Engineer Emmanuel Kouontchou’s commitment to nation-building rewarded.

By Christopher Ambe

Kouontchou Emmanuel, a senior civil engineer and  Director of the Advanced School for Public Works (NASPW),Buea Annex,   has been honoured by the State of Cameroon for his  patriotism and commitment to nation-building.

 Kouontchou Emmanuel

The quiet-looking but workaholic Civil engineer who has been Director of NASPW, Buea Annex since 2005, was on May 20^th 2017, among many others, singled out for state recognition for his valuable services to the nation.

Mr. Kouontchou, in his early 50’s, was awarded the medal, Officer of the National Order of Valour, by Southwest Governor, Bernard Okala Bilai, on behalf of President Paul Biya, at the Buea Independence Square, during celebrations marking this year’s National Day.

He had five years ago been honoured by the state of Cameroon with the medal, Knight of the National Order of Valour.

Mr. Kouontchou is director of a state-owned institution, which has graduated hundreds of Cameroonians with specialized technical skills, who are now actively involved in either the public or private sector, helping in the realization of various development projects in the country.

NASPW Buea is one of the most disciplined academic institutions in the country, and is always conspicuously present at national and public events such as Youth Day and National Day.

The NASPW which was created by decree No.82-464 of October 1982, has its main campus in Yaoundé with Professor George Nkeng Elambo as director. The NASPW, Buea Annex  offers specialized training both at the Ordinary Technical cycle and the Higher Technical Cycle, in the following fields: Civil engineering, Land Surveying, Rural Engineering and Town Planning.

Mr.Kouontchou, who has dedicated his recent award to the staff and trainees of his NASPW, noted that NASPW Buea has been making significant contributions to the realization of Cameroon’s Vision 2035.

While promising to do his best to ensure that NASPW remains a training center for excellence, the Director hailed the inputs of his hierarchy towards his successes.

“I must thank the Minister of Public Works, the Grand Chancellor of National Orders,the Director of the NASPW Yaounde for contributing in one way or the other to the honour I just received from the State of Cameroon.”

According to Tarhyang Tabe, acting chief SAF at NASPW Buea, the student population of the institution now stands at 1482, out of which about 200 are females and about 300 Anglophone Students.

 Mr. Tabe said the number of female and Anglophone students have surged in recent years because the Director launched a campaign to that effect.” I wish to let you know that the Director is worried why many Anglophone students are not interested in NASPW, and he does his very best to encourage them”, he said.

Although Mr.Kouontchou hails from Koung-khi Division of the West Region, he has worked as engineer in the South West Region in various capacities for more than 22 years.

Upon his graduation from NASPW Yaounde in 1986, Mr. Kouontchou joined the public service and was posted to the Ministry of Public Works, Department of Roads. From 1988-90,he served as  head of service in the then South West  Provincial Delegation of Public Works; In 1990, Mr. Kouontchou was appointed Divisional Delegate for Public Works in Ndian Division and after three years he was appointed  Divisional Delegate  of Public Works  for Fako  Division and after four years, he was promoted  to the rank of  South West Provincial Delegate for Public Works  where he served in that capacity for three years. From 2000-2005, this duty-conscious civil engineer was lecturer at NASPW Buea where he demonstrated the mastery of civil engineering skills. That professional brilliance further worked in his favour. He would in 2005 be appointed as Director of NASPW Buea, a position he has held to date, attracting praises from both his hierarchy and the general Public.

Will Ayah be revoked from magistracy as he clocks four months in detention?

Last Saturday, May 20, 2017 marked exactly four months since soldiers bundled Supreme Court deputy advocate general out of his residence in Yaounde and took him manu militari to the detention facility of the state secretariat for defence, SED.

Justice Ayah Paul Abine

To this day, the super scale magistrate who is said to be going blind in the dungeons continues to say his detention is illegal and that he is still unaware of his supposed crime. His community manager wrote in a Facebook post last Friday: “But my morale is exceedingly high and I am very serene for I know The Good LORD, the ultimate and incurruptible judge Himself fights for me. I have lived an exemplary life throughout my career in strict respect of the law and in all honesty and integrity. My hands are clean and so I fear not.”

