SIMON NKWENTI IS LAID TO REST

By Tikum Mbah Azonga

If anyone doubted the profundity of the impact that High School teacher, Simon Nkwenti, created on Cameroonians, then the mammoth crowds that turned up to honour him are testimony enough that Simon Nkwenti occupied a special place in the hearts and minds of his fellow compatriots. This was clear at the Bamenda mortuary where his mortal remains were removed, the church service that followed in Chomba and the subsequent burial that took place in the village.

Those who at any point were given the floor during the funeral of the fallen CATTU trade union leader, all of them, were full of awe, respect and admiration for Simon Nkwenti. Secondary Education Minister Bapes Bapes Louis sent a condolence message in which he referred to Nkwenti as his “son”. Top jurist and civil society promoter, Ntumfor Nico Halle, said: “You lived an accomplished and fulfilled life, bringing joy to the destitute and speaking for the voiceless. You were the change you wanted; you positively impacted society; you called things by their true names. You peacefully shunned hypocrisy and falsehood. You were patriotic and respected state institutions.”

Mwalimu George Ngwane, a writer and civil society leader said, “Simon Nkwenti was by design or by default a teacher. He would have easily traded his career for that of a member of parliament or a barrister-at-law. In his heart was entrenched the sterling qualities of society`s spokesman; in his soul was sown the grains of a people`s advocate, and in his spirit was engraved the fighting spirit of a committed crusader”.

The grief felt by the Fon of Chomba, Nwenti`s village, was best expressed by Nkwenti`s own father, Nkwenti Peter Achili, when he said Fon Fobuzie had lost “an irreplaceable son”. The journalist, Douglas Achingale, wrote a poem entitled, Adieu Simon, in which he declared: “Some enter and exit like the smell of pure water; unseen, unfelt, unnoticed. But your sojourn on Mother Earth left no one in doubt that a baobab here dwelt.” The Chronicle newspaper published a 12-page special edition on the fallen hero.

Now that Simon Nkwenti has departed, his balance sheet can be drawn without fear of favour or criticism. As The Chronicle put it, “Although (he is) physically dead, the works of Nkwenti will for several centuries remain unbeatable or even unparalleled insofar as education and trade unionism are concerned.”

Born in 1964, Simon Nkwenti died at the relatively tender age of 48, far short of the 70 that the Bible declares as the standard life span. Even so, Simon Nkwenti`s achievements, if put in the right perspective, could be equated with those of a person who died at the ripe old age of 85. Undoubtedly, Nkwenti fought his way into the hearts and minds of successive Education ministers to the point where he retained their attention and sold his ideals and aspirations to them. Through his initiation and running of CATTU, the Teachers` Trade Union, Nkwenti proved beyond any reasonable doubt that a vibrant and muscular trade union could, in deed, be set up in Cameroon and be made to deliver the goods. Through his non-partisan and fair approach to national issues, Nkwenti helped to boost and bolster national unity. Through peaceful advocacy for change, he contributed to the prevalence of peace in the nation. He touched the lives of many, including the down and out and the marginalized. These included civil servants whose salaries were brutally slashed by government in response to the biting economic crisis. It included the integration of the dispersed Bororo community and the physically impaired of society.

Nkwenti`s mother, Esther Bih Nkwenti, pointed out that her son`s home was full of children, not all of whom were his biologically, considering that he brought up needy children indiscriminately. Back in the village, Chomba, Simon was quickly and unanimously chosen to succeed the late Professor Moses Asanji as President General of the Chomba Development and Cultural Association (CHODECA), when the latter died in that post.

But perhaps it is for his other public deeds that Nkwenti will be remembered most. He fought hard and helped to check the release of state examinations in poor English. He championed and obtained the creation of the second cycle at the Advanced Teachers Training College Annex in Bambili, popularly known by the acronym, ENS. He fought and obtained the creation of a Higher Technical Teachers` Training College with first and second cycles. He was also one of the compelling forces that prevailed upon President Paul Biya to create the University of Bamenda, today a reality.

Obviously, like any other human being, Simon Nkwenti ruffled some feathers. Within CATTU in particular and teachers` circles in general, there were those who saw Nkwenti as a devil who pocketed ministers and hijacked the CATTU trade union. Some elite and politicians begrudged him for stealing the limelight and pulling the rug from under their feet. When he conducted studies that named and shamed corrupt public services within the North West Region, the move earned him a collision course with administrators. When he set up vigilante groups to check criminality in Bamenda, thieves who felt cheated, targeted him. Nonetheless, Simon Nkwenti forged ahead and did what he had to do.

