Bamenda University Professor assassinated!

Cameroon People: Email: edevnewspaper@gmail.com/ francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel:+237696896001/ +237678401408/+237667169106

Tanjong Martin and the transformation of Tuba Municipality

Transformation of Tubah Municipality into a city well on course

Many readers may not be familiar with the name Tubah on the National Triangle called Cameroon. It is rather names like Bambili or Bambui that stirs a cord in the minds of many Cameroonians. However, Bambili and Bambui are simply segments of a bigger entity called Tubah which happens to be the municipality that houses these two well known places. 

With the very elevated status that Tubah has especially due to its educational prowess thanks to the presence of academic institutions like the legendary Cameroon College of Arts Science and Technology; CCAST Bambili, the Higher Teachers Training College known in its French abbreviation as ENS Bambili, The Saint Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary Bambui and now the University of Bamenda located in Bambili, the SDF Mayor Tanjong Martin since his election took a determined stand to transform the municipality in other domains as well.

The Tubah Municipality has therefore through this community developer seen a reasonable degree of dis-enclavement. A network of earth roads has been opened in areas hitherto impassable. This has been accompanied by the expansion of construction projects that would normally accompany new roads. The influx of university students adding onto the already bustling municipality has only come to further push Tubah towards the dream that Mayor Tanjong Martin has for it. Sometimes getting it from the horse’s mouth is better. Let’s hear him.

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 “With the coming of Ghost Towns that started in 2016, it was very difficult to realise many of our projects. I feared when the year began but I ended up realizing 90% of my ear marked projects. As I stand here, I am proud that my council does not owe salaries to its workers. In the development of my municipality much has been done. If you move round my municipality you will notice that there are no plastic papers around. Last summer holidays I recruited 125 students who brought 550 Kilograms of plastic paper bags. That’s what we are using now and converting into bricks for building.

My plans for 2017 were covered and I and my councilors took cognizance of the fact that the roads we started bulldozing in 2014 were getting old 4 years on and one of our aims in 2018 has been to put these roads back in their original state.

Tubah is transforming from a big village to a town. In order to transform Tubah from a Sub Division to a modern city like I promised to do, there are some things that must be done. When I took over on the 29th of November 2013, before the 15th of December I was already opening up new roads. I had to open roads in the whole municipality not only in Bambili. With the presence of the University, this was needed to open up the area to facilitate movement in Bambili. This past year we constructed classrooms and provision of electricity to about a third of the municipality. We did it in Kejomkeku, Kejomketungo, Bambili and Bambui though that of Bambili is not entirely concluded. We keep on subsidizing water organisations like that of Bambui and providing materials like pipes and other accessories that help in the continuous provision of water. My main objective for 2018 was that all roads were to be brought back to normal.”

Les Gens Du Cameroun/ Cameroon People:Email: edevnewspaper@gmail.com:Tel:+237696896001/+237696594138/+237678401408/+237667169106

Dr. Mbah Richard: Cameroonian Health Personalities

Dr. Mbah Richard is a 53 year old Cameroonian Medical Doctor who was trained in the Cameroonian Medical School referred to at the time as CUSS (University Center for Health Sciences) in Yaounde. He worked with the Cameroon Ministry of Public Health for twenty years in a series of Public Hospitals before retiring from the Public Sector. He was subsequently employed as Deputy Medical Coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontier Cameroon where he worked for a year. When he quit his employers, Dr. Mbah threw his efforts behind the Care Center Clinic in Bambalang in the Ngoketunja Division. According to the medical personality, his present efforts are now focused on providing quality Health Services to the community where he hails from and to Cameroonians at large.

Dr Mbah Richard

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Initiatives…..

Bambalang Care Center Clinic

“We have carried out 300 successful surgical operations in two years”

“The hospital is situated in Bambalang, one of the villages around Ndop, Capital of Ngoketunja Division in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. It started functioning in July 2015. The services that we offer to the populations range from Mother and Child Care where Preventive Vaccinations and deliveries are offered. We also have Medical and Paramedical Services like surgery. For these two years we have carried out 300 successful operations at Care Center Clinic. We equally have a very good laboratory where we carry out blood transfusions also. We have the Ultra Sound or Imagery Department. Now, we are mainly operating with Ultra Sound normally called Ecography. We also have the Dental Department including other basic health services like internal Medicine, Pediatric services, gynecology, and obstetrics amongst others.

