BY ATIA TILARIOUS AZOHNWI
President Paul Biya’s Friday night cursory government surgery put two Anglophones in hitherto no-go ministries – Paul Atanga Nji is pioneer minister of Territorial Administration while Prof. Nalova Lyonga becomes the first Anglophone to head the Ministry of Secondary Education.
In an apparent move to appease disgruntled Anglophones, President Biya’s March 2, 2018 decree maintains Prime Minister Philemon Yang who now becomes Cameroon’s longest serving prime minister.
When the Anglophone crisis sparked off in 2016, many are those who wondered why Anglophones have never been allowed to head sovereign ministries like that of Territorial Administration, Defence, External Relations and even Finance and the Economy. They considered this deprivation, stemming from marginalisation to oppression.
Atanga Nji: man of the moment
President Paul Biya chose to make Anglophones smile by swapping Atanga Nji Paul and Rene Emmanuel Sadi. Sadi becomes Minister of Special Duties at the Presidency of the Republic while Atanga Nji takes command of the interior ministry – Territorial Administration.
New Minister of Territorial Administration
Atanga Nji was appointed Minister of Special Duties in 2007 and would later cumulate this function with that of Permanent Secretary at the national Security Council.
Cameroon’s 10 Regional Governors, 58 Senior Divisional Officers and 360 Divisional Officers are under the control of Minister Paul Atanga Nji. When man thinks that it is impossible, President Biya’s pen makes it possible.
Accompanying the Head of State at all important summits and meetings out of the country, the 58-year old has built a strong bond with his namesake which has led many to describe him as Paul Biya’s secret eyes.
Minister Atanga Nji triumphed over former Bamenda Government Delegate, Abel Ndeh to become Mezam I CPDM Section President. He ran for parliamentary elections that year but was badly bruised by SDF’s Hon. Forbi Nchinda Simon.
Shortly after the 2007 twin elections, Atanga Nji was appointed Minister of Special Duties at the Presidency, a position he held until March 2, 2018.
Atanga Nji was appointed Permanent Secretary at the National Security Council a few years back.
In his characteristic daring political nature, the new minister of interior created the first ever CPDM Ntarikon II Sub-section of the ruling party in the stronghold of main opposition leader Ni John Fru Ndi ahead of the 50 anniversary celebrations of the Armed Forces in Bamenda – the first sub-section of its kind to be created around the area since 1990.
In 2013, he launched a spirited CPDM campaigned that finally defeated and ousted the SDF from the Bamenda I council. The current CPDM Coordinator for Mezam Division is fearless and doesn’t take no for an answer.
Nalova Lyonga: the pride of Small Soppo
Nalova Lyonga is a familiar name in education circles in Cameroon. Her exploits in higher education earned her the Secondary Education ministerial portfolio in Biya’s Friday night government.
Professor Nalova Lyonga, the Small Soppo-born renowned scholar was appointed Board Chair of the Douala General Hospital few weeks after coming to the end of her five year stay as Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea. Close to four months after, she has been catapulted from her retirement to steady the Secondary Education ship.
Minister of Secondary Education
Nalova Lyonga, a household name in Cameroon’s educational cycles and university lecturer was appointed Vice Chancellor of the 24-year-old University of Buea (UB) by a presidential decree on Friday, June 29, 2012 and bowed out on June 27, 2017.
The Professor of African Literature and Feminist Theories is holder of a PhD in Arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA). She returned home and began an unbroken teaching career in the Cameroon University system since 1985 at the then University of Yaoundé where she had earlier earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Modern Letters before leaving for a Master’s (MA) at Sheffield University (UK).
In addition to her eloquence in public speech-making especially in amphitheatres, Nalova Lyonga has penned many journal articles and books on African literature and feminist theories. They include the famous Socrates in Cameroon.
Nalova believes in dialogue, justice and transparency as therapy for most social problems. This virtue of hers will help in resolving the problems bedevilling the ministry of secondary education and the Anglophone sub-system of education.
She took over the reins of an institution that was plagued with internal strife and high level politicking. Amidst the troubles, Nalova maintained that:
“Let us talk to each other and not walk out. Let us keep going into UB like a river and be of good to our community. We welcome comments that will make us grow.”
The use of the river metaphor by Nalova who has a literary background was of course, well calculated to involve everyone not just in the flow but in a flow that goes in the same direction. The underlying cushion was, of course, the appeal for “comments that will make us grow.”
Today, she is called to oversee the affairs of the Ministry of Secondary Education that has in recent times been struggling to redeem its battered image – from the difficulties plaguing Anglo-Saxon education to the recent arrest of striking teachers in Yaoundé.
Nalova is expected to put her administrative savvy and tact to transform the Ministry of Secondary Education, turn stumbling blocks to stepping stones and salvage the dwindling fortunes of secondary education teachers and learners.
It is under Prof. Nalova’s guided leadership that peace returned to UB. Research was prioritised and after a long time, quality control returned to the academic life of UB, the place to be. It is expected that she will do same at the Ministry of Secondary Education.
She will be expected to give meaning to the presidential degree of March 2, 2018 that bestowed confidence on her.
She was received in audience by Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Minister, and Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic on March 2, 2018. The meeting lasted from 10am to 10:15am within which time her readiness to manage the ministry of secondary education was ascertained.
When she left the Presidency after the 15-minute-audience, she did not know that President Biya would entrust her with such a high level state assignment. It was in the Douala evening traffic on her way back to Limbe that she followed the appointments on radio.