The National President, Col. Sone Ajang addressing members of the alma mater
By EHABE Jerry Nnange-Masango
Secretary General (NEXSA)
Well, suffices to know this report is riding on Great Ebah Ntoko’s which
for the sake of reference features after the end of this report. Without
contradicting it, this report is a sequel that completes it.
But where should I start reporting?
With the over head banner?! But President
Ebah Ntoko has already talked about it even though he forgot to mention that,
given the nature of Limbe, where a myriad of activities take place as evidenced
by the plethora of banners across major areas of the city at any given moment,
that of NEXSA had a pride of place as it was the first that visitors saw as
they made their way into Limbe before the others;
Or
With a linear reporting of the AGM program
of procession, led by the Famous Presbyterian Church Brass Band, from Trinity
Hotel to the Bifunde Business Center. But Limbe President, the Great Ebah Ntoko
has already commented on this issue. Let me therefore add that, being the
commemoration of the World AIDS day and with taxi drivers having their meeting,
implying traffic volume was low, it looked as if freshly painted Limbe ceded
the streets for the AIDS procession led by the SDO for FAKO and the NEXSAN
procession led by Vice President Simen Michael;
NEXSANs emblemized the school image during procession from Trinity Hotel to Bifunde
Or
Roll things back from where it all started---
at the eve of the AGM, as delegates arrived at the Trinity Hotel where the host
chapter, Limbe NEXSANs, was on hand to receive them. They savoured their traditional
NEXSAN dish of corn chaff at the Hotel restaurant before they held a
preliminary meeting, to familiarize themselves with the program at the end of
which, it was free time, which most delegates used diligently at the popular
Bamboo Lounge Cabaret, to relish the sweet side of Limbe on weekend nights;
Delegates were arriving at the Trinity Hotel in Limbe with admirable elegance
Or
With the venue, the preparation of which
Limbe beseeched to the beauty, humility and greatness of simplicity by
professionally and meticulously decorating the hall wherein the elegantly
uniformed NEXSAN delegates fitted in the décor like gold in a setting of silver
while beholding themselves in awe!
NEXSANs at the AGM
Or
With the end, that is, the roof top Gala
night at the posh Savoy Palmz Hotel, Bota, to seal off a successful AGM once
again. But even this too the Limbe president has already told the story except
that I have to add two strong moments of the night, namely: (a) the popping of the
champagne and (b) the award given to the chapter with the highest attendance.
Midway to the dancing, the National President gave Great James Ewane, his
technical adviser, the honour to pop the AGM Gala champagne. James Ewane, a
toast master par excellence, used the opportunity to familiarize delegates
again, before the toast, the theme for this year’s AGM which read, “All
Towards Sustainable Enterprise for NEXSA”. This is the theme he
personally coined during the last National Executive Meeting of the forgone
NEXSAN year, to suit the purpose of the just ended AGM. Explaining the theme,
he emphasized on the following words: “ALL”, “Sustainable”, “Enterprise” and
“NEXSA”. He continued, if you studied at Nyasoso but do not belong to NEXSA by
fulfilling your fiscal and physical obligations vis-à-vis the Association, you
are a cheat; and worse still, you are cheating yourself. Furthermore, he
emphasized that, all we have been doing in previous AGMs is Enterprise, and be
it the Constitution or the Finance Charter or lately, the NEXSACO project. That,
the latest enterprise, NEXSACO, is for the sustainability of NEXSA without
which the Association may not survive. At this juncture, the champagne
powerfully exploded and the sound hyperbolically reverberated back and forth on
Mounts FAKO and Fernando Po before being followed by thunderous applauses from
the floor. It was a sign of good omen for the staying power of NEXSA. Long
before President Ebah Ntoko could post online, the Atlantic Trade Winds had
already taken the news and spread over the five continental oceans that, NEXSA
has not only come a long way but has come to stay. A second strong moment was
the award of the second [heart] cake to the Chapter with the highest attendance
in this AGM. Bamenda won this prize. Like President Ebah Ntoko said, the first
cake [a football field] was cut during the NEXSAN plenary session at Bifunde as
a fundraiser. And what a successful in-house fundraising that was!
They posed for a photo up after a successful AGM
Or
Should I start by reporting the next AGM (that is 2013), which will
still take place in FAKO Division, precisely in Tiko, and to still have once
more the indescribable FAKO factor?
