The current validation of the mandates of MP’s-elect brings to mind a curious mishap during a similar exercise in 1997 when Barrister Andrew Edjua (RIP), on the CPDM ballot for Akwaya, was denied entry into the National Assembly premises and his mandate offered to another son of Akwaya.
That year, the ruling CPDM had invested Edjua alongside two other candidates for Eyumojock and Mamfe/Upper Banyang on the three-candidate Manyu list and the sample ballots already printed and circulated. Along the line, another sample ballot was seen in circulation bearing the name of someone else, Christopher Kububu (RIP), as candidate for Akwaya. It was alleged that the fake ballot was the handiwork of the Manyu “political leader”, then Minister of Higher Education, Professor Peter AgborTabi (RIP) who, with the alleged connivance of then South West Governor, Oben Peter Ashu (RIP) got a local printing press in Buea to print the fake ballot with Kububu as CPDM Akwaya candidate.
AgborTabi reportedly had axe to grind with Edjua for undisclosed reasons and though his desperate effort to block Edjua’s investiture at the level of the Central Committee in Yaounde had failed, he had found a way to circumvent that with his fake ballot game. Both ballots were circulated and used on voting day and after the election where CPDM was declared winner, it was the mandate of Kububu that was validated through the machinations of his godfathers and he served as Akwaya MP cumulatively with his other functions as Mayor of Akwaya, neither of which mandates he completed. He died a couple of years later in the UK, where he was evacuated for treatment.
During that 1997 session, like this one, Edjua reported like other MPs-elect to validate his mandate but was denied entry into the Assembly premises. His desperate efforts to remedy his mandate by knocking doors at the CPDM Central Committee and top Government officials he thought could help were futile.
All four protagonists in that mellow-drama are now deceased.
Cavaye’s Nat.Ass. coronavirus scare!
The incumbent Speaker of the National Assembly, CavayeYeguieDjibril, may just have contaminated the National Assembly with coronavirus (Covid-19). He flew into the country March 14 and was seated with fellow members of the House on March 16, two days on. The incubation period for coronavirus is two weeks, time for the virus to mature in the human body, though carriers may contaminate others even without knowing they themselves are contaminated.
Afterover a month in Europe where he has been receiving treatment for an ailment, the 48-year House member and 28-year Speaker who was absent for the opening plenary of the current Session as of Right returned to the country at the weekend and was seen being supported on both sides by two Gendarmes, said to be his close aides. They drove him straight out of the airport without submitting him through the mandatory airport coronavirus test. Nor was he quarantined for two weeks as he was seen at the National Assembly on Monday, only two days after his return.
Even if Cavayehad undergonethe airport test, he had already breached the protocol by having body contact with two men on the ground. If by any chance Cavaye had contracted the virus while in Europe or on board his flight back home, presence in the House chamber this Monday for the session for the conferment of attributes, including the green-red-yellow sash, is a breach of the coronavirus protocol.
CavayeYeguie flew to Yaounde around the time a new reported coronavirus case flew to Cameroon from Belgium. The Health department has been running announcements for those who few into Cameroon in two flights on different days around that period to report to health facilities for tests and for possible quarantine. In countries where the coronavirus scare is taken seriously and adequate preventive measures put in place, those who travel in from high risk zones like China and Europe and thosw they have been in contact with, are kept in quarantine for two weeks. In Cameroon, the outgoing House Speaker used his privileged “discretionary powers” to flout every laid down coronavirus protocol. In so doing, he may have “imported” another dose of coronavirus into Cameroon, might have contaminated his aides, his family and, who knows, possible the National Assembly.
Cameroon teaches the world quarantine!
The world needs to come and learn from Cameroon and Africa at largehow to do effective, watertight quarantine.The coronavirus (if indeed it infects Africans) has witnessed the slowest or no spread at all in African countries. In Cameroon, once a coronavirus case is quarantined, the virus obeysit must not break bounds. Apparently, even those who had had any form of contact with coronavirus patients get to lose the infection once the original patient is quarantined. About every case of coronavirus in Africa is imported, but transmitted on the ground. Thank God for corona-immunity!
See Africa watching the world suffer. See the world jealous of Africa’s invincibility. Poor world! They out to come and learn how to do quarantine from Africa. After all, how is it that developed countries with better health systems are witnessing this escalation of the virus only hours after their first cases are reported but the same does not obtain in Africa. Once it is reported that the virus has been found in an developed country, it is only a matter of days, if not hours for the number of cases to grown geometrically. And those are traditional atomic communities where individuals can be very individualistic. How is it that in Africa where communities are traditional communal, where “bushfallers” (African diasporans visiting home) are practically “assailed”, touched, embraced, kissed by their “fans” they dine and sleep with, witnesses such low and slow spread of the virus?
