12.5 million people are living in extreme poverty in Cameroon

Some 12.5 million people, including 5 million children are living in poverty in Cameroon, an independent compiled report claims this week.

The independent report to be made public and commissioned  by several different church groups and non governmental organisations working with children and disadvantaged people around the country, says evidence and statistics have been misused, misrepresented and manipulated by politicians to create myths that blame and stigmatise the most vulnerable in society.

" It would be comfortable for many if we live in a society where poverty only visited families that were lazy or made bad decisions" said Jean Bosco Talla, one of the author of the report. " That is the story these myths lead us to believe, but that`s not the Cameroon we live in today. It`s convenient to believe that government handouts are too generous. It`s convenient to believe that job seekers, unemployed, self-employed, pensioners and farmers are on the fiddle or even more absurdly caused our economic troubles. But it`s just not true"   

Aliou Salim`s story, included in the report is typical. A long standing Biya`s supporter from the Far North in Cameroon in Mora for over 20 years and father of four struggles to find money to send his children at the only public school in the area. 

There is no public funding or even government grant available for him and his family as nothing in the actual budget has been planned for it.

 In the same time down South the border, bonkers and greedy public officials are diverting CFA tens of thousands million of public funds. People like Aliou have lost total confidence and trust in the  government and now only rely on private donations from foreigners. Thousands of children don`t have access to a simple free public school. In the Northern part of the country most of these children spent more of their valuable time learning from their parent`s aptitude as farmers and labourers.

Pr Akam, coordinator of the report warms " The very least the most vulnerable in our society deserve is to be spoken of truthfully and with respect. Anything less is to be complicit in a great injustice". Once against the government is failing to provide simple basic and primarily necessity to his own vulnerable people.

Biya keeps Yang in spite of.....

Paul Biya declared last week that Philemon Yang will continue to be his Head of the Government at the 2013 General Election.

The National Chairman of the Cameroon People Democratic Movement ( CPDM) and Head of State spoke out according to an insider after rumours Mr Yang could be ditched.

The ruling party insiders had suggested Nkwelle Ekaney High Commissioner in the United Kingdom and Anu`a-Gheyle Solomon Azo-Mbi, High Commissioner in Canada could be drafted in to boost the party`s economic credibility. While Joseph Bienvenu Charles Foe, the High Commissioner in the Us to succeed Yang will be a bad choice, some insiders think.

Pals of Mr Yang warned according to some reports last week that he would not accept another job in Biya`s regime if sacked. 

Mr Biya finally ended the speculation couple days ago by insisting he had no plans to axe Mr Yang.

Asked if he would be the Head of the Government at the next General Election, he told the CRTV; " There is no doubt and absolutely, we have said that we will go  into the next  general election as a team in spite of growing rumours. He (Paul Biya) is doing a great job for the social and political stability of the whole country  and not only for a group of friends as usually and continually reported by some sensational media..."

Paul Biya: We are failing

Paul Biya will launch his most blistering internal attack yet on what it said could be called the " New CPDM" in a keynote speech that is being prepared by some of his closest advisers in time of crisis.

The undisputed leader of the Cameroon People Democratic Movement (CPDM) and variously challenged within the party leadership is to claim successive government teams failed to change the economy to help millions of hard-working families and children. 

A presidential circular shall be communicated as usual to all members of the government and Biya will vow once again to end the scandal that sees nearly half of the population stuck in an extreme poverty.

He will also blast the New CPDM`s bids to woo the economic capital city, Douala, including Pr Maurice Kamto`s claim he was " intensely relaxed about some groups of people getting filthy rich while millions continue to sink deeply into the severe poverty".

Paul Biya: More needs to be done and we are working on it....

Biya will say " Our party did not do enough to bring about structural change in our economy to make it work for the many, not the few, and much remains to  be done and perfect.."

He will also tell the party`s central committee " Our future success can`t be built on allowing a few at the top to flourish and retrying to redistribute the rewards of their efforts..."

