allAfrica.com: Cameroon: Paul Atanga Nji - «The Modification Is For General Interest» (Page 1 of 2)

Paul Atanga Nji, Minister in Charge of Special Duties at the Presidency, talks about the protests in Douala and why he thinks the constitution should be amended.

The night of Saturday February 23, breaking Sunday February 24, was turbulent in Douala as administrative authorities had to contain a protest on the Douala-Yaounde highway. What is your reaction to this incident?

It is a regrettable situation. I strongly believe that all these things are being orchestrated by the Social Democratic Front, SDF. Why I say so is because the SDF knows very well that political rallies have been banned in the Littoral Province until further notice. Yet, they insist on organising these rallies to expose the lives of innocent citizens. This is a wilful intention to create disorder in the province. The Governor of the Littoral Province said that until further notice, all political rallies have been banned. I believe that he arrived at this decision because people have made it a habit of not respecting the law. In the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, CPDM, we always take an authorisation before any meeting. So, if the ruling party can obey such laws, what more of the opposition? I think the leaders of these political parties, which want to create disorder, should realise that we have been living in a peaceful situation in Cameroon and the President has fought for 25 years to consolidate this peace, unity and stability. They should know that no one will accept any more of these irresponsible activities organised just to push the government to the wall. So, it should be clear that if they want to operate legally, they have to respect the rules of the land. On the contrary, if they do not respect the rules in force, they will be considered as vandals and treated as such.

Apparently, no political party was visibly present or has claimed responsibility for the disorder on the Yaounde-Douala highway. The population was actually demonstrating for some other reason

There is instigation. And once again, I put the responsibility on those who have been trying to organise political rallies and have not been successful. But what is clear is that the political parties will never claim responsibility when there is disorder. But they indirectly instigate people to come out on the streets so that they will be in a position to face the forces of law and order. In cases like that, you know there is provocation. And in case of provocation, people loose their tempers. And the situation might degenerate.

But the SDF leader, Ni John Fru Ndi, says he is bent on organising rallies despite the ban?

This has been the habit of SDF since the party was launched in 1990. But people should understand that the SDF is inconsistent and has lost its base. The SDF started with 65 parliamentarians. Now they have only 14 parliamentarians after a lot of difficulties; it could have been less. This means the population has realised that the SDF is a party which is not constructive. They are only out to destroy all the achievements that the New Deal has put in place for the past 25 years. We cannot accept and we shall not accept. We will not even give them the opportunity to create disorder. As other political leaders have said, peace and stability are a great achievement that we have had in the country thanks to Paul Biya. We will not allow any person to jeopardise the peaceful situation in which we are living.

You index the SDF, but other political leaders like Mboa Massock are also organising demonstrations on the streets against the revision of the constitution. How can we then reduce this to an SDF affair?

I think Mboa Massock and the SDF are fighting under the same umbrella. They have put up the "Front unis" against the modification of the constitution. In this "Front unis" you have Mboa Massock and all the parliamentarians of the SDF. They are the same people who have decided never to respect the laws of the land. In any case, we have tried to bring these people to reason so that they can respect the laws. But if they cannot, the government will be obliged to use other means to bring order to Douala, same as in any other localities where peace is threatened.

It appears that the on-going debate on the revision of the constitution is at the base of all these civil disobedience?

The modification of the constitution is a popular debate. And the sovereign people of Cameroon have asked the Head of State to modify their constitution; amend some articles which are no more realistic for now. The Head of State had said in his speech on France 24 that it is an open debate. Militants of the party started writing that we should amend the constitution. People should, however, know that it is not a CPDM affair because religious authorities, the civil society and even business men also wrote calling for the constitution to be amended. Anyway, the CPDM occupies and controls about 85 per cent of the political network nation-wide. Besides, we have other leaders like Issa Tchiroma and Antar Gassagay who have also come out strong in favour of the modification of the constitution. Other political leaders should do the same thing. It is a debate and everyone should bring his or her own idea. We should not go to the streets. And it is also important to know that the Head of State defines the policies of the nation. He who defines the policy, also has the prerogative to ask for a constitutional amendment. Cameroonians should also know that Mboa Massock has no political party. By implication, he has no legal platform that he can use to push Cameroonians to react. If he wants to be a political leader, let him create a political party.

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