CAMEROON COMMUNITY DEVELOPERS

At its creation, Bamenda II Council was like a girl who gives birth to her first child.

-Balick Awa Fidelis

Bamenda II Council Hall

Almost everything about Bamenda II has your imprint and we are of the opinion that you are the Alpha and Omega of the Municipality. What has been your inspiration?

You refer to me as the Alpha and the Omega of the municipality but I will beg to differ because the Alpha and Omega is no other person than the Almighty God. I cannot arrogate to myself those very powerful descriptions. One can never do anything alone so in effect I am not the Alpha and Omega but we are the Alpha and Omega of Bamenda II. It is not Balick but it is“we” because it is not Balick alone who has made things possible. I work with very powerful stakeholders and very intelligent young men and women who are in the Council and the community at large. I got into community work during my childhood in the days of the Teacher Training College. I saw a lot of things being done around and I thought I should contribute my quota to the community, participating in everything that the community was doing.

What are those avenues that you have used to serve humanity?

 Initially I became the Ward Chairman for Ntarikon West Ward of the SDF for quite a long time. From there I got elected into the Board of Azire Cooperative Credit Union but before that I had been elected as Chairman of the Ngomgham Catholic Church Mission Station. This Mission Station was eventually raised to the status of a Parish and I became the Parish Council Chairman after elections. After my two terms of office, veteran Arch Bishop Paul Verdzekof felt that construction work had just started in the Parish and the person with whom he had been working was Balick and if he were to leave, then the new Rev. Father was going to face some problems so he extended my mandate and I worked with the new priest of the Immaculate Conception Parish Ngomgham till work was finished. Afterwards we embarked on constructing a church at the Alakuma Mission Station. After the third mandate I thought it was necessary to give way. Within this period I also was the Parish Works Chairman.

As a militant of the Social Democratic Front you certainly exploited certain avenues to work for the community.

I was elected the District Chairman of the Social Democratic Front SDF for the Bamenda Electoral District. When we talk of the Bamenda Electoral District, we are talking of Mankon, Bafut, Chomba, Mbattu, Nsongwa, Nkwen, Mendankwe, seven villages in all. A very large area and there is no way anyone would have succeeded in these places without working with the local communities. That is what drove me again to get down to the grassroots getting to the communities and working hand in hand with them to make sure that even in your absence things would continue. That is how I got so close, working with local communities. 

How did you find yourself at the head of Bamenda II Council?

In 2007 the President Created the Bamenda I,II and III Sub Divisions. This meant we were now going to be an independent Sub Division and that is how I found myself in Bamenda II uniquely. Luckily I was elected Mayor of the Bamenda II Council meanwhile my friend Prince Amando, may his soul rest in peace was elected Mayor of Bamenda III Council while Mr. Acho Simon was also elected Mayor of Bamenda I Council.

We understand you’ve also had a rich spell working with the Micro Finance Sector.

Yes, I also continued working as President of Azire Cooperative Credit Union AZICCUL and only stepped down after my mandate came to an end. After this I was elected President of Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union Leagues CAMCCUL. You can imagine the role of CAMCCUL in Micro Finance Development and other projects in this country. In all these positions of responsibility, working with the population was imperative. As the President of a Cooperative Credit Union, the money is not yours but the peoples’. It is the poor man’s money and so you need to work with them in all aspects in order to let them know how they have to use this money. After which you must give this money to them so they can use it in developing themselves. This, put in a nutshell propelled me to be a Community Developer.

At the head of the Bamenda II Council, what modus operandi did you have in mind?

GATE WAY INTO THE BAMENDA II PREMISES

When I was elected as Mayor of the Bamenda II Council, that Idea of working with the people did not go off my mind. It kept ringing in my mind that the only way to make people satisfied was to keep working with them. As a mayor, I was only going to be a guide or a Taxi Driver, driving the others. Just like the target of the Taxi Driver is to drive people to their destinations mine as a mayor is taking care of the people and driving them to where they want to be. This is the one road that the mayor cannot unilaterally construct alone.

Road Linking CAMCCUL Head Quarters and Merry Land Printers in Metta Quarters in Bamenda

The money first of all is not there so one must work with the people. In some cases the people themselves provide finances. Sometimes some of them give their graders, some give Front Head Loaders.

Road linking Azire Old Church Junction and the Bamenda Regional Hospital. Part of the package to build 11 roads within Bamenda II Municipality has enhanced fluidity of traffic in a hitherto crowded Municipality.

