The age-old cold
war pitting the people of Mankon and the government delegate to the Bamenda
city council, Vincent Nji Ndumu (who hails from Bamendakwe) blew to the open on
July 9, 2014 during the popular CRTV Bamenda morning programme dubbed:
“Highland Morning Show.”
Taking advantage
of the day’s topic: ‘‘What is in a name?,” callers who identified
themselves as members of the pressure
group, Movement for the Restoration of
Mankon Nationhood, openly clashed with those who were in support of the
government delegate to the Bamenda city council.
Even though the
topic was not directed at any particular interest group(s), the war of words
between members of the Movement for the Restoration of Mankon Nationhood and
Ndumu’s supporters (apparently from his Bamendakwe village of origin) left
listeners with the feeling that were it an open public debate, it would have
degenerated into a physical confrontation.
It makes sense
to indicate that the first salvo was fired by a caller who identified himself
as a member of the Movement for the Restoration of Mankon Nationhood. Not only
did he call Ndumu names but questioned why the government delegate unilaterally
changed the name of Mankon Main Market to Bamenda Main Market and the Mankon
Municipal Stadium to Bamenda Municipal Stadium.
Another caller,
apparently also a member of the Movement for the Restoration of Mankon
Nationhood sounded even more bitter with
Ndumu; sustaining that the Mankon Main Market came into being at the time there
was the Mankon Area Council. He was corroborated by other callers who were
unanimous that the government delegate’s decision to change the historic names
of important structures carrying Mankon was born out of what they claim was
mere jealousy. The Bamenda government delegate, they claimed, hails from
Bamendankwe village which has always been in conflict with the Mankon fondom.
The Mankon
pressure group callers clearly-exhibited tribal instincts and hatred for the widely-acclaimed
Ndumu when they tried to compare his transparent management of the Bamenda city
council with the catastrophic reign of his predecessor, Tadzong Abel Ndeh, an
indigene of Mankon. Listeners of the programme were spotted laughing out their
lungs when a caller said: “During the reign of Tadzong Abel Ndeh, Bamenda was
rated the second cleanest city in the country…but with the coming of Vincent
Nji Ndumu, Bamenda has become the dirtiest city…”
For their part, callers who left no one in
doubt they were Ndumu’s supporters fired back at the government delegate’s
critics; describing members of the Movement for the Restoration of Mankon
Nationhood as cowards and hypocrites because according to them, the movement is
operating underground with no authorization, yet has been issuing tons of
tracts to blackmail and derail the hardworking government delegate.
While backing
Ndumu’s decision to change the name Mankon Main Market to Bamenda Main Market
and the Mankon Municipal Stadium to Bamenda Municipal Stadium, a caller
wondered whether CRTV Bamenda, located on Bamendakwe soil, should now be called
CRTV Bamendakwe. Yet, another caller also sort to know from members of the
Movement for the Restoration of Mankon Nationhood whether the state university with
seat in Bambili, should be called the University of Bambili instead of the
University of Bamenda, UBa, as it is known and called. Hear him: “It beats my
imagination that at the time people are going global, some of us are rather
going back to the village.”
Genesis of the
conflict between Mankons and B’da gov’t delegate
It should be
recalled that the conflict between the Mankon fondom and the government
delegate to the Bamenda city council, Vincent Ndumu Nji, first showed its ugly
head when in July 2012, the fon of Mankon, S.A .N. Angwafor addressed a
strongly-worded memo to the governor of the North West region, through the SDO
for Mezam, in which he castigated Ndumu for unilaterally changing the name
“Mankon Main Market” to “Bamenda City Main Market”.
In a reply to
Fon Angwafor that was copied the
minister of territorial administration, North West governor, Mezam SDO, the
fons and grand councillors of the
Bamenda city council, Ndumu wrote :
“…Before delving
into any clarifications, I must, first of all, intimate that as government
delegate to the Bamenda city council, and contrary to what many ill and
reduced-minded persons may believe, I elect never to succumb to the concept of
“village”. After all, is it not Professor Ali Masuri, the famous Kenyan writer,
who, in “The Africans”, said and I quote: “While the white man has gone to the
moon and is on his way back, the African is returning from the city to the
village,” unquote. In the same vein, the fon and the caucus advising His Royal
Highness know that I do not act “village”; I do no think “village”; and I do
not believe “village”.
Therefore, on
the points raised against me by the fon and his royal court advisers, I make
the following remarks: In His Royal Highness’ letter, I am accused of having
change the name “Mankon Main Market” to “Bamenda City Main Market” without a
deliberation or resolution from the city board as required by law. Maybe the
fon, guided by his royal college of advisers, may show some proof of same legal
documents, which sanctioned the appellation “Mankon Main Market”. This apart, I
would like to reiterate that as government delegate to the Bamenda city
council, I am here to administer a city and not a village!
Furthermore, it
remains the exclusive preserve of the city executive that I head, together with
the legislative arm of the city council (constituted by grand councillors from
the Bamenda I, II and III sub divisional councils, made up of people from
various horizons, not only from Bamendankwe, Chomba, Mbatu, Mankon, Ndzh, Nkwen
and Nsongwa) to give names to structures erected with public funds.
On the contrary,
if the fons and people of the various villages that make up the Bamenda city
council area could raise their own funds to erect markets, parks, hotels, et
cetera, then they could as well go ahead to baptize these structures anything,
including all kinds of names as they so wish.
It is from this
backdrop that I once more re-emphasis here, that once public funds (as is the
case with all the markets controlled by the Bamenda city council) are used to
erect structures anywhere within the municipality (even inside palaces and
shrines), the naming of said structures is the sole preserve of the public body
represented in our case by the city council and its board…’’
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