GEF's Outlook

Fru Ndi speaks to CRTV about Biya's Bamenda visit

John Fru Ndi, the chairman of Cameroon's opposition party (SDF), says he does not expect anything from president Paul Biya's visit to the country's North West region for the golden jubilee celebrations of the Cameroon armed forces. 

Fru Ndi, who lives in Bamenda the headquarters of the region, told State TV (CRTV) that  Biya had made so many unfulfilled promises to the people of that part of the country.

"...let him keep quiet and do something that would affect the people directly," Fru Ndi said in a conversation with CRTV English language news editor-in-chief Joe Chebonkeng on 5 Dec 2010 (watch the interview below).

 

Corruption is a calamity for Cameroon's agriculture and food security -activist

Cameroonians could face serious problems producing and accessing enough food to feed themselves unless the government and its citizens take on corrupt agricultural officials, a prominent campaigner in the Central African country said.

Bernard Njonga, the head of a non-governmental organisation that filed a lawsuit last year against a group of agriculture ministry officials for misappropriating funds, said bad governance had stalled initiatives to boost local agricultural production.

"Corruption is a calamity which has torpedoed all efforts to improve livelihoods and food security in our country but we can't just sit and think it is too overwhelming to fight," said Njonga, of the Citizens Association for the Defence of Collective Interests (ACDIC) which counts 11,000 members.

An ACDIC investigation into the allocation of maize subsidies between 2006 and 2008 revealed that officials in the agriculture ministry had created fictitious farmers' groups, allocating 62 percent of the subsidies to these groups each year and leaving only 38 percent to reach genuine farmers of Cameroon's main staple.

Although the accused denied the allegations, Cameroon's anti-corruption commission (CONAC) confirmed ACDIC's findings after a separate probe.

Njonga cited preliminary investigations by a state prosecutor and the imminent start of the criminal trial against the agriculture ministry officials as proof that corruption can be tackled even in a country where it is considered as endemic.

Continue reading corruption is a calamity for Cameroon's agriculture and food security

GEF speaks to Palapala Magazine (1st anniversary edition)

Interview by Kangsen Feka (originally published on Palapala Magazine)

George Esunge Fominyen is West and Central Africa correspondent for Humanitarian affairs for [Reuters] AlertNet and West and Central Africa coordinator of the Emergency Information Service of the Thomson Reuters Foundation. He formerly headed the multimedia editorial unit of Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA).

At PIWA, his task was to strengthen the role of the institution in the training of journalists and other media personnel in media production, dissemination and exchange on selected priority issues in West Africa and across the continent.

Timothy Kasolo: Journalists Need to be Trained to Blog

By George Esunge Fominyen

Timothy Kasolo is a Zambian journalist cum entrepreneur cum blogger. He was recently in Dakar to collect an award (coupled with a $2000 cheque) on behalf of lusakatimes.com. This online/citizen media  project had won the prize for the Best African Civil Society Organization’s Blog in the Waxal Blogging Africa Awards.

The ceremony included a debate on the marriage between blogging and journalism. So how do the likes of Timothy deal with this union? I stole into Timothy's time at the reception (with clicking plates and spoons in the background) for a conversation on the matter. One thing he said was that journalists need to be trained to be good bloggers but started by introducing lusakatimes.com...

Timothy Waxal Award Winner.mp3 -

Conversation With...Rosebell kagumire -Award Winning Journalist-Blogger

By George Esunge Fominyen

Rosebell Kagumire, winner of the  Waxal Award for Best English-Speaking African journalist's blog, says ordinary Africans can use blogging to change people's perception of Africa. She spoke to me after receiving her award in Dakar, Senegal on Monday, 9 March 2009.

This investigative journalist for "The Independent" news magazine in Kampala - Uganda thinks if blogging is made close to everyone in Africa it could serve as a counterweight to the depiction of Africa by international media like the CNN and the BBC as a place of suffering, despair and poverty. She supposes it might even make these media view Africa differently.

My conversation with Rosebell also delved into the difference between blogging and journalism and how she copes with both caps...

Best English Journalist Blogger - Rosabell Kagumire

ICASA 2008 Lessons 2: Nutrition and HIV

By George Esunge Fominyen

 

 

 

 

Good nutrition is critical for people living with HIV and AIDS. It is described  as an essential co-therapy that can help maximize medical management of HIV. This message was constantly driven home by many speakers at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa...

 

ICASA 2008: An Encounter with the Condom Project

By George Esunge Fominyen

One of the more captivating instances of the five days I spent covering the 15th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa is the moment I stumbled on this outfit wholly made of condoms. As I struggled to take out my camera to capture this work of art, I noticed there were people surrounding a lady who was involved in a kind of demonstration with gels and oils on a table that also had some condoms which people were smelling...

Just that day, one of the journalists on my team had spoken of the growing misconception in Mali that condoms were at the cause of the rising rate of HIV prevalence in the country. Could these persons clarify me on the issue? First, I took out my recorder, fitted my microphone and here is what I learnt talking to Joy Lynn Alegarbes, director of Global Operations, The Condom Project....

Could Cote d'Ivoire Learn From Obama's Election

By George Esunge Fominyen

I spent part of the day Americans elected their 44th President in the Ivory Coast.

A beautiful country torn by a rebellion whose genesis involves issues of identity. Amidst all the euphoria (T-shirts and all), that was evident as Ivorians enjoyed the feeling of having a first black President in the US, I wondred what diffrence it could make in their country.

Could the rise to power in the US of a man born of a Kenyan father cause politicians in this country to rethink divisive concepts like Ivoirité, which has fuelled the long precarious political situation in the country. I spoke to some Ivorians and here's what they think (in French). 

Bright Spots in Cameroonian Higher Education

George Esunge Fominyen

The other day I learnt that the University of Buea had won a multi-million grant on tuberculosis research offered by the NEPAD. That was really good news from Cameroon where you would usually have items on corruption, arrests, and robberies. This success story reminded me of a smaller scale success obtained by that same university four years ago at the the Inter-University Brain Trust Contest (IUBTC). The students representing the University of Buea won in the emerging diseases category after proposing a project on the management of tuberculosis in Fako division.

The Inter-University Brain Trust Contest (Universiades Academique in French) is the intellectual equivalent of the annual university games organised by the Ministry of Higher Education. It  seeks to promote the ability of Cameroonian university students to present concrete and marketable solutions to existing problems. I dug down my archive of programmes produced in the days when I was Education News Correspondent (Editor) for the CRTV National Station and re-edited the following piece on the IUBTC (2004) which demonstrates the usefulness of that unsung contest and UB's good performance in TB research. Needless to say the programme Education Switchboard died after I quit CRTV! The position I used to hold was also scrapped. Good listening though.

University Contest podcast - GEF (