Today, he leaves behind his parents, his lovely wife, the CRTV Journalist Mary Lum Azonga Nkwenti and four children of his own to mourn him. But one thing is certain: the contribution of Simon Nkwenti, not just to Cameroon but the human race as a whole will be put in proper perspective, not by contemporaries, but by posterity and history. After all, do the French not say, “On ne cite pas les contemporains”, which means, “You don`t cite contemporaries”?

__________________________________

FOOTNOTE

This paper was first broadcast on Foundation Radio (The Voice of the Voiceless), FM 100 in Ngomgham-Mankon, North West Region of Cameroon on Saturday the 8th of September 2012. The Radio is one of the subsidiaries of The Fomunyoh Foundation (TFF) which is headquartered in the United States of America.

SAMA AS CAMEROON BAR ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT

By Tikum Mbah Azonga

Undoubtedly, there is hardly anyone familiar with private law practice in Cameroon who does not know about Barrister Francis Sama Asanga. This is because for decades he has defended cases including those as far away as in Yaounde and beyond. So, not only has he make his mark adequately, he also rose within the ranks even before being hoisted to today’s summit as National Bar Association President.

It is therefore not surprising that Barrister Francis Sama Asanga beat heavyweights such as the Incumbent Barrister Junior Eta Besong, Barrister Njualem and Barrister Jackson Francis Ngnie Kamga to head Cameroon`s foremost legal practice organization. Sama Asanga fought the election on a platform of consistency and focus. His watchwords were re-energizing the Bar and endowing it with a more decisive role in nation building. Sama promised to restore fraternity, honour, respect and the independence of Cameroonian lawyers. Even after his election, the new Bar Association president still reiterated those same themes as constituting his blueprint.
Barrister Francis Sama Asanga is native of Baba II village in Santa Sub Division in the North West Region of Cameroon. He studied at Sacred Heart College in Mankon, CCAST Bambili and the University of Yaounde. At a time when many young people doubted, dithered and wavered about career choices, Francis Sama Asanga quickly realized that his natural calling was in the legal profession. No sooner had he embarked on practice in Bamenda than he fast became one of the most successful and wealthiest lawyers in town. Hs secret, he once said, lay in the fact that he never turned down clients who came to him without the financial wherewithal to pay for services rendered. Far from it, Sama would accept payment in kind such as food items, furniture; or even serve clients free of charge.

In his thirty years of legal practice, Barrister Francis Sama Asanga has hatched 12 or so other successful lawyers. He has served thrice as a member of the Cameroon Bar Council. When first elected to the Council, he was entrusted with the portfolio of training, a post he executed with diligence and assiduity. In his two later mandates in the Bar Council, Sama also served as the North West Regional representative of the Cameroon Bar Association president. The new Cameroon Bar Association President is a happily married man, graced with children and a lovely wife who literally scratches his back and prepares warm water for him to bathe after a long and hard day`s work.

During his Sacred Heart College days, Sama grew up with the nickname, “Joker”, which was used even by his brothers, Bob, Ben and David. Even so, jokes aside, it is he who succeeded their father when he died. Today, within family circles, Barrister Francis Sama Asanga, is fondly referred to as, “Pa Sama”.

In party politics, the new Bar President is a hardliner SDF. He was one of the founder members of the party, and has over the years, stuck resolutely and steadfastly to the ideals of the party and its chairman, Ni John Fru Ndi, although some who were in the party from the outset had long fallen by the wayside.

As a short man, for Barrister Francis Sama Asanga is short, he bitterly regrets that he was rejected for membership of the National Association of Short People of Cameroon. As the Association`s national president, Chi Jonathan, put it, the constitution admits members from the height of an ant to 1.6 meters. Unfortunately, when Barrister came along for membership and was measured, he was found to be 1.61 meters tall, which means he was one meter taller than allowed by the constitution of the association of short people.

The election at last of a Bar president in general, and that of Barrister Francis Sama Asanga in particular, is very good news for the Cameroonian legal profession. This is because the ballot vote came within a background of intense internecine strife, in-fighting, blackmail and a breakdown in order. Although the respected barrister, Ntumfor Nico Halle convened and chaired a peace-making meeting as a means of putting things right, somehow, the hatchet was still not quite buried.

Now that the dust has finally settled, all eyes are on the new Bar President to see to what extent he will hold together the Cameroon Bar Association and restore to it, its long lost glory.

