Innocent Chia
Citizen Journalist
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By Francis Tim Mbom
CameroonPostline.com -- May 5, 2013, marked, exactly 10 years since the Journalism icon, Arthur Jerome Fultang Gwellem, passed away. He was brutally crushed to death by a reckless motorist, in Yaounde. Late Gwellem had left Limbe early that same day to Yaounde to attend a National Communications Council, NCC, meeting that was billed for the following day.
It was at the backdrop of the transition of this fallen Journalism Great and a line of others like Tataw Obenson, David Achidi Diffang, Wem Mwambo, Vincent Nchami, Thomas Abanda, Liga Sam, Jenkins Mote, S.N. Tita, Martin Yai, Chief Epie and Big Ben, to name but these few, that a coterie of journalists, made up, mostly, of his products and some of his peers who had worked with him, gathered in Limbe on Sunday, May 26, to pay tribute to J. F. Gwellem as he was fondly called.
The team of pressmen was made up of doyens in the profession like Denis Kongnso Lafon, Martin Che whom Gwellem converted from a teacher to a journalist; Charles Ndi Chia whom Gwellem reshaped from a professional carpenter to a formidable journalist; Barrister Innocent Möchungong Bonu, whom Gwellem formed as a journalist before he drifted into the legal field.
There was Chief Nkemayang Foanyi, President of CJA-Cameroon, who also owes his journalism prowess today to Gwellem. Besides these gentlemen, were Martin Nkemngu, Editor-In-Chief of The Star Newspaper; Bouddih Adams, Editor at The Post Newspaper, Kwi Bangsi, Manager of Ocean City Radio, Limbe, Chief Fonki Asah from Bamenda, Walter Wilson Nana of The Post. The gathering was blessed with the presence of Late Gwellem’s first child, Mrs. Jacqueline Adamu. “Until the last of us falls, it is never too late to find out what happened to J F Gwellem,” Barrister Bonu intimated.
The sudden passing of the Founder and Publisher of the renowned Cameroon Times Newspaper, Gwellem, that fateful Monday in May, 2003, threw many into confusion. Barrister Bonu, immensely thanked Charles Ndi Chia who had thought it wise to convene the memorial gathering to honour such a man like Gwellem whom, he said, helped in moulding and ushering many of them into the profession. The late Gwellem was said, maybe casually, to have been knocked down by a car as he was crossing the road.
According to reports, then, he was picked up after the accident and ferried to hospital where he died not long afterwards. But the circumstances surrounding the death of this indefatigable crusader and defender of the truth through his journalism works had left so many questions unanswered; questions which still bother many a people till date.
Bonu further intimated that he was immensely touched by the gathering because it gave them: Ndi Chia, Bonu, Nkemayang, the opportunity as journalists who started off in the profession together to, nostalgically, find themselves, together again in one newsroom after many years of being apart.
The Limbe gathering fondly rekindled the glow of the good old days of their journalism practice while at the Cameroon Times with Gwellem in charge. “Ah! In those days, journalism was not what we have today,” they lamented. “I remember, in those days when Gwellem would take my script and render it very red and then ask me to go bring him a professionally written news story,” Ndi Chia recalled.
“I remember when as a primary school kid, I would take food to Gwellem, S.N. Tita and Martin Yai, at the Buea Production Prison, where they were detained, for daring to write that Ernest Ouandji “gave up” himself, even though the Government’s version was that he was captured by security forces,” he added. Ndi Chia went on to say that Gwellem was a journalist and a teacher of hundreds, because he handed over the flame to many others who have subsequently passed it on.
“How else can we recognise and preserve the memory of a man who served the nation with such abnegation,” Charly, rhetorically, asked. Chief Nkemayang said he had discussed with Mwalimu George Ngwane and the idea of setting up a Foundation cropped up. He, like the other speakers, also thanked Ndi Chia for initiating the memorial gathering. He said they had been musing on another gathering in November where the idea of a Gwellem Foundation could be concretized and launched.
Che described the idea as a wonderful one, adding that he was just too warm about the fact that something needed to be done in honour of Gwellem who he said was his friend. “I was there when he got married, I was there when his first daughter, Jacqueline was born,” he said.
After the suggestions had been fine-tuned, it was agreed that the Cameroon Times Newspaper, which Gwellem founded, and the United Publishers, which printed the paper and which was also founded by Gwellem, will have to be reborn.
Barrister Bonu was saddled with the task of doing the legal framework so that the journalism flame, Cameroon Times, which Gwellem helped ignite, could be re-lighted in his honour before the close of 2013. The Gwellem memorial meet ended with a word of thanks from Gwellem’s daughter, Mrs. Jacqueline Adamu, who said she was overwhelmed and thanked the gathering for remembering her father.
First published in The Post print edition no 01434
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