Mbengwi Online Political Insights 001

The Current Mbengwi Council Executive 
L-R: Doreen Fonjong (1st Deputy), Ndangsa Kennedy (Mayor), Amadu Kadiri (2nd Deputy)

On Friday 29th March 2024 we dropped a post on our WhatsApp forum titled 2025 in Mbengwi, the Stakes in which we said "It's not going to be a smooth ride for anyone to get there. People will have to prove their worth, merit before getting whatever position." Somewhere in the post, it was also said If we have influenced developmental and humanitarian activities in Mbengwi, the time is around for us to influence who is who on the political map.

However, this doesn't mean we will be teaching grandmothers how to suck eggs but through getting the people involved our new slogan. When people (the electorate) don't care and create room for voter apathy, (amateur) politicians take advantage to fish in muddy waters and make big gains but where the electorate is conscious of their civic rights and are fully involved in the electoral process before, during and after, majority of those who emerge victorious are those who really merited it to an extent. 

It is within this backdrop that we are introducing this new concept, Mbengwi Online Political Insights. It will be a series of publications where we keep our eyes and ears on the ground in readiness to report on anything happening in and out of Mbengwi with traces of politics involved nomatter how minute. We will be covering places, occasions, parties, politicians.

2025 may look far but to politicians, failing to plan is planning to fail and that starts now. To some people, 2025 will be just like any other ordinary year but to politicians, because of the stakes at hand, it's going to be decisive year. While those currently occupying political positions will be doing everything humanly possible to consolidate their grip, on the other hand are others with political ambitions that will also be  doing their possible best by hook or crook to attain their interests.

On a surface level, things may still look normal on the ground now but beneath such normalcy, serious underground works are taking place in Mbengwi. Those who will not want to feed their fowls only on Tad market day have gotten to work already. One glaring example is the recent cross carpeting of a renowned politician in Mbengwi that appeared on front page of a certain newspaper.

Recently celebrations to mark the 39th anniversary of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, C.P.D.M took place nationwide and Mbengwi wasn't left. A motorbike caravan from the Mbon park ushered militants to the party secretariat adjacent the Gendarme station were speeches, wining and dining characterised the anniversary celebration with a strong call for militants to stay alert as 2025 approaches. 

It will not be long as few days after, The Horizon Newspaper, Edition Number 0875 of Thursday March 28 2024 published a front page  article titled CPDM 39th Anniversary, Momo Division: "Hunter" Minister Mbah Acha Returns with Huge Catch. What catches everyone's attention is the picture attached to the article, that of Tagyen Moris Fokob, standing beside minister Mbah Acha Rose. We learnt it was the official reception of Moris as he was crossing over to join the CPDM. He was presented to Yang Philemon by the minister as the big catch. But who's he?

Newspaper Publication that's Set Tongues Wagging in and out of Mbengwi 

Tagyen Moris Fokob alias Michi Ebeng is a household name on the political terrain in Mbengwi. The firebrand politician cum journalist was once Communication Sectary of the Social Democratic Front (S.D.F) Mbengwi district, councillor at the Mbengwi Council and alternate Member of Parliament, Momo East Constituency.. He's greatly admired for his oratory skills especially his fluency in speaking English and Meta. He used to canvass supporters and voters for the SDF just by using his mouth to convince the electorate and was a staunch critic of the ruling party. 

It should be noted that prior to the Sunday February 9 2020 twin elections (municipal and legislative) in Cameroon, at a time when politicians were prey to non state armed fighters nowadays known in local palance as Amba Boys as they targeted anyone that wanted to exercise their universal suffrage right to vote and be voted. Some were caught and beaten, a few killed, huge sums of money collected from others as many flee for safety to other regions. Some had their houses and other properties burnt as a result of them defying the ban by Amba that there should be nothing related to politics on Ground Zero, a new appellation for the two English speaking regions of Cameroon. 

