Commentary By Ben Nakomo, additional reporting from Harry MacYemti
Before July 22, 2007, he looked down and out. Political pundits dismissed him with a wave of the hand, as opposing SDF stalwarts presented a heavy challenge. Fought from within his own CPDM party, physically slapped and assaulted on the evening of Tuesday, July 17, 2007 by a well-placed senior government official from his own tribe but from the supposedly ought-to-rule class, torn into shreds by other elites from his native Fako, a victim of incessant gossips and abuse by people who assert they are more educated than him yet have never won an election, Charles Mbella Moki's star dwindled and danced with the wind. As the SDF, the APF and politicians from a dozen other political parties roared and challenged his incumbency, Charles Mbella Moki virtually laid on the tarmac of political defeat, as his campaign was starved of funds sent by the ruling CPDM central committee in Yaounde, yet pocketed and held hostage by claimants of the right to rule.
The young Lord Mayor of Buea, an astute orator, a flamboyant politician loved by everyone else except by his own, perhaps for not being from the ordained ruling class in his Buea fief, criss-crossed urban and rural settlements in a frenzied campaigning effort. From Bwassa-Likombe to Besumbu, and from Bwana to Lisoka, he rattled in the local dialect, in english, in pidgin, in west African creole and in all other languages he could summon his intellect. He worked the phones all day long and in the dead of night, surrounded himself with youngish aspiring politicians in the land, beckoned on the services of political scientists and Professors, of the calibre of Julius Victor Ngoh, purchased spots for advertorials in local newspapers, even in ones that carried polemic editorials and write-ups tearing him into pieces, dished out almost 40 million francs FCFA (US$ 80.000) within two weeks to eager and die-hard supporters. In an endless effort, the man Charles Mbella Moki bounced from an unsuspecting knock-out that was merely held back from surrendering only by his perpetual optimism.
On Monday, July 23, 2007, barely 24-hours after the elections, the Local Election Management Committe released the results. The statistics revealed that out of 31,962 people who registered for the elections in the Buea Municipality, 16,584 votes were cast, 259 votes declared void, and 16, 354 votes were valid. Of the 16, 354 valid votes, Charles Mbella Moki grabbed 9,020 votes scoring 55.2 percent. The leading oppostion party SDF received 6,381 votes scoring 39 percent. The infantile AFP of Ben Muna received 724 votes scoring 4.4 percent and the historical UPC received 200 votes scoring 1.22 percent.
In cataclysmic ectasy, CPDM supporters roared into the streets of Buea. A motorcade of almost 200 cars horned all day long, and the party settled in Moki's private residence. The party held all night long. With a microphone in hand, he summoned all elected councillors for a meeting early morning on Tuesday, July 24, 2007. He told pressmen, "this is time for a new spirit, a new momentum, a new zeal and a new speed.....it is time to get back to work for the people of Buea...."
The Mbella Moki political saga is a clear writing on the wall of the intricacies of local politics and the diabolical machinations that has held the fako and sawa races in their perenial nadir in Cameroon politics and bureaucracy. Should you be unfortunate to be born
of the peasantry, it is an inherent curse on you, and you will require 'elephantide' of effort to extricate your heritage from the abyss and curse of poverty in the caste in which you have been born. The onus will be on you to shake-off the tonnage of negative expectations by people who think you ought to, and deserve to be at the lowest stratum of society, the true heritage of your peasantry. The social constraint that belabours your shoulders may starve any iota of entrepreneurialism on your part and strangulate your wish, desire and aspiration to mount the ladder of success, save you bootlick and serve at the beck-and-call of those 'un-electable' supposedly elite. Any step short of that, then you have will to carry your own cross from Ekona-Lelu via Muea to Bokwaongo, cheered and mourned along the way by peasants in the like of your forebears. This is the Mbella Moki tale, a lesson for any son of a peasant who aspires for political office in Buea.
© The Entrepreneur Newspaper 2007. All Rights Reserved.
Whoever is providing leadership needs to be as fresh and thoughtful and reflective as possible to make the very best fight.Yes, truly Mbella Moki Charles is a Pichichi for real.He is a role Model to many youth,many Seniors and ,even those Old guns in Politic in Cameroon.The Buea Municipality,The Nation of Cameroon,and even those in the Diaspora have benefited from this Living Lengend of Times,Indeed Mbella Moki Charles is a man of the People.May the Lord JESUS CHRIST hear the Cry of Mbella's Great Spiritual intercessors and propel Him to the highest Height of Politics even in the International Level IN JESUS NAME,again the people of Buea, the town of legendary hospitality say BRAVO Mbella Moki "OBOSO"
Posted by: LINGONDO NAMANGA LINGONDO | March 12, 2010 at 04:49 AM