eliesmith

Nigeria: The Secret Rivers LGs Chairmen are suspended

2012-02-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

The Secret Rivers LGAs Chairmen Are Suspended

By Odimegwu Onwumere

They were recalled by the end of January 2012 in the suspension the Rivers State House of Assembly on Monday 16^th January gave its support for. The 11 Local Government Areas (LGAs) chairmen in the state were relieved of their offices by the Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi. The Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Amachree, took the chair of the debate that gave the nod for the suspension. The exercise got an undisputedly vote in support of the suspension of Chimbiko Akarolo, Port Harcourt City LGA; Theodore Georgewill, Akuku Toru LGA; Ojikaye Flag Amachree, Asari Toru LGA; Orom Nte, Andoni LGA; Barr. Miller Awori, Ahoada West LGA; Cassidy Ikegbidi, Ahoada East LGA; Allen Mma, Emohua LGA; Raymond Wokocha, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA; Bar.Tamuno Williams, Okrika LGA; Welendu Amadi, Ikwerre LGA; and Maclean Uranta, Opobo/Nkoro LGA. These were the chairmen that were once suspended and their vice Chairmen were sworn in by Amaechi in acting capacity.

The concurrent brouhaha visiting LGAs in Rivers State didn’t start with the suspension of the 11 LGAs chairmen. It could be recalled that in 2009, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA), nearly went into fire because the thirteen out of seventeen councilors allegedly impeached both their suspended chairman, Hon. Chris Okey Ochije, and the Acting Vice Chairman, Hon. Ikechukwu Awari Nwabrije. This shamefaced action made some observers described the action as “thunder striking at the same place twice.”

The residents of Port Harcourt were told that the alleged impeachment was to put paid to a possible return to office by Hon. Ochije, who was charging his suspension by the Rivers State House Assembly, while the court was expected to deliver its ruling on Monday, November 2, 2009. The motion for impeachment of Chris Ochije, Hon. Amua cited, among other things, the residents were told, was the “overspending of council’s funds on Okwuzi-Ugada road, where he allegedly spent N29million instead of the N5million provided for it in the 2008 budget.”

In reports, the motion was supported by Hon. (Engr) Hector Masi, representing Ward 16, while 12 other councilors voted in support of the actual impeachment. Hon. Franklin Nwaobakata, councilor representing Ward 3 in the legislature, moved the motion for the impeachment of the vice chairman/acting chairman, Hon. Ikechukwu Awari Nwabrije, said it was unacceptable that the “acting chairman paid the whopping sum of N4.3million to Krisdera Hotels for two unoccupied rooms in September 2009.” This, Nwabrije admitted when officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) came calling last month, Nwaobakata disclosed. Further, the motion was backed by Hon. Oputa Ndubuisi (Ward 15), while 12 councilors voted in favour of outright impeachments of the acting council chairman.

Afterwards, reports had it that Amua informed that the leader of the ONELGA Legislative Assembly, Hon. Uzah Douglas (Ward 10), formally adopted the motions for the impeachment of the suspended and acting chairmen of the council, thus allegedly confirming their official impeachment. There was no counter motion, according to the same source, just as the leader was also confirmed as the acting chairman of the council. Before the impeachment, as the councilors put it, “the pair of Ochije and Nwabrije was formally served notices of impeachment, in line with legal and constitutional provisions. They were also given the required number of days for their replies or objections, but those that served them said that they saw none and so they had to act within the law. Other councilors who joined to impeach the embattled duo were Hons. Kingsley Nweze (Ward 7), Raymond Nwokocha (Ward 12), Ogini Onyema (Ward 11), Obiosa Fidelis (Ward 14). Others include Opene Charles (Deputy Leader, Ward 13), Oputa Ndubuisi (Ward 15), Avra Kenneth (Ward 9), Alex Izeogu (Ward 8) and Ego Ahiakwo (Ward 6). In a swift reaction, like an American movie, Chief Whip, Hon. Augustine Azubuike Nwadibia (Ward 1), reportedly, got so frustrated and infuriated and he smashed the glass door of the legislative chambers, injuring himself in the process of trying to defend Ochije and Nwabrije, perhaps when he saw that there was no counter motion on the floor of the House. These men he was defending were accused largely of non-performance and siphoning of funds away from the council.

Like the Arab Spring, the commotion in ONELGA appeared to had swept into Degema Local Government Area (DELGA), a sister council in Rivers West Senatorial District, as the legislative arm, under the leadership of Hon. Boma Dappa, a former Supervisor for Health, summoned Hon. (Chief) Abiye Davies, chairman of the council, to appear before the grassroots lawmakers and present a statement of account for the past eleven months. According to the information many Port Harcourt based news desks confirmed, it showed that all efforts made by the legislators of Degema to bring the council boss and his principal officers to explain some financial actions was unsuccessful, forcing the worried councilors to go public with their invitation. It was confirmed by the news desks that in a radio announcement before the incident, the leader, Hon. Boma Dappa, on behalf of the legislative council, summoned the chairman of DELGA, Chief Abiye Davies, in the company of the Head of Personnel Management, Treasurer, Director of Works and the Director of Budget, to appear before them Monday, November 2, 2009.

In Ikwerre Local Government Area (KELGA), the story of the Hurricane was not different. Hon. Kieran Wobodo, chairman, was not summoned yet, but the decision by the Hon. Lawrence Amadi-led legislature to have detailed explanations of the movement of council funds from the Head of Personnel Management (HPM) seemed to be an adjacent strike at the leadership of KELGA. Lawrence Amadi and his colleagues reportedly expressed disgust with the alleged uncooperative stance of the council’s HPM and had already petitioned the Local Government Service Commission that he should be recalled or redeployed, adding that they were worried about the huge amount of money spent on salaries and allowances of staff and political appointees, querying, “who are these appointees and staff?”

The gathering storms reportedly also moved over to Ahoada East LGA, where High Chief Cassidy Ikegbidi was said might had found it hard to continue as chairman. His case was said that he had to fight for survival in High Court 10 of the Rivers State Judiciary, where the suit instituted against him for illegal spending of AELGA’s money by Hon. Bright Nelson, Ward 7 councilor, was to be heard on Wednesday, November 4, 2009. But Hon. Ikegbidi, contrary to statutory provisions, denied Hon. Nelson his September 2009 salaries for questioning his activities in court, after a series of unanswered petitions to the House of Assembly and the Ministry of Local Government Affairs.

While that lasted, Asari-Toru LGA (ASALGA), led by Hon. Ojukaye Flagg Amachree, was reported to have remained calm and far from the snowstorm that blew across others, in what reports described as, “from Okrika LGA through Ogu/Bolo, AKULGA and PHALGA”, for different reasons. Some worried former political officeholders had taken their matter of financial accruements to court and got an order freezing ASALGA’s account in First Bank and UBA on Wednesday, October 28, same day that the suspended chairman and acting vice chairman of ONELGA were reportedly impeached. The Press Secretary of Asari-Toru Local Government Area, Asi Prince Dateme, demystified such prohibition, and submitted that such rumour had been the handiwork of those who rather than chose the path of dialogue to resolve issues had been blackmailing the council. Journalists were baffled. They poised whether the alleged impeachment of Ochije and Nwabrije was proper and acceptable in the eyes of the law and due process. The worry was that if a man in court, as Hon. Ochije was, be hurt further on the same matter that he was challenging?

The then chairman of Port Harcourt City LGA (PHALGA) and Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Rivers State, Chief (Hon) Azubuike Nmerukini reportedly was adamant that he and his co-chairmen of councils in the state were doing well. In his words on this issue as reported in an interview, he said, “We are executing various projects in all parts of the state and it is not true that we are not performing.” This statement was observed to be contrary with what Amaechi echoed at the NUJ Platform on Tuesday, October 27, 2009, while referring to the recommendation of the Dame Aleruchi Cookey-Gam-led Local Government Projects Assessment Committee, which submitted its report after a painstaking tour of all councils in the state. Oyigbo LGA was not left out of this thunderstorm.

Oyigbo is a town and Local Government Area of its own in Rivers State. Some people call it a satellite of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. Oyigbo is lying a few kilometers to the Aba city of Abia State. Sir Precious Oforji was elected Chairman of the Oyigbo Local Government Area (LGA) in 2008, after spending two terms of eight years both in the Rivers State House of Assembly – 1999-2007. The same Rivers State House of Assembly he was one time its member suspended Oforji on Monday 29th November 2010. The lawmakers were quoted as saying that he misrepresented the House, and that was his sin. The lawmakers also were quoted as saying that the suspended Oforji incurred their wrath because of alleged budget improprieties.

When this news filtered into the town, the entire town was like a ghost area. Investigations proved some of the residents were saying that the lawmakers intervened rather late in the long clarion calls by the inhabitants that the embattled chairman was a titular. The residents said that the lawmakers’ decision came rather late because Oforji just had few weeks or probably months to abdicate power as the LGA’s boss before the sledge hammer of suspension from the House was descended on him. However, many of them thanked the lawmakers for standing to the occasion with a view that justice gotten is justice no matter the period it came. But those close to Oforji were rather abusive, saying that the lawmakers were acting on the scripts of Oforji’s traducers.

Following the suspension, the House directed that the Vice Chairman, Mr. Innocent Ajelo to take over the administration of the affairs of the local government area in the interim. This decision was welcomed by many who saw the young man as a down-to-earth personality. But whether a letter of permission from the Rivers State government to start work immediately was sent to the young amiable man was of great concern to the people of the area who voraciously accused the House of allowing Oforji to engage in a war of lobbying his way back to superintend the affairs of the embittered council again.

Investigations revealed that many residents of Oyigbo were not happy with the allegation that Oforji was lobbying for a comeback, which they said was the setback the vice chairman had, to receive the almighty permission letter. They said that the House should remember that its decisions followed the appearance of the members of Oyigbo legislative arm (councilors) on the floor of the House, which was on the invitation of the members of 23 local government legislative arms by the state legislature. On that floor, the residents learnt that the Oyigbo councilors told the Rivers lawmakers that their legislative chamber had been under lock and key since August 2010. They stated that the situation arose when the councilors detected alleged fraud in the 2010 budget estimate of the council forwarded to the House for consideration. Many residents in Oyigbo said that the House should remember that the councilors had in several incursions accused the embattled Oforji of expending from the 2010 council estimate without the House giving a legal backing by way of passing the budget into law. They also reminded the Rivers Assembly legislators, that it was on this premise that they (lawmakers) were angered and moved that the council should be put on hold till the crisis between the executive and legislative arm in Oyigbo was resolved.

Many people in Oyigbo thanked from their houses, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly then, Rt. Hon. Tonye Harry, who presided over the sitting, which put the motion into vote. The residents gathered that 13 legislators voted for the suspension of Oforji from office, while one lawmaker voted against and four absented. It was due to this development, that the vice chairman of Oyigbo, was directed to take over the administration of the council till the resolution of the matter. Meanwhile, as the Speaker Tonye Harry walked-out the suspended chairman of Oyigbo council from the Assembly chambers and reportedly spoke pointblank to Oforji who came to the House upon hearing the news of his suspension by the lawmakers, that he cannot be allowed to enter into the hallow chambers of the house again until his suspension is lifted by the House. Many people said that the Vice Chairman should be empowered with a letter on acting capacity pending the resolution. They said that for now, they had not really understood the true nature of the suspension, if the Vice Chairman who had been coming to the LGA secretariat was made to be confused.

This applied to how Mrs. Emelia Gilbert Nte, the chairman of Andoni Local Government Area was suspended by the Rivers State House of Assembly from office on allegation of security breach in the area and directed the vice chairman of the council to take over the governance of the local government council pending conclusion of investigation by the House. Unlike the suspension of the 11 LGA chairmen that was presided by Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Amachree. Rivers citizens were told that following the suspension, the House appointed a seven-man ad-hoc committee headed by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon Dumnamene Deekor, predecessor of Amachree, to investigate the allegations of insecurity in Andoni Local Government Area and report back to the House, within two weeks. Investigations revealed that the House’s decision followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by the House Leader, Hon. Chidi Lloyd.

Hon. Lloyd was disappointed and he told the lawmakers that his office had been flooded with various petitions on the security lapses in Andoni, while moving the motion on the floor of the House. He stated that the issue required urgent attention as procrastination might result to ruining the security achievements of the administration in the state. The Deputy House Leader, Hon. Hope Ikiriko (Ahoada-East constituency), seconded the motion. The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Tonye Harry (now former), who presided over the sitting of the Assembly later divided the House. The outcome of the voting showed that 21 lawmakers voted for the suspension of the council chairman, while no member voted against the decision. However, Nte was later re-instated, and Ochije was ordered by a High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, presided over by Justice B.A. Georgewill, who faulted the suspension of the Chairman by Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA), for his immediate re-instatement.

By February 24, 2011, reports revealed that the Gokana LGA boss absolved self of smugness in communal clash. The LGA boss was Hon. Victor Tombari Giadom. He pleaded with the judicial commission of inquiry set up to look into the K-Dere and B-Dere communal conflict, to wave allegations leveled against him by any of the conflicting communities. He was reported to have made the appeal while answering questions from counsel of the commission in Port Harcourt. He told the commission, when fielding information, that he immediately called the security operatives in Gokana to send their men to the crisis areas to restore peace. This was done when he received a phone call about the crisis from the K-Dere community. His disclosure further showed that he visited the crisis scene the following morning to see things for himself. He boasted that he called a meeting of the leadership of both communities after his visit. The communities leaders were later asked to go back to their various communities and maintain peace.

Disclosing further, Giadom said that he had earlier composed a board of inquiry to look into the remote and immediate causes of the internal crisis in K-Dere community. The board was headed by one Bishop S.L Kegbara. He also disclosed that Amaechi was duly informed through an official letter sent to him to inform him of the lingering crisis so that security operatives were deployed to the area to ensure peace and order. There came a report that in Okrika, the LGA Chairman, Mr. Tamuno Belama Moses Datoru, was investigated for financial thoughtlessness and unpleasant misdemeanor by twelve councilors of his government. He was later said to have narrowly escaped lynching by angry youths and women of Okrika on a Monday for non performance. If not for the intervention of the combined security operatives deployed by the Rivers State Government to lead the Judiciary Panel to the sites of the alleged projects at Okrika, the chairman would have been dealt with properly, as he was repeatedly being booed by aged women and youths. The Panel was led by Justice Emmanuel Ogbuji, who inspected over 21 projects claimed to have been executed by the sacked Okrika chairman.

When a three man Panel visited a mortuary road claimed to have been constructed for the tune of N2 million, they were surprised to meet a farm path covered with weeds while at the council office, he also showed the panel three toilets renovated with N8.200m, according to reports. It was noted that the Panel also inspected Council gate only painted by the sacked chairman for N3 million and the construction of three thatch huts at the AK Dikibo Pavilion for N3m. The Panel also inspected AK Dikkibo Pavilion alleged to have been constructed for N120 million and the Okochiri Evil Forest Road in Okrika over taken by weeds also claimed to have gulfed N4 million from the council coffer. It turned out to look like a drama at the Okrika Police Station, which the respondent acclaimed to have invested over N13m, where the investigating team was surprised to meet the project abandoned at the DPC level. At Ogoloma Community where the sacked chairman alleged to have executed street lights projects for N10m and another at Abam Road for N10m, the Panel was surprised as none was seen. Counsel to the Petitioners, Nemi Erema, speaking shortly after the inspection, said the aim of the inspection was for fact finding by the Panel and also see the projects professed to have been executed by the sacked chairman. Erema also told a Nigerian daily that, Tamuno Datoru also altered the 2008 supplementary budget of the council and inflated the budget figures without the knowledge of the twelve councilors.

Rivers citizens knew that the fundamental point of establishing the Panel was to unravel the truths and deal with facts and not technicalities. But it dawned on them that most projects claimed to have been executed by the sacked chairman were falsehood. They called for justice and accountability and discreet management of council funds and thanked the state government for instituting the panel to probe the suspended chairman. But the Lead Defense Council, Mr. Aaron Abraham Brown said, the panel had seen most projects executed by his clients while in office. On Thursday, March 11, 2010, both counsels were to address the Panel before the Panel would submit its findings and reports to the Rivers State House of Assembly for further action.

It was presumed that LGA chairmen in the 774 LGAs of the Federation underuse the funds allocated to them. In its economic report for the third quarter of 2011, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that the total receipts by the 774 LGAs from the Federation and VAT pool Accounts for the period of July, August and September, was N493.77 billion. Some Nigerians had said that the LGAs chairmen should not be blamed much for their underperformance, because allocations to LGAs were been highjacked by the state governors.

The Media once reported how state governors redistribute allocations meant for the LGAs from the Federation Account and give less funds of what was expected to each LGA to pay salaries, and take care of their overhead costs. Reportedly, a Hon. Felix Akhabue, National President of Association of local government of Nigeria ALGON, in his memo to Nigerians, said: “A situation where allocations already made to the local governments by the Federation Allocation Account Committee (FAAC) are subjected to redistribution by the state government is a clear breach of the constitution. The question is can the Federal Government police funds disbursed to the state governments from Federation Account be altered? The answer is a clear NO. Then where does the state derive the legal and moral backing to do the same to local governments? Statutory allocations to each tier of government should be sacrosanct; it is only by being so that you can hold that tier of government responsible and accountable.”

There are 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria. Chief Executive of any LGA is regarded as chairman, while Councillors are the elected members who work with the chairman. It is surprising that the functions of Local Governments as are enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution are not being carried out by the LGAs. According some reports, the functions many of the LGAs chairmen had recklessly abandoned include Economic recommendations to the State; Collection of taxes and fees; Establishment and maintenance of cemeteries, burial grounds and homes for the destitute or infirm; Licensing of bicycles, trucks (other than mechanically propelled trucks), canoes, wheel barrows and carts; Establishment, maintenance and regulation of markets, motor parks and public conveniences; Construction and maintenance of roads, streets, drains and other public highways, parks, and open spaces; Naming of roads and streets and numbering of houses; Provision and maintenance of public transportation and refuse disposal; Registration of births, deaths and marriages; Assessment of privately owned houses or tenements for the purpose of levying such rates as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of a State; and, Control and regulation of out-door advertising, movement and keeping of pets of all descriptions, shops and kiosks, restaurants and other places for sale of food to the public, and laundries.

Conversely, what is amiss is how the authorities of the State Governments easily do not recognize the Constitution of Nigeria, which states in Section 7(1) thus: “The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed and, accordingly, the government of every state shall ensure their existence.” The neglect of this section of the law has made many state governors conduct elections in the LGAs at will. The governors suspend these Chairmen as at when willed. Taking this point home, Bauchi State, once suspended the entire 20 LGAs chairmen for eight months for an offence that was alleged, indicted none of them. The Court of Appeal ordered the Abia State Government to reinstate the 17 sacked LGAs chairmen it once sacked in what the court described as “because they were yet to complete their tenure.” The Kaduna State House of Assembly once set out to replace the 17 LGAs chairmen with Sole Administrators, even before the expiration of their tenure in March in 2011. In Benue State, there was the LGAs reform. This reform once landed 12 LGAs Chairmen in the state to the Economic and Financial and Control Commission (EFCC), after they were swept out of office. In Rivers State, during the suspension of the 11 LGAs chairmen, a lot of people supported the action while others condemned it. Those that were against the action of Amaechi said that his conduct violated every legal provisions stipulated in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Others said that LGA chairmen are lame dock. Many people in the state characterized the House of Assembly as a “mere rubber-stamp” of Amaechi. Because of this single act, it was noted that the recalled 11 LGAs chairmen were walking on waters in jubilation.

Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, Media/Writing Consultant and Motivator, is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV); and Founder, Poet Against Child Abuse (PACA), Rivers State. Mobile: +2348032552855. Email: apoet_25@yahoo.com

Orange CAF Africa Cup of Nations: rivalry between Gabon and Equatorial Guinea goes on the football pitch

2012-01-29T09:50:00.000-08:00

Every Africa Cup of Nations has it singularity. And this year, the particularities are that, it is jointly organised by two countries that are both oil producers with small populations. It is not as though, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are the first countries to co-host the Africa Cup of Nations. The first experiment took place in Ghana and Nigeria in 2000. And that edition also signalled the epilogue of the domination of continental football by the indomitable Lions of the Cameroons. However, in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, the competition or battle this year, is not tilted only toward which of the two co-hosting nations will progress farthest in the competition, but which of the two organises will host best. In other words, there is a disguised battle or rivalry going on between Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The first was for long, the richest country in the region in term of per capita income, thanks to its huge oil wealth. But for 40 years, the people of Gabon were wealthy on paper and paradoxically, there was nothing in the country in term of infrastructure, to match the huge wealth that was in reality in the hands of a happy and privileged few.

Meanwhile the second may have a bad press in the west, but the truth is that, Equatorial Guinea has beaten Gabon hands down in term of preparation to host in the current tournament. Prior to the kick off of this tournament, Equatorial Guinea was the first of the two co-hosting nations to respect to the letter, the hosting prerequisite demanded by the continental football governing body CAF. The tiny West African nation had built eight new stadia and had five thousand rooms ready via new hotels constructed to host the Africa Cup of nations. Had Gabon defaulted, Equatorial Guinea was ready to host the most prestigious football tournament in Africa alone. Equatorial Guinea has also defeated Gabon in another area, two decades ago; it was a poor country, with little or no infrastructure. However, today, Malabo can boast of being perhaps the only country within the CEMAC regions, with the most developed road infrastructure. Its economy has migrated from being a poor aide dependent economy to an intermediate economy. As for Gabon, she does not have the network of roads that Equatorial Guinea has today and Malabo is a clear example that, oil is not a curse but a blessing. But like it neighbours and rival Gabon, Equatorial Guinea must fight hard not to transform its economy into a mono-economy dominated by oil.

