...Why Benjamin Itoe was made CDC chairman?

Given a regime that deliberately makes the marginalization of Anglophones a key policy, and one that offers the most lucrative jobs and favours to friends and privilege relations, Chief Justice Benjamin Itoe had the privilege and opportunity to be among the lucky few Anglophones in the inner circle of President Paul Biya. And he did not waste the opportunity!

How else can someone be compensated for honest and loyal services to his boss and the nation? For a system that is known to use and dump its allies in the abyss of oblivion, Chief Justice Benjamin Motanga Itoe has every reason to be happy and to thank President Paul Biya for this mark of renewed trust and recognition, following his recent appointment to the covetous position of Board Chairman of the CDC. The CDC it should be noted, is the biggest employer in Cameroon after the government. It is also the biggest agro-industry in the Central African sub-region.

To the informed observer, the appointment of Benjamin Itoe is not by chance. If any thing it is based on merit. Some commentators even say it is a mark of recognition and compensation for the honest, loyal and meritorious services that this illustrious son of Bombe Bakundu in Meme Division of the South West region, has rendered to his boss, president Biya in particular, and the CPDM regime and the Cameroonian people in general.

As one of the very few Anglophones ever to have handled three successive ministerial portfolios (he was successively minister of Transport; Justice and Keeper of the seals, and Minister of Tourism), apart from other top positions he held in the Cameroon judiciary, one would not be wrong to conclude that Benjamin Itoe is in every way a regime insider, and in any way a Biyaist.

This is true especially when one recalls that Benjy, as Justice Itoe is also fondly called, is also a former deputy chief judge of the Supreme Court of Cameroon and former president of the administrative bench of that court. He was also Procureur-General of the North West province (now region).

In his capacity as deputy chief judge of the Supreme Court he was the second magistrate in the country in terms of seniority after the Supreme Court President, Chief Justice Alexis Dipanda Moelle.

A revered and brilliant magistrate, Benjamin Itoe quickly traversed all the rungs of the magistracy pyramid in Cameroon, rising to the rank of Procureur-General and later as Director at the Ministry of Justice. He also served as director at the ministry of Territorial Administration.

When Itoe left the country to become senior judge at the UN Tribunal for Rwanda and Sierra-Leone, many thought it was out of frustration and disappointment with the regime. But it turned out that having made the most in his country he also wanted to explore new horizons.

It was no surprise therefore, that, after spending eight good years at this international assignment, Benjy returned to the country to renew his loyalty and allegiance to president Biya. He immediately started singing the CPDM ‘dimabola’ chorus even louder than he had ever done.

He also led many CPDM party delegations to his native Meme Division, and quickly advised himself to be in the good books of the Meme CPDM patriarch and king-maker, HRM Senator Nfon Victor Essemisongo Mukete, whom we are told, is almost always consulted by president Biya in matters concerning Meme Division, especially appointments of sons and daughters of the division. Coincidentally, Senator Nfon V.E. Mukete is also a former Board Chairman of the CDC, and has Justice Benjy Itoe as his alternate member of the Senate.

A graduate of the University of Lagos and the Lagos Law school, Justice Itoe’s classmates of the first batch of magistrates at the School of Administration and Magistracy ENAM Yaounde (class of 1968), describe him to us as someone who was destined to go places.

They said apart from the fact that Benjamin Itoe was intelligent and assiduous at school he was also respectful of his professional colleagues irrespective of their rank. “His loyalty, clairvoyance, humility and discreteness was envied by most of us his colleagues,” said a retired senior judge, who said he would not be surprised if Justice Itoe is also appointed to the pioneer Constitutional Council of Cameroon, when it is finally set up any time soon.

At 72 (he was born on 29 September 1942 in Bombe Bakundu, near Kumba), Itoe takes over the chairmanship of CDC from another illustrious son of the Bakundu clan and a former minister too, the late Chief Tata Henry Namata Elangwe, who until his death was the paramount ruler of the Bakundu people.

Coincidentally, the same Justice Itoe was the person chosen in April 2012 by the “Morere Mboka” (the king-makers) of the Bakundu clan, to replace Tata Henry Namata Elangwe as the President-General of the Bakundu Cultural and Development Union- BACDU, after the latter abdicated the post for health and other reasons. With his title of “Nganga mataka wa Bakundu”, Benjamin Itoe was second only to the late chief Tata Namata Elangwe in terms of seniority, according the traditions and customs of the very populous Bakundu tribe.

Thus, like his big brothers – HRM Senator Nfon V.E. Mukete and the late HRM Tata Henry Namata Elangwe, Justice Benjamin Itoe has also been bestowed with the exalting duty of overseeing the smooth functioning, growth, stability and prosperity of one of Cameroon’s most strategic and historic state-owned companies-the CDC. Many say this could just be president Biya’s own way of saying thank you to this loyal and steadfast ally?