“Djottin is now Peaceful Enough for Execution of Electricity Project”
-Nyanyoh Mary Magdalene Tah, DADA National
President.
In this maiden Interview accorded to the media
since her overwhelming victory in the elections that ushered her into the
office of DADA National President, Nyanyoh Mary Magdalene Tah states
unequivocally that Djottin is no longer in the Red Zone. Djottin she insists is
now Peaceful Enough for the execution of the World Bank Electricity Project. The
lack of electricity,roads and portable water according to the dynamic National
President constitute some of the greatest deterrents to Development in Djottin.
She begins by introducing herself.
…………….
“I am Nyanyoh Mary Magdalene Tah, a Pedagogue
and Secondary School Teacher. So I am a teacher by Profession. I am Dean of
studies at Government Bilingual High School Atiela, Nkwen, Bamenda. I have been
in service for 22 years. I am a writer and I have written books on Citizenship
and articles on spirituality. I joined DADA in 1995 while I was a student in
Yaounde and I have held almost all the Executive Positions of DADA. I am a
member of Nkongma; Noni Ladies Meeting, (Noni Daughters). I am a member of the
Saint Jude’s Apostolate, Padre Prio Prayer Group. I am a daughter of Immaculate
Nsai and Evaristus Tah all of blessed memory. I am a mother and a proud Djottin
daughter.
………………
What message do you have for Kedjottin?…………….
The message I have for Kedjottin is
that of love. I crave for that Djottin of old. The Kedjottin of our
forefathers never knew the difference between villages and families. Parents
considered children irrespective of who the children were as their own. I call
upon Kedjottin to make sure that at least a child is helped each year to
stand on his feet. Don’t climb a tree, cut the
branches for everyone and then sit at
the top to be dropping plums to others. Help them climb that tree
because there are enough branches for everyone. No one is going to pull you
down. We should be proactive and Should do away with negative criticisms.
We should do away with jealousy. Let’s keep infighting aside and work as one
person for one purpose. That singular purpose should be to develope Djottin and
change its face. You should identify
yourself wherever you are and get yourself registered in a DADA branch. Register
yourself, get your DADA card and pay your development fee. Be a part of your
family meeting. Develope yourself and develope the village. I call upon the
Youths to enroll in school. No matter the difficulties in our country,
Education still remains the key. They should undergo Vocational Training. We
are here to help the Youths to change the face of Djottin. Youths hold the key
to Djottin's today and Djottin’s tomorrow. They should have hope. If you aren’t
doing any Professional activity in town then you should go back home and open
farms. Those who have the means Should construct home. We should start from
self development to family development followed by the development our
community and Djottin at large. Show that you love Djottin by participating in
its development.
………………
What are the
major problems facing DADA?
……………..
The major problems facing DADA include the
lack of electricity. This greatly contributes to the increase in Rural, Urban
Migration mostly among young people. This directly has an adverse effect on development
and on productivity. The lack of electricity has made it impossible to carry
out certain activities that could have provided employment for the Youths. Imagine
that you want to do Hair dressing, Weldering or to open a cold store. It will
be completely impossible simply because there are no lights. Though the World
Bank has given us electricity, though the contract has been awarded and some
people compensated for ceding their land for the project, nothing has been
done. Djottin is no longer in the red zone. Djottin is peaceful and this
project can be executed. No body working in Djottin will be disturbed. We are
pleading with authorities that be to execute the electrification project in Djottin.
Another major problem in Djottin is the lack of roads. It is a nightmare when
you travel to the village during the rainy season. The roads have no culverts
and there’s no laterite on them. They’re as such extremely slippery and impassable.
We are calling on the Council to
do something about the roads of Djottin.
With roads we will be able to carry our farm products to the market since
movement will be easy. This will stabilize the village economically and keep
everyone busy. The lack of roads greatly affects the Health Service Sector.
There are huge streams in the village without bridges over them. There’s also
the problem of insufficient water supply in the village despite the numerous
water catchment areas that we have. The pipes that are used in the village are
not large enough to permit water to be supplied throughout the village. We
therefore need reservoirs in which to store water. Water is life and is needed
to avoid the spread of certain diseases that come as a result of the absence of
portable drinking water. Another major problem is that of Rural, Urban Migration.
Young ones leave the village and move to places having the same problems like
Djottin and end up suffering. They leave the village where they had their own
farms and move to other towns to work on farms belonging to other people. There’s
no logic in this. This ocours because we don’t have roads, lights and basic amenities. I
assure you that if these amenities are provided these children will return home
because my village has very fertile soils. Another major problem is low
enrollment in school especially at the level of Post Primary Education. Many of
the schools are not operational and when teachers are sent there, they look for
means to be sent elsewhere as fast as possible. This is because of the absence
of basic amenities. There’s nothing to hold them down in the village. Many of
our young girls get pregnant at school going ages because of lack of education.
