Artist Decries The Meddling of Politics in Management of SONACAM

 

By Francis Ekongang Nzante

The Cameroonian artist popularly known as Fozo de Prince has decried the Meddling of Politics in the way the affairs of musicians are handled in Cameroon. He was speaking recently in a brush with the press in the Northwest Regional Capital of Bamenda.

 Despite the very grim picture that he presents of the music landscape in Cameroon, he expresses hope that the new SONACAM boss Dr Ateh Bazore will rewrite the narrative of the sad story of the Cameroonian musician.

David Ayem alias Fozo de Prince was exposed to the guitar and to music at a very tender age. His dad was also a musician and he therefore followed the footsteps inheriting the love for music from his father. He has never received any formal training in music and professionally, he works in the health Sector and is presently a PhD student at the University of Bamenda. Music for him as such is a passion and he constantly plays when the inspiration comes. 

Fozo de Prince got into active music in 1996 while he was in High School. A period which he describes as a training session. He actually produced his first solo album in the year 2000. At the time, he was a student nurse and was doing his second year at the State Registered Nurses Training School at the Regional Hospital in Bamenda. His first album was titled “We are children of one God”. Though he started with Gospel Music, he eventually shifted to Circular Music in his quest to address messages to the Common man that could impact on society. 

The first time he participated in a musical competition was in 2004 in an event organised by Brasseries Du Cameroun called “Music and Song Competition.” After coming out on top at the Regional level in the Northwest he moved to the national level where he emerged at the 9th position. 

His second album focused on the importance of breast feeding in the health of children while the 2006 album was centered around the idea that there is strength in unity.

Fozo de Prince came out with an Album almost every two years and that’s why today he has produced 12 musical albums. 

Lashing out at SONACAM, he decried the precarious situation of artists in Cameroon. 

“I joined that association when it was called CMC and at the time, it was lead by the Late Manu Dibango. It is sad to say it but politics has destroyed musicians in Cameroon. A certain list came out and my name was not in it. I followed up before my name came out. As we speak, another list of the Executive has come out and favouritism is the order of the day. Don’t be surprised to find someone who entered the association only this year on that list. Someone like Fozo de Prince who has been in the association for 21 years may not even be on the list” he lamented.

With Dr Ateh Bazore presently at the helm of things, Fozo de Prince believes things will get better. The Ministry of Arts and Culture he said has an arm that is supposed to take care of musicians but nothing positive seems to be coming from that angle. Harping on the insignificant support that goes to musicians he said all he had ever received was an annual payment of 43 thousand Francs twice. 

Fozo de Prince said he does music only out of passion and not for the money. He however hopes that one day the musician in Cameroon will be able to live out of his art.

He suggested that there should be a National Code that guides who should be a musician. Once you are registered and graded, your earnings should be clearly defined he further said. If this were done, then many more people would be encouraged to get into music he said. The artist described SONACAM  as a corporate body with an executive that Lords it on musicians and keeps a greater share of money that comes in to themselves. 

The plight of the musicians is compounded by the Android era since nobody buys musical albums anymore.

As a way forward, he said “if you have good music today what you need is good promotion. This will mean that you go to the bank and get some money to do that.”

That’s why musicians invests heavily in promotion on National Radios and Television stations. “CRTV sometimes demands a minimum of about 300000 CFA for your music to constantly pass on air throughout for a month. At the end of the day only the biggest musicians in Cameroon can afford to promote at that scale.” Such musicians like Petit Pays for instance already have big business people who trust in them and can invest any amount of money on them with the certainty that they will get it back. This money he said goes on promotion. Once a musician pays some millions to the National TV channels their video clips pass regularly he said. “There is almost no place for the upstarts in the music world in Cameroon.” 

At the Regional level Fozo de Prince said he participates at cultural events such as Marriages, Parties, Cultural Festivals, Anniversary Celebrations amongst many others. Considering that he is well known in the musical circles in the Region he is constantly invited for musical shows.

He called on affluent individuals, Corporate bodies and Humanitarian organisations to identify talents and promote them.

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Dr Bijingni Kuwoh Pius comments on Transformation of the Health Sector in Cameroon.

