Funeral program for pa Emmanuel Bekeching Akoachere

Pa Emmanuel Bekeching Akoachere was born August 1st, 1932 in Kembong Village of Manyu Division in the South West Region of Cameroon. He was born into the family of late Ata Thomas Ako Akoachere and late Mama Martha Nkongho Mongwi Akoachere. He was the 1st child in a family of about 36 surviving brothers and sisters.

Pa Akoachere attended Native Authority school in Nfuni in 1939 and ended at Standard 4. In 1945, he furthered his primary education at Basel Mission (B. M.) in Nyassoso where he obtained his First School Leaving Certificate in 1947. He attended St Joseph’s College Sasse, in 1948 where he obtained the Cambridge School Certificate Equivalent in 1952. He was the first person from his village (Kembong) to complete secondary education and he was given a hilarious welcome by other young men in the village when he finished from Sasse. He was the pioneer leader of the Kembong All Students Union (KASU).

In 1953, he entered the civil service as a 3rd class clerk on a salary of £124 per annum and worked as a sub treasurer at the Ombe Trade Centre. He almost lost his job when a cheque received from a client got missing. He had honestly but naively filed the cheque in the office shelf (like any other documents he treated), not knowing what a cheque was. His honesty was admired and his superiors started training him. In 1956, he was promoted to a 2nd class clerk on a salary of £207 per annum and worked at the Education Department in Buea as a sub treasurer. In 1959, he was promoted to a 1st class clerk. In 1960, he acted as E. O. Accounts and worked in various positions in the treasury in Mamfe and Victoria until 1962.

In 1962, he gained government scholarship to Britain and pursued the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (A.C.C.A.) training at the South West London College of Commerce. He completed the Professional Examination of the A.C.C.A. in June 1967. In November 1967, he returned to Cameroon and joined the Accounting Department in Buea which was headed by the renowned late Pa Agboraw. In 1968, he became an Associate member of both the Association of Certified and Corporate Accountants and the Institute of Taxation, London. During the year (1968), he resigned from the Accounting Department and joined the Pamol Plantations in Lobe as the Accountant. He was promised the position of Commercial Manager at Pamol if he could help understate the production statistics of the company; an offer he quickly rejected based on his moral principles.

In 1969, he resigned from Pamol and returned to public service in the Accounting Department in Buea. He worked with the Accounting Department till 1973 when he was seconded as an Accountant to the Department of Marketing and Inspection, of the West Cameroon Marketing Board (WCMB), which later became the Produce Marketing Organization (P.M.O.) in 1974. This vacant position of Accountant at WCMB arose following the resignation of Mr Njie. In the interim, pioneer African Accounting firm Akintola Williams & Co. (and external auditors of WCMB) seconded Mr. Joki Manga until Mr Akoachere was posted permanently to the job. As the Accountant of PMO, he was part of the senior management team and sat at Board meetings presided by the Chair, Honorable Enow Tanjong (then Governor of the South West province). His audit reports (for both State Audit and External Audits) were clean, with no cases of fraud or wrongdoings reported.

In 1976, late President Ahmadou Ahidjo created by presidential decree the National Produce Marketing Board (NPMB or ONCPB in French) to unify the marketing of agricultural produce in both francophone and Anglophone Cameroon. However, NPMB effectively started functioning in 1978. Excluding Chief Mussaga who was appointed by decree as the deputy General Manager of NPMB, Pa Akoachere was the first person sent from PMO head office in Victoria to the united NPMB in Bonanjo Douala. He occupied the position of Chief of Service – Accounts, reporting to the Finance Director. Again he kept very clean and thorough records that enabled him prepare his Financial Statements on time and with high level of accuracy and integrity. He was promoted to the position of Deputy Finance Director in 1984. He attended a number of Continuous Professional Development courses in London.

In 1989, following the closure of the National Produce Marketing Board, he retired as assistant Financial Director and went back to public Treasury where he faced his retirement as a Treasury Inspector in 1989.

Pa Akoachere was a humble, honest and kind-hearted man. The greatest advice he usually gave out is summarized in Proverbs 22:1 “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.” He was not materialistic, with his reputation and integrity as his most valuable asset. Also, he cherished knowledge and wisdom and spent most of his valuable moments reading. He valued education and sponsored his children, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, extended family and friends through school.

Pa Akoachere was a pillar in the Accounting profession in Cameroon, a highly respected professional who kept the code of ethics to the brief. He valued giving more than receiving and would not hesitate to give most of what he had, even to his own detriment. One of his other sayings was: My palms are flat.

Pa Akoachere was very open minded and welcomed everybody. He was a man of the people. Everybody liked him. He was never involved in factional politics. He enjoyed life abundantly. He had an abundance mentality and was not ruled by a mindset of lack. He will channel resources to the things he believed in or liked irrespective of his bank account balance at the time.

Pa Akoachere loved music and dancing (classical music, Highlife and Traditional music). On the traditional front he sponsored and took the dance group “Ngun-Njoh” to higher heights. He organized a national tour of this group to show case the Manyu culture, going to Yaounde, Douala, Tiko, Limbe and Kumba. Pa Akoachere held his native customs, traditions and beliefs with high esteem. He wore suits most of his life but his best clothes, were traditional attires. He will dress in his traditional attire to receive the Minister or Governor. He was not just a leader of a Mgbe (Ekpe) house but owned his own Mgbe House. He buried his father with grandeur, never seen before in Manyu in those days; one whole week of celebrations, dance groups coming from all over.

Pa Akoachere was preceded in death by his parents Ata Thomas Ako Akoachere in 1982 and Mama Martha Nkongho Mongwi Akoachere in 1987, his son (Nkongho Fontem Akoachere in 2009), two grandchildren (Kelly Akoachere in 2001 and Enow Charis Bate in 2013) and several of his brothers and sisters. He leaves behind a wife, 12 children, 21 grandchildren and several brothers and sisters to mourn him. May his soul Rest in Perfect peace