The Post (Buea)
30 March 2008
Posted to the web 31 March 2008
Jeff Ngawe Yufenyu
Cameroonian Consultant on Governance, Edward Ngala, has said revising the Constitution in favour of a tiny class of people is wrong and can ignite an uprising in the country.
Ngala made the declaration to The Post in Bamenda, on March 25, while commenting on the current constitutional review debate.The international consultant said some ruling class around the world may revise a country's Constitution to
strengthen their grip on power, while others do so to meet the challenges of their citizens.
The Cameroon Constitution, Ngala said, has many inapplicable and poor articles, which may need revision after genuine public consultations, not single party consultations. Some Constitutions, he went on, are poorly written, with the intention to
facilitate future debates on their review. "This is the case with Cameroon," Ngala stressed.
According to Ngala, the experts who drafted the 1996 Constitution created lapses that are being now used to back its revision. He nursed fears that even after revisiting the 1996 Constitution, Cameroonians may still have to wait for more than a
dozen years for its "progressive implementation."
Commenting on the generation gap in Cameroon, Ngala said the old generation rulers and politicians have taken the younger generation for granted. "There is no bridge being built anywhere for the transfer of power from the old to the young,
be it within the ranks of political parties or in government circles," according to Ngala.
He described the old generation rulers and politicians as "graft booster Cameroonians" who cannot survive in any genuine competitive environment. They know very well that they are old, but continue to cling to power by uncouth means, Ngala
said.
He also argues that power must change hands at one time or the other, in any genuine democracy, regardless of how good the performance of the ruler may be.
Truth is always simply written. The world may hate you for speaking the truth, but God will always be with you.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
The second wives of African leaders 11
The worse blunder or marriage of an African leader to a second wife is that of Cameroon ’s President Paul Biya to Chantal Vigoroux. Contrary to leaders such as Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Mathew Olusegun Obasanjo, Albert Bernard Bongo Odimba
or Laurent Gbagbo, Paul Biya is not charismatic. But like any other new leader, when he came to power on the 4th of November 1982, he raised a lot of hope in the minds of many Cameroonians. On his side was an exceptionally intelligent,
beautiful and humane lady, late Irene Biya.
When Irene died, Biya had to remarry the one who is the first lady of Cameroon today. She is by name Chantal Biya nee Chantal Vigoroux. But in other to perceive how and why the first lady that Biya has taken as wife is a blunder, it is important
to know that, the lady who now looks as though she has been force fed, had a very miserable record and background. Hence she wants to revenge and in her sinister adventure, any person who does not dance to her tune has to lie down or
run for his/her dear life.
However many Cameroonian lovers of Tele novellas or Latin American movies, beamed into the country via satellite, courtesy the Moroccan kingdom’s Satellite TV channel 2M, what has happened in the Unity Palace called marriage (name of the
official resident and office of the President) is/ was like a déjà vu or a deja lu.
This is so because, it resembles the story lines of movies, that only Latin Americans are known be best at writing and also putting them on screen . Born in 1970 in Yaoundé to a Lebanese father and Cameroonian mother, Chantal Vigoroux got
married to Paul Biya President of the Republic of Cameroon on the 23rd of April 1994.
Like most Cameroonian Christians, Paul Biya got married in the church and did that in strict respect to biblical norms. The bible, it should be recalled doesn’t encourage divorce or is strongly against it. Nevertheless, the only instance where the bible
tolerates remarriage is when there is cheating or adultery or fornication, but the divorcer is normally not required to remarry. The other situation where in a second marriage is accepted, is only when a partner dies.
Hence, when Jeanne Irene Atyam Biya died, Biya had the leeway to get married or remain a widower. It is not as though this author has anything against the current first lady of Cameroon . In fact she is a gem and will make any real man turn on
his seat if he was seated or be confused, if Chantal Biya is passing by.
But since this beautiful creature got married to Mr Biya, she has transformed the man completely. He doesn’t stay in his official residence and office any more or he comes by only when there are envoys. In addition, he seems to have forgotten all
his friends in particular those who dared complained about the young lady.
Excesses
Chantal’s problem is that, she wants to become or has already become the Vice President of Cameroon, just like Grace Mugabe, the second wife of the dictator of Harare has done in Zimbabwe. She has created her own foundation and its bears
her name and that of her president of a husband. The aim of the foundation we hear is to fight against HIV/AIDS.
That is a noble course, but as it seems to be norm with second wives of African head of states, she has deliberately taken upon herself, to destroy all the representations of the former first lady, the late Jeanne Irene Atyam Biya. At the Yaoundé
Central hospital, there is or was a pavilion named after the late former first lady, but the current one has not only brought them down, she has smashed any references of the former first lady.
And strangely, her Communications advisers and image makers amongst them Professor Jacque Fame Ndongo, former minister of Communications and current minister of Higher Education, has seen nothing bad in the actions of his boss or
perhaps he does not have the strength to tell her the truth .
The promoter of a Communications theory in Cameroon known in French as le renoveau communicationelle is demonstrating all what that theory means at the Chantal Biya foundation. Perhaps the Communications theory of the grand minister of
Communications and minister of Higher education of Paul Biya is focused more on how to develop ways and means of memorial destructions, as Chantal Biya is currently doing with the memories of the late former first lady at the Yaoundé Central
hospital and elsewhere in the country.
If she was destroying the photographs of Irene (the first name of the former first lady) at the presidency as she seems to relish, it would have been another case, even though it is unacceptable as an act. However, she has taken the madness
she demonstrates within the presidency to the public and it is a monumental calamity and disgrace to the President.
Chantal Biya has to be stopped by all means. For failure to stop her excesses, the famous former night club goer and lover of American gang star rap, will soon start confusing and even start confiscating the lone commercial plane owned by the
state, for her shopping spree in trendy boutiques in Paris as does Grace Mugabe.
Her vengeance
When Chantal set foot at the Unity Palace , a building built with monies of tax payers, she immediately began behaving like the famous West African story of rain water and palm wine in a calabash. Those she suspected of despising her were
removed and replaced by her own praise singers. Her first casualty was Laurent Esso and that was in 1996. Before his dismissal from the presidency, he was the head of civil cabinet at the Presidency of the republic.
He was lucky because, as he lost his post, he began a petty merry go round of ministries to land finally at the ministry of foreign affairs as minister. What was the crime of Laurent? He did nothing at all. The first lady just suspected the very calm civil
servant of being snobbish or was not her praise singer.
The next person to leave the presidency was the gallant, elegant and flamboyant chief of presidential protocol, Mr Martin Belinga Eboutou. He too was driven out of the presidency in December 1997 and send as Cameroon ’s representative at
the UN in New York . One year later, it was the turn of the erstwhile influential Divisional Police superintendent, Mr. Pierre Minlo Medjo to be driven out of the post of head of presidential security.
Well his crime was that, he could no longer stomach Chantal’s vagaries and had to give her a reprimand. Some sources claim that, he even had to slap the first lady in one of the many corridors of the presidency, because he did not see why she
should be roving about them like a dejected cat.
However, Mr Medjo has since be re- appointed in March 2000 as Delegate General for National Security. Although Medjo has been given a ministerial post, Chantal has succeeded in her macabre tour de force against all those she imagined
despised her or were not her praise singers.
Her game plan
After driving away all those she deemed submissive from the presidency of the Republic, her stratagem was to replace them with her own cronies. Amongst them was a certain playboy called Jean Stephane Biatcha. A man also suspected in
passing of being one of her many former or current sweat hearts. Mr Biatcha who was already pacing the lobbies of the Unity Palace was Chantal’s replacement for Belinga Eboutou.
But hardliners of the regime said, the institutionalised manage a trios could go on, but an intruder of the calibre of Biatcha won’t have a place at the Presidency of the Republic. The winners in that battle for the selection of a new chief of
presidential protocol were the ideologues of the regime and he was Mr Awono Essama. Chantal being good at concocting vicious plots and all sorts of conspiracies was not abated by her failure to in bringing in her alleged former boy friend to get
a precious post at the Presidency.
Anyway it is also claimed that, as early as in 1996, the year when she drove away Laurent Esso from the Presidency of the Republic, she wanted him replaced by one of her protégé, in the person of Mr. Antoine Zanga. But she failed,
nevertheless as a Spartan, she seldom gives up. As I wrote in part one of this series, since these second wives of African leaders know what they want, they are always ready and preparing constantly for rainy days. As the Chinese saying goes,
an intelligent man or in this case, an intelligent woman or women, will always keep their swords by their sides in time of peace or enjoyments.
Chantal Biya has a well furnished bank account at the French Bank BNP, the Bank of African dictators, their wives and entourage. She also has a well supplied account with another French bank, Credit Lyonais. This bank is also where the
petroleum monies of Cameroon were deposited by late Antoine Assoumos under an alias. But now there is a problem between Mr. Adolphe Moudiki the current chair of the SNH (National Hydro Carbon Corporation of Cameroon ) and a
professional rogue in the name of Adham and his friend Ndahimi Auchi.
They are battling to claim the loot. The former claims that, he wants the monies because it that of the company that he is now managing, while the second team for they are two, also claim that, the lump sum is payment for services rendered to the
late manager and the state of Cameroon. If like me you are angry with the excesses of the second wives of African leaders come and joint the club of protesters.
