Auteur/autrice : TimesNews2

    As part of activities inscribed on the tight agenda of the June 2021 parliamentary session, the house chamber of the national assembly played host on Wednesday June 30, 2021, to an information and exchange forum on the problem of housing and access to land of Cameroonians living abroad.   The session chaired by vice president, Honorable Abba Alim was placed under the theme: “Cameroonian diaspora, housing and land policy in Cameroon: current situation and perspectives.”     The more than 5 hour session gave root to several presentations from government officials, key actors concerned by issues of land, housing and cooperation and by the way permitted to representatives of the diaspora to voice out the numerous challenges they encounter as concerns the acquisition of land, house ownership and titles in Cameroon.   Spokesman of the Diaspora at this forum, Jean Yves Elemva Essono said these discussions will help bring solutions to their problems and set the pace further fruitful investments of Cameroonians living abroad who have for long be hindered by local procedures.     Added to this, Samuel Ervé Mandeng, another representative of the diaspora and who doubles as promoter of the Cameroon Digital Boost has acknowledged the fact that Cameroonians living abroad have problems in acquiring land at home, yet these problems differ from one continent to the other.   “We don’t have the same problem like in Europe. In Canada and the United States for instance, the government help us with a percentage of 95 to have a house. It is not the same. But we want to invest in Cameroon because we grew up here, and the problem we have is that of double nationality. We cannot buy land here. Also, many do not trust more than families because of abuse and we don’t have structures or companies which can help us in this task and facilitate our investments.” He said.     Samuel Ervé Mandeng equally points-out that, government looses a lot by not creating room for the investment of the diaspora.   He said: “We want to emphasize on the fact that, this issue makes the government to loose of money. Because Canadians and Americans have a lot of money.”   The president of the parliamentarians’ network on diaspora, decentralized and cross-border cooperation in its acronym REP-COD, said apart from the stages and procedures to be followed strictly, there are several hindrances to be tackled by government in order to move in Cameroonians living abroad and mostly estimates made on close to 8 million in the land tenure sector.     Honorable Louis Henri Ngantcha said: “If we wish that our children come back home, there is need for them to have a shelter. They need a place to live and they can’t come back home to go and stay in their parents’ houses…”   The various reforms on land acquisition, social housing were equally outlined by Minister Henri Eyebe Ayissi of state property, surveys and land tenure and the general managers of the Cameroon real estate corporation, Maetur and credit foncier.   Yet, as underscored by External relations’ Minister, LeJeune Mbella Mbella, government has set in motion some measures to encourage the diaspora to come and invest back home.   Minister of housing and urban development, Celestine Courtes Ketcha said, thanks to the will of the Head of state, government has attributed 10% of low cost housing to the diaspora. Minister Courtes emphasized on the fact that these 10% take into account all the various sites, that is in Douala Bakoko, Yaounde Olembe just to name these few.     “I also call on our diaspora for action and support. And I said it, when I was a mayor, many elites of the diaspora who supported my works by putting me in contact with developers. I call our diaspora to do their best and be actors of sustainable development our country held by the Head of state.” Minister Courtes said.   The one day forum which was marked by series of questions from MPs also saw the presence of Georges Elanga Obam, minister of decentralization and local development, who came to brief the assistance on matters at roots which concern local authorities, under his chairmanship.         The sitting ended up with series of recommendations amongst which are:   -The administrations involved in Cameroon’s investment policy for its diaspora should work under the coordination of the ministry of external relations;   -Government should put in place exceptional measures, which should be regulated to streamline the granting of prior approval for the acquisition of property to Cameroonians of the diaspora who have acquired foreign nationalities in the same way as those applied on Cameroonians living in the country;   -The ministry of water resources and energy should ensure that the various networks are taken into consideration by distributors concerned in order to make them bring water and electricity to residential areas;   -Government should work towards the harmonization of the costs of building materials all over the national territory;   -Government should make the procedure of establishing land titles secure, enhance the security of land titles and protect innocent acquires;   -The state should establish and ensure the effective and efficient functioning of land and real estate transactions one-stop shops in view of restoring confidence between Cameroon and its diaspora;   -Government should expand the collection base to 15% of the current contribution as it is essentially constituted of salaried workers of the public and private sectors in view of enabling credit foncier to better meet the increasing demands of Cameroonians especially those of the diaspora as regards real estate projects;   -The state should put land at the disposal of councils on condition that a percentage should be integrated in advisory committees;   Government should improve mechanisms for communication and advertisement on matters of land and good governance in the issuing of building permits;   -Government should work towards its cohesion in abid to avoid the multiple use

