The Bidoung Challenge by Reuben Abati

Cameroonians got their chance of introducing into the syllabus of Comedy and Other Comic Forms (a subject I taught in my other career), what seemed like a variant of the domestic nature of humour and wit, when in the last week and more days,  they forced humour out of what seemed like an ordinary situation and added to the Ice Bucket Challenge and the Mannequin Challenge, what has become known internationally as the#Bidoung Challenge or the #CourberDosChallenge.

      While we were busy here disgracing the Super Falcons who won the Golden Trophy at the 10^th African Women Cup of Nations Championship Football Tournament (AWCON), by refusing to pay them their entitlements, and forcing them to take to the streets to advertise national shame and disgrace, the Cameroonians who came second in the tournament, were treated to a Presidential banquet and special romp with the President and his wife. It was a special occasion in sports whereby a silver medal was better rewarded than a gold medal and in this instance, an odd commentary on sovereignty and its priorities.

Cameroon sacks 2 army chiefs after Boko Haram raids

Cameroon's President Paul Biya on Tuesday dismissed two senior army officers in the country's far north following Boko Haram attacks in which at least seven people were killed and the wife of vice prime minister, Amadou Ali was kidnapped.

Militants of the Nigerian Islamist group seized the wife of Amadou Ali and killed at least three persons on Sunday in an attack in the northern town of Kolofata involving more than 200 assailants. At least four soldiers were killed in two separate raids late last week.

PRESIDENT JONATHAN CALLS FOR MORE COOPERATION FROM NIGERIA’S NEIGHBOURS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM

PRESIDENT JONATHAN CALLS FOR MORE COOPERATION FROM NIGERIA'S NEIGHBOURS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Friday in Abuja called for greater cooperation between Nigeria and neighbouring countries in the fight against terrorism.

Speaking at an audience with a Special Envoy of President Paul Biya of Cameroon, Mr. Emmanuel Sadi Rene who delivered a special message from the Cameroonian leader, President Jonathan said that Boko Haram and other criminal groups that operate in the countries' border regions must be seen as a common threat to them all.

The President said that Nigeria and its neighbours must take urgent action to harmonise their strategies and efforts to roll-back the menace of Boko Haram and other violent criminal gangs that operate between their borders.

"The issue of Boko Haram remains worrisome. If it is not properly handled, it could affect the security of neighbouring countries. We therefore expect maximum cooperation from all countries within our region to rout the sect," President Jonathan told Mr. Rene who is Cameroon's Minister of Interior.

Mr. Rene had conveyed President Biya's assurance to President Jonathan that Cameroon was committed to cooperating fully with Nigeria to combat all forms of terrorism and cross-border criminality.

He also assured President Jonathan that the Cameroonian Government will never allow its territory to become a safe haven for terrorists or a base for the destabilization of Nigeria.

Reuben Abati
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
March 14, 2014

Eto'o hattrick sinks Manchester United

Chelsea striker Samuel Eto'o scores three as the Blues hammer Manchester United 3-1 in the Premier League.
Samuel Eto'o's hat-trick lifted Chelsea to a 3-1 win over Manchester United on Sunday which all but ended the champions' slim hopes of defending their Premier League title.

Two first-half goals and one soon after the restart by Eto'o took Chelsea up to third place with 49 points, two behind leaders Arsenal, and United remained in seventh place, 14 off the summit.

United defender Nemanja Vidic was sent off in stoppage time to complete a miserable day for David Moyes's team.

Priest freed in Cameroon arrives back in France

Fr Vandenbeusch (right) was welcomed by President Hollande (centre) at Villacoublay air base

A French Catholic priest freed in Cameroon nearly seven weeks after being abducted has been welcomed back to France by President Francois Hollande.

Mr Hollande shook hands with a smiling Fr Georges Vandenbeusch after his arrival at an air base near Paris early on New Year's Day.

Bakassi belongs to Nigeria – Fresh facts reveal

LAGOS — Fresh  facts have emerged, showing that the disputed Bakassi peninsula which the International Court of Justice, ICJ, ceded to Cameroon, actually belongs to Nigeria.
Vanguard gathered that the jurists at ICJ might  have been misled by the legal teams of Cameroon and Nigeria, who did not show vital information that clearly placed Bakassi as a territory within the geographical, political and administrative jurisdiction and control of Nigeria, contrary to the October 10, 2002, verdict which awarded the sovereignty of the peninsula to Cameroon.


International relations experts, renowned historians, researchers and politicians told Vanguard in Lagos, last week, that contrary to the claims by the Cameroon and Nigerian legal teams that the first legal treaty on the Land and Maritime borders between Nigerian and Cameroon was the 1913 Anglo-German treaty, it was discovered that the limits of the Land and maritime boundaries between both countries went as far back as 1811 when the British made the treaty that went from the Lake Chad region down to the Atlantic ocean through the Rio Del Rey Estuary.