Profile Of Comrade Nkwenti Simon

Some forty-six  years ago ( in 1964 to be more precise), a baby boy was born to the family of Mama Esther and Peter Nkwenti of Chomba, then resident in Mamfe town.  He was named by his parents Simon Azia Nkwenti.

Little Nkwenti Simon did his primary education in Presbyterian schools - Mamfe and Chomba in that order. He attended CPC Bali where he obtained the G.C.E O/L but was deprived of the privilege of obtaining the A/L in the same school by strict puritan discipline.  He was dismissed in lower sixth for daring to write the G.C.E A/L in a lower form.  (At that age the signals were clear.  The young man was clearly full of ambitions).  He obtained the GCE A/L in NACHO Comprehensive College a year later.

After high school, the Rabbi, as he is fondly known in CATTU inner circles received the calling.  He taught briefly in LCC Mankon and with the Presbyterian Education Authority.  He later put in a brief spell with the then Radio Cameroon in Bamenda but returned to the original call when he entered Ecole Normale in 1989.

As a teacher, he has served Cameroonian children in Ngambe - Tikar, Ako, Nwa and Akwaya - the last three being the government’s attempts at rattling a young man who dares to thread where angels dare not.

Still in the same logic, he was appointed junior H/M of GBHS Bamendakwe and sits on many commissions in the Ministry thanks to his frontline position in trade unionism and Transparency International.  He received certificate training by the World Bank in Book Evaluation and has traveled widely to learn more about the cause for which he stands. 

Nkwenti Simon entered the landmine of trade unionism at a time when this was unheard of in the public service.  In 1993, the young man who had barely started receiving a salary virtually created CAPSU – Cameroon Pubic Service Union – the story of which shall be told another day.  Detentions, torture, constant harassments, house searches and narrow escapes were regular.  Things came to a head when CAPSU’s president was bought over by the government and all civil servants who had wares to exchange, on and under their tables returned to their offices.

The teacher had only chalk and children.  None were tradable commodities, at least not then.  To make matters worse, the teacher has no signature.  What was to become of the teacher at a time when the corps had been selected for preferential public and national ridicule? 

The answer came in 1996 when a group of daring teachers created the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union better known as CATTU.

AGAIN, Nkwenti Simon was at the forefront. CATTU and Nkwenti became so strong that something had to be done about them. The government started by sponsoring satellite trade unions to no avail. Betrayals were daily occurrences; in the heat of the struggle, someone faked a tape of a Nkwenti Simon addressing an SDF rally.  The same tape was sent to Minister Mbella Mbappe of National Education.  Nkwenti Simon was summoned through the then Provincial Delegate - His Majesty Fon Fobuzie Martin Asanji to answer whether he was politicking or syndicating. In the mêlée, Minister Mbappe offered the Youngman whose salary had been suspended for several months and whose family was undergoing acute financial stress, an enormous wad of green cocoa boys (money)

The Youngman prayed hard for courage to turn down the much needed money.  To say that the Minister was shocked by the refusal is to put it mildly. Said Nkwenti, “If I take this money and keep quiet, teachers would vote someone who will be even more vocal and vibrant and you’ll keep giving out huge amounts of money.  Why don’t you use this money to increase each teacher’s salary just by 1500 FRS?  It would be a beginning”.

Mr. Nkwenti clearly impressed the Minister.  Though his salary was not reinstated then, the Minister pulled out a few green cocoa boys (50,000 FRS) from his suit and offered Comrade Nkwenti to pay his way back.

Though they had been impressed, attempts to ruin Nkwenti and CATTU did not end there.

Under Minister Joseph Owona, CATTU underwent the most difficult time in its history.  Its leader was appointed assistant Head Master. At the time, it was like standing between the deep blue sea and a lake of fire – accept the appointment and ruin the union or refuse it and get sacked from the public service- at least the Minister made this clear when Comrade Nkwenti confronted him with a resignation letter. By the grace of God, what was intended to be a hurricane ended up as only a storm in a tea cup.