Sadly, the scorch that has affected several oil producing nations before Malabo, seem to have caught up with the new oil Eldorado of the region. Equatorial Guinea that used to be an agric-based economy and whose main foreign exchange earner was cacao seems to have abandoned the produce that helped her become an oil producing nation. In the area of football, the victory of Equatorial Guinea against the highly fancied Teranga Lions of Senegal was a great moral booster and everybody was watching and expected how Gabon will respond against the other highly esteem African soccer giant who are the Atlas Lions of Morocco. Gabon’s reply was extraordinary, for in a highly charged melodramatically encounter the Panthers of Gabon devoured the Moroccan Lions by 3 goals to 2. Morocco is the second highly priced victim of the metamorphoses of football in Africa after Senegal. Both co-hosting nations are now qualified for the quarter finals, but which amongst them will make it to the finals? It is difficult to respond, for at this stage, everything is possible.

Cameroon: division within the SCNC, chief Ayamba speaks out

2012-01-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

“REACTION OF THE SOUTHERN CAMEROONS NATIONAL COUNCIL (SCNC) TO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL RESOLUTION OF A PERVERTED MEETING OF 15/1/2012 CHAIRED BY NFOR NGALA NFOR”.

The National Chairman of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) Chief Ayamba Ette Otun wishes to draw the attention of all Southern Cameroonians at home and abroad and the entire International Community that is directly or indirectly connected with the struggle for the liberation of the Fatherland to a persisting rift that has been gathering momentum between my vice, Nfor Ngala Nfor and myself.

ORIGIN OF THE MISUNDERSTANDING: Around June 2011 Nfor Ngala Nfor made clear his intention to go abroad and organize series of meetings which they later styled “ Southern Cameroons Leaders Conclave” which original intention was stealthily and cunningly hidden away from members of the National Executive Council of the SCNC. Participants in this unorthodox Junta included Kevin Ngwang Gumne for SCAPO (leader), Nfor Nfor for SCNC (Vice), Ebenezer Akwanga leader of the defunct SCYL and Mola Njoh Litumbe doubling as a chairman of a Political Party (LDA) Liberal Democratic Alliance and Civil Society (whatever this means is not yet understood).

After these meetings which took place in Oslo and Washington Nfor Nfor came out with write-ups in the SCNC meeting of 18^th August 2011 to the effect that the Patriotic Coalition Front which resulted from the Conclave meetings would take over the Central Command of the struggle under the leadership of Mola Njoh Litumbe. He could not explain what was going to happen to the SCNC. All he said was that all other liberation movements which do not have a single structure nor any reasonable following would remain intact but surrender their respective leadership to the coalition for the purpose of realizing the common goal of the people of Southern Cameroons.

To buttress his evil intention he granted an interview to the Guardian Post Newspaper of 25-31 July 2011 in which he stated that the SCNC which is generally known as the “Southern Cameroons National Council has been renamed the Southern Cameroons National Coalition”. This same statement was repeated in a televised interview with Equinox Radio/ Television station granted shortly after October 1^st 2011 in which Nfor Nfor said “We are no longer known as Southern Cameroons National Council but the Southern Cameroons National Coalition (SCNC) and Mola Njoh Litumbe is the leader while I am the vice.” Both the Secretary General and the Victoria County Youth Co-ordinator of the SCNC Mr. Fidelis Chinkwo and Mr. Ofon Peter respectively were seen in the screen along with Nfor Nfor during this infamous interview.

By stating that it is the Patriotic Coalition Front rather than the Southern Cameroons National Council that would realize the common goal of the People of Southern Cameroons Nfor Nfor is pretentiously giving the impression that the SCNC under Chief Ayamba has done nothing progressive since 1995 and that it is the Coalition that will push the United Nations over the brink of time to instantaneously grab the independence and sovereignty of Southern Cameroons; what every right thinking man realizes as a tantalizing and precarious presumption!

But before this conclave resolution which came up just of recent, Kofi Annan, erstwhile SG of the UN, had requested Mr. Biya, President of the Republic of Cameroon to have a meaningful dialogue with the SCNC, after those who proclaimed the independence of Southern Cameroons were locked underground in Yaounde in 2000. Of the 6 of them who were actually incarcerated two of them were from the Southern Zone while four came from the Norther zone. Those from the Southern zone included, Justice Alobwede Ebong and Chief Ayamba and among those from the Northern Zone only James Sabum was identified in the same cell with the two Southern Zoners, while no record was kept concerning the rest.

Pursuing a further development on this delicate matter a draft constitution by Simon Munzu, Benjamin Itoe and other Southern Cameroons legal genius was presented to Biya for a return to a 2 state federation, a decision which was churlishly snobbed by the impervious Yaounde Regime. From then onward Southern Cameroonians under the leadership of the SCNC were more than ever determined to restore their statehood and sovereignty. It was for this reason that a decision was taken in the Bamenda joint declaration to the effect that should the idea of the return to the 2 state federation recommended by that draft constitution be aborted Southern Cameroons would take every necessary step to declare their statehood and sovereignty and defend same at all cost.

On 30^th December 1999 HRH Chief Ayamba Ette Otun, late S.N. Tita (may his soul rest in peace), Justice Alobwede Ebong and Mr. James Sabum (leaving out S.N.Tita who dropped out of the campaign for personal reasons, seized radio Buea and declared the independence of Southern Cameroons; they automatically becoming front liners in the bid for the self determination of the people of Southern Cameroons. This gesture was immediately followed by the closure of the border at the Mungo bridge, under the watchful eyes of armed security forces from the Littoral on 3^rd January 2000. These adventurers included H.R.HChief Ayamba Ette Otun, Emmanuel Doh Fongoh, Mba Chesami Stephen, Wilson Daiga Fokum, Chofor Fru John, Sabum James and Alobwede Frederick Ebong (now on self exit in U.S). After these adventurous feats the front liners organized a rally in the Victoria centenary stadium to explain what happened in Buea in the night of 30^th December 1999 from where six (6) of them were whisked to Yaounde where they were incarcerated for 14 months in a subterranean cell. In all of these bloodcurdling activities was power drunk Nfor Ngala Nfor there? Yet he is too instrumental in isolating this vital historical facts of the struggle because he was personally not involved.

After the release of these front liners in March 2001 remarkable and perceptible progress has been registered under the direct leadership of Ayamba as follows;

(1) The settlement of the Bakassi conflict under the “Annan Bakassi Peace Accord ( ABPA ), giving rise to the signing of the famous Green Tree Accord ( GTA ) under the auspices of the UN requesting both Nigeria and La Republique du Cameroun to respect their territorial boundaries as at independence.

(2) The demarcation of territorial boundaries between Nigeria and Southern Cameroons on the one hand and La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons on the other.

(3) The handing of a British Cameroon United Nations produced map to Mr. Biya by Ali Triki which Nfor Nfor, as in other SCNC achievements, has been refuting as “a strange and unknown map”, a direct outcome of his disgruntled and stumbling temperament. Reference to the publication of this map contained in Cameroon Tribune No 9605/5806 of Tuesday May 25, 2010; Chronicle news paper No 216 of June 7 -13 2010.

(4) The acceleration of work on road network beginning from Muntengene to Kumba, Mamfe to Bamenda and Mamfe to Ekok/Abakalike all under the sponsorship of the international community.

(5) Finally the training of BIR forces which, undoubtedly, would constitute a defense force for a free Southern Cameroons. Which of these achievements listed above has been realized under the plan of action of the so- called patriotic Coalition front of Nfor Nfor, Njoh Litumbe and their gang who are now trying to reap where they have not sown?

v The political punch Vol 3 N^o 074 (dateless) carries another caption “Mola Njoh Litumbe emerges as new Southern Cameroons Home Front Leader” In the General Assembly meeting of 18^th August 2011 in Bamenda Nfor Nfor openly declared that there was no leader as yet in the Patriotic Coalition Front but in his write-up entitled “For our Patriotic Minds Eyes” of 15^th October 2011 Mr. Nfor Nfor stated therein that there were leaders in the PCF both in the Diaspora and the home front, a situation which he Nfor Nfor advised against. This posture of double standards by a man who aspires to rule a nation is not only dispiriting but downright disconcerting with a grave consequence of placing his followers constantly in a corrosive misunderstanding. Not only that. The Mola Njoh Litumbe who Nfor Nfor has appointed as the new Southern Cameroons Leader is not only a Politician in La Republique du Cameroun but also one who nurses federalist ambition for which he has been negotiating with government for a colossal sum of money as compensation should the plan succeed.

In that same write-up Mr. Nfor Nfor stated that this campaign for Litumbe’s leadership of Southern Cameroons started as far back as 2003 shortly after the death of Late Martin Ngeka Luma. According to the declaration of Litumbe himself in Oslo, unknown to members of the National Executive Council of the SCNC, Nfor Nfor had approached him 8 times to take over this leadership of Southern Cameroons, treacherously stabbing the National Chairman of the SCNC Chief Ayamba on the back to push him into a slow death rattle inorder to usurp his office as he has done in the so-called government sponsored SCNC meeting of 15/1/2012 in Bamenda

EVIDENCE OF SALE OF THE STRUGGLE BY NFOR NFOR AND HIS GANG.

In the meeting which took place in Victoria on December 5^th 2011 it was certainly agreed that the next G.A meeting should take place in Bamenda on 14/15 of January 2012. But suddenly the National Chairman was overtaken by household problems relating to the health situation of his entire family and himself. Under this stress the National chairman reserved every right to call off the meeting till further notice. The National organizing Secretary Mr. James Sabum was charged with the responsibility of sending out this information which he did through phone contact. But Nfor Nfor who feels he could suffocate everybody because of SCNC insisted on going ahead with the meeting inorder to hatch his diabolic plan of conducting a silent coup. Prior to the organization of this meeting CRTV has conspicuously advertised the meeting in the screen a couple of days to the D.date. This was an exemplary move for a government information organ to advertise an SCNC activity in contradiction to an earlier communiqué by the Minister of Information restricting any government information organ from publishing anything in connection with SCNC. Again if one should realize that there are cases at the moment pending in courts in connection with SCNC meetings one immediately understands why government had a special interest in this meeting.

From reliable sources we are given to understand that money was sent all over by Nfor Nfor to attract massive attendance at the meeting. He is also known to have sponsored Litumbe’s trip to Oslo at the cost of 200.000(two hundred thousand frs CFA) and lawyer Stanlislause Ajong’s trip to the ACHPR Banjul for a sinister mission at the cost of 700.000frs CFA. Furthermore he is now known to have bought a big car and pretends to give the impression that the son sent the car to him from abroad.

During the last 1^st October celebration of our 50^th anniversary of independence in Buea members of the PCF under the leadership of Nfor and Litumbe had a meeting with the governor of South West Region, the purpose of which was not clearly known. We understand there was a confrontation in the meeting and Nfor Nfor himself declared that he was on bail. What could make a man be detained and subsequently released on bail if he were not connected with some criminal activities? Certainly his arrest, detention and subsequent release was in no way connected with the activities of 1^st October 2011 because his name does not feature among the over 170 arrestees now facing trial in the Buea High Court.

A MEETING OF GHOST LEADERS

In the meeting which Nfor Nfor boasted was attended by more than 152 leaders and activists from 11 divisions (counties) of the Northern and Southern zones and in which a purported binding resolution was taken onlyhe alone had to sign the resolution thus displaying his egoistic spirit of self conceitedness and aggrandizement. Secondly how could 13 divisions of these provinces have given him 152 leaders if these leaders were not ghost leaders? Even if all members of the zonal county and LGA executives in both the Northern and Southern zones were in attendance the number could have been less than a half of what Nfor Nfor is talking about because most of the offices are yet vacant in the SCNC National Executive Council.

EXPOSITION OF HIS POLITICAL IGNORANCE

This is a man who poses as an owner of a doctorate degree in political science who does not know the role and importance of “Front Liners” in a liberation struggle. This is because he is not one of them. Mr. Nfor Nfor has been writing elaborately on global liberation struggles covering areas like South Africa, South West Africa, Spanish Sahara, disintegrated states of the former USSR ETC, ETC. Certainly in each of these cases there is an individual or group of persons who raise the idea of the introduction of a change through a revolution (like what is presently happening in the Arab world) and gradually this idea is being bought by the population until it develops into physical manifestation. What in hell should be the name given to this individual or group of persons who have advanced this revolutionary idea?

In Southern Cameroons Mr. Nfor Nfor is telling us in his “Patriotic Minds Eyes” of the 9 man delegation that went to New York in 1995 to file a petition against the annexation of Southern Cameroons by la Republique du Cameroon. There after he never says anything of what happened between 1995 and 2000, a period in which the proclamation of the independence and sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Southern Cameroons was made by those Nfor Nfor and his gang referred to as the “So-called Front Liners”. No doubt he has been willfully suppressing these facts from Southern Cameroonians in all his pronouncements and write-ups, because his projection of this aspect of the struggle will tend to minimize his position and dwindle his importance in the struggle. He takes delight in disclosing only those aspects of the struggle in which he is personally involved, keeping himself placidly unconcerned with everything in which he did not participate.

Furthermore an aspect of Nfor Nfor’s political ignorance is his call for election in a liberation struggle so as to grab power the Biya style. As a student of the political history he claims to be which of the following recognized liberation movements (ANC of South Africa, SWAPO in Namibia, S.W Africa, Southern Sudan People Liberation Movement, etc etc) has ever been politicized by the introduction of election prior to the acquisition of independence or self determination? Mandela was incarcerated for about 27years yet he was still recognized as the leader of the black majority in South Africa who were fighting the apartheid regime. This has been the position with all other liberation movements in which elections are suspended until after freedom has been attained. We can, of course, rightly replace a leader if the present one has been incapacitated by circumstances or has resigned for personal reasons. But Nfor Nfor wants his election now so as to use the money they have grabbed from the regime to corrupt Southern Cameroonians elect him into power to put in place an undisputable tyranny.

In his silent coup of 15/1/2012 Mr. Nfor Nfor invited unknown people to elect him National Chairman of the SCNC contrary to the Bamenda joint declaration in which a decision was taken to break the monopoly of Southern Cameroons leadership which has always been manned by elites from the Northern zone in the previous Southern Cameroons government, ie J.N. Foncha, Prime Minister of Southern Cameroons, Augustine Ngom Jua, Prime Minister West Cameroon, Solomon Tanden Muna, Prime Minister of West Cameroon, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Cameroon and speaker of the Cameroon Federal House of Assembly. All of these personalities hailed from the Northern Zone. This clearly explain why this leadership position, having rotated to the Southern Zone, has always been maintained by South Westerners as Ekontang Elad, Henry Fossung, Ndoki Mukete, Jusctice Alobwede Ebong, Martin Ngeka Luma and finally HRH Chief Ayamba Ette Otun. This is a fact which is well known by Mr. Nfor Nfor but because he feels plaqued with a phenomenon of dogged persistence he is determined to break normal convention to soothe his appetite for power, even if it means reducing Southern Cameroons into a monarchy which must always be ruled by people from the Northern Zone.

FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT

For the whole of his tenure as vice chairman of the SCNC Mr. Nfor Nfor has been directly connected with the secretariat which manages the finances of the council although not a finance officer himself. The constitution provides that the National chairman has to approve of every expenses that has to be incurred but Mr. Vice Chairman has been withdrawing and disbursing council finances at will with no clear records to back these disbursement.

It is noteworthy that his connection with the finance department has gravely impaired the financial situation of the council, the figures of which have constantly been in red. He has also been forestalling any meaningful audit intended to effectively render a true account of the council’s financial position because this would expose the fraudulent technique with which the account is being handled.

CONCLUSION:

- The meeting of 15^th January in Bamenda in which Nfor Nfor pretends to have taken over power as National chairman of the SCNC was suspended for reasons beyond the National chairman’s control. Effective publicity was given to this effect by the National organizing secretary, Mr. James Sabum. Nfor Nfor’s persistence to go ahead with the meeting merely exposes his recalcitrant nature and the secret agenda behind all that took place.

- His introduction of a new leadership in Southern Cameroons under the guise of a so-called Patriotic Coalition Front is merely a ploy to hijack the leadership for the purpose of selling Southern Cameroon to La Republique so as to enable the clique negotiate a Federation in return for a huge sum of money. Prominent critics like Sam Nouvela Fonkem, a former staff of CRTV and Ekontang Elad, one time National chairman of the SCNC have vigorously questioned the leadership of someone in the struggle (Njoh Litumbe) who has never shown any interest in it nor spend a mite for it.

- The porous leadership complained about in the SCNC is completely the handi-work of Mr. Nfor Nfor who wants to control every facet of administrative procedure, giving rise to a confused state of affairs. To prove this right information has it that while in Nigeria he was the head of the student movement known as NUCS Africa (National Union of Cameroon Students – Nigerian Chapter) but was thrown out when his wayward character was identified and his position taken over by one Molongwe. In Cameroon he was the SDF political adviser to Fru Ndi but was equally thrown out on account of the same weakness.

- The vote of no confidence passed on Nfor Nfor does not dismiss him from the SCNC. It was actually based on a meticulously verified bulk of evidence arising from his personal pronouncement and write-ups. We expected him to put up his defense either in writing or any other means suitable. Instead of doing just this he turned round to summon and chair a meeting attended by zombies who took a baseless resolution. The vote of no confidence can only be lifted by those who passed it and on grounds that Nfor Nfor has appropriately and satisfactorily defended himself. Consequently his failure to comply with this condition holds him responsible for all the accusation meted on him while the vote of no confidence remains irrevocable.

- The Post Newspaper No 01312 of Monday January 16 quoted Fru Ndi, chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) as having said that he would join the SCNC if members of his party fail to give him majority seats (2/3) in the upcoming parliamentary and municipal elections coming up later this year. The veteran politician said that he had been approached by SCNC insiders who requested him take over leadership of the struggle but he has been ignoring them because of this wrangling among themselves. This gentleman has been engaged in the politics of La Republique du Cameroun for more than a decade and all his victories constantly being confiscated since he is an Anglo. Today he is being approached to join the Southern Cameroons National Council which he has been despising for all this period. Who then are these people who have been approaching him if not Nfor Nfor, Njoh Litumbe and members of their coalition front? It should not be forgotten that Fru Ndi has all along been advocating for a four state federation for a United Federal Cameroon Republic.

- Southern Cameroonians should note that the SCNC under the leadership of Chief Ayamba is standing for the complete liberation of Southern Cameroons and nothing less. Mr. Biya, under the influence of France and other corrupt world powers, has been fighting tooth and nail to block our freedom at all cost. This explains why he has infiltrated our ranks, got hold of my vice Nfor Nfor corrupted who in turn, has been advocating for other Southern Cameroonians to assist him auction away Southern Cameroons for a meager reward. This is the time for all of us to remain extremely vigilant because we even suspect the introduction of civil war in Southern Cameroons as the last resort for our enemies to accomplish their objective.

- The national chairman of the SCNC HRH Chief Ayamba E.O has often been reiterating that the meetings which Nfor Nfor attended in Oslo and Washington were not originally intended for the vice chairman of SCNC to put in place a new organization with a different leadership for Southern Cameroons because no sane man can sign his own death warrant. But Nfor Nfor being the trickstar he is had schemed to hatch out what he has been planning since 2003 ( to oust Ayamba and seize power) through the formation of his Patriotic Coalition Front.

- The National chairman is appealing to Southern Cameroonians to see into this relationship between himself and his vice to prove who loves or hate the other, taking into account the following:

a) That Chief Ayamba’s confirmation as the National chairman took place in Bamenda on 9^th August 2003.

b) That Dr. Nfor Ngala Nfor in his e-mail of October 15^th 2011 – subject matter “Where is the spirit of Oslo/Washington- introduction – Paragraph two and three which said that in the year 2003 after the death of Dr. Martin N. Luma he Nfor Nfor went to Buea from Bamenda 8 times to urge Njoh Litumbe to take over the Leadership of SC. Was that action proper?

c) That when UNPO invited the SCNC National Chairman to the Hague in December 2004, chief Ayamba decided to go with Nfor Nfor although he was not invited to go there.

Considering what I have done for him and what he is now doing to

Me who hates or love the other?

God bless Southern Cameroons.

Done at Mamfe. This 25^th day of January 2012.

________________

HRH CHIEF AYAMBA ETTE OTUN
SCNC NATIONAL CHAIRMAN
SCNC: http://www.scncforsoutherncameroons.net
MEMBER OF UNPO: www.unpo.org

Cc:

- H.E Ban Ki Moon –UNSG New York

- H.E. President Barack Obama. Washington

- H.E. Rt. Hon.. David Cameroon. London

- H.E. Dr. Goodluck Johnathan, Abuja, Nigeria

- H.E. Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa

- H.E. John Evans Atta Mills, President of Ghana

- H.E. Chairman of AU

- AU Commission Chairman

- All Embassies in Yaounde

- All Member Nations of the UN

- All Member Nations of AU

- H.E. Kamalesh Sharma, S.G Commonwealth, London

- President of the European Union

- President o the ICJ, The Hague

- H.E Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa

- S.G of ACHPR, Banjul, the Gambia

- High Commissioner of UN Human Rights Council, Geneva

- Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa

- Marino Budaschin, G.S. UNPO, The Hague

- Special Rapp.on Extra-judicial,Summary or Arbitrary Execution, UNHRC

- Special Rapp. On Freedom of Opinion and Expression, UNHRC

- Special Rapp.on Torture, UNHRC, Geneva

- Human Rights Organisations – national & international

- The Press – national & international

- Archives

Nigeria: Obi and the killing of Ndigbo

2012-01-26T07:02:00.000-08:00

Obi And The Killing Of Ndigbo

Written by Odimegwu Onwumere

As the chairman South-East Governors Forum, Governor Peter Obi’s fear of the security situation in the country and how it affects Ndigbo, is really a situation to be reflectd on. However, many Igbo sons and daughters have asked what he has done over the current critical situation of Ndigbo in the North, where they are killed in torrents. They have accused him of compromising the safety of Ndigbo in the North on political ground.

