-Hon Emmanuel Yoyo, Outspoken former MP
Hon. Emmanuel Yoyo, aged about 70, is a former (SDF) MP for Ngoketunjia Division. He served in Parliament as questor for eight years. In Parliament his fight for social justice earned him both admirers and enemies.
But as an ex-policeman, Hon.Yoyo kept ‘policing’ administrators and MPs to ensure they worked for the common good.
Since leaving Parliament, Hon. Yoyo is more into business and employs hundreds of Cameroonians. He is also a noted philanthropist.
Hon.Yoyo, who is a catholic, has built three churches and offered to the Catholic Church, as well as contributed hugely to the realization of other community projects such as water and bridges
The outspoken MP thinks that a two-state federation as was in 1961 is the best solution to the Anglophone Crisis. Hon. Yoyo blames the eruption of the crisis on mishandling of little problems by government officials. He was interviewed in Bamenda for AFRICA EXCELLENCE by Veteran journalist, Philip Bawe.
Excerpts:
Q: Honorable Yoyo, you are an accomplished politician and a man of integrity. In Parliament, you served for years as a questor. What pushed you into politics?
I wish to first of all thank you for your decision to interview me. Thanks for the good impression you have about me.
I was first a police man, and enjoyed the police service very much but certain things pushed to join politics.. When I was in Douala, then in the Immigration Service, that was when the SDF was launched and a few things provoked me to leave the police for politics.
There was the 1992 presidential election, which Fru Ndi was said to have won. I remember our Provincial Chief (one mam from Obala) invited all the commissioners for a security meeting, during which he asked me who I voted for. I also asked him who he voted for. He said Paul Biya. I said Fru Ndi.
He asked me why I voted Fru Ndi, I also asked him why he voted for Biya; he said because Biya was the one paying us. But I told him it was not Biya paying us; it was Cameroon, the country paying us. My colleagues were surprised at the way I spoke to the Provincial Chief. I found his question irrelevant so I got angry with him. And that made me think that tribalism in the country was on the rise, so I decided to leave. Another incident: another Provincial Chief who came was one Pepe Ebenezer, nicknamed Pepper because he was a very ruthless policeman. This guy, during the ghost towns era, impounded taxis of striking drivers in Douala and brought many of them to the Provincial Service. He sent a policeman to tell me in my office to remove my car so they could park impounded vehicles there. I asked the policeman if he was sure the Provincial Chief sent him to me with that message. He said yes and I asked him to go tell the boss to rather remove his own car and park one of those taxis there before I would remove mine. Less than five minutes after I said this, the Provincial Chief, escorted by 8 police men stormed my office and asked if I was the one who sent the police man to him with such message. “What message? If you are talking about the policeman who came and told me to go and remove my car so that you could pack taxis there, then you may be right,” I replied.
He stared at me, said in French “On va voir” and left. This man had been sent to Douala by Jean Forchive,then Delegate General for National Security on a special mission to crack down on promoters of ghost town. So every policeman thought I was going to be sacked in the evening of that day, but a week passed, nothing happened .Two weeks later, there were transfers in the police but I was not touched. People were very surprised. I never asked anybody to intervene for me; after that I still stayed in the Immigration service for four years.
Such incidents prompted me to think of leaving the police to politics especially as Fru Ndi’s message and that of the opposition were very convincing and very relevant at the time.
On leaving the police, I had in mind to do politics; I retired from the police 14years before the required time. In addition to politics, I was doing other things such as cattle breeding and large-scale farming.
Q: Few people know that you served in the police force. What explanation for that?
You could hardly see me in police uniform. Up to this day you won’t see any picture of mine in the police uniform in my house to show that I served as a policeman. One Mr.Ndi from Wum, then an inspector of police, caused me to join the police.
When I left secondary school St Bedes Secondary School in 1970 it was very easy to have a job. Then, people in government services used to come to ask to employ us, and so it was easy to have a job for those who had the right qualification.. When I left St Bedes there were opportunities for me -one was even a scholarship to do wildlife studies in Kenya; I also passed the exam to go to the paramedical school in Bamenda and I passed to go to the school of agriculture.
But when I visited a friend who was a police constable in Tombel Ben kete whose boss was Mr. Ndi (police inspector) in Tombel, and I saw the way Mr. Ndi was being honored by his elements I developed interest in the police force. A police inspector then had more dignity, more respect in the society than a police commissioner today.
So whenever Mr.Ndi had to travel to Kumba, then headquarters of the police in Meme Division, a police man or even two would go to the road (because their barracks was near the road) and stop a vehicle for him; and when he stopped it, the inspector would be escorted by a police man to the vehicle. When I witnessed this I considered Mr. Ndi as a very important man in society; he was a proud and clean gentleman.