…………..
What is your take on the
way former DADA Presidents have been functioning. What additional ingredient do
you plan to bring in?
…………….
I think the erstwhile DADA
Presidents did their best within the context of the time when they were in
office. They did their best in bringing the people together and in executing
development projects. I remember Shey Nkene who brought a Truck and a
Caterpillar to the village and dug roads and made some bridges. They did a lot
for the village. They earmarked an area for the field and for the hall. During
the reign of Ndyun Donatus, a lot was done in the domain of water. Some water
catchment areas were built and water was extended to certain parts of Djottin. He
made sure that the old pipes were replaced though some of these pipes have not
been replaced. For the other Presidents like Shey Tah and Fali Ndituba, I don’t
know quite much because I was still very young but they have constantly been
referred to as good leaders. If they did
not keep the flame burning, the flame would not have stayed on till now. I plan
to work a lot with the branch Presidents. They are the ones who have power and
who generate the income of DADA. I will therefore empower the branch Presidents
to make sure that the objectives as stated in the manifesto are realized. We also have Presidents of the Wings, Youth
Presidents and Women Presidents. All of them constitute very strong forces and
I plan to work closely with them.
Before any activity takes
place in the village, we will create a think tank committee to brainstorm over
it and come up with ideas. We brainstorm on the ideas as a community and
execute the projects as a community. In the back-to-school project that we just
realized, we had an Education Committee. We looked for the money and the
material and we gave it to the committee and they did a marvelous job. That’s
how we plan to function. That will be our modus operandi as we execute all the
items in our manifesto. Everything will be done with a lot of transparency and
accountability. In my administration, everybody should come onboard. We will
therefore need to know how the various branches are functioning. We will have
written reports that the various coordinators will table in. There’s this issue
of cards that my predecessors didn’t produce that I will continue with a view
to producing them.
……………….
What about the plan of
action in your manifesto.
………………
In my manifesto, I had four
main points. These four points were the agro-pastoral activities, socio-cultural
activities, Energy and Infrastructural Activities and Health Education. In the
domain of Agro-pastoral activities I intend to introduce new cash crops that
are not yet cultivated in our area or those crops that are cultivated in small
quantities. I was thinking of setting up demonstration farms which have already
been earmarked. From there people can learn how to propagate the production of
Garlics, Onions, Ginger, and Water melon. There’s also the cultivation of wheat
and some grafted fruit trees as well as the cultivation of spices. In the
Agro-pastoral sector, we have already created the CIG pending registration. We
have already created the Executive and Farmers Cooperatives. This is to
facilitate better yields and marketing. We
will look for market outlets and market the products for them. We will also
teach them how to preserve what they produce and methods of basic
transformation. This will permit the produce to last for longer periods and
give us time to look for markets. We will also do the transformation of
vegetables and potato flour and look for the markets. Considering that Djottin
produces a lot of honey, we will also look market outlets in this direction. We
will also source for funding and provide modern farming tools for farmers. In
the Socio-cultural domain, we intend to lay emphasis on education. We already
started with the Back-to-school-scheme though it was at a very small scale. Apart
from books and partial scholarships, prizes will also be given to best students.
We intend to create a Youth Vocational Training Center to take care of
especially those our daughters who have given birth at a very early age during
the peak crisis period when schools were not open.
In this light we will be
collaborating with three NGOs in the domain of Reproductive Health.
We also plan to introduce
sporting activities especially in group sports like Football and Handball. DADA
is as such going to introduce the DADA cup. We also plan to introduce craft and
a museum will be created for this purpose. We are also introducing a branch by
branch human investment scheme. Prizes will be given to the two cleanest
quarters in Djottin. We plan to introduce Cultural activities through music,
story telling sessions amongst others.
This means that we are going
to revamp traditional songs and dances that had been abandoned. We are going to
give a facelift to our palaces and make them comfortable for our leaders.
In the domain of Energy and
infrastructure, we are going to continue with Roads and water supply. This
means that we will have to pick up with incomplete projects of the previous
President. At the moment there are some contractors working on water catchments
in Djottin. We thank the Religious and the Reverend Sisters for the work they
are doing on water in the village.
We intend to build two main
bridges that will connect the Educational Centre of Djottin to the other
distant parts of the village. Students commute frequently from these distant
parts of the village to the center of Djottin which constitutes the Educational
Heart Beat. We are also continuing with the existing Hydro-Electricity system
while hoping that World Bank Electricity Project comes to fruition.
Interviewed by Francis
Ekongang Nzante.
Noni Updates
Publisher : Francis Ekongang Nzante.
Email: francoeko@gmail.com
Tel: +237696896001 or +237678401408
