-offensive sycophants to champion hypocrisy and double-speak at such a critical time in the Anglophone struggle is clearly beyond commonsense. Mr. Ambe, you must grow out of this impertinent self-flagellation if you want to be relevant to this struggle.

Cheers and good luck
Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai
Public Intellectual

Details: By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai; 19.Sep.2017; Hits: 2901

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The truth in Cameroon is that people are living in fear. Believe me, if you talk to Prof. Ako or search his heart of hearts, he is disgruntled with the Francophone government. I have not talked to any Southern Cameroonian alias Anglophone personally, but I know even they are not happy with the Francophone government. Who will be happy when out of 35 ministers in Cameroon, only one (1) is English speaking and even the one (1) was educated in France. In the line of succession, if the President is not there, the next person is the Speaker of the National Assembly (Francophone), the next is President of the Senate (Francophone) and then the Prime Minister (fourth position - Anglophone)! Even the Prime Minster does not have the powers some Francophone Ministers have.

The Prime Minister is deceived that he is head of government, does he appoint any minister? Does any minister take orders from the Prime Minister? Someone appropriately called the office of Prime Minister as sinecure position and that is what it is. Yes, our son Minister Mengot knows himself that nobody regards him as anything in the presidency. I am not there and nobody told me, but I know that is the truth. All Southern Cameroonians alias West Cameroonian are frustrated people in the Republic of Cameroon. Everyone is afraid.

To show that 95% of Southern Cameroonians are frustrated with being under the Republic of Cameroon, that is why the ghost towns are more effective in villages than in the cities. In the cities, francophone children go to school, francophone business people open their stores, but in the villages you cannot try it.

No one goes out to warn people not to send their children to school, but every family knows that his/her daughter has a degree but is jobless meanwhile all the jobs (menial and important) are occupied or filled with francophone children. Wait till when francophone become totally bilingual in a way that you will not be able to distinguish when the speak English, all jobs will be filled by their children. Some of us think the push for bilingualism is to advantage us. No! If we do not succeed to address the situation now, the situation ahead would be devastating. Even the crumbs we now enjoy will no longer be there. Francophone might even come and seize our lands and tell us to go to hell.

Some of you were not born when the Igbos were in Cameroon. What happened then and push our fathers to jump from fry pan to fire, will return. At that time the Ibo man would force you to buy his/her merchandise and if you did not, you called the police man, he was Igbo, went to court, the lawyer and magistrate were ibos, etc. It would be worse! even those pro La Republique du Cameroun will not be exempted.

The not closing of Anglophones schools in La Republique du Cameroun is due to fear. The Catholic bishops, Moderator of Presbyterian church had to open their schools because of fear. Has anyone heard that the President ever responded to the letter to written to him by the Catholic bishops of Southern Cameroons outlining the grievances that brought about the strike? When bishop Balla of Ebolowa was eliminated, everyone is now afraid. Bishop Tutu never succumb to apartheid government of South Africa but our bishops have been cowed. English schools in LRC would have been shut down in solidarity but if they did, most of them would have been dead meat now. Fear is what is ruling in Cameroon.

Anglophones in high positions in LRC are grumbling quietly in their homes and small circles. Dying in silence. Our parliamentarians would perhaps have left LRC as our forefathers did in Enugu, but they fear we might led them down since fear controls us. The Wirbas are few. The Paul Ayahs are few.

Details: Rita Akana; 15.Sep.2017; Hits: 3546

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The daughter of the La Republique Presidential couple, Brenda Anasthasie Elle Eyenga Biya is reported to be one of the candidates who will sit in for this year’s entrance exam into ENAM, which is an academic institution apparently reserved for the privileged of the country.

The 20 year old is 325^th on the list of candidates, for the competitive exam.

Details: 10.Sep.2017; Hits: 4952

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Create a political party to contest in 2018 and bring the change you preach, return to advocacy with the United Nations or escape to the diaspora like others before you and pick up activism?

It’s over a week now since the venerated and former United Nations Legal adviser, Barrister Agbor “Balla” Felix Nkongho was released alongside over fifty-four other Anglophones who were detained at the Kondengui Principal and central prisons but his current and never-seen silence has cast doubts in the minds of Cameroonians about what he intends to do next.

Details: Chi Carlson; 09.Sep.2017; Hits: 2967

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PART 1

I write to tell the story and ask some key questions which have been on the minds of most people, but who don't have the courage to ask. Without addressing these issues with honesty, we would have sentenced ourselves to living a self-imposed illusion.

