Politics

By Boh Herbert
Cameroon's National Communications Council is in the news, again - and for exactly all the bad reasons! If you have not heard yet, please be informed that the interim president of the Council, Mr. Peter Essoka, and his colleagues have once more successfully charged, judged, and found a sizable group guilty. Half a dozen journalists, the Council has ruled, are guilty of allegedly failing to respect professional ethics and/or reportedly "insulting" an official of the Cameroonian Presidency. Flash back! This was the same charge levied against Celestin Monga and Pius Njawe in the early 1990s. So, if you were in doubt, here you have it: Mr. Essoka & Co. are taking all of us back to the future!

The latest most gruesome crimes committed by the pen are so heinous that the Council even ruled to ban journalists from "exercising their profession". Journalist Jacques Blaise Mvie is banned and his newspaper cannot publish. By that decision, the Council has extended the punishment to everyone who works for Mr. Mvie's newspaper. They have all been put out of work. By order of Peter Mr. Essoka & Co. the journalists concerned and those who work for Mr. Mvie's La Nouvelle newspaper are banned from earning a living. If you have the misfortune to work with or for Mr. Mvie, you are automatically guilty by association with your employer.

Talk of killing a mosquito with a nuclear bomb!

The abuse of power inherent in these decisions smells to high Heaven. The jurisprudence they would represent, if allowed to stand, authorize the Council to even chase investments away from the media sector. In the future, this decision aiding, the Council will have authority not only to sanction someone like journalist Severin Tchounkeu of Equinoxe or Charles Ndongo of CRTV for doing whatever Mr. Mvie did. They will henceforth have authority to put anyone who works with Mr. Tchounkeu at Equinoxe or Mr. Ndongo at CRTV out of work by also shutting down the media outlet for which the "criminal" journalist works.

We have to count our blessings! It has to be heartening to note that even the most abusive administrative or judicial authorities that serve the Biya regime have ever handed down such gross injustice to journalists or media outlets! Not surprisingly, news reports cite Mr. Essoka as stating "toute honte bue" that the Council is independent and that it does not do the bidding of the Cameroon government. Really? Well, if you believe Mr. Essoka, then maybe we can conclude that the director of Kondengui Prison would be right to claim that s/he is not doing any bidding of the regime by holding prisoners like ex-Premier Inoni and the likes of Marafa and Mendo Ze on behalf of the regime You would have to believe that the Ministry of Territorial Administration organizes elections so that the ruling party can lose. Or, you would have to believe that the Supreme Court does not do the bidding of the regime when it looks the other way when electoral fraud is perpetrated or when the president stages a constitutional coup to extend his stay in power.

Mr. Essoka & Co. are pleading "zero collusion" with the regime even as they abuse the extensive powers Yaounde has laid at their feet. Consider the extent of power: the Council can take and hold any journalist prisoner. The Council has powers - listen up, Supreme Court! - these fellows of the Council have powers to play prosecutor, defense counsel, judge and jury all together; all at the same time; and all without being in any conflict of interest. These fellows can charge and punish journalists for "crimes" that they don't need to prove in a court of law or for "crimes" that could have been committed by radio or television producers - not the journalists themselves - or by the media network, shooting and/or airing what the Council describes as "shocking pictures" for instance. Yes, these fellows have powers to "execute" (kill and bury) any media company whatever the investments, as they are now bent on doing in the case of Mr. Mvie's La Nouvelle newspaper.

On a previous occasion when my twin, Ntemfac Ofege, and I have commented - sorry - lambasted some past and no less abusive sanctions by the Council, we notably argued that this institution is a worse enemy for a free press, independent journalism and freedom of expression in Cameroon than the old-time, Soviet-type administrative censorship and any rulings by some of Cameroon's "two for five franc" courts at the service of powerful few.

