Editorial

President Paul Biya, some have claimed is a man of rigor and moralization.  He is widely believed to have set the course for what is now the fight against corruption in Cameroon. He was heard saying recently that “During this hard times that we live, the large and long work of national construction involves the rigorous management and perseverance vis-à-vis the maneuvering force of demoralization, demobilization or destabilization”.

On the 31st of December, 2005, in his message to the nation, the Head of State, in a firm tone said, “the diversion of public funds to the detriment of the Cameroonian people. I would say today, very solemnly, has to stop.”  In September 2007, in a press release made by the Cabinet, as in many other speeches, the Cameroonian Chief Executive reaffirmed his determination to fight every form of evil which prevents Cameroon from emerging as a great nation.  He observed that “misappropriation of public funds, in whatever form, is a crime against the people deprived of the resources that belong to them. Such individuals must, therefore, be punished with the greatest severity.”

Correspondingly, Law No. 2001/028 of December 14th, 2011 created the Special Criminal Court. It was followed by Decree No. 2013/288 of September the 4th, 2013 that set the part for the return of stolen money from the state coffers. However, on December the 23rd, 2015, in response to recent accusations of corruption made by Transparency International, Issa Bakary Tchiroma Cameroon’s Communications Minister and Government Spokesman revealed that, “to date, there are at the Special Criminal Court, 129 files forwarded to the Specialized Corps of the judicial police; 115 cases entered, 123 indictments; 146 sentences of imprisonment with fines and court costs; 40 non-places visited; 78 acquittals; 41 decisions pending with over three billion CFA francs in refund as corpus delicti including almost 30 billion Swiss francs pronounced for damages suffered by the state.”

Interestingly, before the creation of the Special Criminal Court, the ruling CPDM regime had CONAC, (National Anti-Corruption Commission), whose president was reportedly involved in numerous financial scandals. The Biya regime also had ANIF (National Financial Investigation Agency), whose members lived a princely lifestyle at the expense of the Cameroonian taxpayer.  All in all, the CPDM had CONSUPE (Higher State Control), and the Council of Budgetary and Financial Discipline (CDBF) both habouring fraudsters and looters.

Biya’s 32 years in power have seen castles, spectacular scientific complexes, villas and many 5 star duplexes belonging to highly placed CPDM officials and members of government springing up in Cameroonian cities, without their owners being asked about the origin of their fortune. Who now is fooling who here? We of this publication believe and fervently too, that Minister Issa Tchiroma needs rest.

Soter Tarh Agbaw Ebai

Editor In Chief

Cameroon Concord
cameroonconcordnews
Cameroon Intelligence Report

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Elangwe Pauline

29.May.2016

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Buhari, the former military ruler, also was elected on a platform that included curbing corruption and transforming Nigeria’s economy.

A number of high-ranking officials in the Jonathan administration have been arrested on corruption-related charges since Buhari took office, but their cases have dragged on in court.
 
Tunde Aremu, policy and campaigns manager for anti-poverty charity ActionAid, said the public’s interest in the corruption fight is waning.

“People are paraded on TV, they are taken to court. By and by, people are getting disinterested in the issues. Because when you have a case that appears simple, and it’s not going into full prosecution, people move onto other things," Aremu said.

Global oil prices

The economy is also dragging.

The global fall in the price of oil is partially to blame for the economic woes. So, too, are recent attacks by militants on infrastructure in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.

Petroleum production is thought to have fallen by 500,000 barrels per day due to those attacks.

All indicators show Nigeria is poised to enter a recession. Inflation is at nearly 14 percent. The government recently hiked fuel prices by 67 percent to end a nationwide shortage of gasoline.

Tiger Johnson, a student in the northern city of Kaduna, said the poor are bearing the brunt of the downturn.

"Since we voted Buhari for change, you understand, the poor masses are crying. It’s not the rich people that are suffering. It’s the poor people that are suffering," Johnson said.

Some economists have said Buhari should relax controls on obtaining foreign currency, while also allowing the value of Nigeria’s naira to fall. Such a move would boost growth, they have said.

Buhari has so far resisted those moves because he wants to protect local industries and reduce the amount of foreign goods Nigeria imports.

Economy

Kaduna teacher Danmaigona Clement said the current pain will lead to a more stable economy over time.

“These changes that they expected are not the type of changes they will get. They are changes that are painful," Clement said.

But with prices of food and fuel climbing, Buhari has failed to deliver on what he promised, retiree Suleman Yakubu said.

