Insecurity: 56 journalists jailed in 2008, many others killed, and displaced

Some fifty-six out of 125 journalists jailed worldwide in 2008 were bloggers or editors or reporters for the web, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).However, others were tortured, killed or forced to go on exile by the repressive regime of their various countries. And many continue to have problems in course of their duties.CPJ executive director Joel Simon commented: “The future of journalism is on-line and we are now in a battle with the enemies of press freedom who are using imprisonment to define the limits of public discourse.”

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

Among them two Nigerian bloggers, based in the United States; Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, and Jonathan Elendu, who were detained in Nigeria, in October. Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, editor of HuhuOnline, was “questioned over matters of national security”, according to a security spokesman while Jonathan Elendu of ElenduReports was held for ten days. He was asked about alleged links with another site SaharaReporters which published a picture of President Yar’Adua’s teenage son wielding an AK 47.Elendu said his detention “was the most horrible experience I have ever had”.

In Cameroon, Lewis Medjo, managing editor of the weekly, La Détente Libre, was arrested and later jailed in January for three years. He was accused of spreading false news in a report that President Biya was pushing out the president of the Supreme Court.

At least seven journalists were killed in Pakistan, against eight in 2007, and ten journalists in India. The Pakistani media make it clear that the toll reflects the unsettled situation particularly in areas bordering Afghanistan. One of these areas, Bajaur, has seen ruthless fighting between Pakistan’s army and local Taliban. In December, Taliban issued a fatwa saying two journalists deserved to be killed, as ‘agents of the West’. The press club in Khar, Bajaur’s capital, was hit by two rockets aimed at an army post on the roof. A journalist remarked: “If we report that civilians are killed by government or Taliban firing, we risk our lives.”

In the Swat valley, a TV man’s sister was killed when soldiers fired through the metal door of his house. A neighbour said that soldiers often fire when on the move, to keep militants at a distance. In the same area journalist Qari Muhammad Shoaib was killed in November. Soldiers shot at his car, believing him to be a suicide bomber. In January the Swat home of Dawn correspondent, Hameedullah Khan, was blown up. He had been forced to leave it by an army attack on December 28.

Canadian journalist Khadija Qahaar was kidnapped in November by Taliban. In the city of Peshawar, an Afghani and a Japanese journalist narrowly escaped kidnap. The Afghani was shot in the chest, arm and hand. Further west, in Baluchistan, two journalists were hurt when a bomb exploded outside newspaper offices in Quetta in October. In January a bomb thrown at an intelligence office in Baluchistan also damaged a TV booster station.

Away from the border, a newspaper editor was shot in November near Lahore and died four days later. Also in Lahore Ahmad Faraz, crime reporter for Geo News TV, needed 25 stitches in his head after he was attacked by security men at a gated housing estate in January. He had gone there after three men were killed during an armed robbery.

Ansar Abbasi, investigations editor at The News, Islamabad, has been told his life is under threat. On January 1, over 30 armed men from the Sindh Nationalist Front went to the office of the Sindhi daily Awami Awaz and threatened staff, reminding them they once broke a reporter’s legs. Editor-in-chief Jabbar Khattak said his paper had been under pressure from the SNF to publish its statements unedited.

Journalists’ other complaint, apart from insecurity, is pay. Those in the frontier areas complain they often do not receive it. A TV employee in Islamabad, Mohammed Azam Khan, killed himself at the end of November. He had not been paid for five months. Journalists held protest rallies in six cities against failure to pay a wage award dating from 2001.

Many more journalists are having hard times around the world. Fiji government has asked for the publishers and editors of the Fiji Times and the Daily Post to be jailed for six months for contempt of court. They published a letter from Australia criticizing the High Court for validating the 2006 military coup. Journalist Barbara Dreaver was put on a plane back to New Zealand when she arrived in December to cover a row between New Zealand and Fiji.

Four years after editor and government critic Deyda Hydara was shot dead in The Gambia, no one has been prosecuted for his murder. Key witnesses have disappeared, says Reporters sans Frontieres.

In Ghana, Metro TV complained to the police about attacks on its staff by supporters of the two presidential candidates. The attacks were in Accra, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Tamale. Journalists from Joy FM and Nhyira FM (Kumasi) and an opposition party cameraman also suffered assaults. In India, B.V.Seetaram, chief editor of a Mangalore evening, was detained with his wife in January on a charge of defamation filed two years ago. The case appears connected with his reporting of communal conflict.

