Azore Opio
12 May 2008
column
The days of the patriot are gone. President Paul Biya is catching the big dogs and the big fish in twos and threes. The first time he caught one it sounded like fiction.
But with each catch, it becomes clearer and truer. Each time he catches one CPDM VIP, the news draws enthusiastic cheers. Well, if it isn't the nicest surprise Cameroon has ever had, then we don't know what is. It gives a new meaning to the term "white collar theft" doesn't it? Catching the big fish.
Biya himself run the country into the ground because of condoning corruption, embezzlement and outright theft. He just stood at his smelly stable where his horses kept eating, eating and eating. They just kept eating and defecating in the stable and Biya did nothing about cleaning it until the stench became overwhelming! But now the horse breeder knows that his job means getting dirty and smelly. He has to do the filthy labour.
Each day more nauseating revelations about new corruption sleaze and embezzlement scandal are splashed on news headlines. Each day more nauseating revelations; their worship of money and becoming super rich knows no bounds. We watch them with despair becoming mired in scandal and sleaze.
We can no longer excuse their behaviour, taking pride in their ability as embezzlers, as we did when they rigged themselves into government only to gain power and to stay in power. And every day we meet with some of the poorest paid working people in this country.
It is amazing how dim-witted the home-grown thieves are. They started off by parroting the constitutional amendment bid. They got so sloppy and sentimental on Biya that they forgot they had stolen, or were they trying to wish the fact away so that the President would forget about their theft?
That was their swansong: "We want Biya to rule for 25 more years." There he is with 25 good years on his bill. There are the thieves who might spend the next 25 years behind bars while Biya struts happily in his palace.
It is amazing how they did not stop to consider that Biya would arrest them; perhaps they thought that he was such a fool? After all, they had also rigged the elections in his favour. It is even more amazing that the thieves did not think of fleeing the country while they still had time and money.
The birds of the same feathers are now flocking to their feathered nests. They are going to lose a lot of sleep worrying about the billions they can't possibly enjoy freely. That serves them right because they robbed millions of Cameroonians of precious sleep and livelihood.
If Biya arrests everybody who ever stole from the public till, all the jails will be full. He might not have even enough room to stretch his own legs.
We applaud the President for ransacking the closets for skeletons and trying to clean the stable. We thank him for adding a sprinkling of female grabbers of the home-grown thieves on the Kondengui list for good gender balance. Of course, he wants to be the last man standing or to fall.
We are waiting anxiously for the moment when his own skeletons will begin to walk out of his cupboard. Let him also be very careful of new recruits into Etoudi. If he doesn't look carefully, he will one day wake up to find the palace sold!
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