Dear PEA,

I would like to call your attention (as if they don't already know) to the fact that teachers have been for seven months and counting without salaries and you ignor them and prefer to go about preaching and claiming that "your" schools have resumed. In which Cameroon and for which teachers to teach? Permit me ask a few questions:

1. Can you really admit with all honesty that "your" schools have resumed and this academic year will run successfully as planned? Wake up!!

2. How will your teachers send their own children to school should the so-called school resumption even materialize (resumption for2017/2018 academic year has failed in Southern Cameroons)? Is it normal for a teacher with children to go and teach other people's children while his/her own children stay home because they cannot pay fees and buy books?

3. How, if you care to ask, shall your teachers (as if you give a damn) feed themselves and their familis, pay their rent and still come to class to smile and teach as if all is well?

4. You have intentionally kept silent in the face of all these oddities which is a demonstration of the crooked tactics which you have learned from LRC as you are known for robbing soldiers with them. How long do you plan to maintain tight lips as uncertainty looms?

5. Is is not hypocrisy with some ingredient of bad fate for the PEA to withhold teachers' remunerations this long and yet call on these same teachers with threats and intimidation to come and organise morning and evening classes to "cover" the syllabus? Is this not modern day slavery?

6. Have you forgotten so soon the children who have been locked up in jails and who will not be joining their mates to go to school? What about those who have been killed and maimed and their parents in grief? What about those students in areas where their schools have been burnt down? Have you chosen to close your eyes and ears to the cry of the suffering people? "Keeping silent in the face of an oppression means you have chosen the side of the oppressor." Has the Church through the PEA deliberately decided to betray us? If that is the case, make it official by sending it as announcement in churches so that we will know you are no longer with us. "The enemy you know is better than the friend you don't know."

As if to add insult to injury, the PEA goes ahead to perpetrate the same unfathomable and irreversible damage to the education of our children. You choose to shamelessly promote all students who virtually studied nothing in the2016/2017 academic year to the next class without any remorse. According to the PEA academic work coverage plan, teachers are expected to use 2 Months to cover all the work which was supposed to be covered last year and then start the work for 2017/2018 academic year in November. OUTRAGEOUS!!!! INCREDULOUS!! Whom are we deceiving? I can't help but laugh at all this short sightedness which we try to use to justify our immature actions and vehemently refuse to accept the fact that schools have been shut down for this academic year. Permit me ask a few questions again.

1. What criteria has been used to determine that the few francophone students dotted on your campuses qualify to move to the next class? (Ambazonia Education Board save us). Is this not witchcraft in broad day light?

2. If a child can be promoted to the next class who studied virtually nothing and didn't write any qualifying exam, what stops us from taking a child from primary 7 (sorry class 6) to go and seat in for the Advanced Level? What has education been reduced into? A race?

3. How on earth can the syllabus of the GCE I know (God bless the old days) of the Anglosaxon system of education be covered for one year (for A/L) and only two years (for O/L) and students are fit to write the exam? What about the science subjects which need practical lessons for at least two years before the students qualify for the A/L? Who will pay for this intentional irreparable damage being caused to the education of these children? What kind of nation are we envisaging. Remember: "Only a fool can allow his enemy to educate his child" ~ Malcom X.

4. What of a student who did not pass the O/L well in 2015 (maybe had 4 confused subjects without a combination) and went to Lower Sixth with the hope of rewriting the O/L in 2016, studied for less than 3 months and now magically finds him/herself in Upper Sixth to confront the A/L. In which class does this unfortunate student REALLY belong? Form 5, Lower Sixth or Upper Sixth? Is this not Academic Genocide?

5. Has the Church (through the PEA) chosen the side of the oppressor? Has the PEA been so compromised that it is willing to substitute its prestigious Anglosaxon academic system, so envied and respected by all especially francophones, for drudges handed down from LRC? How can the Church and its educational institutions so easily cow to external pressure to the extend that it can no longer differentiate EDUCATION from SCHOOLING?

6. May you be reminded that the forceful school resumption game you are playing is over before you have even started? Let us be ready to accept the humiliation when ever these mistakes we make turn around to slap us in the face.

Send those few francophone children home and save whatever iota of dignity the PEA still has left. LRC is making deperate moves to drown whatever heritage We have and hold. We can fight off this enemy if we refuse to play his losing game. Our children deserve better. Southern Cameroonians deserve better. And we shall get it.

Teacher of the PEA
for SCACUF