Journalist Lenin Kumar Roy and two assistants were detained for ten days in December over a book exposing violence against minorities in the state of Orissa. Hindus and Christians have been in conflict there.

In Malawi, Joy Radio, which has had a lengthy battle with the government-appointed regulator, resumed broadcasting on December 16 after a month off the air. A judge said it could broadcast pending a judicial review of the decision revoking its licence. In Mozambique, Anibalzinho, convicted killer of leading journalist Carlos Cardoso, was on the run in December, having escaped prison for the third time. Staff members of the Abuja-based daily Leadership in Nigeria, were twice detained in November after it reported that Saudi Arabian doctors had been flown in to treat President Yar’Adua.

In Srilanka, a court in December rejected a plea that a confession by Tamil journalist J.S.Tissainayagam during his four months’ detention was made under duress. He and two colleagues are charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.Meanwhile two editors of the state-run Sunday Observer and Daily News were demoted in December after the papers reported remarks by the army chief. The remarks prompted a protest from India.

A son of a bishop in the Divine Healing Ministries in Swaziland, used fists and a knife to attack Swazi Observer news editor Ackei Zwane in a butcher’s shop on December 26. He complained of negative reporting of his father. He LATER gave himself up to the police. The bishop went with him. Mfonfo Nkambule, a popular columnist and former cabinet minister, apologised to the king for critical articles, after pressure from the police and a chief. Still in Swaziland, Media people were banned from covering a traditional ceremony in December. A South African TV crew had their equipment seized.

In Tanzania, Journalists protested on the streets of Dar-es-Salaam against a three-month ban on the weekly MwanaHALISI, which had reported an alleged plot to stop President Kikwete being re-elected in 2010. While in the United Kingdom, police found a new weapon against inquiring journalists – the offence of abetting misconduct in a public office. Sally Murrer of the Milton Keynes Citizen was accused of this after police put a bug in the car of her informant, a detective. Her reports in question related to a young offender, a footballer and a murder victim. She was cleared when a judge ruled that the public interest did not justify the bugging, which infringed her human rights.

In Zimbabwe, Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project and a former TV newsreader, who was seized from her home on December 3, was brought before a court on December 24. She and others were accused of organising a police officer’s trip to Botswana for training to overthrow President Mugabe. The peace project has constantly publicised political violence in Zimbabwe. A freelance photojournalist, Shadreck Manyere, disappeared ten days after Mukoko and was in court with her. Lawyers alleged they had been tortured and applied for medical treatment for them. Manyere denies charges of being involved in bombings. On his part Obrian Rwafa, an editor with state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting, was abducted and beaten in December by three men who accused him of lying about Zimbabwe’s situation.However, a disciplinary committee cleared Bhekinkosi Ncube, editor of the state-owned magazine Umthunywa, who had been accused of sending an e-mail insulting President Mugabe. Foreign media now have to pay 30,000 American dollars to operate an office in Zimbabwe.

Source: CJA

Ghana’s Successful Elections

As a Carter Centre short term observer for the rerun of the Ghanaian presidential election, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the electoral process and to visit several polling stations on Election Day. Added to my understanding of the failed electoral system in Cameroon, I am in a position to highlight certain points of interest.

Tazoacha Asonganyi
Ghana has a population of 22 million; there were some 12.4 million registered voters aged 18 years and above. Each registered voter was issued a voter’s card upon registration which bore the name of the voter, date of birth, the polling station at which the voter would cast his/her vote, the photograph of the voter and the serial number of the voter in the electoral register. The registers were computerised and controlled centrally by the Electoral Commission; they were arranged in constituencies and polling stations.

An NGO, CODE Incorporated (Code.Inc, Ottawa, Canada) seemed to have helped in registering the Ghanaian voters and providing the election material because the electoral registers and voter’s cards met the description CODE.Inc gave us in 2004; and the indelible ink that was used at polling stations bore their label. It would be remembered that agents of CODE.Inc visited Cameroon in March 2004 and offered to register 7 million voters within some 2 months at the cost of about 2 billion FCFA. Although they demonstrated the registration process by registering some of us and issuing a registration card within less than 2 minutes each, their proposal was turned down by the Ministry of Territorial Administration. In any case, in Ghana, the Electoral Commission was solely in charge of identifying such an agent and engaging it for the registration of voters and the provision of the materials for the election.

