BY ATIA TILARIOUS AZOHNWI
Convened by Buea Mayor, Ekema
Patrick Esunge, the people gathered at the Buea Independence Square on November
30. They keenly listened to Mr. Lord Mayor and his associates.
The participants: taxi drivers, commercial
motor bike riders, petty traders among others.
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| Dr. Ekema Patrick Esunge, Buea Mayor |
Some journalists also answered
present while police and gendarme officers stood at strategic places in case of
any unforeseen.
Then Mr. Mayor dressed in a black
suit mounted the rostrum to do what he knows to do best during political
rallies. Cameras ran their lenses around the area and even Nokia touch phones
had use.
Mr. Mayor spoke and spoke, then
spoke again but the subject of his speech was only saluted with sighs and bored
faces. At a certain moment, he said something which on a normal rally day would
have received a standing ovation but to his greatest surprise just three people
clapped - a certain president of an Okada union, one council police and another
person whose identity was not important at that moment.
Mr. Mayor spoke about the over
100 bikes which were impounded by the Buea Council and said he has granted them
amnesty. In addition, the Mayor promised to share 1000 reflective jackets to
the motorcycle taxi riders in Buea municipality. These points received
deafening plaudits.
Then he tried to penetrate
through the teachers’ and lawyers’ ongoing strike action. He touched on the
November 28 strike by students of the University of Buea and in general the Anglophone
problem which I am not still convinced he admitted its existence.
According to Mr. Mayor, all had
been put in place to ensure all the arrested UB students were freed and
according to his initial plan were supposed to have been presented before the
attendees of his rally.
On the strike action going on,
the Mayor stated that violent demonstrations have been brought to the public
place, and he was calling on people to return to their daily activities as
before.
He further called on those he
said were affected by the strike action to go to the social service of Council
and be compensated. He asked for peace and requested everyone to return to
their duties since peace will only reign if everyone went back to their duty
posts.
Then Mr. Mayor said he had
written a memorandum which was to be read before the number one authority of
the Region at his office. From where I stood, I observed disappointment on the
faces of those present and they kept on saying: "useless meeting”, “nonsense”,
“bad luck”, “I dong waste my time for come here" etc. He ended his meeting
by asking the gods of "Epasa Moto" instead of God Almighty to be with
the people.
Following the Mayor's speech was
a walk to the Southwest Governor's office. The Master of Ceremony mounted a
mobile caravan and kept on praising the humility of Mr. "Lord" Mayor
who had abandoned his air conditioned car to trek with the people for the
second time as Mayor.
Then I turned behind and noted
that the population had dropped by more than half and a hungry, desperate, and
angry few still proceeded to Mr. Governor's office. At the Governor's office,
the people gathered and waited for well over 15 minutes for Governor Bernard
Okalia Bilai who appeared with his entourage and Mr. Mayor started his speech
which was dominated by “Your Excellency" and "the people who voted
me".
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| Mayor Ekema addresses “5,000 attendees” at a public talk |
I noticed he said before the
Governor that his rally was attended by over 5,000 people of which I couldn't
count up to that number.
Mayor Ekema Patrick Esunge
presented an apology to the Governor’s office and begged for the release of
University of Buea students arrested and detained as a result of a
demonstration on November 28.
Ekema told Governor Okalia Bilai
that he and his people had come to apologise on behalf of the population; where
they went wrong, so that they should move into the festive season with purity.
The festive season, he says, is a period for reconciliation and forgiveness –
apparently why he shook hands with Chief (Councillor) Molinge Ikome David.
The Governor held the view that
some individuals, identified and unidentified, decided to destabilise the town
during the on-going 2016 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations games.
On the teachers’ strike, Governor
Okalia Bilai said some identified and unidentified people are preventing some
teachers and children from going to school. He said it is criminal to prevent
children from learning. “Let the children go to school,” he said.
On the way forward, the Governor agreed
with Mr. Mayor that with the coming of December and Christmas, it is time for
reconciliation and peace.
He assured the Mayor and his
group that their memorandum and worries would be forwarded to the high
quarters.
What was expected to be a
memorandum became a letter to praise others. Then I couldn't continue listening
since I could then agree with many other participants that the meeting was a
useless one. The said meeting did not have those directly linked to the problem
in attendance, it was just a way of drawing media attention, and it was
politically motivated. This is where I ended my coverage of the rendezvous
since I was highly provoked by the emptiness of the meeting. But I heard from
an unconfirmed source that the meeting had "ngombo" which motivated
some of its attendees - FCFA 1,000, they say.
