Tiko maiden Inter-quarter tournaments rounds up in a flourish.

The maiden edition of the Tiko Inter-quarter tournament rounded up at the Holtford field on Saturday August 29 with Manchester United FC of Tiko clinching the coveted trophy after post match penalties against an equally formidable side Feritas Football Club of Tiko.

The tournament which brought together some sixteen teams from the nooks and crannies of the Tiko Sub Division experienced a smooth flow to its end without any major incident registered. The Lord Mayor of the Council Mokondo Daniel explained that with the help of partners like Brasseries du Cameroun, the tournament had all the financial stability and colour that such a tournament normally should have. The essence he said was to make the youth happy and from this perspective, the objectives were attained.

The tournament this year saw the participation of teams mostly from the Tiko town, Mutengene and Missellele areas. The Mayor said during the 2016 tournamentmeasures will be put in place to make sure those in the Mungo area become part of this big event which has come to stay. The goal he said is to increase the number of participating teams to between 24 and 32 teams so that it becomes highly competitive. This he explained could eventually serve as a source pool not only for players in the Regional leagues but for players in the national leagues. To buttress his point he made allusion to the case in Nigeria when as a student he saw Clement Westerhorf, the trainer of the Green Eagles of Nigeria at the time selecting Daniel Amokachi at 16 years from school games to play in the Super Eagles of Nigeria. It is no secret that Daniel Amokachi became one of the greatest talents in the history of African Football.

Further attributing the success of the tournament to the partnership with Brasseries Du Cameroun, he said this collaboration is also seen in the organisation of the annual feast of Saint Sylvester on the night of December 31^st. This event which takes place at the council premises brings together many artists and attracts the population of Tiko to the Council premises where they pass unforgettable moments as they move from one year to the next.

This initiative he hoped will bring the youths together so that they might think together and become more useful in the nation building process. The champions went home with two trophies, one from the Tiko Council and the other from The National Brewery Company. 

  

Apart from the cups and cash prizes of 400.000 FCFA and 200.000 FCFA that were dished out to the champions and vice champions respectively, other prizes dished out went to the highest goal scorer of the tournament, the Man of the March the goal keeper for the Manchester United Club in Tiko, the best player of the tournament, the champions of the various zones that took place in the tournament among many others.

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Tiko Council elected officials undergo training on roles and responsibilities

Elected officials of the Tiko Council went through a training session organised by the council to implant in them the skills needed to enable them carry out their roles and responsibilities. This took place on Tuesday August 25, 2015 in the confines of the old Tiko council premises. 

Instrumental in the realization of this initiative was the participation of facilitators from the Kumba City Council and from Buea. These facilitators according to the Lord Mayor of the Tiko Council Chief Mokondo Daniel were brought in to permit the councilors to benefit from their expertise and know how.

According to Mayor Mokondo Daniel, the raison d’être was obvious. According to him “there is no school where you train councilors or Mayors. So trainings like these are very necessary to impact in them some capacities which will make them to be capable of carrying out their assigned tasks as municipal councilors.” The mayor explained that such an initiative was even belated as it was supposed to have taken place earlier. “It is taking place only now because when we came in we met other things like the cinquentenaire and struggling to stabilize the council. I am happy that it has been successful as it has permitted them to see things that they didn’t know existed and I think it’s a worthwhile challenge.“

On specific problems that the workshop was coming to touch the mayor said no problems attracted the workshop but he hoped that it will make the councilors know better how to come up with things like the drawing an Administrative Account, managing or resolving conflicts and generally strengthening them and giving them much needed and appreciated training.   

Mayor Mokondo further said one of the most important uses of the workshop was that it would help check excesses on the part of Supervisory Authorities. “Sometimes when some issues come up, the supervisory authority draws your attention to the point of law and at times you are also pushed to see that it is not good to delve into issues which will contradict the council vis-à-vis state institutions because all of us have to work as one person to see that the development of our country moves forward.”

One of the facilitators Ekine Samuel Ossa, the Director of Administration of Finance at the Kumba City Council summarised it in the following manner: “our mission here is to help the councilors of the Tiko Municipality to understand their roles and responsibilities. The kind of councilor that I met in Tiko today is a mixed breed. There was the intelligent breed and the averagely intelligent breed but generally I think that Tiko has a good cream of councilors. Judging from councilors that we’ve met from other areas I think Tiko is up to date. The councilors are that the councilors are excited in knowing their roles and responsibilities.”

