Produce our documents in english, SW chiefs tell gov’t

The Vice President of the Southwest Chiefs Conference, SWECC, Chief William Ekong, has declared that traditional rulers in the Southwest Region and their peers in the Northwest Region will no longer tolerate the continuous publication and circulation of official information only in the French language.

Ekong, who is also the Mayor of Mbonge Council in Meme Division, expressed disappointment on December 4, during a meeting grouping stakeholders to step up community awareness on the creation and management of Local Forest Management Committees.

According to the traditional ruler, it sounds disturbing that such a conclave geared towards stepping up the knowledge of community leaders on delicate issues such as the management of the forest units was done purely in French.

“Produce our documents in English, that is the stand of the Southwest Chiefs and the people who elected us into office. As Chiefs, we will not accept this phenomenon. Literary translation does not really represent what is intended for communication because it may only be what a person thinks in mind.

Unfortunately, the Ministry is run by someone who claims that he is an Anglophone and yet all the official documents we see are in French,” Ekong lamented.

Speaking to journalists on the situation, Ekong reiterated that Cameroon is a bilingual country and so no language should take precedence over another. He further lamented on behalf of other Mayors and Chiefs during the meeting that, as community representatives, the Mayors and Chiefs are against the issuance of official documents in French.

Commenting on the same problem, the Divisional Officer for Mbonge, Simon Sombe, urged the Technical Committees in charge of stepping up public awareness on the creation of forest management units to always endearvour to map out a rough translation of official documents before getting to the field.

Sombe indicated that some communities are jittery over the new approach to forest management, given that, the outlined quarterly funding for some social projects within communities have tallied throughout the year. The situation, according to the administrator, is breeding mistrust.

According to Kenneth Eyong Eyong, Meme Divisional Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife, the forest management units approach outlines that the local committees will be in charge of managing the forest within a reserve for a tentative period of three years.

Observations and objections of the local forest management committees will be forwarded first to the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, while the Prime Minister is expected to make the final approval.