Starving Detainees Savour Chantal Biya’s Christmas Lunch

By Ernest Sumelong

Minor inmates were the “privileged few” among the starving detainees at Buea Central Prison to savour a rare meal of rice and chicken, recently, offered by First Lady, Mrs. Chantal Biya.

The minors, 27 in number, received the Christmas Lunch, as it was dubbed, courtesy Prisons Fellowship International, a charitable organisation that caters for the welfare of prisoners and ex-convicts.The lunch came following repeated letters of appeal to the First Lady on the dire feeding needs of the inmates, The Post learnt.

The lunch, according to the Prison Fellowship Coordinator, Evangelist Queen Mafany Abunaw, was Chantal’s symbolic gesture to tell the minors that she cared for them and that they are special.Abunaw urged them to change and become good citizens. She also transmitted Chantal’s message of love to them.

On why just a lunch for inmates who are faced with daily hunger, Abunaw said the inmates had on three occasions received gifts from the First Lady. According to her, the inmates complained that most of the gifts, especially uncooked food, never reached them.

The Post also learnt that prison guards often share some of the gifts among themselves, thus, the food had to be cooked and the Prison Fellowship team ensured that the minors ate what had been destined for them.

On her part, the Chief of Buea Social Centre, Betty Efosi Ndoko, who accompanied the Prisons Fellowship team, reiterated Abunaw’s message to the children and praised Chantal’s action.In their appreciation of the lunch, the minors promised to change.

Besides the lunch, The Post learnt that the minors had received gifts of rice, gallons of oil, books and writing material still from Chantal.To make use of the books donated to the juveniles, prison authorities started teaching English and Arithmetic.

Meanwhile, The Post learnt that living conditions in the prison are appalling, with the worst being feeding.Those who followed the Prison Fellowship team to the prison fought back tears when the entire population of skinny prisoners stretched their bony hands, begging for leftovers of the Christmas Lunch. 

Apart from the poor feeding conditions, an inmate told The Post that they face many health problems and that they are hardly taken to court to be judged.“I have been here for over ten months and I have never been taken to court. There are also a lot of health problems here and there are no drugs. All we have is paracetamol which is given to any patient no matter the illness,” he said.

Comments

[Ma Mary]

One would not know that Buea prison used to be a production prison, with inmates gainfully employed to grow their own food, rich in vegetables and other nutrients and were employed in crafts, animal husbandry and other beneficial ways. We imported the dungeon culture of la Republique and here we are today. Thank you Mrs Biya for giving them one good meal, but when you whisper sweet nothings into the ear of that old man, ask him to let my people go.

[Watesih]

How would one reconcile the image of Chantal Biya`s husband throwing kids into prison for protesting against hunger,and she herself cooking rice for these same kids? Their children are being taught arithmetic and English in a school that is worth 35 million a year,but young inmates in Cameroon are taught arithmetic and English in a place where paracetamol cures all illnesses.Just imagine a Prison warder embezzling the food items that are meant for inmates ,and who later picks up books to teach these famished people.Today, attention is no longer paid on transforming the inmates into responsible citizens.Attention is paid on political posturing,where Chantal Biya will send them some items in three occasions,and claims that she feels for them.Anyway ,after savouring the cheap rice and chicken,the kids promised to change.That is easier said than done!Lets wait for next year when they will repeat this same promise of savouring another round from Santa.

[Watesih]

Let`s wait for next year when they will repeat this same promise after savouring another round from Santa.

[rexon]

Chantal Biya through her advisers are on a very expensive PR campaign using help to build her a good public image. It is difficult to criticise someone when they are helping people because does in dire need sometimes do not care who gives to them. However, the question we have been asking and have never been answered is, where does Chantal Biya gets all this money that she keeps spending? We need public accountability. We do not want another Mary Antoinette whose husband would steal and leave the people in perpetual poverty while she provides for the good causes.

[Fonngang]

ONE MEAL. JUST ONE MEAL, To SAY she CARES. How many meals does Chantal have in a single day?
However, God is the greatest accountant and balances his books right all the time.How do these peole sleep at night when they know they have th power to chang things and do not? I as an ordinary Cameroonian might take comfort in the fact that I can't do much about anything, but how do these CPDM people manage such a load in their hearts? Or thet don't just have that load? These people will one day give testimony to God why they treat us this way. They will, because in God's balance sheet all the facts and figures are there. Their own accounts, they must render to God.
Let God bless these juveniles.

