I don't hate Anglophones - Charles Manda

Charles Manda responds to claims that he is against and is singling out Anglophones as incompetent.

Charles Atangana Manda, director of Media Observatory and Public Opinion in the Ministry of Communication, made news last week - not so good news of course, when in answering questions posed by the Journal’s reporter about alleged discrimination in his department, referred to Anglophones working under him in the ministry as incompetent and lazy.

Over the weekend, it appears that in an afterthought, he wasn’t particularly excited about his own remarks. Atangana, worried over public hullabaloo against his provocative remarks, picked up the phone and called our reporter requesting for an exclusive interview to better explain himself.

He told our reporter over the phone that he felt like his views were twisted in the report – even when he was being directly quoted. However, in this interview we graciously granted him to explain himself, he didn’t appear to have done himself that much good either.

He doesn’t come across as repentant or remorseful for calling his co-workers of Anglophone extraction names. If anything, he appears in this interview to be attempting rather to clarify just why his word be taken for gospel truth – why he should be believed when he describes Anglophones in his office as incompetent and lazy.

Simply put, he didn’t grant the interview to make restitutions, or to apologize for using abrasive and politically incorrect phrases on his Anglophone colleagues. He merely wanted a forum to give an explanation as to why they deserve the labels he pasted on them. You be the judge - Excerpts

Mr. Director, in our report titled “Anglophones are incompetent and lazy” being a direct quote from you in regard to complaints against you by some Anglophone journalists who work under you. You seem to have issues with the report and the accusations. Anything you want to take out of it?

First of all, thank you for creating space in your media organ for me as director of Media Observatory and Public Opinion in the Ministry of Communication to response to the concerns of my English-speaking coworkers. For all the education I have received, professional, and administrative, I don’t know who is an Anglophone, who is a Francophone, who is from the North, who is from the South or who is from the East. I know we are all Cameroonians; I see all of us as staff in the service of our country. We’re journalism professionals with a specific mission with precisely the Ministry of Communication, through the Minister of Communication.

I’m just a citizen like others, and I say this with my hand on my heart. All my life, this is the first time and the only time I was alarmed owing to the article you published. Throughout my life, I have never opted for segregation. The education I received taught me equity, rationality and objectivity. I can tell you, I am a leader at the base – a servant leader.

I serve my community as village chief and I come from a poor family. My mother was a simple nurse; she died two years ago (may her soul rest in peace). My father was a teacher. I have life values that entail being useful to man. And today, all I do in my life is to try to be useful to my country at any duty post. I consider where I find myself at the media observatory as a duty post, for the state, for the Minister of Communication and for the ministry.

You must have read these strong recriminations against you by your Anglophone collaborators. What did you think about their allegations? It is important to sort out the ambiguity here. You know we live in a country of manipulation and slander. It is easy for a coworker in the administration, like in the present case, to rush to a newspaper where he has friends like you, for example, to induce the editors to error. These complaints are very serious allegations; very serious and even detrimental to my career. You know there are targets, or else, how do you explain that for an issue purely technical, they wanted to politicize it - to harm my career. Where is anglophobia in a purely technical issue?

This is what I want to prove. You are great professionals. I imagine very well that a technical issue cannot be adapted as a political issue. I am a technician at the ministry of communication and nothing else. My English-speaking collaborators as I say sometimes - I don’t know… from my point of view, how could they dare to say that they are frustrated and marginalized? I have here before me, the designated list that shows bonuses for the technical work we do; the end of 2013 for 2013 and more recently, July for the year 2014. These are small bonuses through which the minister appreciates deserving staff. The minister accords my own bonus based on the satisfaction he receives and the legal text governing this by the state is very clear.

These are the documents; you can see them for yourself (brandishing a document carrying names and attribution of bonuses to his staff for 2013, while concealing some portions for ‘administrative reasons).

Be informed that I am the first director of media observatory and public opinion. When I became director, I realized that the workload on the Anglophones was too much, so I decided to create two desks; one for the review of English language newspapers to be done by English-speaking staff and the other for the review of French language newspapers by French-speaking staff. This was to ensure that everyone worked in the language he best understands.

If you look critically in this document (2013 attribution of bonuses), you discover that one of the highest beneficiaries of these bonuses is Njike Celestine, who is an Anglophone. How come I am being tagged now as a perpetrator of Anglophobia? I beg to state here that I am rather Anglophilic. After Njike Celestine got his 2013 bonus, he later started complaining that he was doing all the work at the Anglophone desk. That is where things began to take a different turn.

In 2014, the Anglophone desk became something else; there was no longer any delivery, no account on the review of the English language press for practically five months. I called on them and pleaded that they get back to work. In 2013, the bonuses were objectively distributed. But in 2014, since the Anglophone desk became unproductive, that is how they found themselves with 30.000 FRS each as bonuses.

You mean 30.000 FRS against 200.000 FRS each for their Francophone colleagues Mr. Director? But that is exactly what I’m telling you - that bonuses are given based on delivery, based on production, and based on commitment. If you do not deliver, and the director goes ahead to recommend bonuses for you, those working will also charge the director with favoritism for awarding bonuses to staff who do not deliver.

In fact, before they even received the 2014 bonuses, I reminded them that they would be receiving their bonuses, but told them that for six months, I did not send any press monitoring report from the Anglophone desk to my hierarchy; but since I do not want any of you to go home empty handed, I proposed something symbolic for each of you. They all agreed with me and promised to get back to work. I was later stunned when the minister sent me a query letter.