Faced with such threats to life and property, the leeway most politician found to stay safe was to resign. At least 40 aspirants across the two regions resigned during that tensed period through voice notes and hand written letters that mostly circulated on social media. One of such was Moris Tagyen who threw in the towel by saying "Looking at the Anglophone Crisis which has made the atmosphere really debilitating to talk in terms of politics, those of us who are bearing the brunt could not waste time than to throw in the towel because the Head of State, mindful of his constitutional prerogatives would've seen that to have declared war himself and then convene elections will be counter productive"

That was the Moris of 2020. As 2025 approaches, he's back in the game, this time around signed for a new club. What arrangements went behind closed doors to finally get him over into the CPDM we can't tell. What we know is as a matured, learned man that understands the realities on the ground coupled with the experiences he's been through in politics, to have at the end taken that decision to cross carpet certainly means there's an elephant he's after and it's found on the other side. Who leaves wetland to dry land? There'll certainly be enough fresh nutritive pasture on the other side to flatten his cattle with. After all, politics like some pundits say is all about interest and never are there permanent friends or enemies in the game but permanent interest. With time, his interest will be visible. 

Anticipations are now high amongst many to see how in 2025, he will be mounting the podium, dressed in his new party regalia to now start preaching the "C" gospel in public like he used to do for his former party. The terms of the deal would've certainly been well spelt out before it was struck and certainly a juicy package soon to be unravelled is in the offing for him though his detractors may still look for reasons to discredit the move, terming it as tricks or making analysis that many had been in C.P.D.M for long certainly looking for their own juice and will likely not find it funny for a former rivalry to cross in and goes straight to lick the oil many had been thirsty for. Well, politics remains politics, unpredictable. It's not always about how long you've been in a party but how smart you are. 

With these, we can now begin to see why The Horizon Newspaper titled it's story, "...Hunter Mbah Acha Returns with Huge Catch". Fortunately or unfortunately, the elections of 2020 still went on and voting took place in the Mbengwi Council hall and on campus of G.B.H.S Mbengwi though gun firing scared the hell out of people that morning of Sunday 9 February 2020. Consequently mostly uniform officers, administrators and a few diehard militants voted. When ELECAM finally pronounced the results after, it became clear, that Mbengwi that has since the introduction of multipartism in the 90s been a very stronghold of the S.D.F has been completely taken over by the C.P.D.M. That was how Foo Ngang Prodencia came from nowhere to be M.P, kicking out the then Hon. Edna Enih Mbah of the SDF while Ndang Walters became alternate M.P, a position that was previously occupied by Moris Tagyen. 

The politics that year wasn't only played inter party (S.D.F versus C.P.D.M) but also intraparty, within the ruling C.P.D.M themselves. At a time many had anticipated that the then mayor Tebe Beatrice was going to gain a second mandate, surprisingly she was sent parking and replaced with Ndangsa Kennedy Akam who came from out of the blues to attain the helm of the council. Her two deputies, Chunga Patrick and Fomumbod Bernard were also replaced with Doreen Anwi Fonjong and Amadu Kadiri, the first Mbororo to be Deputy Mayor at the Mbengwi Council. 

The recent cross carpeting by the former S.D.F Alternate M.P for Mbengwi is seen elsewhere as a big blow to the party which some consider as dead and buried. We can't yet tell if the District Chairperson of the party for Mbengwi, erstwhile Hon. Edna Enih Mbah considers the move as a non event or not. What we know is since after loosing her parliamentary seat, Edna has been keeping a very low profile till date. It's like she had folded all of her party dresses and kept under the box. Nowhere has she ever been seen again doing or talking politics. In fact, her name hardly even appears on the list when some online fund drives are carried out for a developmental or humanitarian projects in Mbengwi. She was close to the late national chairman of the party, Ni John Fru Ndi till death and even attended his burial in Baba 2 village, Santa subdivision.

Some may think she's out of Mbengwi but in reality she has continued living in her G.R.A residence and seen in public only once in a while. This however doesn't mean that she's now a nobody when it comes to politics in Mbengwi. She may be mute but not dumb. If one is to go by history, Edna was much loved by the people for her simplicity and goodness. She left from down to the top treating the people she met along the way well and upon her way back down, she still found her space in the midst of the very people. 

