NW Bar Election Campaign: Incumbent Barrister Sama Serene as Division, Intrigue, Flip-flopping Characterize Campaigns

           The atmosphere in the NW region within members of the Bar Council is electrifying as elections into the Bar Council programmed to take place in Yaoundé draws closer. The split seems not only to be between what has recently become known here as the new generation lawyers and the old guard but between the very young lawyers and the old lawyers, and to an extent between what is known as lawyers of the common law and French lawyers.

          In one of the campaign meeting organized by the current Batonier, Barrister Sama Francis in Bamenda at Dreamland Restaurant and attended by hundreds of lawyers across the divide, he was jubilant with the turn out and the harmony so far demonstrated by advocates. According to him, their unity and sense of togetherness can only do good to the North West Region and to the Cameroon Bar Association is they go to the general assembly in Yaoundé as one strong and united people with one objective.

          Designated by North West advocates as their team leader into the Bar Council election, Barrister Sama said, he was humbled by the fact that all the advocates of the North West region have endorsed his candidature into the Bar council and as president of the Bar council. He further intimated that he addressed the worries of the young generation lawyers which “they came to realize that there was lack of proper communication and the diversity of ideas and opinions.” According to him, diverse opinion and ideas is what make a Bar any Bar without any difference in opinion and ideas is a dead Bar. He further said that in the Bar the can only work as partners in diversity of opinion to build not only a strong Bar when such ideas are harnessed, but to build a better Cameroon.

          Barrister Sama also recounted some of his achievement during his two year tenure as Bar President. These included, the launching, writing and publication of the Bar result- something which had not been done for many years, the procurement of a piece of land in Yaoundé to erect a seven storey ultra modern secretariat for the Bar council and the eminent putting in place of a law school in Cameroon to rescue hundred of Cameroonians who go abroad to study law.

          As Barrister Sama vacated the Dreamland restaurant Hall on Tuesday, 20^th January, Barrister Ngnie Kamga and his team of New Generation lawyers stepped in on Thursday January 22^nd, 2015. This made vivid the divide between the incumbent and the New Generation though the differences in terms of the number of attendees, maturity and the serenity in discussion were vivid too. The Barrister Sama’s divide from all indication looked more mature and convincing in all the aspects afore mentioned.

         Barrister Ngnie Kamga speaking to journalists unveiled his ambitions, blaming the incumbent Bar council leaders of inactivity and making the Bar elitist. According to him, the Bar members was not fragmented but was merely being split for electioneering purpose. He refused categorically that the common law lawyers had a cause as far as the practice of law is concerned in Cameroon.

          Rumors of attempts to by the present Bar leadership to debar some Bar members went wild in the hall during Ngnie’s campaign. While some of the attendees dismissed such allegations as mere smearing and sought to know those who were on the debarring line, those seeking to discredit the incumbent and his team held it as gospel truth expecting to make capital gains of such a scandal. Some of the lawyers who spoke on anonymous condition, said such allegations were uncalled for and that it was an ugly campaign strategy. Debarring a lawyer is not a crime they said, if the lawyer in question is against the laws governing the practice of the profession.

          Although during campaign periods, it is incumbent on all potential voters to attend any campaign rally, the spirit demonstrated by some advocates was not anything to go by. Some of the very advocates who attended the Barrister Sama conclave were the very ones who were seen making commentaries at Barrister Ngnie’s. The kinds of declarations some of them were making indicated a sense of indecision, flip flopping. One of them during the Ngnie’s conclave strayed out of the hall into the corridors lamenting the fact that everything was blurred in his mind. According to her, the food and the drinks offered them was nothing to go by because, “we have food and drink at home. Do they think that lawyers here do not have food?”