African Cup of Nations finals: Ghana versus Egypt

In under five minutes the finals of the African Cup of Nations will kick off at the November 11th stadium of Luanda, the capital of Angola.

How I began stringing for the English service of Radio France International (RFI)

I decided to make use of the links and network of friends, which I had created during my two years stay at CRTV, in order to get contracts for the production of documentaries and other activities, which needed video filming. But, I was missing the broadcasting world and in September 1997, I think at the start of the month or in the middle of September, I wrote a letter to the management of Radio France International, informing them of my desire to work as a stringer with the English service. But before writing to the management of RFI, because of reasons latter mentioned and which will be developed in greater details below, I had first written or applied to work for the BBC. But they replied that, they already had a stringer in Cameroon. RFI, in particular, her French and English services, were never my best foreign broadcasters. I never bothered to listen to them. However, I did occasionally listen to them, especially when I was not able to receive the signals of the BBC. My best foreign broadcaster has and will always be the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). I have a hereditary affection for the Beeb transmitted to me by my father. I think, I began listening to the BBC in my mother’s womb and when I was 9 years old; my father bought me my first transistor radio, that was fixed or constantly tuned to the BBC. The best programmes I used to listen were: Focus on Africa and News Hour, presented by Robin White and Robin Lustig.

But sometimes, the News Hour was presented by a certain Julian Marshall. But occasionally, I did listen to the English service of RFI and I used to like a letter programme, presented by David Page. But I only came to discover the existence of the English service of Radio France International (RFI) in 1988, when I was a form two student at the Vocational College of Arts Science and Technology (VOCAST) in Muyuka. This was during a competition that I and other students of my class introduced, in order to discover or find out who had listened to the highest number of radio stations, broadcasting on short wave. However, in order to avoiding students from going home to ask their parents or older brothers /sisters or any other member of their families to give them the names of international radios that was broadcasting via the short waves, competitors, had to bring the names of new stations, country and city of broadcast and the name of at least one programme. I had listened to close to 150 Radio stations via my Philips transistor radio, bought by my father. The only stations that were not to be found on the list of those of us who were in the competition were BBC and VOA (Voice of America). Why? It was simply because; both broadcasters were popular in Anglophone Cameroon.

My spell at Elimbi Newspaper

It was after those phases mentioned earlier, that, I joined the editorial desk of Elimbi Newspaper. But, the paper that I joined, was not only a shadow of her original self, Elimbi newspaper, had also lost its incendiary, tribalist and hate propagating tone. I joined the regionalist paper, as head of the English section. I also think that, I was the last head of the Anglophone desk. Why? Simply because, John Epee Mandengue who was the main sponsor had left Cameroon and he had no plans of ever returning. The Elimbi newspaper that I joined, I must insist, had nothing of her former financial potentials and also had no potentials to spread the regional and tribal prejudice, which it used to pride itself of. It was during my brief spell at Elimbi newspaper that I had the opportunity to have an interview with Professor Gotlieb Lobe Monekosso. Professor Monekosso was a former minister of Health in Cameroon. Prior to his appointment as minister of health in one President Paul Biya’s many governments, he was the retired head of the Africa section or region of the World Health Organisation (WHO) with headquarters in Brazzaville, Congo Republic.

Professor Monekosso is an Anglophone and also one of the many who left after unification and opted for a Nigerian nationality. He worked in Nigeria and represented Nigeria in Tanzania on health matters. But he (Professor Lobe Monekosso) was lured back to Cameroon courtesy late Dr Bernard Fonlon, whom late President Amadou Ahidjo had task to sort out and bring home, all Anglophone intellectuals around the world, especially those who were disgruntled after unification. Monekosso was amongst the very few who accepted to come back and was given a post of responsibility and latter on, he was proposed as Cameroon’s candidate for the post of head of WHO Africa region. Anglophone Cameroonians who listened to the flattering words of late Dr Fonlon and came back to Cameroon had a mixture of success and disappointments. It was profound disappointment to most returnees, who thought that, the freedom of speech and democratic culture that existed in former British Southern Cameroon’s will be replicated in a unified Cameroon, which had French-speakers as the majority. I worked as head of the English desk of Elimbi for three months and decided to resign because, I was not paid. I never wanted a repeat of what happened to me at CRTV, where I stayed for two years, working without pay and expecting to be given a permanent contract. Hence, I thought it was best to start my own communications structure.

John Epee Mandengue’s frosty rapport with the Anglophone Press

As for John Epee Mandengue, he was ambitious and he can’t be reproached for that. But he had an unclean record with the Press, especially those from the English-speaking region of Cameroon. Why? Perhaps because, they were much more investigative and did not accept all what he claimed or did. He led an antagonistic rapport with the Anglophone Press to the point of sending to jail Mr Paddy Mbawa, one of the well-known Anglophone journalist and Editor of the most popular Anglophone newspaper at the time: Cameroon Post. Mandengue was also planning to do the same with Ntemfack Ofegeh, another famous Anglophone nationalist journalist, who is the publisher of Newswatch magazine. Hence, when problems began piling up against John Epee Mandengue, he could not rely or use his Anglophone base to support him or use the Anglophone press either. Things did not work out for Mandengue as he had wanted. He came from Nigeria to exploit a regime that was dictatorial, corrupt and overtly ethno-regionalist, but strangely, he was instead the one who was exploited and dumped by the very system he thought he mastered. John Epee Mandengue’s story and experience in Cameroon resembles the core of the novel of Camara Leye in titled: the Black boy. He felt he was too intelligent than the system or government, but he discovered to his expense that, the system was much more intelligent and brutal than he was. And it is certain that, the travails that, John began having in Cameroon, made him to recall his wife’s warnings. Mandengue’s Nigerian wife had forewarned him. She clearly told him to about steer clear from politics. But what did he told her when he went back to Lagos, Nigeria to meet her.

