Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
“To Call NICO HALLE A Lawyer Would Be True, But Incomplete. To Call Him A Peace Crusader Would Be True, But Still Insufficient. He Is That Rare Cameroonian Who Has Successfully Merged The Wig Of The Bar With The Mantle Of The Church, The Activism Of Civil Society With The Decorum of State Service, And Intellectual Power With Disarming Humility”. READ THE COMPLETE AND MOVING PIECE, INSIDE.
Worthy of note that this moving piece, “Ode To Sir Dr Barrister Ntumfor Nico Halle”, by senior journalist, Yerima Kini Nsom, Publisher Delegate of The Post Newspaper, was first published in The Post, precisely in Kini’s column, “Issues At Stake” On Monday, October 26, 2026.
Below is the article, or better still, ode in its entirety. The only thing The Mentor Has added to the piece, are the subheads, for more clarity. But even then, the subheads (the words) are all from the article. Read On:
Ode To Sir Dr. Barrister Ntumfor Nico Halle
By Yerima Kini Nsom
It was a few minutes shy of 1PM. On that glorious day in the mid-90s, Joe Kum Set Ewi (late) had invited me to accompany him to Ayaba Hotel in Bamenda in his news hunting bid. As we waited at the hotel lobby, the lift opened its belly and a tall elegant man sauntered out of it. His towering appearance cast an awesome silence as people scampered to seek his notice.
“This is Barrister Nico Halle from Douala,” Kum Set introduced as the lawyer moved towards us. He equally introduced me to the lawyer as the Bamenda city reporter for Cameroon Post. We had a nice epicurean moment with the lawyer who kept encouraging us to be good journalists because we play an important role for the health of the country.
Indefatigable Advocate For A Free Press
That was Sir Dr. Barrister Ntumfor Nico Halle who has remained an indefatigable advocate of a free press and decent working conditions for journalists in Cameroon. And for more than three decades, Nico Halle is the one name that has echoed on Cameroon’s radio waves, television screens, courtrooms, church pulpits and peace negotiation tables with uncommon consistency.
To call him a lawyer would be true, but incomplete. To call him a peace crusader would be true, but still insufficient. He is that rare Cameroonian who has successfully merged the wig of the Bar with the mantle of the Church, the activism of civil society with the decorum of state service, and intellectual power with disarming humility.
Highly Respected Bilingual Law Firm (Nico Halle & Co Law Firm)
Barrister Nico Halle is a native of Awing in Santa Sub-Division, Mezam Division of the North West Region. Though deeply rooted in his village where he maintains a home, he has been permanently resident in Douala, Littoral Region, since 1985.
It is from Douala that he built one of Cameroon’s most respected bilingual law firms, Nico Halle & Co. Law Firm, where he is Senior Managing Partner. For over 36 years of active practice, the firm has handled almost every aspect of law, both nationally and internationally, and trained generations of prominent lawyers – Barristers Abeng Roland, Achu Julius, Feh Henry Baboh and many others.
A Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Cameroon, his competence quickly took him beyond the courtroom. He was elected President of the General Assembly of the Cameroon Bar Association, where he championed integrity and restoration of dignity to the legal profession.
International Elections Expert
From 2001 to 2007, he was appointed into the National Elections Observatory, NEO, to oversee municipal, legislative and presidential elections. Between 2005 and 2007, he headed the structure. His work there earned him international recognition as an International Elections Expert, today consulted worldwide on electoral transparency. His expertise was even instrumental in drafting foundational documents like the Constitution of the All Africa Conference of Churches in Nairobi.
Today, Nico Halle sits as a member of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, where his voice on peace, justice and social cohesion remains one of the most listened to.
International Legal Consultant / Peace, Anti-Corruption, Human Rights Crusader
But if you ask Sir Dr Barrister Ntumfor Nico Halle what he does, he will tell you simply: “I am a lawyer and international legal consultant by profession, and a peace, anti-corruption and human rights crusader by vocation.”
If there is one word that sticks to Nico Halle, it is peace.
As Dr. Ndasi Elvis, former President of the Youth Wing of the NUDP, one puts it: “The name Nico Halle is synonymous with peace. When two or three people are gathered anywhere for the sake of peace, Nico Halle is always in their midst”.
This is not an exaggeration. In the last ten years of Cameroon’s worst crisis, when the North West and South West Regions have bled, Halle has put his life on the line. He has gone to tense villages, to palaces, to churches, to schools, to places where he was not invited, to plead for dialogue.
He often says his obsession with peace came from his late father. “Peace is my mantra and my main stay. My father was a man of peace and he brought up his children in the ways of the Lord. He told his children that peace is the most precious asset for a person, a family and community.”
Halle’s Philosophy Draws From Socrates, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln
Nico Halle’s philosophy draws from Socrates, Plato, Voltaire, Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln – men who taught that justice without peace is vengeance, and peace without justice is pretence.
He holds that hypocrisy is the main stumbling block to Cameroon’s peace: “Some of us who talk peace in public, do so just to please, as in reality we are not committed to working for peace. We talk peace, but do not practice peace.”
A Gentleman Of Exceptional Qualities
Veteran Journalist, Joe Chebonkeng Kalabubse who is now the President of the National Communication Council, once described Halle as a gentleman of exceptional qualities and somebody who has demonstrated a lot of integrity. He said Nico is a man of principles who has stood very upright in trying to defend the things he believes in.
Ndasi Elvis adds: “When you see somebody who is educated, it means he has knowledge; he has power by virtue of the sense that his voice alone commands a lot of respect on the media landscape. When you see somebody who is not poor but cuts a humble posture, it is a gift from God.”
That humility has been tested. He turned down admission into ENAM, the school that produces Cameroon’s administrative elite, because he preferred to defend the people. He once rejected an offer to defend a former Douala Government Delegate accused of embezzlement, citing conscience. He has consistently declined awards whose credibility he doubted.
Over Two Hundred National And International Awards, Distinctions
Yet honours have pursued Nico Halle. After September 2025, when he dedicated his famous *Award Gallery at the Shalom Building in Bonaberi, Douala, he had amassed over two hundred national and international awards, distinctions and recognitions. They include two Doctorate Honoris Causa degrees from the British American Open University of California and other institutions, which also conferred on him the British title of *Sir*, the traditional title of *Ntumfor* – apostle of peace – and countless recognitions from churches, traditional rulers, civil society and the press.
When asked during one occasion which title matters most to him, his answer silenced the hall: “My greatest title is Christian.”
A Devout Christian
A devout Presbyterian, he rose through the ranks from Christian Youth Fellowship, CYF, to become *National President of the Christian Men Fellowship, CMF, President of CMF in PCC Bonaberi- Douala, East Mungo South Mungo Presbytery President, and member of the Board of Trustees of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon. The Mungo Presbytery recently honoured him for his exceptional promotion of evangelism.
A Patriotic Cameroonian
In a Cameroon where many educated men use education as a ladder for arrogance, and where many rich men use wealth as a licence for pride, he has chosen a different path – the path of service, of speaking truth to power, objectively, of being a patriotic Cameroonian who wants his voice heard not for himself, but for the voiceless.
