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Cameroon: Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite!
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The Post (Buea)
OPINION
17 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
Azore Opio
Among the analyses of Cameroon's political crisis, none have occasioned more debate than the return to multi-party politics and now the constitutional amendment to give President Paul Biya a third term.
In the whirlwind, political bedbugs are on the rise. And they are defying their time-honoured table manners of eating only when the lights are out. These bedbugs and their co-parasites, the political prostitutes, are getting a boost from the CPDM Chair's temporising attitude.
The Santa Mafia started it all to the astonishment of the entire nation. Then the lesser trumpeters followed. It is obvious, even to a blistering idiot, that the old cronies are championing for their own cause (eat until death) and to serve the oppressors. They are blinded by the money and titles, which have made them crazy and see no evil, hear no evil and smell no evil - even if they sleep with the evil.
Such people are worse than female prostitutes are. And there are several of these political harlots - Bouba Bello, Augustine Fréderic Kodock, Hogbe Nlend, Dakolle Daissala, Antar Gassagy, Issa Tchiroma and some SDFs who defected to the CPDM. Most of these defectors claimed that their former parties were no good.
It is difficult to grasp how old, dead wood, people beyond their intellectual menopause, can lead a nation they have repeatedly raped and infected with a chronic disease - mediocrity.
The SDF fanatics shamed themselves and their families a few years ago while purporting to join the CPDM for the cause of democracy and that of the poor people. But they joined the very people whom they had accused of destroying the nation.
They vehemently attacked their former party leaders, calling them bad people, weak people and dictators. This is the case of three former SDF exco who defected to the CPDM. As soon as they were admitted, they began praising the party which they just joined while attacking their own party which was their previous home and dream for democracy for many years.
They never said they joined the devils to seek personal fortunes, but because they had lost confidence in their own party. They, in fact, sold out their souls and betrayed the very ideals and the very people that they had purported to represent.
It is regrettable to see such fine young politicians turned into a cheap political tool of a party they were once strongly opposed to. They are worse than prostitutes are, because prostitutes sell only a small part of their bodies, but political prostitutes unashamedly prostitute their souls and political ideals. Political prostitution could be seen from the critical lenses of a frustrated politician groping in the darkness of irrelevance.
In fact, Tchiroma is returning to the CPDM party after prostituting with the CPDM, UNDP, ANDP, the National Salvation Front and languishing in the political wilderness for nearly a decade without getting any reward or a plum job.
Cameroonians have chosen the path of least resistance. The need for comfort seems to be stronger than courage, truth and sacrifice. But "war intensifies the experience of life because it shapes everyone's inner feelings in accord with an extremely simple framework - the two camps - while the awareness of ever present death gives even the most trivial actions the stamp of extraordinary gravity" (Cesare Pavese, 1944).
Perhaps, this is what Paul Biya is wishing for. Because, if Biya is truly democratic, as his servile followers claim, and gives the people the opportunity to make their choices, then he should listen to their complaints and opinions concerning the amendment of the constitution instead of running them off the streets (killing some) where they find it most convenient, since their parliament is a mere rubber stamp, to air their views.
Constitutional reform is nothing new; it is a fundamental political responsibility. But it cannot be left in the hands of lunatics of the lucrative business of corruption. All Cameroonians must be involved in its reform for the amendment to truly reflect their interests; they must have control over it and the protection and the respect of the constitution must be jealously guarded and preserved by the people, not a bunch of desperados.
Would we say that the five men who lined up to pray for Biya to rule for another 25 years were sincere; that they represent the interest of Northwesterners? It is doubtful because their diatribe does not stretch beyond themselves, let alone Santa, Bamenda and the entire Province. They are advocating for their stomachs only.
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If the constitution must be amended, it must be done only through a referendum of sorts, not through a parliament infested with CPDM lackeys.
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