Personality of The Week: Célestine Ketcha Courtès: Nde Division elite.

It is perhaps that integrity shown by The Guardian Post editorial team across the years in upholding the opinion of readers that has catapulted it to the pinnacle of journalism in the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS.

This season, in keeping with tradition, our readers have in their thousands chosen Célestine Ketcha Courtès, Minister of Housing and Urban Development also an outstanding elite of the West Region, Nde Division and Bangangte Subdivision in particular, as Personality of The Week.

She rises to this platform, a debut for her, on the premise of her holistic and unity-driven community initiatives. This week, Minister Célestine Ketcha Courtès launched the 10th edition of the Nde Vaccances Utiles and Festifoot Paul Biya initiative to keep children on holiday busy and promote the values of peace, tolerance and living together. It is a campaign underway in Tonga, Bazou, Bassamba and Bangangte Subdivisions.

Aside rooting for peace and unity, Ketcha Courtès, a woman of substance and influence, also won the hearts of many for putting her resources to training 1,000 young people to fight against hate speech and other social vices that threaten the fabrics that have kept the nation turning.

Minister Ketcha Courtès for many is no ordinary woman. Our readers say she merits good mention in every celestial setting for her commitment to helping and showing the younger generation the path to follow. 

She comes to the podium of exceptional honour on the basis of what admirers qualify as her undying love for Cameroon as a nation.

Ketcha Courtès already in the honour books of the nation for several reasons is appearing this season as Personality of The Week for resoundingly investing in a sensitive domain touching on the youth. 

This alone, enthusiasts are quipping, make her not just a wonderful woman and mother but a lover of humanity.

Her repeated grassroots engagement to ensure peace reigns in her backyard and for purposefully choosing a line as sensitive as building the blocks of unity, is it also said, make her an outstanding paragon of hope.

Your Personality of The Week is a visionary and foresighted woman with the stamina of a global eagle that survives all weathers. She is distinct in that her commitment to reaching out to Cameroonians knows no boundary.

She is powerful yet jovial, compassionate and outreaching in sharing the blessings of God in her life with compatriots. Ketcha Courtès gets the admiration of an angel in human form which readers of The Guardian Post say adds to her multi-dimensional engagements in contributing to nation building.

Ketcha Courtès is a matron, empress and matriarch known for always doing good. Strong-willed and audaciously positive, this woman of many tidings, is rated on many cylinders exceptionally because irrespective of her political colouration, she has chosen to empower citizens beyond such shades.

Acclaimed, revered and admired wherever she goes to in Cameroon, Ketcha Courtès, millions of those who get information daily through The Guardian Post are saying, is a national queenly character par excellence. 

The seeds of unity, peace and peaceful co-existence she has been sowing for decades, tie with her likeable character. Her beauty, smile, elegant looks get extra ratings because of her surpassing compassion.

Ketcha Courtès is not a woman of buzz. No! She is rather living in the firmaments of honour for her many good actions. Responding to her role as a superior guardian, mother of humanity and humble community servant, many say the many national and global heights she has attained are the results of her touch of love in the lives of many.

For one thing, while many admire her status, the glory coming her way this season others are saying is the counsel she offered young people that hard work pays. 

Minister Ketcha Courtès is a pragmatic woman and mother in particular who understands the role of women in nation building.

She is receiving flowers of honour through focus on this revered platform from across the globe this season for being selfless. 

Minister Ketcha Courtès, is also being praised for putting the present and future of Cameroon above every other thing else. That alone, those who say she is an exemplary character add, situates her as a rare instrument in the hands to God to build the Cameroonian society.

If goodness, charity, tolerance and peace were a person, then, Ketcha Courtès is that one Cameroonian who fits in squarely. She is powerful yet humble, rich yet so concerned about the wellbeing of others. 

The stars are singing for her this season in agreement for her mastery of the times and dynamics of the Cameroonian society.

She is not among those who blindly support the Head of State, President Paul Biya, without making meaning of what he stands for. Ketcha Courtès is unrelenting in her support for Biya. Where she cuts the image of a mover and shaker is her humility to take on preaching peace, unity and empowering Cameroonians across the board.

