Ama Muna, Essime Menye, others, at tug of war with PM Yang

The groaning lament of Tennyson’s King Arthur on how power quits a dying king may be befalling Prime Minister Philemon Yang.

The Prime Minister is currently facing stiff challenges from his own ministers who lately continue to ignore his instructions and in some cases dropping them all together.

First, Ama Tutu Muna violated persistent instructions from Yang to suspend preparations towards the creation of an author’s rights body pending resolutions of an ad hoc committee Yang had put in place.

Contrary to a correspondence addressed to Muna by the Secretary General at the Prime Minister’s office on April 27, instructing Muna to ask a group of musicians to suspend the planned creation of a music association, the latter went ahead to personally patronize the creation of the association which she named SOCACIM – Civil Society Music Corporation of Cameroon. She even conveyed the forerunners of the association to her hometown of Mbengwi, where the association was put in place with a 27-man team.

On April 29th, just two days later, going by Mutations newspaper, Muna received a query faxed to her from the Prime Minister’s Director of Cabinet demanding explanation on why she went ahead and created the association despite the presence of an ad hoc committee put in place in the PM’s office and whose resolutions were still being awaited.

Muna is reported to have been summoned later that same day to the PM’s office and was received by the Director of Cabinet with whom she had a tete-a-tete.

Muna has, however, argued that the PM actually approved his going to Mbengwi to preside over the ceremony.

The second stone inside the Prime Minister’s shoe is the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Essime Menye. Going by media reports, Menye had gone ahead to appoint some officials to the central services of his ministry in violation of existing texts which provide that all such appointments must be signed by the Prime Minister.

In reaction, the Prime Minister signed a communiqué cancelling Menye’s appointments for want of competence and procedure. The decision revoked the appointment of three Inspectors General and two interim directors. Yang’s communiqué was actually published in Cameroon Tribune on April 30.

Menye is, however, reported to have gone ahead with the appointments following a prolonged delay by the Prime Minister to give his accord on the proposals he had made and sent to the Prime Minister’s services for approval.

He is also reported to have witnessed the same situation when he was minister of finance. His proposed appointments sent to the PM’s office for approval never got a feedback and he ended up leaving the ministry without effecting any single appointment.

Apart from Yang’s ministers tossing his instructions here and there, Romeo Dika, prominent music artist and CPDM Central Committee member has also petitioned the president of the republic over what he refers to as his persistent victimisation by the Prime Minister. Dika in his petition is asking the Head of State to order Yang to explain why he continues to persecute him.

Romeo Dika is alleging that Yang has used his office to victimise him on several occasions owing to the fact that he, Yang, is currently in a love affair with his (Dika’s) former wife, Chantal Ayissi, also a musician.

In an exclusive interview Dika granted to La Meteo newspaper he claims Yang is on a mission to frustrate all his initiatives in an attempt to please his ‘mistress’, Chantal Ayissi.

“It is not by my error that Chantal Ayissi is my former wife. If he is now in love with her I see no reason why he should be persecuting me,” Dika told La Meteo.