What a Gift: Cameroon offers Paul Biya 34 Years as President.

A Happy President Paul Biya for his Gift

34 Years as president, 7 years as prime minister is the best gift any president would have ever wished for. President Paul Biya has had 41 years of uninterrupted leadership at the helm of Cameroon. His stewardship to Cameroon has been aptly described by some as a failure. Meanwhile his cohorts think that, Presidents Biya can be credited for National Integration, Rigour, Freedom of Expressions and Democracy. But how can one talk of National Integration when; Southern Cameroonians are still considered as strangers in Cameroon. A series of petitions from Mfoundi, Adamawa, and Northern Cameroon have been addressed to the president on their on-going neglect and disenfranchisement. Can we even talk of rigour when state funds are swindled, pilfered, embezzled on a daily basis by the same people who hail him as being the champion of rigour? Cameroon has been plunged into an endemic inertia in state activities fashioned by a political propaganda championed by Issa Tchiroma, Ngole Ngole Elvis, Prof. Agwafor, and Jacques Fame Ndongo just to name these few. It is no gain saying that, while you are in power, there are some natural things that come as a function of time. It therefore doesn’t hinge on the will or aspirations of a leader to usher them. Even a country like North Korea has made progress since 1982.

Map of Cameroon

National Integration?

Is National integration in Cameroon a myth or reality? Integration is a well organised and synchronised policy project, that has very specific processes and milestones. It is a process which ensure that all sons and daughters of our beloved fatherland (Cameroon) can aspire to be what they wish irrespective of their Culture, Language, Ethnicity, Creed or Belonging. When a country is fully integrated, it doesn’t talk of regional balance, it respects diversity and tolerate differences. Individual cultural identities and heritage become indispensable in the collective definition of a Cameroonian society. But what we have realised is a continuous and systematic annihilation of other identities for reasons beyond my comprehension. Let me spare the discordance that rocks the use of the English Language and instances of public life where the English subsystem has been derided. Take a brief look at musical arts in Cameroon where the Macrocosm of music in Cameroon has been reduced to the microcosm of Douala’s-Makossa and Yaounde-Bikutsi. Can we really talk of national Integration when the country has two Anthems?

Freedom of Expression?

I have heard so many people say President Paul Biya has given Cameroonians the ability to express themselves. They have used the existence of the plethora of radio and TV stations in the Cameroon as evidence. Freedom of expression doesn’t start and end with hosting TV and Radio talk shows. It stretches down to the ability of Cameroonians to come together and bring meaningful change. There are two prism to see that Cameroonians don’t certainly enjoy any freedom expression;

Public Manifestations: Cameroonians cannot freely express themselves (Political Parties, Civil Society Organisations, Cultural groups etc) through peaceful demonstrate without harassment from law enforcement officials under the pretext of maintaining Public Peace. How is it possible that:

On the 11^th of February, youths cannot parade with messages that call on the government to their plight on a hypothetical National Youth day;

On the 8^th of March, women cannot through this day demonstrate for the rights of women on a theoretical International women’s day;

On the 1^st of May no worker can march past with a message petitioning the state as to the precarious and dehumanised working conditions on the supposed international Labour day;

On the 20^th of May, no individual, whosoever and whatsoever can dare come along with Messages considered repugnant to the system on a day considered National day.

If Youths cannot use the youth day, Women cannot use women’s day, Workers cannot use Labour Day and Cameroonians cannot use the national day, what else is available on the plate. The continuous and systematic arrest of Kah Walla and her #StandUpForCameroon movement is a glowing evidence for the absence of liberties in Cameroon. The list is in exhaustive

Media Propaganda: The regime in place has consciously and carefully organised a system where most media houses broadcast without a license. This game has a very subtle name called Administrative Tolerance. The owners of these Media outlets don’t need this so called administrative tolerance as they are ready and in some cases have submitted every required piece of paper and the colossal 100 Million CFA deposit for TV stations. This scheme is peculiar and suits the cannons of the regime in place, because any divergence could lead to instant closure.

Democracy:

As postulated above, democracy just like peace has not been the making of one man. It’s been a collective struggle from Cameroonians of all shades of life. When we talk democracy we mean rule of law, separation of powers, human rights, equality, good governance, transparency and accountability, free fair, transparent and credible elections and the list goes on. Cameroon is no champion in any of these domains, but has won two gold medals in Corruption from Transparency International. This is not a new dictum that in Cameroon there is a ruling class that has nothing to do with the masses. A few individuals have confiscated power and manages it as it pleases them. Take a closer look at the CPDM and you will see how power is shared amongst individuals. The problems are numbered and just everywhere. No separation of power, no equality in the country, rule of law minimal (Fecafoot case) etc.

Let’s take a quick flight to Cote d’Ivoire where post-elections violence in 2010 almost dismantled the very fabric of the economy and social cohesion.  While, Ivorian of Alassan Ouattara had to go through a referendum to change three basic text in the constitution, President Paul Biya has unilaterally violated the constitution of 1972 that was borne out of a referendum. First in 1996 and later in 2008 through his fictitious majority in Parliament. The constitution is the basic and most supreme document of the state and by no means can a quasi-representative Assembly like that of Cameroon change it twice.

As though the atrocities to democracy will not end. Let’s take our minds to last week Thursday November 3^rd where CPDM bigwigs decided to converge at the unity palace to illegally and illegitimately prolonged their mandate. Mandates come through the sovereign votes of the general assembly for a specific period of time. Immediately the time elapses, you don’t have a mandate again and so must return to the people for a renewal. But here comes some 30 individuals, at the unity palace (Not Party Head office) invited by Biya as CPDM Chairperson (had no mandate) who decided to extend their mandates (CPDM central committee, the Political Bureau and that of the chairman). Absolute dictatorship and Machiavelli reasoning.

Why wasn’t there a congress since September 5^th when their mandates got expired?

Why didn’t they call an extraordinary congress where the only item on the agenda would be elections of the bureau?

Is this not political hijack against other members who had ambitions to get into the central committee and Political bureau?

Is this not political Dictatorship by the man at the helm?

But again, didn’t we see “exemplary” scholars try to justify why it happened?

Conclusion

Even though we celebrate national integration every year on May 20th, the reality is that integration is just a farce and lacks the rudimentary ingredients to make it propagate. The ongoing strike action of the Common Law Lawyers of the northwest and southwest and the intrinsic silence of the government is indicative of the problem. We cannot talk of national integration when the Kumba-Mamfe road is as bad as it is, when the Babadjou-Bamenda stretch of National Road N^o6 is this miserable, when the Ring Road of the Northwest is still a dream, when the president has never addressed the nation in English. The list is long and in exhaustive.

Cameroon is considered Africa in miniature due to its geographical abundance and similitude to most African nations. But it might as well be true to say that, the democracy in Cameroon is the travesty of the negative versions of sub-Saharan Africa. Cameroon has been on the same spot for just too long and there is a need to change the hegemony and statusqou. For the sake of our kids and the development of Cameroon, there is need for the pendulum of leadership to oscillate. A country like Nigeria has 2 former presidents, Benin has three, Ghana has 2, and Senegal has 1 living in their countries. Cameroon remains the dark example. A political system that has not been able to build new impetus and develop new leaders is gruesome to its people. Cameroon had existed before Paul Biya and will exist after him.