"The PBF Project Can Transform the Health Sector in Cameroon" Dr. Bijingni Kuwoh Pius

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The last time Dr. Bijingni Kuwoh Pius worked with the Public Service in Cameroon was as Director of the Limbe Regional Hospital. However, just when he was handing over from the post of Director of the Limbe Regional Hospital, he received a call requesting him to work as a Consultant with the Performance Based Financing (PBF) project in Yagoua in the Far North Region. The Non-Governmental Organization IRESCO was chosen to execute the project. The experienced Public Health Physician, had been contacted earlier but they called him that day to inform him that he had been selected to coordinate the pilote phase of the PBF project. The erstwhile Director of the Limbe Regional Hospital started the job in August 2016. He begins this revealing Interview by giving a detailed description of the nature of his job in the Far North Region of Cameroon.

"There was an antenna in Yagoua that took care of five Health Districts.  There was another antenna in Maroua which took care of Six Heath Districts.  There was a manager in Maroua and then I was Manager in Yagoua. We managed the Pilote Phase from August 2016 to December 2017 and because the results were encouraging, the Government asked us to extend the project to all the 30 Health Districts in the Far North Region in 2018.  From January 2018 we started the expansion and then I was also moved from Yagoua to Maroua where the Head Quarters is found. We succeeded in extending the project to all the 30 Health Districts in 2018. This is 2019 and we are still working at it. The project ends in 2022"

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Your appointment in the Far North came at a time when the Boko Haram insurgency was at its peak. How challenging did this make the execution of your job?

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The attacks from Boko Haram did not spare our Health Facilities. It makes the life of Health officials and the movement between Health Facilities very difficult. Health Facilities were attacked and burnt and were forced to be closed. This pushed Health Officials to go and seek for space in other existing facilities in order to continue with consultations. Most of these burnt facilities are not in main town Maroua but are instead around the border with Nigeria and Chad. It has made work very difficult in those areas but we have however succeeded in working in all the 30 Health Districts. Sometimes we've had to work with Administrators and the Forces of Law and Order to escort personnel to facilities. In fact Health Personnel have left the dangerous areas to stay in safer areas. They only go there to carry out their duties. These are some of the strategies used to continue providing Health Services to the people. 

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Can you briefly describe how the project is organized and how it functions?

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The contracts with IRESCO ended in September 2017.  The IRESCO program is being funded by the World Bank. The World Bank wanted to collaborate with a local NGO and so they chose IRESCO. The NGO was co-implementing the project in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health. When the contract with IRESCO ended in December 2017, the project was then put under the Special Fund for Health Promotion SFHP. In 2016 and 2017, the Special Fund for Health Promotion SFHP had not yet been put in place in the Far North Region. The structure executing the project is called the Contract Development and Verification Agency (CDVA). 

This project shifts away from the traditional way of financing Health Projects where Credit Cards are given by the Government. We call them inputs and when they don't give the inputs we sit and wait. Performance Based Financing (PBF) moved away from the traditional way of financing to an output way of financing. The PBF comes out with what we call indicators like consultations, deliveries, surgeries, transfusions and so on. We work with what they call verification agents and the hospitals carry out their activities normally. At the end of the month we send our verification agents to the hospitals. They are given the registers of the health facility and they go in and count. The verification agents come in and count these indicators. The hospital staff may have declared 100 consultations but the verification team may acknowledge or validate only 98. Each of these activities has a unit price that you multiply by it and have a certain amount. At the end we make the total and come out with invoices that are sent to the Technical Team at the Ministry of Health that processes them and sends them in for payment. Apart from this we carry out community Surveys every three months so we work with Community Based Organizations (CBOs). They go down into the field every three months and get information from people in the community who benefit from services of health facilities. We also worked on the management aspect with an intention of improving upon the management quality of our facilities. We have a tool which we call the Indice Tool in which the Health Facility has to declare all that it has as revenue and also declare all its expenditure. In PBF we believe that the staff must be motivated. We have a tool that we use to evaluate the performance of our staff. We believe that at the end of every month, there should be some money left for the motivation of staff so that it will deter them from doing parallel activities and encourage them to work better. 

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How successful do you think the project has been so far?