This facilitator also noted that there was too much interference from the supervisory authority. “Our role of supervision in this country is very high. Our definition of a council is that they have administrative and financial autonomy but the autonomy is not effective. I hope that after this training, the councilors will know how to manage the excesses of their Divisional Officer.”

On problems that have been identified to stand in the way this facilitator said “the supervisory authority has been noted for delays in approving decisions of the municipal councilors of Tiko. In fact there is even one where the councilors signed something from an extra ordinary session but it looks like the SDO turned it down so I think that is the main thing. The issue is sensitive because it is going to affect the population.”   

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Hon. Fritz Ngeka Etoke heeds call to stand as CPDM Section President for Fako East.

In the wake of the release of conditions guiding the re-organisational exercise within the ruling CPDM Party, Hon. Fritz Ngeka Etoke, MP for Fako East Constituency has declared his intention to aspire for the coveted post of Section President for Fako East Constituency. He was speaking on Tuesday August 25 at the Government Bilingual High School Mutengene in an occasion organised to hand over didactic materials to schools as part of his contribution towards preparation for the 2015-2016 Academic year. 

Hon. Fritz Ngeka Etoke

Earlier on, the Member of Parliament handed over the rehabilitated Dipanda Bridge still within the Tiko Municipality. “The worth of all these computer sets to some institutions accompanied by their writing materials should be about 9 million FCFA, that is the bridge and all the donations here. The aim is to help with school needs and to encourage these government establishments. We supported the police and the Gendarmes in their fight against general insecurity in the nation” the MP said.

The MP further said since he became MP he had been carrying out many activities. Explaining that his direct intentions were not politically motivated he said the donated books were done out of the country sometime ago but couldn’t be donated during Christmas when they were not needed. His decision to aspire for the post of section president he said was simply because it was the desire of his militants. “ I will however use this opportunity since you have asked me to state that my militants have asked me to stand as Section President and there is no way I can say no to my militants. It is because of them that I am Member of Parliament today and I intend to continue serving my people right to the last moment” he explained. 

Macaulay Joseph Musinga, Principal GBHS, Mutengene

Macaulay Joseph Musinga, the Principal of GBHS Mutengene, the school that hosted the occasion expressed his gratitude in glowing terms. “Through the efforts of the Honourable Member of Parliament Fritz Ngeka Etoke, we have received a lot of help. Last year he gave us scholarships close to the tune of 500.000 FCFA to fifteen under privileged and deserving students. This year he has added eight students to what he did last year bringing the number to 23. What he has done in my institution is going to act as a booster to the students who have benefitted.”

One of the beneficiaries, Chief Musenja Peter Epie of Upper Muea cum Inspector of Basic Education in Muyuka Sub Division said most of the items which had been presented to the Basic Education Family in Muyuka Sub Division were needed items like the computer. This He said these came in handy as a lot is spent on documents such as periodic reports to hierarchy. 

 

Chief Musenja Peter Epie, Basic Education Inspector, Muyuka

“This gesture by the Parliamentarian to give us a computer will go a long way to relief our suffering. The other didactic material like card board paper, pencils, chalk, erasers and realms of papers will ease the work of the inspector especially as it comes two weeks to resumption. It is so timely and will touch not only the inspector but the teachers, the people and the pupils”.

 The Gengarme official Taku Valery, speaking on behalf of his establishment said “this is the first time I saw such a gesture like this directed towards the gendarmes. Equipments like this will help us in our services because we have have so many case files and reports to make. He has really proved that he wants us to work with what he has given us.”  

Beneficiaries and some Traditional Authorities

   

Meantime, Maitre Ngome George, the Registrar in Chief of the Court of First Instance in Muyuka said he lacked words to appreciate the efforts of this young parliamentarian. He said “a lesson should be learned from what this representative of the people has done here today. The two components of the court received two computers and two realms of papers. We intend to put them to judicious use. We know Government effort can never be enough and when a young individual elected by the people decides to come in and help then we should be grateful.” 

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“Humanity has put aside the person who has to relate them to each other” -Rev. Koke Ajah Oji

Rev. Koke is the Assistant to the Senior Pastor at the Full Gospel Mission Down Hill Mbonge Road, Kumba. The congregation in which he ministers falls in Southwest 1 of the Full Gospel Mission in Cameroon and also happens to fall in District 1 of the Southwest Area. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang.

Excerpts

Rev. You have certainly put in place a couple of packages to make sure that the spiritual life of such a vast congregation remains stable.