There were 22000 polling stations in 230 constituencies. In each constituency, there was a returning officer appointed by the Electoral Commission. Further, at each polling station there was a presiding officer appointed by the Electoral Commission plus three other commissioners. Each candidate had at least one representative in the polling station. There were also international and local election observers and at least one security officer. My partner and I in our team of two were at a polling station in Adenta Constituency in Greater Accra Region at 6.30 am to observe the opening formalities.

The ballot boxes were transparent. Before voting started at 7 am, material that included ballot papers, counting sheets to keep track of male and female voters, indelible ink, voting booths, ink for thumb printing and other necessary material were verified and the ballot boxes were opened and shown to the hundreds of voters that had lined up at the polling station since 3 – 4 am. Once the emptiness of the ballot box was ascertained by the voters, the box was closed and the presiding officer placed his seal such that the box could not be opened without breaking the seal; the polling agents of candidates could also place their seals after that of the commission had been affixed.

Following the opening formalities, voters then came before the commission one after the other for identification and the casting of their votes. There was a single ballot paper that bore the name, photograph or symbol of each candidate; each ballot had a number printed on it and had attached to it a counterfoil with the same number printed on it. Each voter was required to produce a voter identification card or such other evidence as could prove that the person was the registered voter with the particulars in the register.

Before a ballot was delivered to a voter, it was stamped on the back with an official sign of the commission. A mark was then placed against the name of the voter in the register to indicate that a ballot paper had been used. The index finger of the voter was then soaked in indelible ink. Voting involved secretly placing a thumb print against the candidate of the voter’s choice. The ballot paper was then folded and the vote was cast by putting it in the ballot box in the presence of the presiding officer and the polling agents, and in full view of the public. All the polling stations we visited were in the open air. No envelopes were required.

We were at another polling station in the same constituency at 4.30 pm to observe the closing formalities and the counting process. At the close of the poll at 5 pm the seals were broken and the ballots poured on the table and counted; a declaration of the counts was signed by the presiding officer and representatives of candidates. The results were then publicly announced by the presiding officer and a copy of the declaration was given to the representative of each candidate. Further, all the counted ballots were returned to the ballot box and seals were affixed again by the commission and the representatives of candidates. Unused, spoilt and rejected ballots as well as the counterfoils of used ballots and the electoral registers and records were sealed apart, and all were forwarded to the returning officer of the Constituency.

The ruling party (New Patriotic Party – NPP) candidate for the rerun of the presidential election was Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who seemed to enjoy the advantages of his party’s incumbency, had larger posters and seemed to be preferred by the Daily Graphic, "Ghana’s largest selling paper since 1950", which was very available within the circles of international observers. The other candidate was Prof John Evans Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). The outgoing president John Kufuor voted at around 11 am; we were present at the polling station when he cast his vote, although it was out of Adenta constituency. After voting, he indicated on the solicitation of dozens of journalists that there were two sides of the divide and he belonged to one, so he would be happy if the candidate of his side won. Following the national vote tally by the Electoral Commission, his candidate lost. The opposition NDC candidate Atta Mills
won and is now the President of Ghana.

Such an outcome would have been impossible if such a close elections was not managed by an independent electoral commission, headed by an experienced Chairman like Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. If he had to forward the trends to another body controlled by the outgoing President, not to talk of one of the candidates, the trends would probably have been reversed and the ruling party candidate would have won.

Paul Biya knows like John Kufuor in Ghana that he belongs to one side of the divide and would like the candidate of his side (probably himself) to win. But unlike Kufuor who had no control over Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Biya has full control over ELECAM. This is why ELECAM is incapable of organising the type of successful elections we just witnessed in Ghana because the seeds of its own failure have been planted in the ELEAM law and its subsequent application.

International sanctions:Commonwealth suspends aid to Cameroon over ELECAM

Angered by the hijacking of ELECAM by the ruling CPDM, the Commonwealth is also calling on the EU to follow its footsteps by also suspending aid to Cameroon

By Clovis Atatah

Widespread outrage over President Paul Biya’s controversial appointment of mostly high-ranking CPDM militants into Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) has evolved from words to action.
One of Cameroon’s major donors, the Commonwealth, has announced that it is indefinitely suspending aid to Cameroon amounting to 15 million euros (about 10 billion FCFA), in protest against President Biya’s 30 December 2008 ELECAM appointments, the African Press Agency (APA) reported on Monday.

