Rumour ‘Kill’ Njalla Quan

- Franklin Njie Is Acting CDC GM Afterall!

Chief Henry Njalla Quan

Last week, rumorus made rounds that heaven and hell had been wide opened for cry of them to receive Chief Henry Njalla Quan, the General Manager of the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC who had been under medial attention that he had passed-on. Not at all! Some sources had alleged that he was flown to South Africa, while others merely suspected that he could have been evacuated to the United States of America where he kicked the bucket. Almost a fortnight ago, the CDC Board of Directors met at Bota head office in Limbe presided at by Board Chairman. Tata Okie Namata Elangwe. The issue was on who could temporarily man the affairs of CDC as Njalla Quan was convalescing. The cursor fell on Ngoni Ikome Franklin Njie, Director of Technical Services at CDC.

Prior to the designation of Franklin Njie, it was Chief Etina Monono, Special Adviser No.1 to the CDC GM who was deputizing. Chronicle gathered that the CDC board met to designate someone, moreso because the state corporation has had no deputy GM. Also, Chronicle learnt that the Board Chairman had received instructions from Yaounde to that effect.

According to a press release signed by the CDC chairman of the board, it read:

‘The Board of Directors of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) met in an extraordinary session under the chairman of Tatah Okiah Chief Henry Namata Elangwe on the 8^th of June, 2012 at the CDC boardroom in Bota. The lone item on the agenda was the designation of an Acting General Manager.

Following deliberations, Mr. Njie Franklin was designated Acting General Manager of the CDC. Prior to his designation, Mr. Njie Franklin served as Director of Technical Services. His mandate ends as soon as the General Manager resumes duty’.

Other additional information indicates how according to law no. 99/016 of 22 December 1999 on the General rules and regulations governing public establishments and enterprises of the public and semi-public sector.

Chapter 2 on Management, Part III on General Management

The section 50 states that:

‘Where the General Manager is temporally unable to perform his duties for a period of up to 6 (six) months, the board of directors shall appoint the Deputy General Manager to act in his place.

Where there is no provisoin of the post of deputy general manager or where such deputy general manager is unable to perform his duties, the board of directors shall appoint a senior officer of the Corporation to act for him’.

It was on this strength that last June 8, 2012, Franklin Njie was re-assigned purportedly as the ‘Interim’ General Manger. Yet, last Friday, Chronicle gathered that another important meeting of the top brace of CDC held earlier at its Bota head office. Many suspected that the meeting had been precipitated probably by the demise of Njalla Quan. This was where the rumour about his death stemmed from.

But following Chronicle’s investigations, last Friday’s meeting was held to rectify the appellation which had earlier been bestowed on Franklin Njie. According to the CDC press release, Franklin Njie would only serve as ‘Acting’ GM not ‘interim’ GM. Justifying, Chronicle was told that to have been assigned as the interim, it meant it was all-over for Njalla Quan at CDC; that as ‘Acting’, once Njalla Quan gets well, he could take over his functions as GM.

Chronicle was further told that any decision appointing the interim GM or actual GM of CDC is taken/signed by the Head of State with consultations from top political traditional heavy weights of the area and on recommendations from the Board chairman and minister of Agriculture and Rural Development respectively.