# posted by ELIE SMITH REPORT11 @ 2:03 PM
Comments:
About Me
Name: Elie Smith
Location: Bonneuil sur marne, Greater Paris Region, France
My name is Elie B. Smith. I am 34 years old and a holder of a Diploma in Mass Communications and a Bachelor in International Marketing. I am a Broadcast Journalist by profession and have worked with the English services of Radio France
International and Canal France International,respectively as a correspondent in Africa and sports commentator here in Paris where I am now living.
Subject: weeklypost1.tripod.com/id3.html
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 10:06:38 -0500
weeklypost1.tripod.com/id3.html
THE WEEKLY POST
EVENTS
Probe Into MOPCOOP
Dear Sir,
I read with shock and dismay, the revelations made in your issue number 273 of April 20 – 26, 2006 concerning the Manyu Oil Palm Cooperative Society (MOPCOOP) by the former president of that cooperative society, Chief Bayen Michael Tabe.
It is a miracle that MOPCOOP is still on its feet after such massive embezzlement and fraud. That such malpractices have been going on for several years with no reaction from the supervisory authorities creates the impression that they too have
been on the take. Or should I say cooperative societies are no longer audited in this country?
It is disheartening that whilst the ordinary farmers toil day and night to plant, nurse to maturity, harvest and feed the Nchang oil mill with the fruits that keep it going, a handful of individuals have been using MOPCOOP as a milking cow to the
exclusion of the real owners of that cooperative society.
With the former MOPCOOP president speaking out at last, I think it is time government steps in to probe into the activities of that farmers’ organisation going back to at least ten years. I think the rape of MOPCOOP has continued unabated
because hardly any of its rogue leaders has been punished over the years. Until something serious that would act as a deterrent to aspirant embezzlers within MOPCOOP is done, the rip-off would continue. Over to you government. Do something
now!
AYUK ELIAS OBEN
KOSSALA QUARTER
KUMBA
Fight Against Corruption And Embezzlement:
4 Ministers, Several GMs To Be Arrested Soon!
By Our Yaounde Staff Correspondent
Since the cleansing campaign against embezzlement and corruption started with the arrest of three former General Managers of state corporations (Ondo Ndong of FEICOM, Joseph Edou of Credit Foncier and Gilles Roger Belinga of the
Cameroon Housing Corporation), many Cameroonians have been asking what next. Many other high-ranking personalities in the country have since been arrested including a seating minister (Siyam Siwe of Mines) as well as many of their
collaborators in high and low places.
Whilst most Cameroonians have been calling on government to ensure that the arrests don’t end only there but that the billions embezzled and deposited in foreign bank accounts be made to be returned to Cameroon, others have been asking
whether the wave of arrests has ended.
The answer that the WEEKLY POST can give now is an emphatic NO! In fact, since the euphoria that swept the nation after the first arrests, more arrests have been made but this time in discretion.
“Government seems to have been advised that by making a lot of noise about the arrest of certain high-ranking individuals, they stood to jeopardise the chances of the cases against the said individuals succeeding in court. Most lawyers for the
accused persons have been talking of pleading prejudice at the subsequent trials and government does not want to be embarrassed when the cases come up”, one knowledgeable source told the WEEKLY POST in Yaounde.
“The arrests have been going on quietly and in fact, as I speak to you, there are some very sensitive dossiers that have been deposited with the State Counsel in Yaounde concerning some members of government and other high-ranking officials
of state corporations”, our source revealed.
The WEEKLY POST has learned that the dossiers concerning four seating ministers have already been handed over for prosecution and sooner or later the said four would be arrested and grilled on the offences against them.
Two of the ministers whose arrests are impending are accused of having embezzled highly indebted poor countries initiative funds. In the case of one, he is accused of having misappropriated about 2.1 billion FCFA. Yet another minister is accused
of having misappropriated 3 billion FCFA HIPC funds.
“We have the names of the said ministers but would not dare mention them for fear of being sued for libel, especially as the cases have not yet come up in open court”, Chief Bisong Etahoben, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher of the WEEKLY POST told
this Reporter.
Amongst the dossiers already with the State Counsel are those concerning some Board Chairmen of state corporations whose former general managers are now in detention. The Board Chairmen are also accused of having been accomplices to
the embezzlement.
About 350 million FCFA is alleged to have been embezzled during the census operations that took place in the country some months ago, and some files that have been handed over to the State Counsel involve the census bureau.
Most of the information the government has been getting concerning embezzlement has been coming from some of the officials already in detention. One of the most garrulous detainee is Ondo Ndong, former General Manager of FEICOM who
has been pointing accusing fingers all over the place.
“He has even pointed accusing fingers at some former high-ranking officials of the CRTV whom he says collected over 300 million FCFA from him in order to do publicity stints on the councils in Cameroon but which publicity was never made.
“The General Managers of at least three state corporations would be targeted during the future wave of arrests”, our source revealed.
About 34 billion FCFA is said to have disappeared from CRTV’s coffers over the last several years up to 2004 and over 20 billion FCFA is said to have been unaccounted for in the Rural Electrification Corporation.
There are other persistent allegations that some money involving the Nsam disaster did not reach the intended quarters and government is surely not going to close its eyes to this.
If all these hints given to the WEEKLY POST end up being true, then several heads would roll any time soon. Already there are very strong indications that some members of government might not be at the Unity Palace dinner on May 20.
“Rumours of a cabinet reshuffle have been rife and always ended up being just rumours. However, should prosecution on the dossiers now with the state counsel start, then the ministers involved would surely be asked to vacate their posts
pending the end of the investigations. This would surely lead to a cabinet shake-up”, a very reliable source close to Unity Palace told this Reporter.
There are surely very many people having sleepless nights these days.
Former Manyu Oil Palm Coop President Unearths Massive Embezzlement
The former President of the Manyu Oil Palm Cooperative Society (MOPCOOP) Chief Bayen Tabe Michael has in a rejoinder to media allegations of improprieties during his tenure, made public the massive misappropriation and mismanagement that
has visited the cooperative society with the arrival of a new management team at MOPCOOP.
To avoid any misinterpretation that may result from analysing the contents of Chief Bayen’s letter, we publish hereunder the full text of the said letter:
Dear Sir,
Chief Otun Etta's recent pronouncements over the Voice of Manyu, in a programme, "The Moment of Truth", relative to WEEKLY POST publication Vol. 12 No. 0247 of June 3 - 9, 2004, prompts me to comment in a matter I had earlier, out of
maturity, decided to ignore.
The catching words or parts of that publication remain, and I quote: "misappropriation"; "impropriety"; Embezzlement"; "fraud"; “incompetence"; "mismanagement"; disappearance of 25.558.274 FCFA in MOPCOOP Ltd". And "The endorsement of a
move to write off the entire amount of 25.558.274 FCFA, some of it clearly stolen”.
My position here is not defensive over the malicious defamatory and libellous allegations imputed on my person and the Manager of MOPOOP Ltd by Mr. Echu Samuel Ayuk who took over from me as President in 2002. I should rather focus on why
the repeated trumpeting of the allegations by Chief Otun Etta.
As an insider in the oil palm cooperative, I know Chief Otun Etta has been a long time ally to Mr. Echu Samuel Ayuk and Mill Engineer, Mr. Besong, for the supply of mill spare parts.
THE TRIO
Chief Otun Etta has supplied mill spares for 18 years; Mr. Echu Samuel Ayuk has been in the cooperative for 21 years, either as President, Vice President, Management Committee Member or Delegate. Mr. Besong has served for 27 years and was
promoted from category 4 to category 8 to become Mill Engineer by Mr. Echu Samuel Ayuk.
The Engineer advices for the purchase of parts while Mr. Echu gives support at the Board or the General Assembly for Otun Etta Enterprise to supply at excruciating prices, particularly during the times of non-technical managers like Messers Abane,
Agbor and Tabot Ayuk Johnson, all of late.
In 1993 Chief Otun Etta started getting into trouble following the advent of the supervisory committee, with me as Secretary. Besides exorbitant prices, he often took advances before supplying. An example is 600.000 francs on payment voucher
No23 of 17/12/94 for the supply of test weights. That amount he failed to deduct from his final bill of 2.750.000 francs paid on voucher No07 of 3/4/95. He supplied tractor tyres at 600.000 frs instead of 350.000 frs.
Things came to a head with the employment of a mechanical engineer as manager in 1996. Chief Otun Etta fell in to disfavour, particularly with the supply of an elevator chain in 1997. The Mill Engineer instigated the urgency for the purchase of
the chain. Mr. Echu Samuel Ayuk, as Vice President, influenced its supply by Chief Otun Etta instead of direct importation of the chain and 2 sprockets by MOPCOOP Manager at the cost of 3.6 million francs. Chief Otun Etta lied that the chain was
already at Lagos wharf pending collection and got an advance of 2.5 million francs promising to supply it by 5/1/97. It took three months for the chain to be supplied on 1/4/97 and despite protest; he bagged a total sum of 8.3 million francs for the
chain by 14/4/97. That chain, when put into use, did not last two years for MOPCOOP to go back to the old chain that was earlier rejected by the Mill Engineer.
Outside cheating Mopcoop Ltd in his spare parts supply deals, Chief Otun Etta is neither a member of the cooperative nor an oil palm farmer supplying fruit to MOPCOOP Ltd. Yet he wrote, calling himself an insider, in confirmation of Mr. Echu
Samuel Ayuk's wanton blackmailing allegations of embezzlement even though Chief Otun knew that:
I. His friend, Mr. Echu, had converted debts owed by some customers and detailed in MOPCOOP Accounts to embezzlement just to blackmail the Manager and me.