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The general objective of the project is to strengthen the performances of the health system in Cameroon. It also aims at reaching the population especially the poor and vulnerable with quality health care. From the data that we are assembling we see that the number of people who are attending health facilities is going up. Also the number of poor and vulnerable who are receiving health care is increasing. Health facilities are improving their infrastructure and equipment. Health facilities have also been able to recruit personnel. More and more health facilities are paying performance bonus to their staff. There are some Health Facilities that have acquired Solar Panels, some have employed Personnel and improved upon infrastructure. This has made the personnel generally happier and more motivated with these bonuses that are being paid. The patients themselves are getting more satisfaction and if you see their ratings of their satisfaction with services at the facilities you will see that it falls from 80% upwards.  Some even go above 90%. For technical quality, the score ranges between 60% and 70%. On Management, the score ranges between 50% and 60%. On the whole its been very successful and the Government is relying on it to attain the Universal Health Coverage.  

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Briefly speaking, has it been a smooth sail?

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Not at all. Firstly it is about introducing a change in the way services were being managed. When you talk about change those who feel threatened will oppose if they see their interest threatened. The credit cards are transformed into subsidies and paid directly into the account of the health facilities. So no more 30%. Also the heads of the health facilities have to manage the resources in a transparent manner. They have to sit down with their collaborators and plan and discuss how resources have to be managed. Even those who accepted did not know how to go about it so we had to organize trainings before enrolling health facilities into the project. But gradually even those who were opposed at the beginning are becoming convinced of the positive changes that the project was bringing especially when they started receiving the first payments. Yes at the beginning we give the facility what we call Quality Improvement Budget. So facilities that have infrastructural problems are given what we call Quality Improvement Bonus (QIB). There are some Health Facilities that have acquired their Solar Panels, some have employed Personnel and improved upon infrastructure. 

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For a Professional of your caliber how satisfying is your present occupation?

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I am that kind of person who likes to work especially when I am convinced that the results will bring about a positive change.  I believe that if it is well implemented it will bring about the big change that we expect in the Health Sector. It fits in with my vision of what the Health Sector should be. 

..........

Do you think the COVID-19 Pandemic is going to find a solution that quickly? Secondly, what message do you have for Cameroonians with regards to the pandemic?

...........

The COVID-19 they say is similar to the SARS. Its infectious but less deadly than the SARS. A lot is still to be known about the COVID-19. For the moment Cameroonians should implement the safety measures that have been prescribed. Washing of hands and avoiding the touching of their faces as well as maintaining Social Distancing. These measures have worked elsewhere and can work here as well. The Cameroon health system is not strong enough to respond to such a Pandemic if huge numbers of patients storm our health facilities in a very short time. The best option is to stick to safety measures, while hoping that a cure or a vaccine is found very quickly.

Interviewed By Francis Ekongang Nzante on the 18th of May 2020

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“Christians Should Focus on Salvation, not Miracles”

-Pastor, Life Changing Ministries Bamenda, Cameroon

Pastor Nchindo Etienne Nkwain founder of Life Changers' Ministry in Bamenda has called on Christians to focus on the message of Salvation and not on miracles. He was speaking recently in an encounter with the press in Bamenda. 

He among other things said the focus of his Ministry apart from evangelism was reaching out to the people and transforming their lives both spiritually and materially. Pastor Nchindo said he first received God's calling to start a ministry in 2008. After receiving the call from God, he prepared himself for ministry. This period he intimated saw him passing through the Seminary. The Life Changers’ Ministry actually became operational in 2018. Over the years since the Ministry became operational, it has been faced with lots of challenges. The main challenge the Pastor said has been the lack of finances to meet up with the basic needs of the Ministry. 

He further revealed that the location of the ministry is at Mile III Nkwen Bamenda behind Blue Pearl Hotel. Services he said constitute Counseling which takes place every Tuesday while Bible Studies take place on Wednesday's in the afternoon. Meantime, Prayers, Healing and deliverance takes place on Thursday. On Saturdays, Life Changers Ministry has intercessions and on Sundays the Ministry has its life service beginning from 9 am. 

