“Widikum has become a battle ground between Military and ADF” –Lord Mayor

By Francis Ekongang Nzante

The Lord Mayor of the Widikum-Boffe Council Tayo Denis Aghem has declared that “Widikum has become a battle ground between the military and what many people call the Ambazonia Defense Forces” and that as a result, the populations have deserted their homes. He was speaking during the joint Widikum-Boffe council session for the presentation of the 2017 Administrative Accounts and update of the Council Development Plan on Wednesday April 25^th 2018 at the Council Hall in Widikum.

Mboh Barnabas Petiangha in speech while Mayor looks on

The session was rendered stormy to say the least by the confrontational stance taken by Mboh Barnabas Petiangha, the Divisional Officer for Widikum and Tayo Denis Aghen, Lord Mayor of Widikum-Boffe Council. The set up was rendered more eerie by the quasi deserted Widikum Municipality with its empty streets and sealed up buildings.

Reacting to the request from the Project Committee and from many other quarters within the council that bike riders should be permitted to work between 7 am and 4 pm, Mboh Barnabas Petiangha, Divisional Officer of Widikum said for any structure to improve, people had to continuously learn. He further said the Council was rated last in the Northwest Region by PNDP classification. This was viewed by the mayor and the councilors to mean they had not learnt anything and that the council was still being poorly managed.

Tayo Denis Aghen, Mayor of Widikum

The DO said bikes should be registered and that it was on the bases of the number presented to the Governor of the Northwest Region Adolfe Lele L’Afrique that permission could be granted. Commenting on the tense relation between the military and the population and the complete breakdown of confidence in the military by the population due to casualties following deadly confrontations, he pushed the responsibility to councilors calling on them to convince the population that the military was there for their protection and not the other way round.

Lord Mayor Tayo Denis Aghen on his part stated categorically that “Widikum-Boffe Council was not the last but among the last and our position was praise worthy considering the problems that we had.” Tayo Denis Aghen said such a comment from the DO was uncalled for since it referred to a particular time in the past and did not seem to take into consideration the fact that much had been done along the line to bring to justice individuals who were responsible for the financial imbroglio of the council. Such utterances he said were inspired by bad fate and could not be condoned at such sensitive times when every hand was needed on deck to push the municipality forward.

Tayo Denis Aghem summed it up in the following manner; “Everything went on well because we now have a seasoned Municipal Treasurer who replaced the former one. His accounts have been very administrative, very technical and straight to the point. Now things are moving on very well.”

The President of the Widikum Fons Union HRH Menti Ignatius Wancho said the session had taken two days with the first day dedicated to a detailed study of everything that had to be done on the day of the session its self. This was to make sure that things moved fast on the day of the session itself for purely security reasons. The council has been moving smoothly and this time we don’t suspect any embezzlement. The local Administrator who represented the SDO didn’t seem to be aware of this arrangement and it resulted in a little hitch at the tail end of it. We call on the administration to address the situation so that normalcy should return to Widikum.”   

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Bui Women urged to be prepared to get into Parliament

By Francis Ek Nzante Lenjo

Princess Mbinglo Maxceline, CPDM Section President for Bui 1 A and Principal of GBHS Kimbo has called upon women in Bui Division to be girding their loins to get into parliament during this elective year. The politician cum educationist said among other things that women should not only keep voting for others but should start thinking about getting into office themselves. She made this call on Thursday April 19 during a press briefing in her Kumbo office.

Mbinglo Maxceline: WCPDM Section President Bui 1 A

She said despite her lengthy educational trajectory which took her from her native Kumbo to Bamenda and eventually Yaounde, she remained attached to the culture of her roots and committed to the development of her place of origin.

The Section President who passed through the then University of Yaounde which now is University of Yaounde 1 before attending the Higher Teacher Training Institute ENS in Yaounde said her determination and poise came from her background. Her inspiration she said came from her mother. “There was one day she told me that my father on his dying bed said any of his son or daughter who struggles will always have something to do and will always succeed in life. That I didn’t forget and it gave me that desire to succeed.”

As an ambitious woman she didn’t fail to react to the fact that society was suffering from the effects of male chauvinism. In this direction she said the Cameroonian Government was really trying to fight against a completely male dominated society. “If you move to parliament you will see that the number of women have increased and in the senate the number is growing gradually. I call on women to always take up the challenge. If you don’t start you can never get to the finish. There is no smooth path to life. There are always stumbling blocks and you must be ready to ride on.”

Another ingredient that has contributed to her political orientation is the nature of society in which she grew. She explains that in her childhood she used to sit in the Palace Courtyard to listen to how judgment was passed traditional. “One time, something pricked me because there was a woman who wanted to divorce from her man. Traditionally she came with the children and she was told to give the children to the husband’s father that she could not take care of the children.” The decision baffled me and from that moment I decided to take a direction that would help me to change the plight of the woman and help the society as well.”

While acknowledging the fact the way you relate with people can sometimes take precedence over the party in which you militate and thus affect the attainment of your political aspirations, she cautions that there is always need to belong to a political party structure. She however concedes that though someone may belong to a political party an individual always has his or her own views on how a party can operate. “There are people who are born developers and those who are task motivators and those who are task handlers and so on.”

Mbinglo defines development as change in a positive direction and it should have positive effects on human beings or on nature. “I don’t believe in dictating solutions to people but rather that people can sit as a family and look for solutions to their problems.”

“We all need to put our hands on deck as a family and do something for Bui but I can’t say that personally I can do something for Kumbo.”