II. Mr. Echu contracted in 1985 for the payment of 147 million francs to the Catholic Mission in 10 years for the Oil Mill. From 1985 to 1995 (10 years) only 13 million francs was paid compared to 31 million francs paid from 1996 - 2002, the 6
years period in which I was also involved. Incidentally, my period recorded the highest single yearly amount ever paid of 10 million francs.
III. In 1995, Mr. Echu Samuel Ayuk, without authorization, dug 47 palm trees belonging to MOPCOOP and paid 10.000 francs to the cashier. When I questioned, the Board asked him to pay an additional 13.500 francs to resolve the matter,
which up to date has not been paid.
IV. In 1999, as Vice President, Mr. Echu, against MOPCOOP rules, took a loan of 500.000 francs repayable in 10 months. After 14 months, when nothing was repaid, I intervened and he grudgingly repaid the loan in 20 monthly instalments.
V. Mr. Echu took over from me as President in December 2002 and immediately contracted to himself the completion of the Board Room, initiated by me on direct MOPCOOP labour by collecting 200.000 francs from the cashier for a start. The
colossal expenditure of 671.000 francs made by him cannot be considered reasonable or in the interest of MOPCOOP.
VI. As can be seen on page 2 of Mr. Echu's address presenting the Accounts of 2003, he had in one year squandered 10 million francs from the 27.874.656 francs I handed over to him.
VII. Mr. Echu, despite the serious drop in production and the fall in price of oil, increased the number of Delegates from 28 to 40 and Board Members from 5 to 7 all involving additional costs on the society.
VIII. Mr. Echu negotiated the supply of engine oil at 47.000 frs instead of 35.000 frs by the Manager.
IX. Mr. Echu raised his daughter from learner to a cashier so as to readily get access to MOPCOOP funds.
X. With the Manager on leave, Mr. Echu, with the complicity of EBOT'S WELDING METAL WORKS, urged the Board to pay an exaggerated bill of 1.9 million francs that should have totalled 1.4 million francs. After scrutiny later by the Manager,
770.000 francs was then approved by the Board for payment. Over 1.2 million francs would have gone in to thin air following Mr. Echu's diabolic plan.
XI. In one year, as President, Mr. Echu took 330.000 francs on I.O.U., as indicated in the accounts of 2003, contrary to MOPCOOP rules.
XII. When the in-law's son died at Bafoussam, Mr. Echu went with MOPCOOP vehicle duly fuelled from the oil mill and collected out-station allowance and hotel bills when he returned.
XIII. But for the Manager's refusal to sign for Mr. Echu's out-station allowance and hotel bills in the trip the sister's son got married at Konye and later Kumba, MOPCOOP would have spent just as in the journey to Bafoussam.
The above is the backdrop of the stewardship of the Board President, Mr. Echu Samuel Ayuk, whom Chief Otun Etta in total connivance, must back and misled the public to see as having MOPCOOP interests, at heart. With Mr. Echu back as
President, Chief Otun Etta saw a chance to stage a come back to resume his swindling deals at MOPCOOP Ltd.
o That is, per quote, the "prominent traditional ruler in Manyu Division, Chief Otun Etta" who with his collaborators have realistic sympathy for the survival of MOPCOOP at heart;
o That is the "prominent traditional ruler" who blind to reason in the bid for vengeance over losing supply deals, cannot see the danger faced by MOPCOOP, including those he says, "have fallen short of expectation", in defamatory suits that
could have resulted from Mr. Echu Samuel Ayuk's allegations;
o Here you are with that "prominent traditional ruler" who borrows from his struggling village Group Meeting and for years cannot repay despite intervention by the State Counsel.
It is true that crooks or fraudulent people think every other person must be like them. Without self-praise, I stand tall in the face of who matter to MOPCOOP as a forerunner for correcting many ills in that Society.
I challenge Chief Otun Etta to reply, for his mentor, Mr. Echu Samuel Ayuk, to my letter of 12th March, 2004 on the subject of: "Presentation of The 2003 Final Accounts" addressed to Mr. Echu Samuel Ayuk. I challenge frustrated Chief Otun Etta
and his collaborators to go to court for any shortcomings or misappropriation on my part during my tenure of Office at MOPCOOP Ltd instead of resorting to blackmail and character assassination.
Kindly publish this rejoinder in its entirety.
Chief Bayen Tabe Michael
Former MOPCOOP President
Meme SCNC County Chairman Says At This Stage Of Struggle There Is No Going Back
One aspect of the “SCNC’s fight for independence” that has been putting water into its wine is its factionalisation and the contradictory pronouncements made by some of its operatives. Sometimes, their statements are so outlandish that they have
no bearing with truths on the ground. The Meme County Chairman of the SCNC, Mr. Henry Bovala Nganje recently spoke to WEEKLY POST’s Sama George and some of his declarations may not be as helpful to the cause of the SCNC as one
would have expected. He also seems a stranger to the names of some United Nations arms and specialised agencies, which he claims are fighting the cause of the SCNC. We publish exactly what he said and leave the names as such, with only
a little editing for clarification.
Excerpts of the conversation:
WEEKLY POST : You are the Meme County Chairman of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC). Can you tell us what problems your county has been facing?
BOVALA NGANJE: Our main problem has been that of constant arrests, detentions and torture.
WEEKLY POST: What does the SCNC really want, at this point in time?
BOVALA NGANJE: We want to restore the independence of Southern Cameroons since the government of La Republique du Cameroun does not want and is not ready to dialogue with us through our leaders Chief Otun Ayamba and Dr. Nfor
Nfor. The government also ignores the fact that there is an international organisation known as OMPO (it fights for the rights of marginalized peoples), which has been handling our affairs at the international level so it is not by lobbying opposition
leaders like Ni John Fru Ndi to stay quiet that would solve the problem of the SCNC or the Anglophone problem for that matter.
WEEKLY POST: If the government were to call you people for dialogue, would the SCNC problem be resolved?
BOVALA NGANJE: I can’t say here and now that if government called us for dialogue the SCNC/Anglophone problem would be over since I am not one of the main leaders of the SCNC. I am just a county chairman.
WEEKLY POST: Are you sure Southern Cameroons would attain independence soon?
BOVALA NGANJE: Ours is a peaceful struggle. We don’t want to achieve independence through war. In any case, we don’t have the means with which to go to war. Our struggle is being supervised and supported by the United Nations
International Security Council and the human rights organisation, as such, it would be successful by God’s mercy.
WEEKLY POST: The SCNC has several factions. Have these factions been reconciled? If not, which of the factions do you belong to?
BOVALA NGANJE: I thank you for this important question. The truth is that those who are the real leaders of the SCNC are Chief Atun Ayamba, who is the National Chairman and Dr. Nfor Nfor and others who actually took the matter to an Abuja
High Court. From Abuja, they went to the African Human Rights Court in Banjul, The Gambia. The government of La Republique du Cameroun is aware of all these movements. The SCNC won their cases in all these instances and even at the
United Nations. What we have been waiting for is just the final verdict and La Republique has not been showing up at court sessions and this question of government not being ready for dialogue is what has been prolonging the matter.
Concerning the faction I belong to, I would say I belong to the Ayamba faction which is the authentic faction and this is why I am the Meme County Chairman. My position here in Meme is like the position of the SCNC Senior Divisional Officer for
Meme. I am also a member of the National Executive Council of the SCNC so any other faction which has not been to court in Banjul or is not dealing with OMPO is not a legitimate faction. You cannot be crying someone else’s death when you are
not the principal actor. The other factions are the ones which go to government and deceive it that they are going to end the matter and they give them huge sums of money without solving the matter.
WEEKLY POST: Which are some of the SCNC factions which are not authentic, according to you?
BOVALA NGANJE: Ambassador Fossung’s faction is one of them. Fossung is one of those who has duped government. He is just a noise-maker and has no following whatsoever, neither does he have a base. There are also Chief Isaac Oben of
Muyuka and Theodore Leke who have been deceiving the government that they would do everything to end the SCNC imbroglio. These are the people the government dialogues with and claims to be dialoguing with the SCNC.
Our county has 13 divisions and we have our representatives in these divisions. We even have representatives abroad.
QUESTION: What can government do in order to put this SCNC matter to rest?
BOVALA NGANJE: Thank you very much for this question. However, it can only be answered by my leaders. As far as I am concerned, having reached the level where we are today, I think there can be no turning back. What has been
aggravating things is the constant arrest, detention and torture of SCNC militants, which government thinks is the best way to dialogue with us. What this government is doing to us is in the same line with what the apartheid government in South
Africa did to Nelson Mandela. We all know what happened in South Africa, and today, apartheid is history.
WEEKLY POST: Have you ever been arrested and tortured yourself?
BOVALA NGANJE: I have never been arrested and detained, but they have always been threatening to arrest me and each time, I have always succeeded in outsmarting them. Besides, I am not a radical so I always try to solve all problems I come
fact-to-face with in a peaceful way.
In 2002, I went in for parliamentary elections under the banner of the CDU of Dr. Adamu Ndam Njoya. We have tried in so many ways to convince the Biya government to listen to us but to no avail, so we are bent on going all the way to the
independence of Southern Cameroons.
WEEKLY POST: Who is Henry Bovala Nganje?
BOVALA NGANJE: I am born and bred in the Southwest province but my parents are from Balikumbat in the Northwest province. My father was once a Secretary of State in the West Cameroon government.
WEEKLY POST: Your last word?