Essentially dedicated to the problems of access to potable water and electricity in all the ten regions of Cameroon, the plenary sitting held on Monday, June 28, 2021 in the house chamber of the national assembly was an opportunity for Minister Gaston Eloundou Essomba to give explanations to members of parliament.   Opening the session, the Speaker of the national assembly, Right Honorable, Cavaye Yeguie Djibril said water and energy are two crucial aspects of life.      He said, on these two essential aspects of life rely, the standard of living, the health and hygienic conditions of people, just as for electricity which impacts on the daily economy of people and the development of our country. The Speaker of the national assembly appealed for a lasting solutions with regards to constant cries from the population.     In his presentation, the minister of energy and water resources acknowledged the fact that there are current deficits and which are mostly triggered in general by obsolete poles and outdated equipment. He outlined the fact that, one of the most important works being carried out by government is replacing wooden poles with concrete poles for durability. Moreover, he said ten new transformers are being imported to beef up electricity supply in Cameroon.   The minister said a global amount of 6000 Billion Francs CFA is needed in order to curb power supply deficits nationwide.   Gaston Eloundou Essomba said: “To succeed in electrifying all of the 9,000 localities in our country which are not yet, it would be necessary, on the basis of studies carried out by local MINEE teams, for the State to be able to mobilize an amount of approximately 874 billion Francs CFA distributed as follows: North region: 267 billion; Centre region: 104 billion; Adamawa: 101 billion; South: 95 billion; Far North: 90 billion; North-West: 66 billion; East: 66 billion; Littoral region: 50 billion; West: 45 billion and Southwest: 28 billion…”   Gaston Eloundou Essomba who tried by all means to grant explanations to various representatives of the people, was stormed by a series of questions from 30 MPs during the session that lasted for more than 6 hours.   The plight of some people living in remote areas without electricity for several years now was equally exposed by MPs from the North, Far-North and East regions.   The constant shortage of water in some parts of Cameroon which supply some countries in the Central and Western regions of Africa puzzled Honorable Mary Muyali Meboka of the Ndian division, South west region. When asked about the lack of water in the Manyu Division, South West region, Gaston Eloundou reassured.   He said: “The Manyu water station which was down will go back operational this Tuesday June 29, 2021. This will improve the potable water supply situation of the Division.”   The high bills served to populations by Eneo and Camwater despite persistent power cuts and water shortage angered Honorable Tabot Lawson of the Meme constituency just like Honorable Koupit Adamou from the Noun division, who asked to Minister Eloundou Essomba to seek for measures to stop this practice.         MPs propose healing methods   According to some of the MPs who addressed the minister on the rostrum, there are basic solutions to be taken into account by government.   These epileptic situation hampering the political and socio-economic development of the country could be solved at heels by Cameroonians if there is a radical change in their mindset said Honorable Ngalle Daniel Etongo, MP from the Ndian division of the South-West.     Honorable Ngalle Etongo said: “The Minister said about getting from the timber poles to concrete poles. This is a very recurrent event cutting across the country. But then, I have a problem because there are areas where these poles are not bad, yet they fall down and so you see that it is not the poles by themselves that are a problems but the person who takes care of planting the poles. That’s why while on the rostrum I raised the issue of us been the problem in this whole set up and that our mindsets should be changed. Secondly, everything turns around the individual, the people of Cameroon. When we talk about feasibility studies as per say are not bad for those who know what exactly they are. But when you take Cameroonians who look into feasibility studies as a means of making their money it becomes a problem. These studies more often are carried-out but you don’t get the feedback. In my place, to build an embankment feasibility studies have been carried and nothing has come. And so our problem is us Cameroonians, we should change our mentality and know that we have to serve this country first before ourselves…”   On his part, Kumase Simon Powoh, MP from Mezam south of the North-West region castigated the fact that the local content is not sufficiently exploited and used. He believes that, the problems must be solved at the roots through the local training of people and distribution of tasks to competent companies.     “The local content says that, wherever you arrive somewhere, and even if you don’t have the man power that way, you must look for people on the given territory and train them. This is exactly what is called the local content! But today, we ignore the local content. Look at the bridge in Bonaberi, if you ask if any Cameroonian knows how it was constructed nobody knows…The company has to be subdivided into three: the constructing company, the transporting company and marketing company, all independent. For instance, Eneo can be the installing company and there should be another foreign company to transport the light and then another for marketing, we can solve these problems. But when one man accumulates everything for himself, how do you expect us to have light everywhere? We are talking about one man, you see how everybody is pointing the finger at the