Your Personality of The Week is a record breaker in doing good. Her attachment to see that values are upheld also justifies the rapt attention her activity has gained this week. 

While many go back to their communities for political reasons, Ketcha Courtès remains unique in that, the ongoing exercise targets in addition to peace, raising standards in community hygiene, promoting health, sports and moral rearmament.

On this score, many are saying and outstandingly so that Minister Célestine Ketcha Courtès represents excellence, hope, compassion and valour. Being made of such high-priced values and seeking to transfer same to young people many say, puts her in the class of super scale heroine. 

She has an indelible mark in Cameroon’s history of charity. Ketcha Courtès hates injustice, greed and despotism. Your Personality of The Week is not only proclaiming peace with her mouth, she has a heart of gold. She knows peace is the only war worth fighting. 

With people like Minister Ketcha Courtès, miracles don’t only happen but they happen all the time. She knows what unites Cameroonians is not the diversity of the country but the longing for peace. Her undying love for peace and moral rearmament, enthusiasts say, is because there is nothing bad that can’t be corrected through doing the right thing. 

She doesn’t only believe in her dreams but as a compassionate mother, she believes in making the dreams of others come true. This alone, many say, makes the name Ketcha Courtès synonymous to opportunity.

Ketcha Courtès is no ordinary patriot. Her’s, is a dedication and steady tranquil of a lifetime. Even in the midst of odds, her quest to re-fire unity and peace into the psyche of citizens make her an agent of positive change.

Your Personality of The Week has had triumphs and highs that have changed the course of history. Already in the skies of honour, she is being lifted higher this season for working to ensure same happens for others.

Minister Ketcha Courtès is a woman who has worked her way to the top but has not forgotten the need to lift others. Albeit her charitable activities across the nation, she is always mentioned in gold when it comes to community leadership and local development.

Her glory while she served as Mayor of Bangangte in Nde Division of the West Region between 2007 and 2018 went beyond the shores of Cameroon. She won several international awards for her meaningful leadership in improving the lives of the local population.

Born on October 13, 1964, in Maroua, Far North Region, Célestine Ketcha Courtès hails from the Bangangte royal family. She attended schools across several cities in Cameroon. 

She earned a Higher Education Diploma in Commercial Techniques and another diploma in Commerce and Economy from the Higher Institute of Economic and Commercial Sciences (ESSEC) in Douala.

She is a former Marketing Executive at CIMECAM. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the fish importing company, Queen Fish. 

Célestine Ketcha Courtès is also the boss of several companies operating in the import and marketing of canned goods and transit in Cameroon. She at one time served as Vice President of the Association for Municipal Help and Development; President of Panthère du Ndé Football Club;  Ambassador of French-speaking Africa in the European Union Working Groups on Dialogue Structure on Aid.

In June 2014, she won the United Nations Public Service Award in Seoul , South Korea, for her humanitarian work especially in Bangangte while serving as mayor. 

In April 2015, your Personality of The Week was one of three nominees for the José Eduardo dos Santos Prize for the African Mayor Awards, small cities category. 

She is also a former president of the Network of Locally Elected Women of African. In 2016, she was among 100 mayors whom then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon invited to contribute to a new urban agenda ahead of the Habitat III Summit.

Other roles she holds are; Member of the World Council of Mayors of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG); Chair of the Humanitarian Aid and Risk Management Commission at AIMF; UCLG Champion for Development Cooperation; Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the African School of Architecture and Urban Planning, EAMAU; Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Cameroon Real Estate Company, SIC; President of the Bureau of the Annual General Assembly of Shelter Afrique among others.

Your Personality of The Week is holder of decorations such as; the Knight of the National Order of Sports Merit. She is one of few Cameroonian women with this decoration. She also holds the Knight of the National Order of Valour; Knight of the National Order of Merit; Officer of the National Order of Valour; Officer of the Cameroon Order of Merit; Commander of the Order of Valour and Grand Officer of the National Order of Valour.

On January 4, 2019, the Head of State, President Paul Biya, appointed her Minister of Housing and Urban Development. Her unmatched attachment to community service is where many have continued to posit and rightly so, that Célestine Ketcha Courtès is premium national asset.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3173 of Friday July 19, 2024