BOVALA NGANJE: I want to tell you the truth: Some Southern Cameroonians are married to daughters and sons of La Republique du Cameroun and vice versa. When our country had two states, things were moving very well and Anglophones
felt fine, but today the Anglophone is looked upon as a second class citizen in La Republique du Cameroun. I am asking all Southern Cameroonians to keep on praying and to stay calm as God shall one day answer their prayers.
IS NNOKO MBELE COVETING THE BAFAW PARAMOUNT STOOL?
By Our Cultural Affairs Correspondent
The recent meeting called by the Paramount Ruler of the Bafaws, HRH Nfon V.E Mukete to discuss very pertinent issues affecting the Bafaw tribe has come and gone, but the echoes of this meeting continue to make headline news in some
news organs. Despite the attempts by a handful of some disgruntled so-called elites to sabotage this important gathering, the meeting, nevertheless, recorded a huge attendance and success never experienced in the history of the Bafaw tribe.
The success of this meeting clearly demonstrates the popularity the Paramount Ruler of the Bafaws enjoys amongst his kinsmen despite all the smear campaigns against his person and immediate family over the years orchestrated by those who
covet the stool of the Bafaw paramount chiefdom.
It is therefore not surprising that despite the success of this meeting, a handful of so-called Bafaw elites led by Caven Nnoko Mbele, Government Delegate to the Kumba Urban Council, Akwo John Eyoh, Divisional Delegate of Secondary
Education for Ndian and a certain Aduma an impostor who refers to himself as the Chief of Mambanda village decided to sponsor the publication of a Kumba-based tabloid to play down the success of this meeting and give the impression that
there was a succession problem facing the Bafaw Paramount Chiefdom.
From the declarations of these individuals, one might be tempted to think that there is a chieftaincy problem in Kumba and that there is likely going to be a succession problem after HRH Nfon V.E Mukete. This is a very wrong perception that could
only be believed by those who are ignorant of the history of the Bafaw tribe.
The present Bafaw Chiefdom of Kumba was founded and inhabited by over 8 different families with each of these families operating independently. It therefore required the intervention of the German colonial administration in the mid 19th
century to organise the various families of the Bafaws in Kumba into a single chiefdom that Kumba is today.
History has it that it was late Nfon Abel Mukete who was chosen by his own Bafaw kinsmen to become the first-ever chief of Kumba. After he was chosen by his kinsmen in absentia, on his way back from the farm, he was informed by his kinsmen.
He rejected the offer twice on grounds that it was going to disturb his large scale agricultural activities and business since he was already representing a German firm in Cameroon at that time. It required the pleading of the German colonial
administrator (who even advised him that he could appoint a regent) for him to reluctantly accept the chieftaincy throne. Any doubting Thomas can consult the German Colonial report of 1872 known as the Donder’s Report.
Since then, the Bafaw chiefdom has evolved to embody all the other Bafaw villages out of Kumba into a Paramount Chiefdom with the Nfon of Kumba assuming the throne as Paramount Ruler of the Bafaws.
We are all aware of the fact that since the reorganisation of the Bafaw chiefdom during the German colonial era, this chieftaincy institution was inherited by the British colonial administration which later on introduced the indirect rule through the
Native Authorities ( NA). To further demonstrate their trust in the Paramount Ruler of the Bafaws, Nfon Abel Mukete, the British Colonial authorities gave him more powers by making him the head of the Native Authority in the then Kumba Division
which extended right up to the present day Kupe Maneguba and Ndian Divisions. The Kumba chieftaincy has, since its inception, always rotated within the Mukete dynasty and this status quo, right up to this present date, has never been
challenged by any of the eight founding families of Kumba.
Where then is all this propaganda about the end of the Mukete dynasty coming from? Who are these individuals challenging the chieftaincy institution of the Bafaw people? What moral authority have they got to challenge the chieftaincy
institution of the Bafaw people? Are we sure that some of them even have Bafaw blood flowing in their veins? Since when did they become king-makers to decide how the succession to the Bafaw throne should be?
We cannot attempt to give answers to some of these questions if we do not unmask some of the faces behind this attempt to destabilise the traditional institution of the Bafaw people and the selfish reasons for such behaviour.
Our investigations so far have identified some individuals behind these destabilisation attempts against the Bafaw Paramount chieftaincy. They include Caven Nnoko Mbele, Akwo John Eyoh and Aduma.
As concerns the Government Delegate to the Kumba Urban Council, he claims to be a descendant of Ebako Dibo, one of the eight founding fathers of Kumba. However his claim as a descendant of Ebako Dibo family is being challenged by his
fellow kinsmen because his so-called late father had disavowed him as his legitimate son and there are documents such as the late man’s affidavit in the Kumba High Court attesting to the fact that Caven Nnoko Mbele is not his son. Nfon Mukete’s
only sin against Nnoko Mbele is the fact that he presided over the said meeting in which Nnoko Mbele was disavowed by his father and is still in keeping of the minutes of that meeting. Secondly, when his stepmother Lillian Nnoko challenged his
claim to be heir to late Pa Nnoko in the Kumba High Court, Nfon Mukete and late Barrister Eseme were called up by the widow as her witnesses to the fact that Caven Nnoko Mbele was not her late husband’s son and therefore could not claim to
be the rightful heir of her late husband. Even though the matter was later on adjoined till further notice, the court went ahead and recommended that both parties should sort their differences out of court because of the damage the said case
was causing to the personality of Caven Nnoko Mbele.
Since then Caven Nnoko Mbele has never forgiven Nfon V.E Mukete for protecting the interest of a poor widow. Sources close to the Government Delegate say he covets the Bafaw Royal throne ostensibly as a descendant of Ebako Dibo.
To this end, when Nnoko Mbele was informed of one of the resolutions of the General Bafaw meeting (Mbom Bafaw ) in which all the eight founding fathers of Kumba, all Bafaw chiefs and notables unanimously declared their allegiance to the
Mukete dynasty and further signed an undertaking that no other person out of the Mukete Dynasty can contest the throne, he saw his ambitions slipping through his fingers.
The Eseme murder trial has come and gone as such, honour and decorum demands that Nnoko and his cohorts make peace with their ruler, HRH Nfon V.E. Mukete. Anything outside this would be a threat to public peace.
By declaring that the Nfon wanted him to go to jail over the Eseme murder trial and giving this as an excuse for not attending such an important Bafaw general assembly is a clear indication of intolerance and immaturity on his part. If there is
anybody who should still bear any grudge against that trial, it should be the Nfon for all the ordeals he went through during that trial despite his age. Yet, he still had the fatherly mind to extend an invitation to all his subjects to express their minds
on very important issues affecting the chiefdom. Even those who had opinions different from those of the Nfon were given the opportunity to express themselves. That should have been the right forum for Caven Nnoko Mbele to air his grievances
and extend a hand of reconciliation to his Nfon like any other matured politician would have done. Yet he turned his back on his Nfon and kinsmen by passing judgement against his people.
He should be reminded by what Chinua Achebe says in his novel “Arrow of God” that “no one man, no matter how great can ever win judgement against his people” and that “a child who wrestles with his father risks being blinded by the old man’
s loin cloth”.
The recent disclaimer of his declarations by his own Ebako Dibo family heads is an indication to Nnoko Mbele that no matter how long a toad stays in the water it can never turn into a crocodile.
AKWO EYOH, A DISGRUNTLED LOSER
His recent declarations against the Bafaw General Assembly do not come as a surprise to many Bafaw people. He is most often described within the Bafaw community as an epitome of ungratefulness. Most Bafaw elites have attested to the fact
that his ungratefulness knows no bounds. As a matter of fact, it is said that Akwo Eyoh owes everything to Nfon V.E Mukete who did everything to have him recruited into the civil service as a secondary school teacher. The generosity of the Nfon
towards him did not only end there as the Nfon personally appointed him as the Head of the Bafaw Linguistic Programme intended to teach Bafaw children their language. Despite several discrepancies in his management of the said programme,
the Nfon still went out of his way to confer on him the title of “Kwo” which is the most coveted title in the Bafaw tradition.
Akwo Eyoh’s is angry with Nfon V.E Mukete because the Nfon did not back his candidature to take over from late Chief Eseme as chief of Kokoboma. It should be noted that the kingmakers of Kokoboma placed their choice on the son of the late
Chief Eseme and Nfon Mukete being a very principled man decided to respect the choice of the kingmakers of Kokoboma to the disenchantment of Akwo Eyoh who petitioned in vain. Since then Akwo Eyoh has remained one of those destabilising
factors trying to incite other Bafaw elites and subjects against Nfon V.E Mukete. In fact, the question one may be tempted to ask here is: why should a man who has no royal blood in his veins get up one morning to contest a royal throne with a
royal prince? Is chieftaincies in the Bafaw tribe for sale?
ADUMA, AN IMPOSTOR?
Unlike Akwo Eyoh who does not have royal blood in his veins, the case of this young man who wrongfully arrogates himself the title of a chief is quite regrettable. This is because the chieftaincy stool in Mambannda unlike that of Kokoboma rotates
amongst the royal families of that village and is not hereditary. As such, after the death of the late Chief Aduma of Mambanda, the kingmakers with the instruction from the administration decided to carry out consultations to select a new chief. The
self-proclaimed chief never showed any interest and did not, at anytime, challenge the decision of the kingmakers. The young Aduma who is a driver to a prominent cocoa dealer (whose names we are withholding and who has a vested interest in
the succession process being a native of Mambanda) only surfaced after one of the Mambanda elites failed to be selected by the kingmakers. As such, their plan was to have this young Aduma appointed by the administration after which the
cocoa dealer would send him abroad and Mr Matuke will be appointed as a regent. When the administration got wind of their plans, the Paramount Ruler of the Bafaws HRH Nfon V.E Mukete was consulted and he endorsed the decision of the
kingmakers appointing Mr Akama, a railway engineer as the legitimate Chief of Mambanda.
