Innocent Chia
Citizen Journalist
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By Innocent Chia Ask the top bras of Cameron Radio Television why it did not broadcast the World Cup 2010 qualifying encounter between the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and the Lions of Morocco? Doubling as qualifying match to the 2010 African Cup of Nations, in the erstwhile civil-strife beleaguered South Central African country of Angola, CRTV had all but closed the deal on purchasing the broadcasting rights to the highly anticipated encounter. The price tag of half a million dollars ($520,000) or a over quarter billion CFA (268 million FCFA) was not the issue. As only the Chiareport can reveal, protégés of the Biya legacy had the final word and it was not about football…
In my days at CRTV the frequency with which we encountered “technical difficulties” was, even by my mediocre standard, shameful. 10 years after, and with technological advances that have eviscerated distances and collapsed walls the world over, CRTV has dug its heels as the last bastion of “technical difficulties”. Little wonder viewers booed as the unfortunate Pierre Lebon Elanga chimed out the washed out line “Nous avons des petits problemes techniques qui affectent la liaison entre Fes-Yaounde”. What hogwash!
Pierre Lebon Elanga and the emaciated CRTV viewers were not trusted with the ability to handle the truth. What truth? According to our inside sources, influential Biya zealots feared that a loss and disqualifier on national television would not only cause disenchantment of fans but ignite a popular uprising against their dictator in the 2011 presidential election.
These voices - including Joseph Anderson Le and his griot boss, Issa Tchiroma of the Ministry of Communication – prevailed against that of the field commander and Director of CRTV, Adamou Valmouke. It was decided that CRTV would not show the game, even though it had dropped 268 million FCFA of taxpayer money to obtain broadcasting rights from Morocco.
The local press has been sold on the lie that CRTV general manager, Adamou Valmouke made an emergency trip to Benin to untangle the web of “technical difficulties” in time for Cameroonians to watch the rest of the game. How long is that flight? I also know for fact that the airline carrier, CAMAIR has less than a couple questionable jets in its fleet - even the President of the kangaroo country has no private jet - talk less of CRTV.
In fact, all that Valmouke did was to place a call and have the signal cleared when it became obvious that the Indomitable Lions, under the exemplary leadership of captain Eto’o Fils, were having a field day over their Moroccan opponents.
As expected, President Biya congratulated the team (11/16/09) for showing courage in the face of adversity. Why not? The team beat the mountain of odds that were stacked against them. There is little doubt that bringing in Paul Le Guen as head coach jumpstarted the process. I would argue that Paul Le Guen’s single most important move was that of making Eto’o Fils the captain of the team. There was a new sheriff in town.
Secondly, the benching of Rigobert Song in the test game shortly after taking office sent a strong signal to the old guard. Everyone on the team had to earn their position. It was no longer a given that Rigobert would be a starter, and certainly no longer captain of the ship. It has resulted in some of the best performances that Cameroonians have seen from Song in national colors.
For the likes of the unsophisticated rambling legend, Roger Milla, it was beyond his scholarship grasping why Eto’o would accept to be captain over the older Song – The pauper Lion, gifted with a ghost position to cushion his financial quagmire, has been spending precious time envying the wealth of Eto’o and trashing Eto’o in interviews by saying that the achievements of Eto’o as a Lion pale in comparison to what Song has achieved. That is without debate if one only tabulates that Song has been in the Lion shirt for close to 20 years.
The bigger point that must not be lost, however, is that the changes of Le Guen and Eto’o resulted in a change of attitude within the team. By passing the captainship to Eto’o, the 45 years old Paul Le Guen, former defender with the French national side, was passing the relay baton to the younger generation and enabling them to believe in themselves. He was telling them that it was time to stop blaming others for the shortcomings of the Lions. The sky was the floor of their ambitions, not the limit.
This message of change is the same one that Cameroonians, of all stripes but the CPDM, are pressing for. President Biya, and the band of dream killers that surround him, can see through the lesson afforded him by the Lions that Cameroonians are probably not unleashing what they are capable of because he has become the liability for the nation. His country claims to be “Africa in miniature” - and it truly and painfully miniaturizes all that which is wrong with Africa.
Where do we start? Well, let’s stay in the arena of sports. Under his watch, the country’s existing sporting infrastructure - laid out in the five year development plans of the late Ahmadou Ahidjo – have been collapsing. He is yet to point to one stadium - not built by Chinese cooperation – that is the result of the fruit of earnings either brought back by the several exploits of the Lions at the World Cup (1982, 86, 90, 94, 98, and 2002) or just part of the national budgetary allocation. Not one. The ghost of Ahidjo will also point to INJS, the national school of sports and its products, including the FIFA Vice President and CAF President, Issa Hayatou.