The Ministry Pastor Nchindo explained has experienced some challenges through the years that it has been existing considering the fact that it is extremely expensive to run one. He conceeded that it took the Grace of God and patience to run a ministry. When people come together there are always bound to be controversies he explained adding that his Congregation had been no exception. What has permanently guided him he intimated was the fact that he knew exactly where he was going to. His main goal was well defined and nothing was going to distract him from that goal he said emphatically. 

The Pastor urged people to stop running after miracles and to seek salvation. Healings he said will hardly take any person to heaven he said adding that only the message of salvation could take people to heaven. 

He explained that faith must always go with action. This he said was one of the reasons why his ministry was going into humanitarian activities  especially at this time when the North West and South West Regions were hit by the Anglophone Crisis and the COVID 19 Pandemic. 

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LIFE CHANGERS INTERNATIONAL EXTENDS HELPING HAND TO THE LESS PRIVILEGED

 

By Francis Ekongang Nzante

Life Changers International known by its acronym LICHAINTER has stepped up its efforts to help the less privileged and the needy in some communities in the North West Region of Cameroon. Speaking recently to Edev Newspaper, Pastor Nchindo Etien, CEO and Founder of the NGO said the present crisis rocking the North West and South West Regions and the misery it had brought upon the vulnerable populations had necessitated the creation of LICHAINTER with an intention of taking care of the displaced populations which had increased alarmingly in the four years that the crisis had been rocking the two English Speaking Regions of the country. 

“The creation of this NGO was inspired by the Anglophone Crisis. This was because we saw a lot of people suffering. The sudden displacement of people and in large numbers was alarming. Problems like homelessness, malnutrition, the need to go to school and concomitants such as illnesses and exploitations of their vulnerabilities heightened at a frightening pace. Our sole aim is to change their lives from what it presently is, to a good one” the Pastor explained.

He further said at the moment LICHAINTER had field workers in Oku, Bui Division and in Bello in the Boyo Division and in Bambui within the Tubah Municipality as well as in Bamenda all in the North West Region of Cameroon. 

The activities of LICHAINTER at the moment he said were focused on assisting in the payment of the school fees of children of Internally Displaced Populations IDPs as well as assisting in training some of them in trades that could eventually help in their upkeep. 

Being involved in such a huge initiative certainly comes with lots of challenges and LICHAINTER is certainly not an exception. Pastor Chindo Etien said the major challenges they were encountering included the rising number of kids needing support to go school against a backdrop of limited finances at the disposal of LICHAINTER. “We really need people who can come in with support and help these children to achieve their educational aspirations. We have twenty children needing to go to school and ten children who need to learn a trade and the numbers keep increasing. The finances are not there and we really need people who can come in and work with us in order to help these children.”

The situation was compounded by the COVID 19 Pandemic and in this direction LICHAINTER has been distributing anti COVID 19 items like face masks, hand sanitizers, bucket taps and equally teaching social distancing measures among them.  

The Pastor unequivocally stated that considering the ever increasing number of needy people, LICHAINTER urgently needed stakeholders to come in and partly fund their activities. He said there were so many widows and  orphans who had found themselves in this situation because of the crisis. If these people were left unattended to, it could result into repercussions that could prove disastrous and could result into a humanitarian crisis that could further distort the social fabric that was presently already giving way, he explained.

While most of the activities of LICHAINTER are presently in the field, Pastor Nchindo Etien intimated that the NGO is now poised to build a permanent office at the Mile III Nkwen neighborhood in Bamenda. Serving humanity  was a noble act that will always be blessed by God he said calling on those who had the means both in and out of Cameroon to come on board.

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CNA Rounds up 8th Scientific Conference and 20th Anniversary Celebrations

 

By Francis Ekongang Nzante

The Cameroon Nurses Association CNA recently rounded up it’s 8th Scientific Conference and it’s 20th Anniversary Celebrations in Bamenda, the Northwest Regional Heart Quarters. This two yearly event took place at the Main Hall of the North West Regional Special Fund for Health Promotion within the confines of the Regional Hospital under the theme “Nurses Leading The Way To A Safe, Healthy And Peaceful World.”

The two day event which ran from February 26th to the 27th was spiced by Scientific presentations and panel discussions that touched on ways of improving not only the conditions of practice of the nurse, but also encouraged the average Cameroonian Nurse to further empower themselves by furthering their education in Nursing to the highest possible levels. 