So while I was still with him, the police competitive exam was launched in 1971 for the recruitment of police inspectors into the national police force- because West Cameroon police had just been integrated into the national police force. I had the required qualification .My friend (the Constable) encouraged me to sit for the exam, that if I passed I would be like Mr. Ndi . I then wrote the exam. About 1000 applicants in the country sat for it. Just seven of us passed and I was the first ( Major). That’s how I got into the police.
Q: It seemed one of the things that brought honor to the police then was when a policeman sat on the front seat of a vehicle on every journey. Did you enjoy that?
In those days, it was difficult for a police man or somebody to own a car; so we used to travel by public transport. But I never sat on the front seat as many police men used to or as drivers wanted them to do. Drivers expected policemen to sit in front so they would pass police checkpoints without being controlled.
But I always paid my fare and sat behind and the drivers would be very angry with me.
Q: What happened after you passed the police exam?
When I passed that police exam and went to Yaounde, I was just 19 years old. But the required minimum age was 21 years in the Police in the country .I had not taken note of this requirement before I registered for the exam. During our orientation, the Chief of Service for recruitment rushed into the hall and told the Director of Administration and Finance, one Mfou Mvondo, that there was a problem: that one of the candidates named Emamuel Yoyo recruited had not attained the age of 21. But I was the person who took the first position in this exam. The Director said they could not send away the major- and asked that the age requirement be ignored. That was how I joined the police and was the youngest police man in the country. I did not look at the
waiver by the Director of the Administration as a any favour to me and consequently did not even thank him for it.
Q: How long did you stay in the police?
For 23 years and I took anticipated retirement. I was the first police man to take an anticipated retirement; others used to take study leave with the intention of coming back if things never worked the way they expected. So my file was the first to be treated in the Delegation of National Security for anticipated retirement.
Q: Did you try your hand at politics for long before you won your first election into parliament?
I left the police in 1995; in 1997, I was a parliamentarian for Ngoketunjia Division and in 1999 I was a questor in Parliament, chosen by my party (SDF).
My party first chose Hon.Akonteh Andrew as one of the questors, but after two years when he had problems with the party and they removed him, the party chose me as questor to represent the SDF in parliament. When I was proposed as questor of the SDF I refused and instead proposed Hon Akam Amua fom Wum, who was bilingual and had a PhD in economics…but I was surprised that my name was still maintained, so I accepted it.
Q: What does the job of questor entail?
Questors are in charge of the administration and finance of the National Assembly (NA);they prepare the budget; all financial transactions have to be validated by them; they are very important people in the NA and in the Bureau they are called resident members . The Bureau has resident and non-resident members. The resident members are the Speaker, Vice -Speakers and Questors .The non-resident members are the secretaries. So, a questor is supposed to live in Yaounde.
Questors oversee administration of the NA; if there is a problem with administration, they discuss it with the speaker. For example, at one time I realized that the Secretary-General (SG)of the NA ,Samson Enam Enam was too powerful, according to the Standing Orders of the House. He sometimes ignored even the questors. .
In the early part of my eight years career as a questor,I realized that Anglophones were poorly represented in the administration of NA . When it came again to those occupying positions they were very few; so I asked the then Assistant Secretary- General (Dr.Nzo Nguti) to give me personnel statistics ;I wanted to know where they came from, their qualifications and positions; when he brought them I realized people from the Grand South & the Grand North constituted 85% of the personnel of the NA ,and the other 4 regions- Littoral, West, Northwest, Southwest was only about 15% ; and then, the Northwest and Southwest in particular was only about 7% ; so I took the matter to the Speaker because one thing I hate is to be undermined or intimidated when given a position. When I showed the statistics to the Speaker he could not believe his eyes; but he asked me whether it was not my brothers Muna and Fonka Shang who held the position before him and why did they not correct the error.
He however asked me to propose 15 Anglophones for recruitment. We had preference for those who did law, finance or had a bilingual degree; I searched for applicants from every part of the Northwest and Southwest and asked them to bring their documents ; I finally got but 20 names in the two regions. To my greatest surprise, the Speaker approved all for recruitment, of which only two at the time came from my division .Some of them are directors today. Then, the Standing Orders empowered the secretary-general to propose up to deputy directors for appointment and the Bureau would appoint directors & technical advisers; but such proposal had to be validated by the bureau; when I looked at the list of appointees I found only very Anglophones on the list and I protested against its validation. The Speaker later called for me to his office on the matter and I proposed a solution. I told him that it is the Bureau that adopts the Standing Orders of the House and we should reduce the powers of the Secretary-General; that the only appointments the secretary-general was entitled to make should be that of Chiefs of Bureaux and that questors propose for the rest of the personnel up to the rank of director and technical adavsiers. He accepted.