Care Center Clinic is certainly one of the high points on the health service landscape in Ngoketunja Division. How do patients get here?

It depends on where you are. If you are in Bamenda you simply need to take a car to Ndop but just before Ndop you stop at a popular place called Bamali Junction. From here you can use all the available means of transport at the junction to get to the Bambalang Care Center Clinic. If you are from Kumbo or from Bui or anywhere beyond that, you simply shuttle to Ndop and a little bit after Ndop you stop at Bamale Junction and get to Bambalang Care Center Clinic from there. There is equally another road to the Bambalang Care Clinic from Ndop which cuts through the rice farms depending on whether the earth road is dry or wet.

How convenient is Bambalang for a sick person seeking comfort and quality treatment?

Bambalang has a very conducive climate because of its moderate nature. It’s neither too hot nor too cold and provides the best sort of climate for patients. You have very good and modern buildings all around and even lodging facilities in the form of inns. The Care center has a good number of beds for patients in the wards which are spacious and lodging in Bambalang is not a problem for visitors. Bambalang has a temperate climate. We strive to give holistic care to those who seek our services. We provide care for the body, spirit and soul. That’s why there is the spiritual component whereby we have   morning devotions. If you have faith then you will be healed. We are however still looking forward to adding services that are not yet in place like in the Emergency Department. We are working towards having a medicalised ambulance which will be the ideal way to take care of emergency issues. However, our roads are not bad and when emergency cases occur we can give advice on what has to be done on the spot before the patient is transported to our outfit.

You certainly want to reach out to stakeholders in the sector and maybe put across a message on how to encourage practices that can provide a much more hopeful future?

I want to give my assurance with regards to the genuine quality of our drugs here. We have suppliers recognised by the Cameroon Ministry of Public Health and so there is that guarantee for safety. It is simply a question of attitude and I call on stakeholders to have the correct attitude. I have been in practice for 20 years and I think I have the wherewithal to effectively solve health problems of Cameroonians and to contribute towards pushing the health sector in Cameroon forward. 

Edev Newspaper: Email: edevnewspaper@gmail.com/ francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel:+237678401408/ +237696896001/ +237667169106

People behind Initiatives in Cameroon: Ngufor Peter

Les Gens derrière les initiatives au Cameroun

Peter Ngufor: CEO Farmers’ House

Un opérateur économique, le PDG du groupe d'agriculture intégrée, IFG, et le

 directeur général de la Farmers House, Mile 3, Nkwen à Bamenda. Cet élite et

 bâtisseur de la nations de la région du Nord-Ouest a une incidence directe sur la 

qualité de vie des Camerounais en sa qualité de directeur général de Farmer’s House

 et en tant qu’homme politique et membre et poids lourd du Parti RDPC.

Farmers House Co Ltd est l'une des plus grandes multi-industries au Cameroun. Il s'agit

 des principaux fabricants et exportateurs de produits alimentaires de la meilleure 

qualité pour la consommation. Avec des produits certifiés par l’équipe du service

 d’inspection Kosher du Orthodox Union, (OU), l’ISO, etc., afin de garantir que les 

produits proposés à la société respectent les normes et qualités requises, le succès

 de Farmer’s House n’est pas surprenant.

 Peter Ngufor: CEO
Farmers’ House

An economic operator, the CEO of the Integrated Farming Group, IFG, and the Director General of the Farmers House, Mile 3, Nkwen in Bamenda. This elite and nation builder from the Northwest Region directly impacts on the quality of lives of Cameroonians in his capacity as the Director General of Farmer’s House and as a politician and CPDM bigwig.

