CDC Privatization Fraud: A View from the Ground.

I returned to the US today after a two-week visit to Cameroon. During that
period, we witnessed the beginning of the unravelling of the John Niba Ngu,
Alhaji Baba Danpullo/CDC privatization house of cards.

What the Cameroonian press has called "the CDC privatization imbroglio" or the
"Niba Ngu affair" is beginning to look like another IMF and World
Bank-sponsored sordid affair of fraud, misrepresentation, abuse of power,
money-laundering and naked
greed. In effect, the "privatization" of the CDC tea estates in
Tole/Gbiyuku/Sachsenhof, Djutitsa, and Ndu amount to a massive transfer of
public and private property to a handful of powerful, politically
well-connected individuals at the expense of
the Cameroonian public in general and the native land owners in particular.
Here are some verifiable facts I learned on the ground:

1. The privatization of the three tea estates were masterminded by John Niba
Ngu, a former general Manager of the CDC, and Minister of Agriculture, who,
using inside information and his considerable political contacts, set up
Cameroon Tea Estates,
a shell company. Enter Alhaji Baba Danpullo, a rich Hauasa-Fulani cattle
rancher and businessman from the Northwest province, and member of the CPDM
Central Committee. Danpullo, who led CPDM negotiating teams in abortive talks
with the SDF a few
years ago, has business interests in South Africa. He and his South African
friends created a front company, Brobon Finex in South Africa, to negotiate the
privatization of the tea estates. The estates were valued at 4.5 billion CFA
but through
some magical alchemy, the privatization committee in Yaounde accepted the
give-away price of 1.5 billion CFA. The CDC management was asked to sign a deed
of transfer of the estates without a chance to read the document. When they
hesitated, they
were given twenty-four hours to study it and sign. The CDC management, led by
Njalla Quan, accepted to sign the transfer on condition that they make
observations in the documents. They observed-and this is verifiable-that what
they were being made
to sign under duress did not represent the true facts and value of the assets
of the company on the ground. In the mean time, CDC was stopped from selling
any tea while the "negotiations" were going on. A couple of months after the
deal, Cameroon
Tea Estates sold tea worth 2.5 billion CFA (remember they had invested only 1.5
billion). The creditors of the CDC were never paid though the tea had already
been processed and stocked in warehouses.

In exchange for the corrupt inside trading and alienation of the lands of the
natives in the three communities, John Niba Ngu was promised 5% of the assets
of the company and put on a princely salary of 2 million CFA per month plus
housing,
allowances, cars and all the amenities accruing to the position. It soon
emerged that the real power behind the deal was Alhaji Baba Danpullo, not the
South Africans. He brought in 22 persons (mostly Cameroonians) from his other
companies. Ngu
soon found that he was to act as a rubber stamp to all kinds of shady
international financial transactions. His attempt to fire Danpullo's employees
triggered his own dismissal and the current crisis. Mind you Danpullo's names
do not feature
anywhere in company documents. He did not sign the agreement with the
government Ngu did.

Two months after the alleged transfer of the CDC estates to Brobon Finex, the
Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC) hired Dun and Bradstreet, a reputable
international investigating company to trace Brobon Finex in South Africa for
purposes of
serving them legal notice concerning the Tole Tea Estate. Dun and Bradstreet
reported that Brobon Finex did not exist on the books in South Africa. In
effect, the buyers of the CDC tea estates, Brobon-Finex, led by Derrick Garvie,
his wife,
Jennifer, Chris Faraday and one other South African, was not found in the
register of South African companies. it was a front. Cameroonians have indeed
been fleeced!

Here is the current situation:

1. When I visited the CDC tea estates in Tole/Gbiyuku and Sachsenhof last
Saturday, January 11, a female tea picker told me the tea pickers were on a go
slow strike. They had not been paid their meager salaries. She said that
permanent staff of
the tea estate earn the equivalent of 18 (Eighteen) US Cents per hour if they
picked the required 32 kilograms of tea leaves per day. Those who do not meet
the weight requirement receive less. Part time workers earn 10 cents per hour
if they meet
the required weight of tea leaves during their 8-hour work day. If they do
not, they earn less than that. Bear in mind that John Neba Ngu made millions
per month!

2. The Bakweri people are pressing on with their legal battle. They believe
only a South African court can go to the bottom of the issue. The Cameroonian
judicial system showed its limits in the Niba Ngu affair when the state counsel
(prosecutor)
over-ruled a court order to reinstate Niba Ngu. No matter how we feel about
the issue, that action is unheard of in the common law system. A prosecutor
cannot over-rule a court order!

3. This smelly thing goes all the way to the top. Stay tuned as the IMF, World
Bank, and the Cameroon government are dragged through the mud. Only Biya can
ultimately put a stop to it. But can he afford to anger Alhaji Baba Danpullo
and John Niba
Ngu by cancelling this huge fraudulent scheme?

If this sounds like an African version of ENRON, it probably is! The problem
is that massive fraud of this magnitude will probably go unpunished. As they
say, stay tuned!


L. Eko