Bernard Fonlon

Cameroon’s national soccer team captain, Samuel Eto’o has been handed a fifteen match ban for inciting his team mates to revolt against how the team is managed. The players refused to travel to Algeria for a friendly game, in what the Anzhi striker described as a protest action along the lines of the “Arab Spring” revolutions that led to fall of the Presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) said in a statement on Friday.

Samuel Eto’o at a press conference in Dakar
Samuel Eto’o incited his team mates to revolt says Fecafoot

Eto’o told a disciplinary hearing on Monday 12 December that incompetence, dishonesty and injustice were the hallmarks of football managers in Cameroon. He said the players were treated like “kids” and their refusal to play against Algeria was a sign of protest against this state of affairs.

The players who were in Marrakech, Morocco for a friendly tournament, had insisted that they would not travel to Algeria except authorities pay up a customary appearance fee of FCFA 500,000 each they get at every national team camp, which had not been handed them on that occasion.

Fecafoot says its officials and those of the Ministry of Sport held several meetings with the players, particularly the captain, his deputy Enoh Eyong Takang and other senior players: Idriss Kameni, Jean Makoun and Alexandre Song but the players refused to budge.

The Federation says Eto’o failed to explain why the players refused to travel although the Algerian Federation offered to pay $30,000 once the team arrived in Algeria while the Cameroon Ministry of Sport dispatched FCFA 15 million.

DEMANDS

From the statement issued by the disciplinary council, it appears that the players, under the leadership of their captain, had made other demands which they…

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Cameroon Hand Eto’o 15-Match Ban for Inciting “Arab Spring-like” Protest

Following the pre-ballot victory of President Biya at the October 9th elections, the octogenarian, entering his 30th year of autocratic rule in the banana Republique du Cameroun, reshuffled his cabinet. One week after the Ministerial appointments, political pundits and many interested parties are dumbfounded, finding neither rhyme nor reason to the 34th cabinet. The Chia Report takes note of the black ink on white paper and steps further afield, even as three women win the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, to look at Biya’s consistent message to his daughters and women in general – study Women’s affairs and /or culture. It a message in dissonance with what the late first lady, Jeanne Irene Biya stood as a nurse practitioner.

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The Biya Government: Old Wine in New Skin…Women still relegated to sinecure

Philemon Yang has been maintained as Cameroon’s Prime Minister. President Paul Biya re-shuffled the government which was announced on state radio (CRTV) late on Friday.

Biya was expected to re-shuffle his cabinet after he was declared winner of an October Presidential poll in the Central African nation. The government remains very big with more than 50 members including 37 full ministers. There are about a dozen new faces but several ministers maintain their portfolio or simply switch departments.

The most noteworthy new member is the Finance Minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, who comes from the private sector. He was head of Afriland First Bank. His predecessor Essimi Menye is now in-charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Biya also named Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh as the new Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic. He was permanent secretary at the ministry of external relations.

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Biya Re-shuffles Cameroon Government, Marafa dropped, Ahidjo appointed

“…the trouble with my own age of writers. We have no story; no drama, simply because we have lived in diapers all our lives, secluded from the messier details of real power; sheltered by the romantic view that writers are isolate figures, shielded from the rest of society by their moral sensibilities.”

See the rest of the essay below, but here is my take on the piece.
Nwakanma’s goal is to rouse his generation of writers from their creative slumber. I love that project. In fact,the more Nwakanmas and Ikhides we have, the better for Nigerian writing. Anyway, for a better judgment, I trim Nwakanma’s arguments to their basic logical form.

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New Nigerian writers are in need of spirit

Yes, small-scale adaptation actions should be widely adopted as a way of addressing recurring food crises in the Horn of Africa, says Dr. Richard Munang of the UN’s Climate Change Adaptation and Development (CC DARE) programme. Large-scale, top down commercial agriculture fails to build the resilience needed in the Horn of Africa to avoid crisis after crisis

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Re-tooling for the food crisis in the Horn of Africa

Colin Gardner lovesPius Adesanmi’s
“YOU’RE Not a Country, Africa: A Personal History of the African Present”

“The picture that he paints is in many ways very grim. Yet his writing is buoyant and he is not without hope; hope that Nigeria, and Africa as a whole, will pull itself together and use its best instincts to devise a valid ideal and workable political and economic policies. This book helps one to entertain such a hope.

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Insights from an insider and outsider

History is replete with events that have defined a people. The American Civil War, for example-an event that almost tore the nation permanently into two halves-witnessed the indefatigable efforts by Abraham Lincoln who pulled the Union back together. Ironically, in another civil war almost a century later, the United States attempt- beginning in 1962-to prop up the South Vietnamese government against its neighbor, was defiantly repelled by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, culminating in the fall of Saigon in 1975.

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Our Collective Shame

Orature as an academic discipline and tool of resistance has made giant strides in its evolution over the years. This transformation manifests itself in the form of musical productivity and scholarship on the subject matter. Among those who have contributed significantly to emerging perspectives on the discipline are musicians themselves. Cameroonian songwriters are township bards who double as entertainers and freedom fighters. Orality is the tool they wield with dexterity in their relentless vendetta against the establishment’s endemic corruption, bad governance, abuse of power, influence peddling, impunity, misappropriation of public funds and other forms of dereliction of duty that plague the post-colony. The lyrics of Donny Elwood, and Valsero a.k.a ‘Le Général’ and Lapiro de Mbanga alias Ndinga Man are telling. This trio has carved out a niche for themselves as valiant human rights activists in Cameroon.

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Voices of Valsero, Elwood and Lapiro

Football authorities in Cameroon have summoned the captain of their national football team, Samuel Eto’o (Anzhi Makhachkala) and his deputy Enoh Eyong Tarkang (Ajax Amsterdam), to a disciplinary hearing after the team refused to play a friendly, local media reported on Sunday.

Cameroon were due to play against Algeria on Tuesday 15 Nov but the players did not travel for the game.

Cameroon authorities want Eto’o and Enoh to explain why the team basically went on strike, in what is seen by the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) and the ministry of sport as gross misconduct and a disgrace to the country’s image.

The players had issued a statement on 13 Nov saying they were not ready to play because of the non-payment of an appearance bonus (Prime de Presence) which they receive each time they are called to camp.

Officials want to punish the players but soccer pundits in the country have come to the team’s defence.

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Football: Cameroon Summon Eto’o and Enoh to Disciplinary Hearing

Corruption is rife in the west-central African nation which has twice been ranked the most corrupt country in the world in Transparency International’s (TI) corruption perception index.

The new court would try anyone accused of corruption, embezzlement or misappropriation of funds involving sums of FCFA 100 million ($205,000) and above, according to the bill. The Supreme Court, the country’s highest court, would handle any appeals.

“The government wants to avoid lengthy trials and litigation in the fight against corruption,” CRTV said.

The bill also says anti-graft cases could be closed if the suspect repaid any misappropriated funds. However, judges would have to consult the ministry of justice before taking such steps.

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Cameroon plans special court to handle graft – report