'SWELA was not to fight our North West brothers'

It was a momentous epoch in the history of Cameroonian journalism following President Biya's decision to appoint Emmanuel Jackai into the national body charged with fighting corruption in the country.

Emmanuel Jackai is a long standing Cameroonian journalist with international reputation. In this conversation with Cameroon Concord's Editor-in-Chief, Jackai speaks of his time at CRTV, the ills of Professor Mendo Ze and the lack of political leadership in the South West constituency.

Cameroon Concord: Mr Emmanuel Jackai, thank you very much for your availability. You spent some time at CRTV. You definitely enjoyed that period!! Can you talk us through that era?

Emmanuel Jackai: It all started when I came and joined a group of some English speaking journalists who constituted the television unit of the then Ministry of Information and Culture in January 1986. I can remember men like the great Late Akwanka Joe Ndifor, Carol Ijang Akutu,Adamu Musa,Sammy Obia,Robert Abunaw, the late Ben Njovens. I was very amazed that the video mixer that was in a temporal studio of Cameroon television was the same mixer used in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and had been bought for 500.000.000frs (2million dollars) and placed in Cameroon in a radio building in what was called the temporal studio in Cameroon.

I was very impressed Cameroon started with such expensive equipment. We did not have enough personnel and we were still a “unit” under the ministry. We relied on the nation and any where we went to, our English speaking Cameroonians were happy that they had their representatives. As time went on the late Anne Nsang came in later to join us with the creation of CTV- Cameroon Television on 26 April 1986.

We had as General Manager, Mr. Etoga Elie Florent, also founding G.M of SOPECAM, and the AGM was Dr. Ndifontah, who was a diplomat and a career journalist. Radio staff(Radio-Diffusion du Cameroun) held a strike action which saw the birth of the Cameroon Radio and Television on the 19th of December1987. We did produce a lot of programs and we were compensated either in writing or in cash.

Cameroon Concord; Do you agree that what we have today at CRTV is not good journalism and can you make a comparison of your time and today.

Emmanuel Jackai: In our time, we had vector professional norms and we reported on maturity base on straight facts and nothing but the facts. We did not have commentaries on any of our reports and that was why 7:30 News was the peoples’ news. It was for both the Francophone and the Anglophones. Some sinister politicking came in and it was suggested that we should move to a bilingual news cast and when it started it destroyed the Anglophone news desk till this day. Perhaps I should add that the coming of Mendo Ze in 1988 made matters worse, with key journalists named “vedettes” being moved over to Radio services and out of Yaoundé!

Cameroon Concord: You just mention the name Professor Mendo Ze!! We all know where he is now. What is your take on his present plight?

Emmanuel Jackai: Yes, he was my boss from October 1988 up to January 2005. His arrest in October 2014 is a billeted issue and should have occurred way before because, remember those who were in UTV and those who came from radio Cameroon to create CRTV on 19 of December 1987, were supposed to have been put on secondment by the Ministry ofPublic service, because we were now in a state corporation. But that was never done till today that we are all going on retirement!! When you work on other corporations, you go on retirement at 60. But that has not been respected at CRTV.

Mendo Ze prevented successive board chair persons from implementing the laws because he as the General Manager decided whether you are to continue or not!!!! So imagine our journalists, our secretaries who retired at 50 instead of 60, and were cheated by 10 years pension contributions, while the senior staff were cheated for 5years and to add more injuries to this problem, Mendo Ze retained from us 10percent of our CRTV dues as contribution to the National Social Insurance Fund. Let me attempt a deeper explanation, if you earned a 100.000 from the public service and take for example your level of education you were entitled to 300.000 at CRTV. CRTV paid you minus a 100.000 and then Mendo Ze took 10percent of that amount for social insurance contribution.

That money collected for 16 years (1988-2004) has never been paid into the accounts of the National Social Insurances Fund, nor into the State Treasury!!! That means that our parents who went on retirement in the late 80s and 90s, never received their retirement benefits which they contributed. Today, we are on retirement and will have no retirement benefits from the National Social Insurance Fund, unless the courts ask Mendo Ze to give back that money.

Cameroon Concord: Mr Jackai are you insinuating that Engo Desire was arrested wrongfully for crimes he did not commit!! In other words, are you saying that men like Mendo Ze committed those horrendous crimes at the National Social Insurance Fund?

Emmanuel Jackai: CNPS was unable to pay retirement benefits in the late 80s and 90s, and when the economic crises started Engo was helpless for State Corporations like CRTV, REGIRERCAM, ONCPB etc, were not paying in contributions collected from their staff! For CRTV the money owed CNPS was enormous, from some 1800 workers.

Cameroon Concord: Let’s talk about South West politics since you come from that region. Are they moving forward after having produced two Prime Ministers?

Emmanuel Jackai: We have not moved forward and South West politics has been marred of meaningful leadership based on competence which we had under the late Emmanuel Egbe Tabi former minister and former Roving ambassador and founder of SWELA. E.T. Egbe brought us South Westerners together, not for us to fight any body. SWELA was not to fight our brothers from the North West, it was to unite our country so as to contribute in a positive manner towards the governance of our dear nation Cameroon.

Unfortunately, when SWELA started gaining grounds as a constructive pressure group, South West government officials started creating factions based on occultism, power, money and blood ; and that divided SWELA. There were factions and threats everywhere; Humphrey Monono wanted Inoni’s head!! Peter Agbor Tabi wanted a blood pack with men like Ekole Peters. Musonge’s coming made matters more intractable with the South West trio of Inoni, Ebong Ngole and Agbor Tabi attempting to oust him during his 8 year reign;

Cameroon Concord: I know you are a football man. Let me get your opinion on this: FECAFOOT in the yester years and FECAFOOT today, where do you belong?

Emmanuel Jackai: I prefer that of the yesteryears. It was more than just football. It was a family unit. I met Issa Hayatou in 1988 as FECAFOOT PRESIDENT, and helped ran his campaign and he won the presidency of the Confederation of African Football, CAF.

We together won the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco and then travelled to Italy for the 1990 FIFA World Cup with the new FECAFOOT president Etotoke Epone Albert, and the late minister of Youth and Sports Dr Joseph Fofe. The 1990 FIFA World Cup participation was a difficult thing, but then the problem of allowances and match bonuses were settled once and for all. For us doing that within a short period was indeed a huge success. I took part in the adult committee and we came out with a formula for every match that placed a specific amount on a win or a draw and of course a loss.

Cameroon Concord: Where did we go wrong?

Emmanuel Jackai: We went wrong in 1998 during the World Cup in France when the team was not together and then the sales of tickets meant for Cameroon was put on the European market.

The Minister of Youth and Sports at that time was Professor Joseph Owona, and he had the FECAFOOT President ONANA VINCENT to be arrested and detained at the Yaounde Central Prison for more than 2 years. During that period his assistant IYA MOHAMMED finally took over the running of FECAFOOT. The reforms he brought in saw the demise of great Football clubs(Racing Bafoussam, PWD Kumba, Victoria United, PWD Bamenda, Dragon Yaounde, Diamant Yaoundé etc.. that were run by members and supporters of the various towns and cities.

These teams that were meant to consolidate national integration were disintegrated by the” affairist” tendencies of the IYA Mohammed that lasted until his arrest in 2013! So, like in 1988 when ONANA VINCENT was arrested, today Professor JOSEPH OWONA as President of the FECAFOOT normalisation committee created by FIFA, should and can now bring back sanity into Cameroon Football, so that our football clubs and stadiums should once again be the Sunday and Wednesday rendezvous points.