Why Many Family Businesses In Cameroon, Do No Survive Their Founders (Part 17): The Case Of Business Magnate, JEAN TASSA.
Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
When JEAN TASSA Who Was Based In Bamenda Passed Away, Some Unscrupulous Lawyers, Magistrates And State Counsels, Schemed To Grab Huge Sums Of Money, And Property, From The Family Business, That The Business Magnate, Left behind
After Losing Huge Sums Of Money To Dishonest Lawyers And Their Accomplices, And Also Realizing That the Matter Was Not Progressing In Court, The Family Members Of The Late Business Tycoon Ended Up Doing Something Very Interesting.
Many people in Bamenda, the regional headquarters of the Northwest Region, especially those who lived in Abakwa in the 90s, and the early years of the 21st century, definitely know well the name, Jean Tassa. The business magnate hailed from the West Region, and settled in Bamenda, which he adopted as his second home. The billionaire, Jean Tassa, was involved in a number of business activities. He for example was in the real estate business, with buildings in Bamenda town, Bamenda Up-Station, and so on.
But Jean Tassa’s main business sector for which he was well – known, was the transport sector, precisely in heavily duty trucks, that transported goods from one part of the country to the other. That was what many people in Bamenda in the 90s knew about Jean Tassa, as that was what everybody could see. Jean Tassa, who had some businesses at the Bamenda Commercial Avenue, had dozens of heavy duty trucks that were often seen in Bamenda town, especially on Sundays. Many of his heavy duty trucks that, often returned to town at the end of each week, used to line on both sides (street sides) of the Commercial Avenue on Sundays.
How Some Lawyers Schemed To Reap Heavily From The ‘Gold Mine’
When Jean Tassa died, his family members unfortunately got engaged in a bitter fight over the Family Business, and the family was split into camps. The camps were comprised of children and their mothers, for Tassa was a polygamist. The camps hired some of the “big lawyers” in town, and the conflict headed for the court, where the different camps filed law suits against each other.
But along the line, some lawyers that were hired by the opposing camps, for the fight in court over the control of the ’gold mine’ or big Family Business that Jean Tassa left behind, instead struck deals with some Sate Counsels and judges or magistrates, to manipulate things to enable them to reap from the ‘gold mine’ as much as possible, or for as long as possible. The scandalous situation got to the extent where the lawyers of the different camps even struck secret deals to collaborate in playing games in the affair, so as to grab as much as possible from the ‘gold mine’ or Family Business that Jean Tassa left behind.
The Two Camps Finally Suspected Mafia
Fortunately, along the line, members of Tassa family in the two opposing camp, started sensing or suspecting, that their lawyers were seemingly not being honest to them, that the lawyers were seemingly not telling them the truth, that the lawyers were seeing playing games. They suspected that a mafia was going on. For one thing, the two camps in the Jean Tassa family, came to realize that while they were spending huge sums of money on lawyers and their friends (State prosecutors and magistrates), all the cases were not progressing in court. The cases were repeatedly postponed by the judges for reasons that the Tassa family members could not understand. Yet, the lawyers were constantly mounting pressure for more money.
More so, the members of both camps in the Tassa Family were scandalized when they realized that, some of the lawyers even started scheming to grab some of the property of the Family Business, especially some beautiful houses in the rear estate that their late father and husband left behind. Some of the ‘big lawyers’ in the matter for example, along the line suggested to their clients , that is the two opposing camps in the Tassa Family, that they be paid with property instead of money.
Suffice to say fortunately enough, the family members of the two camps in the Jean Tassa Family, finally came to reason. They wisely came together, wisely resolved their problems, wisely reconciled with each other, and wisely resolved to withdraw or end the cases in court. They then chased away the unscrupulous lawyers. By that act of wisdom, even though it came a bit late, that is, after much financial loses, the Late Tassa’s family was able to save part of the big Family Business that the Founder left behind.
