Belo Mayor drags SDO to “Cameroon’s media court”

The mayor of the Belo council has dragged the S.D.O for Boyo Joseph Oum II to the national communication council for what he has describe as a miscarriage of administrative decisions. He made the declaration in Bamenda recently, upon his return from Yde.

According to Bernard Tosam Nenghabi, he took the decision following a live interview on state radio last week during which the president of the national communication council, Peter Esoka in commenting on the administrative closure of the Belo community radio explained that it is the council that gives instructions to the administration to close down any radio station and not the reverse and that the council has not receive any complain from the management of the Belo community radio.

This thus inspired the Mayor to quickly constitute a complaint against the Boyo SDO and submit to the council in Yaounde.

“It was an opportunity for me to see the radio come to live again and remove his entire municipality which from 1950s had been in complete communication black out because of the poor topography of Belo sub division. Belo community radio was the only window opening the entire sub division to the world as the national and world news could get to the populace through the relay of the state radio.

As to what led to the shutdown of the radio by the Boyo administration, mayor Tosam accused the local CPDM elite of manipulation.

“During the CPDM reorganisation in Belo, militants of the CPDM in Belo went round collecting the identification cards of SDF militants saying they were to register them for an aid scheme that will pass through the council which was false.

Angered by this, the district chairman of the SDF in BELO wrote a warning announcement to the radio, cautioning SDF militants not to fall prey to the CPDM ploy and when it was read on Belo community radio, the manager was attacked in a bar by the same CPDM militants and when she broke the news on radio few days later, a decision came from the SDO accusing the manager for arbitrary broadcast and the radio was shut down.

I believe the SDO is working on party influence because the same local CPDM elite have been going around advocating that the current manager be changed. I believe that the radio does not serve only the SDF, it benefits all.

The SDO did not invite the said manager for an interview and acted basically on rumour. Myself, I was not consulted and the radio was closed. I have lobbied to no avail for its reopening and drawing from the words of the president of the communication council, I believe there is a silver lining in the dark cloud now “said mayor Tosam.

“Belo subdivision has over 50 villages with thousands of the local population and a litany of local development association who depends much on the existence of the radio to contribute financially for the local development association through radio announcements ”These development associations contribute CFA30-40 million annually for development thanks to the radio.

Last year the number of students and pupils who applied for holiday jobs at the council witnessed an increase from 900 to 1500 thanks to the fact that Belo community radio brought to their door steps information on the situation” mayor Tosam added.

CONFUSING FACTS

In what capacity did the SDF district chairman write a counter announcement? The Belo community radio has a well define board of directors manned by competent academicians and media professionals. The wife of the Cameroon’s prime minister hails from Belo and has been contributing to the sustainability of the radio.

Being CPDM it is worrying how same party militants could be fighting for the closure of the radio she practically sponsors. Is the CPDM in Belo divided. Could CPDM not lobby aid to pass through the council to benefit the people of Boyo? The questions are more than the answers.