There were in total 30 junior members of parliament from the Centre region who took active part in the 22nd session of the children’s parliament while the rest of 150 MPs attended discussions through visioconference in their respective regional headquarters.   This year’s session placed under the theme: “Fight against juvenile violence: mobilization of children” appeared as a call to alert young people, parents and all stakeholders on the increasing wave of violence that hampers the development our society.   From observation in Cameroon, violence affecting young people has taken a worrisome proportion during the past years marked by the recrudescence of aggression in schools. And the most preoccupying issue is that such scenes often happen infront of young students and completely helpless pedagogic teams, who find themselves mere spectators of these acts of violence.  According to experts of the ministry of social affairs, the victims are not only the other students but the teaching corps and the entire pedagogic team who pay the price as well. Violence in the school environment has several forms of appearance being; students towards teachers, among the students themselves, parents towards teachers and the school institution towards the students.   The occasion was therefore well seized on Saturday, 26th of June 2021 during the 22nd session of the children parliament, to address all these ills plaguing the youth milieu.   Speaker of the national assembly, Cavaye Yeguie Djibril in his opening remarks said combined efforts should be undertaken address all the problems to which are subjected the children and young people. He said much should be invested on children who are the future of tomorrow.   To the junior MPs, the president of the national assembly told them to be role models of the society and to always reflect positive values in order to honour the country.   Country Representative of UNICEF, Jacques Boyer pointed-out the situation of children in Cameroon and solutions that are needed to heal it.     In his address, Jacques Boyer said for instance, that one of the main issues at hands to be tackled is the civil status registry. Many children nationwide have no birth certificates.   He added that, many children nowadays are victims of all types of violence and assaults and this greatly impacts on their wellbeing and future.   And yet as indicated, the 2018 UNICEF report dubbed: “Un visage familier: la violence dans la vie des enfants et des adolescents”, states that children are victims of violence at every age and in any context. Ninety percent (90%) of adolescents who have been forced into having sexual relationships declared that the author of the first incident was either a friend or a classmate.   Social affairs Minister, Pauline Irène Nguéné while addressing all the 180 MPs both in the house chamber of the national assembly and others following the session online, recalled the “raison d’etre” of the cometogether which enters within the framework of activities marking the 31st edition of the African child day.       Mrs Nguené stressed on the various forms of violence observed routinely in youth spaces, households and the society in general.   “We should note that there are various causes of violence, ranging from interpersonal conflicts, the reproduction of behaviour learned in the family and in society, the resignation of parents as concerns the education of children, the laxity of some teachers, the absence of dialogue within some corporations, including the family, the absence of legal principles in educational practices, etc.” She said. The children’s parliament which gives root to young people to address government members on burning issues affecting their daily lives is also an ideal occasion to answer to their numerous queries and advocate more for the rights of children.     The Minister of social affairs said: “In fact, as an answer to the requests from the Right Honourable President of the National Assembly who suggested the institutionalization of this body by the Government, we have been trying to give a unique form and content to the Children’s Parliament for some years. In this light, we have separated it from the Day of the African Child to avoid confusion in some minds. For several years now, we have been holding sessions of the Children’s Parliament under a specific theme.3 It is in this vein that this 22nd Session of the Children’s Parliament is being held under the theme: “Fight against juvenile violence: children take action”   Conscient of their role, the junior MPS have called on government to tackle violence in the youth milieu. These young MPs asked questions to the ministers of basic education, secondary education, energy and water resources, women’s empowerment and the family, higher education etc.     14 year old Neila Mohammadou, junior MP for the Mfoundi division in the center region says young people like her are at times facing stress in school because they don’t really know what can happen to them. She said shools are no more safe as it was in the past.   “We also have the problem of insecurity in the school milieu and we therefore call on government to act.” She said.   As underscored by the patroness of social affairs, Pauline Irène Nguéné, juvenile violence is a clear violation of human rights that should be fought with the utmost energy as the future of the country and its credibility at national and international level are at stake.     The session closed up with recommendations based on: the strengthening of the legal framework for the protection of children against violence; the strengthening of family and institutional mechanisms that take care of childhood; the strengthening of sensitization strategies of youths to the responsible use of social media and by the way the systematic and obligatory birth registration of each child at birth just to name these few.           Elise Kenimbeni