Mr. Essoka certainly knows but would not like to admit. So, here is a news flash!  The Biya regime clearly does not like the newborn baby to the media sector in Cameroon called independent media. Not unlike King Herold, the regime wants the baby dead. It recalls that it tried censorship and courts of law to abort its birth. The regime all but gave up. Until Mr. Essoka & Co. came along. Now, the regime must be chanting Daniel come to judgement!  Cameroon's Communications Council is like the woman who claims by day to nourish, nurture and protect the child (media), yet is really the mother who is itching to abort the baby or is in the employ of an unwise King Solomon bent on dividing the newborn child. Even better than the regime ever hoped for, the Council is working to make this a perfect crime: ensure that the King has no blood on his hands.

There is no need to search hard to find what constitutes "mortal media sin" in the eyes of the Council. They share a number of attributes. All the journalists, radio and television programs that have been ordered off the air share the sin of being critical - how dare they? - of the Biya regime. They are critical of the regime whose image (when it comes to press freedom) that the Council was set up to launder. All the programs sanctioned by the Council just happen to air on one of Cameroon's infant independent media outlets. Yaounde does not want the blood of these networks on its hands, and what relief it must be for Yaounde to see that Mr. Essoka & Co. are stepping up to the plate! The Council in as many words is designed to play the media hangman of the republic. Quite simply! Which must explain why Mr. Essoka sounds so lost in the Council's work. The VOA quotes Mr. Essoka as saying the Council has "the right to sanction freedom when it goes into excesses". Did he say sanction? "Haaabaaah!"

The tragedy quite simply is that the Council seems to sincerely believe that the sanctions it hands down constitute "just punishment" for "mortal sins of the pen". Members of the Council - all of them, very learned and respected ladies and gentlemen, who raised plenty of hope when first appointed - do not seem to comprehend why the procedures of their institution fall way short of even the minimum standards of fairness, neutrality and due diligence.  The Council seems infatuated with one goal: that of emphasizing, rightly, that journalists have a duty to present news dispassionately, with fairness, accuracy, and balance. What the Council members, sadly, would like us to pay no attention to is the fact that this institution is a cure worse than any disease that afflicts the Cameroonian media. A political institution - which is what this regime-created, regime-manipulated, regime-teleguided Council is - will never - (let me say that again) - this Council will NEVER ever be an acceptable replacement for the self-regulatory body that journalists have a right to set up and run without interference from presidential appointees.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

02.Dec.2014

Hits: 1815

By Boh Herbert
Cameroon's National Communications Council is in the news, again - and for exactly all the bad reasons! If you have not heard yet, please be informed that the interim president of the Council, Mr. Peter Essoka, and his colleagues have once more successfully charged, judged, and found a sizable group guilty. Half a dozen journalists, the Council has ruled, are guilty of allegedly failing to respect professional ethics and/or reportedly "insulting" an official of the Cameroonian Presidency. Flash back! This was the same charge levied against Celestin Monga and Pius Njawe in the early 1990s. So, if you were in doubt, here you have it: Mr. Essoka & Co. are taking all of us back to the future!

The latest most gruesome crimes committed by the pen are so heinous that the Council even ruled to ban journalists from "exercising their profession". Journalist Jacques Blaise Mvie is banned and his newspaper cannot publish. By that decision, the Council has extended the punishment to everyone who works for Mr. Mvie's newspaper. They have all been put out of work. By order of Peter Mr. Essoka & Co. the journalists concerned and those who work for Mr. Mvie's La Nouvelle newspaper are banned from earning a living. If you have the misfortune to work with or for Mr. Mvie, you are automatically guilty by association with your employer.

Talk of killing a mosquito with a nuclear bomb!

The abuse of power inherent in these decisions smells to high Heaven. The jurisprudence they would represent, if allowed to stand, authorize the Council to even chase investments away from the media sector. In the future, this decision aiding, the Council will have authority not only to sanction someone like journalist Severin Tchounkeu of Equinoxe or Charles Ndongo of CRTV for doing whatever Mr. Mvie did. They will henceforth have authority to put anyone who works with Mr. Tchounkeu at Equinoxe or Mr. Ndongo at CRTV out of work by also shutting down the media outlet for which the "criminal" journalist works.

