MADI CONSTITUTIVE ASSEMBLY HOLDS IN DOUALA

By James Achanyi Fontem, camlinknews

The Coordinator of an association in the making known as ‘MADI’(MAKE A DIFFERENCE), Barrister SIMO KAMDOM Gildas, invited members of the World Coming Together To Make A Difference (WOCOTOMADI) on the 30th November 2019 for a constitutive general assembly at Boulangerie SAKER Akwa-Douala. In his welcome address, Barr. SIMO KAMDOM informed participants at the conference hall of the bakery that the purpose of the constitutive assembly was to put in place an association which will operate within the guidelines of WOCOTOMADI USA led by the Founder, Mrs. Julienne Siwe Ngongang, who is resident in Boston. Though the logo of MADI is almost copy right of WOCOTOMADI with its motto as 'Helping those who are suffering’, Barr. SIMO KAMDOM said, he knows little or nothing about WOCOTOMADI and that MADI is a different initiative and would like to start the process of legalization through building a data base of its members before submitting a file to the Wouri Senior Divisional office in Douala for endorsement as wanted by the Cameroon government. He added that when the legalization process will be completed, he may request for partnership with WOCOTOMADI USA founded by Mrs. Julienne SIWE NGONGANG. For now, he went on, the two organizations are going to work independently as organizations within the context of the Cameroon law on liberty of association, No. 90/053 of 19 December,1990 covering the liberty of association and its operations. The MADI constitutive assembly was attended by high level personalities like Professor Tsala, HRM Fonjinju Tatabong Alexander of Lenale Ndem UNESCO Museum Palace in Melong, HRH Ndoumbe Emmanuel of Bonendale I village in Douala-Bonaberi amongst a host of other traditional leaders from the centre and west regions accompanied by queens and princesses. It should be noted that throughout the deliberations of MADI constitutive assembly, Barr. SIMO KAMDOM, made no mention about other laws in quote, “Law No. 96/003 of 04 January 1996 on the frame work for health field activities, Law No. 99-14 of 22 December 1999 governing Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) or Law No. 2004/017 of 22 July 2004 fixing the frame work of orientation of decentralization. WOCOTOMADI NGO USA operates within the context of these other laws, though it was declared from its birth as a national and international association.

Since the creation of WOCOTOMADI USA and the agency in Cameroon, operations have been undertaken within the framework of these other national institutional laws in vigour in Cameroon. This explains the reason for a First Aid Training planned and organized in Bamengou in the West region and Melong in the Littoral region of Cameroon recently by WOCOTOMADI USA. The intriguing orientation of MADI constitutive assembly led participants to ask so many unanswered questions directed to Barr. SIMO KAMDOM, who only insisted that his association is put in place within the law No. 90/053 on liberty of association in Cameroon and has nothing to do with WOCOTOMADI as of now. He emphasized that it is the liberty of each individual to decide to belong to it or not to belong to it. He presented a document, which he declared was delivered by the Founder of WOCOTOMADI USA, Mrs. Julienne SIWE NGONGANG, which he used for preparing the constitutive general assembly of MADI. The document was immediately challenged by Prof. Tsala, a member of WOCOTOMADI, who said in his words, ‘The document presented is baseless and a non-event’. From there, a short break after three-hour long exchange of views by participants was given for them to make more indepth exchanges at their various levels on the way forward before continuation of the session. The break lasted for ten minutes and when the deliberation resumed, documents of MADI prepared by Barr. SIMO KAMDOM were circulated and distributed to participants who were interested to receive copies for indepth scrutiny and contributions to enrich it where necessary before legalization of MADI. No election of a constitutive board of MADI took place.

The deliberation of MADI constitutive general assembly ended without a constitutive bureau put in place as the Cameroon law requires and it was bye1 Bye1 to participants. The Founder of WOCOTOMADI USA and her team have to reflect on this report as they continue their laudable business and actions to alleviate poverty and serve the needy in the African continent. The members should reflect on how to avoid using opportunists when expanding their activities across the African continent. For more insights on the MADI constitutive assembly of 30th November 2019, we invite you to listen to the videos on You Tube or Face Book.

WOCOTOMADI has already started preparations for the 2020 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF AFRICAN KINGS in Cameroon, which would be the second edition under the theme: ‘Acknowledgement of the International Day of African Kings for commemoration of values of Kings and Traditional Chiefs, under the denomination: “DAY OF THE KEEPERS OF AFRICAN TRADITIONS”. The advocacy and action plan of the event has been conceived and circulated at various levels of the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon and Africa on the revival of African Kingdoms and Traditional Chieftaincies. The following personalities have been informed on the menace of the Opportunities for Africa’s Emergency: • His Excellency MANVEU Célestine KETCHA COURTES, Minister of Housing and Development • Honorary Patron of Urbanisation and International Day of Women, • His Excellency, President Paul BIYA, President of the Republic of Cameroun, 1st King and Traditional Leader. • His Excellency Alim HAYATOU, Secretary of State and President of the National Council of Kings and Traditional Chiefs of Cameroun • Donald Hardy, Executive Président of WOCOTOMADI NGO • His Majesty, TCHOUA KEMAJOU Vincent, Honorary President of WOCOTOMADI NGO • Professeur DJOUSSE Luc, President of the Scientific Committee of WOTOMADI NGO, • Lord Mayor, Dr. Fritz NTONE NTONE, Government Delegate of Douala City Council, • His Majesty, Guy TSALA, Vice-President of the National Council of Traditional Chiefs of Cameroun, S. M. and Senator Salomon MADIBA SONGUE, Traditional Chief of Canton BAKOKO • HRM TATABONG Alexandre of LENALE NDEM (MELONG) Pioneer Founding Member of WOCOTOMADI Cameroon, just to name a few. • A host of Queen Mothers of African Kingdoms and princesses attended the MADI meeting in Akwa-Douala. From the agenda circulated, one could sense a hidden issue in the constitutive general assembly because the logo of MADI was used to hide the words on the document given to participants. WOCOTOMADI has members in all ten regions of Cameroon, but the organizers of MADI constitutive assembly did not invite any participants from the east and three northern regions of Cameroon. The west region dominated in numbers at the constitutive general assembly during which no election of executive board members took place.