Professor Paul Nchoji Nkwi, Anthropologist, University lecturer and member of Cameroon Constitutional Council

The Regime in Cameroon has outlived its lifespan!

Paul Nchoji Nkwi has been a professor of African Anthropology at the University of Yaounde I, the Catholic University of Central Africa, and the St Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary in Bambui. Professor Nchoji Nkwi, has a whole lot of achievements to his name. He was the founding President of the Pan-African Anthropological Association (1989-1994). In 1973, he won the Frobenius Essay Award and he has equally been Vice President of the African Academy of Science. In politics, he has served as the Policy Adviser of the Social Democratic Front (SDF).

Cameroon People caught up with Professor Paul Nchoji Nkwi shortly before his appointment by President Paul Biya alongside 10 others from the ten Regions of Cameroon as a member of the Cameroon Constitutional Council. In addition to the multiple activities that the professor is involved in, he also teaches at the Catholic University of Cameroon in Bamenda. The professor in this interview states that the regime in Cameroon has outlived its lifespan and that in social history most regimes nose dive after a generation. He begins this interview by taking a look at 2017.
“I think 2017 was a tumultuous year at least among us from the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon. The Pandora’s Box virtually exposed some of the deep seated problems that we have lived through during the last fifty something years. It was the hope of many that the first six months would lead to a Constructive Inclusive Dialogue permitting all of us to seat around the table and talk about those basic problems of the country called Cameroon. This would have given us an opportunity to talk about the things that divide us as well as those that unite us. The real dialogue that should have occurred has not occurred.”





The President of the Republic is of the opinion that dialogue has already started and that he has been having useful feedback from the Commission of Bilingualism and multiculturalism that he created.

To begin with the Commission on Bilingualism, it is a farce. It is a hoax and it cannot solve the problem. That commission is an attempt to divert attention from the Anglophone problem to something which we do not need at this present moment in time. You cannot believe under any circumstance that there is dialogue simply because you send Mr. X to talk to Mr. B or whatever. That is not dialogue. It is a process that involves the collection of additional information to prepare your dialogue. The Prime Minister came, the ministers came sat around the table with all the stakeholders especially the teachers. The ministers were that of Justice and that of Education and they simply sat with these people in some sort of a fact finding mission. They simply came and talked to groups of persons and it was a fact finding mission to create grounds for a constructive and inclusive dialogue.




Many said 2018 was going to be a very difficult year. Are facts on the ground proving them true?

Let’s say that 2017 was a difficult year. Firstly most of our children stayed out of school. For parents to deny education for their children is terrible. So for parents or a group of parents to deny education for their children simply mean that they don’t think the existing set up can give their children the kind of education they need. There is no need churning out children from school without that quality knowledge and with little chances of them finding their feet on the ground. Many of our graduates are without jobs. Many of the bike riders in this town have degrees in their pockets. It means that the system has slowly collapsed to an extent where you need to bribe to go to professional school, you bribe to get elected. That is the system we find ourselves in. Take for example during the negotiations in its early stages that people drove up from Yaounde to talk with teachers and they tried to bribe them. If those teachers leaders were not morally grounded then these crises might have taken a different turn. The second thing is what none of us understands. Prime Minister Philemon Yang came here and the Ministers of Education came here and they sat and talked and agreed first on 19 points. They eventually prepared a document of 25 points. They were supposed to sign that document on a Wednesday and all those people were arrested on a Tuesday. Even if you call a dialogue today I will not come because I will also be afraid of being arrested. I think that one of the dramatic things that occurred at the end of 2017 was the failure of the Head of State to come out and tell people that I am sorry let us come together and talk as a family. Everybody was expecting this message but what did we hear?

What exactly did we hear?

The President is more preoccupied with his re-election and probably preoccupied with the reelection of those who have brought this country to its knees. And that is why he says it’s an election year. Is he telling those Cameroonians who were on the streets to come out and vote?