But they have said that you stopped giving them money to buy English language newspapers. As a result they suddenly found themselves with no work to do? Thank you very much for that question. You will answer this question yourself. How many English language newspapers are on the newsstands?

About 30 of them Sir… No… Yes… I mean per week! We work on dailies and weeklies. How many English language newspapers are weekly? We have a permanent newsstand where we get our newspapers; a newsstand which has all regular newspapers. Each of our two desks has a head who goes for the newspapers every morning. There is no problem in my service as concerns availability of newspapers, be it in English or in French. I have the privilege to be dealing directly with all my collaborators since my service is new and so does not yet have sub directors and chiefs of services.

But can we take a brief look at the 2014 bonus flap which is the object of the discontent by your Anglophone staff?

I do not have it here. It is still with the minister.

You just admitted that your English-speaking collaborators received 30.000 F as bonus for 2014 as opposed to their Francophone collaborators, but that this was because they stopped work. Don’t you think their decision to halt work was simply another way of demonstrating their grievances against some kind of injustice against them?

Simply as a result of too much work I suppose!

But you’re also accused of having induced them to sign a certain document, which document they allegedly refused to sign?

Lies! Which document? If I must say something on this, given that I am not here to diminish my administration, my office almost went into flames shortly before that of one of my colleagues caught fire. The electrical wiring was distorted, and I had invited an electrician to put things in order. That was after I informed my hierarchy.

I then asked my staff to switch off all machines and check into my secretariat for the continuation of their work. But unfortunately since in the public administration, some individuals specialize in calumny, somebody went and told my minister that all the doors of the media observatory and public opinion service were closed. The Minister wrote me a query which I assured my collaborators, I was going to take the responsibility. I replied the minister with all explanations.

Were they supposed to sign your response to the minister’s query? Not at all. But I was told that each and everyone had to reply. But first, during that period, none of the Anglophone workers was coming to work. I’m terribly embarrassed that my collaborators have chosen to carry problems within our administration but to the press and not try to seek amicable resolution within the office.

I have a lot of respect for public administration. I decided to react to your article because I found out that you tagged me as one who is practicing anglophobia. I am instead closer to Cameroonians of English expression. I have families in both the North West and South West. I have worked with several Cameroonians of English expression like H. E Phillip Ngole Ngwese when he was Secretary General at the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reforms while I was chief of Communication. He is a brilliant and rigorous public administrator. He taught me rigour in public administration. In public administration, we must learn to be submissive and to obey hierarchy. If workers refuse to obey their direct boss, preferring to jump him and resort into newsrooms to report their grievances for publication, then it is scandalous. This matter is already being handled at the level of the Minister. They decided to ignore this to blow it out to the press.

What about the nature of their office… only two tables, one of which has a broken leg? Anglophone workers have no honor for the Ministry of Communication and the department of media observatory and public opinion. I have built my career in difficult moments, at times without an office. They are just at the beginning of their career, but they want to command everybody. It is not the director who attributes offices or material to staff.

Even so, I succeeded to reserve two offices for my department. When the Minister of Communication restructures the ministry, these offices would be attributed to sub directors. Myself, I do not work in the office. I operate everywhere in my department. We have in my department what we call ‘the monitoring hall.’ That is where we spend our office life. I do not sit on my director’s seat to do work. Rather I sit in the monitoring room to work.

So if I have some material in my office that is bad - like I have now, will I go to the press to complain? No. I know that when the time comes, the department of general affairs will furnish us with the required material. You see; these young people are not even complaining that they do not have computers, the major working instrument for news monitoring, which are currently lacking. But I am telling you about it now because I know that I have already ordered for all these. All these things they are complaining of not having are neither the director’s fault nor that of the minister. It is simply a matter of procedure. Everything in the public administration follows a procedure. They have refused to inform you that I organized a seminar on monitoring, which was presided by the minister, and he appreciated it.

My fault today it seems is that I work a lot to put my service topmost amongst the technical services put at the aid of the minister of communication. Since the rhythm is too strong and difficult and since the media observatory is not a service where people should come to do their petty businesses, dose up during work hours or spending time to put up makeups, they want to use it to run down my image.

What would be the nature of your relationship with your Anglophone co-workers after all these differences? Let me use this opportunity to tell you that an administrative official at the head of an operational unit is the head of a family. I forgive all of them. I take upon myself to remind them that they are about building their careers. I have taken note of the fact that they are being more or less manipulated by some individuals of the ministry and that some individuals are applying political fabrications to destroy my career. I will start work after my ten days break on Monday, September 1, where I intend to organize a service meeting. I call on them to get back to work and be good servants of the state.

Do you envisage a reconciliatory meeting with them or what? Well, you can call it reconciliatory meeting. You have your own language in your newspaper. I am a senior administrator. Administration has its own language. I told you we would have an administrative meeting. I will ensure that all my English-speaking administrators should be involved. I’m a father placed at the head of this department, just like the minister is my father placed at the head of the ministry. You can call the meeting which ever name you choose. But the essential thing is that I will convene a meeting to put everybody back to work in an atmosphere of tranquility.

I thank the Cameroon Journal, which I know is a popular publication for granting me this interview to clarify certain issues. My final word is that they should get back to work, and that they should not convert a purely technical issue into a political issue. I am not anglophobic. I have never been, and I will never be.

EDITOR’S NOTE – Yesterday, Charles Atangana called back to confirm that all disagreements within his department were resolved and that the disgruntled workers are back to work in an atmosphere of harmony.