 When you see us doing what we do in Bamenda II, it’s not because we have money but because we work with the people in our communities. It is because the people themselves are willing to help develop their own communities.  The mayor being somebody who loves working with the people supervises to make sure that these things work. So from here you can see how the idea of working with the people began.

What kind of Bamenda II did you meet immediately Bamenda was segmented into three Sub Divisions?

It’s like a girl who gives birth to her first child. She’s got thousands of challenges. She wants her child to grow but she doesn’t know how to make the child grow so she learns every day. That is just what happened.
 

Road in the heart of Metta Quarters from Merry Land Printers

 When Bamenda II Sub Division was created, the council subsequently followed and we were elected, the first challenge we had was how to start. Thank God the three Sub Divisional Councils were created to work within the Bamenda Urban Council. The Government Delegate at the time, Tazong Abel Nde thought that these three councils were going to need some technical and humanitarian expertise to be able to propel it to success. Originally he transferred some of the personnel from the City Council was transferred to the three sub divisional councils. I think Bamenda II Council had 12 workers transferred from the City Council. Bamenda III Council had 9 and Bamenda I Council had 6 so these are people who had worked in the Bamenda Urban Council. They guided us.  We started with these people but the next thing was the issue of housing. How were we going to start? For my two colleagues in Nkwen and Bamenda I, they rented premises but there were some empty rooms in the Bamenda Urban Council that were handed over to Bamenda II. When we started I knew that one day we will leave. I started negotiating to get land and to get a deliberation to obtain a funding loan from FEICOM. We did obtain the loan and eventually acquired a piece of land and with God’s help we got a contractor with whom I worked and we came up with the building we have here today. We finally left the Bamenda City Council premises to this building in 2014.  

Nitop Modern Market. A laudable initiative By Balick Awa Fidelis and team

The challenges kept coming considering that Bamenda II is a very large Sub Divisional Council. It is the largest Sub Divisional Council in the Northwest Region. We need man power and we have a lot of work to be done. We are struggling and I want to believe that with the help of God if the crises abate we will find our feet on the ground. 

Nitop Modern Market under construction

Your Council is found in the Northwest Region, one of the Regions affected by the crises. Many people are skeptical about the future but permit us to source from your informed mind what you think is the best way forward for Cameroon? 

Bamenda II Council in relation to the present socio economic crises has suffered most. The 8^th of December, the famous day when a meeting was to take place in town here and “the boys” came out. The number of people who were killed all came from Bamenda II. Since then my people have been dying on a daily bases. Gun firing and all types of things are happening. Despite all, I believe there can be a way forward and the way forward is for our Head of State who in fact at this moment is the father of all Cameroonians to open his hands. It is often said in our tradition that when you beat a child you don’t send the child out of the house but you rather send him under the bed. You beat the child but incorporate the child into the family. If this kind of thing were to be done by the Head of State by opening his hand to the people and calling them to a dialogue, I want to believe the problem will be solved and things will once more pick up. So it is my humble appeal concerning the crises that there is a way forward. We should get all the parties on board no matter how small or stupid anybody may look. The Head of State can simply ask to know who they want to sit on such a platform and I think competent people abound. We will propose the names and they will sit with them and get the peace that is needed.

As an elite with many caps you certainly have a message especially at this time of the year.

I will want to wish everybody in Bamenda II, everybody of the Social Democratic Front and everybody in the Country a very prosperous and happy new year. I want to wish them a very happy birth of Christ which whom we will be receiving once more in a few days. I want to appeal that if we all want to live peacefully and happily, then there’s need for collaboration. There is need for you to look at every human being in the nature in which God created him like yourself and feel that the blood flowing out of him is the same blood that can flow out of you. If you take all of these into consideration then I want to feel that no one will be able to remove a gun to point at his brother. If we all could look at God as our creator then we will live peacefully and happily and tomorrow will be a better place for us not only in Bamenda but throughout Cameroon because I am sure our other brothers across the Mungo are not happy to see us being killed as is the case at the moment. I also appeal that though we are living in difficulties, we should at least try to pay our taxes for it is with it that we are able to provide portable water. The roads you see being tarred are done with the tax payer’s money. The health facilities and all the earth roads that you see us doing are from the tax payer’s money. I appeal therefore that they should always pay their taxes so that we use these taxes to develop their communities.