We have to count our blessings! It has to be heartening to note that even the most abusive administrative or judicial authorities that serve the Biya regime have ever handed down such gross injustice to journalists or media outlets! Not surprisingly, news reports cite Mr. Essoka as stating "toute honte bue" that the Council is independent and that it does not do the bidding of the Cameroon government. Really? Well, if you believe Mr. Essoka, then maybe we can conclude that the director of Kondengui Prison would be right to claim that s/he is not doing any bidding of the regime by holding prisoners like ex-Premier Inoni and the likes of Marafa and Mendo Ze on behalf of the regime You would have to believe that the Ministry of Territorial Administration organizes elections so that the ruling party can lose. Or, you would have to believe that the Supreme Court does not do the bidding of the regime when it looks the other way when electoral fraud is perpetrated or when the president stages a constitutional coup to extend his stay in power.

Mr. Essoka & Co. are pleading "zero collusion" with the regime even as they abuse the extensive powers Yaounde has laid at their feet. Consider the extent of power: the Council can take and hold any journalist prisoner. The Council has powers - listen up, Supreme Court! - these fellows of the Council have powers to play prosecutor, defense counsel, judge and jury all together; all at the same time; and all without being in any conflict of interest. These fellows can charge and punish journalists for "crimes" that they don't need to prove in a court of law or for "crimes" that could have been committed by radio or television producers - not the journalists themselves - or by the media network, shooting and/or airing what the Council describes as "shocking pictures" for instance. Yes, these fellows have powers to "execute" (kill and bury) any media company whatever the investments, as they are now bent on doing in the case of Mr. Mvie's La Nouvelle newspaper.

On a previous occasion when my twin, Ntemfac Ofege, and I have commented - sorry - lambasted some past and no less abusive sanctions by the Council, we notably argued that this institution is a worse enemy for a free press, independent journalism and freedom of expression in Cameroon than the old-time, Soviet-type administrative censorship and any rulings by some of Cameroon's "two for five franc" courts at the service of powerful few.

Mr. Essoka certainly knows but would not like to admit. So, here is a news flash!  The Biya regime clearly does not like the newborn baby to the media sector in Cameroon called independent media. Not unlike King Herold, the regime wants the baby dead. It recalls that it tried censorship and courts of law to abort its birth. The regime all but gave up. Until Mr. Essoka & Co. came along. Now, the regime must be chanting Daniel come to judgement!  Cameroon's Communications Council is like the woman who claims by day to nourish, nurture and protect the child (media), yet is really the mother who is itching to abort the baby or is in the employ of an unwise King Solomon bent on dividing the newborn child. Even better than the regime ever hoped for, the Council is working to make this a perfect crime: ensure that the King has no blood on his hands.

There is no need to search hard to find what constitutes "mortal media sin" in the eyes of the Council. They share a number of attributes. All the journalists, radio and television programs that have been ordered off the air share the sin of being critical - how dare they? - of the Biya regime. They are critical of the regime whose image (when it comes to press freedom) that the Council was set up to launder. All the programs sanctioned by the Council just happen to air on one of Cameroon's infant independent media outlets. Yaounde does not want the blood of these networks on its hands, and what relief it must be for Yaounde to see that Mr. Essoka & Co. are stepping up to the plate! The Council in as many words is designed to play the media hangman of the republic. Quite simply! Which must explain why Mr. Essoka sounds so lost in the Council's work. The VOA quotes Mr. Essoka as saying the Council has "the right to sanction freedom when it goes into excesses". Did he say sanction? "Haaabaaah!"

