By Nfor Hanson Nchqnji
EXCLUSIVE: PM Yang's Bamenda Meeting Turns Desperate – Collaborators
Beg Teachers to Save His Job
PM Yang in Bamenda acknowledges there is an Anglophone problem.
PM Yang in Bamenda acknowledges there is an Anglophone problem.
By Nfor Hanson Nchanji, Nov. 26, 2016
Cameroon Journal, Bamenda – Prime Minister Philemon Yang, unlike his
colleagues in the Biya's regime on Friday confessed in front of
Anglophone Lawyers and teachers that there actually is an Anglophone
problem in Cameroon. Yang spoke in Bamenda, chief town of the North
West region where he was chairing a meeting aimed at arriving a deal
that should have ended the ongoing strike by Lawyers and Teachers of
the Northwest and Southwest Regions.
In the days following the PM's meeting in Bamenda, some senior cabinet
members of his gov't, including Minister of Justice, Laurent Esso,
Minister of Special Duties at the Presidency Paul Atanga Nji and Issa
Tchiroma, Minister of Communication, had taken turns in the media
telling Anglophones that their problems are not peculiar to others' in
the country. Yang
didn't only acknowledge that the problem exist, but in trying to
pacify the Lawyers and Teachers to broker a deal that ends their
strike, he said that the Anglophone problem can be solved if everyone
contributes in his or her own way.
Reacting to provocative statements by Atanga Nji that there exist no
Anglophone problem,
Barrister Bobga Harmony Adressing The Press after meeting with the PM.
Barrister Bobga Harmony Dressing The Press after meeting with the PM.
Yang suggested that Atanga Nji, did not speak as a Government
Spokesman nor was he mandated to say so.
In his meeting with leaders of the Common Law Lawyers, the PM advised
that they operate within the limit of the law and promised that the
problem of wigs and gowns seized from Lawyers in Buea by the Police
and Gendarmes during a previous strike will be resolved before next
weekend.
Yang assured the Lawyers that he will meet with those at the Ministry
of Justice to solve their litany of problems presented in a memorandum
but which were never made available to the Press.
Speaking to the press after the meeting with the Prime Minister,
President of North West Lawyers Association, NOWELA, Barrister Bobga
Harmony said that discussions with the PM were cordial, a good start
to find ways of resolving the problem, but cautioned that the meeting
was only a start to finding a solution to the problem, insisting that
the strike will continue until the lawyers meet in an enlarge meeting
with Justice Minister Laurent Esso.
At the Teachers forum with the PM, we gathered that things got very
heated – at some point they got to a deadlock and suspended the
meeting to resume later. Coming out of the meeting after it resumed,
like the Lawyers, the teachers insisted that the strike action will
continue until a significant agreement is reached. They refused to
accept what they termed mere promises, from the PM. Discussions with
the PM were contentious, hot and went deep into the night of Friday
November 25, we gathered.
The Cameroon Journal gathered from sources at the meeting that the
Teachers were mounted so much pressure to call off the strike by PM
Yang and his collaborators who assisted in the
deliberations. One of them is quoted as saying that "calling off the
strike will mean saving their PM." But the Teachers stood their
grounds arguing that calling off the strike without any firm and
practical resolution is out of question. Like the Lawyers, the
Teachers were also told to write their demands in order of merit with
deadlines.
Representing the Teachers Trade Unions were Dr. James Abangma, Tameh
valentine ,Wilfred Tassang ,Afu Steve, Ayeah Emmanuel, Kimfon Michael
and Tasi Ntang of SYNES-UB,TAC,CATTU,PEATTU,BATTUC, CeWOTU and CEF
respectively.
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