So I discussed it with other questors and we made the proposal and the Speaker called a meeting of the Bureau and it was adopted. The SG (Samson Enam Enam) was mad about it but could do nothing. When we prepared the budget of the NA, questors were paid an allowance for that. Questors received about eight million Fcfa yearly. In the first year, I realized other workers in that department involved in preparing the budget received nothing. I said we could not be having so much and they had nothing while we prepared the budget together. In the end, we adopted that all the other personnel of that department should be paid some allowance like the questors and it was adopted. It obtains this day.
Q: Your constituents so admired you for making good use of your micro project grants. What is your reaction?
When I went into parliament, I realized my predecessors never made people know that there was some money given for micro projects. So during my home-coming reception, I announced to them that I was entitled to eight millions Fcfa yearly for small projects in the constituency. I formed two micro project committees in the two sub-divisions, which constitute my constituency. Whenever the money came I shared it to my people , who decided what to do with it, with my approval.
Q: A critical Hon Yoyo could not have been in the Assembly without stepping on people’s toes. Did you have any such incidents?
I remember two such incidents. Had a problem with late Mme Francoise Foning, who was the Vice Chairperson of the CPDM and ranking as questor and therefore a resident member of the Bureau.She was entitled to have a residence paid for by the NA; but if you didn’t have a residence – because you could not find one, you were entitled to 500 thousand Fcfa monthly allowance. But Mme Foning as I knew had a residence at Omnisport and the NA was paying 1.5million Fcfa for that residence.
So one day, after being in Parliament for three years, with Mme Foning in that position, I received a document to sign for the allowance of resident members of Bureau who were not given houses. And I found Foning’s name on the list; I had not signed that particular document before; they used to send it (may be intentionally) to my CPDM colleagues ; I asked the Director of Finance to bring me past documents my colleagues had been signing to that effect and I discovered that, for three years Mme Foning had been receiving but 1.5million Fcfa.
I took exception to it and caused her to reimburse the excess money she been receiving for years. It was a scandal in the house and she was very angry with me. Adjibolo was Vice President in NA and also appointed President of Chambers of Agriculture; by rule, he had to give up one position; there were five of such cases with double positions. I wrote against them and they were so annoyed with me.
Q: What of Members of Government? Can you remember one case?
I left Parliament prematurely. I was not ready to leave at the time, although I have never regretted leaving. One of my reasons was my disagreement with Members of Government. I remember Marafa Hamidou, former Secretary-General in the Presidency, Minister of Territorial of seizing people’s land seizing in the North. Some people who feared to challenge him brought this report to me and I questioned him in the NA; he was very arrogant and I told him that, I suspected his arrogance was because news was going round that he was scheming to be next President of Cameroon ; and in that kind of open arena he was very angry with me and never forgave me. There was also the issue of ex- Minister of Justice Amadou Ali who thought that I was doing everything to remove his friend, Fon Doh of Balikumbat, from Parliament and to send him to jail; Fon Doh had reportedly ordered the killing of the SDF District Chairman John Kohtem in Balikumbat. I challenged him on that and also on the arrest of a Cameroonian lady in Bamenda. I asked the Minister to enlighten us on the allegation that the arrested woman had been taken to the US for having committed a crime. But the Minister claimed ignorance of what had happened. That exposed his inefficiency as Minister of Justice; so he was not happy with me.
My inquisitiveness made them very angry and their own prayers and wishes were only that I shouldn’t return to parliament.
Q: Since you left parliament how have you been keeping yourself busy?
While in Parliament and even while in the police, I was simultaneously rearing cattle. My family is engaged in cattle-rearing; my finances while a police man were directed towards that.When I left the NA, I added to it agriculture, even when I left the police before becoming MP I already got involved in agriculture. So I have been in agriculture and I am a cattle breeder. This is the way I have spent most of my time after Parliament; my wife, is a contractor and her company is specialized in water projects. I have been assisting her also and doing other private things
Q: Your businesses & projects make you a significant employer. How many people have you employed?
We have many permanent and temporary workers. The permanent workers are mostly engineers; we have engineers we have paid sometimes, by virtue of their qualifications up to 1.5million Fcfa as salary; some months one million Fcfa, some months 500,000 Fcfa and so on .In addition, we have support staff but the majority of are temporary workers. There are times we have up to 300 people. At times, less than 50 when the volume of work is reduced.