One thing many of us have not taken cognizance, perhaps due to sentiment or political bias, is that Obi is one governor who has shown his love for posterity by how he goes about the governance business in Anambra State that he even extends across the states in the South-East due to his coordinating and leadership qualities. This is evident in how he has made us to understand how money can be earnestly utilized in the state, as against what we were before told that Anambra was poor by those who governed the state before him.

On the stand of the leaders of the Igbo extraction on the killings of Ndigbo in the North, those who read newspapers and do not base their observations on beer parlour politics, would note that a meeting of the South-East governors was held this year on the issue, and a meeting of the Igbo political leaders was called to discuss the issue and take a position.

There is nothing to fear about Obi on the security issue because this is a man who has not compromised the sufferings of his people before now for any political attainment. At least, he has made Anambra people to know that they can enjoy the basic amenities that democracy can give through his careful use of resources. Such projects are like the Housing estates, Anambra State University projects, Ezu bridge projects and many others that can not be mentioned here due to space. “If there were a handful of leaders of this type in the Nigerian political terrain, then this country would have a very bright future,” an observer said about Obi.

Obi’s humane heart and dedication to the service of humanity is awesome. Like every other well meaning person, he had expressed his sadness not only on the killings of Ndigbo, but on the ceaseless killings in the different parts of the country. In a press conference he organized in Awka on Wednesday 11, January, he said: “I want to assure Anambra people and all south-easterners resident in the North, especially the troubled areas, that the governors of the South-East are very much concerned about the killings. We are working round the clock with the governors and the leadership of the North on ways to ensure that the killings do not continue.”

He added that Ndigbo in the troubled areas had already met with the governor of one of the states in the North on the development. “Even yesterday’s night (Tuesday, January 10) around 12:30 p.m., I spoke at length with the governor of Adamawa State, who is also saddened over the development. Igbo blood cannot be continuously spilled unnecessarily and we are committed to ensuring that the killings are stopped,” he had said.

Who knows if the people calling for Obi’s head on this issue wanted him to spur for war whereas he has spoken his mind which does not betray any trust. One thing is that we all must brave up and maintain a peaceful cooperation, just as Obi had urged citizens from other parts of the country residing in the South-East to remain calm and law-abiding, stressing that they were in touch with security agencies to ensure the safety of everyone.

Odimegwu Onwumere, writes from Rivers State. Mobile: +2348032552855. Email:apoet_25@yahoo.com

Orange CAF Africa Cup of Nations: the entry of Ghana, the real favourites

2012-01-24T04:41:00.000-08:00

Would I be proven wrong today? Hopefully not. But I am forced to admit that, since the start of this tournament, teams classified as favourites, have not lived up to their reputation. The glaring example this disappointment is how the highly fancied Teranga Lions of Senegal with their constellation of stars were humbled by the Chipolopolo of Zambia. Final score line 2 goals to 1 in favour of the Zambians. And the icing on the cake was the dramatic victory of co-host Equatorial Guinea over the Libyan in a packed and highly charged Estadio de Bata. The Ghanaian it may be argued, are not Libyans or Senegalese, but football games we all know, does produce sometimes some phenomenal upsets. Whatever the case, the Ghanaians are real champions and real favourites. Their record speaks generally in their favour. Ghanaians are four times winners of the Africa Cup of Nations and they were the only African country that made an impressive presence in the last world cup in South Africa. All but one player that took part in the last world cup campaign in South Africa are taking part in this year’s tournament.

As for Botswana, whose team are called the Zebras, they are on paper rated as underdogs who will pose no problem to the Black Stars. But the fact that, they are taking part and major football powers such as Cameroon, Nigeria and Egypt are absent, is a feat that alone warrants the black stars to give Botswana some respect. In short, they might surprise the black stars. While waiting for a hypothetical upset to happen in the Ghana versus Botswana encounter, the other match to watch today in Group Day is that, pitting Mali versus Guinea. It will be an all West African derby but that which is likely to surprise supporters of both teams. Between both teams, it is Guinea that on paper is likely to win. For they have been impressive in all their participation in African cup of nations campaigns, while Mali is a team that is capable of the worst and best performances. Meanwhile, co-host Gabon that had problems in the construction of the various venues to host the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations began their campaign with a win against the Republic of Niger. The final goal score line was 2 goals to nil. That match took place yesterday, but it was not very exciting a match.

However, the second match pitting two North African teams, namely: Morocco and Tunisia was a high voltage encounter. The Moroccans wanted to watch away the humiliations of the last African cup of nations final in Tunis, wherein they were trounced by Tunisia. But that atonement would have to wait, for it was the Cartage Eagles who got the best against the Atlas Lions of Morocco via their calm and responsible footballing tactics. And the final score line was 2 goals for the Tunisians and 1 goal for Morocco. The other scores or results registered this far, is the laborious 1 goal victory of the Elephants of Ivory Coat against the outsider Nile Crocodiles of Sudan. While the Angolans defeated Burkina Faso by 2 goals to 1.

The 28th edition of the CAF Orange Africa Cup of Nations kicked off today in Equatorial Guinea

2012-01-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

Bata, the continental part of Equatorial Guinea was today, the scene of the kick off of the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations. The 28th edition of the bi-annual biggest continental football jamboree is co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. True to its tradition, the tournament began with great surprises. Host nation Equatorial Guinea defeated Libya by one goal to nil, while in the second match, pitting the highly fancied Teranga Lions of Senegal against the Chipolopolo of Zambia; it was the second, who came out victorious. Final score: 2 goals to 1. The Zambians and the Equato-Guineans deserve their victories, for they were the ones who were more enterprising. But this year’s 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, which began today in Equatorial Guinea, will go down in history, as a tournament that is taking place without the participation of the continent’s football superpowers. Namely: Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt. Their absence is synonymous to hosting a sumptuous party without champagne. Without trying to under look those who will be taking part, the absence of the continent’s big five football nations, has removed some lustre in the continent’s greatest football tournament and the suspense that accompany their presence.

Favourite nations

As things stand, it is now difficult to speculate on the countries or country that will lift the silverware on the 12th of February in Libreville. But looking at the pedigree of the countries that have qualified, it is not easy to fathom that, in this tournament, there are three favourites. Namely: Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal. And wherever there are favourites in any competition, there also great teams that might create surprises, these ones are referred to as outsiders. This year, the outsiders are: Tunisia, Morocco, Zambia and Sudan. But there are a third group, the co-host: Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. They might bolt from the blue, because of home support. Be that as it may, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are not expected to reach the final. But it will be interesting for both nations to create some upsets, which is also what creates the attractiveness of football. This tournament may be a sporting event, but it is also a political meeting.

Maommar Ghadaffi

Libya, whose leader Maommar Ghadaffi was assassinated by France, Britain and the United States, will be taking part in this tournament. And it will be an opportunity for the new leaders in Tripoli, who are not supported or liked in most of the continent, to reconnect with the geographical area that they belong to. The shadow of Maommar Ghadaffi, who was brutally killed by westerners and their Arab agents, will hover over the Mediterranean Knights as the Libyan national team is now called and it will equally affect their performance. Many people especially African leaders will not want the Libyans to go past the group stage in this tournament. For any good performance of the Mediterranean Knights, will be a public relations stunt to the new leaders in Tripoli. And it’s exactly what that most African leaders and even ordinary Africans won’t want the leaders of Tripoli to have at this point in time.

Coronation of the hard work

But this year’s tournament is the coronation of the hard work of President Obiang Nguema in the transformation of his country. Two decades ago Equatorial Guinea was the least developed and perhaps the poorest country within the sub region. Today, Equatorial Guinea is a transformed country. She is one of the leading economies within the CEMAC region and the fact that, she is able to organise or co-host the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, it is a testimony that, oil is not a curse, but can be a blessing, if and only if it is properly managed. Equatorial Guinea has arrived, but it is not the same thing with Gabon.

The Nigerian strike is over , an analysis from Congo

2012-01-19T00:49:00.000-08:00

The Nigerian strike has been suspended or should I say ,has ended. Like in all battles , when it has ended, observers are quick to rule on which camp has won or lost. But in such a battles, there is hardly ever a clear cut victor or vanquish. The consequences of the Nigerian strike was not only felt in Nigeria but regionally. And the final out come will determine how trade, especially oil , will be marketed regionally. It has been claimed by supporters of nigerian oil subsidies that oil subventions was the only dividend that poor nigerians generated from their country's oil wealth. But what all those who hold such analysis or are against the removal of subsidies forget is that, Nigerian oil subsidies affected negatively , formal petroleum distribution businesses in the entire sub region. For the highly subsidized Nigerian fuel , was not only benefiting the nigerian poor masses, it was smuggled through sophisticated networks out of the country and marketed at below market rates in Cameroon, Chad, Benin Republic, Niger, Mali and beyond .This system did not only destroy the businesses of fuel distribution in the aforementioned countries, it fed the nefarious networks of cross border criminality that has resulted in the creation terrorist groups such as Boko Haram, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and MEND operating in the Niger delta . Most often, the smuggled fuel was mixed with other substances by the criminal syndicates and the immediate consequences was that ,most consumers had the engines of their cars, which were at times ,their only source of income knocked out of service.

Therefore, the decision of the nigerian government to lift fuel subsidies is not only a way to free funds for infrastructural development in the country, it is a salutary measure , that will help grow oil distribution business in neighboring countries, create jobs and also deny criminal organizations a vital lifeline. Beyond the consequences of the just ended strike, what is important in my opinion , is to find out the objectives behind the strike and ascertain whether it was really good for Nigeria and Nigerians . In the just ended strike, there are two schools of thought. There are those, like this writer who are in support of the lifting of oil subsidies and a second very vocal group, who are against. But the question that some observers are asking is this: was the Nigerian government right to have wanted at this point in time to remove oil subsidies? Was the Nigerian trade unions and civil society organizations right to have reacted as they have done?

In my opinion, the Nigerian government was for once , bold to attack an institution, that however popular, it is to the masses, was a heavy load that, t had to be dispensed. Besides the fact that, subsidies do reduce the amount of money that government puts in social and infrastructural development,there are questions that needs to be asked to the two parties. Did the Nigerian government do it information job properly? That is , to inform ordinary Nigerians on the necessity or on the dividends that was to be generated from the removal of fuel subsidies ?Concerning the Nigerian Trade Unions and civil society organizations , who were the arrow heads of the just ended strike, it can be argued that, they were in their natural roles. But reason in my opinion, would have warranted them not to be excessive and not to mislead the population as they have done. For subsidies are liking offering fish to some one , while denying to teach him/her how to fish. Oil subsidies or subventions of any kind like those given to European Union farmer via their common agricultural policy, makes the population to live in an illusive world . Whereas, the removal of subsidies confronts the country and it citizens to the true reality.

The Nigerian strikes are over, but in any confrontation of the scope that has just ended, there are positive as well as negative consequences. On a negative note, the just ended strike has caused the Nigerian state , ordinary Nigerians and businessmen and women huge financial loses. But on a positive note, the just ended strike has risen the awareness of Nigerians on how the government spends it resources. The just ended strike has also demonstrated the power of the new media in mobilizing the masses. Above all else, the just ended strike has also shown that, Nigeria is not no the brink of partition as most analysts seem to have predicted after the series of sectarian attacks in the north. It is a good omen not only to Nigeria and Nigerians, but to the sub region and Africa at large. Nigeria is an important market and it stability has a far more reaching positive consequences to regional trade and stability , that most can't imagine . It is now left to the Nigerian leaders not let down all those who are in support of the lifting of oil subsidies , even though, I must note that, the government had back paddled in regard to the anger and mobilization it created. All the same, the Jericho like wall that oil subsidies represented has sustained a crack and it will soon collapsed.

Amaechi Takes Over Oyigbo Road

2012-01-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

Written by Odimegwu Onwumere

Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State has taken the bull by the horn in Obigbo, Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state. His promise in the media since March to take over the construction of the Old Road, Oyigbo, from the Niger Delta Development Commission, is now taking effect. Amaechi made this statement of re-constructing the road, during his campaign rally in the area. Albeit, the people of the area have suffered a lot during the rainy season.

The re-construction of the road is coming with a full swing after we released our brief on the nature of the roads in Oyigbo a fortnight, titled "The True State Of Rivers Roads". In that article, we said that Oyigbo has seen the bad and the ugly side of this government. This place is an eyesore and mindsore. It is like a town that is left to the ruins of wars. Whether the government has good plans for the town in the future is left for Amaechi; what is today seen in Oyigbo is a dilapidated town. The roads are hellish. Over three months, there have been road constructing equipments on the major road of Oyigbo – the Old Road – that have refused to have a human-face. What are seen on this road are demolitions by the machines, without repairs. The people of this area are wearing nose-cover now to prevent the (much) dust from entering their nostrils. Oyigbo is a pity sight. We wonder what could be the fate of the people living in this area when next the rains come if, at least, the Shell Location and Old Express roads are not put in place.

With what we are seeing on ground in Obigbo after we checked the government in that article, we are bent to believe that Amaechi must have been wondering why Oyigbo, "which is one of the oil producing areas in the State, was denied the benefits of oil revenue."

During his campaign in the area, Amaechi cried about the state of the road, and he said: “one thing that touched me this morning when we were coming, was the nature of your road. I called the Commissioner of Works and have asked him to send a company to measure the road so we can fix it. I just heard that it is an NDDC contract. No more excuses, I will call the NDDC MD to hands off so we will do our road. This is not politics win or lose we will do the road.”

Even though whoever that was involved in doing work on this road may have played politics with the road before, we are believing that Amaechi is on the ground to give Oyigbo the "basic road".

But this is one out of the many roads in the area that need to be rehabilitated. All the roads in the area are bad. They are presently in a serious state of disrepair. They are not motorable. The rains have gone. Oyigbo residents have been brought undue hardship and pains upon. Bad roads in the area have paralyzed economic activities.

This is one time the government has to enforce the Oyigbo council to work and message all the companies operating in the area in strong terms to assist in the rehabilitation of the roads.

We are happy today that Amaechi have compelled the contractors handling the ongoing road project in Oyigbo to return to site immediately, after our media briefs on the state of the roads in Rivers State. He has proved that we don't need the entire people of Oyigbo, to embark on protests, to press home their demands, before the roads could be attended to.

The Shell Location road, Oyigbo, is another area Amaechi should compel whoever it is his or her duty to mount work on. Let the contractors not poorly light machines. The nature of the work should be excellent. The roads should withtand even the first rains. We urge the Rivers State Government stop any construction that is not of standard rate. Amaechi must help. We don't need any further economic sabotage in Rivers state. With this, we are happy that the "one major" entrance to Oyigbo will be wearing a new look after the re-construction must have been completed. But if this ongoing work we are happy with in Obigbo, we will not fail, to get back to you.

Odimegwu Onwumere is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV). Email: nirivpol@gmail.com

Pls, find the picture, the ongoing work in Obigbo

Jonathan/David-West: Double Dare On Oil Subsidy

2012-01-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

Written by Odimegwu Onwumere

"Subsidy removal: I’m ready for mass revolt" –Jonathan. This was the news in the Nigerian newspapers from 11^th Dec. 2011. President Goodluck Jonathan has made the issue of the oil subsidy removal looks pleasant to the taste, acceptable and welcoming by the way and manner he has been going about it with his media war christened sensitization. The issue is parlous, with millions of naira being spent on jingles and advertorials to make the policy’s dissident-Nigerians to swallow the pill. But it is dangerous to imitate a policy, using exaggeration for a comic effect.

Off the parachute, Jonathan is not making the policy a soft landing by the stoical way he wants to foist it on Nigerians, because some few persons in his cabinet have said that the removal of the subsidy would add importance and appeal to the economic growth of the country. As if his life depended on the removal of the subsidy, Jonathan has not only talked about Revolution, but has incited it and is practicalizing it, with his media war, to sell the idea to Nigerians.

This is not a particular way to express oneself. Jonathan is hotfoot on this issue and has blocked his ears not to accede the ideas of people like Professor Tam David-West, who has been a Petroleum Minister of this country. David-West has remained an unapologetic anti-subsidy crusader, being harangued by the Federal Government (FG).

The FG has remained hobgoblin, while Jonathan is not paying heed for an open debate between it and the general public on this matter, as has been proposed by David-West. Rather, Jonathan is shying away, which is therefore a curve deformity of the spine of Nigeria.

In his ever outspokenness, David-West has never refrained his statement that the oil subsidy is fraudulent and never existed. And looking at it, the government is foolhardy, waving the advise aside, making Nigeria to stand on the path of condemnation by the ordinary Nigerian. Whereas oil was supposed to be an ornament that was round our neck, it has rather become an ugly recurring decimal to the spirit of commerce and industry of the country. Today, there are numerous government sponsored apologies and writers that do not want to leave anything behind the subsidy removal not attacked; they make Jonathan feels that he has the right to oppose any position the Nigerian populace stands for.

Not rapt by David-West’s stance, Nigerians have read some ignorantly hollow articles against David-West on this issue. One was “Tam David-West's metamorphosis” by one Tony Egbulefu, The Nation, 06/12/2011. Without going any further in order not to make Egbulefu feel that he was important, Egbulefu has only succeeded by exposing himself to the gallery for people to laugh at, while perhaps happy that he has ‘exposed’ David-West. The government’s ravenous quest to fight anything standing against the policy to standstill has brought embarrassment to the country. Imagine a government that cannot reply to a ‘common’ debate David-West has proposed, but is rather enthusiastically spending ravishing sum of money on jingles and advertorials.

Because of crass INTEREST, it is obvious that the government is saying that David-West is either lying or doesn't understand economics, so it must go ahead to carry out its purported plan of the removal of the subsidy. But two things are playing around the subject matter. One is the government’s insistence to remove the subsidy and its readiness to take the Nigerian citizens to ‘war’. What is called ‘treason’ if not such statement of ‘Revolution’ coming from a president of a country like Nigeria whom many people around the world took as a role model?

Jonathan’s unbridled statement of Revolution has made the demand to fix the refineries or build new ones become comedy, because the taste of the pudding is in eating. If he can lead us to Revolution simply because we are demanding that he stops removing the oil subsidy, what else can he not do? He can even sell Nigeria because he wanted the oil subsidy removed.

Whichever, we have to listen to David-West that the idea to remove the fuel subsidy will hamper Nigeria thus: Strangle the economy, stoke up inflation, hurt businesses and the public. Speaking on “Oil ‘Subsidy’: Facts, Fiction and fraud” at a business lecture series of Lagos Country Club, David-West had said subsidy removal is insane and could tip the economy towards recession. But people like Jonathan are daring Nigerians to Revolution, which conversely might not be out of place.

Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, Media/Writing Consultant and Motivator, is the Founder of Poet Against Child Abuse (PACA), Rivers State. Mobile: +2348032552855. Email: apoet_25@yahoo.com

Turning Wishes into Confetti

2012-01-08T09:05:00.000-08:00

Every New Year’s Eve, one ton (907 kilograms) of confetti falls on revelers in New York City’s Times Square. But not all confetti is made equal. Included in that mass of fluttering paper are the wishes of both visitors to the official website of Times Square and the Times Square Visitor Center on Seventh Avenue between 46th and 47th streets. The wishes, whether scribbled by hand or printed from the web, are displayed on the Visitor Center’s Wishing Wall (above) until December 31, when they are mixed among the rest of the confetti that will shower down on the evening party.

Among the thousands of contributors, celebrities offered their own wishes for 2012, such as actor Matthew Broderick (“Peace”) and CNN medical correspondent and neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta (“My wish is that no child go to bed hungry in 2012 or ever after — whether you live in Mogadishu or Manhattan. This, we can do.”)

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

What Drops on New Year’s Eve

2012-01-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

As 1 million people crowd into New York’s Times Square to watch the New Year’s Eve ball descend, millions of other Americans choose different ways to mark the end of 2011.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, a much smaller but no less enthusiastic group of revelers gathers to watch a 563-kilogram, 3-meter-tall bronze acorn (pictured above) descend by crane into Raleigh’s City Plaza. The acorn was created by sculptor David Benson for the city’s 1992 bicentennial and as a nod to Raleigh’s nickname, “The City of Oaks.” The stem is made of pieces of copper from the state Capitol dome.

Other objects Americans choose to watch drop instead of the Times Square ball include a sardine (Eastport, Maine), a pelican (Pensacola, Florida), an olive (Bartlesville, Oklahoma) and a pair of pants (Lisburn, Pennsylvania).

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html

Rivers Financial Meltdown: A Case Of Double Standard

2012-01-07T09:48:00.002-08:00

Written by Odimegwu Onwumere

It his book, The New Frugality, economist Chris Farrell while explaining the cause of global recession says that a generation has learned the hard way the dangers to borrow on credit. The Encyclopedia Britannica Online describes the meltdown as the worst economy in a generation. Contradicting the recent report that about twenty seven states in Nigeria are financially moribund, Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, who doubles as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) reportedly said, “States are not bankrupt, but we have no money!” Hear him: “We are not bankrupt. Do we have money? No! It is challenging, because you can’t be doing all you are doing and you don’t have the funds you need to do them. We are not bankrupt, but we don’t have money.” Hence, he added his voice that the review of the revenue sharing formula would enhance the discharge of their responsibility as governors. Hear him again: “We need the revenue formula to change to favour the states, so that we can do more. Even the President comes from Bayelsa and he needs Bayelsa to develop, so that when he retires as President he can come to a conducive environment.”

Let us agree in another statement, according to the governor, that his government has repaid N6billion out of the N40 billion it recently contacted from a commercial bank, but the ear drumming recalcitrance of his government still mounting force with its plan to raise the controversial sum of N250 billion through bond should be retimed, no matter that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) increment of interest rate in banks is awful, which has made borrowing from the bank a tall dream.