Let us start with the AGM proper. Take for example, Limbe, as
host of the AGM, is a chapter that has gone down in NEXSA annals as the mother of
her revival. And the chapter chooses a venue like the elegant
conference room of the Bifunde Business Center Complex, holding up to 80
NEXSANs from 11 Chapters in that venue. It also provided NEXSAN delegates with
custom folders containing a challenging agenda that comprised, inter alia, the
NEXSACO project. Take away artificial air conditioning and replace it with
natural ocean breeze after it has been filtered by the luxuriant trees of the
Limbe Botanic Garden before getting to the Bifunde venue. That was the reason
why the 80 NEXSANs, who were working under natural temperature and no pressure,
to deliberate for 7 hours even without the provision of beverage, consistent
coffee breaks, and sumptuous catered supper. What did we get?
We got an end product (resolutions)
that was read as the proclamation of the day as follows:
- The AGM opted for Category One Microfinance Institution
out of the 3 Categories that were presented. Category One, has, as
attribute, One Man One Vote One Share; in other words, equal share for
everybody.
- Due to the technicality of the
NEXSACO document, to facilitate assimilation of its essence, the resource
persons, shall produce a succinct reader-friendly hard copy, make multiple
copies and distribute to chapters through their presidents for use in the first
National EXEC meeting following the New Year.
- The Audit Report was appreciated. And adopted and the Auditors
should make binders for distribution to chapters presidents and other appropriate
quarters.
- Following recommendations from
the Auditors that “in spite of some lapses in record keeping, leading to
an apparent surplus of 34,791 FCFA, the closing bank account balance as at
1st December 2012 of 1, 632,939 FCFA and this amount should be
adopted as the opening balance of next period.
- That the constitution needs review.
- The Finance Charter does not only need modification but
needs to be implemented too.
- Acknowledgement of greetings
from the Diaspora who unfortunately could not participate in the plenary session
because of erratic Skype connection interruption. The Diaspora should
however, take note of the fact that Olive Ada Bume is highly indebted to the
Association, NEXSA.
- The host of the next AGM – 2013 – is Tiko, in a date to
be announced.
The Keynote Speech
After the handsome host Chapter President, Ebah Ntoko Justice gave his concise
welcome address to the beautiful people called Great NEXSANs, the National
President followed by stating three reasons for holding the AGM in Limbe:
Firstly, that the Association was giving
the child NEXSA to her mother Limbe because the latter was responsible for the
revival of the Association. Secondly, it was to respect tradition to rotate
AGM. Lastly, to use the AGM as an opportunity to make Limbe sit up.
He thanked and congratulated the Principal
on the improved GCE examination results. He said somnolence of Executive
members was due to lack of initiative, leaving everything to revolve around the
National President, who is already overburdened by work schedule, NEXSA
schedule and family responsibilities. A typical example, he pointed out, is the
funeral of former Principal Epie Njumbe Ferdinand which coincided with the
preparation of his [National President’s] father’s burial. Since he was not
there to ensure that NEXSA show up, no other executive member or NEXSAN did
provoke reaction and that is why NEXSA was absent. He said when we harness our
efforts for a common cause, the burden to govern, becomes lighter. And that if
NEXSANs remembered what he, the National President, has endured in the past two
years – loss of his son, mother and father – they, especially the Executive
members, would have helped in circumstances like the Njumbe case. He used the
opportunity to ask NEXSANs and the Executive in particular to be proactive
rather than being reactive at best, and inactive, at worst. He however,
exonerated those executives who take initiative within their sphere of
competence and make a lot of sacrifices for the Association. These individuals know
themselves.
The future of our Alumni: they can't wait to join us
He equally lashed out at some Executive
members who do not attend Executive meetings since they were voted into office.
It is a situation that makes governance difficult; that same goes to some
chapter presidents (ex- officio members) who do not attend Executive meetings
and so disconnect the branch members from decisions taken by the National
Executive, the consequence of which is that, branches are progressively losing
steam. The cause of inaction by these elected officials is due to lack of
sacrifice for the common good and cause.
He further addressed those who identify with
the Association only when there is a ceremony like graduation/prize award
ceremony, AGM and the like, and described them as ceremonial NEXSANs. He
reiterated that, “we are prepared to give these Ceremonial NEXSANs food and
drinks since that is their point of focus” and that we appreciate their
presence among us in this AGM. As recognition of fact, the faces behind the mask do not toil
in vain. And that we are bound to accept them because of the bonds that
link us since 1974.