APA quoted the Commonwealth as saying in a statement issued Monday that the 15 million euros had initially been set aside to support the setting up of ELECAM, but the organisation could no longer disburse the money to the Cameroon government because of the hijacking of the elections management organ by the CPDM.

The Commonwealth urged President Biya to “reconsider” the ELECAM appointments by replacing the current team with a “balanced list”.
The intergovernmental organisation called on the European Union to emulate its example by also suspending aid to Cameroon.
It is believed that if the EU heeds this call and suspends financial assistance to Cameroon, the government could lose billions of francs in external revenue.

ELECAM could also suffer serious financial difficulties as government had envisaged funding its setting-up with Commonwealth and EU aid money.
Apart from worries over the partisan colouring of ELECAM’s membership, the Commonwealth also expressed concern over the integrity of the outfit’s chairman, Samuel Fonkam Azu’u, who is currently embroiled in a forgery and illegal immigration scandal.

It has been widely reported in the press that four impostors, arrested with fraudulent documents at the Nsimalen airport last week while attempting to illegally migrate to the United States, confessed to the police that they were helped by Fonkam Azu’u against a huge fee of 3 million FCFA each.
Fonkam Azu’u has denied any wrongdoing, but the public seems to believe that his hands are not clean.

The Commonwealth’s decision to suspend aid to Cameroon will bolster critics of the ELECAM appointments at home and abroad and likely weaken the Yaounde authorities who had hoped to convince the international community that they were serious about their promise to set up an elections management organ that will inspire confidence in the electoral process.

Is Christmas over?

Christmas is over. Or is not?
By Yemti Harry Ndienla
It seems to me that it is really only beginning. Like any good party there needs some cleaning up to be done – getting back to work and our daily routine. However, the reason for the party does not cease to exist. Jesus does not cease to exist even if the Nativity Scene has been taken away from the Church.

From today on, we live that Nativity Scene. Its beauty we nurture in our own hearts with prayer and a new sense of our religion and our existence. We celebrated the Baptism of Jesus last Sunday, when the Christ Child showed us humans the way: repentance for our past life, cleaning of the soul in the waters of Baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We live that new life in Jesus and every day we renew our commitment to following Jesus who is our light and our way ahead. Don’t think of Christmas as over. Take this opportunity to practice your religion with renewed vigor. By doing so, you will not lose sight of Jesus and your life of faith will increase.

For your Reflection

When did Christmas end for you?

Was Christmas a spiritual experience for you this year?

What personal message did Jesus bring for you this Christmas?

Raging debate on ELECAM:A clever diversion deliberately crafted by Paul Biya to escape the real debate!

The real debate about ELECAM is if the new organ can organise credible elections and make a clean break with the electoral nightmares of the past. Sorry its organisation shows clearly that it cannot .and therefore does not represent an advance on the electoral system in Cameroon. This is the real debate that Paul Biya cleverly avoided by provoking a huge storm of protest which was the sure consequence of his gross violation of the law on appointments to the ELECAM board. It seems certain that when the debate is over he will review his list and get Cameroonians praising him for that. That way he will proudly tell his foreign partners that Cameroonians have accepted ELECAM. What a clever political animal the president is!

Humans are political animals. But Paul Biya easily qualifies as a political beast. Every move of his is the unfailing outcome of political calculation. And, in the pure tradition of Machiavelli, the 16th century Italian prince, better leave out morality in politics.
The ELECAM debate is raging. Most of the persons the president appointed to its board are well-known senior functionaries of the ruling CPDM. The appointments are such a glaring violation of the law which demands independent (i.e. non-partisan) persons of personal integrity i.e. “reputed … intellectual honesty.”

Going by that stipulation Dorothy Limunga Njeuma and Cecile Bomba Nkolo who are members of the CPDM political bureau, the party’s policy-making organ could never by any stretch of the imagination have been placed on the board.
By the same argument there is no reason on earth for Samuel Fonkam Azu’u who is (as he often unabashedly presents himself about, just in case you didn’t know him) a member of the CPDM Central Committee, another high-level organ of the party. Several of the other members are party operatives at other levels.

