RARE VIDEO OF NEW PM ENDELEY, PRESENTING LIST OF HIS MINISTERS TO THE LAST BRITISH CONSUL TO SOUTHERN CAMEROONS IN BUEA IN 1958

The video shows scenes from Southern Cameroons, including images of Dr. EML Endeley, Leader of Government Business in Southern Cameroons and new Prime Minister, presenting list of ministers to Commissioner J.O. Field. He is seen broadcasting on the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation studios in Buea, and holding a rally with supporters of his party, the Kamerun National Congress (KNC). The video also shows images of Bota Island and the Down Beach area in Victoria. J.O Fields welcomes the new Prime Minister and ushers him out of the Lodge. Features of Black Africa’s first democracy are seen with PM Endeley explaining to his supporters his plan as Prime Minister. Unique in the image is the role of guns in British Southern Cameroons history. The gun as a symbol of honour and respect to an august guest is emphasized with a salvo. The gun has been such unique instrument of value to British Southern Cameroonians since the German days, until today – French Cameroon colonial era where that culture is being destroyed.

WHO WAS EML ENDELEY?

Endeley was born on 10 April, 1916 to Mathias Lifafa and Mariana Mojoko Endeley. His family were wealthy members of the Bakweri ethnic group and his father was a chief of Bakweri. Endeley was born in Buea then under the Colony of German Kamerun until administrative control was divided between the French and British after the Treaty of Versailles was signed. He was educated at a newly created British government school in Buea and then proceeded to a Catholic Mission School in Bonjongo both in British Southern Cameroons. Endeley completed his secondary education at Government College, Umuahia in Nigeria. His initial intention was to enroll at Yaba Higher College to study agriculture but then turned his attention to medicine, later earning a government scholarship to study at the Nigerian School of Medicine in Yaba in 1935. In 1942, he joined the colonial service and took the post of assistant medical officer with his own district. In 1945, he served as chief medical officer in Buea, he also served in a similar capacity in Lagos and Port Harcourt. 

POLITICAL CAREER:

Endeley was a delegate to the constitutional conference at Ibadan that introduced a new constitution, permitted elections into legislative seats and approved African nominees to a Council of Ministers. When elections were conducted in British Cameroons, Endeley led Cameroons National Congress won the plurality of votes in the area. In 1951, Endeley was elected to the Eastern Nigerian Assembly in Enugu. Endeley was nominated to the Council of Ministers in 1952 as a minister without portfolio.Between 1953 and 1954, he was the Minister of Labour.

He worked to have Southern Cameroons granted special regional status apart from Nigeria; when the Southern Cameroons Regional Assembly was formed, he was one of its first members. In 1953, Endeley joined John Ngu Foncha and Solomon Tandeng Muna in breaking from the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) to form the Kamerun National Congress (KNC), which advocated autonomy for Southern Cameroons. In 1954, British Cameroons became a federal territory with its own House of Assembly and executive council. (READMORE)