Dozens of women, some pregnant and children have been assassinated in cold blood near Ndu in the Donga-Mantung of the North West region. The most informed sources have blamed the atrocity on Yaounde’s military. The UN, international rights groups and foreign governments are calling for an investigation and warning Yaounde to stop any further atrocities. After an initial denial, Yaounde’s Defence ministry has acknowledged its role in the killings though it says it was an accident. Where is this lame, childish denial by the Government Spokesman coming from now?
The statement by Government spokesman, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, sounds like copy work from a cover up lie narrated by a so-called correspondent from Ndu, Haruna Mohamadu, to whom Equinoxe TV rolled a red carpet to lie against the dead. Coming after the admission of responsibility by the Defence ministry spokesman, Haruna linked the killings to every claim that could incriminate the dead and claimed the authors of the killings could not yet be ascertained. He said the scene of the attack in Ngarbuh in Ntumbaw near Ndu was a hideout for Ambazonia combatants, illegal fuel and other smuggled goods and that combatants were converging there to launch an attack on to a neighbouring village to punish them for taking part in the February 9 elections.
Haruna’s story left little to doubt. Coming after the military had admitted it did it, with its only excuse being that it was killing by error, it was obvious Haruna’s story was a special interest version to clear the name of certain individuals or groups of persons he knew were involved in the atrocity. It has been revealed that Mbororo herdsmen accompanied the military in the attack. The reason for their likely involvement is not unknown to those familiar with the “geopolitics” of the North West region. And the link between Haruna and his skewed version of the story is but obvious.
This is no call for reprisals against any group of persons. It is only a condemnation of an attempt to kill the truth along with those killed in the incident. It is also to establish a link between the Government’s new lie about the incident to the version narrated by the Haruna of a correspondent.
Equinoxe’s Gullible Journalism
Equinoxe radio and TV have been hailed for standing out in revealing the things the oppressor seeks to hide. They have unarguably demonstrated courage, if not necessarily quality journalism. This is nothing to do with the claim that they are supporters, not reporters of certain causes. But in some noted instances recently, its editors have conversely demonstrated either naivety and gullibility or malleability, through whatever means, in some of their reporting.
Certain interviews, their timing and their vexing content have been telling of their naivety, gullibility, loose editorial control or possibly some form of malleability. That will be for another day. The recent “correspondent” report by a certain Haruna Mohamdu nearly says it all. As a journalist involved in this business for so long, I might just have missed noticing the journalist and Equinoxe correspondent going by that name.
I am wondering whether Equinoxe editors have been collaborating with the said Haruna, whether they know him or the so-called correspondent report was simply improvised. I am wondering whether Equinoxe editors were just naively grateful that a source on the ground had volunteered to give them an eyewitness account and they rushed to confer him the title of a “correspondent”. Or was Equinoxe English news just excited about the aesthetic bonus of having a reporter filing in by phone with his photo and map of his location on-screen like big TV channels do? Is it because Frederick Takang of BBC Afrique had been filing in thus for them that Haruna Mohamadu was also presented as an Equinoxe correspondent reporting an eyewitness account. Was Equinoxe deceived or were its editors aware of Haruna’s manipulative game?
I am afraid lack of means is causing news media organisations here to use volunteers who can easily mislead them or use their status as reporters or correspondents to serve special interests. Economic hardship in our media is also causing editors to be malleable to newsmakers and news manipulators. I am afraid one of these is how they got to broadcast Haruna Mohamadu’s whitewash story obviously dripping with the blood of the 23 children, women and foetuses.
outside (guest) writer
Corruption and Metropolitan Allowance
Dear Presidency Outsider,
One of my friends is a government teacher in England, in Ealing to be specific. Ealing is part of Greater London (not far from Heathrow Airport in fact). Even though my friend enjoys being part of the metropolis, what he doesn’t cherish is the high cost of living in the nation’s capital. Everything costs more – rent is higher, transport costs more, local rates and taxes are higher, definitely food costs more, and so on.
The UK government has recognised this fact for years, and whilst civil servants’ pay structure is nationally regulated, individuals who work in the Greater London area are paid an additional “London Allowance” to compensate for the higher cost of living in the metropolitan area.
You might want to ask, “Couldn’t the Cameroon government put in place a similar measure to compensate civil servants for the high cost of living in Yaoundé?” Don’t worry, my friend, in its wisdom and consideration for its citizens, the CPDM government has already done so.
In fact, the CPDM government has devised a method of providing civil servants who work in the metropolis with an increment to their salary at no cost to itself (although it might not be quite accurate to rephrase this as “at no cost to the taxpayer”).
In what other way can we explain the determined closing of official eyes to the system of legalised extortion which takes place in every government office in the capital?
18 months ago, one of my acquaintances lost her husband, a retired civil servant who was receiving a pension. The widow eventually compiled not less than twelve official documents, each requiring not only fiscal stamps but also various types of receipted and unreceipted payments (one of which was 850.000 FCFA to the taxation department), in order to begin to receive the portion of her late husband’s pension to which the law entitles her. She then financed a trip to Yaounde by a former colleague (at a cost of 100.000 FCFA) in order for him to submit the documents to the ministry concerned. During the past six months in which the documents have been in the ministry, this lady has paid at least 10.000 FCFA per month to the civil servant who is “following up” the documents. Metropolitan allowance, Cameroon style. “Nothing pass arrangement”.
Even the police have a right to this increment. Apparently, identity cards are no longer issued at regional level but only in the metropolis, and at a cost of not less than 50.000 FCFA. Metropolitan allowance.
Kareen JL