Looking back at my own childhood I realise how unwise childhood is. Children, even up to teenage still have so much to lean about right and wrong. Why would a nation condemn its own children to perpetual hell on earth just for being children? Is it not our responsibility to correct them rather than kill them just for being children? And Jesus Christ showed us the example by openly showing his unconditional love for children because they are just what the are - CHILDREN

[rexon]

Fonngang,

It is difficult to say what goes on in the mind of those embezzlers and evil people that are shamefully destroying Cameroon. What about what goes on in their childrens minds? They are here with us in Europe, enjoying all the money and doing all they can to parade the CPDM as a model for Cameroonians. They are the ones who secretly pays all these foreign PR organisations like write and say good things about the CPDM and Cameroon government while in reality, our people are dying in chains as slaves. Go and see the workers at Delmonte and CDC.

We really have to work hard to outsmart the CPDM here in Europe and America and force the CNN's, BBC's, Le Monde, Wall Street Journals, Reuters, Bloomberg, etc to tell the story of Cameroon as it is. Mugabe's story is told as it is because it involves the whiteman, but while our own regime kills, steals, rapes, etc. nobody says anything about it in the foreign media.

God bless Cameroon.

[red flag]

WE TOO CAN FORCE THESE FOREIGN MEDIA HOUSE
TO REPORT THESE BANDITS ON OUR LAND, BY DOING THE RIGHT THING, BY SECRETLY BLOWING UP. THE HOMES OF THEIR GOUVERNEURS, PREFETS,SOUS PREFETS,COMMAND DE GERDAMERIES
CHEF DES POLICES, ALL THOSE BIG MEN IMPORTED FROM THE FRENCH CAMEROUN. ONE BY ONE, WE CAN DO IT, WE HAVE ALL THE CHEMICALS LOCALLY, FERTIZERS, BATTERIES ETC, SOO WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR.? IS IT ONLY TALK , TALK , AND MORE TALK WITHOUT ACTION TO BACK IT UP?

[red flag]

THE BIG QUESTION HANGING OVER THE MIND OF
EVERY OR ANY SOUTHERN CAMEROONS INTELECTUAL
IF AT ALL THERE EXIST ANY,, IT THAT..
WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR INDEPENDENCE ? WHEN PAUL BIAY DIES?

ARE WE STILL GOING TO SIT SILENTLY COMPLAINING ,WHILE ANOTHER FRANCE APPOINTED
NEGROES TAKES THE TURN OF RAPING US AND OUR COUNTRY, OR WE ARE FAST DAY AND NIGHT IN THE RANGS AND FILE OF SCNC, SCAPO, SCYL , TO TRAIN AND ARM MEN TO
CHASE THESE BANDIT OUT AND BE PREPARE TO DIE TO GIVE US OUR INDEPENDENCE, WHICH IS LONG OVER DUE?

[UnitedstatesofAfrica]

...that fat bitch gives 27 inmates lunch and that makes the news? 27 inmates? and a one-time lunch for that matter. Good grief! what has the world come to?

[UnitedstatesofAfrica]

...and rexon, who has Chantal even helped in the first place? One free lunch to 27 inmates? or those fake charities which are built from tax payers' money?

[Mbu.B]

Mrs. Chantal Biya just made it again to the cover pages of the France Afrique magazines.
My good sense tells me her aides are lobbying at international bodies to put her name on latest awards for charity to inmates and HIV patients. And God knows what UNICEF or UNESCO Ambassador she will be paraded to be.
Such a scam. You can't recycle corruption to make it look good in any possible way.

Chantal is just being exploited by Biya and cohorts to make the tyrant look good.

Join me in prayers this day for the peaceful death of Biya.

[BrotherJohnson]

Ahhhhh Fonngang, you ask how many meals Chantal eats in a day? That blob? She probably eats a whole pig for lunch.

Red Flag, interesting point of view! sometime ago we were on this warpath and actually had someone provide us all the names of Biya's cabinet members and all those who voted to amend the constitution. Once we got the list, that was the end of the discussion. Are you sure the revolution will happen in this lifetime? I wonder a lot!

[Radicalbrother]

Chantal Biya is gradually milking this country to death as the husband:
With her flamboyant hair style, she is only able to give a single meal to 27 minor inmates: Are they only 27 minor inmates in prisons in Cameroon? What about the other major inmates? When are you going to give their own meal and when are they going to give us back our money they have stolen?