In the heat of the debate Rene Sadi the CPDM secretary-general announced on Thursday that all of his party’s members appointed to ELECAM had turned in their resignations.
That, of course, only confirms the point, which is that Paul Biya violated the law in appointing them in the first place! And in any case, resigning from the CPDM does not guarantee their political neutrality which is the spirit of the law.

The violation is so monumental that some people, rather than preoccupy themselves with so fundamental a point are looking deeper if there isn’t some hidden motive to it all. For the reputed political schemer that Paul Biya is it would be more likely to be so than that he made so glaring a mistake. The president has in fact done something similar before.

Fru Ndi’s House Arrest

The two months’ house arrest of John Fru Ndi, his presidential challenger in October 1992 might provide some clue. Having hijacked victory from the presumed winner of the presidential election of that year Paul Biya took a calculated risk and boldly held Fru Ndi and his 27 party colleagues at his residence in Bamenda.
Cameroonians and the international community had just begun raising a hue and cry over the electoral fraud when Biya suddenly changed the issue! It worked perfectly. Free Fru Ndi, free the SDF chairman! Why arrest him! What has he done? Doesn’t the SDF have a right to contest the result of the election?

The debate had changed! Biya thus cut off much of those biting attacks and negative foreign media comments. He was then sworn in and began picking up the pieces of his battered regime in desperate want of legitimacy.
Meanwhile Fru Ndi and his cohorts languished under arrest. Appeals from abroad inundated Yaounde while goodwill missions from all over Cameroon and abroad travelled to Bamenda to console the SDF chairman.

One month passed and instead of yielding, Biya worsened matters by transferring the detainees to Kondengui prison in Yaounde, further strengthening his position. By the end of two months Fru Ndi and his colleagues had become badly beaten and demoralised. The prisoners, their families, friends and fellow-partisans were only too joyed when Biya at long last released them.
Fru Ndi sulked for the next two or three years over his “stolen victory” and no one would succeed to urge him to let go and get over his resentment. For Biya, he had won a major political victory. Not only had he “stolen” his victory, he had also very successfully managed the potential damage to his fragile regime.

By boldly, if riskily, changing the issue from what should have been uncontrolled and acrimonious cries of thief! thief! give us back our victory and whatever that might have led to, Biya successfully held the situation under control and took the sting out of it for himself.
It is the measure of that success that opened vistas of future defiance and electoral theft to the president and his election organisers at MINATD! Success begets success, don’t they say?
How does all this relate to the present debate over the appointment of a strongly partisan membership of the ELECAM board? Our thesis is that it is a deliberate ploy to shift the debate from the real issue which is ELECAM’s inherent incapability of organising a credible election!

Had Paul Biya fulfilled the requirement of the law there would inevitably have been full public focus on the integrity of the new election management organ. At its very best ELECAM cannot fulfil the aspirations of Cameroonians in organising free and fair elections. ELECAM does not, as has been much expected, represent an improvement in electoral management in Cameroon. It is not independent.
This is the debate that Paul Biya cleverly avoided because it directly questions his political will which exposes and hurts him. We believe he will sometime when the debate would have subsided review his appointments and give the impression that he has responded to the legitimate complaints of Cameroonians. Typical Biya, he will then use that to score political marks in his favour.

All-powerful GM

At that time the public will also praise him for having done the right thing. In the process little attention, if any, would anymore be paid to ELECAM’s ability to do the job. This newspaper has dwelt at length in the past on the issue.
The essential thing is that the board, even granted the neutrality and personal integrity of its members, is powerless and functions only and exclusively on the directives of ELECAM’s general manager who is not only the administrative and financial head but also, and critically, is fully endowed with competence on electoral questions.

In practice a board member who uncovers a fraud on the field, for example, cannot decide on what to do to check the problem. He must first clear with his GM and get his go-ahead. If not he is helpless.
For all his power ELECAM’s GM is not (surprisingly) required to be politically neutral or be a man of personal integrity like board members. That means that the president can appoint a CPDM member and wouldn’t have violated the law.
The ELECAM law also empowers the GM to summon, if he chooses, the army of DOs to help in any field operations that he deems fit. Moreover the law obliges him to render account almost minute by minute to the MINATD minister, the very evil behind previous elections. He is also obliged to provide any information demanded by the minister!