The tragedy quite simply is that the Council seems to sincerely believe that the sanctions it hands down constitute "just punishment" for "mortal sins of the pen". Members of the Council - all of them, very learned and respected ladies and gentlemen, who raised plenty of hope when first appointed - do not seem to comprehend why the procedures of their institution fall way short of even the minimum standards of fairness, neutrality and due diligence.  The Council seems infatuated with one goal: that of emphasizing, rightly, that journalists have a duty to present news dispassionately, with fairness, accuracy, and balance. What the Council members, sadly, would like us to pay no attention to is the fact that this institution is a cure worse than any disease that afflicts the Cameroonian media. A political institution - which is what this regime-created, regime-manipulated, regime-teleguided Council is - will never - (let me say that again) - this Council will NEVER ever be an acceptable replacement for the self-regulatory body that journalists have a right to set up and run without interference from presidential appointees.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

02.Dec.2014

Hits: 1753

By Boh Herbert
Cameroon's National Communications Council is in the news, again - and for exactly all the bad reasons! If you have not heard yet, please be informed that the interim president of the Council, Mr. Peter Essoka, and his colleagues have once more successfully charged, judged, and found a sizable group guilty. Half a dozen journalists, the Council has ruled, are guilty of allegedly failing to respect professional ethics and/or reportedly "insulting" an official of the Cameroonian Presidency. Flash back! This was the same charge levied against Celestin Monga and Pius Njawe in the early 1990s. So, if you were in doubt, here you have it: Mr. Essoka & Co. are taking all of us back to the future!

The latest most gruesome crimes committed by the pen are so heinous that the Council even ruled to ban journalists from "exercising their profession". Journalist Jacques Blaise Mvie is banned and his newspaper cannot publish. By that decision, the Council has extended the punishment to everyone who works for Mr. Mvie's newspaper. They have all been put out of work. By order of Peter Mr. Essoka & Co. the journalists concerned and those who work for Mr. Mvie's La Nouvelle newspaper are banned from earning a living. If you have the misfortune to work with or for Mr. Mvie, you are automatically guilty by association with your employer.

Talk of killing a mosquito with a nuclear bomb!

The abuse of power inherent in these decisions smells to high Heaven. The jurisprudence they would represent, if allowed to stand, authorize the Council to even chase investments away from the media sector. In the future, this decision aiding, the Council will have authority not only to sanction someone like journalist Severin Tchounkeu of Equinoxe or Charles Ndongo of CRTV for doing whatever Mr. Mvie did. They will henceforth have authority to put anyone who works with Mr. Tchounkeu at Equinoxe or Mr. Ndongo at CRTV out of work by also shutting down the media outlet for which the "criminal" journalist works.

We have to count our blessings! It has to be heartening to note that even the most abusive administrative or judicial authorities that serve the Biya regime have ever handed down such gross injustice to journalists or media outlets! Not surprisingly, news reports cite Mr. Essoka as stating "toute honte bue" that the Council is independent and that it does not do the bidding of the Cameroon government. Really? Well, if you believe Mr. Essoka, then maybe we can conclude that the director of Kondengui Prison would be right to claim that s/he is not doing any bidding of the regime by holding prisoners like ex-Premier Inoni and the likes of Marafa and Mendo Ze on behalf of the regime You would have to believe that the Ministry of Territorial Administration organizes elections so that the ruling party can lose. Or, you would have to believe that the Supreme Court does not do the bidding of the regime when it looks the other way when electoral fraud is perpetrated or when the president stages a constitutional coup to extend his stay in power.

Mr. Essoka & Co. are pleading "zero collusion" with the regime even as they abuse the extensive powers Yaounde has laid at their feet. Consider the extent of power: the Council can take and hold any journalist prisoner. The Council has powers - listen up, Supreme Court! - these fellows of the Council have powers to play prosecutor, defense counsel, judge and jury all together; all at the same time; and all without being in any conflict of interest. These fellows can charge and punish journalists for "crimes" that they don't need to prove in a court of law or for "crimes" that could have been committed by radio or television producers - not the journalists themselves - or by the media network, shooting and/or airing what the Council describes as "shocking pictures" for instance. Yes, these fellows have powers to "execute" (kill and bury) any media company whatever the investments, as they are now bent on doing in the case of Mr. Mvie's La Nouvelle newspaper.