NEXSANs shall one day fill the hall like they did at the beginning
The Plenary
Top on the agenda was the NEXSACO Project,
which was prepared by Mr. Peter Alobwede, and presented by Mr. Samuel Kode,
expounded on by finance experts, Mr. Samuel Sounjoh and with advice from Mr. Michael
Simen; the project literally grabbed keen attention. After satisfactory answers
during Question and Answer session, Category One Microfinance was adopted.
Being one man one share one vote, this category is hijack proof because no
matter the number of shares you have, you have only one vote. So there is
impossibility of a rich individual hijacking it as his business because of his
number of shares. To kick off, a minimum minimal 77.000 FCFA per (2.000 FCFA
for registration, 25.000 FCFA per share and savings of 50.000 FCFA) per member
for a hypothetical subscription of 100 NEXSANs will put NEXSACO in business
without much ado. The enthusiasm to be part of this endeavor was palpable. More
on this shall follow later in a separate document.
The Finance Report
The one year old Finance Secretary gave a
faithful report of the Association’s transactions, the figures of which will
appear as a separate document in a later posting where finances before and
during the AGM feature, for appreciation. Despite that it could not be
considered quasi perfect, finance expert, Samuel Sounjoh, considered it a big
improvement from previous reports and requested it be moved as acceptable. The
details of this report will be posted as a separate document for your
appraisal.
The Audit Report
The tradition is that of the two auditors,
at least one should have a professional accounting background. In this year’s
committee none met that condition but being individuals who have been used to
be audited in their corporate life, they knew what to look for. Thus, the audit
report of the twosome of Joseph Monkam and James Ewane was so professionally
done that it was highly appreciated by Mr. Sounjoh Samuel, the professional
financier, commented that the audit report was excellent. This then paved the
way for the house to move it as correct. The audit report, which highlighted
some pitfalls in the bookkeeping of the Association, also gave suggestions on
how to improve on the association’s finance recording. The entire audit report
shall be made public at a later time.
The Annual Report
Each delegate had a hard copy of the
online annual report of NEXSA for 2012. As indicated in the program, it was not
to be read out by the SG. Delegates had to read, digest its contents and query.
There was no comment implying they took it as a faithful report of what the
year had been.
The Website Moderator’s Talk
The Cyberspace NEXSA NEXSAN made the
Sovereign Body to understand that he breathes NEXSA, walks NEXSA and sleeps
NEXSA. True to his virtual name and activities, he incisively on how the
e-forum fared during the forgone year, especially underscoring the throwing in
of red herrings that did derailed contributions related to the progress of the
Association for which the website was formed in the first place. He further
said, generally, most subscribers are accustomed to discussing everything but
those related to the Association, citing as typical example the online
lackluster reaction that greeted the preparation of this AGM. He called on us, subscribers,
as the mature people that we are, to guard against the above weaknesses. He stressed
that even though he would prefer for only NEXSA issues be discussed on the
forum, subscribers should know when to relegate certain controversial subjects
to the back burner, especially if they are not NEXSA-related. He said analysis
showed that there were far more virtual NEXSANs than in real world. The forgone
talk is just the sum and substance of his exposition of which a fuller version
will be yours ASAP.
Fall outs of the AGM
First, looking at the procession picture,
one will realize that the ladies who were matching directly behind the band,
held the mufflers upside down. Second, at the gala night, junior NEXSANs
complained that the musical selection at the gala was aimed at satisfying the
earlier batcher whereas the musical preference of recent ex-students of the school,
which has existed for more than 30 years, was never in consideration.
Statistics
The
general attendance was just a reflection of what it has always been, 80
delegates plus or minus 5. Only one 1st Batch (1974), Samma
Teke Ndumbe Eyoum, was present. The youngest batch at the AGM was a 2001
NEXSAN. The batch with the highest attendance was the 1980 class, which is the 7th
batch. In all other AGMs, the hosting chapter has always had the highest but
not Limbe (5th position). Instead guest, Bamenda, had the highest
attendance.
Suggestions
A minimum banner should be made to
use by leaders in processions so that we do not improvise with mufflers in
future.
The mini NEXSA hand flags kept at
Nyasoso should always be made available when we have AGM processions for
individuals to hold and wave alongside mini national hand flags.
NEXSAN should preselect musical
tracks in advance that will feature selection to satisfy everyone in the gamut
of batches plus more, and hand to the DJ to add to his own repertoire.
That the National Executive should
keep up the habit of not eating according to batch but as seated because as the
National President said, every one paid the same levy.
N/B: Mrs. Nincho Regina née Tamachambi led the
association in prayers.
Director of Ceremony: Mr. Lucia
Dipita Ediage (National Social Secretary)
