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Cameroon: That Limbe Raid - What Ze Meka Never Said

Peterkins Manyong

3 October 2008

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opinion

James Hadley Chase is undoubtedly the world's crime fiction maestro. Like all great writers, one of his most memorable works is titled "The Sucker Punch."

In it he states that it is when a boxer is most confident that he receives the punch that knocks him down.Last Sunday, the Cameroonian security system received a sucker punch when 40 armed men put the town of Limbe under siege for three hours. And that is a town with six military installations including the naval base.

Three hours is a period in which a cook can bake a chicken and customers would eat, relax and take a drink. The men finally went away unhurt. The story is already familiar to all Cameroonians with or even without a nag for hot news. What is not familiar is the exact origin, the motive of the act and why the Cameroonian military didn't retaliate.

In an advanced country the Minister of Defence resigns immediately. That is what happened in the former Soviet Union when a 19-year-old German landed a plane in the Red Square in St. Petersburg. That is what Remy Ze Meka and his immediate collaborators should have done last Sunday. Instead, he held a press briefing and pretended to clear the air.

During that briefing he said everything except what he was expected to explain. He didn't explain why the terrorist could only cart money from Amity Bank, the only of the four banks founded by an Anglophone. Why COBAC, the "gendarme" of our banking sector, has never reinforced its money preserving mechanism.

Yet another puzzle, why were some of the bandits speaking in French, the language of the Cameroon Armed Forces, when they were supposed to have come from neighbouring Nigeria. Is it not a repeat of the same scenario that took place in March 1997 when supposed SCNC terrorists set the house Justin Mvondo, DO of Kumbo, on fire with the man and his family holed inside?

Did the Gendarmerie Brigade Commander at the time not say like Remy Ze Meka, that he was informed of the attacks before they took place? Why then did he not mobilize the Cameroonian military to counter it? Since the Defence Minister failed to address this issue, this analyst has decided to volunteer answers to them.

First, it should be noted that before the Bakassi handover, militants of the Niger Delta Force had been trafficking in arms with some Cameroonian top military officials. The Defence Minister himself admitted this. Given the gravity of the discovery, the security at military headquarters was logically tightened.

Since huge sums had already been paid for arms, it was necessary to create an enabling environment for the creditors to recover the money.A bank robbery was certainly the best means of paying back the debt. Remy Ze Meka admits that the terrorists worked with Cameroonian insiders and press reports state that some of the armed robbers arrived using road transport.

The French speakers were surely these Cameroonians who the flour bag from Nigeria was intended to hoodwink people into believing that the attackers came from Cameroon's gigantic neighbour when the French had already betrayed them

The Price Of Intransigence

The Biya regime has been thriving on arrogance right from its take-off. Its success in crushing the coordination of opposition parties and associations in the 90s gave it a sense of security and confidence that manifested in outright refusal to negotiate with the SCNC, SCAPO and the country's major opposition party, the SDF.

It only came face to face with reality over the Bakassi crisis when the Cameroon government took the matter to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Biya was rational enough to conclude that only diplomacy could solve the problem. His calculations proved correct.

Diplomacy sent Nigeria out of Bakassi. Cameroon erroneously ignored the call for negotiations by the Niger Delta Rebels. Rather, the regime provoked the rebels by crediting the army as if Bakassi was won through war.

When the attacks were going on, the commander of the Naval Base in Limbe was in Douala. When informed, he complained that he could not come because of transport difficulties. This is the same complaint given by our police and gendarmerie when bandits are operating. On the eve of this year's school reopening, thirty armed men operated successfully despite the presence of the Rapid Intervention forces in Bamenda. No intervention.

Why is it that the complaints about lack of transportation means only come up when there is a criminal operation going on? Such excuses are never given when soldiers have to move to the ceremonial grounds to receive their epaulettes. If it comes to tracking down drivers, there is no inadequacy of logistics.

Cowards That Die Before Their Deaths

The Limbe, incident has done more than financial damage. Military personnel across the country are visibly scared. For instance, two days after the attack, soldiers guarding a bank in Bamenda were asked by a female passerby whether they were not afraid. Their answer was spontaneous.

"We are terribly scared. In fact, if we learn of an imminent attack on the bank we would not wait for the assailants," one of them said frankly. "We are just here because we are being paid for it. This is not a country to die for."

The three soldiers spoke the minds of several like them who toil day and night while others get promoted because they hail from a particular tribe. A country where generals, some as old as 80 years, are not on retirement cannot expect much patriotism from its citizens.

Didactics From The Attacks

Last Sunday's attack should serve as didactics for a regime that his taken the people for granted. The incident, once more, proved just how vulnerable the Cameroon security forces are and until there is social justice, that can be preceded by genuine democracy, no patriotisms that can inspire the willingness to die for one's nation, can ever ensue.

Biya should dismiss Remy Ze Meka and all those who should have acted fast. He must now accept the bitter fact that competence, not loyalty or tribe bring about military victories. Above all, he shouldn't contemplate taking another term in 2011.To do so, would be to abuse God and deprive himself of the reverence which comes along with old age.

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