Meme chiefs yet to receive presidential Stipend

Traditional rulers in Meme Division of the Southwest Region have not yet received the monthly stipend promised them by a Presidential decree N°2013/332 of 13 September 2013, instituting allowances to the custodians of tradition.

Grievances on the non-payment of the benefits to the Chiefs more than one year after it was instituted came to the fore on November 30, during a general assembly meeting convened by the Meme Chief’s President, Senator Nfon V. E Mukete.

A handful of the Chiefs who spoke to The Post during the Kumba conclave explained that they are at a loss with respect to their monthly benefits granted them, given that, they have deposited all the required documents pertaining to the prescriptions of the Presidential gesture.

Others maintained that, until the money is wired into their accounts, they will continue to consider the Presidential decree an illusive order issued to provoke the chiefs into jubilation for nothing.

According to the September 13 decree, amending that of July 15, 1977, relating to traditional rulers, and that of June 24, 1982 and November 12, 2008, “Chiefs will receive a monthly allowance which amounts are set as follows: paramount chiefs = FCFA 200, 000; second class chiefs = FCFA 100,000 and third class chiefs = FCFA 50,000.”

However, Chiefs who receive allowances as Parliamentarians, salaries as civil servants or are appointed into any office are exempted from this monthly stipend, according to the decree.

“The benefits cannot be combined with Parliamentary allowances, salary of an official or Government employee,” the decree further explains. But, the traditional rulers must choose in case of double functions.

“In the case of overlapping of functions, the person must choose before designating authority after the appointment for the maintenance of the salary or wages, or for the benefit allocated to the traditional ruler.”

Addressing the Chiefs, Nfon Mukete appealed for patience as the powers-that-be look into some overlapping issues, after which, the traditional rulers will start enjoying the Presidential allowances uninterrupted. Mukete stated that, but for the hitches which are peculiar to his native Meme, the traditional rulers would not have been experiencing the long period of waiting.

Nfon Mukete advised his colleagues against the illegal sale of land, inter-village land tussles and other acts perpetrated by some recalcitrant traditional rulers, which go a long way to disturb the peace of the Division.

To the Senator, unity among the traditional rulers will bring in development.

On the issue of the entrance examination into the recently created Higher Technical Teachers' Training College, HTTTC Kumba, the Chiefs, through their President, Nfon Mukete, reiterated the need to give the people of Meme and Kumba in particular their fare share as thousands of students scramble to gain admission into the institution.

Reacting to the recent creation of an army camp in Kumba, Senator Nfon Mukete averred that the population of Kumba had long been waiting for the gift. He appreciated the President of the Republic for, once again, thinking about Kumba few months after the creation of HTTC.