Whatever Amaechi meant by “States are not bankrupt, but we have no money!” is yet to be intelligible to discerning minds. How a person that has no money could say that he is not bankrupt? And when states have no money, what happened to the funds disbursed to them? The problem is that many of the governors lacked financial prudence; therefore they resorted to going to Abuja to beg for funds whereas they could easily raise funds prudently locally without the intimidation of the citizens. Amaechi said that the states “do not have money” whereas he is not considering the white elephant projects the governors engage in which are not geared towards making money.

It was very sad to note how Amaechi blamed the revenue sharing formula for the states woes without prior bringing to bear sound economic management of any available funds? Does a river State not get more money than a lot of the states? Why has it a business being bankrupt? The problem is that Rivers State under Amaechi could not survive because it lacks self sustaining and proper planning and implementations of ideas which are called projects, but he refused to tell himself this truth because of political will, which is causing the state today great hindrance. (We are seeing the transformation package of Amaechi). Are you not seeing it?

Known for his boldness with rare oratorical skill, many Nigerians would be really disappointed at the Amaechi’s miscalculated statement. Is it not appalling to note that the reasoning of these governors is that they need the Federal Government to survive? If Rivers State is financially stressed, as Amaechi has made us to understand with his innuendoes, other states of the federation must have gone totally financial oblivion. What is then with the Ameachi's multi-task soldier’s approach in enhancing Rivers State if the state is poorer than he met it? He forgot that no nation has survived without a solid infrastructural base, no matter all the transformation abracadabras. Was it that Amaechi has a great foresight but wanes in carefully analyzing his ideas?

Many of the ‘shiny’ things the governor has constructed in his last tenure really confused people to know that state management is like a business which sole aim is to make gains. No matter the money expended in maintaining the going of the business. So, when a business has no money, the business has waned and has gone bankrupt, but here Amaechi finds a statement to make us have hope that the states run efficiently. However, such statement had already been discarded as it came. Tomorrow we might hear that the roads, schools, hospitals, transportation and all that they are sweating to build are the stepping stone for any viable investment, forgetting that even a man in the village who knows his onus in doing business still makes income and not run out of income.

How can a state like Rivers State not contract financial flu when it embarked on the construction of monorail which Nigeria does not have the technological knowhow to maintain? Even the buses the government bought, sustainability has shrouded the effort. Amaechi had rather gave Rivers people firm tarred roads with street lights instead of this ‘fanciful’ monorail, which can never be measured with the ones in the United States, where people leave and go to work every day from cities with equivalent distance of miles, whereas the monorail in Rivers State cannot reach all the towns in the state let alone connecting Abia State.

The best way to describe the current agitation for revenue sharing is foolery hyped on politics with socio-eco-pol spoilers championing the crusade. How to raise fund should have been the first priority of these governors from the day they started their political campaigns for the office they are occupying and not how to share money, christened revenue sharing formula. But rather, they saw the states as charity organizations that must be donated instead of business that must be worked for; as a result, they begin to hip excuse upon excuses for their failures on the Federal Government.

The annoying side of it is that Rivers State which was supposed to be lending other states money is the most hit by the meltdown, because every project embarked on in the state has not been able to sustain itself. No doubt, Amaechi is yet to know that the state was supposed to be a crystal example of how to manage money in designing a self sustaining economy independent of oil. Is Amaechi at all laying the foundation of Rivers State’s financial prudence for the future? Or are we bent on seeing these preventive maintenance or repairs of roads going on in the state, wishing away laudable projects by mere inability to maintain them? Is this monorail another avenue to put the Rivers citizens in the stress and high cost of transportation in the state? Nigerian state and its operation of faulty revenue system without true federalism which has made our points not to hold any water is bad. Imagine that Afam power Station in Rivers State which was able to provide 24hrs power supply to Rivers, is shared with other states of the federation “for free” without any remuneration to the originator state! The state does not even boast of fervent electricity power supply.

Anyway, the Federal Government greed in holding funds and at the same time extreme power thereby making the states that needed the funds for efficient development of the locals should be earnestly addressed. How much political will does the Federal Government has to bring about an improvement in development in Nigeria? Subjecting the states to appear as beggars is not a treat. The clamour for review of the revenue sharing should not be a pointer for the governors’ financial failures. We know that Rivers State is in dire need of basic infrastructure, but should not be wishful. The state should engage in human face activities to generate funds internally. It is an eardsore that Rivers State Government that said it has repaid N6b remaining N34b out of the N40b it borrowed is still bent on borrowing N250b from the bond market.

Odimegwu Onwumere is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV). Mobile: +2348032552855 (or) +2348057778358. Email: nirivpol@gmail.com

Rivers Financial Meltdown: A Case Of Double Standard

2012-01-07T09:48:00.001-08:00

Jonathan: How Not To Practice Zoology

2012-01-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

Written by Odimegwu Onwumere

The announcement of the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy is causing a lot of angry public discussion and disagreement. Nigerians have been caused to lose sleep and peace since the January 1^st avoidable proclamation was made. No matter all the hallucination of benefits the proponents of this inane policy are watering down the throat of Nigerians, the fuel subsidy removal is a debauching New Year Gift from President Goodluck Jonathan-led government to Nigerians.

Why this decree came as an Olympian shock was that the Federal Government (FG) had told Nigerians in December 2011 that the fuel subsidy departure was due for April this year, while it was still consulting, and Nigerians looked up to that period. Against that backdrop, Jonathan didn’t wait a minute before he struck like a terrorist, as if Nigerians were animals in the zoo. It is saddening when a man whom his followers believed so much in, cannot stand by his word. This type of behaviour is hoodwinking: just what Jonathan has exhibited.

Terrorists are known for causing deaths and destructions. The same way, Jonathan’s unilateral decision on the fuel subsidy deletion may put Nigerians in a box throughout the remaining months of the year. Imagine where a people began the year with bickering and tinkering. In the traditional belief, it is a bad omen. The myth is that whatever one faces first in the morning goes a long way to show how the person’s whole day was going to be. If at the opening of the door in the morning and one is greeted with fortune, the person smiles throughout the day. But if the person is greeted with misfortune, the day is already spoilt. Pray that the latter is not Jonathan’s scheme to Nigerians!

What is the better way to define terrorism? More Nigerians are today wondering the future of the country than ever because of the militarism that trails the imposition of the fuel subsidy policy by the FG. This is terror to Nigerians and they are reacting, the same way the world peoples did when the news filtered in the air on September 11, 2001 that terrorist had attacked the New York City and Washington D.C. The way Nigerians are wailing today about their fate in Nigeria under Jonathan, was the same way the world cried, watching the Twin Towers in the USA on TV collapsing into images of flames. But somebody would ask: was it not ‘just’ on May 29, 2011 that Jonathan became an elected president?

As TV showed the unrelenting efforts of the survivors of that dastardly attacks on USA., Jonathan and his foot soldiers are rather showing arch-anger against Nigerians protesting his tormenting policy called fuel subsidy removal. Many protesters have been inimically arrested and many reportedly shot dead and wounded in different locations across the country. It is only a fool who sits down when terror struck. Nigerians are not fools. Just as war broke out in the wake of September 11, 2001 between the USA against terrorist, Jonathan-led government of Nigeria is attacking peace-loving Nigerians at the wake of their protest against his policy by any means necessary. This act is like beating and making hogwash of a child and at the same time telling the child not to cry from the ground the child was subjugated to. Is this not double punishment? Tormenting the protesting Nigerians with arrests and killings at the wake of the fuel subsidy removal is the worst of bait that any government can stake with its citizens.

Jonathan has behaved like he had altercating grudges against Nigerians by his gesture without minding the untold hardship he has subjected Nigerians to, as they return from the Christmas festivity and after. Can Jonathan ever agitate for peace in Nigeria again when he is not behaving like one who wants peace? What manner of peace was Jonathan preaching that Nigerians should always imbibe when he was even the first to clamour for revolution because of this fuel subsidy removal that has been characterized in many quarters as fraud? The deaths and gratuitous destruction of property by the unfriendly Boko Haram at Madalla in Niger State on Christmas day seemed something that Jonathan waved with the back of his left hand after his speech to Nigerians to see terrorism as something that has come to live with them and they should contain it? Have Nigerians not been killed enough through arsonists and government’s pursuit of economic and political interests?

If a government as Jonathan’s cannot blink and sit back into its thinking chair to re-consider the impacts the common Nigerian is about to suffer because of the fuel subsidy removal lucre, the government’s kind of terrorism is spreading like wildfire. How could Jonathan go to work before thinking? He had promised Nigerians that 1, 600 buses were to be sent on the Nigerian roads to help alleviate the masses transportation burden. The buses have not even arrived than he struck. Even if they had arrived, what significant could mere 1, 600 buses have/make in a country of over one hundred and fifty million people with a rate of 80% earning less than half a dollar a day? Jonathan should define the mother of terrorism if not fanaticism, hatred and poverty. These are being born in Nigeria because government’s practice of injustice is on the increase against the common Nigerian. Nigerians have solely provided for themselves what in other civilized climes government would not want journalists to know that it was incapable to provide. But in Nigeria, government like Jonathan’s boasts about its readiness to engage its citizens in a contest of revolution on the public outcry.

As a zoologist with a B.Sc. degree in Zoology in which he attained Second Class Honours, Upper Division, an M.Sc. degree in Hydrobiology and Fisheries biology, and a Ph.D. degree in Zoology from the University of Port Harcourt, Jonathan is merely rearing shadow like animals on fuel subsidy without first curbing the corruption bedeviling the petroleum sector. He reared Nigerians like animals by the fact that he didn’t recognize that the issue of fuel subsidy was in the 2011 budget which was supposed to be exhausted by the end of March, when the 2012 budget will be operational. The National Assembly had not even given the policy a nod. Jonathan needs to be called to order that Nigerians are not animals that can be reared anyhow the herdsman likes. Even, animals in the developed world do they not have some incomparable rights?

Odimegwu Onwumere is a Poet/Author and Media Consultant based in Rivers State. Call: +2348032552855. Email: apoet_25@yahoo.com

White House on Christmas Day Violence in Nigeria

2012-01-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

25 December 2011

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 25, 2011

Statement by the Press Secretary on Nigeria

We condemn this senseless violence and tragic loss of life on Christmas Day. We offer our sincere condolences to the Nigerian people and especially those who lost family and loved ones. We have been in contact with Nigerian officials about what initially appear to be terrorist acts and pledge to assist them in bringing those responsible to justice.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

AGOA Eligibility Continues in 2012 for 40 African Countries

2012-01-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

30 December 2011

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk

Washington — Forty sub-Saharan African countries will remain eligible in 2012 for U.S. trade preferences and benefits aimed at improving lives and livelihoods on the continent.

During the 2011 review process, President Obama determined that all the countries currently eligible for trade preferences and other benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) would remain eligible and that no new countries would be added as AGOA beneficiaries, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced December 29.

“President Obama’s determination today is good news for the people of these African nations, as well as for the American businesses and workers trading with these countries,” Kirk said. “We are proud to announce, after a thorough review by the Obama administration, that all 40 of these important U.S. trading partners will continue to receive benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act — a vital and growing pillar of U.S.-Africa trade policy.”

Each year the administration examines whether the countries named in the act had met AGOA’s eligibility criteria. Those criteria include establishing, or making continual progress toward establishing, a market-based economy, rule of law, economic policies to reduce poverty, protection of internationally recognized worker rights and efforts to combat corruption.

Countries eligible for AGOA also may not engage in activities that undermine U.S. foreign policy interests, or engage in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.

On October 25, President Obama signed a presidential proclamation designating Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Niger as eligible for AGOA benefits. Each of these countries was previously ineligible, but during a separate review process, the president determined that they had met the act’s eligibility criteria.

Total two-way goods trade with sub-Saharan Africa countries during 2010 was $82 billion. U.S. imports under AGOA totaled $44.2 billion. Non-oil imports under AGOA totaled $4 billion and included value-added products such as apparel, footwear, processed agricultural products and manufactured goods.

The top five beneficiary countries were Nigeria, Angola, South Africa, Republic of Congo and Chad. Other leading AGOA beneficiaries included Gabon, Lesotho, Kenya, Mauritius and Swaziland.

AGOA was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in May 2000 with the objectives of expanding U.S. trade and investment with sub-Saharan Africa, stimulating economic growth, promoting a high-level dialogue on trade and investment-related issues and facilitating sub-Saharan Africa’s integration into the global economy.

At the center of AGOA are substantial trade preferences that, along with those under the Generalized System of Preferences and Most-Favored Nation tariff treatment, allow almost all goods produced in the AGOA-eligible countries to enter the U.S. market duty-free.

For more on AGOA and Kirk’s announcement, visit the AGOA section of the U.S. Trade Representive website.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

Protecting and Assisting the World’s Most Vulnerable Populations

2012-01-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

Posted by David Robinson / January 02, 2012

David M. Robinson serves as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration.

With an estimated 40 million displaced people worldwide, up to 12 million who do not have citizenship to any country, and some 10.5 million refugees around the globe, the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) assists persecuted and uprooted people through our support to international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and by advocating for their protection through humanitarian diplomacy. From the Arab Awakening to the crisis in the Horn of Africa, global political upheaval and conflict have presented many humanitarian challenges, and as 2012 begins, I'd like to take a moment to share a few examples of the work we did last year.

Refugee Admissions: The United States welcomed more than 56,000 refugees to re-start their lives thanks to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. English as a Second Language pilot programs provided basic language training to hundreds of U.S.-bound refugees in Kenya, Thailand, and Nepal. Our overseas partners reported a significant increase in basic skills and confidence. We anticipate increased enthusiasm for studying English after arrival in the United States -- a key skill for newly arrived refugees when seeking employment to become self-sufficient in their new communities.

Africa: In Africa, we supported international organization and NGO efforts to assist some 170,000 Ivoirian refugees in Liberia as well as hundreds of thousands of Ivoirians who were internally displaced as a result of conflict in that region. This spring, turmoil in Libya forced over one million persons to cross into Tunisia and Egypt. In response, PRM supported the emergency evacuation and repatriation of stranded third-country migrants, assistance and protection efforts for refugees and internally displaced persons, and emergency medical care and protection programs for conflict victims and detainees. Our partnership in this effort with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was a model of multilateral humanitarian action at its best. In the Horn of Africa, conflict and famine in southern Somalia forced another 300,000 Somalis to flee in 2011, bringing the overall Somali refugee population in the region to nearly one million. PRM funding to international organization partners and NGOs provided shelter, food, and other assistance to Somalis in need, and we sponsored a series of colloquia in the region to bring affected governments -- especially those who have played an important role in hosting large numbers of Somali refugees -- and service providers together to begin developing a unified strategic plan to address the crisis.

Middle East: Supporting Iraqi refugees in the Middle East continued to be one of our top priorities. Inside Iraq, PRM assistance programs help support voluntary returns and reintegration, for example, though home reconstruction, rehabilitation of water and sanitation systems, employment services and protection assistance. In neighboring countries, our funding supports a range of services for Iraqi refugees, including education, health care, and food assistance. In Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza, PRM's continued contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) supported vital programs in education, health, and social services to five million Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's commitment to peace and tolerance is a force for stability in the region and is an indispensible counterweight to extremism.

South and Central Asia: PRM supported UNHCR as it built its two hundred thousandth shelter for Afghan refugees returning to Afghanistan. We continued to advocate and provide assistance for the 2.7 million Afghan refugees outside Afghanistan as well as for Pakistanis displaced by conflict and flood. In Nepal, PRM supported UNHCR protection and assistance to Tibetan refugees transiting to India. We continued to support UNHCR assistance to 55,000 Bhutanese refugees, many of whom are in the process of resettlement to the United States. With PRM funding, UNHCR and the Turkmenistan government conducted a country-wide registration campaign, identifying approximately 8,000 stateless persons. More than 3,000 verified stateless people were granted Turkmen citizenship, with more expected in the coming months. Turkmenistan also acceded to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.

Western Hemisphere: PRM humanitarian diplomacy saw progress when the Panamanian government passed a law granting approximately 900 indigenous and Afro-Colombian refugees the ability to request residency and work permits. We promoted solutions to statelessness in the Dominican Republic. In Haiti, PRM focused on addressing the protection needs of earthquake-displaced Haitians and building government capacity to address gender-based violence and trafficking in persons, with an emphasis on assistance for vulnerable women and children.

Europe: Our diplomatic efforts and assistance programs in the Balkans worked towards a lasting solution for those displaced since the mid 1990s war. In November, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia signed a joint declaration aimed at providing durable housing solutions to the 74,000 most vulnerable refugees and internally displaced persons remaining in the four countries -- a landmark achievement.

Migration: PRM migration programs supported direct assistance to vulnerable migrants, government capacity building, and regional coordination and dialogues on migration issues. The United States played a leadership role in several regional and international governmental forums, chairing the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees, the largest global forum for dialogue on migration and development issues.

Population: Last year, the global population reached 7 billion, providing multiple opportunities to highlight U.S. leadership in investing in women and girls as essential to solving the world's most challenging problems. Women and girls are the world's engines of change. When their rights are protected and promoted, when they are healthy and educated, and when they can participate fully in society, they trigger progress in families, communities, and nations. Promoting sexual and reproductive health, reproductive rights, and access to safe and effective voluntary methods of family planning are at the top of President Obama's global health agenda. PRM supported these goals by representing the U.S. government at meetings of the UN Population Funds' (UNFPA) Executive Board and at the annual session of the UN Commission on Population and Development.

Statelessness: Under the Secretary's leadership, the Department launched an initiative to promote women's equal right to nationality. At UNHCR's ministerial event in December commemorating the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1954 and 1961 Conventions on Statelessness, Secretary Clinton spoke about discrimination against women as a major cause of statelessness around the world. PRM also targeted statelessness of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic, addressing the issue in several public forums and supporting UNHCR and others as they seek solutions to this enduring problem.

What's in store for 2012? At the UNHCR ministerial, the United States renewed its commitment to displaced people by pledging to take concrete steps to address statelessness, women's nationality issues, protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) refugees and asylum seekers, and to improve detention and asylum practices. Our continued support to our international organization and NGO partners and our diplomacy in 2012 will help improve the lives of millions of persecuted people who have suffered through upheaval and tragedy.

Stay connected with PRM on Facebook: www.facebook.com/state.prm.

U.S. Calls for Stop to Harassment of NGOs in Egypt

2012-01-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

By Stephen Kaufman | Staff Writer | 29 December 2011

The U.S. says the NGOs are in Egypt to help the country build stronger democratic institutions, and do not support individual candidates or political parties.

Washington — The Obama administration called on Egypt’s ruling military council to immediately halt its harassment of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and their staffs, and to return property it confiscated during raids on at least 17 groups on December 29.

The raids have occurred between the rounds of Egypt’s first parliamentary election since the end of Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year regime, and State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said they are “not appropriate in the current environment.” The NGOs, including the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), are operating in Egypt to support the country’s democratic process, she said.

“Their primary purpose around the world is to support the development of democratic institutions. They work most actively, both NDI and IRI, in countries that are in democratic transition. They do things like train poll monitors, train poll workers, train political parties in how to mount their campaigns. But they don’t support any individual candidate, any individual party,” Nuland told reporters in Washington December 29.

Nuland acknowledged that both NDI and IRI receive U.S. government support, but said, “All of their work is open to public scrutiny and to government scrutiny,” and they have been “extremely transparent about the programs that they have in Egypt.”

According to press reports, Egyptian soldiers and police seized documents and computers and prevented staffs from leaving in what Egyptian authorities have said is an investigation into the role of foreign governments in recent protests.

Nuland said U.S. officials have “made strong representations and asked for immediate action” in their discussions with the military government. The action against the NGOs “is inconsistent with the bilateral cooperation we have had over many years.”

“We don’t think that this action is justified, and we want to see the harassment end, and we want to see the property returned and the staff allowed to proceed as normal,” she said.

Egypt has held several rounds of its parliamentary vote, and Nuland said they were “generally judged to be free, fair, with open, broad participation,” but the country is still in the middle of an “intense electoral season,” and the NGOs want to resume their normal activities in support of the democratic process in Egypt.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

Mobile Phone: Convenient Communication or Tracking Device?

2011-11-24T09:14:00.000-08:00

By Stephen Kaufman | Staff Writer | 15 November 2011

Even if mobile service is shut down, through local networks people can still find ways to use their phones to connect and share videos and other information.

This article is the second of two. The first article discussed threats shared by online users and how the State Department is working to make users aware of those threats and ways they can protect themselves.

Washington — The computer age has come and gone. We are now living in the era of the mobile Internet, says Morgan Stanley tech analyst Mary Meeker, who has predicted that by 2015 more people will be connecting to the Internet with their mobile devices than with their PCs. Considering how the tech capabilities of pocket-sized iPhones, Androids and similar devices are skyrocketing even as they maintain their relative affordability, this is not surprising news.

But people who use mobile technology to connect and share information may be more at risk if their governments are taking an interest in their activities. While computer users can make use of Internet cafes, anonymizers and other tools to help them hide their identity, mobile phones cannot offer the same level of protection.

“Usually, that phone is linked to an individual person for billing reasons or because the government requires registration of SIM cards,” said a State Department official who asked not to be identified. The device “sends location information as well, which is very different from a computer,” the official said.

To help promote the ability of all people to freely speak their minds and associate with whomever they want, the State Department created the Internet Freedom Program office, where officials work with many local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to provide information on online risks and the ability to make smarter decisions about online activities.

The threats people face from governments seeking to monitor or block online activities are growing, the official said. Repressive governments are increasingly able to do this with “greater sophistication” and “it’s even more worrisome when we start talking about mobile. The ability to track what people are doing with mobile phones is far greater.”