"Where is the change? Where is the change?” Yakubu asked.

The president is expected to address the nation on Sunday.

VOA's Nigerian reporters Ibrahima Yakubu Kaduna, Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi and Chima Nwankwo in Abuja contributed to this story.

VOA

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Rita Akana

29.May.2016

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The Assistant Secretary General at the President of the Republic who passed on last month, Prof Agbor Tabi is said to have left a list of names including government official and family members banned from attending his funeral. The late Biya Minister had earlier on requested and banned alcohol drinking during his funeral. Heis remains will arrive Mamfe, his area of origin this weekend for burial.

Born on February 23, 1951, in Ndekwai Village in Manyu Division of the Southwest Region, Agbor Tabi attended the Bilingual Grammar School Man’O’War Bay (later moved to Buea, now BGS Molyko,) from 1965 to 1971. He was among the privileged group of students to sit and pass both the Francophone BEPC and the GCE ‘O’ Level.

After his ‘A’ Level, Agbor Tabi enrolled in the then unique University of Yaounde, where he took a Bilingual Degree from the Department of Bilingual Letters and Linguistics in 1975. He also, in 1972, obtained the ‘Certificat d’Etude Franҫaise’ from the University of Dijon, France.

With his relentless quest for knowledge, Agbor Tabi later flew to the USA where he bagged successively a Master’s Degree and the PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the University of South Carolina in 1978 and 1982 respectively.

Upon return to the country, Agbor Tabi began his career as lecturer at IRIC Yaounde. He would later, in 1984, become the Deputy Director of the prestigious institution. In 1988, he was promoted as Director of IRIC.

His success as Director of IRIC caught the attention of President Biya, who entrusted him with yet another challenging job. In 1991, Agbor Tabi was made the Chancellor of the University of Yaounde. In this position he had the difficult task to implement the very unpopular reforms that government had just adopted for University Education in Cameroon, notably the proscription of bursaries for students and the institution of tuition fees.

Agbor Tabi, however, succeeded in this tough assignment, which two of his predecessors, Laurent Esso and Prof. Joel Moulin, had proved unable to handle. The two Francophones made very short spells as Chancellor of the Yaounde University. President Biya replaced them in quick succession before he decided to also try the Anglophone Agbor Tabi.

The Francophones left not before the Ngoa-Ekelle campus had literally transformed into a war zone, as students rioted against the authorities. Then, only 40 years old, Agbor Tabi shocked the entire nation and left many in awe, as he, soon, restored calm on the campus.

Prof. Agbor Tabi proposed the construction of a security fence round the campus. Students protested against this, but Agbor Tabi stood his grounds, sometimes folding the sleeves of his shirt to face the raging students in arm combat. He succeeded to erect the fence. Agbor Tabi also succeeded to implement the new reforms: bursary for students was stopped and tuition fees instituted.

It was surely for his spate of successes that, after creating six new universities in 1993, President Paul Biya retained Agbor Tabi as the pioneer Rector of the University of Yaounde I. On July 21, 1994, Biya made Agbor Tabi the Minister of Higher Education with mission to get the new campuses fully functional and operational. Agbor Tabi again did a commendable job and, before long, all the six universities went fully operational.

Agbor Tabi’s admirers started seeing him as a potential Prime Minister. To their great chagrin and maybe to his, Biya dropped Agbor Tabi from Government in 1997.

He returned to the classroom at IRIC and continued with active CPDM politics; preaching and convincing, especially his native Manyu people, that Biya understands their problems and has special plans for them.

On June 30, 2009, after 12 years in the political wilderness, Agbor Tabi bounced back as President Biya appointed him Assistant Secretary General at the Presidency. Given that the current PM, Yang, was ASG at the Presidency before becoming PM, Agbor Tabi’s supporters saw him as replacing Yang in the Star Building soon. But death has squashed all of Agbor Tabi’s hopes.

Prof. Peter Agbor ,  succumbed to death at an American hospital in Paris, France, after a protracted illness on April 26th 2016.

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Rita Akana

25.May.2016

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Since the death of Professor Peter Agbor Tabi, we have been made to understand through online commentaries that he loved Manyu people dearly, he was an intellectual and due to African tradition, we shouldn't speak evil of him.

I want to state that we are dealing here with the same problem, same backward thinking, same psychological damage of the minds of Cameroonians by Mr Biya’s system.