I would like to praise the bravery of HRH Nfon V.E Mukete to prepare a smooth transition after his rein. It is very rare today to find people with such principles and vision. When finally you are gone to meet your ancestors, you would not only be
remembered for your generosity towards your subjects, most especially towards your detractors but you will equally be remembered as a man who worked tirelessly for the unity and success of this country and who in his last days did everything
possible to preserve the unity of the Bafaw people.
Last Updated: Friday, 3 June, 2005, 15:21 GMT 16:21 UK
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Is there life after the presidency?
Ghanaians are still debating former President Jerry Rawlings' role
What to do with former heads of state when they leave office is a source of debate for many Africans.
The African Statesmen Initiative, which is being launched in Mali is hoping to focus on the positive examples of life after office.
More than 20 African former leaders will be talking about promoting democracy and democratic transition in Africa.
According to the National Democratic Institute which is organising this meeting, "many African presidents cling to power beyond constitutionally and democratically tolerable limits, in part because life after the presidency is seen to offer little in
comparison to the riches, stature and security of being in power".
In Malawi and in Zambia, former Presidents Bakili Muluzi and Frederick Chiluba tried unsuccessfully to get their country's constitution amended to allow them a third term in office.
And in Mr Chiluba's case life after the presidency hasn't been as restful as he might have envisaged. He has been stripped of his immunity and has been in and out of court on corruption charges.
Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings on the other hand has carved a new career for himself as a UN volunteer and public speaker while recently retired Namibian President Sam Nujoma has decided to go back to school and study geology
at the University of Namibia.
On BBC Africa Live, we're asking: Is there life after the presidency? Should retired presidents be involved in politics? And should they continue to enjoy immunity?
living.
An Open Letter To John McCain
By Star Parker
March 31, 2008
Dear John McCain,
Every relationship requires effort. I want to do my part. But there needs to be common ground to start with and you're making it harder and harder for me to find where it is.
I'm an optimist and a woman of faith. I believe we are strong because our nation is meant to be, as President Reagan often reminded us, a "shining city upon a hill."
You spoke in Los Angeles the other day about our country and its place in the world. You talked about political, economic and military strength, and international citizenship.
I strained to hear you mention our moral uniqueness -- our being that "city on a hill." But I heard not a hint.
President Nixon once observed that Americans often make the mistake of thinking that conflict in the world is the result of misunderstanding rather than difference of belief.
Because you seem not to appreciate that our beliefs make us different, you suggest more talk. You propose more international compacts and organizations, as if we don't have enough.
What exactly are the values we would share with others in your concept for a League of Democracies? The European Union countries can't even agree on a common constitution.
A 2000 survey of the United States and 14 Western European democracies checked the percentage of residents who never attend church. France was highest, with 60 percent, followed by Great Britain (55 percent), Belgium (46 percent) and
West Germany (30 percent). The European mean was 36, more than twice as high as in the United States, which had 16 percent.
In 2004, the European Union rejected Italy's nominee for justice minister of the EU, Rocco Buttiglione, because he is an open Christian who condemned homosexuality.
We, of course, should strive for peace and seek commerce with all. But let's not forget who we are and seek some pseudo-tranquility by compromising ourselves and becoming more like others. Remember, John, "For what is a man profited, if he
shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
I, like most Americans, share your deep concern about the threat of terrorism and radical Islam. I agree we should engage this aggressively.
But I'm afraid I don't share your sense that this is the "transcendent threat" of our time.
John, half our country today is ready to vote for a presidential candidate, be it a white woman or a black man, who favors promiscuous use of government power to pretend to solve every domestic challenge we have.
Both these candidates want to nationalize health care, raise taxes to deal with our Social Security and Medicare crises, and onerously regulate the mortgage industry. Both condemned the Supreme Court's decision banning partial birth abortion.
Both reject the only hope we have for addressing our education problems: school choice.
I appreciate your concern for how we are treating the 600 or so detainees we are holding in Guantanamo.
But have you thought about the 2.3 million of our own citizens -- 1 percent of our adult population -- in prison? Ten percent of black men between 20 and 34 are in prison or jail.
If millions of low-income Americans would hear a genuine and aggressive message from our leadership about how conservative and traditional values address their problems, they'd be less susceptible to destructive illusions peddled by those like the
Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
While you spoke in Los Angeles, Social Security and Medicare trustees issued a report. These systems are bankrupt and in the red by more than $50 trillion -- several times our gross domestic product. This is more than a cash flow problem; this is a
misuse of government crisis. Is this not a "transcendent threat?"
Our incidence of out-of-wedlock births -- almost 40 percent -- is 10 times greater than 50 years ago. Do you see breakdown of the American family as a "transcendent threat?"
How can we light the path to freedom for others when we are so clearly losing the way ourselves? I think the "transcendent threat" is the dimming of that light from the city on the hill.
I hope you can still listen, John.
Your fellow conservative,
Star
---
Star Parker is a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News as well as author of White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay.
Committee to Protect Journalists (New York)
Gabon: Newspaper Suspended Over Report On President's Wealth
PRESS RELEASE
14 March 2008
Posted to the web 15 March 2008
New York
Gabonese authorities banned on Tuesday a private newspaper for republishing a report on President Omar Bongo's private wealth in France, according to local news reports. The original story appeared in the French daily Le Monde at the end of
January.
Gabon's state-run National Communications Council accused Tendance Gabon, a private semimonthly, of spreading "a campaign of denigration" against Bongo after questioning Director Edwige Anyouzoa during a nine-hour hearing, according to
local journalists. Anyouzoa told CPJ she was summoned to the council shortly after Monday's edition hit the newsstands with Le Monde's story, which she headlined "Omar Bongo busted by French investigators." The decision to ban the paper for
three months was final and could not be appealed under Gabon's laws, legal expert Francis Nkéa told CPJ.
"Suspending a newspaper for a report critical of President Omar Bongo has become the norm in Gabon," said Joel Simon, CPJ's executive director. "We call on the government to abandon such heavy-handed tactics to silence critical journalism. We
urge the council to lift the suspension against Tendance Gabon immediately."
Le Monde's January 31 story reported on French investigations into the private luxury Parisian residences acquired by five leaders of oil-rich African nations, including Bongo. The report triggered a public row between Gabon and former colonial
power France, according to international news reports. The council also accused Tendance Gabon of "plagiarism" by reprinting the report, which ran with the name of the original author on it, according to local journalists.
According to Anyouzoa, the ruling was also linked to a critical editorial in Monday's edition that raised questions about disparities in the council's treatment of media affairs, according to CPJ research. Critical coverage of Bongo or his family usually
triggers a suspension or a ban from the council, local journalists explained, but scrutiny of top officials and close aides of the president are rarely reprimanded.
This week's ruling was the 23rd suspension of a news outlet by the council since 1998, according to CPJ research.
Gabon's independent media remains weakened by a combination of censorship, political and financial pressures, and internal divisions, CPJ research has found. Government subsidies of the press and the infusion of money from wealthy politicians
lead to self-censorship in many publications.
Date: 28/Mar/08
Id: 2050
Subject: Crooner, AND THE TRUTH SHALL BE TOLD
Text: As a 78-year-old American of African descent, I feel compelled to respond to all this "much ado about nothing" when it comes to the
statement that Michelle Obama made about the fact that this is the first time in her adult life that she has been proud to be an American. The country needs to hear this from the Black perspective. Long before I was born, my grandfather Joseph
Burleson, owned a considerable amount of land in oil rich Texas . Because during that era, Blacks could not vote, nor could they contest anything in the courts of the United States , my grandfather's land was STOLEN by his White neighbor. My
grandfather, who was literate and better educated than my grandmother, drove to town.
Seeing my grandfather leave, the covetous neighbor asked my grandmother to show him the deed to the property. He snatched it. She could not insist that he give it back, nor could she have reported this THEFT to the sheriff because of the
fact that Blacks had no rights in the 1800's. The prevailing law at that time was he who held the deed owned the land. Do you think that is something that I am PROUD OF?
Right now I should be living off the oil and gas royalties. In 1934 when my dad drove us to Texas to meet his family, when he stopped to purchase gasoline, his daughters and wife were not allowed to use the washroom.
As a man it was easier for his to relieve himself in the bushes, but not for the females. We were, however, reduced to having to go in the bushes, also. Do you think I am PROUD OF THAT?
In 1938 when my oldest sister went to enroll in Hyde Park High School, she was told by the counselor that she did not want to take college preparatory courses, she wanted to study domestic science. Do you think I'm PROUD OF THAT?
Of course, when Beatrice Lillian Hurley-Burleson went to school the next day, that was the last time anyone thought that the Burleson girls wanted to study domestic science. When in 1943 my parents attempted to buy the 2 flat at 5338 South
Kenwood, where we had lived since 1933, in Hyde Park, Chicago , IL we were told that we could not buy it because there was a restrictive covenant that said that the property was never to be sold to "Negroes." Do you think I am PROUD OF
THAT?
