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Cameroon: Abety Says Constitutional Amendment is Not Priority
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The Post (Buea)
17 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
Chris Mbunwe
The Board Chairman of the Cameroon General Certificate of Education, GCE, Dr. Peter Alange Abety who is also CPDM Section President of Tubah-Mezam V, has said grassroots militants are poor and hungry.
As such, constitutional change to them is an illusion not a priority.Speaking during a heavily attended CPDM meeting grouping all the villages of Tubah Subdivision on March 15, at the ENS Bambili hall, Dr. Abety said nobody with an empty stomach can discuss constitutional change.
"The matter of constitutional amendment should be reserved for the political elite in parliament. If they don't want parliament to do it, we call people from various fields of work; experienced journalists, lawyers, medical doctors, priests, other professionals who are well educated to examine the constitution," said Abety.
Launching the "Poverty Alleviation Fund" with FCFA 1 million for Tubah, CPDM, Abety said the real aspirations of grassroots militants is how they can graduate from poverty and misery not constitutional change.
"If we politicians do not address the immediate and real aspirations of the people, we will become irrelevant. If you gather thousands of militants as you find them here, most of whom are from the villages and we start talking about change of constitution, article 6.2, 6.4; really in their minds we are out of topic, because this is not something which they comprehend nor is it anything which is really preoccupying them.
What preoccupies the masses of Cameroonians who are poor, and if you must address their real aspirations, you must first get them out of poverty n because a poor person cannot talk democracy," Abety continued.
He said close to FCFA 5 million that was raised at the launch would only benefit the poor who are interested in small scale business or livestock and agricultural activities by granting interest-free loans from FCFA 20,000 to FCFA 200,000.
"Any politician who is preaching constitutional amendment to militants in the rural area p or saying Fru Ndi has gone left or right or vandals have done this to that person, is out of topic," said Abety.
Given the fact that this is planting period, Abety said in three months those who must have benefited and made good use of the loans would be celebrating bounty harvests and "our next task will be to search for markets out of here for your produce."
He said the CPDM in Tubah would work extremely hard on this project so that in three, four years before the next presidential elections, rural exodus and vandalism must have been greatly curbed.
Talking on constitutional change, Jaji Manu, Adviser at the Presidency, said the opposition is afraid of President of Biya who is CPDM "natural" candidate for 2011.To him, it is easier and less expensive for the constitutional amendment to sail through parliament not a referendum.
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The Regional Director of IRAD Bambui, Dr. Christopher Wanzie, who said he is not a politician, advised CPDM militants to exploit all technical services offered by his institution.He said IRAD is open to all political parties and has good quality seeds.
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