Footnote
This paper was first broadcast on Foundation Radio (The Voice of the Voiceless), FM 100 in Ngomgham-Mankon, North West Region of Cameroon on the 15th of August 2012. The Radio is one of the subsidiaries of The Fomunyoh Foundation (TFF) which is headquartered in the United States of America.

THE STING IN THE TAIL OF POWER

By Tikum Mbah Azonga

 

When Barrister Junior Eta Besong decided to join other candidates in the race for his own succession at the recent Cameroon Bar Association presidential elections, he was choosing one of several options. This is because he could easily have opted not to run again and thereby given someone else a chance.

 

As it turned out, Eta Besong used his democratic right to bid for the post, thus laying his popularity status on the line for others to judge him. In the end he and the other candidates lost to Barrister Francis Sama Asanga. With hindsight therefore, observers can today affirm that Barrister Junior Eta Besong would have been clearly better off if he had not stood as a candidate for a new term. In such a case, he would have finished his term honourably and departed with his head high. Now that he fought and lost, one can say that he was vomited by his own people, or the very people on whom he counted to hand him another term in office, perhaps on a platter of gold, “auctioned” him. History has now noted in its annals that Eta Besong was given a vote of no confidence. As a result, one can conclude that instead of jumping, Barrister Junior Eta Besong was pushed.

 

Nonetheless, although we are making this look like an Eta Besong affair, strictly speaking, it is not. A close look at the stakes reveals that the trounced former Batonnier, simply did what many elected officials do: they hardly ever leave voluntarily until the full time whistle is blown or they are pushed out. Examples of the phenomenon abound, within Cameroon and outside of Cameroon. In fact, even in the so-called developed countries, leaders make it a point to keep standing for re-election until they have exhausted all possible chances of standing again.

 

Recently, the outgone Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade while still in office dug in his heels for another mandate until he was flushed out by his own former minister, Macky Sall. In Cote d`Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo sat it out until the pro-Ouattara military pushed him out in favour of Ouattara. Today, Gbagbo who ignored both pleas and ultimatums to quit power honourably, languishes in jail with charges of war crimes looming ominously over his head. In France, Nicolas Sarkozy sought to renew his contract with the French people until the electorate overwhelmingly showed him the red card.

 

In Britain, Margaret Thatcher continued to stand and win as General Election Candidate for the Conservative Party, and even went as far as saying she would “go on and on and on” when journalists quizzed her on how much longer she would keep renewing the premiership. In the end, the so-called “Iron Lady” was booted out, not so much by an election in which opponents and detractors disapproved of her; but by members of her own party, beginning with the Deputy Prime Minister, Geoffrey Howe. In the United States of America, President George Walker Bush left power only after serving his two maximum terms as allowed by the country`s constitution. His father George Bush senior who had been President before him, left power only because he lost his own second and final mandate.

 

That is not all. Leaders who serve terms which are not limited but who could nevertheless have stepped down in favour of someone else if they wanted to, generally do not do so. They hang on to power despite age and illness. Examples include the Catholic Pope and the Queen of Britain, to name a few. In fact, very few leaders have dared to say, “Enough is enough” and voluntarily stood down like South African President Nelson Mandela did. But then again, as the current President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma once said, “You can`t have a thousand Mandelas”.

 

We can now understand why Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has not quit his job. We can understand why Cameroon Social Democratic Front (SDF) National Chairman John Fru Ndi has not given up his portfolio to someone else, despite being in the saddle for over twenty years. We can equally understand why Cameroon`s President Paul Biya rejected calls from some quarters and stood for another seven year term last year.

 

Everything said and done it is not enough to wish that a ruler leaves power. It is easier said than done. For that to happen, the ruler must be personally convinced about the move. Come to think of it, handing over power implies huge losses such as financial comfort and social standing, fringe benefits and many more. That is why the decision to go is always a painful one, if at all it is taken. One argument commonly used as a reason to cling to power is that it is ones constitutional right to choose to go or not to go, as long as the constitution as it is, allows them to run for the post. But then again, the rules of the game of politics are often too complex to be comprehended, let alone applied.

_________________________________________________

Footnote

This paper was first broadcast on Foundation Radio (The Voice of the Voiceless), FM 100 in Ngomgham-Mankon, North West Region of Cameroon on the 24^th of August 2012. The Radio is one of the subsidiaries of The Fomunyoh Foundation (TFF) which is headquartered in the United States of America.