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.