Ngufor Peter

Farmers House Co ltd is one of the largest multi-industries in Cameroon. It is the leading manufacturers and exporters of food stuffs of best grade and quality for consumption. With products certified by the Orthodox Union (OU) Kosher Inspection Service Team, the I S O etc, to ensure that, the products offered to society are of required grades and standards, the success of Farmer’s House comes as no surprise.

 Farmer’s House Co Ltd started as a cooperative society where many farmers of the region brought their produce together and sold to the population in bulk. With the passage of time they grew larger with the coming of new members. This encouraged them to take the lead of exportation of their produce. Later on when the cooperative society was subsidized, it grew bigger and went into the production of some semi-finished products and a variety of finished products. This was easier because the raw materials were provided only by the farmers themselves. With the coming together of these Farmers, the cooperative society was therefore transformed into a multi-purpose company where varieties of goods are manufactured.

Encounters with Peter Ngufor…..

 Peter Ngufor in one of the many times that he has spoken to the media said in a publication on CamerounWeb in his capacity as a CPDM Politician that “before President Paul Biya, who doubles as the National Chairman of the CPDM party came to Bamenda, for the 50th Anniversary of the Armed Forces in 2010, it was wild talk everywhere that the whole of Northwest was an opposition bastion. Going back a little, we convened several meetings here in my office with key elite like; late Christopher Nsahlai, Dr. Ngwafor, Zacheus Fornjindam, Patrick Akwa Kum and me, on how to handle the President’s visit.

As you know, it has been close to 20 years that he had not visited Bamenda. But before then, ahead of the 2007 Legislative and Municipal elections, the CPDM party was quaking and being afraid of losing the lone Parliamentary seat, that of late Hon. Fon Doh Gah Gwanyim of Balikumbat. I suggested that the idea of CPDM always imposing candidates is what has been preventing the party from winning elections.

The idea was bought by the “think tank of five” that we organised. That is how we won nine Parliamentary seats for the first time in several years. After this election, few of the MPs came to me to say; Papa, thank you. I told them to go back, reconcile and thank the people.”

Talking about the preparation geared towards welcoming of President Biya during the 50th Anniversary of the Armed Forces, Ngufor said he organised top meetings at his late wife’s restaurant with Hon. Achidi Achu and others to press on Biya to honour the Northwest with a civilian reception.

Because, it would appear that Biya was to finish with the celebrations of the Armed Forces at the Bamenda Airport and take off for Yaounde same day. This pressure paid-off and President Biya accepted to be given a civic reception at the Bamenda Grandstand where he declared the creation of the University of Bamenda, UBa, the development of Menchum Fall, the commencement of work on the Ring Road , the Referral Hospital and more.

“When I sit and watch university students march past the grandstand every time I have the opportunity to be there, I clap extra because we fought for this. The massive turnout proved those who used to trade the Northwest for their personal gains were wrong.

The Head of State discovered that those who used to tell him those lies were ashamed. During his additional days here, the Head of State received and embraced the SDF National Chairman, John Fru Ndi, to prove to those who were painting a very bad picture of this man and the Region.

These were people who were buying and selling the Northwest Region. To me, Biya and Fru Ndi are politicians who are working for the good of this country. If the CPDM is at the centre of events today in Cameroon, who knows what will happen tomorrow, another political party might take over? So, we must not kill ourselves. We should learn from the British and American democracies. If my idea is bought by most people, it should be praised.”

Still thanks to this publication on CamerounWeb Peter Ngufor ventured into his activities as an economic operator in the following manner:

“the IFG maize transformation industry was created some 13 years ago to help the unemployed graduates or jobseekers and ultilise the resources, like maize which is a stable foodstuff and raw material for breweries.

An agro-industry and as a development project, Ngufor explained, the IFG was installed with the factory at Mile 6 Nkwen and opened farms in Ntem Valley in Mbaw Plains, as well as obtained loans, all in a bid to transform maize, but after two years, the company was bugged down and could not produce 20 tons of maize that was needed by the brewing companies.

When the Ministry of Regional Development, MINEPAT, created a body known as AGROPOLE to sign partnerships with industries in Cameroon, Ngufor went in body-and-soul.