Under Ahidjo, the emphasis was on managerial efficiency. The Coaches were given the lee way and trusted with the responsibility of taking the best decision for the national team. The national team was not a political ping pong, much as it has become today. Few know that from the time the first coach of the Lions, Cameroonian born Raymond Fobete, was appointed to office in 1970, only five (5) others coached the team up to the period ending 1982. Since 1982 with Jean Vincent, Cameroon has had 19 coaches, averaging one per year!
One can make the irresistible point that the Ahidjo establishment built a heck of a foundation for the national team. The 1982 squad became, without contest, the model cohesive dream team. Although its mission was not to suffer a waterloo at the World Cup like another African country had, the 82 Lions became the first African team to be undefeated at the World Cup. Furthermore, it is practically 95 % of that 82 team that dominated African football in 84, 86, 88 and rounded off with an exclamation mark at the 1990 World Cup.
As some uninitiated politicize football and the Lions in Cameroon, they hardly ever point out that the most successes scored by the Lions was under the stewardship FECAFOOT’s Issa Hayatou, Peter Ntamark (of blessed memory), Maha Daher, Iya Mohammed. It is also no mistake that the current Sultan of Foumban, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya was Minister of Youth and Sports. You be the judge of the rule of Pascal Onana, Vincent Owona and Joseph Owona.
At the onset of this write up, we revealed to you that poor CRTV viewers were cheated of a lifetime opportunity to watch the final match qualifying their team for the first Soccer World cup to be hosted by an African Nation. But the politics of it go even further than that: The CPDM regime is finding a way to dissociate itself from CRTV and possibly hammer the last nail on the head of a dying horse. It is no secret that not even the family members of CRTV journalists watch the channel.
It is to this end, therefore, that the Bulu-Fang are letting CRTV stab itself with poor customer service such as the controversy whether or not to show the football encounter. According to our sources, Joseph Anderson Le is heading plans to build - from the ashes of CRTV - an Etoudi remote-controlled outlet that will divert world cup advertisement revenue and manage the 2011 re-election bid for camp-Biya. Poor CRTV will be stripped of all resources and serve as platform for its griot board chairman - Issa Tchiroma - to smear his Northern brothers, beginning with Adamou Valmouke.
Cameroon is Africa in miniature indeed. It epitomizes all that is wrong with Africa.
On another note,Cameroonians are amazing!! After a day that these guys gave their hearts to play a difficult match,a long flight from Morocco,ensuing jet lag as well as late arrival(2:00am),these politicians still found a way to make sterile speeches at the airport.
What was so pressing that they couldn't wait till the next day??
And don't get me started on the CPDM.They want to take credit for anything that works in Cameroon.
Posted by: Eric Lamlenn | November 17, 2009 at 09:04 AM
It is but no doubt that the CPDM and its chef will eat off the very fingers that feed them! Only then would the populace be able to stand up and enjoy the fruits of their beloved country. They(the Cs and their cohorts) are walking on a ticking time bomb!
May God bless our handclapper-politicians and give them more fore-sight.
Amen
Posted by: EB | November 17, 2009 at 01:17 PM
Where is Danny boy? It seems as if you have not read this article yet. FOOLISH MAN
Posted by: Enow | November 17, 2009 at 03:15 PM
"And don't get me started on the CPDM.They want to take credit for anything that works in Cameroon."
And blame poverty (and economic crises) for what doesn't work.
Posted by: nji | November 17, 2009 at 03:32 PM
Spot on Nji. The need to be slimed with honey and tethered to the nearest termite mound!
Posted by: Eric Lamlenn | November 17, 2009 at 04:45 PM
Glad to have you back Mr.Chia. I was wondering
why the silence. Let the ink flow Brother.
Posted by: Pa Musa | November 18, 2009 at 12:23 AM
Why do we have the pic of samuel eto'o in the barcelona shirt.what happen to the pics wth him wearing the cameroonian jersey.are we talking of cameroon national team or the catalonian club barcelona.well come to tlk abt the issue of crtv.whether it's a political trick by biya and co or wht.crtv is a mess.it's even funny tht wth all the money they collect from the cameroonian citizens we hv jst one tv station.there is suppose to be crtv sports,crtv documentation,crtv music, crtv news etc.they can afford tht so they shd stop telling us crap stories
Posted by: eddy | November 18, 2009 at 12:39 AM
Come on people,
inso far as we continue of unleash questions as to what the CRTV does with tax payers' money year in year out,
DONT GET HOAXED WITH UNVERIFIED FACTS BY MEN OF THE SYSTEM.
