There are times when I am compelled to inquire whether those who are at the helm of state affairs in this geographical expression called Cameroon are living in the same country with the rest of us. Honestly, the brazen callousness that characterizes their reactions to the plight of Cameroonians relative to the accelerating decline in the economic and social conditions in our polity smacks of despicable insensitivity and borderless impudence.
In the wake of this gang-ho system of governance, fire brigade style of management has been elevated to an art form, to the extent that the only way to attract government attention to a conflict situation is to embark on strike action. This assertion is corroborated by the fact that in the past decade and a half, the governing class has been exhibiting a pervasive aloofness towards issues of cataclysmic import.
Yesterday, it was irate youth who wrought unprecedented damage to private and public property with no fewer than 100 going to the world beyond as payment for daring the freebooters in the guise of leaders, who continue to trample on our collective rights with impunity. Today, it is lawyers wanting to be heard and seen, chiefs saying enough is enough and, who knows, tomorrow, it might be civil society asking for greater participation in matters related to state governance.
Those with the ability to discern issues underpinned by political and economic significance will agree with me that the bane of governance in Cameroon is the very essence of the state. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that a nation can be decreed. This explains why we are permanently transiting from one nomenclature to the other, beginning with Federal Republic of Cameroon at reunification to Republic of Cameroon in January 1984. Of course, no serious enterprise can be embarked upon while transiting. How long the transition will last remains a matter of conjecture. However, the truth is that a nation is brought into being through the political and inclusive will of its citizens and not through naming. The name of a thing is something beyond the qualities of that thing. This means that when you name your dog Bill, it does not in anyway correspond to another Bill who is a human being and answering a name that is the short form of William. It explains why we have moved from Federal Republic of Cameroon to United Republic of Cameroon and now Republic of Cameroon without much changing in terms of quality of life of the ordinary Cameroonian in Ngomboku in the Southwest region or Bengbis in the South region.
What this means is that we are a people without an identity, a people whose existence is at the whims of presidential fiats, a people who must by the same token, pander to the whims of the one who decreed their existence. When a people feel alienated from governance there is a tendency for them to become apathetic to state institutions and the corollary to this phenomenon is absence of patriotism or a sense of belonging to the centre of authority. This easily triggers pockets of resistance that can degenerate to liberation movements with all the ramifications on the peace and tranquility the are essential ingredients for social and economic advancement of the stat that such outcomes portend.
The import of this discrepancy between what ordinarily constitutes a state and the warped perception of same by the governing class is that there is no cohesion among the various peoples that constitute the state, just like there can hardly be any correlation between what is agreed upon in the binding instrument, which in our case is the constitution and, what actually obtains on the ground. It has led to the apparition of a class of people who seek nothing else but the depletion of the public purse. These people do not see themselves as Cameroonians. Who will blame them when they have all of a sudden replaced the white colonialist and with the support of their neocolonial overlords, they are wont to ride roughshod on their compatriots. Their vision of Cameroon is one in which they own at least 10 houses and drive in cars costing hundreds of million FCFA, all these on the taxpayers money which they steal with impunity, no thanks to a system that rewards profligacy.
To ensure their continuous stay at the helm of state affairs, the current governing oligarchy has succeeded in brainwashing a pseudo elite class that sees itself as their potential replacement. This class of people has ascribed to itself the unholy task of purveyor of a disinformation campaign that seeks to divide Cameroonians according to either tribal or linguistic lines so that while we ordinary Cameroonians are worrying about who is Bassa, Bamileke or Douala and who is Anglophone of francophone, they are busy pillaging the commonweal.
Did I hear you say Operation Sparrow Hawk? Ask the likes of Issa Tchiroma, who fervently believe in the messianic creed of Paul Biya’s fight against corruption, whether they see any correlation between the incarceration of some alleged embezzlers like Fonjindam, Aba Aba, Atangana Mebara etc. and the fact that Gervais Mendoze erstwhile General Manager of CRTV is free to roam the streets of the country after being declared guilty of misappropriating over five billion FCFA.
What we need in Cameroon is transparent and transformational leadership - leadership that will take us to our rightful place in the comity of nations, leadership that ought to lead us to a level of development that is commensurate with our status as a richly endowed nation in terms of material and human resources This can only be done through effective and efficient programming of development projects based on each regions contribution to the national wealth. This way the principle of derivation will come into play and allow such areas as Ndian division that accounts for all the oil revenue in the country to have a specified percentage of oil revenue assigned to its development annually.
Until we change our mentality and start concentrating on the things that will take us to a higher level of human development or at the very worst to the Millennium Development Goals, we are doomed to remain a pariah state. But is this what we should be experiencing 50 years after independence in a country so richly endowed that even the Republic of South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo will perceive our natural resources with awe? Everyday we are being told that this or that mineral deposit has been discovered in this or that part of the country. Good news! But how does this translate into livelihood improvement for ordinary Cameroonians? How are the concessions to exploit the minerals negotiated with the foreign firms that come for exploitation and exploration? That is the Question!
Culled from The Sun No. 062 of July 20, 2009
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