SOLOMON TANDENG MUNA IN THE NEWS

SOLOMON TANDENG MUNA IN THE NEWS

More than a walking giant

Solomon Tandeng Muna is currently in the news. He is of course, one of Cameroon`s leading statesmen. He was a minister in the Eastern Nigerian government when our part of Cameroon was attached to Nigeria. After reunification in 1961 he became a minister in the Federal Republic of Cameroon. Back West of the Moungo, he held several ministerial posts in the Government of West Cameroon including that of Prime Minister. He later also served as President of the National Assembly of Cameroon.

Rendering to Caesar what is Caesar`s

Today, on the occasion of the celebration of 50 years of Reunification of Cameroon, CRTV television screened a special tribute to S.T. Muna. It was a befitting tribute which saw friends of Muna such as Peter Esoka, Prof. Wete Francis, elite from Muna`s village, Ngyen-Mbo as well as his two sons Dr, Daniel Muna (today of blessed memory) and Bernard Muna, talk so passionately about him.

The controversy

Even in his lifetime, Muna came under scathing criticism for “not helping his people”. An example cited is that he failed to tar the road from Bamenda to Mbengwi through Ngyen-Mbo, but instead opened a prison in Mbengwi. Speaking on today`s CRTV programme, Dan Muna said his father`s idea was to use the prison to transform young people so that they became more useful when back in society.

A Mr. Tamufor who spoke as an elite of Ngyen-Mbo addressed another bone of contention concerning S.T. Muna. It is common belief that Muna was so unwilling to help people that once a young man from the village went to him to ask for a job. Muna then started listing in the Ngyen-Mbo language a number of subjects which he felt could help the boy to get a job: “A bere Biology?” (Do you have Biology)? Apparently, since the boy had that subject at the Advanced Level, Muna continued to ask about other subjects: “A bere Chemistry?”, “Abere Physics?” to which the boy answered in the affirmative. But once he said “Tsei, Papa” (No, Papa), to the question: “A bere Maths?” Muna quickly dismissed him by saying, “If you don`t have maths which is so important, how do you expect to get a job”. In other words, he was looking for a pretext to turn down the boy`s request.

However, in today`s CRTV programme, Mr Tamufor explained that Muna`s insistence on maths was genuine because a background in maths makes a good student even better.

The role I played in Muna`s withdrawal from politics

At the time Muna announced his withdrawal from politics, I was in charge of the Francophone and Lusophone (Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking ad Italian-speaking) countries at the then London-based WEST AFRICA MAGAZINE for which I worked. A couple of years previously, I had replaced the British journalist Mark Doyle who left for another job at Amnesty International. Muna`s son, Akere, called me to say he was in London and would like to see me. He met me at the WEST AFRICA office in Euston Road, Central London.

Akere told me he had been sent by his father who wanted WEST AFRICA to publish something on him. Akere brought along a very rich portfolio on the man: photographs, articles, magazines, newspapers, newspaper cuttings etc. I introduced him to our Editor Onyema Ugochukwu and the General Manager who was Kaye Whiteman. The result was that after in-house consultation, I did a full page appreciation of the man, Solomon Tandeng Muna which we published in the next issue of the magazine. If I can remember correctly, the photograph we selected for the story was one in which he was clad in the North West traditional regalia complete with cap and feather.

Surely, Solomon Tandeng Muna will be remembered by different people for different things. I remember him for the phrase I once heard him utter as President of the National Assembly: “People come and go, but the nation remains”.