Tchiroma ‘kicks out’ agitating Anglophones from media observatory

By Sylvanus Ezieh Acha’ana in Yaounde

                                                                                   

Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakari

The minister of communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary has bundled out all the English speaking staff at the department of media observatory and public opinion who recently were at variance with their immediate boss, Charles Atangana Manda.

Tchiroma signed a release early this week in which he detached the Anglophone staff to both the centralized and decentralized services of his ministry. It is not yet established if the minister’s action is in consonance with the promise he had earlier made to The Guardian Post that he would take action on the Manda – Anglophone collaborators’ rift immediately he gets back to work.

Manda’s Anglophone collaborators had accused him of not only showing open hatred for them but pushing the hatred further by caging them in an isolated office. They described the office which hosted circa six of them with only two tables, one of which had a broken leg as hell.

They had also accused Manda of allocating 200.000 FCFA each to Francophone staff as bonuses for 2014 as against 30.000FCFA to each of them for the same purpose. When contacted, Tchiroma who indicated that he was on leave confirmed the allegations but promised to react immediately he gets back to work.

We could not get to Minister Tchiroma to confirm if last Monday‘s ‘appointments’ were in tandem with the promised reaction. Should this be the case, that would mean that the minister had decided otherwise; rather than meting sanctions on the xenophobic director, he directed his axe on the agitating Anglophone staff.

The Beti media observatory director, Charles Atangana had earlier told this reporter that he had recommended all the agitating English speaking staff for appointments. But an unnamed source described the minister’s action as sheer attempts to evade addressing the Anglophobic phenomenon in his ministry. The commentator said if the minister was actually against xenophobic practices, the best he would have done was to issue exemplary sanctions on the director who exhibited discrimination.

Meanwhile, following the recent appointments, two of the staff were sent to regional services while four were detached to other services at the ministry.

Those sent to the regional services include Ekellem Ebongue Emerentia, who was appointed regional chief of service at the North West delegation of communication and Njike Celestine Atabede who was appointed regional chief of service for private media and publicity at the South West delegation of communication.

Meantime at the central services, Yang Eric Ndifon was appointed second assistant chief of studies at the studies and planning unit; Fultang Yvonne Silo, second assistant chief of service at the regulatory unit; Lekunda Linda, chief of service at the unit in-charge of relations with the press and foreign media; while Adille Eveline Ntube was appointed service head for development communication and training for cultural citizenship.     

It should be recalled that the disgruntled staff were appointed alongside other staff of the ministry in services across the country. They are due installation next week.