To all the medical personnel in Bamenda II, I want to appeal to them that this is a time when they have to sacrifice. I know there are so many corpses entering the hospitals and health centers on daily bases. Let them know that the sick that have been wounded should be well treated. It is time for them to show that they did not only get into that profession to make money but to serve humanity. We appeal that they should contribute their utmost to our people who are wounded.

I will not forget teachers because I am a teacher too and I know teachers are the foundation of every nation. Teachers should always understand that without them there is no nation. With this in mind, they should mould the children properly. They should continue to persevere and to do their work. Money is not all but it is necessary that a teacher should do all in order to be capable of getting books and other needs. I appeal to Government that professionals in the domains of education and health be paid in such a way that is commensurate with the services that they have been providing to humanity.

Interviewed By Francis Ekongang Nzante Lenjo  

CameroonPeople/Email:edevnewspaper@gmail.com/ francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel:+237 696896001

Cameroon's Political Activists

Financing the armed Anglophone struggle means financing death in Cameroon.

Kah Walla –CPP Boss

Kah Walla: Cameroon People's Party

Among other things, Kah Walla, Chair Person of the Cameroon People’s Party CPP and Head of the organisation “Stand up Cameroon” has cautioned those contributing towards sustaining the Armed struggle in the two English Speaking Regions of Cameroon. Financing the armed struggle she said was tantamount to financing death in Cameroon. She said a war pitching one part of the country against the other will never work. Stating that the armed struggle had obtained nothing, she stated emphatically that the armed struggle has broken down the fabric of Anglophone society. She was interviewed by Cameroon People in her Douala office.

Read on;

As one of Cameroon’s leading political leaders, what is your take on the quasi disarray that presently characterizes Cameroon’s sociopolitical landscape?

I am a Political Leader and I say so because I hear my name constantly being linked to activism. An activists and a politician are two distinct people. The definition of politics to me is providing solutions to society’s problems. It is very important to realise that when we stand up for roads, water, for people’s rights so that they are not arrested then that is politics. We should therefore not allow any body to take us into some pseudo political stance. This was seen in the way the elections in Cameroon were conducted. It was carried out as if we were in France, Sweden or somewhere else with candidates who were not addressing the issues on the ground. With candidates who allowed themselves to go into a system which they knew from the start could not allow them win Mr. Paul Biya.

What should be the focus of politics in Cameroon now?

In Cameroon it is a matter of changing the power relationship between a dictatorship and the people. There are however some good things that came out of that elections. We saw a clear enthusiasm on the part of Cameroonians which reassured some of us who had been working for change for a long time that this population in its vast majority wants change. Secondly, Cameroonians from the eight French Speaking Regions also moved to show that they were in support of change. Many English Speaking Cameroonians have always wondered whether French Speaking Cameroonians were happy with things the way they are. There was no elective activity in the two English Speaking Regions and activities in the other Regions showed that there was this need for change. Cameroonians as a whole became more aware of the fact that we are faced with a system prepared to kill us. We find ourselves in a system which cannot permit us to move. If we want to bring about change then we must go out of the system. We must go out of Mr. Paul Biya’s agenda. We cannot play the political game following only his agenda. He is a master of the calendar and of all the players. We must move ourselves out of that agenda.

What are those forces calling the shots in Cameroon’s politicking?

 

Cameroon is faced today with two extreme forces. We have the Government on the one hand which is an evil, violent, oppressive regime and has been so for 36 years. It is not a regime which picks out a specific group of people. Today its target is the Anglophone but we have seen on TV that yesterday its target was the Population of the Far North Region. Tomorrow its target may be the population of the East or even the population of the Center and South. If the regime feels threatened and wants a way out and you stand in its way, you immediately become an enemy. It doesn’t matter what part of the country you are from or what ethnic group you are from. It doesn’t matter whether you are their brother or not but if they feel that what you are doing is going to bring down their regime then they will come after you and your arrests and torture will be the outcome and they will kill if necessary.

We should know that it is not a question of fighting a war with one part of the country pitched against the other. A war pitching a part of the country against the other will never work. It must be clear that what we are fighting here is a regime which is against the people. We cannot say the end justifies the means because that is what Mr. Biya will say. Mr. Biya in his head actually believes that he and his regime are necessary to maintain the stability of Cameroon and that whatever means they need to use to stay in power is justified.

What exactly do you make of the armed Anglophone struggle?

