Tribute to Nso Voice Publisher, Wirkwa Eric: The man who saved me from being killed in Kumbo.

The first was the graduation ceremony of a tailoring institute, and the other the Ligue I match between visiting Coton Sport of Garoua, and Kumbo Strikers.

On leaving my house, I had told my wife I was only going to be back home after the Coton Sport Vs Kumbo Strikers encounter, which was due to kick-off at 3p.m.

When the late Wirkwa Eric spotted me from a distance at the graduation ceremony, he rushed to me and screamed: “Kristian, you are still in this town?”

He then pulled me by the side and confided in me that there were plans to eliminate me!

My crime? A banner headline in The Herald, titled: “Terrorists destroy phone lines in Kumbo! Fru Ndi says there can be no peace without justice”, carried my byline.

In effect, SCNC activists, who had picked up arms and resorted to violence, had claimed responsibility for the destruction of telephone lines in Kumbo’s administrative headquarters, Mbve. 

Before the development, the activists had attacked and set fire on the residence of a former Kumbo Divisional Officer, DO. The attack left the DO and members of his family severely injured.

Coincidentally, then SDF National Chairman, the late Ni John Fru Ndi, was in Kumbo the week the phone lines were destroyed. When I approached him to get his opinion on the rising wave of attacks on government officials and public property in Kumbo, Fru Ndi was categorical: “There can be no peace without justice.”

And so, after the hint from the late Wirkwa Eric, I left the graduation venue immediately to my residence.

But the biggest worry was what to tell my wife prompted me to return home almost immediately I had left; especially as I didn’t want to tell her my life was in danger. Thank God I managed to fabricate a convincing lie.

The next morning, which was a Monday, at about 8 a.m., I heard a loud knock on the door. Suspecting such a knock could only have come from the people Wirkwa Eric had hinted me were after my life, I told my wife to tell whoever was at the door that I had travelled out of Kumbo, to be back in two weeks.

Behold, they were actually the people after my life, three fierce-looking hefty men! 

As soon as they left, I had no choice but to tell my young wife why the people were looking for me. I told her we needed to leave Kumbo immediately. My first son, Junior, was barely two months.   

I had barely entered my sixth month in Kumbo, Bui Division in the North West Region, where I was transferred to serve as The Herald’s pioneer Bureau Chief for Bui and Donga Mantung Divisions.

We got to Amour Mezam Travel Agency at Squares, barely a few metres away from the Nso Palace, from where those hunting for me were reportedly sent. 

To God be the glory! We got to the agency, and only two spaces were left! As we booked the two remaining seats, the vehicle took off for Bamenda immediately. God alone knows what would have happened if we stayed longer at the agency.

A day after we left Kumbo, Nwerong, Nso most dreaded secret society, put an injunction on my door using a peace plant. Later that same day, the palace Town Crier took to the Mbve Market, which hosts a tree, believed to be a traditional shrine. 

There, an announcement was made to the effect that whoever killed me should remember to bring back the head!

The late Wirkwa Eric, a son of the soil, had told me he attended a meeting, where it was agreed I should be eliminated.

Then Kumbo Mayor, Eric told me, had made the Fon of Nso to believe that I published the telephone lines article, to pass across the message that the area was not safe for officials of the French Development Agency. They had programmed to visit Kumbo, to finalise financing of a five hundred million FCFA Kumbo Market project.

The Fon was also reportedly told that since I hail from Nkambe, in Donga Mantung Division, my article was intended to give Yaounde the feeling that Kumbo wasn’t safe to host the capital of then much-trumpeted Far North West Region.

Twenty-five years on, Wirkwa Eric has returned to his Maker at a time I least expected. Given the trajectory of my life and journalism career, the Kumbo escape which I credit to Wirka’s hint, remains ever fresh in my memory. It is an account I have repeated severally in different gatherings.

Yet, as we reflect on the life and contribution of Wirkwa Eric to humanity, I consider strongly that God used him to rescue me. I pay glowing tribute to this humane and outreaching journalist of Nso extraction. 

I maintained a close relationship with him because every day I saw him, what came to my mind was that, he was the man God used to remove me from harm’s way. 

That feeling will remain with me for the rest of my life.

His life and what he did to me sends across a message for us all to live lives that uphold truth and respect for human life. 

I honour Wirkwa Eric for his exemplary life. As we all celebrate him, I have recounted this experience as part of paying glowing tribute to him. Adieu brother. Till we meet again.