Background
Salomon Tandeng Muna was born in 1912 at Bamenda, John Foncha’s birthplace.
Salomon Tandeng Muna was born in 1912 at Bamenda, John Foncha’s birthplace.
He went to the government school there and started to teach at the Basle Mission School at the age of 20. He also taught at the Teacher Training Centre at Kumba and at the Basle Mission Training Centre at Batibo. In 1949 he spent a year at the Institute of Education of London University.
He entered the political scene after almost 20 years as a teacher, and was immediately elected to Nigeria’s House of Assembly, together with Foncha, as a members of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NCNC. In 1953 he had been made Minister of Public Works, though he was forced to resign the following year when the Eastern Region went through a crisis. In that same year he became a member of the Southern Cameroons Executive Council in charge of Natural Resources and Public Works.
Chosen by Dr Endeley after the narrow electoral victory of 1957, to be his Minister of Public Works, he foresaw that the leader of the government’s position was shaky. He also disagreed with Endeley who wanted autonomy within the Nigerian Federation. In 1958 he came out strongly in favour of unification with the French-administered Cameroon and was expelled from Endeley’s cabinet and party.
He joined Foncha’s Kamerun National Democratic Party and took over the Public Works Ministry after the KNDP’s close victory at the polls, and later became Minister of Trade and Industry.
The February 1961 referendum which united the Southern Cameroons with the East Cameroons enhanced his influence and he was made successively Minister of Finance of West Cameroon (1961).Though the list published on October 29, 1971, ceased to mention the office of Vice-President, he kept the premiership of West Cameroon until the July 3, 1972, reshuffle, when he was appointed Minister of State, second to the President on the government list.
