BY ATIA TILARIOUS AZOHNWI & Ikome Christie-Noella Eposi
Buea Mayor, Ekema Patrick Esunge and his deputies, Motomby Mbome Emmanuel, John Lyonga Efande and Mosoko Edward Motuwe were absent at the March 15 meeting intended to map out strategies to win votes for the CPDM list,ahead of the senatorial elections billed for March 25.
The Head of the CPDM campaign team in Buea and Section President of CPDM Fako III, David Mafani Namange who convened and chaired the meeting said he invited members of the campaign team, executive members of the council and the CPDM group leaders at the Buea Council to the gathering.
He had used a bailiff to serve the invitations to the mayor and his deputies. Reacting to why some of those invited did not show up, Mafani said:
“I think some people were held back by other duties. The only people who were not here today are the mayor, the first, second and third deputy mayors. The fourth deputy mayor in the person of Dr. MrsOjongnkpot Comfort was here.”
The meeting was however attended by four councillors: Prof. Victor Julius Ngoh, Dr. MrsNgoto Hannah Etonde Mbua, Chief Njie Madenge and Thompson Kinge.
Prof. Ngoh, President of the CPDM group at the Buea Council attended the meeting along with his secretary, Chief Njie Madenge. They were both charged with inviting councillors among others to the Tuesday, March 20 campaign meeting at the CPDM secretariat in Buea.
Mayor Ekema was said to be chairing a parallel meeting with a sweeping majority of councillors. He had however said in an interview that Buea councillors will vote the CPDM list in any political consultations.
His absence at the meeting however shows that the CPDM in Buea remains divided long after reconciliatory moves were thought to have been made.
On November 6, 2016, the Section President said:
“Within our party, after the last reorganisation, it hasn’t been all smooth, but we are moving ahead gradually. We are coming together. There are many ways of unifying the party. Each person has his following and nobody wins, except the party wins. We are working to reconcile the party in Fako III. We are not that torn apart.”
Mafani Namange told The SUN that efforts to reconcile the party with itself are continuous and would only be a failure should they not win elections. Hon. Paul MeotoNjie had on November 6, 2016 regretted that the party in Buea is in camps.
“We have a lot of problems within the CPDM in Buea. We have two bigwigs who do not understand each other – the mayor [Ekema Patrick Esunge] and the section president, Mafani Namange,” the CPDM Central Committee team leader said.
He added that during the reorganisation of the party, the mayor’s list was not accepted and that has brought a lot of tension.
“…whenever we come down here, people tell us that they belong to this or that camp. We are expecting elections in 2018. If there is no unity within the Fako III CPDM, we cannot win those elections. The opposition is galvanising to win elections in Buea, particularly the council. The Buea Council is one of the very prominent councils in the country,” he said.
The former Director of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet said they as CPDM bigwigs cannot sit back and watch the party die.
His words: “We cannot sit down and see this happen. We the elites and top brass of the party are calling on all our militants to unite and give peace a chance. They should shelf the bickering, the misunderstanding and let us come as one person. There should be peace, love, and unity in Buea so that we can win future elections.”
Quizzed on what concrete steps they have taken to reconcile the warring party barons, Hon. Meoto regretted that reconciliation has not been effective thus far.
“We have been talking about reconciliation for quite some time now. We see that in truth, the reconciliation is not effective. That is why I made this appeal that other elites of Fako III should support me let us talk to these two prominent leaders. They are all dynamic people and they have the following. We cannot ignore any of them. We have to bring them together for us to win elections. The irony is that they are my children. They each have their own stance and they want to hold firm to it. That is why we have to break the barriers to bring them together,” Meoto said.
The recent twists only go to say that talks of reconciling the CPDM in Buea may well be loud-sounding empty talk.
However, Namange noted at the meeting that “Work begins immediately; we are militants and we are bound to work for the party we militate in. The supreme interest of the party should be put above our individual interest. Let us all respect party hierarchy and party norms” he said.