“Internet users bill of right is the next thing that we plan to work on” - Coordinator of "A Common Future Organisation"

Gwain Colbert is a Media Personality, Radio host and Coordinator of A Common Future Organisation in which he functions as the Internet Right Consultant. In this interview he states among other things that his organisation looks at the internet as a Human Right just like water, electricity, shelter and education. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante of EDEV Web News on World Press Freedom Day at the Presbytarian Church Center in Bamenda.

Gwain Colbert doing a presentation on World Press Freedom Day in Bamenda

 What inspired you to work as an internet right consultant?

I started this work in 2014 as an Internet Right Activist and I was more intersted in internet more as somebody who wanted people to have access to internet and relevant content because I discovered many Cameroonians were not benefiting from the availability of internet. Not up to 1.7% of Cameroonians were enjoying the internet so it was still a problem.  Even when the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications announced that they were to open internet points in all the Sub Divisions and Divisions, I realised that what they were doing was more of a political propaganda. They started in 2013 that they were going to open local ICT Centers in all the Sub Divisions but 2014 and 2015 came past without ICT centers being opened and even the ICT centers that were being launched in distant places like Ngelemenduka, Mesaje and the rest were not working because the staff were not motivated and the internet that the campaign was offering was not enough to sustain the centers. We discovered that before the relevant content, accessibility was actually a problem. 

What structure are you working in to realise these goals?

I work for A Common Future. It is a platform which believes that whether you are a man or a woman, an anglophone or francophone, we have a common future. So we are intersted more in constructive ideas and things that will create new opportunities for society to move ahead. We are adressing issues at the periphery and making them main stream. We discovered that we need to make voices seldom heard online to the global community. That’s how A Common Future Organisation got involved. Decision making in Cameroon is managed by 20% of people mostly in high places and we are providing an alternative for the abandoned greater percent to be involved in the governing of their country. Social Media is another platform that internet offers that’s why we realised that a lot of dreams can be realised through the internet. There are a lot of social media platforms that have been involving people so women who have been disadvantaged in society are bridging the gap. Teachers are bridging the gap and the gender gap is already being bridged. 

What are the grounds so far covered in the ongoing campaign?

We started this because government was enacting a law in parliament that could permit it to block the internet anytime that it wanted so our campaign was geared towards the law makers, the media, and other stakeholders to block government from ever passing a law that would make it possible for such a thing to occur. The United Nations and the African Union Conventions  and declarations on internet rights and freedom principles has said that no matter what is happening no government has any right to slow down the internet or to slow it down. The campaign started on February the 15^th and will end on August the 15^th. We discovered that the older people in society knew nothing about the internet and that media practitioners did not yet know that access to the internet was a right. We as such have a lot of sensitisation work to do.NGOs are supposed to realise that they are supposed to factor the internet as a human right in their range of activities. We have reached out to parliamentarians in Cameroon and during the last parliamentary session we were active. We also met with CPDM Parliamentarians when the Prime Minister was holding meetings in the Northwest to see that things return to normal in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of the country.We used the occasion to remind that government already passed a law on cyber security that in case of necessity it would be individuals and not entire communities that would be victimised. We are saying that even after internet has been restored issues like access and relevant content equally still have to be addressed.

How did you exploit the World Press Freedom Day and its theme to put forth your aspirations?

The theme was about critical minds for critical moments and media role in creating a just, peaceful and inclusive society. One of the things that make a society to be inclusive is the internet and if you cut off internet from one part of the country you cannot say the country is one and indivisible. Internet equally gives us an opportunity to be critical and if the theme talks about critical minds then a mind can only be really critical nowadays if it has access to the internet. Cutting off the internet means uncritical minds for critical times. Government has no right to take the internet because it is not a gift from the government in the first place. 

What is the next big thing that you plan to work on?

Though we are still sourcing for funds, the Internet users bill of right is the next thing that we plan to work on. We have discovered that government can go to the extent of intimidating internet service providers like MTN, Orange, Nextel and Camtel. This was because the government did not see that the providers have a responsibility to the users. Of course a lot of things have been going wrong with the internet. There has been a lot of hate speech and the Woman's right has been violated among many other things. We are working on the security of journalists online, and means to protect the data of ordinary citizens online. This can only be done if there is an appropriate law. All stakeholders should work together to make sure that internet cuts don't become the new order in Cameroon. 

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“We engage parents in learning processes and change school cultures

”

-Co-founder, Educate a Child in Africa.

ECA, Educate a Child in Africa, Inc. is the brain child of two Co-Founders. Gideon A. Asaah is a co-founder and chief operating officer. He is a Social Entrepreneur with over ten years of experience working with young people in Cameroon. He’s an Ashoka Fellow and a passionate advocate for Education in Africa.
  Divine Gordon Asaah is the second co-founder and Executive Director. He is an American citizen of Cameroonian origin based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Philadelphia, New York. He is a Researcher at Havard School of Education. The Chief Operating Officer Gideon A. Asaah was interviewed in his Limbe office by EDEV’s Francis Ekongang Nzante. His revelations provide interesting reading.

Excerpts:

What pushed Assah Gideon into his present humanitarian activities?

I was inspired by my parents. My dad is an administrator but before being an administrator he was a teacher. My mother has been a primary school teacher for over 30 years and I saw the tireless efforts she put in. It was a kind of education that kids were not given the opportunity get hands on learning. This pushed me to create an association called educate a child in Africa. I did this in collaboration with my elder brother Divine Gordon Assah who’d lived in the US for over ten years and had worked with one of the biggest theatre houses in the world decided to create this organization. In 2010 when our association was created, he resigned from his job just like I had done. He then went to the Havard School of Education after which he threw his weight behind our activities.