 We are no different from what we are fighting against if we have to use the approach of “the end justifies the means.” We confuse the people. If we look at the Anglophone struggle from when it started in October 2016 when the Lawyers and the teachers started it and November 2017 when they decided to go in for an armed struggle you will agree that Anglophones got more confused. At first when somebody was killed we knew exactly who killed him. Now it isn’t the same for reasons we all know. I am not trying to equate the warring factions here. It is the oppressive regime and its marginalization of the Anglophones that lead to the rise of the armed rebellion. One thing led to the other. What I am trying to say is that the adoption of an armed approach is the wrong strategy. We have created a situation where the Government can create confusion in the minds of the people and the international community concerning the perpetrators of the ongoing violence. If somebody is kidnapped today, we will not know who kidnapped that person. Formerly we had a Government which was brutal and oppressive on its people against a people who were fighting for their rights. When the people who were fighting for their rights brought violence into it, they brought in confusion. Some people say this one is “fake amba”, this other one is “real amba” and I always ask the question; “who has the data base?” “Who is holding the information on fake amba and real amba?” Today you sit in Douala or in Yaounde and you receive threatening phone calls. Some people who want money. Who are they? We have to admit that it is the adoption of an armed strategy which has created the fertile ground for this. The armed strategy we have to admit has obtained nothing. We are no more advanced today in the fight for Anglophone rights than we were when it started. On the contrary when we were in a non violent fight, the Government had at least come to the table even if we were not satisfied.

True that it was the arrests of peaceful protestors and cutting of the internet that resulted into the armed struggle but that armed struggle has not achieved anything. On the contrary, when the people took up arms, the government instead stepped up its violence and repression. Remember that before the armed struggle, no village was burnt in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. It is the taking up of arms which allowed the Government to feel that it was justified to carry out the burning of villages. Before the armed struggle we never had a situation where groups of young men were just found lying somewhere dead having been shot by we don’t know who. We did not have the kidnappings which are occurring at a terrible rate. The armed struggle has broken down the fabric of Anglophone society. We have broken down the Economy. Some say we want to make the region ungovernable. “Ungovernable for who?” Mr Biya was never governing there and he didn’t care whether those areas are governed or not. When we bring CDC to a stop, who is working in CDC? Who are feeding their families through working in CDC? We have penalized the very population for whom we say we are fighting.

Some NGOs including yours have been doing quite much out there. What actually is being done? 

The situation has left many displaced people living under very vulnerable conditions. We have those who are arrested and living in prison under very horrible conditions. The arrests are still going on and we have about a thousand people mostly young men and a few girls in there who are arrested throughout the national territory. We have the Internally Displaced People. I don’t have the recent figures but we have about half a million perhaps getting close to 700.000 range of internally displaced. We equally have over 50.000 refugees in Nigeria. These are the effects of this armed conflict. When the peaceful protests became violent, the Government used it as an excuse to increase its violence on people and we now have the results before us.

At the level of Stand Up for Cameroon, we have been drawing attention nationally and internationally to what is going on in Cameroon. One of the things we have done as mothers of the nation is that we took women, a vast majority of them from the French Speaking Regions to go to the conflict regions and see what is happening. Those women were so extremely touched and they brought in their support and those women today are the ones insisting on the March on Yaounde because what they saw in the Northwest and Southwest is unacceptable. We have been bringing material and psychological support and moral support, helping the people to organise themselves and continue to demand for their rights. Right now we are collecting donations in kind and in cash to be able to help people to have a normal festive period as we move into the New Year. We are also monitoring what is being done by the International Agencies. What they are claiming to be doing and what they are actually doing. For those who are in jail, we are also providing support especially during this period. You know that jail in Cameroon is money. You need money to be able to take a bath and have a clean cell. We are providing financial support. Today you hardly hear anybody talking about Mancho Bibixy,Terrence Pen and a host of others who are still there. We want to provide some support to them and their families because it is going to be very difficult for their families during this period without these people who for the most part are the bread winners.

A growing worry is the fact that some NGOs and organisations are actually enriching themselves from the situation while pretending to be taking care of humanitarian needs.

