Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Serge Fosso: Why I was Kicked Off a Brussels Airlines Flight To Douala

"I am still very angry as I think of my daughter for whom I had exceptionally taken this vacation... I was treated with contempt and brutalized just because for one moment, I was the voice of a misfortune which did not have a voice; because I had come to the aid of a human being who was being ill-treated and needed help."

On March 27, 136 Nigerian passengers were ordered off a British Airways flight to Lagos after they complained about the brutal treatment of a man who was being deported to Nigeria. One of the passengers, Ayodeji Omotade, whom police considered the ringleader of the protest movement, was arrested, abandoned at the airport and banned from flying on British Airways.  One momth later, the outrage over this incident is still growing.

Last week, Nigerian President Yar’dua launched an investigation into the incident. Nigeria’s foreign Minister also met with the British high commissioner in Abuja to inform him in no uncertain terms that Nigeria “would not tolerate the inhuman treatment of any Nigerian for any reason, even when there are allegations of criminal activities” and that “Nigerians must be treated with dignity within and outside the shores of the country.”

Joe la Conscience: Cameroon’s Forgotten Prisoner of Conscience

By Dibussi Tande

In the past couple of weeks, there have been numerous stories in the national and international media about the arrest of prominent Cameroonian protest singer Lapiro de Mbanga. However, the arrest, summary trial and sentencing of the less known protest singer, Joe La Conscience, has not received as much attention.

Unlike Lapiro who is accused of being the mastermind behind the February riots, particularly in his native town of Mbanga (although eyewitness accounts and initial reports from local officials indicated that he had helped calm down angry rioters…) Joe La Conscience is not accused of any violence. His only crime is that he organized a one-man nonviolent protest against recent moves to scrap presidential term limits in Cameroon.

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Where's the Outrage? Video on "Breast Ironing" in Cameroon

The UN says that 3.8 million West and Central African girls are at risk of a painful form of body mutilation know as 'breast ironing'. In Cameroon where the practice is most widespread, 50% of adolescent girls in cities and a quarter of all girls nationwide have their breasts 'ironed,' often by their mothers.

The 'ritual' is performed by massaging the girls' chests with heated objects like stones, in order to reverse their pubescent development. The mums say it's driven by fear of unwanted male attention, rape and pre-marital pregnancies.

Law N° 2008/001 of 14 April 2008 Amending the Constitution of Cameroon

Law N° 2008/001 of 14 April 2008 to amend and supplement some provisions of law N° 96/6 of 18 January 1996 to amend the Constitution of 2 June 1972.

The National Assembly deliberated and adopted, the President of the Republic hereby enacts the law set out below:

Section 1: The provisions of Articles 6(2) and (4), 14(3) (a), 15(1), 53 and 67(6) of Law N° 96/6 of 18 January 1996 to amend the Constitution of 2 June 1972 are amended as follows:

Art. 6
(2)(new) The President of the Republic shall be elected for term of office of 7(seven) years. He shall be eligible for re-election.

Cameroon National Assembly Clears Way for Biya Third Term

By Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE, April 10 (Reuters) - Cameroon's parliament adopted a constitutional bill on Thursday removing a two-term limit to allow President Paul Biya to extend his 25-year rule over central Africa's biggest economy past 2011.

Opposition lawmakers, who criticise the bill as a setback for democracy, stormed out of the chamber before the vote.

The proposed change was a major cause of riots in February that killed dozens of people, many shot dead by security forces.

Another Failed State? Cameroon's Descent

By Ozong Agborsangaya-Fiteu (Originally published in International Herald Tribune)

Unless there is clear political reform that will allow citizens to finally enjoy basic civil liberties - including full freedom of expression, free elections and the rule of law - a crisis is inevitable.

Leaving Yaoundé, Cameroon's capital, after a recent business trip, my colleagues and I settled into our airliner's seats and breathed a sigh of relief. We had planned a retreat for emerging African leaders to devise practical ways to produce change within their individual countries and institutions. We had selected Yaoundé as the meeting place because of Cameroon's presumed political stability, relatively reliable infrastructure and easy access.

SDF Response to Draft Bill to Amend the Constitution

Amendments Tabled by Hon Mbah-Ndam and the Members of the SDF Parliamentary Group

...section 6(2) constitutes in fact a solemn pact between the present Biya Regime and the Cameroonian people. To attempt to abrogate it unilaterally at this late stage is to perpetrate a fraud on the Cameroonian people and put in jeopardy the peace and stability we have so far enjoyed...

We agree with the government that “the 1996 Constitution was designed and adopted in a quite particular post crises context”. Indeed, it would be recalled that in order to bring to an end the “ghost towns” and “ghost country”, the government convened a sort of Tri-partite forum that brought together all the meaningful forces of the Cameroonian body politic and that it was at this forum that it was resolved to carry out a constitutional revision and a committee was put in place to that effect.

Text of the Draft Bill to Amend the Constitution of Cameroon

Bill No. 819/PJL/AN
To Amend and supplement some provisions of Law No. 96/6 of 18 January 1996 to amend the Constitution of 2 June 1972

Explanatory Statement

For a decade now, our country has embarked on an extensive insitutional reform to enable it to better adapt to the exigences of democracy and good governance. The reform also seeks to offer future generations an appropriate legislative and regulatory framework the application of which should not be impeded by any regulatory vacuum or ambiguity.

Draft Bill to Scrap Presidential Term Limits In Cameroon: A Recipe for Disaster

The draft bill does not address the well-documented shortcomings in the current constitution [but] is tailored to suit the political whims and caprices of a single individual and his surrogates - a definite recipe for acrimony, chaos and disaster down the road...

In spite of widespread opposition that has developed in the last six months, the Biya regime has called the public's bluff and submitted a draft bill to Parliament amending the constitution of Cameroon. Although it had been expected in many quarters that the regime would propose an extensive overhaul of the constitution – even if only to placate those opposing the scrapping of presidential limits but nonetheless believe that the 1996 constitution was a poorly drafted document believed that the constitution – the regime did no such thing. The Biya regime has instead proposed a very limited overhaul which focuses almost exclusively on the clauses related to the Presidency. Most significantly, it effectively scraps presidential term limits and grants the president immunity for acts committed while exercising his duties as Head of State.

Letter from Zimbabwe: "We have the right to choose our own leaders"

"...we have the right to choose our own leaders; we have the right to a bright and positive future; and we have the right to insist on our rights. We are not criminals and we are not bad people. We do not deserve the life Mugabe and his regime impose on us"

It’s hard to believe that the night before last the news was buzzing insanely with stories that Mugabe was on the brink of stepping down and going.

Tonight the news has swung like a pendulum with talk of a Mugabe crackdown against the opposition beginning. We saw him on TV seeing off the AU observers and almost immediately afterwards (like two fingers thrown up to the world) the news switched to the MDC MT officies being raided and riot police at the Meikles Hotel: apparently Tendai Biti, the MDC MT Secretary General was staying there.

"Operation Sparrowhawk": Abah Abah and Olanguena Arrested!

Two years after it was launched with the arrest of Ondo Ndong, Joseph Edou and Gilles Roger Belinga, Siyam Seiwe, Etonde Ekotto and others, “Operation Sparrowhawk”, the Biya regime's anti- corruption campaign, picked up again yesterday with the arrest of two former ministers and some of their collaborators.

Top on the list was Polycarpe Abah Abah, the former Minister of the Economy and Finance, who prior to his appointment on December 8, 2004 had served as the Director General of Taxes for over a decade. In the months following his dismissal from Government, and particularly in the past couple of weeks, the private media had been full speculation and titillating headlines announcing his impending arrest.