The MINATD minister is so present in the functioning of the GM that no one conscious of his strong pro-government posture is left in any doubt about his influence in the conduct of future elections. It would have been more reassuring had the new organ been made to be totally distant and separate from MINATD. That link does not encourage trust in the new organ and hardly supports any talk of ELECAM being independent. It is not and cannot be.
By the time the present debate on faulty membership would have ended the bigger and more important debate on the structure and inherent inability of ELECAM to organise free and fair elections would have been overlooked, to Biya’s greater glory.

He could then summon the courage to tell his partners that there is an improvement in the electoral system in Cameroon! He already said that in his New Year’s address to the nation by referring to the strengthening of the electoral system with the putting in place of ELECAM! When he would have revised the board list, be sure, it will be time to climb to rooftops and tell the world of electoral progress in Cameroon.
Yet ELECAM is at best only a counterfeit of the independent organ Biya once promised and got support from the Commonwealth to create. Having reneged on it, the president now looks for a clever way of getting Cameroonians endorse his fake version.
The way the false debate is raging already provides some clue to Biya’s success. Good luck for him.

Source: The Herald

Women share views on living without a boyfriend

The responses conducted during a recent survey are as interesting as they are varied. Many who answered in the affirmative said they did so not of their own violation, and that it was a frustrating experience.

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

While others said they deliberately avoided a boyfriend in order to be faithful to God, many hold that their boyfriends’ irresponsible behavior forced them to keep away that long, and that they felt satisfied staying alone. However, others were simply not interested in having a boyfriend but their education.

Lydia once lived for over six months without a boyfriend when her partner traveled abroad. However, she intimated, “staying without a boyfriend for that long wasn’t easy for me. But I hadn’t any choice. The saying that out of sight is not out of mind became a reality. I could not sleep or read because of the vacuum of his absence. I felt really bored, and that was when I knew how important he was to me”.

Like Lydia, Lucy once stayed for more than six months without a boyfriend and that she had peace of mind doing so.
Unlike Lydia whose boyfriend traveled abroad, Lucy stayed after realizing that hers’ was a cheat who entertained other sexual relationships. “He was also a liar, a drunk and uncaring. As soon as I quit the relationship, I felt some peace in me. You know it is better to live alone than have a cheat in the name of a boyfriend”, Lucy added.

Though Jacqueline once lived for more than six months without a boyfriend, she vowed never to repeat "such a bitter experience". Hear her “my boyfriend traveled abroad, leaving me to worry here alone. I have never been as disturbed as I was during that period. The Bible says as iron sharpens iron so does one man sharpen the other. I wish to borrow from it to say that as the woman sharpens the man so does the man to the woman and when one is not there life cannot be interesting”.

Though Jabeh claimed she has never stayed for six months or more without a boyfriend since she started dating, she however intimated, “I know how difficult and traumatizing it could be staying for that long without one especially for some of us who are already used to boyfriends. Girls or women who have gone through that experience usually say it’s not worth experiencing”.

“Honestly it is difficult staying single. I once chose to stay without a boyfriend not because I had a problem with one but because I wanted to experience how life without a boyfriend could be. During that period I felt lonely and life was boring since I shared my joys and sorrows with no one”, says Maryline.

Lum who stayed for over a year without a boyfriend, says it was a horrible experience. “I was pushed into that solitary life by the sudden death of my boyfriend. I felt frustrated as I had nobody to share in my joys and sorrows. In fact, it was like I had embraced all the world’s problems. Creating a new relationship was not easy since in our society it is a man that approaches the woman and not the other way round”.
Honorine who has never had a boyfriend feels it’s not important for her at the moment because her target in life is education. “I think I am not yet ripe to have a boyfriend; maybe in future I would want to have one”.
Linda stayed for over six months after she discovered most of her boyfriends were interested in her just to satisfy their sexual desires. And that she wanted to focus and get married because keeping casual sexual relationships would not pay.
Mary stayed for over six months without a boyfriend in other to dedicate herself to God’s work and to get closer to Him. “This was because I realized I could do without a boyfriend and not without God. The other reason was that I wanted to escape from constant sexual harassment from my boyfriend. I felt normal during that period and it dawned on me that I could live without a boyfriend”.
On her part Serah says she has never stayed for six months or more without a boyfriend “not for sexual purposes but given that naturally a woman needs a male companion who can share in her joys and sufferings”.
On the other hand Martina claims she stayed for five years without a boyfriend and is prepared to stay much longer until God gives her a husband! Reason being that “I have Christ in me and Christ gives me more satisfaction than any boyfriend can give. With Christ everything is under control and normal”.