You did not only avoid to dwell on the topic in issue, but the facts were so horribly presented.
Show us how and why, from your "insider" information we did not watch the match and avoid rambling with uncalled - for insults on Milla and the so called " jealousy" you have no mastery of. Atleast, he is talented in his field.
This is one of the most childish fallacies i will ever read from a journalist.
Come on Chia, how does it look like to stand boldly today and spit out venom on the very CPDM you and i know, moulded you and made you what you are today,so you think we do not know how you got into the CRTV?
Posted by: iyeuh | November 18, 2009 at 03:55 AM
read continue unleashing questions not of unleash questions...
Boy
how is it like to shun dictatorship when you know very well your family got all its success, renown and wealth through the same system.
Only a fool will ever take you seriouly
Posted by: iyeuh | November 18, 2009 at 04:00 AM
Innocent Chia, erstwhile Journalist at CRTV. This is a classic example par excellence of a mediocre piece of journalism. How can I describe your piece? A news report, a news analysis or a tattered piece of yellow journalism?
This was first class rambling and the analysis is a potpourri of loosely-knitted facts to form an eye-sore for good reading.
Get the facts straight: the 268million CFAF was paid by bank transfer to Sport Five which I presume you know is a sports marketing agency charged with the management of broadcast rights for most organs and in this case for the Moroccan Football Federation.
As soon as the lumpsum was received, the satellite parameters were communicated to the national broadcasting house, the CRTV. But as it were, these parameters didn't work and the intervention of CRTV boss was needed to obtain the right satellite coordinates to be able to get the images to the TV sets of the local Cameroonian taxpayer whose monthly efforts permitted the State to doll out this money.
When the right parameters were finally obtained, the signals and images were interferred upon by the bandwith of a local mobile telephone operator creating the a blackout.
I don't want to question your integrity or your sources but in my my Journalism and Media Ethics seminars, we were reminded that "attributing information to their sources does not necessarily absolve the reporter from the responsibility of libellous statements".
Again, there is what we the journalistic ABC of Accuracy, Balance and Clarity which I don't see in your report. It is a reflection of junk journalism and score-settling. At least, the official position of the state and CRTV would have featured in your report fot readers to deduce implications for policy and opinion making.
It is barren of facts, full of loopholes and assumptions. It is uncalled for to inject your personal biases and idiosyncrcies when presenting the facts to the public.
You were probably fed up with the pro-establishment journalism at CRTV which entailed praise singing and ego-massaging of political leaders and the system, that's why you left but make us feel proud of journalism by stating the facts as they were.
Courage brother, do not stumble.
Posted by: Mola | November 18, 2009 at 04:47 AM
Mr. Enow,
one is not compelled to reply to every story one reads here! Bereft of facts, I do not write, as is the case now. I do not have insider information from that establishment and by the way, what is Mr. Chia saying that is new to your ears? The dipiladating infrastructure? the misuse of funds from our glory years?
Though Mola above disputes the veracity of some of Mr. Chia's assertions, there is still enough in this story to demand for answers.
Whatever the arguments, the technical people at CRTV should have diagnosed this problem hours before kick off!! That they only knew this at kick off is a fat lie!!
Given the importance of this match, all systems would have been fine tuned hours prior and primed to go at the appointed hour!! This is simple logic.
Mola, I suspect, has an axe to grind with Chia.
As for you Mr. Enow, I do not know whether you enjoy reading my comments or you have pidgeon-holed me as a supporter of the regime, hence the reference "foolish man!"
Please as I said earlier, it is not every story one replies to.
Have a wonderful day.
Posted by: Danny Boy | November 18, 2009 at 06:25 AM
Mola,
Please stop being an apologist for a flawed system. Granted that the parameters were flawed, why did it take until the last minute to have them tested? If arrangements were made ahead of time, both the Morrocan and Cameroon authorities should have had these specifications checked before payment was finalized. We saw Cameroonian players during the African Nations Cup delayed at the airport in South Africa because their visas were late. The Phillipines and Indonesia denied access to their airspace to our team because flight plans were not filed on time. We arrived in Japan Korea a day late.Public management in Cameroon is nothing but a litany of moronic stupidity. Who does the average citizen go to for a refund when services are denied? They will still pay taxes come the next day. Please, stop this blind support for a failed system. There is a fine line between patrioticsm and blind nationalism. The latter is a sure path towards doom.
