Economy

Emmanuel Wafo & Co. in court to dismantle GICAM-ECAM merger.

As the controversy and wrangling over the merger of Cameroon Employer’s Union, known by its French acronym, GICAM, and Enterprises of Cameroon, also known by its French acronym, ECAM, rages on, a group of members, who are against the merger, have headed to court.

They have filed a law suit at the Douala High Court. We gathered that a summons has been served on GICAM president, Celestin Tawamba, and ECAM president, Protais Ayangma Amang, to appear before the court on July 3.

GICAM members, led by the no-nonsense Emmanuel Wafo Foko, Director General of Mit Chimie, who is also Chairman of the Economic and Enterprise Development Commission of GICAM, are seeking an annulment of a merger agreement that was signed on April 5. They say the merger is in “non-compliant with ethics, governance and law principles”.

Those against the GICAM-ECAM merger, we gathered, also include Joël Sikam, Director General of Firs Tansact International Services, FISCO; Edith Fotso, President Director General of Société Camerounaise des Savonneries, SCS; and Jean Bernard Djika of Fobs Limited.

It should be recalled that a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, was signed between GICAM and ECAM on April 5, in Douala, for what they said was aimed at “strengthening their mandates of providing support for the growth of the private sector”.

However, the merger and the form it will take has not gone down well with some GICAM members, who have decided to seek “justice” in court.

‘Problem with merger’

According to Emmanuel Wafo Foko, who has been critical of the merger, the move “openly announces the death of GICAM”.

Wafo recalls that: “…GICAM is 66 years of tireless work and efforts inherited from Founding Fathers, a long journey strewn with challenges that succeeding generations have overcome. The hard work has led to major achievements, making GICAM more than an organisation, but a real institution in the Cameroonian environment. Better still, GICAM is a national heritage that no one can afford to alienate for the simple purpose of satisfying individual purposes”.

He also went down memory lane, stating that: “In 2008, Protais Ayangma and Célestin Tawamba, were the leaders of those who slammed the door to create ECAM, of which they were President and Vice-President respectively. In 2017, Célestin Tawamba took the opposite path, slammed the door on ECAM and returned to GICAM from the top, then succeeded in being elected President”.

“Therefore, it is not superfluous to imagine that the GICAM killing project dates back to 2008 and its epilogue is approaching. In any case, those who are keen to build on rock, starting with the members of GICAM, should stand up against this disastrous undertaking,” he has repeatedly sounded the warning.

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