How Nfon Mukete failed to address Biya on Jan. 5

Cameroon Journal, Yaounde – It is emerging that Nfon V.E. Mukete, Senator and Paramount Ruler of the Bafaws, may have been systematically prevented from participating in the annual New Year wishes ceremony held at the Unity Palace for President Biya on Tuesday January 5, as pay back to his recent advocacy against Anglophones marginalization in Cameroon.

The Cameroon Journal gathered from a source at Nfon’s palace in Kumba that a courier mail agent did not deliver Senator Mukete’s invitation for the event – not until the same morning – less than two hours to the event which began at 10am. The source noted that it was practically impossible for the chief to make it to Yaounde from Kumba, even by space craft.

The courier agent told our palace source that they were by no means responsible for the late delivery. He said that the mail was delivered in due time; from the time it was deposited at their agency in Yaounde, suggesting that the senders should be blamed for not effecting the transfer in good time.

Some Bafaw elites have been quick to submit that the delay was a calculated maneuver to prevent Nfon Mukete from meeting Biya face-to-face. Though they did not immediately point accusing fingers at anyone, they said that the perpetrators might have carried out the scheme with the intention to frustrate the vocal statesman from may be using such an opportunity to briefly speak to Biya about the Anglophone problem.

“If I am Nfon Mukete, I will write to Biya and explain to him what happened and urge him to unmask the plotter(s),” one of the elite who elected anonymity told The Cameroon Journal.

Mukete has since become one of the major critiques of the Biya’s regime marginalization of Anglophones. On Saturday September 26, 2015, he publicly confronted Chantal Biya’s envoy, Alexis Ndjolo for addressing predominantly English speaking primary school pupils in Kumba in French.

The drama unfolded at the Kumba municipal grandstand, during the launching of a social vaccination campaign promoted by Chantal, the first lady.

While Ndjolo was presenting the report in French, Nfon Mukete, visibly upset, got up from his seat, confronted South West governor and threatened to leave the ceremonial ground if the speech wasn’t presented exclusively in English.

Also, during the official launching of his book, ‘My Odessy,’ at the Yaounde Conference Center, Mukete decried the abuse of the English language, stating that Anglophones are suffering from the situation. He had called on the powers that be to quickly do something before Cameroon becomes a monolingual country.

As president of the South West Chiefs Conference, Nfon Mukete also led some 248 chiefs to write a memo to Biya, advocating an immediate end to the gross marginalization of Anglophones in Cameroon.

It is being said among the elites that the regime is surreptitiously trying to sideline him for daring the regime with Anglophone issues.