“This AGROPOLE under MINEPAT promised to subsidise IFG with FCFA 640 million and we signed this convention in 2012 with the Minister. I thought heaven had come to rescue jobless Cameroonians.

But up till today, nothing is being mentioned anywhere and what baffles me is that there are representatives of MINEPAT and MINAGRI and when they pass around, they pretend not to know what is happening. It is shocking that they have the wrong notion that IFG belongs to Peter Ngufor. It is not Ngufor’s headache. No, it’s our headache.”

According to this elite, the company belongs to the Northwest, first, and Cameroons, as a whole. “If it were Ngufor and family, we could not have been talking about it here. There are authorities that have visited IFG and seen the factory machines still quite new, they have never been used and if we (IFG) are not qualified, who else? Resources are there and are squandered for what does not make sense”

Ngufor, however, expressed the wish to see the Government act fast and help rescue IFG as they have “massively intervened in the cases of the Upper Nun Valley Development Authority UNVDA, Ndop rice factory, MIDENO, GP-DERUDEP and now Livestock Project known as LIFEDED. To Ngufor, the solution to IFG is with Biya’s lieutenants not Biya himself.

We have proven at the Farmers House where I am at the head that we can handle money better than these civil servants. Look at the successes of the Farmers House when and wherever I go, I find farmers rushing to give me what they have harvested from the highly improved or hybrid maize seeds we have been able to produce and market beyond Cameroon. That is a thing that gives me satisfaction,” Ngufor stated.

He said Cameroon cannot boast of food self sufficiency because most people in right places are doing wrong things. “Agriculture to us in Cameroon is to hold very long seminars in hotels. No, that is not agriculture, we are supposed to be in the field not in seminars, jumping from one workshop to the next,” Ngufor lamented.

As concerns mechanised or second generation agriculture, Ngufor is of the opinion that the Government should fulfil the promises she made in Ebolowa of creating an Agricultural Bank to save farmers or those engaging in agriculture from suffocating under very high interest rates from commercial banks or credit unions.

While recalling that some time ago, Government went all out to sell bonds so as to pump money into agriculture, Ngufor says, up till date, there is no trace anywhere that the billions envisaged have gone to the agricultural sector.

“Let them tell me one project that has been sponsored or subsidised? Here, at IFG, we still have brand new industrial transformation machines, manpower and, what have you, wasting. Let Government do something so that we can emerge before 2035 as President Biya wishes,” Ngufor appealed.

Much more recently in an interview by Francis Ekongang Nzante Lenjo, Publisher of Edev Newspaper, Nchong Chrisantus of The Horizon Newspaper and Jeff Kinsam of The Info Newspaper Ngufor Peter reacted to the sociopolitical crises in Cameroon in the following manner:

 “I believed in the Musonge commission created by President Paul Biya and I expected it to have gone into the field to touch on the problems of the nation not only in the two Anglophone Regions but should have gone all over the country to find out problems disturbing the country because we are not the only ones having problems. The other Regions have problems peculiar to them. We thought that one year after its creation; the commission should have been coming out with concrete results. Let the Musonge Commission be given a chance. Let them work and let them fulfill their mandate and all the problems will be solved.”

Quizzed on the Head of State’s declaration that dialogue was already going on, Ngufor Peter said “it is true that certain things have been done but the solutions to the teachers’ and lawyers’ problems do not provide a solution to the Anglophone problem. They should go a little bit further and that commission should have sorted out these problems and provided lasting solutions to them.”

Commenting generally on the Head of State’s Speech at the end of 2017, he said “it was quite elaborate and interesting but I think he should have hammered a little bit more on the commission he created; that’s the Musonge Commission. I think he should have gone to the extent of solidifying that commission by causing it to be inscribed in the constitution of Cameroon. I don’t know why he did not do that. It’s exactly one year old and they have not been to the field. All they have done is go to some offices in Yaounde to find out whether both English and French are spoken there. That’s not the reason why the commission was created. Till today that commission remains very important and should have resolved that problem of dialogue”. 

Cameroon People: Email: edevnewspaper@gmail.com/ francoeko@gmail.com/Tel: +237696896001/+237678401408/+237667169106