In 1950 when I graduated from college, I was unable to get a job because I was considered "overqualified." the code word for they would not hire me because of my race. All of the want ads called for Japanese
Americans or Neisis ( the word given to Japanese Americans at that time). Do you
think that was something that I should have been PROUD OF? I understood that America was trying to make up for the interring of innocent and patriotic Americans who were our enemy by association. My cousin's
barbershop was bombed in Mississippi in the 50's because he was encouraging Black people to register to vote. His wife who had earned a Masters Degree from Northwestern University lost her position as the
principal of the local school because of the voter registration activities. Is that something I should be PROUD OF?
Now we get to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of the Obama family. Rev.
Wright like so many religious zealots overstates many things, that many of his members do not agree with.
To suggest that Senator Obama should leave the church of his choice is not only a double standard, but it is absurd. Would any of the talking heads who are so alarmed by Rev. Wright's thoughts and speeches suggest
that Catholics should abandon their faith or denounce and reject the Pope because so many priests have molested children? These children were exploited and taken advantage of and they had no choice to even
know they could resist, reject and denounce. To me the situations are parallel, except for
the fact that the priests behavior is a physical violation of the innocence
of children who are marred for life; and the priests behavior is a crime.
Rev. Wright's speeches are just words, that one can listen to or not, the members have a choice. Should Governor Romney denounce and reject the Mormon Church because some of their members practice polygamy? As
Senator Obama has previously stated, we have entered the silly season. Barack Obama
is an adult, and most importantly, he is an exceptionally intelligent
adult.
Like most of us adults, fortunately, we do not accept all we hear or see. If we did, the world would be more amoral, debased and perverted than the world of today is. I see all these "so called" ponderings an
attempt to marginalize the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. I cannot truly call this racism because some ignorant Blacks have also spoken disparagingly about him.
I accept this as the darker side of mankind who because of their own inadequacies, they project their deficiencies on others.
Barack Obama is a very rare individual, the likes of whom the world seldom sees. Like most geniuses, they are often misunderstood. They are objects of envy and jealousy. They are suspect because they soar above
the average man who does not have the intellectual ability to understand the greatness of special people. They are also targets to be pulled down to the level of the mediocre that cannot stand to see an individual
with deep convictions and high standards.
We have not seen a phenomena like Barack Obama in many years and many generations. Like Ghanda, like Jesus, like Einstein, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., like Mother Theresa, genetically, intellectually and spiritually, these people offer the
world so much, but they are often maligned and misunderstood. Barack Obama is a Christian in the true
sense of the word. A true Christian loves his fellow man unconditionally. A true Christian wants the best and tries to bring out the best in his fellow man. A true Christian wants to unite and bring the world together in peace and harmony. This is
what Senator Obama stands for; but, unfortunately, he has had to get off point to answer these false charges, innuendoes, and just plain lies.
We are in the presence of an angel unaware in Senator Barack Obama; and this country needs him, more than he needs us. He is the only person at this time in history that can restore respect for America with the worlds' people.
Because of his family background, the influence of his beloved mother who instilled great values in him, the influence of his absent father who vicariously inspired a son to go to Harvard as the father had done, the influence of a minister who
brought him to an understanding of the value and meaning of Christianity, the influence of a brilliant Harvard educated wife who inspires him and keeps him grounded; he is the epitome of a citizen of the world. He is of the world because the
world is in him; and this is what America needs to bring us out of the abyss to which we have sunk in the eyes of the world.
Like, Michelle Obama, after living in this country all of my 78 years, loving my country and not understanding why my country has not loved me, I now for the first time in my adult life feel PROUD OF MYCOUNTRY because I sense a maturing, a
recognition of talent and character, and not color, and a field of candidates aspiring to lead this nation
coming from very diverse backgrounds of gender, religious beliefs, national origin, ethnicity, age and experiences. This to me is the HOPE that America is coming into her own and will begin to CHANGE and will
embrace the philosophy upon which this country was founded, where all men are created equal and are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now I truly believe, YES WE CAN!
Author: Helen
Ethiopia: Soldiers Continue to Desert Eritean Army to Country
The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
Addis Ababa
Some 1300 Eritrean soldiers crossed the borders to Ethiopia over the past 6 months in defiance to massive oppression and ill-military policies they face at home, Sudan Tribune reported on Tuesday citing the Administration of refugees and returnee
Affairs.The report said the 1300 soldiers were among the 3000 Eritreans who crossed the border in to Ethiopia over the said period.
"Over 3000 Eritreans have fled to Ethiopia over the past 6 months in protest to the heavy -handed treatments of the government in Asmara,"Law and protection department head under the administration Haileslasie Gebremariam was quoted as
saying.
"Among the fled 1300 of them are Eritrean soldiers while the rest are students, social workers and various members of the community" he added. In his addresse to the Parliament last wek, Prime Minister Meles zenawi said he did not see any point
in going to war with Eritrea when a number of Eritrean soldiers were "coming to us every day." Human rights defenders routinely label Eritrea one of Africa's worst offenders, accusing it of using torture, killing and illegal imprisonment inside the
country.
Relations between Washington and Asmara have soured as Eritrea accuses the United States of siding with Ethiopia in a border dispute. Asmara and Addis Ababa fought a 1998-2000 war over their 1000-km (620-mile) frontier. The U.S. State
Department said in its 2007 world human rights report that Eritrea continued to commit "numerous serious abuses".
It said President Isaias Afwerki's government used the border stalemate with Ethiopia to clamp down on dissent and keep much of the nation's youth in the military. Eritrea denies that. The Report said an average of 300 Eritreans fled to Ethiopia
on monthly basis during last year.
This figure has more than doubled since the turn of the new Ethiopian millennium, it added.
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Arms and Military Affairs
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Eritrea
Ethiopia
Currently over 20,000 Eritrean are sheltered at shimelba refugee camp in northern Ethiopia, which according to the report was more than the camp's accommodation capacity.
A new refugee camp is under preparation to be constructed before the situation at shimelba goes out of control.
Immigrants have been receiving necessary treatment from the day of their arrival, including transferring them to USA, Canada and to various European nations. So far some 3400 Eritreans are resettled in to those countries, the Sudanese
newspaper said on its website published on Tuesday
Briton indicts Thatcher in E. Guinea plot trial
A BRITISH mercenary awaiting trial in Equatorial Guinea for leading a failed 2004 coup has said the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was involved in the plot, the public prosecutor said.
Jose Olo said former British special forces' officer, Simon Mann, had testified that Mark Thatcher knew all about the scheme to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled the oil-rich West African country since 1979.
Thatcher has in the past admitted chartering a helicopter for Mann, who was arrested in 2004 in Zimbabwe with 70 mercenaries en route for Equatorial Guinea, but he has denied any knowledge of the planned coup.
Olo said authorities in Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest oil producer, were still taking testimony from Mann ahead of a trial expected to start in May.
Mann admitted in a television interview broadcast in Britain this month that he plotted to oust Obiang.
"He has testified that Thatcher knew all about the operation. If we can gather enough evidence, we will start a case against (Thatcher). ... We have still not taken a decision," Reuters quoted Olo as saying.
Media reports at the weekend said Equatorial Guinea had issued an international arrest warrant for Thatcher, but Olo said no such official steps had been taken.
A spokeswoman for international police agency, Interpol, said Equatorial Guinea had not sought its help in arresting Thatcher, which generally happens if a country wants to enforce an arrest warrant abroad.
Equatorial Guinea in 2004, issued international arrest warrants for those it suspected of involvement. Thatcher was detained by South African police that year on suspicion of bankrolling the scheme but struck a plea bargain to avoid prosecution
and paid a large fine.
Thatcher has shrugged off any suggestion Equatorial Guinea may have him arrested saying he felt "pretty relaxed about it".
"As far as I'm concerned, the issue has already been dealt with," he told London's Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"I've been charged and tried in a court in South Africa on exactly those charges. So, I don't see what more they can do. The term 'double jeopardy' springs to mind."
Other suspects in the coup plot included London-based businessman, Eli Calil and Severo Moto, who leads a self-proclaimed Equatorial Guinea government-in-exile in Spain.
Mann was jailed for four years by a Zimbabwe court in 2004 for buying weapons without a licence which the prosecution said were intended for the coup.
He was extradited in February by President Robert Mugabe's government, which received an oil supply deal from Equatorial Guinea last year.
Mann, who is being held in Malabo's notorious Black Beach prison, faces a possible life sentence.
The 55-year-old Mann, heir to a brewing fortune who attended Britain's exclusive school, Eton, helped found two security firms which became bywords for mercenary activity across Africa in the 1990s.
Obiang overthrew and killed his uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, one of Africa's most brutal dictators, in a 1979 coup. His government is accused of widespread human rights abuses.
Meanwhile, a British press report said Thatcher had remarried in a secret ceremony in Gibraltar.
Cameroon: Re-Constitution Should Be Modified to Address Changing Societal Needs
The Post (Buea)
30 March 2008
Posted to the web 31 March 2008
Ndi Martin Fon Jr.
Permit me to react to an article published in your newspaper as captioned above. This article is an interview The Post granted Dr. Fonkam Azu'u, Deputy Secretary General of the National Assembly, in which he stated that "Section 63 of the
Constitution gives the President of the Republic and Parliament the prerogative to initiate a constitutional amendment".
Article 63(1) of the Cameroon Constitution clearly states that, "Amendment to the Constitution may be proposed either by the President of the Republic or by Parliament". Article 63(2) went further to state: "Any proposed amendment made by a
Member of Parliament shall be signed by at least one-third of the members of either House".