Women want improved and healthier relationship in 2009

Women in Cameroon both married and unmarried are praying for improved and healthier relationship with their husband/boyfriend in 2009. In a survey conducted recently, many wished their husband/partner to divorce other negative ways to show them more love. Thus going beyond the usual “I love you”.

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

However, they acknowledged the need to make an extra effort for this to happen. On this score they need to listen to each other and strive for a common goal; that of building a united family capable of warding off intruders who may come in to put asunder what God had put together.
“I cannot wish something to be done to me by somebody because I am still single. My sincere prayer is to have somebody who can share in my joys and sorrows. What I need actually is not a boyfriend but rather a husband who can stand the test of time. May God give me a loving, caring and honest husband in 2009”, says Mirabel

Bety on her part pray her husband should drop his drinking and smoking habit completely. “I would love my husband to do me a favour by dropping drinking and smoking completely. You know how a man behaves when he drinks. It is either talking foolishly or acting stupidly. I am tired of that and would be very joyful if my husband were to abandon those habits in the old year”.

Susan on her part would love her boyfriend to graduate from friendship to marriage so that she can feel like other married women. “Our society has become so chaotic that you never can tell what is in a person’s mind, no matter how much he says he loves you. If my friend takes a decision to marry me this year I would count 2009 as a turning point in my life.

Though Michelle claims her boyfriend has a busy schedule, she prays he create time for her to feel his presence. “You know what it means for a woman to be in need of a man when he is not there. You feel cheated, frustrated and it can handicap you in other areas of life”.
Tina’s greatest wish is for her boyfriend to have a job in 2009. “This would be a great achievement for me because it would facilitate our eventual marriage, as it would help us live and let others live. Up till now we are still living apart because we are barely surviving. Also having a job would make him the true head of the family, as he would be able to fully embrace his responsibilities”.

Appointments to ELECAM are inconsistent with the law

The ELECAM states unambiguously that the members of ELECAM shall be chosen “from the midst of independent personalities…”. The appointment of well-known and high-ranking members of a particular political party therefore violates the law

By Hon. Ayah Paul Abine, MP for Akwaya

That respect for the law is fundamental to the orderliness and development of every community is a fact too notorious to dwell upon. Such respect is in the interest of all citizens, and is vital beyond contradiction.

Let us imagine for a moment that some drivers in Douala decided to keep left some day contrary to the Highway Code. The resultant chaos would be unbearable, and even fatal. That is why when some almighty Cameroonian, fancying that he has bought this country from God and the rest of us are his tenants-at-sufferance, said that he could flout the Constitution of the Republic with impunity because “law is made by man”, and Cameroonians applauded him, one could not help wondering whether Cameroonians are of unsound mind; or of average intelligence; or they are the epitome of intellectual dishonesty. The temptation was to settle on the last alternative banking on our celebrated consecutively-double winning of the international trophy for putrid mentalities.

Little wonder then when one hears some intelligent Cameroonians recite even today and with grotesque effrontery mob-verses from raw regurgitation about the legality and constitutionality of the appointment of the members of ELECAM by the President of the Republic.

Section 8 of the law on ELECAM states unambiguously that the members of ELECAM shall be chosen “from the midst of independent personalities…” Being an independent personality is a condition precedent to the appointment. In other words, it is the fact of being independent that qualifies the person to be appointed. Being an independent personality is not a condition subsequent so that the person appointed reserves the discretion to resign in order to become independent. That assertive statement is not even elementary law. It is within the comprehension of the ordinary man who has acquired only some little scholarship in the English language. What is honourable for anyone with “reputed…intellectual honesty”, which is one of the legal qualifications for anyone to become a member of ELECAM, is to resign the appointment once the person knows, let alone, admits that he/she was not an independent personality before and at the time of appointment.

That section of the law equally provides that, to qualify to be appointed to ELECAM, the person must be of “reputed…neutrality”. If the requirement of neutrality were to be subsequent to the appointment so that resignation from a partisan position would remedy the incapacity, then the word reputed would be out of place here. No future state can be said today to be reputed: it is as easy as that.

From simple reasoning not too tantalizing to nursery school kids, therefore, any person, who, at the time of the appointment, occupied a prominent place in a political party, is NOT neutral, let alone of reputed neutrality. Any such person would automatically resign his appointment if he/she is of “reputed… intellectual honesty”.