With the realities on the ground do you think the chances of dialogue have completely collapsed? What do you foresee for Cameroon in 2018?

To begin with, dialogue has never started in Cameroon so dialogue did not collapse. What I see is the clamour for dialogue and I can say 80% of Cameroonians in the Northwest and Southwest Regions are in favour of dialogue that is inclusive and that opens the floor for us to explore what our problems are all about. They have rather told us that if you want to come to the table expecting that you will bring change to the nature of the state, then nothing will take place. The 80% that are in favour of dialogue have been pushed to the next possible move; that of civil disobedience. You cannot tell us to go to school and we go. We are not going to do anything that you tell us to do.  Take what happened in Tardu in Kumbo a few days ago and it has happened in many other places. They go into villages, brutalise innocent people, burn their houses and burn down their agricultural reserves. A person who has been virtually humiliated in this manner will hardly come to the dialogue table. The arrogance of those people against the church is absolutely the arrogance against God. Any regime that goes against God is digging its own grave. In the Democratic Republic of Congo the only way for Christians to demonstrate their anger is with their Rosaries praying in the streets. Is that what we want? The people who govern have forgotten one basic thing; that most regimes dictatorial or not usually have a life span of a generation and after that, they begin to nose dive and it may ultimately end in chaos. The Regime in Cameroon has outlived its lifespan. Those are realities in Social History. Take for example the Soviet Union which collapsed. The so called Soviet Union that assembled many nations and Russia was just one of them collapsed. The same thing occurred in Yugoslavia. Tito did everything to maintain his grip but failed and it broke into six different nations. It takes about 30 years and if Paul Biya had good advisers they should have told him that. If he left ten years ago probably he would be a happier person. The chaos and need to rethink the nature of the State in Cameroon is unstoppable.  You can go to Nigeria, catch people and lock them up, but you are merely igniting the process.

Recently, Christian Cardinal Tumi and Arch Bishop Samuel Khleda called on Biya not to participate in any future elective exercise in Cameroon. What would you say to the President if you had a similar chance? 

My message will be the same. I will toe the Tumi line or the Khleda line. Time is up for the President to run and let us not chase him out. Let him willingly walk out but if he doesn’t work out he will be chased out. Where is Mugabe? He is happily retired. A new way of thinking and forces of violence are an indication that it is time for him to bow out. Take for example if it is true that soldiers in the army are deserting; you pick up soldiers from Yaounde to Mamfe and when you reach Kumba some disappear. Some get to Mamfe and disappear. Why? Do you remember that Indira Ghandi was shot by his own body guards at the end of a long line of the Ghandi family? The person who was supposed to protect him removed the gun and simply shot him. Imagine the guy who stole the brief case with money. That was his own way of saying “Pa I have been seeing you siphoning this money so let me take this.” It can get to a state where there is a revolt. He has served this country as Prime Minister, Head of State and it is time for him to quit and give other deserving sons and daughters of our country an opportunity to create a new sense of leadership.

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-Nformi Stephen Njodzeka Ndzerem

 SHUMAS integrated Bio-Farm is the only centre with four components of renewable energy all in one place.

Stephen Njodzeka Ndzerem is the President General of SHUMAS; Strategic Humanitarian Services and the President General of the Nso Development Association NSODA. He hails from Bui Division specifically from Kumbo and has been the President of the Nso Cultural and Development Association for the last five years. SHUMAS, one of the most impacting NGOs in Cameroon is an organisation that he personally set on the ground about 20 years ago. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante Lenjo.

In what domains have you been intervening with SHUMAS?

SHUMAS is a development Non Governmental Organisation that focuses on Integrated Sustainable Rural Development and on helping the urban poor. In order to propel us to reach everybody and a majority of people in the poor rural Communities and poor urban areas we have eight programmes. Firstly, there is Agriculture. In this domain we have the SHUMAS Bio-Farm and Renewable Technical Centre which is located in Kumbo where we train youths, women farming groups and admit students from all over the country and from different universities; University of Dschang, Ngoundere, Bamenda and all other Universities around the country and some out of the country. We admit them to do their internships at the SHUMAS Bio-Farm. At the Bio-Farm we have three types of trainings.