Laurent Esso and how the Douala based insurance firm: Province Reunie was closed (part 2)

And since Mr Esso was an ally of John Epee Mandengue, there was no way he (Thomas) could expect to have any fair treatment in his company’s dispute with the state and that, it was the Justice Minister, who had the final word. Province Reunie lost her licence to operate as an insurance firm in Cameroon and soon after, he (Thomas Tobbo Eyoum) was unseated as the government’s delegate or Lord Mayor of the Greater Douala City council. John and Thomas could be likened to birds of the same feather. They were both businessmen with political ambitions. As for their ancestries, they both used it to their advantage as well as it disadvantages. But by and large, they both knew how to make use of their intricate web of family, tribal or national links, existing in the West African state, which was strangely not affected, modified and not even destroyed with the advent of colonialism. While some purest may doubt John’s claim to be a native of Deido, Thomas was also suspected of being economical with his ancestry. Even though he also claimed to be a native of Deido, it was rumoured that, he was in fact a native of the Nkam division of the Littoral province. He was precisely from the Bodiman nation or tribe.

Laurent Esso and how the Douala based insurance firm: Province Reunie was closed

Even though Peter Mafany Musonge and Chief Ephraim Inoni were from the same province and more, they were both Anglophones and even shared the same ethnic group, they were not from the same town. The first was from Buea, while the second was from the West coast sub division, precisely from the town of Idenao, situated north of the city of Victoria (Limbe). Like most elites of the coastal Anglophone region, Chief Ephraim Inoni frowned at the preference that, the central government in Yaoundé, had toward the natives of Buea, when it came to governmental appointments. The other problem that Mr Ephraim Inoni had vis-à-vis former Prime Minister Mafany was that, he (Inoni) thought that, Peter Mafany was not a bona fide member of the ruling party: Cameroon’s People Democratic Movement (CPDM) as he (Inoni) was. Hence, when John’s case against Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) for breach of contract was ruled in his disfavour, he had no other alternative than park and leave Cameroon for Lagos, Nigeria. But strange as it would appear, it was as though, John Epee Mandengue and Thomas Tobbo Eyoum had their fates tied to each other. For as John was loosing his business and his political ambitions in Cameroon, because of his competition with Thomas, the second was also loosing his insurance company: Province Reunie and also his political asset in the city of Douala. This was so because, Province Reunie insurance company owned by Thomas Tobbo Eyoum had her own legal problems with the state and it was Laurent Esso, who was Justice Minister at the time who had to adjudicate on the matter.

How Thomas Tobbo Eyoum plotted the fall of John Epee Mandengue

Thomas Tobbo Eyoum MP, was the friend of Mr Quang. He knew that, Mr Quang had the support of His Royal Highness Chief William Manga Mbile Ferguson, the traditional head of Victoria(Limbe) and the Bakweri ethnic group of the city. This support was important because, even though the government is in agreement or is in contact in all parts of Cameroon with traditional leaders/rulers, in Anglophone Cameroon, traditional leaders/ruler have much more influence. Hence, the majority French-speaking government in Yaoundé did make sure to have them as allies and not adversaries. Mindful of all the elements that played in favour of Henry Njalla Quang, who was by this time, the new Managing Director of Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), Mr. Thomas decided to contact Mr Quang in order to complain about John Epee Mandengue. Thomas Tobbo Eyoum presented his case against Mr Mandengue to Henry Njalla Quang in an astute manner.

He presented his case against Mr Mandengue as a political threat not to him (Thomas) but more to Henry Njalla Quang. Thomas Tobbo Eyoum knew that, his friend (Henry) also desired the post of Prime minister, which was occupied then by Peter Mafany Musonge. But Henry never knew what to do or how to counter the speculative political threats allegedly posed to his ambitions by John Epee Mandengue, especially that, he was not based in the South west province. But Thomas nonetheless convinced him to suspend all insurance contracts that, John’s company Broking Services International had with CDC. When the news of the breach of contract linking CDC to Broking Service International reached John Epee Mandengue, he (John) immediately rang his cousin who was Prime minister. But he was soon discovering to his chagrin that, his cousin although a Prime minister, could not do anything to help him. Why? For Henry Njalla Quang, even though welding no political power, he was nevertheless appointed by the President of the Republic and a Prime minister had little or no influence on him or any other person directly appointed by the President of the Republic.

In Cameroon, all strategic companies such as the CDC have at their heads only managers who are appointed personally by the head of state and answerable to him directly. The lost of the contract that Broking Services International had with CDC was also the beginning of the end of John Epee Mandengue’s experimental return to Cameroon. John Epee Mandengue decided to go back to his native Nigeria after it became evident to him that, the centre could no longer hold because things had fallen apart, but he never wanted to go without fighting. He decided to file a court case against CDC for breach of contract, but it was a loosing battle, for Njalla Quang, fearing repercussion of what he has done and the eventual reaction of the Prime minister Peter Mafany Musonge, he (Quang) decided to send a distress call to his political ally Chief Inoni Ephraim, who was at the time deputy secretary General at the presidency of the Republic. Mr Ephraim assured his friend (Quang) of his support.