What road have you so far covered with Educate a child in Africa?

ECA Mission is a non-profit organization that supports student
achievement and school improvement through Play and Learn games and activities, Family Engagement and Community Engagement. We equally believe that everyone benefits when community members are involved in their children’s education. For our play and learn activities we create games for children as well as spaces in schools and communities where kids learn almost 90% of what they study in school but in the form of play. In these spaces kids learn and coordinate activities and even go as far as creating games. Basically we have been working in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon but our focus more recently has actually been the Southwest Region because of the shaky situation in Cameroon recently. Because of the absence of school due to strike actions we have been creating spaces in communities.

Can you outline the modus operandi of ECA in a much more specific manner?

There is Play and Learn | Leadership. Educate a Child in Africa, Inc.'s Play and Learn | Leadership club activities inspires the passion for consequential formal education; teach children basic lessons on diverse subjects while building their confidence, team building and leadership skills. Children love to have fun. So we incorporate playfulness in education. We make education enjoyable for children by weaving lessons into lively activities. We create original games that help pupils in Science, hTechnology, Engineering and Math.

 ECA's Play and Learn | Leadership club activities fosters lifelong learning opportunities for all children. Family Engagement: Most parents have disengaged themselves from their children's education. We change the culture of public institutions by training teachers on how to intentionally and systematically forge sustainable mutually beneficial partnerships with parents. When schools develop strong partnerships with parents, families and communities, the pupils achieve at a higher level and are better equipped for lifelong success.

Know Your Children: It is a fun-game show between children and their parents/guardians. The goal of this initiative is to assuage the different frictions that exist within families and communities and identify the most essential needs of children. Children ask their parents pertinent questions about them. This lively activity falls in line with Article 18 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which states that 'both parents share responsibility for bringing up their child and should always consider what is best for the child'

Gideon A. Asaah

So what is the way forward?

We want to be all over the continent. When we started we did a couple of things in Nigeria but we thought that it wasn’t time for us to scale so we decided to come back and focus on the areas where we started. So in 2017 we will be putting in place a strategy to scale to other African countries.

Any message to some stakeholders?

My message is directed to policy makers, educational authorities and those in decision making positions. I call on the Cameroonian Government to be involved in initiatives like this. This is the case in some West African countries and in Uganda, a country that I visited recently.

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More than 20 Million FCFA raised for development projects in Akum

More than 20 million FCFA has been raised for development projects in Akum. This revelation was made by Pius Nji Tumasang, the1^st Vice President General of the Akum Welfare Association deputising for the President General Donatus Fombarrh unavoidably absent during the 74^th Annual General Meeting of the Association which took place on Saturday April 15 in Akum.

Fon Ndikum George III of Akum and Patron of AWA

The First Vice President General said the contributions that came in from the various branches for development projects in the village were close to 16 million FCFA. “We equally raised close to 6 million FCFA for the Palace Project. So if we have succeeded to raise more than 20.000.000 FCFA for development projects in the village then I think it is a positive point.”

Pius Nji Tumasang: Vice President General Akum Welfare Association

The 74^th Annual Convention he said had been very successful. “Before the convention we had some challenging issues and in the village there was a problem between the Fon and his notables but before the convention, with the directives from my President we were able to convene a meeting between the Fon and the notables and we agreed on the way forward. You must have noticed that the Fon attended the meeting today with his notables meanwhile for the past one year or so the Fon has not been attending meetings with his notables” the vice President explained.

He further explained that in the past AWA was accused of embracing so many projects at a time but that now they had agreed to focus on two main projects; the rehabilitation of the Palace road and the rehabilitation of the Akum Community hall.  

Ntumfor Martin Tumasang, a retired School Principal of GHS Akum and Vice Patron of the Akum Welfare Association AWA said he was very delighted to have seen the way that this day had passed. “There have been a few things worrying the cohesion of this community called Akum. 

Ntumfor Martin Tumasang

You will bear with me that the Fon has just addressed the community and has given a new hope to the people that he is bringing everything under control. Evidence of this is the fact that you have seen all our nobles who for a short while have been at loggerheads with the Fon over a number of issues.” If this is the only thing we have achieved here today, then I think the days ahead are even more promising and come this time next year when we will be celebrating the 75^th anniversary, I think everything shall have been put together for good.”

With regards to very useful suggestions that were made, he said he had already conferred with the Fon and that he was already buying the idea of taking loans for development projects. “By the time the next Central Working Committee meets, we will be putting through these suggestions. It is a thing that we can do and do very well.  My message to the Akum people is that they should remain the united and respectful people that they have always been.”

Hon Chief Paul Nji Tumasang, Member of Parliament at the National Assembly for Mezam South, Santa Special Constituency summarised the AWA convention in the following words. 

Hon Chief Paul Nji Tumasang

 “AWA has been doing much in terms of Community Development and I am very happy that today’s session has been very successful. I have been at the helm of the association for over 12 years. For 6 years I was the Vice President General and about 6 years the President General. You heard the Fon talking about the Palace project which is very dear to us. The Palace was really an eye sore and if you go there now you will see that we have at least modernised the Palace.  This started within my reign and it has continued. There are many other things that we plan to do. You heard the Fon talking about roads. Every quarter in Akum is accessible by roads and we just need to put in a little more effort and these roads will be accessible all the year round.  

I call on the Akum people to continue to stick together due to the love for their village and country. I expect that every time there is a clarion call they should come and put hands together like they have done with the Palace Project and some school projects. That’s my advice to Akum people in the village, in Cameroon and the Diaspora.” 

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