Paul Biya and his successive government teams are failing to deliver what they promised in their manifesto long time ago and they are playing on a field where the entire opposition is lacking real alternatives.

Frail Biya in a rare first hint of a successor

Cameroon`s President Paul Biya was due to return to the Research Foundation of Cardiology University of Geneva, department of Cardiology  couple weeks  ago as an outpatient for more scrutiny and an exploratory surgery to his heart about a recurrence of severe fatigue.

It is said that last week, sustaining a black out during a meeting with close senior government ministers led him to name a successor for the first time, in a sign that the disease may force and end his 30 year reign.

Fears Paul Biya is showing sign of serious and severe fatigue are growing inside his own inner circle of friends and close collaborators.

Biya had considerably reduced his public appearance and the message from the Prime Minister`s office is " comfortable and in good spirits" is the " boss" and " any unofficial statement about the state of the Head of State`s health would only as usual be a machiavellian rumour".

The entire government is under pressure to keep quiet about the " boss"`s health situation. It has always been the rule and millions of supporters have been kept without accurate information regarding his health, a matter of " high level of national security".....

Even though Biya on his private holidays most of the time in Geneva usually undergo routine tests about his heart condition and the level of his blood pressure, blood sugar, heartbeat and show signs of being in good spirits, nowadays he is getting actively reduced.

Unnamed relative last week revealed in a private conversation " our brother-in-law is showing signs of severe fatigue and has even reduced some family`s activities around the house.."

The 79 year old communist-liberal leader made what it looks like a surprised announcement to his inner circle of the army general`s council.from the Presidential Palace.

In the clearest indicator yet that health problems could spell and end his tumultuous 30 years in power, Mr Biya it is suggested, may have said that  party members and sympathisers should show their full support to the secretive and most reserved Ayang Luc,( pictured greeting President Paul Biya) the  incumbent President of the Social Affairs and Economics Council  , if a new election had to be held..

Cameroon: Biya expands global communication spy network

Biya`s administration is planning a major expansion of Cameroon`s international spy network, creating a new generation of undercover communication agents to get a better handle on critical issues such as corruption, violation of Human Rights, breach of the freedom of expression and the rising influence of activists against his regime in Africa, Europe and Us.

The country is to send hundreds of spies overseas as part of a plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the civilian national central intelligence agency in size, marking a major expansion in Cameroon`s communication espionage network. The aim for this is to bring peace to the country. But the country is not a war.

According to Issa Tchiroma, "....lawlessness, breach of press ethics and corruption have robbed the country of peace and freedom and it is time to put things right and to bring back the good journalism, the responsible and accountable journalism..".  The real objectives for the conference here are to avoid the press to acting together in order to set up a system of robust regulation.

Corrupted publications are lining up to have their men being taken while the Cameroon national union of journalists is calling for a new press regulator without being compelled by legislation.  

According to an insider at the national conference on the state of the government`s communication policy being held in Yaounde until Friday, December 7, 2012, hundreds of editors have already spoken to Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who is the head of the communication department and leader of a political party without any representative at the National Assembly to agree to have their men in the network.

The expansion will change the complexion of the embassies` communication department body which is expected to end up with as many as over thousands intelligence communication collectors worldwide. The new recruits will follow and monitor critics in Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Tchad and many more in Africa, Belgium, Paris, London, Spain, Geneva in Europe, Ottawa, and others in Us. 

Biya`s administration is decided to have a grip on the communication and especially to those journalists who are critical to his regime. Paul Biya at 79 keeps going but those who fought by his side on April 4,5,6 1984 his closest associates in politics and his best friends pass on.

Cameroon: A possible way forward for an Independent system of regulation for the Press

Should Cameroon continue to have a strong-biased press regulated by a highly controversial 1990 communication`s law or for the first time ever strive to have a free press, a real free press away from politicians?

In Cameroon looking into the culture, practices and ethics in the press and the examination of the relationship of the press with the public, police, military-police and politicians, a lot can be said and also be done to set out boundaries in order to have a real free press accountable to the public. 