The post also makes mention of the detainee’s worsening health condition. “But my health on the contrary is not at its best as I have picked up a heart condition while my sight has seriously (especially my left eye) depreciated. In the face of the silence maintained by the authorities as to who gave orders for my abduction and what evidence they’ve got against me, I am abandoned to rumours all of which are laughable;” the post reads partly.

In Ayah Paul’s voice, the communicator questions rhetorically; “why am I not taken to court like all the others picked up on account of the Anglophone problem in order for me to defend myself against all that is being rumoured (in very high place) in open court before all Cameroonians?; why am I kept here in complete ignorance of what my crime is (if any exists in the first place)?; why are the authorities completely silent as to the reasons behind my being kept here; not even has the national station, to whom I pay taxes, as much as mentioned my name? what is my crime?

But while these questions are being raised, some Francophone tabloids have already sealed Ayah’s fate. One of them went to the extent of announcing the imminent revocation or dismissal of Ayah  from his post of Advocate General of the Supreme Court to facilitate his trial for colluding with secessionists or terrorists!

It should however be recalled that the former no-nonsense Member of Parliament and leader of the PAP party has been taken to the Mfoundi High Court twice, but has been denied bail. His family has also been requesting his release, citing the law and his deteriorating health as indisputable reasons.

Other local and international organisations have also called for his immediate release.

culled from The Horizon Newspaper

edevnews.blogspot.com/Email: francoeko@gmail.com/Tel:+237696896001/678401408/669542467 

Resolutions of the National Executive Committee Meeting of the SDF of May 2017

edevnews.blogspot.com/ Email: francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel: +237678401408/+237696896001

SDF National Elective Convention Billed for October 2017!

 Jean Tsomelou, Senator from the West Region and President of the SDF Parliamentary Group speaking during the National Executive Committee Meeting on Saturday May 27 at the party’s Head Quarters at Ntarikon in Bamenda said they had just taken a certain number of resolutions including the chosing of October 2017 as the time for the  National Elective Convention.

Jean Tsomelou, Senator of the West Region.

 

Among other things he said they listened to the reports of some Regional Presidents and asked them to go back into the field and redynamise the party at the level of the Basic Organs and that they’d brought back SDF Echoes; the party Newspaper into circulation.

Reacting to problems  of the party in the Centre Region, and other related issues, he said problems in the center Region were not more than those in the Littoral and that decisions were being taken that will ensure that electoral processes go on smoothly in the problem regions such as the Center as well as the Adamawa and the South Regions.

“For us there are no problems as far as the activities of our party are concerned in the field. It is simply that in every house there are always problems. Our elections will sail through calmly. If you look at the Littoral Region that they were talking about so much, you will see that nothing is being talked about it today. This is because after the elections, the minority respected the majority and the majority did not suppress the minority. This is democracy and it is helping to prepare our upcoming electoral processes.”

Senator Hamman Paul From the Adamawa Region

Speaking about Honorable Wirba, he said SDF had no problems with him and that questions about the party having problems with Wirba should be thrown at those insinuating such. The President of the SDF Parliamentary group said questions should rather be thrown at the CPDM obliging them to explain what problems they have with people of the Northwest and the Southwest Regions. “Because it is inadmissible that a warrant of arrest be issued for a Member of Parliament so the best person to answer questions on problems in that direction is not found in the SDF party.”

Senator Hamman Paul from the Adamawa Region and Secretary of the SDF Senate group on his part said reports of the day came in mainly from the Adamawa, the Centre, the South and the Littoral. Most of the deliberations he said were centered on improving upon the life of the party. Commenting on the non participation of the party at the May 20 Celebrations, he said the decision was taken by the strategy Committee and called on Government to look at problems plaguing Anglophones in Cameroon adding that since November 2016 the SDF had called on Government to engage in sincere dialogue with the people who were looking for solutions to their various problems. 

Audu Mbaya in the heart of deliberations

Nkemlemo Denis of the Communication Committee said attention was also given to the incessant kidnapping and abduction of people who are taken to Yaounde and indiscriminately charged on crimes ranging from Terrorism and crimes against the State which merit death penalty. He further said the return of SDF Echoes on the Newsstands was not to rival the other papers but to serve as a source of authentic information about the Social Democratic Front. He also drew attention to the fact that while much attention was being drawn by the SDF’s non participation at the May 20 celebrattions it should also be noted that the party did not also celebrate it 27^th anniversary which was supposed to take place on May 26.