This is to say, Parliament has the powers only to propose a constitutional amendment and does not have the powers to amend any articles of the Constitution, since Article 18(3) has set-up the agenda of the National Assembly in Article 26 without
any provision for the amendment of the Constitution.
Again, Article 63(4) of the Constitution has given powers to the President of the Republic to "... submit any bill to amend the Constitution to a referendum..." Whereas Article 26(1) has provided the bills and rules that shall be passed by Parliament in
Article 26(2) a, b, c, d and e without any provision therein for the amendment of the Constitution.
Hence, Parliament can not legislate on a bill that is not within its jurisdiction as clearly stated in Article 26(2) which states: "The following shall be reserved to the legislative power"- a, b, c, d and e whereby no provision is provided thereon for any
constitutional amendment.
Accordingly, any bill sent to Parliament by the President of the Republic for the amendment of the Constitution is illegal and anti- constitutional. Again, any bill presented to Parliament by a Member of Parliament, for the amendment of the
Constitution should be regarded as a proposed draft, which can only be examined and adopted as the stand of Parliament to present, accordingly, to the President of the Republic to submit to a Referendum as of Article 63(4) and Article 63 (3)
that has given power to the President of the Republic "to request a second reading."
Any act short of the above is illegal, for that the Parliament in its Agenda as of Article 18(3) has no power to amend the Constitution as of Article 26.Parliament can only amend a draft proposal of constitutional amendment in accordance with Article
63(2) and send to the President of the Republic to act in accordance with Article 63(4) to a Referendum.
Or the President of the Republic can use article 36(a) to amend the Constitution by means of a Referendum.
Botswana: BDP Rejects 'Dictatorial' Proposals
Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
28 March 2008
Posted to the web 31 March 2008
Oliver Modise
Gaborone
Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) members yesterday rebelled and rejected an amendment to their party constitution giving their party president powers to discipline party members.
A majority vote also rejected a proposal to increase the term of office for the party's central committee to five years from the current two.
The BDP holds its congress and elections every two years. The party was gathered at Boipuso Hall in Gaborone to vote for or against 18 proposed constitutional changes following a task force led by BDP Women's wing chairperson Tebelelo
Seretse. There has been a concern that the constitutional amendments were a threat to the BDP's democratic fibre, with party cadres signaling worry that the proposed reforms sought to transfer power from party structures to the incoming party
president Ian Khama.
With only three days before Khama ascends to the state presidency, BDP big-shots, notably Jacob Nkate, Daniel Kwelagobe, Mompati Merafhe, Kentse Rammidi and Robert Masitara, sat at the high table with Khama, their expressions sombre.
Dressed in their red, black and white party colours, they seemed to be listening attentively as the amendments issue was put to the floor for discussion. Margaret Nasha became the hero of the day as she rose out of nowhere to oppose the
proposed amendment to article 34, which dealt with the powers and functions of the president. Nasha's Gaborone region has been arguing against the proposal for the party president to reprimand, suspend, debar and even expel party
members.
"What is worrisome is that people are going to blackmail us," Nasha said, adding that summary disciplinary powers could mean anything. According to the amendment, the president may exercise summary disciplinary power against any member,
which may result in verbal reprimand or written reprimand, if he considers that to be in the best interest of the Party". Although there was a air of discipline as members thrashed out the amendments, there were smiling faces and phone calls to
celebrate the defeated proposals. Kabo Morwaeng also took the floor to challenge an amendment calling for the party's parliamentary and council caucus decisions to be binding. Morwaeng said there was a threat of empowering the caucus at
the expense of the electorate and asked for clarity regarding which decisions would be binding.
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Last Updated: Friday, 6 May, 2005, 16:48 GMT 17:48 UK
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Profile: Kenya's controversial first lady
By Gray Phombeah
BBC News, Nairobi
For more than two decades, Kenyans were desperate to have a first lady. Then, in 2002, voters went to bed with one Mwai Kibaki and to the pleasant surprise of everyone, woke up in the morning with him and his wife Lucy Kibaki.
Lucy Kibaki accused the press of dragging her name through the mud
It marked the end of former President Daniel arap Moi's 24-year rule, during which his wife hardly ever appeared in public.
They had the first glimpse of their new national bride, donning a blue and white African dress, as Mr Kibaki was sworn in as the third president of Kenya in the capital, Nairobi.
Two years on, a series of night-time rampages through Nairobi last weekend by the first lady has left her once adoring fans appalled and wondering loud about the leadership ability of her husband, who is now seen to have failed to keep his own
house in order.
In the course of four days, Mrs Kibaki launched verbal attacks on diplomats, journalists and policemen she believed had not treated her with sufficient respect.
This was the latest outburst from the first lady whose antics have led to her short life at state house being likened to a soap opera, causing a mounting scandal that is threatening to undermine the president.
Undignified
The latest episode started when Mrs Kibaki stormed into the house of her neighbour, the World Bank's country director Makhtar Diop, in a tracksuit at midnight last Friday and demanded he turn his music down at a private party to mark the end of
his posting in Kenya.
It happened when Kenya was trying to rebuild good relations with the World Bank, which had criticised the country's widespread corruption.
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The following evening, Mrs Kibaki went to the local police station in shorts - seen by many Kenyans as a rather undignified choice for a stout, African grandmother - and demanded that Mr Diop and his guests be arrested for disturbing the peace.
Then on Monday night, she burst into the offices of the Nation Media Group with her bodyguards and demanded that the reporter who had written about her confrontation with Mr Diop be arrested.
She slapped cameraman Clifford Derrick who was filming her and refused to leave the offices until 0530 the next day.
By Tuesday morning, the story was front page news in all newspapers and footage of her public outburst ran for hours on local television stations.
Shy and reserved
All this was in stark contrast to the image of a woman born in 1940 to a Presbyterian prelate and a devoted Christian mother in the Mount Kenya region.
Close family friends speak of a shy and reserved young woman in her early days, who performed well in school to become one of the first African women in Kenya to tutor in teacher training colleges.
Cameraman Clifford Derrick shows where the first lady slapped him
Lucy met Mr Kibaki, a dashing bachelor who had just quit his teaching job in neighbouring Uganda's Makerere University, in 1960 and their romance led to a marriage that has lasted for 35 years and included five children.
Like many other politicians' wives in Kenya, Lucy Kibaki stayed in the shadows as Mr Kibaki rose from an MP after Kenya's independence in 1963 to become a minister and vice-president under Mr Moi, and finally the president of Kenya in 2002.
From then on, it was quite clear that Mrs Kibaki was no ordinary first lady.
Just months after her husband became president, she is reported to have shut down a bar inside state house that was a watering hole for ministers and close allies of the president.
Ministers and president's advisers who crossed her path were ordered, in quick succession, out of the building.
In one public row, Mrs Kibaki's turf war with the president's former powerful personal secretary saw him being removed from state house.
'Second lady'
In 2003, she skipped a New Year's Eve party after Vice President Moodi Awori referred to her as a "second lady", which she interpreted as an insult.
Soon Kenyans were to learn that they didn't only get their first first lady in 24 years, but in fact they had two - a woman called Mary Wambui who had maintained a 30-year-old friendship with the president and was now receiving protection from
government security agents.
Lucy Kibaki cared for her husband (r) when he had a car crash
Mr Kibaki issues an official statement - purported to have ordered by Mrs Kibaki herself - saying Lucy and their children were his only "immediate family".
For some time now, most of her ire has been directed at politicians and journalists who have continued to acknowledge the fact that her husband has a second wife, something that is legal and socially acceptable in Kenya.
A few weeks ago, her husband watched helpless as Mrs Kibaki told a political rally in western Kenya that her husband would stand for re-election in 2007 - still a taboo subject as rival factions in the coalition government tear at each other.
Her supporters say she is fiercely protective of her husband following a car crash in later 2002 that left him with a broken arm, a dislocated ankle and a neck injury.
She was by her husband's side campaigning vigorously in the run-up to the 2002 presidential polls.
And the forceful woman has also been widely admired in Kenya as a vigorous anti-Aids campaigner and crusader against female genital mutilation.
Although many Kenyans took her to their hearts at the dawn of new era of democracy, the love affair is now over.
________________________________________
Is it time to rethink the role of the first lady? Do they do more harm than good? Do you think the wives of Africa's presidents have a public role to play? Or should they keep a low profile? Tell us, on a scale of one to five, how you would rate the
first lady in your country.
Send your comments to the BBC's Africa Live programme using the form below - some of which will be published below.
And you can join the debate on the BBC Africa Live on Wednesday 11 May at 1630GMT and 1830GMT.
________________________________________
Leave Lucy alone. She is fun, and fairly harmless.
To hell with so called 'press freedom' or press divisive gossip, really, which relentlessly seeks to protray Lucy and others in a bad light just for a bit of devilish drama. The African press people are having their traditional Afrocentric values of respect
and dignity corrupted by their unwitting mental enslavement to crass and confused European attitudes.
Yaamaji, USA
I think Mrs Kibaki is actually right to speak up for herself. Why should she suffer anti-social behaviour from the IMF representative? She also has rights like the rest of us. So what if she wears shorts. For too long women in Malawi were banned from
waring trousers, why should women in Kenya be banned from wearing what is suitable for the climate. Tracksuits are cheap and actaully show that the Kibakis are not using state funds to live it up as some African leaders and their wives do. I say
stand up for yourself Mrs Kibaki - no-one else will. And for a grown man to cry over a slap shame on him. Africans should also realise that the more we cry for press freedoms the more human and like us our leaders will seem, ask the British royals.