Even where people have been able to purchase prepaid SIM cards for their phones to help hide their identity, “increasingly, countries are requiring individuals to register SIM cards so they know who exactly is affiliated with what SIM card. So that information allows them to track at an individual level what messages people are sending and what information they are accessing and exactly where they are,” the official said.

“There are a lot of challenges for us to work on,” he said.

The Egyptian government made the drastic decision to shut down the Internet and phone services in response to massive protests against Hosni Mubarak’s regime. In the future, mobile “mesh networking” technology developed by the NGO New America Foundation will allow mobile users to create local telecommunications networks that the authorities can’t shut down.

Using that technology and existing transmitters, people can connect and pass information to each other even if they cannot access the global phone network.

“You could have people putting their videos in a sort of municipal repository somewhere and then there’s someone who knows how to access that and who also knows how to access a VSAT [satellite ground station],” the official said.

Mobile technology also means users don’t have to reveal their identity by physically passing along a CD or USB drive with data that they want posted online. Through the local network, a mobile phone video showing a human rights violation could be passed from phone to phone until it reaches someone with access to the Internet, and “no one even has to know who [the source] is,” the official said.

Local mobile networks are also useful for community organizing and for building morale. By connecting people to each other, “I can feel confident that if I go out in the square today that I’m not the only one. There are a lot of other people who are going to be there as well,” the official said.

ENCOURAGING CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

The State Department is reaching out to companies as they develop new products to make them more aware of how their technologies may be used against their customers by those who want to track their online activities. The nature of the relationship is developing with the changing role of technology in promoting human rights and democracy.

While companies like YouTube and Facebook have enjoyed credit for how their products have been used to help people share information and connect with each other, “now we’re seeing the other side of that, where companies are now realizing how their tools are being used also in more and more sophisticated ways by countries that want to repress people, and they’re recognizing more starkly what their responsibilities are to keep the users safe who are using these sorts of tools,” the official said.

Many companies are trying to do the right thing, he said. Some are working with the Global Network Initiative (GNI), an NGO founded in 2008 that is dedicated to preventing Internet censorship and protecting privacy rights. The GNI brings company representatives together with human rights organizations and academics to find solutions, and their efforts are already seeing results.

For example, when Microsoft Corporation heard that a Russian NGO risked having its computers taken away and its data confiscated on the grounds that it was using an unlicensed version of Windows, the company quickly issued a blanket license for the program that covered all Russian NGOs.

Facebook has come under criticism for preventing users from making anonymous profiles, since it sees the use of real names as a core aspect of the network. But the official said the company has been very helpful when online activists get hacked or into trouble, and is “making sure systems are set up so governments can’t just complain that they don’t like that, this is abusive, and have opposition or activist sites taken down.”

Some companies are better than others, but the official said the more the U.S. government and others work to show why products should take human rights considerations into account, “the easier it will be for people who want to do the right thing within those companies to say yes, we really need to do this.”

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

Keywords:

ICTR Judgment Against Former Rwandan Mayor of Kivumu

2011-11-24T09:06:00.001-08:00

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesperson
November 18, 2011

STATEMENT BY MARK TONER, DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON

Yesterday the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) convicted Gregoire Ndahimana, former Rwandan Mayor of Kivumu, for genocide and crimes against humanity. The court sentenced Ndahimana to 15 years.

The United States welcomes this ruling as an important step in providing justice and accountability for the Rwandan people and the international community. The conviction of Mr. Ndahimana is of particular significance, because as mayor of Kivumu he had authority over the police, and yet failed to prevent the massacre of more than 1,500 people who sought refuge and protection in Nyange Church. Militia, police, civil and religious authorities participated in bulldozing the church, burying the refugees sheltered inside.

There are still nine ICTR fugitives at-large and the United States urges all countries to redouble their cooperation with the ICTR so that these fugitives can be expeditiously arrested and

brought to justice.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

Clinton Congratulating the Liberian People on Their Elections

2011-11-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

15 November 2011

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesperson

For Immediate Release
November 15, 2011
2011/1934

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY CLINTON

Elections in Liberia

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I want to congratulate the Liberian people for exercising their right to vote in last week's presidential and legislative elections. These historic elections are important milestones on Liberia's path toward democratic reconciliation. The United States congratulates President Sirleaf on her re-election and we will continue to work with her and all elected officials to advance democracy, and promote peace and prosperity.

The United States commends the National Elections Commission for conducting free, fair, and transparent elections. We applaud the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union and others for sending observers to monitor the elections, as well as the UN Mission in Liberia for promoting security during the electoral process.

The violence on November 7th marred this otherwise peaceful process, so we welcome the creation of a Special Independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate the incident. We are also deeply disappointed by the Congress for Democratic Change’s decision to boycott the run-off election in an attempt to delegitimize the election. We urge all political parties to respect the election results and resolve their differences peacefully.

The United States is a long standing friend of the Liberian people and we are committed to their future. Congratulations on this momentous occasion.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

Was Professor Henri HogbeNlend the poodle of Dr Moise Albert Njambe

2011-11-23T23:54:00.000-08:00

Dr Njambe who had earlier contacted Professor Nlend as a standby possible substitution/ proposal for the planned “government of national union” should his mediation or attempt to bring the SDF fail, welcomed the overtures of Professor Nlend. For it was a win-win or mutual exploitation for both men. Professor Henri Hogbe Nlend knew that, should Dr Njambe response favourably to his financial request, his political career will be rekindled. Dr Njambe is a lover of solid or true democracy in which there exists factual opposition. But he had lost faith in UPC’s capacity to incarnate a solid viable opposition in Cameroon. He felt that, the role of leading opposition party in Cameroon was carried by the SDF. Nonetheless, he was inclined to help Professor Nlend financially even though he knew that such help will help to consolidate the balkanisation of the UPC. But what was at stake was the reputation of Dr Njambe and he did not care about the UPC. Hence he gave CFA Francs 3 million to Henri Hogbe Nlend. It was with that sum, that professor Nlend used to kick start, his campaign within the UPC for the post of secretary general.

Even though professor Nlend later on got financial assistance from elsewhere, the financial help that Njambe gave him, made him to be subservient. He regularly took pains to inform Njambe on whatever thing or action that he wanted to do or take. And more, he waited for the approval or advice of Njambe. Professor Nlend was a sort of marionette or poodle of Dr Njambe. Besides the sum aforementioned, that Dr Moise Albert Njambe gave to Professor Henri Hogbe Nlend and which he used to his campaign for the post of secretary general of the UPC and which may have also pre-empted the shredding of the UPC into many factions, Njambe also took the pains to note in his diary all amount of monies that he gave the professor of mathematics. The other politician who fell into the drag net of Dr Moise Albert Njambe was Bello Bouba Maigari, chair of the NUDP. It is or was a party touted as the second largest intra and extra parliamentary opposition in Cameroon after the SDF. Some, especially those who can’t stomach the fact that the SDF holds leadership position amongst the opposition and is led by John Fru Ndi have even claimed that, NUDP was the leading opposition party. But the truth is that, the NUDP was and is still a paper tiger. Bello Bouba Maigari in the Cameroonian political galaxy is another character altogether.

Cameroon: did Professor Henri Hogbe Nlend betray Ossende Affana ?

2011-11-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

It is an accusation that he refuses. For if he accepts, it will confirm the rumours floated that he is a traitor. This is so because any French-speaking Cameroonian, who was a member of the UPC and belongs to the generation of Mr Hogbe Nlend and above all, have ambitions to lead the party with the red flag and its black crab placed at the centre of the flag, must not obtains or apply for French nationality. In case he/she does and it is known, it is considered by members of the UPC as the utmost indignity and a passport to straight disqualification. For France is considered in French-speaking Cameroon and in particular in former UPC strongholds as an enemy country. But whether Mr Hogbe Nlend was a holder of a French passport or not he was considered as a danger to the UPC. And immediately he came home and wanted to run for the post of secretary general of the UPC, his most virulent adversary was Augustine Frederick Kodock MP. As already mentioned, even Ndeh Ntumazah, the chair of the short live unified UPC also threw a wearied look at Hogbe Nlend’s ambitions within the UPC. But Mr Kodock was the one who lead the campaign albeit a smear one, against Mr Nlend. He floated the idea anew that, Nlend had connived with the French backed government of late Ahmadou Ahidjo to assassinate Ossende Affana.

Mr Affana was the commandant of the UPC in the central southern part of French-speaking Cameroon in 1966. Professor Henri Hogbe Nlend may be considered as a dangerous opportunist, because he made his ambitions clear within the UPC. But one thing is certain, civil politics in comtemporary Cameroon, the field he went into, was different from that of the 50s and 60s. Politics contrary to what some idealists always claim from their vintage positions, needs monies than ideologies and programmes. And it was the same in Cameroon. And since the re-introduction of multiparty politics in the 90s, only individuals and parties in Cameroon who have charismatic leaders, a fief and money, have survived. Professor Hogbe Nled had a name; he was a little bit charismatic and had a fief, but wherein, he did not command total control. But it was a fief all the same. What he lacked, above all in his political engine was fuel or money. As the competition for the post of secretary general of the UPC heated up, it became evident to him that his rival Augustine Frederick had all his hand and an extra edge: money. It was mindful of his financial handicap that, Professor Henri Hogbe Nlend called on Dr Moise Albert Njambe for financial support.

Cameroon : brief biography of Professor Henri Hogbe Nlend

2011-11-14T02:54:00.000-08:00

Professor Henri Hogbe Nlend is another character. Although he was born in French-speaking Cameroon and was a member of nationalist French-speaking Cameroonian party: UPC, that fought the French, he is paradoxically, a French national and a distinguished intellectual. Professor Henri Hogbe Nlend was born on the 23rd of December 1939 in the village of Nkom-Ngambe. The village of Nkom-Ngambe is located in the Sanaga Maritime division of the Littoral province. He was from1962-1963, chair of the UPC branch in France and in Algeria. He held similar position for the UPC in Congo Brazzaville from 1963-1966. He is a mathematic professor and taught at the University of Bordeaux, France from 1974-1997. He became vice chair of the France section of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) from1985-1990. He was appointed minister of Technical and Scientific Research of Cameroon in December 1997 courtesy the mediation of Dr Moise Albert Njambe. Professor Henri Hogbe Nlend is since 1998, chair of a faction of the UPC known as UPC H. He is presented by his detractors as a very divisive political figure. To some members of the UPC, the French-speaking Cameroonian nationalist party, Professor Nlend is a dangerous opportunist.

While to his admirers, he is a hero and a venerated scientist. Concerning his controversial aspects, he is accused by some members of the UPC of having betrayed Ossende Affana, a member of the UPC, who was assassinated in 1966. Unlike most UPC members, Ndeh Ntumazah, doesn’t accuse professor Nlend of having betrayed any member of the UPC. Ndeh Ntumazah is the only surviving founding member of the UPC and chair the same party. Ndeh Ntumazah nonetheless accuses Professor Nlend, of being an opportunist. Paradoxically, Professor Nlend got the anointment and support of Ndeh Ntumazah, to stand as presidential candidate in 1997.[1] I don’t therefore comprehend why and what Ndeh Ntummazah was accusing his protégé of being an opportunist. Professor Nlend may be a political villain or opportunist to some. But he is an honest intellectual with an impressive academic pedigree. In 1976, he created the African Mathematics Union or in French: Union Mathématique Africaine (UMA). He chaired the organisation for a decade and now he is the honorary chair and he presided the International Mathematic Union from 1978-86.

From 1979-88, he presided over the Centre of Pure and Applied Mathematics (Centre de Mathématique Pures et Appliqués), an organisation created under the auspices of UNESCO. Hogbe Nlend is a French-speaking Cameroonian and member of the UPC and also former member of the ruling party. He has been in France for so long that, he is thought to be a French national or holds a French passport. It is an accusation that he refuses. For if he accepts, it will confirm the rumours floated that, he is a traitor. This is so because, any French-speaking Cameroonian, who was a member of the UPC and belongs to the generation of Mr Hogbe Nlend and above all, have ambitions to lead the party with red flag and its black crab placed on the centre of the flag, must not obtains or apply for French nationality. In case he/she does and it is known, it is considered by members of the UPC as the utmost indignity and a passport for straight disqualification. For France is considered in French-speaking Cameroon and in particular in the former UPC strongholds as an enemy country. But whether Mr Hogbe Nlend is a holder of a French passport or not he was and is still considered by some within the party as a dangerous element. Immediately he came home and wanted to run for the post of secretary general of the UPC, his most virulent adversary was Augustine Frederick Kodock MP.

Cameroon : SCNC North American Convention

2011-11-13T05:07:00.000-08:00

_________________________________________________________________________

October 29^th 2011

A Speech Presented by the Chairman of SCNC North America, Jude A. Ozughen on the SCNC North America Convention

It is fitting to begin this speech by extending our deepest gratitude to the people of Southern Cameroons who have braved this cold to be here today. Plenty of appreciation should be given to the members of the convention committee under the stewardship of Mr. Jerome Lambo for deploying the creative energy necessary for putting this event together. We are humbled by their resilience, sturdiness and unalloyed commitment to the liberation struggle. I must recognize the unbridled commitment of the executive of SCNC North America and above all the members of SCNC North America who have been at the front and center of this struggle, steering the ship, at times, under inauspicious circumstances because of their firm belief that the moment is at hand to achieve this noble goal of liberation. This convention which is the second convention of a two year term of a democratically elected leadership of SCNC North America offers us a wonderful opportunity to take stock of what has been covered and recalibrate the liberation struggle towards a much more pragmatic and result oriented path.

From the outset, this administration wasted no time in deploying its energy in stamping out factionalism and divisive tendencies which seems to be the stock in trade of the liberation struggle. It demonstrated its progressiveness by working closely with other components of the liberation struggle and even though many were apprehensive of its intent, it stayed the course because it was convinced it was the right thing to do. We were not deterred by small talks because we knew that it was only by working together that our noble objective can be achieved in a reasonable time frame. The Coalition Patriotic Front despite its apparent lapses demonstrated by the lack of an operational and enforcement mechanism in the US is the first concerted attempt at working together and setting a cohesive structure poised at achieving discernible progress. Inspiration for this initiative must be credited to the leadership of SCNC North America. It set the ball rolling, hosted the Washington Leadership Conclave and accommodated without any queasiness the enormous logistical and financial burden that such an operation needed.

The membership of SCNC North America has grown exponentially in large part because this administration has stood out out tall as one of the most progressive and transparent administrations in the rough and tumbled SCNC political landscape. This administration has pushed for the creation of Twitter and Face book, mechanisms of social media necessary in stimulating participatory eagerness. The corrupt tendencies and moral turpitude often orchestrated by sleazy and greedy elements are of the past. Retired justice Alobwede Ebong’s cynical attempt to destroy the movement in North America with a rival faction was frustrated by Southern Cameroonians in the US who sent a strong message that they were tired of the often repetitive drama of an individual hijacking a democratic system because of heinous and greedy reasons. The disposition demonstrated by Southern Cameroonians strikes a familiar chord with the sagacious words of President Barrack Obama on his maiden visit to Africa last July 2009 when he said inter alia: “Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans, and not with those who use coups or change Constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions”. We say this reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness of our infallibility but with gratitude that the giver of Good has blessed us with profound wisdom which has enabled us to achieve so large a measure of well-being and of happiness.

Much has been given us, and much will rightly be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and, make no mistake; we can’t wiggle out of any. We have become synonymous with transparency, accountability and responsibility and we must behave as beseems a people with such sterling traits. We must show not in our words, but in our deed, that we are earnestly desirous of achieving the independence of Southern Cameroons.

This administration has always been handy in helping to rehabilitate Southern Cameroonians fleeing away from persecutions from the Republic of Cameroon. While we have been deeply committed to a scrupulously verification of claims of members purporting to be activists of the struggle, in a bid to avoid aiding and abetting any frivolous asylum claim, We have kept our good office at the behest of deserving Southern Cameroonians. The assiduity of the executive has enabled us to register a 100% percent success in that area. The hope is not yet lost for Southern Cameroonians who are wallowing in immigration limbo. Southern Cameroonians with legitimate asylum claims who are in immigration limbo will be unshackled with the counsel and assistance of our office. Unfortunately, some members overwhelmed by an excitement of a new found freedom and spirit of antipathy have reneged on their commitment to the struggle. They have absconded and disappeared into thin air. It is surprising that in a population of about 20.000 Southern Cameroonians in the DC metro area we are complaining of the lack of funds to pull through our major projects. A modest contribution of a dollar on a monthly basis can give us the requisite resources to fund our projects. We are thankful to the Moghamo community who collectively as a people has been a torch bearer of this liberation struggle. Let other tribal communities emulate their example. Let us all come together and commit to be ambassadors of good will for this noble struggle. We can make a commitment here today to embark on an aggressive campaign of reconverting backsliders so that together as a people we can collectively reclaim our fatherland. We should and must do this because the stakes are high and moment is ripe for a definitive fix to this perennial problem of annexation.

This administration has kept the revolutionary fervor of the liberation struggle afloat with the numerous demonstrations and events that it has organized in places of historical import in the US. Recently we led a huge demonstration at the UN plaza in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Independence of Southern Cameroons. At home more than 136 compatriots were arrested of the anticipated thousands who had declared their intent to participate in the peaceful demonstration. We are humbled by the unflagging determination of these foot soldiers. Their stubborn tenacity in the face of brutality from the Cameroonian gendarmes speaks to the audacity of our resolve in achieving this noble goal of liberation.

We have maintained an air tight relation with the home front by supporting many operations designed to actualize the independence of Southern Cameroons. We have consistently given financial assistance to the national executive of the SCNC on UNPO diplomatic offensives even though we remain apprehensive of where the UNPO route is leading us to considering its fallacious and deeply flawed appraisal of the problem of Southern Cameroons in 2009.We do this because of a deeply rooted conviction that any arena that is willing to listen to our plight is worth talking to, no matter how marginal its effect might be.

We will continue to support the Banjul litigation drive and we are committed to supporting communication 337/2007 which is afoot. We were impressed with the outcome of Communication 266/2003 which came up with the landmark ruling that the people of Southern Cameroons can legitimately claim to be a “people”. The recognition that Southern Cameroonians can legitimately claim to be a people is a position which admits to a logic that is quite simple: the logic takes into account the fact that” besides the individual rights due to Southern Cameroons, they have a distinct identity which attracts certain collective rights.” This distinct identity of Southern Cameroonians is guided by their separate linguistic, ethnographic, anthropological, cultural, colonial, historical and territorial affinities.

The Banjul verdict despite its fundamental aberrations represents a milestone the liberation struggle has achieved. It’s the first time that a credible international instrument has recognized Southern Cameroonians as a people. The recognition of Southern Cameroonians as a people has been hailed as a heady affirmation that the liberation struggle has gained a lot of tractions. This establishes a precedence that can always be invoked in future international litigations. Recently SCNC North America wired money home to cover the travel expenses and up keep of the legal counsel to represent Southern Cameroons in the ongoing communication 337.

The case theory of Communication 337/2007 is predicated on the hardest extreme of self-determination, which was neither the thrust of the initiating complaint in Communication 266/2003 nor was it so articulated unequivocally in the arguments. It is anchored on Article 4(b) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union which in time and space is one of the international treaties that the African Commission is habilitated to implement. Broadly speaking, in communication 337, the state of Southern Cameroons is asking the African Commission to declare the Republic of Cameroon to be in violation of the constitutive act of the African Union with respect to the westward expansion of the international boundary of the Republic of Cameroons to include former UN Trust territory of the Southern Cameroons. State parties to the African Constitutive Act are committed to respecting the borders they inherited at independence. Communication 337 will anchor not only on AU Constitutive Act but also on the UN Charter and other international instruments. It is likely that the Republic of Cameroon will make the specious, lame and fallacious argument that Southern Cameroons voted to join them in 1961. That argument can obviously be eviscerated with incontrovertible evidence that the union was not sanctioned by any legal instrument like a Treaty of Union signed between the two entities. No such treaty was signed by the two parties and registered at the UN Secretariat in compliance with Article 102 of the UN Charter. In fact Communication 337/2007 compliments Communication 266/2003 in that it tightened the loose notches of the earlier Communication. Our team of impeccable legal luminaries has built an impeccable and air tight case on behalf of Southern Cameroons and they need our support. We must give them this support.

This administration is exploring the possibility of running an office of Southern Cameroons’ civil society in New York. This initiative is going to have a two pronged effects. It will enable us to collaborate with nongovernmental groups, form joint ventures with countless organizations and pave the way for the acquisition of grants that can assist us to launch huge socio economic projects in Southern Cameroons. These projects will employ Southern Cameroonians and endear the most antipathetic to the struggle. The office will also give us a strategic access to soft politics and will help us to use it in lobbying groups sympathetic to our plight. These groups will obviously help us to navigate the often complicated labyrinthine of the UN system. The Palestinian Liberation Organization has used this strategy to good effect and we can also use it.

The international ligations and diplomatic operations launched by Southern Cameroons are already bearing fruits and it is only a matter of time for our independence to see the light of day. We are relying on your continuing support. We are hoping that all our members will develop a burning passion for this liberation struggle. The kind of passion that has kept Calister Simangwi working tirelessly to make sure that the organization runs smoothly. The kind of passion that has triggered Mr. Jerome Lambo to continually donate generously to the SCNC North America because of his firm conviction that for Southern Cameroonians to break off from the yoke of annexation and colonialism money is needed to lubricate the wheels of the struggle. The kind of passion that has motivated Ms. Eyang Tiku to be deeply engrossed in the struggle, operating more or less as a pseudo executive and deploying her time and creative energy to ensure the success of our operations, the kind of passion that has propelled Mr. & Mrs. Fankmeni John to ply the road from Delaware to Maryland on a consistent and persistent basis to attend meetings on Sundays in Maryland, the kind of Passion that sustained Mr. Ndam Richard’s regular meeting attendance despite his age, the kind of passion has inspired Ms. Gladys Teke to throw her weight behind many of our initiatives. The list can go on and on.

