By Nkendem Forbinake
2 July 2009
Within years of its creation, Cameroon Tribune had already taken the position of Francophone Black Africa's second largest daily.
The beginnings of Cameroon Tribune - in English as in French - were certainly very difficult. Coming by qualified staff was not so easy and the authorities of the time found nothing shameful about recruiting French technical experts to help the young team of Cameroonian journalists and technicians put the first issues of CT on the rails. With half a dozen-or-so university graduates, assisted by a few others, trained hands-on in the rare media houses that existed at the time, the bare minimum by UNESCO standards was hardly met. More so, the early leaders of the paper were freshly out of journalism school and had the challenge, not only of leading the youthful team, but proving their own mettle themselves.
It is important to note that Cameroon Tribune was launched less than one year after the country's first-ever journalism training institution sent out its first batch. As the years went by, the quality of staffers at Cameroon Tribune could only improve.
Beyond the new availability of human resources, a presidential decree of July 1977 came to give more flesh to the already-thriving publishing company with the creation of the broader-spectrum Cameroon News and Publishing Corporation. By the presidential text, journalists had wider forums from within which to operate. The three companies - ACAP, AGRACAM and SCP - all state parastatals working in news publishing sector, merged into one body. Even though the appointment of Mr Joseph Zambou Zoleko as director of the new body left some bitter memories with journalists, who would have preferred to see a journalist head the country's main newspaper corporation, it is during his tenure of office that Cameroon Tribune veritably took off. For many reasons. It is in the immediate post-1977 period that a clear political will to staff the structure became manifest. And this will continued far into the late 80s when the economic crisis set in.
Readership continued to grow. In the late 70s, the print run was in the threshold of 10,000. At the time CT commemorated its tenth anniversary in 1984, circulation figures had hit 60,000 for the daily CT and about 10,000 for the weekly in English. The paper had enjoyed a veritable revolution in terms of human resources. In the late 70s, new by-lines appeared in the two editions: Richard Nyamboli, Pierre Essama Essomba, Nkendem Forbinake etc… A few years later, the Abui Mama, Augustin Fogang, Antoine Ahanda, Boyomo Assala… as well as Ebokem Fomenky, John Njowo etc… in the early 80s. In the mid 80s Emmanuel Tataw, David Waffo Mongo, Monda Bakoa..
It is during this period that Cameroon Tribune hit peak production heights. Because of improved editorial content, the paper printed bumper editions for a certain number of issues because of the number and quality of staff. Cameroon Tribune became a reference paper for some well-noted human-interest stories such as the Dikoum Affair in January 1983 and others such as the collapsed building at the Monthe Institute in Yaounde in which some 50 students died… up to 1986 Nyos Lake gas explosion when some 1,700 people died. These events attracted print runs of over 100,000.
Staff were lavishly paid, at least compared to civil service wages. And all came to an apotheosis when, in June 1986, a major management decision rewrote the organigramme of the corporation, making room for many openings for journalists. The newsroom was professionally structured and journalists seemed to be finally satisfied that they could make a satisfactory career at last. But that hope was not to last long. An uninvited crisis came to nip all the hopes in the bud in the late 80s.
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