Bernard Fonlon

Government Enrichment

There is a famous expression- "a goat grazes where it has been tethered". Being in government gives certain corrupt officials the opportunity to make money by hook or crook before it is too late. They serve themselves and not their people or country!

The late Marshall Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Nbgendu Waza Banga- of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) even advised his cabinet ministers to loot treasury. He, however, cautioned them not to steal too much and to do it with caution and not to be caught!

There are still people of good conscience around:-

The former Minister of Public Health and Transport in Cameroon, the late Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, was once asked why he did not loot the treasury and Build houses with ill-gotten gains like his cabinet colleagus. His answer was, 'They build houses, and I build people.' 'Dodere, Movere, Placere'

Culled from the book by Boniface Ndemping Wewe: The Joys of African Sex, Jokes , Courtesies and Idiosyncrasies © 2004

Honouring a Great Intellectual

Book Review by Martin Jumbam

Daniel Noni Lantum, ed. Dr. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon (1924-1986) is now a legend: Funeral Addresses, Tributes and Eulogies, Kumbo Town: Nso History Society Publication No 3, May 1988, pp. xii + 107. No price given.

Revised and reproduced from Cameroon Tribune, May 1989.

Three years ago come next August 26, Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon died suddenly in Ottawa, Canada. His death came at a particularly painful moment for our country that was still reeling from the blows of the Lake Nyos disaster, that tragedy that was to pin Cameroon in the headlines of world news for years to come, bequeathing to us a notoriety we would only have been too happy to do without.

BOOK REVIEW: Dr. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon: An Intellectual in Politics

Daniel Noni Lantum, Dr. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon: An Intellectual in Politics (Gown and Throne), Yaoundé: SOPECAM, 1992, 80pp. No price Indicated.

Review by Martin Jumbam

(First published in the weekly tabloid The Sketch, No 22 of April 9, 1993).