Q: The Anglophone crisis is on-going and a lot of people have left their areas but Hon. Yoyo seems to be comfortable in his constituency. How are you coping with the crisis in Ndop?
When the crisis started people were running away for fear of attacks. My house is by the road side and I knew stray bullets could get me but I did not understand why anybody should be angry with me. What problem do I have with any of them? So I decided to stay but knew I was running a risk; even now I know I am taking a big risk. If anybody attacks me or accuses me of something, knowing that I have no skeletons in the cupboard I will answer him. The fact that I speak my mind makes it easy for me to accuse or appreciate anyone in t public; so there is nothing one would come and be asking me which probably I have not told them in public. I have my thinking about this crisis. To me, it all started because there are a few arrogant government officials who when problems are brought to them instead of examining properly, they think they are so important, and that those bringing the problems don’t matter.
I was taught in the police school that a revolution can start f rom a small thing. The Arab Spring started with a small incident, but see what it brought to the world. If you are an administrator know that every problem that comes to must be examined critically; don’t minimize any problem; big revolutions start from small events and this is what some administrators fail to understand. When teachers started complaining about simple things that could have been easily resolved, some government officials felt that the complainants were not important. When the lawyers also brought their problems they were also ignored; this is what started this crisis. But what surprises me is that all those who [provoked] the crisis were never sanctioned to appease the protesters; some were rather promoted.
I remember in the time of President Ahidjo university students were protesting and Ahidjo did not minimize them; he called the students’ union leaders and asked them what their problem was .They told him their problem and he reportedly said “I’m your father and you have a problem like this you do not tell me but you are in the street. Why? Leave the streets and I would solve your problem” The students understood the President was willing to solve their problem and they returned home; by the time they got to their campus, the Minister of Education had been dismissed – and that ended the problem because the students saw that the Father of the Nation recognized their problem and dismissed the Minister. I think the crisis we are having is the result of mismanagement of little problems
Q: Is it late now to really do something about this crisis?
It is never too late to solve a problem. What the authorities have been singing is a one and indivisible Cameroon. But this one and indivisible Cameroon should come f rom the love of the people to stay together, not from force. If military force is used now and some separatists are overcome that won’t end the problem; it may only be postponed and those who will escape may fight back some day. You cannot continue to manage a country of unhappy and un-united people, for it will be too expensive. So the best way is a peaceful solution. When this problem started the protesters were asking for a return to a federal system of government. To me, a genuine two-state federal system of government is the best solution to this problem. So going back to that federal system will be justice, especially as the constitution at the time of reunification, said that the federal aspect of the nation should never be tempered with; a two-state federal system will leave Cameroon one and indivisible, but at the same give opportunities to the other people not to feel marginalized.
Q: What is your reaction to the Special Status accorded Northwest & Southwest regions?
It has brought no change .It has no meaning as far as I’m concerned. Why not give what is good so that people can live in happiness. I know some elites in the Southwest have tried to manipulate their people to say that, they don’t want Northwesterners because the latter were marginalizing them. I think the present Northwest and Southwest should remain regions within a state -and there can be a power-sharing arrangement between the two regions inside the state. Any other arrangement will be trying to divide and rule.
I recently heard a member of the Regional Council from my area rubbishing the Regional Council .I heard one SW chief saying the same thing. But some of us had earlier said that Special Status and Decentralization as under stood by the the CPDM Government was nonsense.
Why are people afraid to go to the negotiation table? The separatists want to cut off completely, the Government wants decentralization. Two-state federalism is in the middle. A real federal system would make Anglophones comfortable.
Consider issues of development, investment and budget. Why not say, for example, in an instrument creating such a federal system that Anglophone state shall have 20% of the investment budget in their favor yearly, since they are said to be 20% of the population. And this 20% must be invested in their area. When I was in Parliament we found that the investment budget of the South region -a small region was often more than that of Southwest and Northwest added together.
Contrary to what some people try to propagate Anglophones and Francophones have no problem- even in the midst of this crisis. Francophones and Anglophones love themselves but it is some self- centered people trying to pit them against at each other to protect their own interesst.
Q: Honorable, you are looking always so young. What’s your secret?
It is discipline! Discipline in several fields: you don’t drink too much and you don’t refuse to drink either because you are part of society. Don’t condemn drinking and don’t take it as if it were the beginning and the end; you have to feel happy; not allowing problems weigh on you can keep you young. You have to be useful to your society, for when you do that, you feel very happy and secured; when I know that I’ve been useful to my society; when I know that somebody is happy because of me; when I know that not only family and friends are benefitting from the little I have but many other people, I am happy.I understand that your brother is not the one who came.