The challenges are enormous but we must press on because failure is not an option. Not now, not this time, when success is so close. There is the temptation to do things the easy way but we are going to be vigorous and proactive in our approach going forward. We are going to act like Irish boys who would get themselves to climb over orchards walls by first throwing their caps over. Southern Cameroons has tossed it cap over the wall of independence. We have to go after it. We have to stimulate a spirit of adventure, of common purpose, a positive feeling, a stirring national cadence and a sense of mission.

This is the hope that beckons us onward in this moment of trial. This is the work that awaits us all, to be done with bravery, with clarity and with prayer to the Almighty God.

Long Live Southern Cameroons, Long Live the United States of America and God bless you all.

----------------------------------------

Jude Agwa Ozughen

Chairman SCNC- North America

NGF: Can This Economic System Be The Best?

2011-11-13T04:36:00.000-08:00

Written by Odimegwu Onwumere

Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State is revealing something new to us. His clamour for more funds for the states (as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum NGF) in the name of reviewing the Revenue Sharing Formula is like a cry of a family man raising his family without any budget. Amaechi said that the states are working too much, but he perhaps did not take to cognizance that the sharing of the revenue had been there for decades before coming to the gallery to draw our sympathy. How come the ‘modern’ governors are working so much? If they are working more than they are given it means that they are working without any budget or they are not thinking outside the box.

One wonders why the states are indirectly calling for the giving-up of the wealth control of Nigeria to them, whereas the ‘little’ the past governors were given, yet the anti-financial crime agents could trace billions of our collective naira to their bank accounts. Some were said to have owned up to seventeen bank accounts in different countries abroad. Some have had the best of weddings, burial celebrations etcetera while in office. Just name them. Was it not in this country that somebody used millions of our naira to celebrate a birthday? And here is somebody talking about ‘poverty’ of the states.

The states asking for review of the allocation-money is unbecoming. Come to think of it, the governors weld a lot of power, walking in front of the Federal Government, which is coming behind them. And one comes to think what could happen if they are given monetary power on top of the political power they have, but misuse. They based their income on oil leaving other sources they could generate fund from, like tourism, which has been the only source of income of many nations. Yet, those nations have gone far in human and environmental developments leaving Nigeria some millions of kilometers behind. The governors, without doubt, might be working, but how hardworking are they with devotion and willpower? The Federal Government that has been left to control the central coffer is not even safe. The people in Aso Rock that are handling this fund are not saints. Was it not in this country that a president held a ministerial position for eight good years? This shows that there are also rots that the central government shares. Nigeria talks much about federalism she has refused to share and practice. But it is not good how those at the federal level dictate how the states must use their money.

Hardly is any governor drastically head-bent on tackling crime rate in this country which is skyrocketing by the day with the dexterity they are using on the issue of reviewing the revenue formula. They are not telling and worrying the Federal Government that crime is slowing the quick business growth in their states because the states are subject to the Centre. It is annoying rather, that the governors relied on the monthly allocations coming from the FG each month. To many of us, the governors have no place being leaders of their different villages, let alone, governing their different states. The governors have not really proved that they are different from us they are leading because they have not come up with ways of improving on existing situation. Assuming we do not have oil, does it mean that the states cannot operate?

Amaechi once told Nigerians in an interview in July this year that big money is paid annually in the name of petroleum products subsidy. He said: “...the issue of subsidy is such that it only enriches a few individuals because when you look at it critically, how many Nigerians are enjoying this so-called subsidy that is being talked about? What is the correlation between the subsidy that is being paid and the lives of Nigerians? How has it affected the lives of Nigerians positively? Do you know that last year alone, over N1 trillion was expended on subsidy?”

Come to think of that what has the governors done in seeing that the lives of the common persons in their states are touched positively? Are the states resources saved wisely? And if the answer is yes, how come the governors are crying woes of lack of money to touch the lives of their constituents? Though, the governors did not say that they should be given money from the subsidy, but have argued that if the funds are freed, Nigerians will see the wand they have in their governors. Anyway, asking for the removal of the subsidy is like asking for the removal of the poor masses lives in this country. The governors have ‘big eye’ because they want the subsidy money that goes into the pockets of the said few to be diverted into their own ‘pockets’ in the name of deregulation where people now have to pay through their noses in making sure that they are alive or live in a blessed Nigeria that is cursed by man.

Why the governors are much bent on hammering on the subsidy is direful. But it is annoying that a state like Rivers State has two licenses to set up refineries, but it cannot set the refineries up due to the Federal Government is not helping matter. However, the governors are yet to believe that the removal of the oil subsidy will impoverish the already impoverished Nigerians. If a few people are pocketing the subsidy and the governors want it removed for them to control the prices of petroleum, it would be another poverty hemlock given to the ordinary Nigerians because things will really be bad. Subsidy does not make any nonsense of the matter to any seriously minded governor to deliver on his duty whether it is removed or not.

The governors should help Nigerians and avoid exhuming excuses for their ineptitude. Nigerians are already facing untold discomforts and the time for result is still farfetched. The governors should stop feeding us with such statements on the removal of the oil subsidy that once the deregulation is complete, Nigerians would have the choice to make and if the price is not right in one place, they can simply move to the next station and buy, just as it is happening with all the GSM service providers now. But even in the GSM, the poor Nigerians are paying enough money out of their nose; excluding those who live with our oil money that now want us to go to hell and burn to ashes.

Odimegwu Onwumere is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV). Mobile: +2348032552855 (or) +2348057778358. Email: nirivpol@gmail.com

Nigeria :States Bankruptcy & Amaechi’s N115billion Story

2011-11-13T04:16:00.001-08:00

Written by Odimegwu Onwumere

Year in year out, every successive government in Nigeria claims it is constructing roads, building schools, health centers and so on. There is no end. What have been missing on the leaders menu are the building of industries, rehabilitating the existing ones and developing human resources. Nigerians in the Northern part of the country are running helter-skelter today because of insurgencies. Had it been that the Northern people who ruled Nigeria for close to forty years had developed the human power in the North, such economic sabotaging organization like Boko Haram would not have come up. There is no ruling out the fact that dastardly organizations recently arose in the South, but they were not as inimical as the Boko Haram, which has remained faceless, but fearless. This has continued to corkscrew Nigeria downhill in all facets of development. Especially, the governors under the umbrella of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) behave like people who lack the genuine ideas to develop their states because of their quest for more economy.

Most of them didn’t even prepare to come to lead their states. This could be the reason they hit their chest and say, they are building white elephant structures such as monorail and other frivolities. They hardly engage in projects that could yield revenue continuously for their states. They boast that they pay salaries to the tone of billions of naira, but how many of them can show how much in revenue the job of the workers in their states generate for Nigeria. They build health centres, whereas there is hardly any genuine industry in Nigeria that produces a common panadol. They also import drugs that are used in these health centres, just as the Federal Government continued to import petroleum products.

It is laughable when they open their mouths and talk of reviewing the revenue sharing formula because they still use the money to glorify the products from industries established by governors in other countries where democracy is well understood and practiced. In these countries, most of the governors hardly make the money that these governors here are loathing. Take a perfunctory look at the states, virtually nothing is working. Just political wrangling! Nigeria by now is supposed to have states that could boast of manufacturing at least pencil and books that should be used in the schools that they ‘continue’ to build. They are hardly planning for tomorrow. They feel that the Federal Revenue Allocation should dictate the ability of a state to fruition.

It is worth understanding that rather than this Federal Revenue Allocation should be the capital with which the states develop, it is supposed to be additional excess revenue to boost development in the states. And any governor laying his ineptitude on the revenue for his state’s development mishap is just being greedy and lacks the dexterity on governance and economic development.

The states cannot be clamouring for more funds to develop who knows where and what. The taste of the pudding is in the eating. We lost NAFCON, NITEL; NNPC and the refineries are all in oblivion. Sustainability has been a very big problem in Nigeria. Hardly is there anything like Public Corporation. The ones that have not gone oblivion changed their names. It is no longer news that all that government managed corporations are maximum charade. Are the governors talking based on political and selfish interests or the interest of the people?

How true is the story that with the removal of oil subsidy that the economy will burgeon to another level? The campaign we had expected was for the betterment of the general masses. The idea of minimum wage has turned Shylockical the governors want to take a pound of flesh. The country is facing untold inflation and the citizens are experiencing abject hardship. The Peoples Democratic Party-led (PDP) government has not really helped this country. The legacy it wanted to leave was to rule Nigeria for sixty years when there were no functional refineries. What the PDP government has actually done in this country is motivating political brouhahas within states and among individuals.

On Tuesday, October 2008, Amaechi who is today crying about that the “state has no money, but not broke”, while on the opening ceremony of a six days conference on Sustainable Development, organized by the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) in conjunction with Southern field Development Partners, boasted of how Rivers State’s N115Billion savings attracted what he called treasury looters. To make the unsuspecting masses to love him much, the governor said that he was under deep pressure from some Rivers individuals, outside the Government, to share the this money for their personal use. He coined it: “N115 billion public funds.” But that he wouldn’t succumb to their pressure. He even said that he was ready to resign as governor.

Hear him: “We are not sharing any money to anybody no matter the pressure, I am prepared to resign as governor and leave N115billion for Rivers people in the account than share the money on 40 percent 60 percent basis, to any individual, to call me a good governor. When I assumed office I told you that the money I was holding is your money, it is common wealth, it is therefore not money to be shared to anybody including the N115 billion we have saved so far for development projects are attracting a lot of people who want to bring down the government to enable them spend the money.”

The question today is, is this the same Amaechi who said that he would resign instead he would share the ‘saved’ money? Now that the money has finished and the state is borrowing to the extent of going bankrupt, what is he still doing in office? It is a simple logic: He didn’t share the money he said that he was saving for the state and the money could not be found anywhere in the coffers of the state, so where is the money? If he could not give an answer it then means that his urging the people to emphasize their temerity and go for war against “the selfish persons” he said were after the N115billion, is ripe. This is why we are asking him. If the conscience of the people were not mortgaged by the state’s sudden bankruptcy, what else? Where is the promise that he would abide by the oath of office to serve the people if the state’s finance has diminished?

The people feel betrayed by the news of Rivers State’s sudden bankruptcy because Amaechi had incessantly given the story of his early life describing it as humble, saying that his “conscience would not allow him to betray the people of the state and would therefore not be corrupt.” This is the time that the state needs genuine auditing unlike during the period in quote Amaechi travelled overseas and said that it “was to engage a reputable audit firm to audit the state finances.” But double spoke that he “regretted that the secretary to the state government who was mandated to go EFCC to explain the absence of key officials that flew out with him became a victim of the commission’s excesses, as he was detained for nothing.” Hmmmmm!

The Chairman of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), Mr. Bolaji Ogunseyi, reportedly said that the conference would be annual ritual because, according to him, it is the only uniform method of uniting the communities together for development in the state. He also promised the forum of being “a way of mediating in the developmental processes that would build local economies and enhance discussions among drivers of community development.” The Executive Director of Southern Field Development Partners, Mr. Kuromiema Miabiye also reportedly added that the forum was a platform for the development of ideas. But has this Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) not gone immediately it was launched?

One is wondering what could have happened to any person that perhaps succeeded Amaechi if he was not declared winner in the April 2011 elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) because barely five months in office, the state is in a real financial flu. It means that the state was since financially feeble. Not the water that he boasted would be provided publicly in the state and that his administration has taken hardnosed steps to redress the situation, that we can see. What is the gain in his government highlighting its achievements recorded by the government since assumption of office when the money that he said he was saving is no more?

There is no better way to make the states work other than to take the advise many of the dignitaries who graced the (RSSDA) occasion reportedly offered as follows:

Rawlings reportedly said that sustainable development would be achieved if the poverty steering on the peoples face is addressed, as against local and international investors accumulate wealth at the expense of the rural people. Again, he said that leaders at various levels should be truthful, because the people deserve to know where they are going.
Prof. Pat Utomi said the people would appreciate better if contributions on how to develop their communities involves them, he identified various economic variables that would accentuate the pace of development in the rural areas, and urged leaders to preside over the people by example.
Prof. Akpezi Ogbuigwe, said the transformation of rural communities is possible if the people are determined to develop their areas through practical designed long term measures... the people cannot achieve sustainability in the development of the communities if accountability is not enshrined in the moral fabric of the people...what happens in the environment influences development pattern of the people.

However, if Rawlings, Utomi, Ogbuigwe who attended the occasion and expressed satisfaction hear that the Rivers State they fervently praised is bankrupt, they might cover their faces in shame.

Odimegwu Onwumere is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV). Mobile: +2348032552855 (or) +2348057778358. Email: nirivpol@gmail.com

Nigeria:NGF’s Seeming Rebellion Against FG

2011-11-13T04:11:00.000-08:00

Written Odimegwu Onwumere

President Goodluck Jonathan must have been thinking seriously recently of how to tackle the seeming revolution by the Nigeria Governor’s Forum (NGF). The group has not hidden its stand in saying that the Federal Government’s management of a certain Federation Account is out of place. The group has opened the battle against the idea of the federal government’s creation of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, SWF, said was hinged on saving excess money chiefly gained from crude oil sales.

Speaking of the underlying principle for the antagonism to the creation of the SWF, Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, who is also the chairman of the NGF, had said: “The rule of law eliminates completely the rule of man. Governors agree that the federal government should save but the law has to be respected. What the federal government has done is merely kidnapping of our money... Section 80 of the 1999 Constitution talks about consolidated revenue. The federal government should give states their money.”

This case between the NGF and FG many thought had been buried was tremendously exhumed, as NGF is not leaving anything to providence as it went many steps ahead of which one was filing a suit at the Supreme Court against the FG. The suit was to challenge the setting up of the SWF with $1 billion seed money taken from the Excess Crude Account, ECA. 27 of the Nigerian 36 state governors were asking the Supreme Court to stop the move by the federal government to withdraw $1bn from the ECA to kick-start the SWF. This is what the forum in the same vein did some three years ago. It had then asked the Supreme Court to stop the federal government from going ahead with the operation of the SWF. The amount in the ECA account by 2008 when the governors first approached the Supreme Court was N5.51trn. The governors reminded the FG that the withdrawal of $1bn as seed capital to launch the SWF was a subject matter of a two-year old litigation pending before the court. Through their attorneys-general, the state governors seek for a separate order directing the federal government to pay into the account of the chief registrar of the apex court all the outstanding sums to the credit of the ECA, pending determination of the suit.

But the Minister of Finance who is also the coordinating minister for the economy, Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had told journalists at a conference organised by The Economist that the federal government was kicking off implementation of the SWF as put-in-a-nutshell in the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA Act, with the seed deposit of $1 billion to be taken from the ECA many Nigerians have regarded as controversial. Because many Nigerians see the account in this light, the FG seems is not getting the support it needed from the governors due to the glaring suit at the court. The National Assembly is not even supporting FG. The latter’s anger perhaps was that the account was established without any constitutional backing, but this was after ‘Emperor’ Obasanjo’s regime. The National assembly had queried the legality of the account.

Since setting the ECA in 2004 as a reservoir for the difference between the budget yardstick for crude oil sales and the actual proceeds from the international blemish market by Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, the FG has not drink and rest cup in the hands of the governors. The governors had argued that the creation of the ECA contravened the provisions of section 162 of the Constitution, which states: “The Federation shall maintain a special account to be called the Federation Account into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation… Any amount standing to the credit of the Federation Account must be distributed among the federal and state governments and the Local Government Councils on such term and manner prescribed by the National Assembly.”

But the government reportedly has been drawing funds from the ECA during the Obasanjo administration. The money that was drawn was said to have been channeled to special projects such as the $17mn for the two additional days of the 2006 National Population Census and $2.3bn for the National Independent Power Projects. This had infuriated the NGF and it saw the point as illegal, for revenues accruing to the Federation Account to be expended through any means other than sharing among the federal and 36 states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and the 774 local government councils.

NGF had frowned that the creation of the ECA is against the declaration of the Supreme Court in 2002, which stated that no presumption be made from the Federation Account by any arm of government without due regard to constitutional provision and directed the governors and the Presidency to settle the matter out of court. Hence, the court nullified the maintenance of any form of special fund, including the Stabilization Fund established by the previous military administrations for saving a fraction of Nigerian revenue for drizzling days. The governors had argued that the ECA is a violation of the order of Supreme Court.

Conversely, we hereby state that the NGF and FG should stop playing politics with the citizens of this country with all that rofo-rofo about an account. We say this because no country has survived when its people cannot speak with one affirmed voice. The governors’ signified intention to stop arbitrary deductions from the Federation Account with their directives to their commissioners not to receive any allocation that is not in accordance with the 2011 Appropriation Act, could be termed a practice that might have led to anarchy. The poor masses are the people receiving the brunt. Such parastatals like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, should dialogue with all the fraying nerves before they could deduct any dime whether as subsidy payment from the allocation from the Federation Account or from any such account in altercation. Walking out from any group or individual could amount to be an insult as was reported the state commissioners for finance walked out on Lawan Yerima Ngama, the Minister of State for Finance and chairman, Federal Accounts Allocation Committee on Tuesday 18 October.

Nigerians do not need further gridlock of any kind from the NGF and the FG. Revenue derived from the Petroleum Profit Tax, PPT, and royalties above the country’s budgeted standard for each year should be kept sacrosanct. The NGF should consider the reports that the ECA also facilitated the payment of $12.4bn used to offset Nigeria’s debt to the Paris Club, and states and local governments also received funds from the ECA to augment their monthly allocations from the Federation Account, especially when there was a shortfall, and stop giving President
Jonathan avoidable headache.

Odimegwu Onwumere is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV). Mobile: +2348032552855 (or) +2348057778358. Email: nirivpol@gmail.com

Nigeria :Amaechi & Ministries: Who Lacks The Due Process?

2011-11-13T03:55:00.000-08:00

Written by Odimegwu Onwumere

“My government won’t spend N27billion reserved savings.” This is how Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, who is also the chairman of the Nigeria Governor’s Forum (NGF), once puts it. We are not even talking about the N115billion of this same saving. We were told that the money had accrued from the monthly N1billion compulsory saving. He boasted this about during the launching of “Change Rivers State” initiative held at Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, months, before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared him winner of the 2011 gubernatorial elections in the state. What made his statement more interesting was his declaration that the state government would not touch the money despite anything. But today, what are we seeing? A state its account is said to be dilapidated. Not even the governor’s conceited statement that the “compulsory” N1 billion monthly saving was backed by law and the saving was for future use of the state.

What we could not understand is whether the state is better with the situation than it was before Amaechi came. Amaechi had told us how he realised that a lot of things had gone wrong and needed to be corrected, on assumption of office in 2007. He formed a lot of “things” he said were to enable his government realise the “dream Port Harcourt”, among which was the “change initiative”. But what are we seeing today? Indeed, a “dreaming Port Harcourt.’ The Deputy Governor, Chairman of the state Investment Committee, we were told, had signed agreement with Skye Financial Services Limited, Stanbic IBTC Bank and First Trustees Limited “to invest the funds on behalf of the state.” Amaechi went further and told us of how the state has a new brand called, “Rivers Brand”.

Not even the inauguration of a seven member State Tenders Board by Amaechi, said was assigned with the duty to assist save more money for government to embark on its “numerous projects”, could save the state’s financial woes. If we still remember, The Tenders Board, reportedly, had Mrs. Mina Benebo, Mrs. Patience Schulze, Rev Gladman Amadi, Mr. David Peter and Mr. Claude Dienye as members, while Mrs. Esther Anucha as Chairman, and Mr. Nicholas Ohochukwu, of the State Ministry of Justice, as Secretary.

While inaugurating this Board, Amaechi told the Rivers masses that it was formed to ensure that the Due Process Principle was followed in his administration. He backed up his statement, saying that the statutory law of Financial Regulation nominated the appointees. He added that with that, the Due Process starts from the Ministries.

What we are not sure today is if the Governor’s swanked effectiveness of the board really reflected the number and value of projects embarked upon in the state. Did the Board really achieve the governor’s set targets? Maybe, the ‘target’ could be a state with no longer finance we are glaring at. We cannot always be told that the realities from market regulations paint a gloomy picture of the future in Rivers State, even when the governor had pointed out and told us that “we need to save money, and one way to do so is to ensure that all those fat costs that we bear from projects will be reduced, not arbitrarily but according to the dictates of market forces in line with the law”.

What is amiss is the rationale in the long queue of projects Amaechi lined up knowing full well that these countless projects required huge funds to actualize them. Is this not a case of treating leprosy with back pain prescription? We are sure that Amaechi who had expressed delight that the funds to be preserved in the process would be used to provide good schools for children, affordable healthcare amongst other social services, would have his blood swelling the veins on his forehead by now, on how the state suddenly ran out of money; not even the hyped “N27bn reserved savings” or the N115billion saving, have redeemed our state.

We could remember that the Tenders Board had not been functional in the state since the early 80s which was why Amaechi exhumed it. Mrs. Anucha, Chairman of the State Tenders Board, who’s also the Head of Service that thanked Governor Amaechi for the reconstitution of the Board, should come out and tell the Rivers masses what the state has achieved with the re-construction of the Board, because she reportedly told the masses that the absence of the Tenders Board resulted in perfumed abuse of Public Procurement Procedure and non adherence to laid down Principles.

With the vanished wealth in the state’s coffer, as reported in the recent report of the 27 bankrupt states in Nigeria, the government and any Board formed for the appropriation of the state funds have not lived up to their promise and have betrayed the confidence they urged the Rivers masses to repose on them. Anybody praising “the prominent role this government is playing” is just being biased, without seeing the restoration of crimes and killings to all parts of the state. How else the vanished money could be better described other than it is the return of recklessness to the state. This shows that the much touted government’s investment in the financial and societal security is a waste.