No doubt it was as easy as ABC for her to reintegrate herself into society and start living her ordinary life like any other Meta woman, from house to farm, church, market, njangi, cry-die and back. As concerns her plans for 2025 which many of her admirers and political rivalries should be interested to know so as to rally behind her or counter her moves depending on where one's interest in her is, Edna has been keeping her cards closest to her chest. It's said once a politician, always a politician implying that she's a figure to watch out for as the clock ticks. 

The political gymnastics in Mbengwi are still somehow in gesticulation mode but we have noticed the sprouting up of some faces though yet to publicly show themselves and declare their intentions. Award winning Barrister Ndangoh Tah Calvin from every indication is up to something in the build up to 2025. For a while now, he's been frequenting his homeland Mbengwi, at times seating with commoners in bars around Mbon park and offering them drinks. The national legal adviser of the SDF has been leaving the comforts of his Yaounde abode to find his way into Mbengwi. Even with the current road situation, he still meanders his way through the eucalyptus thickets of Bali like others. So, the going of Moris to join "C" and the coming of Calvin to be fully engage into S.D.F affairs in Mbengwi now seemingly makes the equation balanced and like they say in French, Il y a match. 

In all these, where is Hon. Injoh Foo Ngang Prodencia? Well, unlike some of her peers in other constituencies, Foo Ngang is not an absentee landlord. Her mastery of the terrain beats even the imagination of her political comrades not to talk of her rivalries. How she accesses what others look at as red zones is a million dollar question only her seems to have the answer. She came from nowhere to be M.P but while there in parliament, she's been proving her worth as a firebrand politician that delivers. 

On Friday March 22nd 2024, she led a delegation to Nyen village accompanied by the mayor of the Mbengwi Council, the President General of the Meta Cultural and Development Association,  MECUDA, the president of the Meta Fon's Union, MEFU and other fons for the handing over of 100 bags of fertiliser and 5 tons of maize to farmers drawn from across the entire clan. Of course it was a donation like others she's been doing in the past but the magnitude of this one certainly had an undertone reading, laying the groundworks for 2025 is around. 

In 2020 the C.P.D.M gained everything in Mbengwi, 25 council seats and a parliamentary seat on a platter of gold. It was like a cockroach/fowl dwell. In 2025 will history repeat itself or the S.D.F is going to give C.P.D.M a run for their money? This we ask because we've been reliably informed that Bar. Ndangoh Tah Calvin has visited many wards and relaunched party activities in most areas in Meta for the past months that he's been frequenting Mbengwi and is confident that despite the crisis, the party's card carrying dyed in the wool militants are still there in their numbers and ready for 2025. 

Yes, the dwell may likely be between the two main parties that have animated the political environment in Mbengwi since the introduction of multipartism in the 90s. Others may just surface as distraction. Memories are still in mind of how the Alliance of Progressive Front (APF) of late Barrister Benard Muna was beginning to distort the supremacy of SDF and CPDM in Mbengwi to the point of even having a council seat from 2013 to 2020. One time SDF mayor Fonanih Jonas Asa'ah was A.P.F councillor at that time. He had crossed carpet after divorcing with the S.D.F. The likes of Mukumo Roland Teghen, a popular business man in Mbengwi, promoter of God's Time Enterprise and former BOD member of Mbengwi Central Cooperative Credit Union, MBECCUL before later resigning was also a strong APF militant. Jonas later flew abroad to reunite with his family. Roland is still around focusing on his business and church works. Our eyes are on him and others were surfacing to be militants of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (C.R.M) party of Professor Maurice Kamto

Well, Mbengwi Online Political Insights will be back with more of such in-depth analyses in our subsequent editions. There will be editions in which we will have one on one interview with some of these politicians, profile them, analyse their manifestos, past achievements and promises and why not hear from the man on the street, what they think about which politician or which party. Thanks for your attention. Hope you had a nice read. Continue to rely on us for more as we involve the people in the process.