Barely a month after the September 27 – 28, 2008 attacks on Limbe banks and whose ashes are yet to cool off, the spate of national  insecurity was once again heightened last Thursday October 30 breaking Friday , raided the Kole marine oil terminal operated by TOTAL Exploration and Production (E&P) Cameroon, kidnapping eleven persons. Two Cameroonians and nine expatriates from France, Tunisia and Senegal are among those kidnapped. The pirates who say they are members of a group called Bakassi Freedom Fighters say they are opposed to  the August 14  transfer of authority over the contested Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon because they were not consulted.

 read more...

The month of October that has just ended is one of those months Chief Inoni would continue to relish even after it is long gone. It is a month that brought the PM from what seemed an abyss of quiet desolation and uncertainty to the full blossom of comfort and confidence. After months of press bashing and speculations on his imminent exit from the Star Building, internal opposition from some ministers and interrogations over the Albatross Affair, October came to put not only a lull on all these vituperations, but in more than one way helped recreate and recast the PM positively in the eyes of his boss; the one and only one, for now, who can make or mar his future. If anything, what those jerky months revealed was a PM with steadied nerves and a strong psychological depth. He remained calm and ponderous but shrewdly calculative in order not to let his adversaries within and out of government benefit from the slightest ‘maladresse’.

 read more...

Orange Cameroun, the first and leading mobile telephone company in the country, was in Limbe on October 30 to launch one of its most recent products, the high-speed wireless internet service called “Livebox”. The occasion, that took place within the cosy confines of the FINI Hotel in the Bobende neighbourhood of the newly created Limbe II sub-division, brought together an inquisitive and curious crowd that cut across the administration at whose head was Fako Senior Divisional Officer, Jules Marcellin Ndjaga, accompanied by his ‘etat major’ that included his 1st and 2nd Assistants, Johnson Malafa and Ateba respectively; the DO for Limbe II, Charles Duala Fomubud and some security chiefs. Traditional rulers were led by the President of the South West Chiefs Conference, Chief Isoh Itoh in whose delegation was  the former president and CEO of EUROIL Cameroon, Nfor Tabetando, the Secretary General and treasurer.

 read more...

Tiko United F.C alias Samba Boys are virtually picking up from where they ended last year’s MTN Elite One championships. In their opening game of the 2008/09 season the team beat its Divisional rivals Mount Cameroon F. C of Buea in its own backyard on Wednesday, October 29 through a lone goal by new signing, skipper Foe, to make its ambitions very clear. Last year the Samba Boys were off to a flying start and topped the championship for most of the first round but went on to slump and even got threatened by relegation at one point. What happened? According to team President General, Charles Eteki, “we got betrayed by some players who paid allegiance to tribe than to our own ambitions”. And to prevent a repeat Eteki said they have had to sweep the house and brought many young and talented players who he believes would be above self and tribe.

 read more...

Ever since Fon Chafah, the out-going President General of the North West Fons Union unwisely carried the simmering disagreement between him and his Union’s spokesperson, Ntumfor Nico Halle, to the public arena, invectives and missiles have been fired to both of them and at times from very unsuspecting quarters. I have not had the opportunity of paying much attention to Fon Chafah’s stewardship at the helm of NOWEFU partly because of the disdain that has developed in me against most elite and chiefs’ associations. These have become willing tools in the hands of the system which it manipulates according to its whims and caprices. It has become very evident that most of our elite and traditional rulers pursue and support causes which are at variance with those of the people they purport to represent.

 read more...

Zimbabwe's opposition warned Tuesday its leader might steer clear of another regional summit designed to salvage a power-sharing accord, saying it had yet to decide whether to trust President Robert Mugabe. The day after Morgan Tsvangirai refused to meet with Mugabe at a summit in Swaziland, his Movement for Democratic Change party said it was unconvinced the veteran ruler's camp was negotiating in good faith. Hoping to rescue the unity accord, southern African leaders agreed to hold new talks between the rivals in Harare on October 27, but MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said that Tsvangirai could not yet confirm if he would attend.

 read more...

Farmers in Munyenge area in Fako Division have vowed to stock their cocoa produce in their houses until when the price of the crop goes up again. This was the resolution taken during a community meeting between the chiefs, councillors and the farmers in Munyenge area on October 27. The farmers, in putting forth their points, recalled that for years, they have suffered exploitation from the Local Buyers Association, LBA, who manipulate them by providing cocoa chemicals at an exorbitant rate and only for them to reduce the price of the produce at the peak of the cocoa season. They mentioned that by doing this they always go home penniless because all what they were supposed to take home would have been slashed from chemical owed. They say they therefore see it as working for the buyers.

 read more...

The Divisional Delegate of Secondary Education for Ndian, Stephen Sube Keme has expressed worry  over the low enrolment of students in secondary schools in the Division and promised to improve on the situation. The Divisional Delegate said that in terms of enrolment, 472 students were handed over to him as on August 24, 2008. Due to the poor enrolment, he said he has asked principals of schools to relax admission and registration procedures so that more children could enter school even at the age of forty. Mr Sube was speaking to journalists during a press conference he granted on October 23, 2008 in Kumba to explain his project for Ndian secondary education.

 read more...

Ministers of Education of the Central African Economic and Monetary Union, CEMAC, have signed a harmonised political and pedagogical document for the integration of Education on HIV/AIDS in the school systems of the area.This was during a meeting that held in Douala from October 28-29 and which was presided over by His Excellency, Ambroise Zawa, Minister Delegate to the Central Africa  Minister of National Education ,Alphabetisation, Higher Education and Research, in charge of Primary and Secondary Education. Ministers Haman Adama of Cameroon, Ongoka Pascal Robin of Congo-Brazza, Michel Madoungou of Gabon, Jose-Cosme Okenve Mboyio Eseng of Equatorial Guinea, Ambroise Zawa of  the Central African Republic, and finally Alboukhari Habsita Souleymane of Chad signed the document on behalf of their respective countries.

 read more...

As if by accident, November, the month in which the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon became autonomous, was also the month, 25 years ago, when power in Cameroon changed hands from a Muslim to a Christian. The change brought general euphoria not least because the new leader was an intellectual – in fact an ex-seminarian. His arrival therefore fuelled hopes that Christian values would thenceforth hold sway in the conduct of public affairs in Cameroon. It needs be said that, by a curious twist of fate, the old President hand-picked the new, and imposed him on the people. Had they actually chosen him, which could well have happened if they had been consulted, today the people would have been cursing their luck – or bad luck – because it is now clear that they drew a blank.

 read more...

When the Berlin wall came down in 1989, neo-liberals robbed their hands in glee, professing the triumph of capitalism over communism and other versions of left-wing politics. It was affirmed that the collapse was proof that at best, states should leave the market place alone, since the market regulates itself. The dazed left responded that the ruthlessness of capitalism requires that to best serve all humans, the answer was not free wheeling capitalism but a marriage - a Third Way - that shunned the classical, outdated political positions of the left and the right and sought a convergence towards using both capitalism and social welfare politics to serve the people. The left accepted the market economy as the best avenue for creating wealth for the fulfilment of professed social aims.

 read more...

As part of activities to mark the celebration of this year’s World Tourism Day slated for September 27, 2008, The Fako Syndicate of Hoteliers, Restaurants and Tourism Operators shall in collaboration with the South West Provincial Delegation for Tourism, orgainise this year’s Miss Tourism- South West selection in Limbe under the distinguished patronage of the South West Governor- Louis EYEYA ZANGA.
The event shall take place on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at the Holiday Inn Resort Hotel, Limbe.  read more...