Years back I was a sinner but the Lord through the preaching of the Gospel by somebody touched me as I heard it and I gave my life to Christ. Thus the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ saved me and since then, I have been caught up by the spirit of God which is the spirit of Grace. I started preaching the Gospel to other fellow Cameroonians. As God will work it out, one day, I was called by God to become a full time Minister. I was eventually trained in our Bible school in Bamenda at Mile 3 Nkwen after which I started my Pastoral work. In August 2014, I was sent to the Southwest Region to assist the Area Supervisor here in this prestigious congregation. Since I came here, we have by the Grace of God been working with other colleagues to see that the spiritual aspect of this church really comes up to standard. We don’t want people to be simply church goers. When people come to church we get to know them well and involve them in activities. If there is any problem in the lives of these Christians, we pray and deliver them. By the Grace of God so many people have been delivered and through this deliverance, they have a right thinking mind. In this way they can re-plan their lives and many have come back to testify.

Recently you had a retreat programme in your congregation. What is the reason behind these regular retreats?

The aim of that retreat was to revive or awaken our spirit in the things of God by coming and praying together, listening to the word of God and examining our lives to see whether we are actually working towards God. The Bible says there are two roads; the broad and the narrow. In the broad road there are many people while in the narrow road there are few selected ones. We have decided to work on this narrow part which will lead us to God. We also came together to examine whether we are actually on the narrow way. The retreat took three days at the end of which was a communion in which we remembered our Lord Jesus Christ doing the same and saying that this will always be done in remembrance of him. This event is repetitive in nature and comes up in the last week of every month on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It is done with fasting and prayer.

Despite all the laudable work of evangelists around the world, there still seem to be quite much to do. What message do you have in this regard?

As somebody called by the Lord to carry on the preaching of the Gospel, I seize this opportunity to tell my audience that you should not live without the Savior Jesus Christ and you should not be without a pastor; somebody that will direct you and show you the things of God. You should not live without a determination that you want to make it through God at all cost.

There are many who believe that the Christian world has not yet met up with its objectives. Where do you think the Christian leaders still have to catch up?

Christianity is not religiosity but about relationships. If you liken it to being religious then you miss the point. The first question you have to ask is, who you have to relate with and the first thing you have to do is to relate with God through Jesus Christ. If you have missed this point then you are a religious person but if you have related with God through Jesus then you also have to relate with other human beings. The cross is horizontal and vertical meaning that you have to relate with God and with your fellow human beings. Relating with God gives you all the spiritual strength you need to associate with your fellow human beings. The main problem we see in the world today is a question of lack of relationship because we have put aside the person who has to relate us to each other. We are struggling and some are struggling to do it with money, some with religion and some in other ways which has never worked. The bible says that Jesus Christ is the prince of peace and he himself says as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world. So when we don’t come to him we wonder around in darkness. 

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“ Traditional leaders in SW are reminding government to stick to conditions of Fumban Conference” -Chief Tanyi Robinson of Tinto Mbuh

HRH Chief Tanyi Robinson is the Traditional Ruler, authority and King of Tinto Mbuh in Manyu Division in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. He doubles as the De facto Secretary General of the Southwest Chiefs. He is equally the Secretary General of the Council of African Traditional and Native Authorities including Kings and Monarchs from Africa with Head Office in Benin. On the 27^th of June this year he was awarded by the State Department of the United States of America the 2015 Prize Award for Community Leadership. Professionally, he is a Lawyer,a forester and an erstwhile Banker. He was interviewed recently by Francis Ekongang of EDEV Web News.

Excerpts

HRH Tanyi Robinson Chief of Tinto Mbu- Manyu Division, SW, Cameroon

Let’s look at you as Royalty. That is as the Chief of Tinto Mbuh.

I got on the Royal stool in the year 2000 and I have been on it for 15 years and I have held other portfolios linked to this stool at the Sub Divisional, Divisional and Regional levels. I am as such the custodian of the Tinto Mbuh culture. At the Regional level, for the past four years I have been the Assistant Secretary General of the Southwest Chief’s Conference and I am presently on my second mandate. In this regard I work with Fitzgerald Nasako as Secretary General and then our President is Honourable Senator Nfon V.E. Mukete. Nfon Mukete is aged while Fitzgerald Nasako’s responsibilities in government keep him too busy so most of what is done by the Southwest Chief’s Conference is in my hands. 

What has been the stance of the chiefs of the Southwest with regards to the political trends in the country firstly with regards to the position of Anglophone lawyers and the way the government has been handling the Boko Haram crises in Cameroon?

