Peterkins Manyong
21 February 2008
Buea — A majority of SDF MPs last weekend boycotted a meeting aimed at mobilising Cameroonians against constitutional manipulations and other political ills.
The meeting was organised by the Cameroon Alliance for Voluntary Development, CAVOD, in collaboration with the Union of Northwest Human Rights Organisations, UNOWHURO.
All northwest MPs were expected at the meeting, but the attendance of those of the SDF was imperative because the party is supposed to be working alongside the civil society to forestall Biya's planned mandate extension.
Moreover, most of the MPs were present during a seminar for SDF youths that held at Ayaba Hotel on February 15 and 16. Only Joseph Banadzem, SDF Parliamentary Group leader, and John Fodje, alternate to Simon Fobi, MP for Bamenda/Bali Constituency were present.
Victor Epie Ngome, National Coordinator of CAVOD, took exception to the absence of the MPs. He said CAVOD was a non-partisan organisation which had no other preoccupation than to foster national interest.
"We are committed to seeing that the playing ground is level for everybody. We are king makers who cannot become kings," Epie Ngome said.Commenting on the planned revision of the Constitution by the Biya regime, he said CAVOD was opposed because democratic structures are absent in Cameroon - the elections that put in place the present parliament, which Biya wants to use was characterised by massive fraud.
The CAVOD Coordinator disclosed that his organisation was working towards the repatriation of embezzled funds stashed in foreign banks.Praising the CAVOD initiative and its partners, Banadzem said that the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary had failed. Cameroon's present predicament, he added, was linked to its history.
The French, he said, put in place a strong anti-people dictatorship which has since destroyed traditional values, trade unions and so on.According to Banadzem, all the constitutional amendments that have since taken place only help to further entrench the dictatorship in place.
Only the civil society, especially the press, can liberate Cameroonians. Unfortunately, he said, the civil society in Cameroon is not working at the pace that it should. The press, he said, should take up issues like the abandonment of contracts which he once raised in Parliament. But it does not.
Intellectual Dishonesty
Fodje, who also spoke, regretted the high rate of intellectual dishonesty in our society. He was particularly vexed by the fact that some of our supposed intellectuals employ a lot of wit to defend the indefensible.
Many of these persons, he said, think that by constantly repeating the lies they tell, people will take them for the truth. Only the civil society could counter such sophistry by educating the masses.
During the general discussion that followed, speaker after speaker condemned the planned constitutional amendment and said Biya would be inviting civil strife by going ahead with the amendment.
Meanwhile, rumours have it that salaries of MPs have been increased impressively to facilitate the passage of the bill through Parliament during the March session.It was for this reason, The Post learned, that most MPs boycotted the Ayaba civil society meeting. Hon. Evaristus Njong, SDF MP for Boyo, however, didn't deny or confirm the allegation when contacted, stating simply that he was not aware of it.
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