It is not superfluous to mention here that the section of the law under consideration also makes it mandatory for the President of the Republic to appoint only after “consultation with political parties represented in the National Assembly and civil society”. Even quack lawyers know that, by the canons of interpretation, the law does not intend an absurdity.

If this mandatory provision meant that, after such consultation, the President of the Republic, in making the appointment, could totally disregard opinions expressed at the consultation, then the law intended an absurdity; and that would be at variance with the said canon of interpretation. If on the other hand, after such consultation, only the opinions of one of the parties had to be considered, such consultation was essentially nugatory, and the eventual consideration vitiated the mandatory provision of the law on ELECAM.

From that brief analysis, the most decorous way one can put it is that the appointment of the members of ELECAM is inconsistent with the law; and I opine that a court of law would so hold. That position remains unaffected by anyone banging into a microphone, like a rabid dog, curious opaque-blanket submission on the “benefit of the doubt”; or some grilled philosopher pleading the case for endorsing illegality in despondent subjugation.

In the final analysis, no-one knowledgeable in the law; and no-one of reputed intellectual honesty would even argue that resigning from his/her party after unlawful appointment would legalize, much less, legitimize such appointment. The only option open to any such person would be to humbly tender his/her resignation from ELECAM with reasonable dispatch!

Have you made a visit to the Nativity Scene in your Church?

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

Scholars of the Bible and theologians have various ideas and theories about the Feast of the Epiphany and the Three Kings story. It’s now generally thought by the experts that the 3 Wise Men took two years to arrive at the birthplace of Jesus and so it was quite possible they visited the Christ child as a toddler at his home in Nazareth, not in the manger.

If this is true, what about all the depictions in art of the Nativity Scene in the stable with baby Jesus and the Kings? Art is merely a reflection of truth and beauty. How that truth and beauty is reflected is not important.

No matter when or how the three Kings visited Jesus, the important fact is that they did do it and when they arrived, they made homage. They were the first to worship God made man. This truth can be depicted in art in various ways.

In our own lives, we have maybe not always been the first to worship at the birthplace of Jesus. Maybe we put other things before him. Maybe the truth of Jesus is not perfectly depicted.
But what is important is that we do worship Him. It is important at this time to know that Jesus is our Savior and to do him homage. It was important for the Three Kings, even if it took them 2 years to arrive.

For your reflection
Have you made a visit to the Nativity Scene in your Church? (This is the last week of the Christmas Season)
What is the most beautiful thing you see there?
What truth does this scene teach you?

Bad Governance: Cameroonians told to boycott future elections

Cameroon opposition leader, A.S Ngwana, of the CDP party has called om Cameroonians to boycott future elections organized by the newly created election management body, Election Cameroon (ELECAM) and that any of them going to the polls in the future will be considered enemies of democracy as it would imply legitimising a one-party system.
Yemti Harry Ndienla

He made the call during a recent press conference grated in Douala. The CDP president described the move as a way of protesting against the appointment of members of ELECAM who are being criticized of being mostly CPDM militants

The recent appointment of members of ELECAM has drawn unending criticisms from Cameroon and beyond in that everyone has been quick to point at the mostly CPDM members of the elections management organ. Leaving doubts as to how future elections can be free and fair.
“I am calling on Cameroonians to boycott any elections conducted by ELECAM because it’s not independent. I am asking President Biya to disband that thing he decreed and appoint men of unquestionable integrity. He appointed all of them from his CPDM party that is riddled with corruption and embezzlement. He appointed men and women who have headed organisations that caused the shedding of blood of Cameroonians all to guarantee victory for him in all future elections in this country,” said Ngwana.
While lamenting the country’s inability to organize free, fair and transparent elections since independence, as well as what he described as the one-party system through the return to political pluralism in 1990, poor respect of human rights and the rule of law, the CDP chairman made it clear that the only rational solution was for all political parties in the country to declare a boycott of all future elections conducted by ELECAM

Hear him “ELECAM is not an Independent Electoral Neutral body to conduct any elections in Cameroon, but an organ of the CPDM, a tool in the hands of Paul Biya, to guarantee his life presidency. We reject it and call on President Paul Biya to disband the present ELECAM and appoint a true INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSION”.