Comrade Nkwenti’s steadfastness and tenacity had made him notorious in government circles.  This same steadfastness and tenacity though, had attracted the attention of the World Bank.  That is how he got invited to visit INDIA and BANGLADESH as a representative of trade unions in a tripartite delegation that included parents and the government.

During the Asian trip, Minister Owona discovered an enigma.  Mr. Nkwenti, with facts and figures counteracted and debunked every government inconsistency as pronounced by Minister Owona to the stunning admiration of the International Community.  At the end of the day, he helped his Minister carry his bag to the hotel.  Early each morning, Nkwenti, would shine the Minister’s shoes only to rattle him and give him a run for his money in the conference hall. Minister Owona could not help but be impressed by these consistencies and someone began thinking that they could be something in this “laid type or cenceur greviste” as he liked to refer to Comrade Nkwenti then.

Comrade Nkwenti and CATTU equally won the admiration of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung from which Foundation they have acquired a lot of training opportunities.  It is in this light that Comrade Nkwenti attended the FES – sponsored summer University Programme in Abome - Benin.

Perhaps he sleeps some today but he has had several hairy moments in the past.  Some of his pronouncements in Yaounde have been such that his life is always on the line.  That is how his car was tempered with while he granted a Press Conference. Their survival after the car’s two front tyres gave way on the Yaounde – Bafia high way was to put it simply – a miracle.

In a meeting in Yaounde to launch the 2002/2003 school year, Comrade Nkwenti told government Ministers and Directors that they did not care about the country’s educational system because all their children were in Europe and America from where they would come to Lord it over the peasants’ children.  Hear him “but take note Sirs that your children shall never have sleep when ours don’t have food on their table”.

He has had to leave Yaounde rather precipitatedly after one of such declarations because some friends thought he would not live to see the next day if he slept in Yaounde.

He has equally had several “apparent attacks” from men of the underworld – foremost – the attack on the day of the history-making CROSS FIRE programme on CRTV Bamenda with the Former Registrar of the GCE Board.

To his credit as a union leader can be listed the following achievements; several allowances on the teacher’s pay slip, (allowance for research and documentation still pending), the restoration of out of station allowances to teachers marking end of course examinations.

Comrade Nkwenti led a team of three in March 2010 on a do or die mission to Yaounde to convince the authorities see the need and create a 2^nd Cycle for ENS Bambili, and create ENSET for the English subsystem of education.  Equally up his sleeves during that trip was the creation of UNIBA.  While he was given the privilege to announce personally the creation of ENS and ENSET Bambili even without a text, he had the pleasure to here from Minister Fame Ndongo that UNIBA was only a matter of a political opportunity.

Comrade Nkwenti Simon was quick to see that opportunity in President Paul Biya’s visit to Bamenda on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Cameroon’s army.  Neophytes did not understand why the erstwhile apolitical Nkwenti Simon would be the first to request the Head of State to add a civilian touch to the Bamenda visit when some opposition leaders thought he was not welcome.  When that was done, comrade Nkwenti had given President Paul Biya that political opportunity and UNIBA like ENS and ENSET was created without the text.

Comrade Nkwenti is a great believer in ideologies. He is always able to make a difference between issues and persons.  That not withstanding, he is a great admirer of some personalities and ideologists such as Cameroon’s frontline Opposition Chieftain Ni John Fru Ndi, America’s Civil Rights Activist – the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, India’s Mahatma Ghandi, and South Africa’s Nelson Madiba Mandela.

He believes in what he does and thinks little of what others think about him.

He appreciates good music especially Cameroonian and African.  He equally relishes on intellectual chats and enjoys a good read.  Jokes he enjoys and always has one ready for every occasion.  He is a great orator and says himself that he suffers from verbal diarrhea.  Time and time alone seems to be his greatest adversary.