On a previous occasion when my twin, Ntemfac Ofege, and I have commented - sorry - lambasted some past and no less abusive sanctions by the Council, we notably argued that this institution is a worse enemy for a free press, independent journalism and freedom of expression in Cameroon than the old-time, Soviet-type administrative censorship and any rulings by some of Cameroon's "two for five franc" courts at the service of powerful few.

Mr. Essoka certainly knows but would not like to admit. So, here is a news flash!  The Biya regime clearly does not like the newborn baby to the media sector in Cameroon called independent media. Not unlike King Herold, the regime wants the baby dead. It recalls that it tried censorship and courts of law to abort its birth. The regime all but gave up. Until Mr. Essoka & Co. came along. Now, the regime must be chanting Daniel come to judgement!  Cameroon's Communications Council is like the woman who claims by day to nourish, nurture and protect the child (media), yet is really the mother who is itching to abort the baby or is in the employ of an unwise King Solomon bent on dividing the newborn child. Even better than the regime ever hoped for, the Council is working to make this a perfect crime: ensure that the King has no blood on his hands.

There is no need to search hard to find what constitutes "mortal media sin" in the eyes of the Council. They share a number of attributes. All the journalists, radio and television programs that have been ordered off the air share the sin of being critical - how dare they? - of the Biya regime. They are critical of the regime whose image (when it comes to press freedom) that the Council was set up to launder. All the programs sanctioned by the Council just happen to air on one of Cameroon's infant independent media outlets. Yaounde does not want the blood of these networks on its hands, and what relief it must be for Yaounde to see that Mr. Essoka & Co. are stepping up to the plate! The Council in as many words is designed to play the media hangman of the republic. Quite simply! Which must explain why Mr. Essoka sounds so lost in the Council's work. The VOA quotes Mr. Essoka as saying the Council has "the right to sanction freedom when it goes into excesses". Did he say sanction? "Haaabaaah!"

The tragedy quite simply is that the Council seems to sincerely believe that the sanctions it hands down constitute "just punishment" for "mortal sins of the pen". Members of the Council - all of them, very learned and respected ladies and gentlemen, who raised plenty of hope when first appointed - do not seem to comprehend why the procedures of their institution fall way short of even the minimum standards of fairness, neutrality and due diligence.  The Council seems infatuated with one goal: that of emphasizing, rightly, that journalists have a duty to present news dispassionately, with fairness, accuracy, and balance. What the Council members, sadly, would like us to pay no attention to is the fact that this institution is a cure worse than any disease that afflicts the Cameroonian media. A political institution - which is what this regime-created, regime-manipulated, regime-teleguided Council is - will never - (let me say that again) - this Council will NEVER ever be an acceptable replacement for the self-regulatory body that journalists have a right to set up and run without interference from presidential appointees.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

02.Dec.2014

Hits: 2132

 President Paul BIYA had a joint audience with the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the National Assembly, and then received the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic and the Prime Minister. While the audiences were in process, the First Lady Madam Chantal BIYA shared good moments with the wives of close collaborators of the Head of State. The Head of State addressed messages of thanks and goodwill to the President of Senegal Macky SALL, the outgoing Secretary General of the Francophonie Abdou DIOUF and the incoming Secretary General Michaelle JEAN.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

02.Dec.2014

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The intelligence service of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) over the week end arrested the son of famous CPDM parliamentarian for Mayo-Sava Division, Hon. Abba Malla. Ndjidda Abba was caught with friends in Mora in the Far North Region and he and the other members of his gang have been transferred to Maroua, the chief city in the Far North Region.