The terrible thing about war which many people do not realise is that there is a “War Economy”. War lasts as long as it does because there are people who manage to profit from it. We have to be clear about this. If the situation in the Northwest and Southwest is lasting this long, it is because within government there are culprits who have been benefitting from the sales of arms, profiting from the fact that they inflate bills to take care of soldiers who are on the field and definitely profiting from the humanitarian aid which was supposed to be 12 Billion Francs CFA. Any of us who’ve been to the Northwest and Southwest Regions will bear with me that there is no evidence of 12 Billion Francs having been spent on Internally Displaced People there. We visited IDPs here in Douala who had been noted down on paper as receiving that money. What we found out were people from families of 5 or 7 who received only one mattress. A family of five to seven people was sharing a bag of rice with five other families. This can’t even feed a family for one day.

We also draw attention to the fact that there are some who have made astronomical amounts of money from this situation. If people are collecting money then they have to be capable of justifying that money. We also caution those who are donating money. We have credible organisations on the ground and I don’t think money should be given to anybody except to those who are on the ground. We know organisations on the ground like that of Barrister Agbor Balla who is helping those who are in prison. We know of the Ayah Foundation that is helping the IDPs and the refugees. We know an organisation such as Stand Up for Cameroon which is on the political front so let us not hand out money to people without knowing what the money is being used for.

We also caution those who are financing an armed struggle. When you finance an armed struggle then you are financing death in Cameroon. People say they are fighting government but we can count the number of government soldiers who have died as compared to the numerous innocent civilians who have been killed ruthlessly.

 Many Cameroonians who looked up to the struggle now believe that it is taking them down the drain. The Government according to them provides no better alternative. What is your take on this?

We must continue to fight the root cause which is the Biya Regime. We do this following a non-violent approach on the bases of truth and justice. We cannot continue to run after people who have lied to us. I remember that there are people who told us on the first of October that there were UN soldiers already stationed at Ambas Bay, that ships were there and that they themselves were coming to Buea on that day. Nothing happened and people continue to follow and listen to them. We have the Biya Regime that has equally not been true to us for 36 years. Cameroonians know who hasn’t lied to them down the years. Cameroonians know those people who have spoken the truth to them throughout. Cameroon Peoples Party and Stand Up for Cameroon have always believed in and stood up for this type of Political Transition; that is non-violent and standing up for the rights of the people of Cameroon.

We have maintained our Fridays in black and we want a majority of Cameroonians to join us because at this point in time, if we see the whole of Yaounde, Douala, and Bamenda in black we are bound to ask what is happening. We want Cameroonians to join us when we are coming out for a march or for a sit in. You cannot sit home and think things are going to change without action. People should know that action takes place not in the hinterlands but in the Capital City in Yaounde. The people we are trying to influence are in Yaounde and everything we do must take place there in front of them. After the elections, many people said Madame Kah Walla was right. It is not enough to be right. I want to have change. If you think I was right then join us.

Among the twenty Political Parties that supported the candidacy of President Paul Biya, yours was indicated to be among them..

There is nowhere in the world except we want to invent it where leaders of political parties are appointed. Even inside the party, they are elected. It is complete absurdity and heresy to think that somebody will be appointed by someone who is outside that political party and who belongs to another political party. It is only in Cameroon that we can see such madness.  Mr. Tita Fon used to be a member of the CPP and founded the CPP and has been a faithful member from 2011 when he handed the reins of the party to me. He has been a member of the party and was at the congress when I was elected.

So how come the minister invited him as Chairperson of your party?

Mr Atanga Nji, the Minister of Territorial Administration has a complete confusion in his mind between his job as Minister of Territorial Administration and his role as a militant of the CPDM Party. He confuses the two roles all the time. He was the primary person arranging for the support of the twenty parties that supported the CPDM. That is why we say, you cannot go to elections with this kind of people. This is a man who is supposed to supervise elections busily arranging with political parties to support a candidate. How then will he be able to supervise elections? He did it and gave people money. The Biya regime is amazing in the way it pushes Cameroonians to extreme levels of poverty and then comes back with a few pennies telling you to come and join in against its adversaries. So the same person who put you in a dire state of poverty now comes with a few francs calling you to join him. Unfortunately we have a few people who will still fall for that. I am very sad to see Mr Tita Fon fall in this kind of thing. This is an elderly man from the Northwest Region of Cameroon like me. This is somebody who had the courage in 2011 to transfer power within his party. He has done very good things during his life time and it is very unfortunate that at this time in his life, he should be betraying himself as a person, betraying his region as an Anglophone, and betraying his country Cameroon. However, the party is going on with its activities and going on with a sole purpose of meeting up with its objectives.

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