So take the reports with a pinch of salt and remember reporters need to sell newspapers and we buy them for the gossip as well as the news.
Ziv Mashasha, Swindon UK
The press has every right to tell Africans what is going on in their countries and especially when it's about elected leaders like the president and other senor politicians. She is abusing power that she was given by no-one.
Ronald Ngala Yongo, Kenya
The first lady should stay at home and try and cook and raise a good family. With most of the politicians now well into grandparenthood, the first lady's role should be to babysit her grandchildren and pass on her wisdom to the girls on how to look
after their husbands. This would give the presidents time to concentrate on running the country and focus on issues that really matter. The first lady gender equality issue is a western concept that has no place in Africa.
Ranwel Kumwenda, Malawi
Press freedom requires responsibility and African journalists need to really espouse this to be allowed the freedom they need. As much as they should expose extreme conduct on private lifes of leaders, they need to be factual, respectiful and
avoid unecessary excitement.
It is emerging that some of the issues they wrote about Mrs Lucy Kibaki may not have been factual. The public understands that the press knows more about her condition more than the public and she may be in need of support by all. We do not
need to overstretch our leaders by dwelling so much on their negative sides and not highlight their good sides.
Isaac Rodrot, Malindi-Kenya
This is not how a typical African woman behaves. This behaviour is that of a woman with dictatorial tendencies, pushing her husband into dictatorship. The next thing is, she would tell her husband to ban all political parties, clamp down on the
press, and only allow her 'pure' and 'polished' views prevail. All hail the dawn of the new era in Kenya!!!
Kwame Gyebi, London, UK
No one should be above the law. In the US or Western Europe, it would have been a different story!
Nilio Gumbs, Cayman
First ladyism is alien to African constitutions. Since there is no provision for the office of first lady in them, I think they should restrict themselves to advising their husbands at home. African first ladies can speak for themselves as ordinary citizens as
against government functionaries. After all, they are entitled to freedom of expression. African Journalists should not stay out of the private lives of African leaders because it is said that if a leader cannot run his immediate family well, how can such
person be trusted with running the affairs of a whole nation? Africans are known, at least, for respecting their leaders, and I don't think journalists are exception. However, this showing of respect should not cloud their sense of responsibility to
educate the citizens of the happenings within the corridors of power. By virtue of their duties, they are the watch dogs of the society.
Yakubu Afenoko Innocent, Nigeria
I am overwhelmed by the male chauvinism being expressed here! A first lady staying at home to cook?! This kind of prejudice can only be attributed to lack of gender sensitivity by some Africans as a result of their cultures that encourage a male
superiority complex. We all know that behind every successful man there is a woman! Behind Kibaki was Lucy all those years. What has happened to the African values of respect and reverence for our elders and leaders? I salute you Mrs Kibaki for
standing up to your rights and what is your rightful respect! And as for closing an African watering hole - bravo again for bringing sanity to the presidency. What self-respecting first lady can tolerate the rowdy, raucous drunkenness of fat pot-bellied
politicians in her residence at state house day in day out?
Gerard Nyangezi, Kigali, Rwanda
This is not about gender. This is not about the right to wear the trousers. This is about a person using family connections to try to bully people. I am an African woman and I have had enough of these people whose bad behaviour is condoned
just because they are married to someone important. There is no excuse for bullying behaviour. If the press wants to report it, that is their right.
Ama, Ghana
Press freedom does not mean we should write to assassinate people's character or tarnish their image. African journalists fail to understand what is right or wrong when it comes to issues regarding to others' personal lives. If you know you cannot
say the truth please keep quiet. One thing is common in the African press: When we write to tarnish or fabricate bogus stories about other people - it is written at the front page with clear headline; but when it is mistake or error it is written where
you can hardly see the headline or the story. Mrs Kibaki is very, very right. This is the only way we can have honest journalists. Say the truth or keep quiet!
Saikou , The Gambia
Mrs Kibaki has right to speak for herself but should use more mellow ways to do that so as to set a good example for all in power. She should be aware that she is a voice of many and to behave accordingly.
Jacqueline Njoki Wambura, Lacey,Wa
Contributing to the debate, Khama said making caucus decisions to be binding for party members was good for collective responsibility. "If we allow individualism in the party, we are going to have problems," said the BDP Chairman. "We have to
support each other, what is the point of having a caucus?" he asked. Last year, the party's Gaborone Region, chaired by Gomolemo Motswaledi, indicated that it feared that the party was planning to create a party caucus of MPs and councillors
with powers over party members.
Meanwhile, the special congress has accepted amendments of Article 14, which deal with discipline in the party. The proposal that the state Vice President in a BDP government should automatically become the party Chairman was not in the
amendments. The special congress has approved the creation of the party's council of elders tasked with investigating, arbitrating and cautioning those involved in factional activities.
Another approved structure is the branch veteran forum meant to advise the central committee on investigations. Seretse's task force had recommended that the BDP national council of elders be given powers to summon cabinet ministers to talk
about progress in Government's implementation of the BDP manifesto.
The Herald (Harare)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Harare
The Algerian Embassy on Tuesday donated an assortment of sporting equipment valued at over US$75 000 to the Zimbabwean government in a bid to improve sport in the country.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Algerian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Ali Mokrani said the two countries enjoyed excellent bilateral relations, hence the donation which he said would contribute to the empowerment of Zimbabwean athletes.
"Algeria and Zimbabwe share a past of a common struggle for freedom and human dignity.
"It is against this background that my government has decided to contribute towards development of sport in Zimbabwe, " Mokrani said.
Mokrani said the two governments had agreed to hold their third session of the Joint Bilateral Commission in Harare next month during which a cooperation agreement in the domain of sport would be finalised.
Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture permanent secretary, Stephen Mahere received the donation on behalf of the Sport and Recreation Commission.
"Zimbabwe is a sporting nation but in several sporting disciplines shortage of equipment is a limiting factor," said Mahere.
Mahere said the donation would reinforce the country's resolve to excel in sport at both national and international levels.
The equipment, he added, had come at an opportune time as the country was preparing for the Olympic Games in China this year, Zone 6 Games and 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The sporting equipment consisted of 100 boxes of various sportkits, tracksuits, soccer balls, basketballs, volleyballs and handballs.
"Among the beneficiaries of this equipment will be physically challenged people to ensure equity in sport development," Mahere said.
Barack Obama shows amazing grace
Wednesday, March 19th 2008, 4:00 AM
(Page 1 of 2)
LOS ANGELES - Barack Obama talked about race Tuesday in Philadelphia - talked about it in a way he should have long before this. It was only one of the best speeches, in its best moments about race, any man or woman running for the
highest office in this land has given lately.Obama stood at the National Constitution Center and talked about race as it really is, the third rail in this country, the exposed conductor that does not change even in a time like this, with the war in Iraq
about to go past 4,000 American casualties, with the casualty that the economy has become under George W. Bush. Obama talked about race in this way because he had to, because it was time, not just because his pastor from Chicago had
said things in his church for which Obama was now forced to apologize, a church Obama ought to think about quitting. In the process Obama said more than most of the other candidates in this campaign have said in a year and that stands today
whether you think it should be him or Hillary Clinton to run against John McCain in November. Even though Obama has to know that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's good works aren't enough for him to beat the rap on the hateful and divisive things
he has said about race in America. It doesn't work that way. In Philadelphia on Tuesday, Barack Obama said, "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who
survived a depression to serve in Patton's army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line in Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of
the world's poorest nations." Obama said, "I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners - an inheritance we pass on to our precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and
cousins of every race and hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible." He said, "If we walk away now [from the subject of race], if we simply retreat
into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together." On this day he reminded you once again that he is the one running for President. Not his wife, not his pastor. He runs not just out of Chicago and not just out of the Rev.
Wright's church on the South Side, but out of being black in America. It is why, so far into this process, you still don't know how it will go for him, whether he even gets the nomination. We know from the results from all the primaries and caucuses
that black voters in this country are ready to elect the first African-American candidate, especially one with this much game. What we do not know, despite all the polls, polls where people lie routinely when asked about race, is whether or not white
America is ready to do the same. Bill Clinton was on "Good Morning America" with Robin Roberts the other day saying that the media misrepresented what he said about Jesse Jackson and Obama in South Carolina. No, we did not. We
understood him perfectly. Black guy won South Carolina twice, another black guy wins now, what's the news? With a single line, Clinton, who was a hero himself to black voters, shows you his cards, race and otherwise, when he thinks the
nomination might go to someone other than his wife. At the finish Tuesday from Obama was the story he told about a young white woman named Ashley Baia, who organized for his campaign in Florence, S.C. About how Ashley Baia fought
amazingly across her young life to make a better world for a mother stricken by cancer and by poverty in America. One day in South Carolina, she told her story to some voters, then went around the room and asked why other people there were
supporting Obama's campaign. Finally, Obama said in his speech Tuesday, she came to an elderly black man. And when asked why he was there, he did not talk about Iraq or the economy or health care or education. Or even about Barack
Obama. "I am here because of Ashley," the old man said. Obama's speech Tuesday was about race, about young whites and old blacks. But it was more than that. It was not a perfect speech. He has said that he is not a perfect candidate, and
maybe he has no chance to beat McCain even if he holds on against Hillary Clinton. It does not change something: There were things Obama said Tuesday that nobody has said as eloquently since the Rev. King.