Vox-pop: What Should Be Done To Bring Back The Lost Glory of Mt. Cameroon Race?

Conducted By Chris Mbunwe, Walter Wilson Nana, Nformi Sonde and Francis Tim Mbom

Bring In Viable Sponsors

The organisation of the Race should be able to incorporate or associate the local authorities in Buea.

They should also bring in some viable companies to sponsor the Race. The Cameroon Athletics Federation seems to have centralised the organisation of the race in Yaounde. That way, things will never work out well.

Therefore, some people of proven morality in the municipality of Buea should be involved in the organisation of the Race. This will put a stop to the on-going wahalla
Justus Misodi Malemba, Buea

Organisation Should Be Handed Back To Guinness
Government should hand back the Race to the Guinness Company because the Government has been a failure. And I think if this is done, Guinness would do it very well. At first people used to leave from afar and come and spend the night in Buea just to witness the Race the following morning.

But for now very few people do go to Buea for the Race. Perhaps, only the family members of the runners do go to Buea today.
David Teguia, President, Fako Highway Transporters Syndicate

Government Should Hands-off Organisation
The preparation is the problem. Preparation for the next edition should start immediately the current one ends. From what has been going on since the race became Mount Cameroon Race of Hope and the mess we saw in the just-ended edition, it would be advisable that the government hands-off the organisation of the Race; it should be given to an independent organisation.

We found in the 2009 edition that there were conflicts of interests. Individuals were putting forward their parochial interests ahead of the general good of the event; besides, the preparations were hurriedly done, giving room for a lot of lapses.
Hon. Johnson Vekima Efoe, Treasurer, Cameroon GCE Board

Good Communication Strategy Needed
To rekindle hope and enthusiasm in the Mount Cameroon Race, good governance should be at the centre. Government should take its responsibility and not privatise the Race. The second thing is that little is known about the Race. This time, the State took only one day to talk about the Race which had to take place the next morning. 

So people were not well informed about what was happening. Companies in the country and Government officials are only amassing wealth and we do not know when they will use it, instead of sponsoring such a Race which is a good example of charity work.
Joseph Chongsi, PA Director, Centre for Human Rights and Peace Advocacy, Bamenda

Time For Preparations

I suggest that the Race be organised ahead of  time and most importantly the list of all the athletes should be published either in newspapers or on radio to avoid the problem of names of some athletes not featuring as was the case this year.  Else, the organisers are not different from the former election body NEO and MINATD that use to publish names of voters a day to Election Day.
Caroline Swiri - BUDE, Bamenda, City Chemist Round About

Gov't Should Restructure The Organisation
The Race this year was a total failure. I think Jacques Sebastien Mbous who just came in as the new President of the Athletics Federation did not do his homework well. He was supposed to copy from his predecessor, even though he too was not good enough. However, the first thing Sama did was making arrangements with a French Consortium which brought in a computerised system of the Mt. Cameroon Race of Hope.

Last year, we did not have this problem of athletes running up the mountain and when they came back, people still cast doubts on whether they reached the summit or not. This year, there was the case of the winner, Ernest Voffo, whom some people said did not reach the summit understandably because he was not putting on the appropriate T-shirt for his category.

I suggest that the Government should hire the services of a specialised company to carry out the production and numbering of T-shirts. Even catering for the Race is said to have come from Yaounde. These are issues the Government should look into, and fast. It should hold on with the Race for three years, put things in order before going ahead so that it can get the national and international status worthy of it.
Donald Ngomebong, OCR Sports Coordinator, Limbe

Get The Local Population Involved
If we have to go back to the fire works and the ambiance that this Race used to bring, organisers must come back to the local population to be totally involved. The people of Buea have a sense of belonging.

But when a race is organised by government in Yaounde and they carry themselves to Buea to stage-manage it, the local people do not feel warm about it because they do not have a sense of belonging.  This is not what obtained in the days of Guinness. In those days, the Race was never conceived in Yaounde and staged-managed in Buea. The real actors should not be reduced to onlookers, if we must bring back the past glories.
Sylvester Gwellem, Deputy Mayor, Njinikom Council

Former Athletes Should Be Involved In Preparation
I suggest all those who have ever participated in this Race; Cameroonians or other nationals to be summoned for a general assembly in Buea, with the local administration. I mean the Buea Municipal Council presiding on the way forward. Yaounde authorities can send only two observers, a Francophone and an Anglophone to represent the Ministries or related bodies.

This can be done as early as June and the findings made public for Cameroonians to appreciate. This is a race that if given due attention, money from it can completely transform Buea. International partners and candidates would come in to inject money that should help the locals.
Francis Bantar, Taxi Driver, Bamenda

More Publicity Needed
The place of publicity given  about a month in advance is no longer there. It should be brought back. I hear sponsorship has dropped and the Race has lost its value. People are interested only in the monetary part of the Race.