Posted by: Che Sunday | November 18, 2009 at 11:37 PM
Che and co,
iam as also worried about the system and its faillures as any other right thinking cameroonian.
The public service managment failures and corruption the looting, what have you.
It is also true there is much laxity, the CRTV guys should have checked all parametres before the match, true.
However, i will never support bufoonery.
Chia, completely failed to substantiate the issues he raised, he completely escaped from the subject matter to dwell on quatier gossiping. Thats rubbish isnt its
Moreso, only a fool, as Iyeuh says would ever take his critisms of the CPDM seriousy; surely you do not know the family this guy comes from.
His family's very existence and survival is pegged to the CPDM till date, and chia became what he is today thanks to the CPDM.
Wonders they say shall never end.
Posted by: slomo | November 19, 2009 at 02:03 AM
Fellow Cameroonians,
What is wrong with Mr. Innocent Chia criticizing the Biya government even if it made him into what he is today? Many in the opposition were once members of the CPDM. Could it be that he has seen the light finally?
The way Roger Milla is described by Mr. Chia is very troubling. People around the world still consider him a real legend and someone who arguably put Cameroon on the world map. But again, a prophet may not be respected in his own home.
As concerns politics in Cameroon, what Mr. Chia articulated is not new. We are all aware of what is wrong with our dear country. What is needed now is solutions and action. The list is alway long on diagnosis but very thin on prescriptions.
We should start asking ourselves what have we done to make our country a betterplace lately, not what our country has done for us if any at all.
Quit complaining, start looking for solutions and acting on them.
God bless our fatherland!
We shall overcome!
Posted by: Truthsquad | November 19, 2009 at 06:43 AM
MR CHIA, I'M NOT SURE WHERE TO BEGIN. WELL LET ME PUT THIS WAY...WT DA F*@K ARE U TALKING ABT?!!!! READING YOUR ARTICLE SENT ME INTO A MENTAL TAIL SPIN. YOUR FACTS ARE WRONG, YOUR LOGIC IS FLAWED, YOUR BETI PHOBIA IS INSULTING TO COMMON SENSE!!! YOU, MR CHIA, WAS THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY WHILE AT CRTV, YOUR SOURCE IS THE PRESENT TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY WITH THAT OUTFIT...!WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU? HAVE EVER MET MR TRUTH?! F*&k!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: TATA IBUE | November 20, 2009 at 11:42 AM
You people talk as if it is wrong to critise Milla. Is it the same Milla who supported Sepp Blatter in FIFA election against his own brother? He is a good footballer but he never put Cameroon on the map, the whole team of 1990 did.
Chia that was a very good piece, don't let blind men lead you astray. You are a journalist because you worked hard, earned your degree and and write artilces like this one. CRTV or no CRTV if you have a good pen and a critical mind you will make it no matter where. We the youths have given that country far more than they have given us.
Posted by: Rachael | November 20, 2009 at 11:43 AM
@Mola & Che Sunday,
Which Parameters are you people talking about? Before Mola floats the ABC of Journalism around he should first ensure that his own reference to Parameters is A-for Accurate!!!
What Satellite transmission parameters are we talking about here? A simple Symbol Rate,Polarity and Frequency data set? are these figures that change everyday? NO!
Let us school ourselves I challenge anyone to convince me that a satellite signal was impeded by a mobile phone mast.
First these two technologies work on different frequency ranges 800 to 900 MHZ for mobile phones and 3000+ to 12000+ for satellite transmission
Second the lower power transmission modes of cell site technologies ensure that the signal does not depart too far from the target cell meaning a reduction in the likelihood of interference.
So Mola please do your homework well when you seek to do a PR job for those nation wreckers. There are educated and informed people on these blogs.
Peace
Posted by: cameroon4eva | November 24, 2009 at 11:01 AM
Pierre Lebon Elanga and the emaciated CRTV viewers were not trusted with the ability to handle the truth. What truth? According to our inside sources, influential Biya zealots feared that a loss and disqualifier on national television would not only cause disenchantment of fans but ignite a popular uprising against their dictator in the 2011 presidential election.
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