Joshua Osih, one of the pillars of the party was present

Other sources have also revealed that on the day SDF was supposed to be celebrating its 27^th anniversary, the city of Bamenda saw heavy military presence along the Commercial Avenue and CPDM Bigwigs of the Northwest Region shepherded by Professor Elvis Ngole Ngole stormed the Congress Hall where a working session was held relating to the activities of the CPDM Academy; the brain child of Professor Elvis Ngole Ngole.

edevnews.blogspot.com/Email: francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel:+237696896001/678401408

On SDF Anniversary Day: Fru Ndi explains why SDF did not actively take part in May Celebrations

By Francis Ekongang Nzante

In a chat with the media on Friday May 26 at his Ntarikon residence in Bamenda, Ni John Fru Ndi, Chairman of SDF; the leading opposition political party in Cameroon stated in unequivocal terms that people only march on a day like the 20^th of May in Cameroon because they are happy and celebrating an occasion. Ni John Fru Ndi said following what had been going on in Cameroon for a long while now, the 20^th of May was not an occasion for celebration. The same reasons account for the absence of any noticeable celebrations to mark the 27^th anniversary of the party which came into existence in 1990.

The Chairman took out time to explain using incidents that had taken place in the two English speaking regions of the country. He wondered how a government could support that University Games should take place in Bamenda despite all that had happened. He questioned if it was it simply to disgrace the people of the Northwest or the Anglophones. In the Northwest and Southwest Regions, children of francophone extraction he said, were brought to go to school. Some of these children he said went to school in ordinary dresses. Moto Cycles were brought in from the Littoral and the West to ride in Buea and Bamenda and children were brought in to march and show that things were okay. This he said hurts because it doesn’t solve the problems. “Under these conditions, I will be pretending if I say it’s okay people should go and march. People march because they are happy. You march because you are celebrating an occasion.”

In the same vein, he said “the Prime Minister had taken out time and come out here and I was told that the teachers came out with seven points and after the discussion they went up to nineteen which they agreed to come in three days or so to sign. They closed the meeting on Monday to come back on Wednesday to sign but by Tuesday night they banned the Consortium and ordered the arrest of many people. Many of these people are still on the run today and since then schools in the Northwest and Southwest have not been opened.”

Talking about schools, the Chairman doffed his hat for missionary schools that churned out most of the educated personalities in English speaking Cameroon. He said if you took off Saint Joseph’s College Sasse and Cameroon Protestant College Bali among a few others, education in the Northwest and Southwest would come to nothing. He further said if these same Missions cry that look we have a pain here and you only insist that they should tell the world that everything is okay then there is a serious problem.

Turning to the head of government he said “The Prime Minister who had worked with the consortium agreed with his Director of Cabinet and the next moment they came insisting that children should be sent to school. Under what conditions were these children to be sent to school and where were the teachers?”

The SDF Chairman said in the past there were Teacher Training Colleges in the Southwest and Northwest Regions and that the government came and closed these establishments and took all the trained teachers from the missions for themselves. When those teachers who remained saw their disadvantaged position since the mission could not increase their salaries, they got angry and joined the government. This killed the private sector that was coming up forcefully.”

 The most ridiculous thing he said was that Government had a Nursing School of high repute in Bamenda but this school was closed. He questioned the reasoning behind closing these schools and telling people about health for all by the year 2000 considering the fact that nurses do a fantastic job for patients to get well. In a nostalgic manner he recalled the time when you had state registered nurses and how their special appearance gave hope to patients in hospital.

People of the Anglophone extraction are arguing over the state of things because they are looking at where they came from and comparing it with the present state of things he explained. “Our children cannot face the future by going backward. We should be giving an education aiming at five, ten, fifteen, twenty years.”

Considering that this brush with media men and women took place on the eve of a decisive NEC meeting, Ni John Fru Ndi said the National Executive Committee Meeting would focus on the strategy of the party for the future. The continuity of the party he said had been guaranteed through the grooming of younger ones. “I could have been Mayor, Parliamentarian or Senator but I sent in younger ones with an intention of grooming them.”

edevnews.blogspot.com/Email:francoeko@gmail.com/Tel:+237678401408/ +237696896001