Odimegwu Onwumere is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV). Mobile: +2348032552855 (or) +2348057778358. Email: nirivpol@gmail.com

On ne peut pas prétendre AIMER le Congo ou être AMI du Congo et soutenir Denis Sassou NGuesso (French)

2011-11-13T03:40:00.002-08:00

Bienvenu MABILEMONO

Les chiffres révélés par le Ministre congolais des finances, Gilbert Ondongo (dont l’épouse, Amélie a été récemment interpellée par les douaniers à Roissy avec des valises de billets) n'ont rien à voir avec ceux d'un PPTE (Pays Pauvre Très Endetté) que la République du Congo du dictateur sanguinaire et corrompu, Denis Sassou NGuesso prétendait être encore l'année dernière, en 2010, lorsqu'elle attendait l'effacement de ses dettes par le Club de Paris. De toute évidence cela ne fait que renforcer les soupçons sur l’existence de faux rapports du FMI, qui lui en ouvrirent l'accès. A ce propos, M. Serge Berrebi, créancier du Congo, vient d’ailleurs de déposer une plainte, à Paris, contre l’ancien directeur du FMI, M. Dominique Strauss Kahn, justement pour avoir permis ces prétendus faux rapports (pour lire la plainte, voir http://sergeberrebi.over-blog.com/).

Dans le contexte économique mondial actuel, écrasé par les problèmes des dettes souveraines et de l'endettement des Etats, nous trouvons très indécente cette sortie très médiatique de la part du ministre des Finances d'un pays qui a bénéficié de circonstances pour le moins très "obscures" pour obtenir l'effacement quasi-total de son endettement, et qui n'hésite pas à narguer dans sa déclaration ses généreux donateurs dont il aurait tout simplement abusé : « le Congo a eu le budget le plus important d'Afrique centrale, et même de la zone Franc hors France, en 2010 et en 2011. Il en sera, vraisemblablement, de même en 2012. Depuis 2009, le Congo est le pays qui détient le plus d'avoirs extérieurs à la B.e.a.c En 2011, on s'approche de la moitié du total, soit un peu moins de 3.000 milliards de francs CFA, en septembre, pour un total estimé à un peu plus de 7.000 milliards de francs Cfa » a déclaré le grand argentier congolais, Gilbert Ondongo, devant les députés.

Voilà qui doit faire plaisir aux experts de FMI et de la Banque Mondiale ainsi qu’aux dirigeants de la Banque Lazard, des groupes pétroliers Total et ENI mais surtout aux contribuables des pays membres du Club de Paris qui ont directement et indirectement permis au dictateur sanguinaire et corrompu congolais Denis Sassou NGuesso de bénéficier très généreusement de l’effacement de sa dette (et je pèse bien mes mots). La République du Congo, mendiante du programme PPTE, était en effet la première économie de la zone Franc en 2010 et 2011, juste après celle de la France elle-même ! En plus de cela, le Congo détient à lui seul la moitié des avoirs en compte à la BEAC (Banque des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale). Trois mille milliards de Francs CFA, soit l'équivalent de 5 milliards d'euros ! Naturellement, les autorités de Bercy ainsi que les responsables du Trésor Public français et de la Banque de France ne pouvaient ignorer cela.

Comment expliquer alors devant cette accumulation de richesses et de ressources que l’arrogant dictateur sanguinaire et corrompu congolais Denis Sassou NGuesso, au pouvoir depuis près de 30 ans, ne fasse rien pour soulager la misère, la souffrance et la désolation dans lesquelles vit la population congolaise ?

Cette richesse ne provient pas du génie économique de ce dictateur sanguinaire et corrompu ni de l'un quelconque de ses enfants et neveux (qu’il rêve de voir lui succéder après sa mort) ou de ses ministres corrompus. Elle est le fruit élémentaire d'une économie de cueillette réalisée par des opérateurs pétroliers. Elle appartient donc à tous les Congolais sans exception. Comment ne pas s'étonner alors depuis des années, que ces sommes énormes s'accumulent sur les comptes de l'Etat et dans les comptes privés appartenant aux membres du clan NGuesso et aux familles des membres du gouvernement, que rien n'ait été fait pour améliorer les conditions de vie de l'ensemble de la population ?

Comment ne pas s'en indigner, puisque ce mot est d'actualité ? Comment ne pas s'en indigner alors que ces sommes colossales accumulées depuis des années, sont mises de côté par l'Etat/Sassou NGuesso et son clan, et qu'en même temps les populations souffrent, meurent ou émigrent ? C'est à croire que tout cela relève d’une volonté délibérée du Denis Sassou NGuesso et son gouvernement Cela montre très clairement que Denis Sassou NGuesso n’aime pas ce peuple et ce pays. C’est la raison pour laquelle nous disons qu’On ne peut pas prétendre AIMER le Congo ou être AMI du Congo et soutenir Denis Sassou NGuesso. Autrement dit, aujourd’hui il y a tout lieu de penser que tous ceux qui continuent de soutenir ce dernier sont les ennemis du Congo comme lui.

A l’heure où l’on parle des soulèvements populaires qui font sauter les dictateurs les uns après les autres, combien d'années encore ce dictateur sanguinaire et corrompu, incapable de satisfaire les besoins élémentaires de la population, alors que le pays a beaucoup d'argent disponible, va-t-il tenir en otage le peuple congolais, sans les soins, sans l'éducation, sans l'eau, sans l'électricité, sans la liberté, sans la dignité, sans la véritable démocratie ? Jusqu’à quand sera-t-il toujours soutenu par la France et les compagnies pétrolières qui opèrent au Congo ?

Dans le monde entier, les gens s'indignent principalement face à une crise qui menace leurs acquis sociaux, leurs emplois ou leurs conditions de vie. Les grandes nations sont toutes très endettées et pour continuer d’emprunter à des taux d’intérêts préférentiels, leurs dirigeants ne disposent désormais plus que de très faibles marges de manœuvres pour conserver leurs notes de triple A auprès des agences de notation. Leur situation est si difficile, au point d’être même contraints de recourir à l’aide de pays émergents comme la Chine. A vrai dire, aujourd’hui la situation de ces grands pays dits développés est tellement catastrophique qu’il ne serait plus tout à fait inapproprié de parler désormais des Pays Très Riches et Très Endettés (PTRTE) s’agissant des Etats-Unis, la France, l’Italie, l’Espagne…. Le Congo du dictateur sanguinaire et corrompu, Denis Sassou NGuesso, lui, n'est plus endetté mais la misère est quasiment généralisée et son ministre des Finances, M. Gilbert Ondongo, vient nous affirmer, non sans arrogance, que l'Etat Congolais est le plus riche de toute la zone franc. Une belle humiliation pour la France n’est-ce pas ? Pourtant en 2010 tout le monde le savait déjà mais on avait choisi de fermer les yeux, y compris à l’Elysée pour permettre à ce dictateur sanguinaire et corrompu d’accéder à l’initiative PPTE. Pourquoi donc ce favoritisme alors que tout le monde savait que le Congo avait les moyens de rembourser ses dettes ? Y a-t-il eu des contreparties financières, à tous les niveaux, et qui auraient permis l’aboutissement de ce processus qui a du reste duré plus de dix ans et dont tout le monde savait à l’avance qu’il n’avait aucune chance d’aboutir sans les complicités au sein du FMI, de la Banque mondiale et du Club de Paris ? C’est cette question cruciale qui taraude tous les observateurs politiques et économiques du Congo, et dont on espère avoir enfin des réponses avec cette plainte de M. Serge BERREBI. Certes la pauvreté de la population congolaise est bien réelle et elle est d'autant plus inacceptable et choquante du fait de cette déclaration de M. Gilbert Ondongo.

Jusqu'à quand les Congolais devront-ils encore subir cette cynique maltraitance de la part de cet arrogant dictateur sanguinaire et corrompu qui les martyrise depuis plus d’un quart de siècle et qui continue de bénéficier du soutien de la France et des compagnies pétrolières opérant dans le pays et ce, bien qu’il ait pris très ouvertement le contre-pied de la communauté internationale en affichant jusqu’au bout son soutien inconditionnel à son ami intime, l’ex-dictateur libyen Mouammar Kadhafi ?

Bienvenu MABILEMONO

S.G. du Mouvement pour l’Unité et le Développement du Congo (M.U.D.C.)

Revealed : How the CPDM began negotiating with the SDF

2011-11-13T02:16:00.000-08:00

Martin Belinga Eboutou may have been right to claim that, the chair of the SDF was a credible interlocutor. But he was wrong to think that, the vice chair of the SDF, whom at that time, was Souleymane Mahamat, had a similar influence or carried any credibility within his party. Like the ruling CPDM party, the opposition SDF also has radicals. The extremists or radicals within the SDF are of the opinion or think that, any person who is French-speaking, is dubious and thus not deserving to represent them. They don’t even bother to draw a line between northerners and southerners. Extremists within the SDF are comparable to the extremist ideologues of the ruling party, in their prejudice and bigotry. Furthemore; hardliners within the SDF, who most often, don’t even hold any elective post or are not even members of the National Executive Council (NEC) are of the opinion that, Cameroonians and in particular the English-speakers, have been marginalised for too long by the current regime. They are therefore in no disposition to dialogue with the government, if on the table; the present government has no plan to relinquish power. It is therefore very difficult for both sides to seat in the same room to negotiate on anything.

But Mr Eboutou, galvanised by the instructions and honour that the head of state had mandated him, wanted to negotiate with the SDF at all cost. For his obsession like most ideologues of the ruling party, is the perpetuation of the ruling party in power. Their only fear is the SDF and thus, they are ready to share-power with the SDF. This is not because they desire, but because of the formidable mobilising capacity of the SDF and its ability to distablise the country, if they wish. But while Eboutou was determined to negotiate with the SDF, he never cared about other elements of the radical opposition. It was not a surprise, for it was their deep ingrained philosophy, as already mentioned, to ignore other elements of the opposition. However, the only difficulty that Eboutou had was how to contact the chair of the SDF directly or indirectly. In such occasions, there were plenty of intermediaries, but none succeeded. Officially or according to the myths and legends allowed and floated by Dr Njambe, he (Njambe) alone, was the one who could, and also took the initiative to contact the head of state to offer his services as mediator. But the reality is slimly different. Njambe’s name came up as a mediator between the government and the SDF, when attempts by all other intermediaries to meet John Fru Ndi or Souleymane Mahamat failed.

It was Mrs Atangana, the wife of Augustine Frederick Bahiyiha MP, leader of a faction of the UPC, who introduced or gave the name of Moise Albert Njambe to Chantal (not to be confused with Chantal Biya) the wife Mr Eboutou. The wife of Mr Kodock knew Njambe since the 90s. It was the period when Njambe had first attempted without success, to mediate between the various leaders of the UPC, who all wanted to lead the famous French-speaking Cameroonian party. Moise Albert Njambe is a courageous breed of a Bassa native, a breed that is almost extinct from the surface of the earth. Moise Albert Njambe he is a born activist. He began making himself known to the public, when in 1987, he organised a demonstration against Colonel Blaise Compaore, the current president of Burkina-Faso, accusing him openly, to have assassinated Colonel Thomas Isidore Sankara. In Cameroon, there are many prejudice attached to the Bassas. One has it that, in whatever they do or get involved in, they become fanatics. And when Martin Belinga Eboutou got the name of Moise Albert Njambe from his wife, he decided to contact him. He asked Njambe if he had contacts with John Fru Ndi, Njambe responded yes. But it was not true. The two men nonetheless booked an appointment.

Maommar Gaddaffi: another African hero created by the West

2011-11-10T23:52:00.000-08:00

Africa’s pre and post colonial history is replete with heroes created by the west. And the most emblematic of them all, might simply be the late former Belgian Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Emery Lumumba. Mr Lumumba without any doubt was assassinated brutally by Joseph Mobutu, who was a CIA agent. The brutal assassination of Lumumba made him instantly, to become the symbol of resistance of revolutionaries around the world. One university in the former Soviet Union was even Christian after him. And most recently, Pierre Pean, the controversial French journalist, writer and whistle-blower, had to focus on Patrice Lumumba in one of his recent books[1]. But without attempting to annoy his many fans, and with all humility, I wish to point out hereon that, Patrice Lumumba is best remembered as a professional rabble-rouser. Whatever might be said about his administrative clairvoyance today, are in my humble opinion, mere speculations. He did not live too long, for Congolese to judge whether his fluency in French and his razor-sharp anti colonial and in particular anti-Belgian tongue, could have been translated into good governance. Patrice Emery Lumumba will be best remembered as a professional rabble-rouser and not as a good administrator or leader. Perhaps like most populist before and after him, he would have turned out to be another African failure or at worst, a tyrant. Be that as it may, Lumumba unlike most Africans presently, he had the courage to express his opinion and paid the ultimate prize, death.

Prestigious rabble-rousers

The African continent has lost many other prestigious rabble-rousers, namely: Nkwame Nkrumah, Amircal Cabral, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Gamal A. Nasser and Thomas Sankara. They were all unifying figures and they also had two things in common. They all knew professionally, how to transform defeats and humiliations into victories and also pick on a popular fight: anti-colonialism or anti-imperialism. And since they left power and died courtesy the conspiracy of the west, the continent and the people that the mostly mal-handled, have forgiven them for their excesses or poor management and dictatorial turns. Anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism is the fuel in engine of all populist leaders, which is in reality, a euphemism for dictatorship. In recent times, two controversial figures have risen to the limelight in Africa. They are: Robert G. Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Laurent K.Gbagbo of Ivory Coast. As professional manipulators and rabble-rousers, they knew or know how to touch or excite the feeling or the masses. The first spoke at length about land reform in Zimbabwe, while the second spoke emphatically about the necessity for French-speaking Africa to free herself from French influence or second decolonisation.

In theory, there is no right thinking humane human being, who will deny that, it is important and necessary for land reforms to be carried out in a country where 1% of the population owns 80% of arable land. In practice, Robert Mugabe did not have the masses that he pretended to defend at heart. All he was interested in is to manoeuvre and stay in power. He has succeeded, but the masses that he claimed to defend are in dire economic conditions. For the record, Mugabe has not invented anything. In Latin America, which is the contemporary fertile land for populists there was Velasco, a leader in Peru who took the path that Mugabe has taken and before he was violently deposed he had succeeded one thing, the destruction of Peruvian economy. Still in Latin America, there is a professional anti-American called Hugo Chavez. He is the darling of the left and all anti-imperialists forces around the world.

Popular, but divisive

Many have forgotten that, Hugo Chavez has succeeded to ruin or transform Venezuela into a mono-economy, based on oil export. He has destroyed the agricultural sector via his populist land reforms. Venezuela that was a coffee exporter is today and importer and even oil on which he relies to finance his ambitious social and anti-American programmes is dwindling because of less investment. Laurent Gbagbo and Robert Mugabe are popular, but too divisive to win a place into the pantheon of real African heroes mentioned earlier. For the flames that they have sparked has not glowed into their favour. Gbagbo claimed that, he was anti-French, but wanted to stay in power for longer than accepted. Today he is in jail and humiliated. As for Mugabe, he has evaded the fate of Gbagbo, but he won’t dodge natures call.

African hero

Africa nonetheless has a hero. But who is from a different mould. He is Nelson Mandela. Unlike the others, his hero status was not fabricated by default by westerners, even though he is today feted by the west for reasons that we all know. But Nelson Mandela is a real deep rooted African hero. Hence, he is not feted only on the continent. He is celebrated by people of all races and creeds. His aura will live longer and even after he will leave this world. Nelson Mandela will continue to serve as an example of forgiveness and unity. Mandela is what he is because; he doesn’t cheery pick topics and fights simply to play to the gallery. He seems genuine. In other words Mandela is not a populist.

Utopia called United States of Africa

But the new man on the block is Maommar Gaddaffi. He has just been propelled to hero status by the same west. Maommar Gaddaffi was a bright PR strategist and an astute populist. Today, black Africans present and consider him as a pan-africanist at par with Ghana’s Nkwame Nkrumah. But what most black Africans forget is that, like most white Arab North Africans, he first considers him an Arab with a pull toward the Middle East before being considered African. And he became a pan African only when his pan-Arabist ambitions failed because the Middle Eastern Arabs, who consider themselves as bona-fide Arabs, did everything, to scuttle it. He thought he could use his country’s wealth to create a kingdom that has been denied him by Middle Eastern Arabs. That kingdom was the utopia called the United States of Africa. Gaddaffi never entertained contradiction at home and abroad. He did despise black African leaders; hence he thought he could buy them and buy his way to become the president of Africa. He succeeded by becoming the king of kings of Africa. But concerning his pet project called: United States of Africa, not all African states were for it.

A divided continent

There existed two camps: the gradualist and the Speedy. The gradualists were led by Nigeria and South Africa. They were followed by Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroon, Uganda, whereas in the speedy camp, was made up Senegal, Liberia, and Central African Republic. It is worth noting that, countries that were not for immediate pan African state and government or were not carried away by Gaddaffi propaganda were mineral rich and had a certain level of liberty and democracy, while those who followed Gaddaffi were the poor African states, who survived only by international handouts. Gaddaffi even wanted to transfer the seat of the African Union from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to his native village of Sirte in Libya. And that ambition was thwarted by former Nigerian leader, Mathew Olusegun Obasanjo.

Tribalist and not a nationalist

And from there, began Gaddaffi’s hatred for Nigeria and his calls for its partition along religious line. Are then surprised that, Nigeria voted for the Security Council resolution 1973 that eventually ended his 42 years rule violent Gaddaffi death? Gaddaffi was a tribalist and not a nationalist. It is true that, he has developed his country and provided infrastructure that other African countries with similar wealth have not been able to achieve. But he showed how tribal and myopic he was by not developing a national army and transformed his native village into a modern city. He created a special military elite unit made up essentially of people of his tribe, hence the formidable resistance that they put up in Sirte and Bani walid against the combined forces of NATO and the rebels from Benghazi. Had he invested in a national army, he would not have been defeated easily. Those who fought and died for him in his final days did not fight and die for Libya. They fought for themselves, for their leader and for their tribe and their interest.

Lesson to all African dictators

No one likes the way Gaddaffi was assassinated, but his death is a lesson to all African dictators. They must learn to build a nation and not a tribe. And most importantly, African leaders must understand that, freedom or real democracy has no prize. A people subdued for too long, shall always rise to fight for their freedom with their own internal forces and also with external help, as it has happened in Libya. Sadly Gaddaffi now dead, has gotten what he never succeeded to achieve while alive, the status of a real African hero. This thanks to Cameron, Obama and Sarkozy.

[1] Carnages : les guerres secrètes des grandes puissances en Afrique, edition Fayard, novembre 2010

Cameroon: profile of Martin Belinga Eboutou

2011-11-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

Martin Belinga Eboutou is a graduate, respectively of the Académie de Droit International and the Institute International D’administration Publique de Paris, France. Before coming to finalise his studies in Europe, he had studied Economy at the University of Kinshasa in the current Democratic Republic of Congo. Before his higher education, he had attended the Seminaries of the towns of Edea, Okono and Otélé. Curously, it is the same trajectory taken by Paul Biya, president of the Republic. Mr Martin Belinga Eboutou was born in the village of Nkilzok near the town of Sangmelima which is located in the South province on the 17th of February 1940. He is a career diplomat. He was the diplomatic adviser of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu from 1980-1981. While working for the Cameroon government, he held the following functions: Chargé d’affaires at the embassy of Cameroon in Congo Brazzaville from 1970-74, service head at the department of international organisation at ministry of foreign affairs from 1974-84. He was also commercial adviser at the Embassy of Cameroon in Paris, France 1984-89.

The other functions that he has asumed are: chief of presidential protocol at the civil cabinet of the presidency of the republic 1989-96 and director of presidential civil cabinet at the presidency of the republic from 1996-97. And since December 1997, he is Cameroon’s ambassador at the United Nations in New York, USA . Mr Eboutou lost his post at the presidency of the Republic of Cameroon in December 1997, immediately the union government was formed. He was replaced by Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o. It is rumoured that, he lost his post because of conflicts that he had developed with Chantal Biya, the wife of the head of state. Eboutou is also known to be a proud man, who believes in strict Bantu Betis tradition, which stipulates that, a chief must be respected or must force his subjects to respect him. And when the head of state mandated him to negotiate with the opposition, he decided to take things into his own hands. He decided that, the only party that the ruling CPDM party could negotiate with was the SDF, but not as equals. And within the SDF, he felt it was only the chair or the vice chair that were credible interlocutors of the government.

Cameroon: profile of Prof. Joseph Owona

2011-11-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

He is even rumoured to be at the head of a 16 thousand strong tribal militia, bearing the name of a tribal based occultic movement known as “Esingan”. He is also thought to be the one who diverted the initial trajectory, which the pipeline carrying Chadian oil had to take while on Cameroonian soil. It is claimed that, the pipeline was scheduled to terminate in the Anglophone coastal city of Victoria (Limbe), where is also located Cameroon’s lone oil refinery SONARA. But professor Owona, who was at that time, secretary general at the presidency with a supervisory responsibility on the oil pipeline project, rejected the proposal that made Victoria as the terminal and outlet of Chadian oil. He proposed the French-speaking Cameroonian town of Kribi, which had little or no infrastructure. The only advantage that kribi had over victoria was that it was his home town. There are many blood cuddling stories floating around about Professor Joseph Owona. One also has it that, he wants or is dreaming for the creation of purely Beti country that will regroup the Betis of Cameroon, northern Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. He is also suspected to be an admirer of the Hutu regime of late General Juvenile Hybiarimana.