There is no impact left behind. I strongly suggest that there should be Regional Mt. Cameroon Race Committee that is solely in charge of participants in terms of upkeep and training. These ten regions will know how to go about publicity and more.
Emmanuel Ndikum, MINEPAT, Boyo Division

Anglophones Can Best Manage The Race
Let them give this Race back to Anglophones. How can Francophones claim that they can organise a race whose they do not understand the terrain. I don't understand why the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education would confiscate an event that should be organised in Buea. Anglophones can best manage this race, especially private companies who can only handle the race of hope.
Isidore Mbianda, Freelance Journalist, Bamenda

Private Companies Should Take Control
This is an important race and to bring back its past glories, the two giant companies; Guinness Cameroon alongside MTN and Orange Cameroon should take over the organisation of this Race from start to finish; not those who sit in big, comfortable offices in Yaounde, who descend only to embezzle the little that is there for athletes.
Pascaline Sendze, Northwest Craft Association, Bamenda

Firstly, the central and local organising committee should be jointly involved in all the preparatory phases of the event. Secondly, the event should be entrusted into the commercial patronage of its pioneer “godfather” Guinness Cameroon S.A., or a substitute official sponsor should be negotiated.

           

Money disbursed for the event should be dished out at least two weeks to the event to enable the local organising committee lay an effective groundwork for a vast publicity of the event. The money for the event should be managed by an independent and transparent committee of persons who should each be represented in all the committees. By so doing, neither the Federation nor ministry officials will have the opportunity to swell their pockets again to the detriment of the event

Solomon Lewoh, Journalist, Radio Campus Yaounde.

Experience continuously and permanently indicates that the regime in place cannot organise anything well. Personal interest tends to mar everything because if you look critically, the poor organisation of the last race stem from the fact that people did everything to put the money into their pockets at the expense of the event. So the only solution to me is to go and beg the Guinness Company to come back and start organising the race as they used to do in the past.

Michael Ngala, Insurance Consultant, Yaounde

From the disorganisation and failure that was witnessed at the 14^th edition of

Mount Cameroon race of hope, one is tempted to agree with the Mayor of Buea that the exercise be suspended until all guarantees of a proper organisation are put in place. But if the authorities that insist on going ahead with the race, I would advise that the organisation be handed over to Guinness Cameroon S.A. who may bring in other companies to work along in partnership with them.

Oliva Nji, Cyber Manager , Yaounde.

 

Comments

[Ma Mary]

Kick the frogs out. Permanently. That is how to fix the race, otherwise keep enjoying the humiliation.

[mk the southerner]

These frogs really think that Southern Cameroonians are really good for nothing. look at food ball and go across

[Bob Bristol]

Any competition in which Southern Cameroonians can excel better than the frogs, there is always an attempt at crushing it or making it disreputable. The entrance exams into the UB school of Health Science and the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope stand out clearly.

Inasmuch as I honour "THE FORCE OF ARGUMENT" motto which the SCNS adopted, I think succeeding by the sheer force of logical argument is a fog. Not in an era where TRUTH does not appeal to anyone, not in an era where the word SHAME has been ejected from the system or where RESPECT is considered as outmoded. A couple of Iraqis and Pakistanis extremists can deliver the goods.

[Delors]

Cry not for we knew it much more earlier. Experience has shown that the french regime and France are forever bent to destroy anything English or anything managed by an Anglophone. After going through : Marketing Board, Wada Wum, Santa coffee Estate, Chantier Naval,Empire day to so called Youth Day, Victoria to Limbe, pounds and shillings to Franc, Anglo saxon University to Anglo Franco university, Sonara of LIMBE to Sonara in Douala,Tiko Kumba to Tiko Douala, Bamenda Mamfe to Bamenda Bafoussam, Mayors to Government delegates, francophone PMs with few or no vice to anglophones PMS with countless vice pms etc etc., after all this what do we expect. We are contented with our ministries without functions, PMs without powers but for protocal, assistants head of services though more qualified the the heads of these services. Mount Cameroon race is just another one. When they started changing from Mount Cameroon Race to race of hope and so on, we knew it was coming.

Anglophones cry not for you have opted for slavery, you are beggers and strangers in your own land. The organization did not take place in KUMBA, TOMBEL, LIMBE, MAMFE, NDIAN, Nyanssosso, Lebialem not to talk of Bamenda Kumbo, Wum, Nkambe; but it was organized in Yaounde and sent to Buea. Inoni comes from FAKO. Thank God we have him