Ernest Sumelong
25 February 2008
He is Dr. George Ngwa, South African based United Nations Population Fund Regional Adviser. As a very young journalist, he covered State House under the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Today, in an exclusive interview with The Post, he assesses the regimes of Ahidjo and his predecessor, Biya. Sampler:"...Ahidjo was extremely patriotic and determined to make Cameroon a devloped country. Every December, like clockwork, civil servants received a salary increase. He made sure to visit each province at least, once a year...(Today) "...Parents can't send their children to school, neither can they pay hospital bills. Civil servants have not had any salary hikes since their pay was slashed by 70% in the early 1990's; worse, corruption and tribalism have been elevated to a mode of governance..."
The Post: You were a household name in journalism in Cameroon, especially as a presidential correspondent in the days of late President Ahmadou Ahidjo; you also lectured at the University of Buea where you were Faculty Officer; then you left Cameroon. What took you out of the country?
Dr. Ngwa: Household name? You must be kidding! Well, I have this urge - every four or five years, I have to move up in my career or move out. My first move out of Cameroon in 1983, was for political reasons. My last move in 2001 was due to personal and professional reasons.
After teaching in the University of Buea for seven years, I felt that my friend and colleague Prof. Enoh Tanjong and I had set a firm foundation for the Journalism Programme to take off. There wasn't much new that I could offer. I realised that I was beginning to repeat myself. And I hate routine! In addition, the environment in UB at that time was most stultifying both academically and professionally.
Political partisanship and regional origin were, overtly and covertly, a constant litmus test. Politically neutral lecturers were always suspect. I felt that there was, frankly, no reward worth compromising my independence of thought, expression or action. Some of my senior colleagues were scandalised when, responding to their question why I wasn't eager to build a career in the university, I told them that the only posts in the country which could tickle my fancy were president, prime minister, minister and CEO of a state corporation.
Without sounding irreverent, I felt I could do lots better than most of the then and current occupants of those positions. So, I was looking for new challenges when the opportunity to work for Amnesty International as their spokesperson at headquarters in London cropped up. I spent the next four years in that capacity until I was recruited by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, as its Regional Information Adviser.
That wasn't your first sally from Cameroon...
No. I was compelled to leave the country in August 1983. This was the result of the persecution I was subjected to in the wake of Ahidjo's resignation in November 1982.
As editor-in-chief in the news service of Radio Cameroon, producer of the famed Cameroon
Report and presidential correspondent, I was tasked by hierarchy, along with my French speaking colleagues Jean Claude Ottou and Gerba Mallam, to produce a news magazine programme to mark the passing of the torch from Ahidjo to Biya.
I gathered some of my colleagues - Sam Nuvala Fonkem, Victor Epie Ngome, etc. - for brainstorming on the direction the programme would take and the guests to be invited. We agreed that the programme should be a frank discussion of Ahidjo's legacy and that panelists should include the leaders of Anglophone Cameroon available in Yaounde at the time -
Foncha, Muna, Egbe Tabi, Nzo Ekah-Ngaky, Fonlon. A series of huge problems soon arose. Ekah-Ngaky, claiming he cherished his anonymity, flatly refused to be part of the discussion and was substituted with Mfon Mukete. Prof. Fonlon warned that he'd take control of the discussions because he had a few serious questions to ask the other panelists.
Muna said he'd not sit around the same table with Foncha. So we decided to interview the guests individually, asking them similar or the same questions. I edited these interviews and broadcast them under the title "A Tribute to Ahmadou Ahidjo". Some people thought it was a rather misleading title.
What was the government's reaction to the programme?
It was prompt. I started receiving calls in my office as the programme was being broadcast. Some of the callers were elated by the line of questioning. Others thought we were brazen. I was even advised to go into hiding immediately. By the time it was over, there were two police commissioners from the secret police CND or DIRDOC or CENER, whatever it was called then, waiting for me at the entrance to the broadcast studio.
They "invited" me to accompany them to DIRDOC. The two-week interrogation, including a one-hour session with Jean Fochive, was marked by threats, and "good cop bad cop" tactics. I was lucky not to have been locked up, but was asked to report to DIRDOC daily.
They made sure to accompany me back to the radio house whenever I had to read the news. That way, the public was not alerted to my travails with the dreaded secret police.
At the end of the interrogation, my overall boss, Guillaume Bwele, the then overzealous Minister of Information and Culture, banned me indefinitely from the air. I was not to come within 50 metres of any live microphone! That ban has never been lifted.
To crown it all, I was served with what the Francophones call "Blame". The charge reads better in French: "Blame avec inscription au dossier. Motif - Organisation d'une emission a caractere subversive mettant en cause toutes les institutions de la republique." I was told how lucky I was, because that was tantamount to high treason and I could have been shot or disappeared into Fochive's gulags.
Well, I didn't want to tarry around until somebody changed his mind. I left the country for the USA, where I spent seven years.
What did you learn from the experience?
It gave me a greater understanding of the workings of Cameroon's body politic. Above all, I got to understand very well why Anglophones have ended up with the short end of the stick in this country. The disagreements and enmity between the senior leadership of West Cameroon was worse than disgraceful. It was simply suicidal. Ahidjo certainly relished it.
Mind you, this is still going on today. That is why we continue to be shafted by our Francophone brethren. Remember the old saying: "a house divided cannot stand".
Take us down memory lane and tell us how you became presidential correspondent at the time and maybe share some of your experiences working with President Ahidjo.
A lot of hard work and some luck, I guess. When you look at Cameroon nowadays, it's all about nepotism, tribalism and corruption. You have to know somebody who is well-connected or cough up the money. Merit doesn't cut it. Thirty years ago, when we started as journalists freshly out of school in Yaounde, our careers were guaranteed.
All you had to do was work hard to advance and ensure that no political feathers were ruffled. We were lucky to have mentors such as Sam Nuvala Fonkem, Mark Niboh, etc., to show us the ropes. It took us months before we were judged fit to go on the air, starting with hourly news summaries.
One morning, out of the blues, I was thrown into the deep end. I was asked to provide live coverage of the President's visit to the National Assembly later that morning. I broke into a cold sweat because I knew exactly what the consequences of failure would be.
I gathered my wits and, as they say, the rest is history. Apparently, I did well because after that I was called upon to report on the President's activities at home and abroad. Several times, I was recalled from leave to accompany the head of state. Our last trip abroad was to Spain in October 1982.
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