Tchiroma ‘kicks out’ troubled Anglophones from media observatory

Communication minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary has bundled out all English speaking staff of the ministry’s department of Media Observatory and Public Opinion who recently were at variance with Charles Atangana Manda, their immediate boss.

Early this week, Tchiroma signed an order relocating the Anglophone staff of that department to both the centralized and regional services of the ministry.

It is not yet clear if the minister’s action is in consonance with a promise he had made earlier to the Journal’s reporters that he would take action on the Manda – Anglophone staff’ rift immediately he got back to work.

Manda’s English speaking co-workers had accused him of not only demonstrating open hatred for them but also pushing the hatred further by relocating their work space to what they described as inhabitable and isolated office.

They said the office which hosted about six of them had only two tables, one of which had a broken leg.

They also accused him of allocating 200.000 FCFA each, to Francophone staff as bonuses for 2014, against a meagre 30.000FCFA each to Anglophones in same position.

When the Journal first contacted the minister who admitted then that he was on leave, he promised to confront the issue immediately he was back to work.

At press time, we were unable to get to him to confirm if last Monday‘s ‘appointments’ were in response to the promised action.

Should this be the case, that would mean that the minister chose diplomacy; rather than sanction Charles Manda. He appears to have rather directed his axe at the agitating staff by sending them to the regions (though in the surface it looks like promotion).

It should be noted that Charles Manda had in an earlier discussion, conferred in the Journal that he was recommending different appointments for all the agitating English speaking staff.

An observer who preferred not to be named has described the minister’s action as sheer attempts to evade addressing the Anglophobic phenomenon in his ministry.

The observer said if the minister was actually against xenophobic practices, the best he could have done was to discipline the director who exhibited discrimination.

Following the appointments, two of the staff were relocated to Regional services while four others were spread to other services at the ministry.

Those sent to the regions include Ekellem Ebongue Emerentia; she was appointed Regional Chief of service at the North West delegation of communication, and Njike Celestine Atabede, 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 scheduled for installation next week.