Tell us about your training programmes..

 First there is a two year programme where we train youth as professional farmers who can actually earn something and who can come out of their projects and set up their own training and become employers rather than going round looking for employment. The centre started about ten years ago and we have trained so many of them and I must also indicate that this 2-year programme is executed in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and of Livestock through the programme called AFOP and training actually is subsidized by the Government. Those at the Centre are given some assistance everyday for their feeding and those who finally graduate and write their projects receive about 1.5 Million Francs CFA to benefit from this project. The importance we attach to it is because of the huge potential that Agriculture has to actually kick poverty out of this country. The programme has been going since 2011 and lots of students have graduated and we have settled about 80 of them already. Our catchment area actually covers the Noun Division, Mezam, Ngoketunja, Bui and Donga Mantung Divisions. We also have the ten-month programme for those who cannot afford to come for a longer period. After training we do support them and here they have a registration of 10.000 Francs CFA. Training too is free but they provide for their feeding and we also provide them with plots where they cultivate what they will consume during training. After the training, we give them between a hundred and three hundred thousand Francs CFA. At the moment we are recruiting for the ten months because we are already finished with those for two years of training so there is still an opportunity for those who want to come to the centre. Another form of training is the short training course. These are specific tailored trainings in which people sometimes come in to get training on Bio gas systems, Renewable Energy or other specific trainings like on pigs and sheep. We receive about two hundred students on internship every year from different parts of the country and from outside the country who come to do their internship. We also have lots of study visitors who come to simply see what is there. The SHUMAS integrated Bio-Farm is the only centre in the world which has four components of renewable energy all in one place. We have the wind energy, solar energy, hydro energy and energy from the Bio-Gaz. Here we organise training in June when we train people on renewable energy with some of our experts from Spain and Switzerland.


Out of Agriculture, what other programmes are you involved in?

Education also comprises a very important aspect of our activities. It comprises about 70 to 80% of our budget. We construct and equip schools, from government schools, Baptist schools, Presbyterian and Catholic schools all over the country but we give preference to Government Schools and every year we construct about 80 classrooms around the country. Presently we have constructed over 800 classrooms in all the ten Regions of the country. We give preference to the Northwest Region and even more preference to Bui Division because while growing in Bui Division I saw the poverty that encouraged me to create SHUMAS so I feel that duty to see what I can do to change the situation.

What main school projects do you have in Bui?

 I must also state that in Education in Bui Division we have a good number of projects going on. We have the Government Technical College Jeibai in Djottin Noni, which just started today and the government Technical College Mbokive in Oku Sub Division which is almost completed. We also have Government School Ichim still in Oku. This year we concentrated in Oku and Noni because we have done very little in these two Sub Divisions compared to the others. We just handed in this school about a month ago in Douala. We built a laboratory and equipped it. The laboratory is worth 35 million and the Chiefs of Douala were impressed and decided to name one of the streets in Douala as Nso Street. We were very proud about it and consider it to be very good Cultural Diplomacy.

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Cameroon's Entrepreneurs and Initiatives: EM Cameroon

Thanks to EM Technology, organic farming can be done on large scale.

-David Sama Ngoh, Director of EM Cameroon

David Sama Ngoh is the Director of EM Cameroon and promoter of Organic input in Cameroon using effective micro organisms in collaboration with EM Research Organisation in Japan. EM stands for Effective Micro Organisms and was introduced into Cameroon in 2005 promoting organic agriculture both for Agricultural Production and Livestock production. They have done quite a number of tests in Cameroon and the programme has been homologated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. David Sama Ngoh had a Bachelor Degree in History from the University of Yaounde I and proceeded to Switzerland where he did a Post Graduate Programme in International Project Management in 2007. From there he moved to the UN Office in Geneva where he served for two and half years. When he discovered EM Technology, he returned to Cameroon and has been implementing it in the country for the past seven years. While in Cameroon, he went in for a second Masters Degree in International Relations at the Yaounde University I and is presently pursuing a Doctorate Degree in International Relations at the same University. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante and begins by stating how he made that first contact with EM Technology. 

