HON. ABE MIKE: WHAT A WAY TO DIE!!!
It was in March 2007 that you called me to say the “Presidency” had decided that the old guards of Parliamentarians from Donga-Mantung must be flushed out, and they saw in me a potential candidate. My response was, is, and will ever be, that I was never interested. I said my principal role was to enlighten our community on politics and not an engaged one. I equally made it clear that the late Hon. Chemo had wanted me to be a parliamentary candidate of his political outfit in 1997 and I turned it down on the basis that our people needed more of academic upliftment than senile overtures. Some years later, convinced that I would not change my stand, after sending emissaries to me to find out whether I was serious with my decision and got the same word, you decided to.
Your first mandate was ambivalent, and when the calls for your replacement were nursed by our new found strategists, my position was clear: zonal problems, zonal solutions. That was what took you back there.
It was in this tense atmosphere that elections were carried out. And when you suggested that you wanted to go home for the campaigns, I opposed it for security reasons, and therefore you were elected without taking part in the consultation. And you appreciated me and said God brought me in to give you the 2nd mandate, and only He would pay me.
For these two terms, the only visible official assignment you entrusted onto me was the writing on your behalf, the eulogy for your wife, not just because you were devastated, but also for not only teaching her at both A/L and university, but equally because her stay in Bambili was throughout under my care. You had mastered the rest so fast. Thank you for that appreciation
The only complaint you had against me was the fact that I had kept my distance away from you when you became an MP. Remember, prior to your rise to fame, we had casually discussed about people who wielded both political and financial powers, and how they treated their compatriots: like biscuits in grocery stores. You said our financially viable nouveaux riches feared raising monsters if they helped the young to grow: for fear of being challenged. I drew a lot from Aminata Sow Fall’s the Beggars’ Strike, that even refusal to beg was a strength. Even the most devastating floods begin with small sips of water and when they get to their peak, even the strongest dams will not stop them, so progress must not come from one angle: we must avoid this psychosis. This has been my stand about life, so my apologies.
The North West tradition that I know, requires that unless the Afang (Fon) “travels” he cannot “return” or simply, “be caught”.
How it is becoming an enduring tradition that an Afang can be expected to return from a journey he never undertook is the quagmire we are living today. May be it is the dynamism of politics, of society. Whether it is the new political apologists (some of them filed past that apogee), whether it is the dynamism of the family, both nuclear and extended; whether it is vaulting character as some may claim, your cruellest departure smacks of extraterrestrial jurisprudence, for you belonged, albeit timidly, to the Higher judicial council. More bedvilling is the fact that you paid to be killed; both fines and imprisonment; the bane of the 3rd mandate perspective! You quit the scene intestate; whenever I shall be celebrating my/our mother’s passing away, I shall always remember the cow you promised providing. Humanly possible, some have been thrown into an abysmal quandary, others into ambiguous perspectives, while some into indifference, and yet others are heard snorting, “Good riddance” with an arrogance that hurts. No matter the posture animating us, today, Honourable, God accepted this modus operandi. The consequences cannot be assessed now. You did much, but the society still expected more. Your flesh is gone, but your spirit lingers on. May your gentle soul rest in peace.
Your brother,
Sen. Ngi Christopher Ntoh (Ben JAMA)
Faculty of Education
The University of Bamenda