Our informant revealed that Ndjidda Abba served as a negotiator between the Cameroon government and Boko Haram. Cameroon intelligence services were able to establish that he assisted Boko Haram fighters changed registration numbers of their cars, mobile telephone cards and identified banks that were robbed by Boko Haram. A highly placed CPDM official who spoke to us and sued for anonymity noted that it is very worrying to see children from CPDM families participating in terror.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

02.Dec.2014

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Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

If the Ejagham people of Cameroon decide to be killing other Cameroonians on lame and ridiculous reason that “Western Education is forbidden” and that every Cameroonian must pay allegiance to “Obasinjom”-the all powerful god of the Ejagham people and they are supported in this venture by the Ejaghams of Nigeria. What do you expect President Biya and the Cameroon military and policing establishments to do?

This is the question Muhammed Sanusi II, the all powerful Emir of Kano and his colleagues of the Jama’atu Nasri Islam, Nigeria’s top Islamic body have failed to provide the world with a simple answer. The Emir of Kano, Muhammed Sanusi II noted in a rare public condemnation of the atrocities of Boko Haram that “We will never be intimidated into abandoning our religion which is the intention of the attackers”. Sanusi II was reacting to bombings and gun attacks at a Mosque in Kano. Muhammed Sanusi’s pronouncement was followed on Sunday by a declaration of Nigeria’s top Islamic body, the Jama’atu Nasri Islam-the umbrella group for the country’s Muslim community.

The Muslim leadership in the Federal Republic of Nigeria is now asking Muslims to embark on private, non state policing and defensive measures to protect themselves. They now say the Goodluck administration has failed to provide security. These pronouncements from the Emir of Kano and the Jama’atu Nasri gang are shameful, disgusting and disgraceful and betray some deliberate ignorance on the part of the Muslim leadership of Nigeria. To sure, it indicates that the Emir of Kano and his acolytes are extremely lacking in leadership finesse. And to be more accurate, they have been caught in the pangs of a monster they themselves created.

Boko Haram is not an invading army!! Boko Haram is not an army of occupation!! Boko Haram is the young men and women who constantly met at the gold palaces of men like Sanusi Muhammed II of Kano, the Sultan of Sokoto and the Emir of Borno and listened to diabolic harsh plots geared towards toppling the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. The top Islamic body of Nigeria in its Sunday communiqué further criticized as “ineffective” the state of emergency declared by the Goodluck administration. The Jama’atu Nasri wondered aloud “Why is it that any time the ineffective state of emergency is about to elapse, an extension is being sought, attacks are carried with sophistication?”

The answer is simple: Men like Aminu Tambuwal who saw President Goodluck as a person instead of as an institution are now beginning to see how difficult it is to topple an elected government. “Sisi” is facing a similar situation in Egypt for toppling Morsi and Egypt as a nation is slowly but surely being brought down to its knees all in bid to please some neo cons in the USA. It is not Christians who attacked a Mosque with bombs and guns in Kano. The Kano Mosque attacks were carried out by people who understand the importance of a Mosque to the Muslim faith. We of Cameroon Concord think the Emir of Kano is aware that the attackers have indeed intimidated his religion. We are also astonishingly shocked to see how helpless and powerless these Northern Nigeria leaders have become. When the late Sanni Abacha involved the Nigerian government in the affairs of the Sokoto Kingdom, Cameroonians felt the heat generated by a man called Dasuki right in the heart of Yaounde. How come that all these great Muslim Dynasties have become docile over a very simple poorly co-ordinated and poorly trained insurgence group known as Boko Haram? The North needs to think and rethink things

President Goodluck Jonathan has changed Nigerian politics forever and the Kaduna mafia should get this straight into their heads. Goodluck going or staying is not the issue here. The point we of Cameroon Concord are making is that “gone are those days when the North of Nigeria and Cameroon used the army to bully others to submission”. The progressive forces in the North of Nigeria should copy from those in Cameroon and join the government of President Goodluck and make Nigeria a strong and democratic country fully integrated into the African Union. A stitch in time saves nine.     

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

01.Dec.2014

Hits: 2333