NEWS ANALYSIS

By Peterkins Manyong, guest writer and publisher of The Independent Observer

Musa Shey Nfor: The humanist as financial locomotive

It is the opinion not only of the Utilitarians, but also of every pragmatist that he who lacks money lacks everything. By implication, he who lacks money hasn’t the means to possess or enjoy anything life can provide. It has also been said and with much justification too, that the easiest thing to have is money, but the most difficult thing is to have an idea on how to get money.

The emblematic president of the board of directors of both the Bamenda Police Cooperative Credit Union League, BAPCCUL and the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League, CamCCUL, Havard-trained Musa Shey Nfor, is without any hyperbole an exceptional human being. We are often disappointed when we meet those whom we read about in newspapers, but we never regret meeting them. Those who meet Musa Shey Nfor for the first time find it difficult to reconcile the picture of him they have in their minds and the person before them. Their disappointment with his size immediately vamooses the moment he begins talking. To say that every single word that drops from the lips of Musa Shey Nfor is sense-packed is to call things by their true names.

Musa Nfor’s fortitude does not end at the fact that his tongue “drops manna”. He possesses in the sublime humility, the greatest mark of true leadership which Christ left mankind with. At no one time does he manifest disdain even if you bathe him with the most pungent invectives. His tolerance is in conformity with the lofty philosophy of Voltaire who once told an opponent in a dispute: “I disagree with everything you say, but I would defend to death your right to say it”.

Musa Shey Nfor manifested superlative degree of tolerance at the commencement of the onslaught on CamCCUL and its leadership by a conglomerate of CamCCUL’s loan delinquents who hoped to achieve by intimidation what they couldn’t through cajolery thought they could escape paying their debts by cajoling Abakar Ahamat, former North West governor to join them.

During a crisis management meeting at the conference hall of the former regional delegation of plan and regional development, Governor Abakar thought he could bully Shey Nfor into submission. If not force him to make utterances which could be interpreted as contempt of authority. The reaction of the CamCCUL president took his challenger unawares.

 Musa Shey Nfor began his response by giving the governor all the respect he deserved as a state official and representative of the head of state in the North West region. A truly wise man is one who can convey the information that another is a buffoon without using that very word. By the end of his submission, the CamCCUL president had succeeded in proving that either Abakar Ahamat lacked the essential information on the CamCCUL saga or was out to “Boko Haram” the credit union system in Cameroon.

Musa Shey Nfor: The patriot

Patriotism is not manifested through motions of support or other sycophantic declarations which many of our politicians are past masters of. A true patriot is one who works genuinely for the political, economic or social well-being of his society or country. Musa Shey Nfor has manifested more readiness than many other leaders to eradicate poverty by ensuring that the situation of everyone who joins the credit union system improves. Musa Shey Nfor is a respecter not only of his elders, but of state authority. Reason why the ministry of finance has stood by CamCCUL in its crusade to improve on the living standards of Cameroonians. MINFI stands on the position that credit unionists like birds of a feather should “flock together” for easy supervision and control. The governor of the West region, Awa Fonka Augustine, reiterated this notion of togetherness during celebration of the international credit union day in Bafoussam last Saturday.

Another indisputable proof of Musa Shey Nfor’s patriotism is his integration of Francophone compatriots in the credit union system. Those who criticize the CamCCUL president for choosing Bafoussam whereas Cameroon’s trade union began in Njinikom in Anglophone Cameroon, do him greater credit. Musa Nfor believes and holds strongly that Cameroon is one and indivisible, in spite of what egocentric secessionists may declare. The wisdom of Musa Shey Nfor’s decision was confirmed by the government delegate to the Bafoussam city council, Nzete Emmanuel who attributed the growth of his municipality to CamCCUL loans.

Musa Shey Nfor: Messiah of reconciliation

We remarked early in this column that Nelson Mandela’s greatness does not lie in the fact that he spent 27 years in prison. Mandela taught the world the unforgettable lesson of forgiveness and reconciliation. Despite the campaigns of lies and calumny sustained against him by the advocates of disaffiliation, Musa Shey Nfor announced in Bafoussam that all credit unions should reconcile.

Moved and marvelled by Musa Shey Nfor’s Olive branch, West governor, Awa Fonka who presided over the ceremony to mark this year’s international cooperative credit union’s day held a similar view. He sustained that in a world in which nations are inkling closer for better resolution of problems and conflicts promoters of disunity should be chastised in the most opprobrious terms. But Musa Shey Nfor chose a sober and conciliatory tone.

One other quality held only by Musa Shey Nfor and the greatest thinkers is the idea that as long as we are alive, we should never stop learning. Socrates is remembered most fondly for this remark. “The only thing I know is that I know nothing”. Musa Shey Nfor at any time is ready to condescend to borrow wit or wisdom from whomever is prepared to lend him either.

 As a person, he is God-fearing, sincere, kind and compassionate. As a leader, Musa Nfor believes strongly in the doctrine of sharing. He doesn’t belong to the school of thought which maintains that the good Samaritan was a bad economists. It is for this reason that he has since won and is keeping the confidence of fellow credit unionists. He upholds the lofty view that money does not like noise. And truly it doesn’t.

Postscript: This analyst has for the past one week been repeatedly hit by the sledgehammer of the disaffiliation disciples in the credit union for turning his back on them. This decision which they perceive as a betrayal has been placed in a positive light by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American Transcendental Philosopher.

Emerson tells us in his essay that we are free to change our minds when we are convinced that the position we held earlier was wrong or faulty. Pontius Pilate is perhaps the Biblical Character after Christ commended him for courage and intellectual confidence. When the Jews rebuked him for writing that Jesus was “King of the Jews” Pilate replied “What I have written, I have written” (John 19:22)