My concern for President Paul Biya and Minister Paul Atanga Nji

As far back as 1979, I was chosen to deliver a welcome message to the late S.T.Muna, a long standing cabinet minister and speaker of the house in the Ahidjo government.

When I returned home that evening, my parents gave me a lecture which in my heart I bore long after it was heard no more. They said that to become a man like S.T.Muna, I should honour my father and mother, respect all my teachers in school, do not steal, do not cheat and do not tell lies. So, I grew up knowing that a government minister is someone who throughout his life had honored his parents, never stolen, never cheated and does not tell lies.

However, the relationship between President Paul Biya and his namesake, Paul Nji Atanga is compelling me to think and rethink things on the teachings of my parents. To get a job in any financial institution, you must have a clean credit history and a clean security report. For those who do not know, in Cameroon we call it certificate of non conviction. It goes the same if you occupy any top level security position. Let alone being appointed into the cabinet as a government minister.

In Biya’s Cameroon where they claim to be waging a war on corruption, our nation’s permanent Secretary of the National Security Council, Paul Nji Atanga is wanted by the Special Criminal Tribunal for embezzlement of state funds back in 2010.

One wonders what due diligence was undertaken before his appointment as Minister and then to the Security Council of the Republic of Cameroon. Interestingly, we are not seeing any signs that President Biya or Prime Minister Yang Philemon are running away from a man like Atanga Nji!! So, President Biya continues to head a government where no one takes responsibility, no one apologizes, no one resigns.

My sources tell me Atanga Nji is a clown in President Biya’s entourage. He tells Biya and his wife stories about Fru Ndi that makes them laugh. He tells Biya everything negative about Anglophone leaders and pretends to be more Francophone than even Francophones themselves. Nothing can best represent a country that is crumbling than the fact that men like Paul Atanga Nji are cabinet ministers.

So, this North West Region that has produced Anoma Ngu, John Niba Ngu, Bernard Fonlon, Lamtum, Dan Muna, Ephraim Ngwafor, Ben Muna the cabinet ministers from there are Paul Atanga Nji and Ama Tutu Muna!! Cameroon expects an investor to carry his millions from Europe or America and invest in a country where a cabinet minister blatantly refuses to attend court hearings. Biya cannot be serious!!!!