Asong Ndifor joins The Guardian Post

By Sylvanus Ezieh Acha’ana and Sixtus Mbom in Yaounde

Veteran editor: Asong Ndifor

In a determined stride to enhance the leadership position of The Guardian Post in the Anglophone newspaper industry, a seasoned editor with over 25 years of journalism experience in Cameroon and abroad, Asong Ndifor, has come on board as editorial adviser.

Unarguably the finest English language print media editor in Cameroon, Asong Ndifor, for over ten years, was editorial coordinator at The Herald newspaper. He was instrumental in The Herald’s incisive editorials and equally contributing much in mentoring many journalists on internship; some of who are today renowned newspaper publishers, senior staff at Cameron Tribune and CRTV.

Before returning to Came roon, Asong was editor-in-chief of West African Tourism magazine in Lagos where he also served as West African correspondent for New Africa that is published in London.

Back home in 1990, he edited Pius Njawe’s English version of Le Messager for six months before being invited by Dr Boniface Forbin to coordinate the editing of The Herald. On leaving The Herald, he launched The Nation magazine which he publishes periodically as well as stringing for Voice of America.

Asong has also been publishing the bilingual Yearbook and Diary of the Republic of Cameroon which staff of The Guardian Post will henceforth assist in its research.

Professionally, he holds a post graduate diploma in journalism from Cardiff, UK, thanks to a British government Chevening scholarship. The British foreign and Commonwealth office also sponsored him in 2001 for a month’s internship on newspaper management at The Western Mail, one of Europe’s most modern newspapers based in Wales. He has been a member of the National Press Card Issuing Board and also sat for two terms on the Commission for Assistance to Private Communication. As national president of the Cameroon Association of Commonwealth Journalists, he organized a conference on election reporting in Limbe in 2002 which was sponsored by the Commonwealth Press Union. He later organized another on the media and malaria at the CRTV production centre on the sponsorship of the Bill Gates Foundation.

  In his advisory position at The Guardian Post, Asong will continue to shuttle weekly between Yaounde and Mutengene where he also runs his “pet project - Liberty Gardens”.  It is a 60-herd modern piggery surrounded by flowers, plantains and fruit trees behind his duplex housing a personal library of 10.000 volumes.

He refers to the library as “the soul of my profession and knowledge, which is either you know something or you know where to get accurate information about it.” As to why a journalist should get into pig farming, he says: “You know how Menoua people, where my father of blessed memory came from love pigs which they fondly call sous prefect de Dschang. Lebialem people where my mother also of past memory hailed from, as well as those in Fako where I was buttered take pork as delicacy so you can understand my hobby with pig rearing.”

 The Guardian Post Publisher/Editor, Kristian Ngah Christian who worked with Asong for several years at The Herald strongly believes he (Asong) will bring to the authoritative daily newspaper refreshing ideas and experience. “It is not easy to get to the top as we have done, but to remain there is more difficult. And with the coming of Pa Asong (as he is fondly called by former The Herald Boys who he moulded), I am very confident we shall continue to improve and consolidate our journalistic and publishing leadership to better serve our readers and advertisers.”