Civil Society Wants Boycott Of MTN, Demonstrations Against AES-SONEL

The North West Coordinator of Civil Society Organizations cum Dynamique Citoyenne (DC) two-day conference wrapped up on Tuesday June 12, 2012, at the conference hall of the Bamenda city council library.

During the conference which took place under the theme “How Can We Work Together For a Stronger Civil Society?”, participants took stock of the successes and challenges the coordination of the North West civil society organizations and Dynamique Citoyenne (D.C) recorded in the past years and mapped out strategies to build a stronger civil society and fight against the litany of injustices in the country in a bid to right the wrongs for a better society.

Explaining what Dynamique Citoyenne (DC) is all about; one of the DC representative form the National head office in Yaounde, Jean Mbala Mbala, corrected that “Dynamique Citoyenne is an independent network of civil society organizations form the 10 regions of the country that follows up government policies and cooperation strategies, offers you a reflection day on the meaning of belonging to a network”. It was on that line that Mbala Mbala said the 2-day (June 11-12) conference was organized for all civil society organizations willing to work together for a stronger and more dynamic civil society whether they are Dynamique Citoyenne members or not.

Mbala Mbala’s college from the DC’s national head office, Andela Christienne who added that the conference was equally intended to explain what Dynamique Citoyenne has achieved since its creation in 2005, regretted that much would have been done but for the crisis that hit Dynamique Citoyenne between 2007 and 2009. She said they took over office without any financial report from the catholic authorities.

Indicting the catholic authorities in Cameroon for the embezzlement of Dynamique Citoyenne’s funds, Andela disclosed that because foreign funders did not trust Cameroon’s civil society, they entrusted the funds under the control of the catholic authorities who embezzled the money and so crisis hit Dynamique Citoyenne.

Asked why the accused catholic authorities were not sued to recover the money, she opined that the foreign funders wouldn’t have bought the idea of seeing a religious body dragged to court. Hear her: “The Bishop in charge of the funds was the sole signatory tot eh account because a Bishop cannot co-sign an account with anyone”.

Although Andela could not disclose the embezzled amount and the Bishop concerned, a cross-section of the conference participants were of the opinion that Dynamique Citoyenne should write to the funders explaining that the money did not reach the civil society to cause them recover the money.

In his marathon presentation of what the coordination of North West Civil Society organizations has achieved over the years, the Dynamique Citoyenne North West focal point person, Simon Nkwenti who doubles as the Executive Secretary General of the Cameroon Teachers’ Trade Union (CATTU), traced that before this time, banditry was order of the day in the region especially in Bamenda where murder, rape and burglary cases were recorded on daily basis. To curb this, Nkwenti explained that the civil society introduced vuvuzela, whistles and shouting when bandits were around because according to him, bandits hate noise. “We marched to a police station and shamed the police who allowed bandits to use their guns to kill a priest with and since then, the North West and Bamenda in particular is calm”.

Equally in a bid to curb corruption, the DC North West focal point person opined that they introduced an integrity award to encourage hard working and corrupt-free indigenes and also went as far as advocating for the creation of University of Bamenda and the appointment of its officials. “Today, the University of Bamenda has not only been created and its officials appointed, but it has already gone operational”.

On the plan of action, Nkwenti lashed out at the over representation of some Regions in parliament especially through the creation of the so-called ‘Special Constituency’; the non-existence of independent candidacy especially during presidential, legislative and municipal elections and the frequent electricity interruptions in the North West Region including what he terms; “MTN National Thievery”.

Emphasizing that the civil society will react seriously to right the wrong, Simon Nkwenti threatened that the population of the North West will have to demonstrate against the belligerent, frequent electricity cuts and boycott MTN for its perpetual thievery.

He explained that very often, MTN customers are convinced to buy credit for 1000 Frs to call till midnight on Sunday, and on Sundays, call do not go through”. Beside, he said most of the time, MTN interrupts customers’ calls with a strange voice usually in French language and during that period, the customers’ credits are inexplicably consumed by the MTN, all in a bid to steal from the customers. Hear him: “All these are national thievery by the MTN Company”. He warned that in the days ahead, the population of the North West Region will boycott MTN.

The conference wrapped up with the registration of the organizations which want to become members of Dynamique Citoyenne for fairer and stronger civil society.