Predominantly, natives of Manyu have claimed he loved them because he used his influence as a minister of higher education to ensure undeserving Manyu youths are admitted into Cameroons premier teacher training college –ENS. This was at the expense of other deserving and qualified Cameroonians. According to them, he was a bold man who played with the system for the benefit of his people.

I just want to state that I personally find these comments insulting, even though I have members of my own immediate maternal family who benefitted from this scam. There is nothing wrong in wanting to help your own people and to love them. But you do not express love to your own people by denying others of their own right as Cameroonians to pursue their own careers.

ENS was never Agbor Tabi’s personal property. It was a state institution designed to accommodate every deserving Cameroonian. Denying others the opportunity to pursue their careers there purely because they came from the wrong tribe was completely wrong. And to want to justify it purely because everyone else in his rank as minister was doing something similar is naïve.

A wicked system is a wicked system and there are always people who even in that kind of a system will always want to act right. As an example, Chiune a Japanese diplomat during World War II used his influence to help 6,000 Jews who were at risked of being killed by Hitler to leave Europe by issuing transit visas so that they could travel to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's lives. During the Rwandan genocide, there were people who lost their lives because they refused to act like a majority of people by killing others from other tribes. That’s how love can be expressed even in dangerous circumstances.

Agbor Tabi’s case was a choice which expressed hate on Cameroonians/Cameroon. He didn’t love Cameroon and he didn’t love even those he helped as in his pursuit for power, he was using them and he didn’t mind setting them up against other Cameroonians. Everyone wants to become something in this life and the desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature. Once rights are denied or people are forced due to circumstances to pursue the wrong career choice, then society can’t function properly.

On the issue of African tradition not to speak evil of the death, I will like to state that we are not interested in any lectures that are not based on sound moral principles and critical judgment. Just like what the Germans and Europeans did when Hitler was defeated, we are never going to be bullied but we are going to study the life of every Cameroonian who has worked closely with Biya. The reason for this is very simple - we don’t want some of the wicked things they did to happen again and we also have to try to recover some of the money they stole from the system. Once Biya is out, we are going to enact new laws to ensure what the likes of Agbor Tabi did should never happen again.

Every Cameroonian deserves respect. Those who always invoke this issue of African tradition only when they want to silence the voices of other Cameroonians should be careful. The same African tradition suggests that the youths have the right to kill through stoning anyone who is “suspected” of bewitching them. Does Mbella Moki Charles who brought up this issue consistently want us to ask the unemployed Cameroon youths to start picking up “suspects” randomly and stoning them? The CPDM should stop their foolishness and let us live.

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Mark Bareta

14.May.2016

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This picture represents just about 2 percent of the very long Kumba-Mamfe-Ekok road. Those travelling this road from Kumba are giving early pictures. These are early pictures. A lot of work is still to be done. Most parts of the road remains in the usual style we know of. The sad thing is that the corpse of Prof Agbor Tabi might not be able to be transported through this road. It will surely go through Bamenda. By every indication, the corpse will be beaten by the road before it arrives his village.

We are told this project funding comes from so many sources with the government providing a very small chunk of its funds. While this is good for a start, the government must start thinking of making double lane roads if Cameroon must emerge. It would also lead to less accidents. Recall that once this road is completed, Kumba, which used to be the economic capital of Southern Cameroons might regain it lost status and competes with Douala.

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Mark Bareta

05.May.2016

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Father George Nkeze has declared that if he was made Bishop of the newly created Kumba diocese, he will be killed. He made the declaration in an extensive interview with the Sun newspaper. It should be recalled that prior to the creation of Kumba diocese, priests in Buea Diocese were largely fragmented in two or three different Camps: Bishop Bushu/Nkeze camp Vs Anti-Nkeze camp (a camp which thinks Father Nkeze has lorded over the Bishop) Vs the traditional/liberal camp. This also fragmented the Buea Diocese Christians and parishioners into pro and anti Nkeze camps.

Information were rife that Father George Nkeze could be named the Bishop of Kumba Diocese. His Holiness Pope Francis went instead for an outsider. Father Nkeze just confirmed that his life would have been in danger if he was appointed Bishop.

I am a bit saddened that even as I write some priests in the Diocese of Buea do not greet each other. Some could not even stand the sight of others. Some have resulted in white collar scamming (BaretaNews had earlier written on this and would bring this later). God should bless and protect our priests.

Information reaching BaretaNews say most of the so called recalcitrant priests have been transferred and would remain under Kumba Diocese probably sanctifying Buea Diocese again.

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Mark Bareta

04.May.2016

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