/By
Macdonald Ayang Okumb/
Naturally, and as history has shown us, the aura
around the Chieftaincy institution, or you may want to call it variously as the
Royalty, Monarchy, Dynasty,or the kingdom,everywhere in the world has been and
still remains one of exceeding dignity.
Even in the Holy Scriptures, we see how kings, in
the likes of the King Davids, Herods, Nebuchadnezzars, Ahabs, etc., all commanded
humongous and immeasurable respect despite their deeds. Let me make a panoramic
rush over them.
King David, for example, was the 2ndking
of the Israelites; and as a young shepherd, he fought the proverbial Goliath
and killed him by hitting him in the head with a stone. One of his greatest
achievements was that he united Israel with Jerusalem as its capital.He was a
great man; reason why many of the Psalms in the Bible are attributed to him.
Herod, who was otherwise known as Herod the Great, on
his partwas the King of Judea who tried to kill Jesus by ordering the death of
all children under age two in Bethlehem. Unfortunately, he didn’t succeed
because the angel of the lord hinted Jesus’ parents about the impending danger
and so they escaped to Egypt with baby Jesus.
Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Chaldea who captured
and destroyed Jerusalem and exiled the Israelites to Babylonia while Ahab was
the pagan Israelite king who got married to Jezebel, a nagging, cruel and immoral
queen who fostered the worship of Baal and tried to kill Elijah and other
prophets of Israel.
We could go on and on but the above biblical chiefs
or kings,despite all the reverence accorded them and the so much power they
wielded,apart from King David,stillengaged in very atrocious and mischievous
acts. And those who are versed with the scriptures can better tell of their
tragic denouement which was obviously the nemesis for their actions.
Back to Fako; I fear that what some of the chiefs
have been doing lately is bad enough to be labeled as mischievous and
atrocious. In the past couple of months, what has come to be given the coinage as
“the Fako land crisis” has stirred enormous controversy, at the heart of which,
are these chiefs.
Observers hold that issues about the matter have gone so
messy such that many are tempted to say that the Fako chieftaincy institution
has become more or less the literal Augean stables in Greek mythology. For those who know, these were extremely
dirty stables that were finally cleaned by Hercules, a hero, who diverted two
rivers to flow through them.
TheFakoChiefs’ conference,the largest gathering of
traditional rulers in the division,which many expected would act as an antidote
to the whole land problem,has insteadproved that it has become the realAugeanstables
that it self needs to be cleaned.
Recently, they (Fako chiefs) held elections under
very controversial circumstances during which a new Executivebureau was chosen.
Prior to the Elective Assembly, there were press releases and counter-releases
about the meeting. While the then incumbent President, ChiefSamuel EpupaEkum,
together with some others, described the Muyuka meeting as ‘illegal and
unconstitutional’, another faction of chiefs that eventually went ahead to conduct
the elections, came up with their justifications as to why the assembly was
inevitable. The war of words raged on until the elections finally took place.
What I know is that a house divided within itself
can never stand. Fako chiefs cannot pretend to be able to support the
administration in the furtherance of peace, security and development in Fako
without enjoying the luxury and advantages that come with unity and
togetherness. For a long time now, including immediately after the Reunification
celebrations in Buea, they have constantly been washing their dirty linen in
public.
It’s also no news that most of the chiefs who are
now caught in the land crisis web are those who easily tumble to the antics and
cunning manoevres of local administrators to sell CDC Surrenderedland and line
their pockets at the expense of their subjects for which such lands are
destined. If it is not so, why did a number of them (chiefs) storm Yaounde
weeks ago to protest the Minister of land’s decision to suspend the registration
of CDC ceded land in Fako until further notice?
Again if not so, why did the newly elected Fako chiefs’
president, Chief Johannes Njie Mokoto, ignominiously say in his interview to
the press shortly after his election that the Fakoland grabbing crisis wasa mere
‘illusion’? How can it be an ‘illusion’ when several ministerial investigative
missions, including those of the National Anti Corruption Commission, CONAC,
have already been to BueaandLimbeseveral times and grilled chiefs as well as other
local administrators?
Would it not have been the place of these chiefs to instead
rally under a united front and resist the Machiavellian and sadistic actions of
these thieving administrators who are bent on milking the land-juicy Fako
division dry?
In the heat of this land grabbing matter, and
considering that theyhave been grilled by these various commissions of enquiry
from Yaounde, the chiefs have rather spent their time accusing and
counter-accusing colleagues of orchestrating mischievous schemes to mislead
them from the real issues.
Truth be told; Fako chiefs have come along way and
so cannot afford to allow themselves to be remote-controlled by administrators
who will always come and go. But they (chiefs) will remain chiefs of their
respective villages until death do them part or abdicate power if they so
wish. This is the fundamental difference
between them and the administrators they now tend to be siding with on the land
affair, some of them I mean.
These chiefs cannot continue to treat their own
indigenous Fako country as if they are but strangers there.Economists say, and
rightly so, that land is a fixed asset and the stack reality is that it doesn’t
grow or expand. Thus, don’t they think that conniving with or easily summiting
to duress from local administrators to mismanage their community lands is a
dangerous step in the direction of subtly mortgaging the future of their coming
generations?
The extreme dignity our chiefs and other traditional
rulers hitherto enjoyed, like was the case in the days of the enviable and
influential Southern CameroonsHouse of chiefs, must be restored. And they
themselves must help in this process.Chiefs must refrain from any form of
mischief on their people and consciences. Verily, however, I think that it is
not yet late. Now is the time for them to unite, form a common front and fight
for what is rightly theirs- their lands. No one is instigating war or genocidelike
most of them have erroneously and fallaciously said in press releases all the
while. Long live the chieftaincy institution.
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