There is a huge need for a radical shake-up in the way Cameroon`s press has operated since it began. Hafis Ruefli, an outspoken opponent of Biya`s leadership is in favour of a properly accountable media complaints commission and explain on how the newspaper industry in Cameroon should be allowed to function and restore public confidence in the press.

The Cameroon Journalists Union (CJU) with his Press Complaints Commission created and funded by press freedom`s organisations has become infiltrated with government spies`s boys, spurned lovers and smears artists. Decency, privacy and old fashioned honour no longer mattered and at the end , the public were repulsed. 

The creation by the government funded of a fake national union of journalists ( members were all residents in Yaounde, political capital city of Cameroon) which followed was intended to restore public confidence in the press and avoid the division in the press`s family. 

But it was a chaos and once more the government has registered a failed regulatory systems. There has never really been a regulator even a  complaints mechanism under Biya`s regime and authority.

There is a need of a creation of a regulator which guarantee independence from ownership control. These minimum standards include civic society involvement and representation of the profession which is provided by all journalists organisations legalised and there won`t be any direct or indirect State involvement in the regulatory system. No publisher is forced to join.

In Cameroon there is a need of  an independent regulatory body, independent from the government and the industry that will really protect free expression and free press, ensure high standards of journalism, fully defend journalists who protect their source, provide a right of reply, be backed by the ability to impose sanction such as fines, have the authority and ability to regulate all commercially-driven press.

It will be good to have such unions or organisation that can play a huge and an important role in maintaining  standards and standing up for ethical journalism. Hafis believes it is possible and can be done.

However, any conversion from sinners to saints would be short-term and once public and political attention went elsewhere, it will be business as usual.

Cameroon: Women don`t make the front page, except in pictures

Treating women in a cruel and unfair way and not giving them the same freedom, rights, spaces as other people representation in the media in Cameroon under the current regime is just appalling and disastrous and discriminating.

Women are still sidelined and stereotyped on the front page of Britain`s newspapers, according to research published by Women in Journalism (WiJ). The results of the research and figures can be also be extrapolated to Cameroon.

Male dominated journalists wrote 78% of all front-page articles and  men accounted for 84% of those mentioned or quoted in them, according to WiJ`s analysis of nine national papers over four weeks earlier this year.

Predictable as the general results may seem, the research did produce some surprises, with the worst gender ratios on what many would consider the most progressive papers.

The most male-dominated title was the Independent, with 91% of its 70 front-page articles written by men. At the Telegraph the proportion was 89%, at The Times 82% and 78% at The Guardian.

But the Express had a 50/50 share and at the best quality paper, the Financial Times, the figure was 66%. Across all the titles, of people named in lead articles, 84% of those quoted or mentioned were men, most in a professional capacity. 

The 16% of women were disproportionately likely to be quoted as celebrities, or as victims.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there were higher proportions of photos of women-though most were celebrities.

 The  results of the study published by the Journal of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, found not a single female politician or leader in the top 10 images used during the month in question.

And where powerful women were featured, the images were often unflattering. The were few pictures in which women looked powerful and serious.Francoise Foning, Mayor for Duala 5, Prof Asheri Kilo Vivian and the government minister Muna Tutu have featured in some rare front page.

 The same research can be used for Le Messager, The Herald, La Nouvelle Expression, Cameroon Tribune, Dikalo, The Nation, Le Jour, Mutations, Reperes, L`Action, Le Patriote, Germinal, L`Oeil du Sahel, Aurore Plus, The Messenger, L`Anecdote, Le Proces International,

 Le Nouvel Independant, L`Independant, La Nouvelle Afrique and many more strong male dominated titles where the image of the first lady Chantal Biya can be featured and appeared as the main picture many times during a certain period of time.

 Female government ministers are sometimes featured only when on usual government business with images of them in some unfortunnate face.

Prof Asheri Kilo Vivian and Ama Tutu Muna have never kept the front page of many publication and this is a kind of discrimination compare to their male colleagues.