In this vein, Professor Bih Mary Atanga of the Department of Nursery and Midwifery at the University of Bamenda said this was the only way to stop that condescending attitude that nurses always received from other health practitioners. The notion that nurses were not sufficiently educated she said would be wiped out if the nurses took it upon themselves to equip themselves with a sound education.

In his Keynote address, Mr Nkwain Joseph, the National President of CNA who is also the Director of the Florence Nightingale Higher Institute of Health and Biomedical Science in Bamenda said the membership of the association had risen from 35 members in 2001 to 2650 members in 2021. The vision he said had always been to have a well managed and vibrant association. Among other things, he said following the collaboration between the Commonwealth Association of Nurses and CNA, the association could now boast of a website. While stating that this site had contributed in boosting the image of CNA internationally he didn’t fail to mention the challenges that they've been encountering in their attempt to manage the website. “We are going to take lasting decisions in managing the website and all the decisions taken here will be published on the website” he said.

The present executive committee's second mandate had to be acknowledged by the General Assembly which had to meet last year but failed to do so because of COVID 19 he said. That not withstanding the present Executive Committee he disclosed was already carrying out a very ambitious project. Land he said had already been acquired in Bamenda and the construction of the Headquarters of the CNA was going to start in the days ahead. He said while the mandate of the present Executive Committee would end in 2023, members were going to be voted into the Education and Research Committee. This activity was actually carried out before the Bamenda deliberations rounded up.

Considering the fact that the contributions of members alone would not be enough to cough out the necessary funds needed for the construction of the CNA Headquarters, Mr Nkwain Joseph emphasised on the need to source for funding from in and out of the country.

In an interview with the media he described the nurse as a Frontline health worker and said without the nurse, a hospital could not move. The CNA National President said in Cameroon, they were still trying to raise the status of a nurse to that which was found in other countries. “It is not a subordinate profession to medicine. It is a profession which is complementary” he stated unequivocally.

While participants came from Douala, Buea, Limbe And Yaounde, it should be noted that equally present were the Vice National President Dr/ Mrs Njini Rose as well as the National Treasurer Mrs Nchifor Mary. Also actively present were Mr Mofor Moses, President of the Buea Branch from the Biaka University Institute Buea, Mr Atongno Humphrey Ashu, President of the Littoral Branch from the General Hospital in Douala. 

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ANYAJUA ELITE POISED TO FOSTER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH NTEMCCUL

 

 By Francis E. Nzante

Nyah Pilate, Treasurer of the Ntemyam Co-operative Credit Union NTEMCCUL has declared that through the medium of this Co-operative which assembles a cross section of the elite of Anyajua in Boyo Division, development initiatives were going to be supported. Speaking in a press briefing recently at the Head Office in Bamenda, Nyah Pilate said NTEMCCUL would foster development in the communities of Anyajua and other communities in Cameroon that had bought their idea and become members of this initiative of the sons and daughters of Anyajua. 

 The development efforts he said will be supported in the form of “pre-financing of development projects in our member communities and development projects of our individual members.” 

Also earmarked he said was the creation of employment for youths and the giving out of loans to member communities and individuals preferably School fees loans, Agricultural loans, Social loans amongst others at very low interest rates. 

Nyah Pilate said the word Ntemyam was a nickname of the Anyajua people which originated from the Second World War. This he explained was when a German Commander was killed at Tumuku, one of the nine communities that make up Anyajua. The Ntemyam Co-operative Credit Union he said was created by the sons and daughters of the nine communities that make up Anyajua. The first step he said was the creation of a WhatsApp group that assembled all these sons daughters in Cameroon and abroad. This Social Media Platform focused mostly on development issues and it was in this manner that the idea of a micro finance.

“When this idea came up from the Rural Development Engineers of Anyajua and I am one of them, it was unanimously voted by all sons and daughters of Anyajua at home, on the national Territory and abroad.”

He further explained that when the first ever consultative meeting was convened leading to it’s creation, the turn out was massive. This lead to the creation of what we refer to today as Ntemyam Co-operative Credit Union NTEMCCUL.

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