What pushed you into this line of activity?

 In the year 2000 I was in Switzerland and got to see that organically produced crops were fetching a lot of money when compared to chemically produced crops. I got to know about the advantages of organically produced crops but I doubted if it was possible to produce organically on a large scale. When I was doing a Post Graduate Programme on Managing International Projects I came in contact with EM Technologies which is producing organically and on a large scale and that’s how I began EM Cameroon.

How do Cameroonians benefit from this project?

Those who really benefit from this project are the final beneficiaries. As a matter of fact EM Cameroon is collaborating with the Government that is through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development MINADER who bought on a number of occasions in 2014, 2015 and 2016 a good consignment and distributed to farmers in Cameroon. Other collaborators include GP-DERUDEP programme, a number of NGOs and CIGs and a number of individuals who buy directly either from EM Cameroon or from some of our distributors. 

How can you make those who need you get to you and how do you educate those who are yet to know your relevance? 

The Agricultural Sector in Cameroon before and after Independence has been depending on chemical input but with the advent of new technology some have come to know about EM Technology. We have been holding seminars and Training Workshops at Regional and Divisional levels. We have made quite a number of publications of Seminar Reports which we have made available to both the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and that of Livestock and Fisheries. We have been doing quite a lot but it is true the media coverage has not been quite enough. We are in a domain without a lot of financial influence with the need to get introduced to quite a number of people on the advantages of organically produced crops. The elite in our society already know about it and the less privileged ones down there seem to be doing it simply because they don’t have the means to go chemical. 

What kind of products are farmers expected to get from you?

We deal with Agricultural and Livestock Production. We have EM Compost which is the solid version made up of animal waste and a combination of micro organisms to boost the soil. We have the Foliar Fertilizer for all green crops. We have EM 5 which is for Pests and Disease Control. A combination of EM Compost, Foliar Fertilizer and EM 5 gives you a holistic solution for your agricultural needs. We also have EM for livestock which is given to animals to drink and it in turn builds the immune system. We equally have EM Bokashi which is a feed additive which we integrate into the animal feed and into EM 5 which is for Pests and Disease control. All of these will boost the immune system of the animals and mortality will be drastically dropped. You will discover that there is no odor and that the animal will grow in weight and size.

What is the quality of the vegetable that is grown using your products?

EM products have no negative effects on the human being, and the environment. With our products, you can spray the vegetable today, harvest it in the evening and even take it and consume without any negative effects like running stomachs that you experience with chemical products. This is because EM products or EM Technology is based on natural organisms. When you look at the life span of vegetables produced using EM Technology, you notice that they have a lifespan of about nine days unlike vegetable from chemical products which have a lifespan of about 5 days. Another aspect is the quality and taste of the product. That is why products from organic material are more expensive in the market. EM Products are not genetically modified and the elite in society know the value of products from organic material. Farmers know the advantages but can produce only on a small scale. Now however they can produce on a large scale if they use EM Products. Organically produced crops are not only meant for small scale subsistence farming. Thanks to EM Technology, organic farming can be done on large scale. 

Do you have any message to aspiring Cameroonian Entrepreneurs? 

Young Cameroonians have the impression that the best can only be achieved out of the country but it’s not true. Cameroon being a country in which a majority of people are found in the agricultural domain and endowed with very fertile soils has all the growth potential for any aspiring entrepreneur in the Agricultural Sector. I will like to inform the youths that Agriculture is the brain of this country. We can give counseling to any youth who wants to get into Agriculture or livestock breeding. Young Cameroonians should not only think of doing white collar jobs. When it is well done and well organised agriculture is the same like any white collar job.  

See more at www.emcameroon.com

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