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RTC Cameroon Churns out Computer Training graduates in Bui

By Francis Ekongang Nzante

The Rural Transformation Centre RTC Cameroon has churned out the second batch of graduates of its Computer Training Programme. This took place on Saturday April 14, 2018 at a graduation ceremony that saw some 11 young Cameroonians receiving diplomas from the Computer Training Department of RTC Cameroon at Fakuy in the Jakiri Municipality in Bui Division. The Public Relations Officer for RTC Cameroon, Yenika Collins said the main aim of the centre was to improve upon the quality of the lives of Cameroonians in rural areas.  

Yenika Collins Litiga

Yenika Collins intimated that the centre is into Sustainable Agriculture where training is carried out in Organic Farming and Ecological Agriculture, Bee Farming, Natural Medicine where people are taught how to use natural medicinal herbs for treatment of Common Tropical Ailments, Environmental Protection; a domain in which close to thirty thousand trees have been planted. Some of these trees he said were planted in the centre while some are distributed in the communities around for planting.

The Public Relations Officer further said “We are also involved in Computer Training because we saw that the Government has been encouraging Computer Training in most schools around the country but this is mostly focused in towns and the students in rural areas seem to have been forgotten. This may be due to the fact that there are no computers and electricity in the rural areas. We as such took it upon ourselves to start Computer Training Programmes. Today we are graduating our second batch of students after completing a nine month training programme and we have 11 graduating students.”

Graduates, Founder and RTC stakeholders in Bui Division

The other domains he explained are followed up through outreach programmes in the rural communities. He explained that at the moment they were doing training in Ecological Agriculture. Through outreach programmes, they move out to rural communities and train selected groups of people in specific domains. After training, these individuals get back to their communities and impart the knowledge acquired through RTC training. “What makes our training programmes unique is that we encourage our people to rely as much as possible on local materials. Our outreach programmes have touched Mbiame where we just rounded up, Kai, Djottin and in the weeks ahead we will be going down to Rontong and the whole of Jakiri Sub Division.”

  Litiga Boniface, Coordinator and Founder of the Rural Transformation Centre, Cameroon said “we are just trying to help to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor and this is because our rural communities are left behind especially the young people. Our initiative provides a unique opportunity for our rural youths to have an on the spot computer training. It is better here in the rural areas as trainees go on for nine months without electricity cuts because we have a huge solar system. I want to call on children in the surrounding villages to take advantage of this programme and get trained.”

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S.D.O warns as Gun shots, banditry resurfaces in Bui

The Seniour Divisional Officer for Bui Division Simon Emile Mooh, has hinted that just when the sociopolitical climate in that part of the country seemed to be calming down, bad signals of banditry in some parts of the Division particularly in the Oku and Noni Sub Divisions were beginning to rear their heads once again. This declaration was made during the Council Session dedicated to the examination and adoption of the Administrative, Management and Stores Account of the Nkum Council on Tuesday April 3, at the Council Hall in Tatum.

Suila Aruna  Kidze delivers keynote speech

 In the same vein the Commissioner of Police in Kumbo Nkainbi Philemon also confirmed that heavy gun shots actually took place at night as Kumbo crept out of the Easter weekend. The Seniour Superintendant of Police corroborated his account with shells of live bullets collected from the scenes of action.

The Seniour Divisional Officer equally called on the councilors of Nkum Council to carry out their roles as councilors and sensitize their populations on the need to pay their taxes. Hear him; “I call on all the councilors of Nkum Council to play their role to go and sensitize the entire population so the population should pay their taxes. Now the Nkum Council has just placed their hope on the Public Investment Budget. What about their local revenue? In the past people were promoting ghost town, civil disobedience and now we are facing the circumstances and we are asking therefore that through this sensitization the population should know that there is no development without peace. On Sunday some people came to Ngemsiba I in Oku Sub Division and tried to disturb public order. Yesterday night some few bandits also came to Djottin in Noni trying to disturb public order. We are giving them a severe warning to stop. I went to Mbokevu and to Djottin and tried to explain to everybody that we should preserve peace and order in Bui Division. I was received by the Fons and I cautioned that there should be harmony in those villages. Unfortunately some people have started at it again and this is the last warning for we need peace. We need development in Bui Division and we count on the media to help us in sensitizing the population because ghost towns cannot bring development. There is poverty everywhere here in the rural areas and not in the big towns. I don’t see how a council can function without revenue.”

Suila Aruna Kidze, Lord Mayor of the Nkum Council summed up the situation in the following manner; “we have seen that the accounts have really gone down as compared to that of 2016 and we know that as a result of the socio-political atmosphere, people are not willing to pay their taxes. You heard me telling the councilors and all the stakeholders that we should work hand in glove to sensitize our people so that they can pay their taxes. We should pay our taxes and maintain peace for development to follow.”

The Lord Mayor said the joint session had to adopt the administrative section of the Council Development Plan (CDP) adding that they had a methodology that they followed. He said in the villages they came out with village diagnoses which have been followed by a series of meetings for harmonization.  “Now the only thing left is the need of some technical services to really give their inputs but all along we have been working with the various stake holders. When it will finally be adopted holistically, it will become a developmental tool.”

Suila Aruna Kidze said when they visited each village to come out with their priorities; they also put in place a Local Solution Committee LSC. This he said was meant to handle minor issues before waiting for the government, council or any donor depending on how the case may be. “For instance, if a bridge is broken, resources can be mobilized at their own local level to handle it before reporting to the authorities concerned. In each village they were selected according to their various ministries. That’s why when you go into a village you will notice that there is a delegate of public works simply meaning that such a person is a member of the local solutions committee in issues related to public works. Some have started working and in the community of Buh yesterday there was community work organised to take care of a bad segment of the road.”

Among other thorny issues that were discussed was that of introducing the depreciation of council property. Some councilors noted that it was incorrect to evaluate council property at hundreds of millions FCFA when in reality the council could not make any possible use of the property in question.   

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