I will want to talk about Boko Haram because that is strategic. When you are on a war front like Cameroon there are things that you don’t say or comment on for strategic reasons. We of the Southwest Traditional Authorities are unanimous in reminding the government of its leadership role on the Fumban Constitution that brought the two Nations together. We all know West Cameroon was a State of its own with its own legal, judicial, administrative and financial institutions. It had its own House of Assembly and had the House of Chiefs. Before the marriage with the East Cameroon at the time was introduced there were written documents so we in our position as Traditional leaders in the Southwest are simply reminding Government of the engagement that was taken that the Anglophones should not be marginalized. We took a stand on the recent quarrel that broke out between the Advocates or the Barristers and we said that we are not sending any dissenting voice like refusing as some people would say that we are for separation no. We are simply saying that there was a union and there were documents that were signed and engagements taken as gentlemen that we have always been, we just wanted to remind those who signed the documents that it is a contract and should be maintained. That’s what we are out for. We stand strongly on this issue of Bilingualism because the people feel cheated. The people in the village for example don’t know French and if you find sign posts at important points in French then it’s not meaningful. You have certain projects in parts of the Southwest and when we go there we find sign posts “interdit de traversez”. If you don’t tell the people that trucks are coming in the language that they know then you are exposing them to risks. These are the things that we as community leaders do not accept. We want to remind government that certain things may be misinterpreted and that it should be taken care of before it degenerates into something that can bring conflict let us pre-empt it. That’s why we keep harping on it. That’s our role to keep reminding them.

At the Pan African Level you also have a huge responsibility as the Secretary General of the Pan African Council of African Traditional and Native Authorities including Kings and Monarchs.

This body has its Head Quarters in Cotonou in the Republic of Benin and I think I am lucky to have been picked by my peers to be the Executive Secretary. The President is from Benin. There are two Vice Presidents; one from the West Africa, Cote D’Ivoire and one from Cameroon in the Central African Zone. We thought that there should be a council regrouping leaders from the whole continent. We realized that a lot was happening on the backyard of African leaders. There was a need for them to take the front role. They realized that what was done by the colonialists was to keep the traditional leaders in the cold and away from their people. That’s why their first actions when they came to Africa were to hunt down the leaders or the Kings at the time. He was either sent to exile if he refused to follow them or he was even killed if he put up a fight. We know of the case in Douala and other parts of the continent. The so called missionaries had as their first mission to eliminate the African leadership. This has continued with the Neo Colonialist governments that came which were put in place by them in what they considered independence in the sixties. Slowly these Governments themselves are coming to face problems within themselves and because of Democracy and with the realization that they can’t just govern without the traditional rulers. So they keep taking us forward and backwards. We thought that it’s time we bring our self to the fore-front of leading our people. This is how that sentiment came to put up an association of traditional rulers that should promote inter-cultural dialogue because once a decision is taken say in the villages, there is no room for appeal. Most of the time, it just suits the people. It doesn’t go with the hurting that comes when we take our own brother to the court. In my Kingdom when a problem is solved between two brothers, it is bearing. These are the kind of things we are bringing up encouraged by some African leaders themselves. The Late Muammar Gaddafi was very interested in bringing the traditional leaders in the fore front of leadership within communities which is a step towards African Unity. After him Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea also showed some interest and then we now thought we should sustain and push the idea all through. Formerly it died because the two of them came in with money and it was not from the stake holders themselves. So we are taking responsibility in our hands.  

The success story so far your Highness…

The success story so far is Psychological that it is overwhelmingly accepted by whoever considers himself a community leader, traditional leader or crowned authority. We are just at the starting blog and our aim is to gather as many leaders as possible. 

As Secretary General of this lofty institution, what is expected of you in terms of responsibilities?

I was Secretary General of the Committee that was set in Yaounde to give birth to this structure, since the 30^th of September 2014. In Cotonou, Benin it got transformed into the post of an executive secretary. So as an Executive Secretary, I am in charge of all the co-ordination work of the council so it goes beyond administration since I do conception, policy implementation, follow ups and we also get into partnerships. Now we already have Harvard University as a partner interested in the Department of African Studies. We have already signed a pact with the Institute for African Patrimony based in Cotonou. They have been there since 1963. We recently got something to do with the Center for African Traditional Languages and Customs and we are moving forward towards getting a seat in the United Nations next September as a Civil Society Organisation as well as with the AU, African Union and the UNESCO. Added to this is the need to introduce this vision to African leaders in the Southern and the Eastern parts of the Continent. We know the strong traditional role in South Africa with the Zulus, as well as in East Africa in Kenya among the Kikuyus and the Tanzanians and Ugandans. This, we intend to capture into the main stream of what we are doing to promote inter African Cultural dialogue. They should work hand in hand with formal authority to impact positively