The secret could be in Cameroon/Africa’s special quarantine formula, so watertight, the virus cannot spread. Imagine coronavirus found fertile ground in Cameroon/Africa, seeing how ravaged developed countries are, that could have been like Armageddon. But as someone joked, when coronavirus came to Africa, it looked at the poor health services and decided it is too classy to stay in such low-rated facilities and went away. Amidst the conundrum, we can only praise God for sparing Africa this one.
outside africa
Corona seeks the Crown
Like its name suggests, coronavirus is showing its ambitions. It seems to be aspiring for the crown. The virus is sparing no one, if only it could reach everyone it possibly could. (Corona sounds like “coron” in French or crown in English.)
The PM of Canada, Justin Trudeau could well have contracted the virus. He went into quarantine last week after his wife tested positive. A scare emerged around the Ayatolla of Iran after one of his advisers died of the virus only weeks after the outbreak. US President Donald Trump took a coronavirus test last week after concerns were raised following his encounter with a Brazilian delegation some of whose members tested positive. A world leader jokingly (albeit seriously) rebuffed German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week to avoid possible contact with the virus and Israeli arch-rivals, Benyamin Netanyahu and Benny Ganz greeted by joining their elbows, not their hands, when they met at the presidential palace to discuss ways out of their electoral deadlock.
Outside political circles, sports and showbiz stars have tested positive and others taken into quarantine because their entourage were found or suspected to have been exposed to the virus. Christiano Ronaldo went into quarantine after the virus was detected among players of his club had had contact with.
Coronavirus star scare narrated by foreign media
Government officials
The novel coronavirus did not spare the authorities fighting against it either.
The office of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday announced that Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the wife of the Canadian PM had been tested positive for the new coronavirus. PM Trudeau had announced that he will also self-quarantine for 14 days as a precautionary measure.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton also confirmed on Friday that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Dutton had returned from a trip to the United States where he had posed alongside Ivanka Trump and Trump’s attorney general, William Barr before the confirmation according to a Business Insider report.
UK’s junior Health minister and Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has been diagnosed with coronavirus on Wednesday, stoking fear of the novel virus’ potential spread. She had attended an event last week where the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson had also been present, the Guardian reported.
Multiple ministers in Iran had been infected by the virus which has infected over 10,000 people in the country with the death toll rising to 429 on Friday. Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi had been the first to get infected with the virus. He had seemed to be in physical discomfort at his interviews given a day before the announcement was made in February. Iranian senior Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and two other cabinet members have also been infected according to an Al Jazeera report.
In the US, Miami’s Mayor Francis Suarez confirmed on Friday that he had been tested positive for COVID-19, after attending an event with a delegation from Brazil according to a Business Insider report.
According to an official statement, Spain’s Equality Minister Irene Montero has also been infected with the virus. Montero has been quarantined with her partner, the Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Pablo Iglesias.
Earlier this month, reports claiming that the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been infected with COVID-19 had surfaced in the media. Bolsanaro however, earlier this week had denied the claims and said that he had been tested negative for COVID-19.
Hollywood castaways
Hollywood star Tom Hanks on Thursday has announced that his wife Rita Wilson and him have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Castaway actor and his wife were in Australia for pre-production work of his upcoming Warner Bros. film based on the life of musician Elvis Presley. They have been quarantined in Australia where they are undergoing treatment.
In the world of sports
The National Basketball Association had called off the entire season earlier this week after Utah Jazz’s centre Rudy Gobert had confirmed that he was tested positive for the coronavirus. Another Utah Jazz player Donovan Mitchell had also been infected with COVID-19.
Mikel Arteta, the manager of famed football club Arsenal had tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this week. Post his announcement, football star Christiano Ronaldo had also isolated himself in Madeira as he had come in contact with the Arsenal Boss before he was tested positive for COVID-19. Ronaldo, however, has not shown any symptoms of the disease so far according to media reports.
Apart from Arteta, multiple football players including Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi, Juventus’ Daniele Rugani, Manolo Gabbiadini from the Sampdoria player and Hannover 96’s Timo Hubers have also tested positive for the coronavirus as per a BBC report.
The death toll from the coronavirus worldwide has surpassed 5,000 with confirmed cases around the world topping 134,000 according to the World Health Organization.
Culled from India Business Online