HIPC Initiative:The Economic Hall Of Shame

By Neba-Fuh

If you want to know whether a country is enjoying an economic growth, go to the suburbs.
Without downplaying the important aspect of the economic variables that matter when  we talk about the growth rate of the economy of every nation, emphasis must always be placed on how data is gathered, processed and analyzed, before being provided for publication or put at the disposal of Bretton Wood's financial tourists, who most of the times, are limited to the confines of five-star hotels when they come visiting.

The situation in Africa and The Cameroons in particular  is  a mess. Since the highly publicized graduation of The Cameroons from the Financial School of Shame by attaining the 'completion point' of the Highly indebted Poor Countries(HIPC) Initiative, one ponders what has happened to the 'triggers' that were prescribed as prerequisites to the 'completion point' chase. The proclamation of the attainment of the 'completion point' of the HIPC Initiative  would herald the beginning of the end of the implementation of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility(PRGF) package initiated by the International Monetary Fund(IMF), aimed at tutoring those mean and dimwitted mis-managers and oligarchs to try to reduce the sufferings of the masses. The clowns thought the 3 years term  prescription of the PRGF meant they outwit the Financial tourists from Bretton Woods, get admitted in the HIPC Hall of Shame,  and then return to work as usual-Mismanagement, embezzlement, corruption etc.

How will they not think that the structural reforms aimed at liberalizing the economy and foreign trade as well as stimulating private initiative, while the government intensify efforts on checking expenditure management and auditing, all prescribed by the IMF were just 3 years renewable packages, without any obligation of sustainability? When the so called 'completion point' was attained, these reforms dwindled like a burning candle.
A government awash with laxity and nonchalance would even find it difficult to come up with comprehensive project proposals that will ease the flow of  HIPC funds to the desperate masses . Even when the little finances start trickling in the form of sponsored projects, they won't stop short of embezzling.

What has become known as the 'Albatross affair', where billions of CFA francs were put into misuse, to buy a 'luxurious' plane for an undeserving  ruler is now the sing-song in The Cameroons. The suffering serfs who knew nothing about this deal have been called to condemn the alleged embezzlers for lining their pockets with the people's money.

Wasn't it blatant disregard for priorities when Mr Biya and wife  set to acquire a luxurious plane to facilitate their fairytale trips  to Europe, while the common man suffers on the streets?  The decision to purchase the jet was taken just when we were still implementing the 'triggers' to lure admission into the Hall of Shame of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. What an irony!

Whether we have a single digit GDP growth of 4.6% or we attained HIPC's completion point or the PRGF was implemented or... ;this jargon does not mean a thing to the common man.
The villages lack potable water, medicine, farm-to-market roads, electricity.  The schools need teachers, chalk, and the roofs damaged by the wind need to be repaired.There are still ghettos dwarfing mansions built from stolen money  in the cities. Douala- the gateway to the Cameroons-is an eyesore and a national disgrace by every meaning of the word; hosting one of the worst 'international airports' in the world, leading to a neglected dilapidated unplanned network of streets , constantly 'perfumed' by stench as a result of filth that long ago 'reconciled' with the inhabitants, with the government as the 'mediator'.

A country like The Cameroons has enormous riches:
Are we talking of the offshore light crude oil that has been explored and exploited since the '70s in the deep shores of Victoria, while even the citizens whom by Nature's rights own these oil fields are strangers when it concerns managing their God- given resources?

Or forest that make up about 78% of the country's area, yet is being explored and exploited by only those the regime considers their kins, with total disregard of environmental consequences and generations still to come,and  with the egoistic purpose of  satisfying themselves and their French masters, while the Baka pygmies-custodians of most of the forestland languish in abject poverty?

Or the minerals-Diamond, Gold, bauxite deposits, nickel, cobalt ?

Or the fishing sector and abundant Agricultural cash crops- coffee and cocoa; as well as  foodstuffs?

Or the plantation crops-rubber, banana, palm oil etc?

What about tourism?

This is an economic profile of a 'poor' country-a highly indebted poor country!

If The Cameroons wasn't ruled by human bodies with worm-brains, still to graduate from the meanest basic instinct of eat and  survive and leave tomorrow's generations to fend for themselves, then the country could have crossed the level  of cancerous egoism and move on to the common good of all.

Worst of it all, is that, some anaesthetized brains have found a way not to break free from colonial shackles. They heap all the brunt of the blame to the West and bask in outrageous unprogressive rhetoric, forgetting to note that some of the economic success stories of the South East Asia, were also at some point in time Western colonies?
Oh Poor Africa!

How can one convince the last dullest man living that the French or the Britons, or the Americans and more recently the Chinese 'advised' or 'instructed'   Ministers in my country to embezzle '11 billionsCFA francs'  which was suppose to be used to build roads, bridges, provide medicine for the sick etc? The chief thief and the other thieves built mega- million mansions at close range, stash away billions in foreign banks. Their children and relatives live exorbitant lifestyles right here in the country- toy with money comparable only to Hollywood stars. When they travel out of the country, they live like princes and princesses, all in an unapologetic manner, provocative to the suffering masses, who sometimes even hail them just to 'belong' or ' be identified'.

We don't need the West to condemn or tolerate our rulers in order for us to act in a way to set precedence that any person who mortgages the people's destiny for his egoistic caprices doesn't have to lead a nation. The British, French and the Americans didn't come to my village to stuff ballot papers before election day in 1992,1997,2004 etc. They didn't instruct the divisional officers to manipulate electoral lists. They didn't steal the people's victory.

Without denying Western influence on African politics due to its colonial past, I vehemently believe that today's African demise is as a result of a 'blame talisman' that has held Africans frozen to ideologies and idiosyncrasies that are recycled each time apathy and tolerance to evil become irreverent to a society where hunger is still the narcotic that instigates reasoning.
We better sit up!!!!