The President General of the Northwest Fons Union, NOWEFU, Senator Fon Teche Njei of Ngyen-Muwa, has explained the procedure that the union followed before presenting a gift to President Paul Biya in Buea on February 20 2014.

Reacting to the controversy raised about the gift which the Fons union presented to the Head of State, Fon Teche stated: “Normally this should not be a public issue. The Northwest Fons cannot present a gift to the Head of State, and the gesture is turned into an issue of public debate.

However, considering the controversy that was ignited about the gift by an irresponsible and false pronouncement, ironically made by somebody who says he is the Secretary General of NOWEFU, I think it is necessary to explain to the public the procedure that NOWEFU officially followed to get the gift validated and received by the Presidency”, Fon Teche told The Post by telephone on March 8.

He said, contrary to the “misleading impression” that the Secretary General of NOWEFU, Fon Ndofua Zofua of Babungo, made in his “reckless criticisms” about the gift, the Presidency examined and validated the gift a couple of weeks before it was even taken to Buea for formal presentation. “Nobody or group can just get up one morning and go to present a gift to the Head of State. Things don’t work this way”, the NOWEFU President said. Fon Tehe said that after preparing the gift, NOWEFU informed the Governor of the Northwest Region, Adolf Lele Afrique.

He said following the directives of the Governor, he in his capacity as President General of NOWEFU, took pictures of the gift to the Presidency in Yaounde, and handed them to the Director of Civil Cabinet, Martin Belinga Eboutou. Fon Teche said the Presidency, after closely examining the gift and making an analysis of what the particular gift was all about, finally validated it. He asserted that if the experts at the Presidency found any fault with the gift, it would have been rejected outright.

Gift handed to Southwest Governor The NOWEFU President also said that, contrary to another false allegation, he was not the person who kept the gift when Northwest Fons travelled to Buea with it on February 18. Rather, he said that following the directives of the Northwest Governor, the Fons handed over the gift to his Southwest counterpart, Bernard Okalia Bilai, as soon as they reached Buea on February 18.

On receiving the gift, the Southwest Governor, on his part, contacted the Director of Civil Cabinet at the Presidency, who instructed him to hand it over to the Presidential Security. It was the Presidential Security that, still acting on the instruction of the Director of Civil Cabinet, took the gift to the Bongo Square (ceremonial ground) on February 20.

Fon Teche said the NOWEFU delegation which he led, had only brief access to the gift again, when the Presidential Security handed it over to the Fons’ delegation at the Bongo Square, to formally present to Mr. Biya in public. He said after the brief public ceremony, the NOWEFU delegation immediately handed back the gift to the Presidential Security. The NOWEFU President said it was quite unfortunate that, for selfish reasons, Fon Zofua went to the extent of making disparaging remarks about the gift, and even gave the false impression that it was rejected by the Presidency.

Fon Teche said he knows so well that Fon Zofua’s criticism of the gift was part of an ongoing smear campaign by his detractors to denigrate him but, that it would have been better for Fon Zofua to target him directly for denigration, than to resort to cause dishonour to Northwest Fons and people as a whole.

Allegation Of Embezzlement Questioned on allegations of embezzlement of NOWEFU funds levied against him by the union’s Scribe, Fon Teche, who first stated that he is a Catholic Christian, swore that they were spurious and part of ongoing campaigns by detractors to tarnish his image. Fon Teche recalled that he was Treasurer General of the Northwest Fons Conference, which used to exist before NOWEFU was created. “When NOWEFU was created, the Fons made me the pioneer Treasurer General of the union, because of my past record and experience in handling money. I was Treasurer General for the four years that Fon Abumbi of Bafut was President General of NOWEFU. At the end of his four-year mandate, Fon Sehm Mbinglo of Nso took over for a four-year mandate. I was maintained by the Fons in the post of Treasurer General of NOWEFU for that four-year mandate”, Fon Teche recalled. He stressed that when he left the position after eight years, it was not because there was any problem, but rather because he wanted to move to a higher position.

Meanwhile, Fon Teche asserted that after leaving the post of Treasurer General, he got the post of 1st Vice President General to Fon Chafah X1 of Bangolan, who took over from the Fon of Nso as President General when Ngohkentunjia Division had its turn of the rotating presidency.

He said he was again maintained in the post of 1st Vice President General when the presidency moved to Menchum Division and Fon Aneng of Bafmeng became President General. When the presidency moved next to his native Momo Division, his colleagues, Fons, massively voted him as President General of NOWEFU. Fon Teche boasted that he was not a novice in the top management of NOWEFU as some detractors want to mislead the public into believing that he has being in top positions since the creation of the union.

Conflict With Fon Chafah Meanwhile, Fon Teche admitted that there is an ongoing conflict in NOWEFU, which is mainly between him and his former close friend and ally, Fon Chafah. However, all attempts to get Fon Teche to talk about the underlying issues in the conflict, failed. “I hope that one day I and Fon Chafah will be able to sit down (one-to-one), look at each other straight in the face and discuss and resolve our problems”, Fon Teche declared.

By Abongwa Fozo