Hence he encouraged the regime to host Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, believed to be the brainchild of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. But while Owona is an extrovert Eboutou is a tad flamboyant but seldom makes his philosophical thoughts besides his religious views known to the public. Martin Belinga Eboutou is a practising Roman Catholic Christian, who if he did not harbour hatred or prejudice toward Muslims, he would have been an all round perfect Christian. He is nonetheless what is referred to as a conservative. He believes that, any man or woman who wants to assume public functions must be irreproachable morally. He hated or still hates to hear the claim that religion or the Roman Catholic faith, should have in their midst people who claim to be progressive. In his opinion any progress must be strictly attached to the canon of the church and the bible. He was a seminarian like his boss and it was perhaps why he was too close to him (Paul Biya). But it was also his strict interpretation of moral values and literal believe in the bible that made him to lost his position at the presidency of the Republic in December 1997 immediately after the government was formed at last.

Kenyans, Ugandans Share Ideas with U.S. Agriculture Experts

2011-11-04T08:39:00.001-07:00

By Kathryn McConnell | Staff Writer | 24 October 2011

In Washington, Josephine Kamau takes a break from discussions at the concluding session of an exchange program.

Washington — Professionals from Kenya and Uganda who want to strengthen their countries’ food and agriculture sectors will use some ideas they learned during one-month fellowships that took them to three American states.

The visits, sponsored by the U.S. State Department, ended with a conference in October in Washington, where they met experts in their fields and discussed how they will apply what they learned when they return home. They were part of a group of more than 240 international specialists in food security, climate change, education, health and legislative development who exchanged ideas with American counterparts in governments, nonprofit groups and businesses in Colorado, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

“We learned how the media, communities and policymakers can link their efforts to address a country’s food security issues,” said Josephine Kamau, an assistant director in Kenya’s Ministry of Livestock Development. She spent time with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s office in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and visited farms nearby. “If we all work together to address food security in our communities, we all will benefit,” she said.

In Denver, visiting fellows learned about urban agriculture. Anthony Obudi Owor, a program coordinator for Uganda’s National Agricultural Advisory Services, described a Denver agriculture cooperative of 11 neighboring gardens. Cooperative members pay fees, he said, and on specified days members meet to pick up baskets of free food grown in the gardens. The cooperative also provides food to low-income people in the neighborhood. He said the cooperative members call it “urbiculture.”

“Many people are moving to cities. We must produce more food where the people are,” said Michael Akhwale, an agronomist with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and one of the group members who went to Denver.

Owor said he learned to build what is called a hoop house — a 12-foot by 24-foot (3.6-meter by 7.3-meter) plastic-covered greenhouse with an arched roof. He built one in a week, and then his hosts presented him with materials for a hoop house that Owor plans to build at home. He also learned about beekeeping and will place hives in his orange and mango groves. He learned about simple irrigation techniques and about rain harvesting, collecting rain water as it drips off roofs and storing it in tanks. During dry seasons, farmers can tap the saved water so their crops can continue to grow.

Owor described another type of urban agriculture he learned from a nonprofit called Growing Power in Milwaukee. Called aquaponics, it is the cultivation of small fish with vegetables and herbs, all together in a controlled indoor environment.

Alex Chamwada discusses food security issues in Kenya.

An officer with Kenya’s agriculture ministry, Samuel Mwangi, said Kenya needs stronger links between research, extension services and training efforts so more knowledge gets to more farmers. Rose Shivambo, a 28-year-old farmer and community volunteer, said more needs to be done to reach people in remote areas with extension services.

Kenya also needs to teach farmers to better diversify the crops they grow to avoid the risk of a single crop being devastated by drought, disease or pests, said Hassan Abdi. The 53-year-old, who chairs Kenya’s Tana River District Stakeholders Forum, said more efforts are needed to integrate youth into agriculture through efforts such as school gardens.

Helping people to better understand the link between nutrition and agriculture is also needed, noted Rose Chiteva, a researcher at the Kenya Forestry Research Institute.

The next step is to teach people to learn to try eating different foods to get more nutrition, Akhwale added.

Alex Chamwada, editor with Royal Media Services in Kenya, hopes the members of the group will urge their governments to invest more in research and technology.

The visiting fellows learned about more than crops; they also learned about how the U.S. Department of Agriculture is helping disadvantaged small farmers and gardeners, as well as minority farmers like African Americans and Native Americans. The fellows met with members of the local branch of the National Women in Agriculture Association and visited a museum of the history and culture of the Cherokee Nation, said Halima Nenkari, who is director of livestock production in Kenya’s Ministry of Livestock Development and works with Kamau.

Every year, more than 50,000 international and American participants take part in a wide range of exchange programs funded by the State Department.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

Women Rice Farmers in Ghana Partner for New Opportunities

2011-11-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

26 October 2011

Amsig Resources Chief Executive Officer Gina Odarteifio poses with women rice farmers in Tamale, Ghana.

Washington — An organization of 50 female rice farmers in Ghana recently received training, with U.S. help, to develop their businesses and increase crop production.

Members of the Nyohini Women’s Group, made up of rice farmers, capitalized on Ghana’s $547 million compact with the U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to receive nine weeks of training in business and farming methods.

The compact’s commercial training deals with several constraints that face smallholder farmers and agribusinesses. These include poor production, outdated postharvest techniques and limited business and management skills.

Before the training, Ayesha Otibo, Nyohini Women’s Group chairwoman, did not produce the quality of rice required to compete in larger markets. Ayesha and her colleagues credit the guidance they received from Amsig Resources, the company that delivered the MCC-funded training, for helping them grow better rice, accurately track their profits and losses, and successfully negotiate better prices with suppliers and service providers.

WORKING WITH THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME

Amsig Resources Chief Executive Officer Gina Odarteifio connected Otibo’s group to an important new buyer, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). WFP is a reliable customer: Through its Purchase for Progress program, it buys 100-kilogram bags of rice from the women at prices higher than they would receive in local markets.

The women, many of whom are widows, credit the training and Odarteifio’s assistance for their newfound income, which empowers them to pay their children’s school fees and household electricity bills.

Amsig Resources has trained 82 farmer groups, comprising 4,681 farmers throughout Ghana’s Afram basin and northern agricultural area. Of these, 16 were groups led by women, and nearly 52 percent of farmers trained were women who produce and process crops.

So far, 64,000 farmers, including Otibo, in 30 districts in Ghana have received MCC-funded training to sharpen their commercial skills. Such training deepens the capacity of farmer-based organizations such as Otibo’s and that of their business partners, including processors and marketers who add value to agricultural crops.

As part of MCC’s commitment to measure results, upcoming evaluations will gauge the effects of MCC’s investments, including increases in household income. To date, 3,606 metric tons of rice have been sold to WFP at competitive prices, providing a fair and reliable income to the farmers.

EMBRACING THE ABC’S OF NEW OPPORTUNITY

Many farmer-based organizations will benefit from their relationship with Amsig Resources, as plans are under way to invest in an agribusiness center (ABC) in the town of Woreboggu-Kukuo near the city of Tamale. The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), which is responsible for implementing Ghana’s MCC compact, is partnering with private investors to open new ABCs.

While MiDA is building and equipping 10 ABCs, the investors will bring working capital, market linkages and business and management experience.

The ABCs will serve as collection points for quality grains, giving farmers a way to treat, store and process their grain effectively and sell it to a structured market at a guaranteed minimum price. Each ABC facility will include a warehouse with a 1,000-metric-ton capacity, primary processing areas and space for stocking inputs such as seeds and fertilizers.

Before Ghana’s partnership with MCC, most grain buyers could not benefit from such locations. This resulted in canceled contracts because buyers failed to meet both the quantity and quality requirements demanded by their clients, often international firms. Farmers had to absorb high losses after their harvests, since the lack of adequate processing facilities forced them to accept low prices for their produce, often selling to “drive-by” traders as the only option.

CREATING SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

Now, through the agribusiness centers, private-sector investors will influence the quality and quantity of agricultural products. Farmers will command better prices because they can access higher-end markets. Each ABC will have an anchor private investor, like Amsig Resources, and shareholders, like smallholder farmer–based organizations such as Nyohini Women’s Group.

Private investors will contribute land and working capital. The Millennium Development Authority will provide grants to the agribusiness centers, but private investors and farmer-based organizations will repay the total cost of MiDA’s contribution into an “ABC reinvestment fund.” This fund will be used to upgrade equipment and expand operations at each ABC.

The enthusiasm that Gina Odarteifio at Amsig Resources and Ayesha Otibo and the other members of the Nyohini Women’s Group share is the result of the Ghana compact’s working as it was designed. As Odarteifio proudly says, “Through its training, Amsig has helped to improve the quality of farmers’ produce and opened the door for women who have few economic options in their lives.”

This is how MCC’s compact with Ghana is beginning to raise farmers’ incomes through agribusiness development led by the private sector, generating new opportunities to reduce poverty and sustainably strengthen Ghana’s economy.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

Keywords:

USTR Praises Restored Trade Preferences for Three African Nations

2011-11-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

27 October 2011

These bags of cocoa beans at Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, were among the first shipments loaded when exports resumed after restoration of democratic governance.

Washington — The United States is proud to announce the restoration of trade preferences and other benefits to Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Niger under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk says.

In a statement issued October 25 after President Obama signed a proclamation restoring trade preferences, Kirk said AGOA “remains a vital and growing pillar of U.S.-Africa trade policy.”

Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Niger had lost their eligibility for AGOA benefits due to undemocratic changes in government, but in late 2010 and early 2011, all three countries conducted presidential elections that impartial observers deemed free and fair.

“President Obama’s determination and proclamation today is good news, not only for the people of these three African nations but also for the U.S. businesses and workers trading with and investing in those countries,” Kirk said. “Today’s announcement is the result of rigorous review by the Obama administration to determine whether Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Niger have made progress in meeting AGOA’s eligibility criteria. We have seen progress in each of these countries, in conducting free and fair elections and taking other actions to promote democratic government and market-based economies.”

AGOA was signed into law by President Clinton in May 2000. The law seeks to expand U.S. trade and investment with sub-Saharan Africa, stimulate economic growth in Africa, promote a high-level dialogue on trade and investment-related issues, encourage economic integration and facilitate sub-Saharan Africa’s integration into the global economy.

At the core of the statute are substantial trade preferences that, along with those under the Generalized System of Preferences and Most Favored Nation tariff treatment, allow most goods produced in AGOA-eligible countries to enter the U.S. market duty-free.

Each of the three nations followed challenging paths to regain their trade preferences under AGOA.

Côte d’Ivoire lost its AGOA eligibility on January 1, 2005, after five years of political unrest and armed conflict. In November 2010, Côte d’Ivoire held a presidential election that resulted in continued violence and political unrest when incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power to the internationally recognized winner of the election, Alassane Ouattara. The situation was resolved and President Ouattara was officially sworn in in May 2011. His administration has made improving the business environment a primary goal, has launched initiatives to address rampant corruption and is continuing to push for important reforms in the cocoa sector, according to USTR.

Guinea lost its AGOA eligibility on January 1, 2010, as a result of a coup and other abuses. Later in 2010, Guinea held its first democratic presidential election since its independence in 1958. President Alpha Condé took office in December 2010, and USTR said the United States “looks forward to Guinea consolidating its nascent democracy through credible legislative elections soon.”

In Niger in 2009, President Mamadou Tanja attempted to retain power after his second term by dissolving the national government and changing Niger’s Constitution. As a result, Niger lost AGOA eligibility January 1, 2010. A military junta deposed Tanja in February and he committed to leaving power following a democratic presidential election. Newly elected President Mahamadou Issoufou was inaugurated in April 2011, and his administration has committed itself “to more transparent government and freedom of the press, to enhancing the private sector and boosting investment, and to improving the provision of basic social services,” USTR said.

Two-way trade in goods between the United States and sub-Saharan African countries during 2010 was valued at $82 billion.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

Statement on Liberia’s Presidential Elections

2011-11-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

26 October 2011

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesperson
October 26, 2011
2011/1812

STATEMENT BY VICTORIA NULAND, SPOKESPERSON

Liberia’s Presidential Elections

The United States congratulates the people of Liberia for demonstrating their commitment to democracy by voting in large numbers during the first round of elections on October 11. We are also very pleased that international and domestic observers were able to monitor these important elections, which all agreed were peaceful.

We commend Liberia’s National Elections Commission (NEC) for organizing peaceful, orderly, and transparent elections. We commend the important contributions of the UN Mission in Liberia to promote security in the country during the electoral process. We urge the NEC to continue to thoroughly examine and address all complaints of irregularities in a transparent manner. We look forward to a peaceful and orderly second round of elections scheduled on November 8.

We call upon all political party leaders and their supporters to follow the rule of law and respect the official results. We strongly condemn any attempt by individuals to undermine the electoral process by using inflammatory rhetoric, intimidation, or violence. The international community will hold accountable those who choose to engage in such undemocratic activities.

The United States will continue to support the people of Liberia and will work with all elected officials to further consolidate democracy, and promote stability and prosperity.

###

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

Anglo -American and Breton wood institutions activisms in Cameroon ( part 4)

2011-11-04T02:20:00.000-07:00

But the CDU has little influence in the predominantly ethnic Bamileke section of the West province. Her influence is located in the Noun division of the west province.Why? It is partly because; the people of the Noun division, are not ethnic Bamilekes, but are of a different ethnic stock called the Bamoums. Moreover, the people of the Noun division do practise a mixture of religions: Islam, Christianity and Animist. But their traditional head is a Sultan. This simply means that, Islam holds a dominant status in part of a province that is majority Christian. Even though in both parties, none carries any Islamic based ideologies, there is a profound aversion in Francophone equatorial Africa toward Muslims. Why? It is claimed that, the aversion started during French colonial ere. At that time, most colonial assistants, especially soldiers of the colonial army, were recruited from the Sahel region, particularly from Chad, Guinea, Upper Volta or Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger, Mauritania and Mali. Furthermore these soldiers were the expedionary units of colonial France in the conquest of the region and the repression of nationalism. In Francophone Cameroon, the people of the greater southern part do also have abhorrence for Northerners. Why?

It is rumoured that, the man who killed Ruben Um Nyobe, who was one of the political and military head of the UPC, was a man of Sahalian stock. He is claimed to be precisely from modern day Chad. Hence in the mind of the people of the greater south of French-speaking Cameroon, there is no difference between a man from northern Cameroon and people from the Sahel region. For people of the afore-mentioned region are all considered to be Muslims, although in reality it is not accurate. There is even a generic term referring to Muslims. They are all called or considered as Hausas. This is another abusive or excesses engendered by prejudice borned out of colonialism. The truth is that, not everybody who originates from the sahal region is a Muslim and furthermore, they are not all ethnic Hausas. This steorotypical view is generalized throughout the equatorial part of former French colonial Africa, where any tall man, who is dark in complexion and putting on long flowing white robe, generally known as “gandora” and who also is considered to be a Muslim, is taken to be an enemy. Prejudice and steorotypical views of people of the sahal and Muslims, took another dimension in French-speaking Cameroon as independence approached, in particular, when the French handed political power to Muslim northerners.

Within the Biya regime, there are some members within his closely-knit ideologues, who may hate the SDF and it chair John Fru Ndi, but would prefer to negotiate with him or hand over power to the SDF ,than to the NUDP of Bello Bouba Maigari or CDU of Adamou Ndam Njoya. This is simply because; they are of the opinion that, a Muslim, even though a bonafide Cameroonian, has no right to govern the country anymore. Amongst those around Paul Biya, who had such extremist thoughts and never kept them was Martin Belinga Eboutou. Mr Eboutou until his assumption of the post of Cameroon’s ambassador and representative at UN in New York was chief of presidential protocol. Another member of the Biya regime with such extreme bigotry and anti Muslim thoughts is Professor Joseph Owona, former secretary general at the presidency of the republic and former ministers of national education and sports. He is even rumoured to be at the head of a 16 thousand strong tribal militia, bearing the name of a tribal based occultic movement known as “Esingan”. He is also thought to be the one who diverted the initial trajectory, which the pipeline carrying Chadian oil had to take while on Cameroonian soil.

Africa : The untold story: famine avoided

2011-11-03T04:05:00.000-07:00

For immediate release: Wednesday 2 November 2011

Anti-poverty campaign group ONE today launched a new short film about the food crisis in the Horn of Africa as part of its Hungry No More campaign. The films, which are the result of a unique collaboration with the African production company A24 Media, focus on the untold story of the food crisis that is gripping the region. The project was led by Salim Amin, Chairman of A24 Media and son of Mo Amin, the Kenyan photojournalist known for his remarkable footage of the Ethiopian famine in the 1980s. Salim and his film crew travelled to Tigray in Ethiopia, the place hardest hit by the 1984 famine and the place his father captured his best known footage.

What Salim found was a situation in stark contrast to the images his father captured. Long-term investments by governments, donors and local communities have allowed the community to develop agricultural programmes that are resilient to drought and help create a path out of poverty.

Salim Amin commented:

While the effect of drought are being felt acutely in parts of the Horn of Africa, what we found when we made these films would have delighted my father. Starvation no longer stalks the inhabitants of the very areas that were hit hardest in the famine of the 1980s. Instead we found green fields full and healthy, well-fed children.”

Jamie Drummond, Executive Director at ONE, added:

“These films show why smart aid for African agriculture can be so transformative and lifesaving, and why the G20 must not shirk their wider responsibilities this week in Cannes even while they dealing with the crisis in the Eurozone.

“Ethiopia, once a basket case, is now consistently one of Africa’s strongest economic performers. This growth is underpinned by progress in agriculture and food security. There are still too many people in Ethiopia are poor and hungry, but malnutrition has halved in the last two decades. That significant progress now needs to be replicated across Africa.”

Notes to editors:

1. The film can be viewed here: http://www.a24media.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iri9Y4A5YfI <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iri9Y4A5YfI>

2. For media enquires please contact Katie Martin at ONE (katie.martin@one.org <mailto:katie.martin@one.org> or +44 7500 797599), or Daniel Furnad at A24 Media (daniel@a24media.com <mailto:daniel@a24media.com> or +254 723 686315)

3. ONE is a global advocacy and campaigning organization backed by more than 2.5 million people from around the world dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. For more information please visit www.ONE.org <http://www.one.org/>

4. A24 Media facilitates Africans communicating with each other about solutions to their problems. A24 Media concentrates on stories that show Africans as individuals with dignity, creativity, resourcefulness and hope, working toward building a better future for their communities and themselves. For more information go to: http://www.a24media.com/whatsyourstory/healthcare/one-international-a24-media-hope-in-ethiopia

5. ONE’s Hungry No More campaign is calling for the G8, G20, and African governments to:

· Urgently fill the $600m financing gap for emergency assistance in the Horn of Africa and ensure that all those in need are reached. In the case of Somalia, greater regional and international political will is required to support an inclusive multi-stakeholder process - including a prominent voice for Somali civil society - that conclusively addresses the underlying causes of insecurity.

· To live up to their 2009 L’Aquila commitment to invest $22 billion in agriculture and for African governments to fulfill their Maputo pledge to spend 10% of their national budgets on agriculture.

· Invest in longer-term agriculture and food security initiatives to stop the cycle of extreme hunger, such as the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme.

Anglo -American and Breton wood institutions activisms in Cameroon ( part 3)

2011-11-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

For the Breton Wood institutions and their anglo-american allies made proposals, which did not succeed to appease the public, as they had thought. The strategy of the anglo-americans and the Bretton woods institutions did not succeed because, John Fru Ndi, chair of the SDF and leader of the radical but popular opposition parties, made up of the SDF, NUDP and CDU, had gone back to their old ways. They began using populist vitriolic against Paul Biya and his government. It was a recipe that has always succeeded. It was also rumoured that, the other reason why the Bretton woods institutions and their anglo-american allies failed with their proposal to hoodwink the opposition and the cameroonian mases was because, there was a fight between the radical opposition and the government, crystallised by John Fru Ndi and Paul Biya. The said fight had taken a mystical dimension, which was beyond the comprehension of many. And it appears, the abandonment of the “unity palace”, which is the official residence and office of the president of the republic, was the direct results of the mystical warfare pitting John Fru Ndi against Paul Biya. And according to the rumour mills, it seems the mythical battle was turning to the advantage of the John Fru Ndi.

However, mindful of the disastrous consequences of the absence of any prospect of the creation of a “government of national union” after the 1997 October presidential elections, the Anglo-Americans became more assertive. They asked Biya not only to create or form a “government of national union”, but any such government, must include members of the opposition and civil society. They also invited the government to negotiate with the radical opposition and in chief, the SDF. The man who had the responsibility on the government side to carry out negotiations with the opposition was Martin Belinga Eboutou. Interestingly, within the close circle of the ruling CPDM party, they wanted to negotiate with the opposition, but not with the entire opposition parties in the country. In their opinion, the opposition that they claimed or considered representative and worth negociating with were the SDF. They believed and still believe that, the SDF is the only representative element of the intricate web of opposition political parties in the country. Furthermore, they also believe that, the only party susceptible of creating problems or upsetting their plan of everlasting ruling Cameroon was the SDF.

As far as other part or elements of the opposition are concern, the ideologues of the government knew that, they could win over their leaders easily using the stratagem of carrots and batons. Another penchant within the inner circle of the government, which is a tribal set up, was a deliberate desire to snub two members or parties that made up the radical opposition group. These parties were the NUDP of Bello Bouba Maigari and CDU of Dr Adamou Ndam Njoya. Why? It was simply because, the heads of the latter political formations were Muslims or their stronghold were in the greater North that is predominantly Islamic or had large Muslim followings. While the NUDP might be referred to as a Muslim dominated party, because her stronghold is in the Greater Northern province of Cameroon with it principal base being the city of Garoua, however, the CDU of Adamou Ndam Njoya can’t easily be labelled as a Muslim based party. The CDU, whose chair is a Muslim and former minister of National Education is based in the French-speaking Cameroonian province of the West, which is predominantly ethnic Bamileke. Furthermore, the Bamilekes are mostly Protestant or Roman Catholic or animists. But the CDU has little influence in the predominantly ethnic Bamileke section of the West province. Her influence is located in the Noun division of the west province.