As Manyemen village dev’t, peace efforts stagnate: Traditional council, kingmakers beg DO to lift coronation ban, install designated chief.

The petitioners have also appealed to the administrative authority to lift the ban he placed on public manifestations in Manyemen. 

The two bans, they argue, have stalled peace initiatives and campaigns to boost effective schooling in the area.

The demands are the content of a letter drafted after an enlarged meeting in Nguti.

The letter, a copy of which The Guardian Post has seen, is dated September 6, 2024.

The petitioners, in the letter, have decried what they have described as “confusion” within the community, due to the prolonged delays by the Divisional Officer to install Chief Besong Williams Hillman.

In the two-page letter, the Kingmakers, Traditional Council members and others have appealed for the lifting of the August 9, 2024, ban on the coronation of the Chief-designate and the December 23, 2023, ban on public manifestations.

They also begged the DO to, without further delay, install the designated traditional ruler. This, they say, will enable the Chief-designate, Besong Williams, to engage in his duties and bring back order in Manyemen.

“…we humbly plead to your high office for the coronation of the Chief of Manyemen, which we all rally behind him with love and unity,” partly reads the letter.

They also reiterated that Manyemen people will “remain law-abiding in promoting the peace the nation deserves”. 

Without a traditional ruler, they have said, they fear that the effective kick-off of classes for the new school year in Manyemen, especially for the vulnerable, could be in jeopardy.

They said Nguti “community under the guidance of our Chief will like to give didactics to the needy population of Manyemen”. 

They regretted that the ban of the DO on public manifestations frustrates such a lofty gesture, to which the Chief-designate is a prime character. 

While waiting for the DO to install their traditional ruler, the members of the Manyemen Traditional Council, through the letter, have expressed the wish to “carry on with meetings concerning the peace and stability of Manyemen village”.

They said they are optimistic their “proposals will meet” the DO’s “kind consideration.” They equally indicated that a “delegation of elders will be constituted to meet the administration”. 

This, they indicated, will be to officially table their appeal for both bans to be lifted and their traditional ruler installed.

Urgent need for coronation 

Speaking after the meeting in Nguti, the Traditional Council members, Kingmakers, women and youth representatives re-echoed the appeal in the joint letter to the DO. 

“We came to Nguti to plead with the administration…we are on the eve of back-to-school and our Chief has much to offer to the pupils and students but all the materials are in stock because the administration has suspended public manifestations,” one of the Kingmakers stated.

The same person said: “The Anglophone crisis has made it impossible for most parents not to be able to afford even a pen. We came to plead with the administration to lift the ban so we can share these didactics”. 

The representative of women groups said their only plea is for the DO to install the Chief, so “we can continue as a happy people ”. 

“We are confused now because we don’t have any leader, but when the DO will install our Chief, everything will be fine,” the women leader added. 

Another Kingmaker said the administration has to come and install whoever has been chosen. “Without that, the confusion will still be around us.”

Fighting troublemakers 

Prior to their recent outing, the Kingmakers, Traditional Council members and elders had petitioned the government to immediately call to order those trying to stir trouble and disorder within the community. They had described the moves as “misconduct towards the Manyemen throne”. 

The petitioned was signed by the Traditional Council Chairman, Akung Daniel Akung, who is also a Kingmaker. This was on June 14 this year. 

It was addressed to the Governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai; the SDO of Kupe-Muanenguba, Mungambo William Ekema, and the DO of Nguti Subdivision. 

The Kingmakers and Traditional Council members had expressed dissatisfaction with what they said was the inappropriate conduct of a certain individual from the village.

They had said the person never showed interest in becoming the traditional ruler of Manyemen, but later popped up from the blues to declare interest in the Chieftaincy stool. 

The action of the individual, they are said, has been causing tension, disorder and jeopardising peace in the community.

Revisiting designation process

Besong Williams Hillman, it should be recalled, was on November 23, 2023, designated Chief, following a Chieftaincy consultation in Bangem. He was chosen by all the Kingmakers.

The consultation unfolded in the presence of the SDO of Kupe-Muanenguba, Mungambo William Ekema. The founding families of Manyemen, Njeck, Bafeneh, Ndong, Nsukobi and Ntibu, had all rallied behind their new traditional ruler. The Chief was designated without any contestation.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3225 of Tuesday September 10, 2024