Peterkins Manyong
10 November 2008
opinion
Paul Biya took power in 1982 after serving as Prime Minister under former President Amadou Ahidjo.Because Cameroon was and remains a Presidential system, the Prime Minister is hardly anything better than a robot, implementing to the letter instructions from his boss.
Biya succeeded to serve Ahidjo for a pretty long time because he had the capacity to play the puppet and the sycophant. It is natural for someone who has suffered or is still under the yoke of an overbearing master to expect a similar or even greater degree of subservience from his subordinate.
Biya would have been a model among his fellow benevolent despots if he allowed his Prime Ministers a freer hand than Ahidjo gave him.
Bello, Luc Ayang -Experimental PMs
Bello Bouba Maigari was the first Prime Minister Biya ever appointed. Bello's tenure of office lasted for less than 10 months (November 6 1982- August 23, 1983). He was appointed thanks to his Northern origin. That he was Ahidjo's choice is evident not just from his area of origin, but from the loyalty to Cameroon's first President when the former fell out with his constitutional successor.
It was therefore no surprise when Bello resigned soon after, complaining that the new President had lost confidence in him. Bello's statement was the greatest understatement of the decade. Biya actually suspected him of confederacy with Ahidjo to over throw him.
This explains why Bello found Cameroon too hot for comfort soon after resigning and had to scale the boundary of his fatherland to seek refuge in neighbouring Nigeria. Biya certainly considered his escape good riddance and immediately appointed Luc Ayang, also from the North to replace him.
The President was not vexed enough with his illustrious predecessor to forget the North/South power rotation formula. Luc Ayang, whose tenure of office stretched from August 23, 1983- January 25, 1984, was interim and the shortest serving Prime Minister Biya ever appointed.
Before his nomination, Ayang was Minister of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industry. There is no record that he did anything order than simply implementing Biya's policies. Whether he did it well or not; it is difficult to know and needless to inquire.
We can only assume that Biya became fed up with the PM's post, if not with Ayang Luc himself.Evidence is that he suppressed the post after Luc Ayang and only reintroduced it about three years later.
Sadou Hayatou-The Smiling PM
He was appointed PM on April 26, 1991, and sacked on April 9, 1992. Hayatou had a specific assignment: to handle the disputes generated by multiparty politics forcefully introduced by SDF's launch.
His greatest weapon was dialogue which the broadness of his smile qualified him to effect. So well did he use this weapon that Francophone Cameroonians, impressed by the whiteness of his teeth nicknamed him "le Premier Ministre Odontol" implying that he could serve as a good advertiser of the famous toothpaste "Odontol"
Hayatou, however, went further than smile. He chaired the October 1991 Tripartite Conference that split the coordination of Opposition Parties and Associations. The coordination had sustained a "Ghost Towns" and Civil Disobedience campaign which virtually brought the country to its knees, economically.
Unfortunately, Hayatou was like most CPDM cronies at the time an unknown political prophet in his home town. This truth became manifested during the 1992 Parliamentary Election when he was beaten in his own home town.
Achidi Achu-Peace Herald
The mother of all political ironies took place in the Northwest where the SDF, by boycotting the polls, gave the CPDM an easy victory. With all 20 Parliamentary seats won by the ruling party, Biya had no political logic to appoint a Prime Minister from another province.
That is one reason why the pollen grains of power were sprinkled on Achidi Achu. But there was a better reason for his appointment.Achidi Achu who was Prime Minister from April 9, 1992- September 19, 1996, owed his appointment more to the fact that he hailed from Fru Ndi's subdivision of origin, than to the logic of election victory.
Biya could have appointed the more knowledgeable Dr. Solomon Shu if competence were the deciding factor. To put the matter unequivocally, Biya hoped that in his mission of pacification, with the SDF-dominated Northwest as his immediate target, Achidi Achu would eventually neutralise the SDF.
The President was sadly mistaken. Although Achidi Achu doled out cash to countless delegations who met him at the Star Building, his Santa Klaus gestures converted few persons as evident from his electoral waterloo on January 21, 1996. That was when the SDF won the Santa Council.
The state of emergency imposed on the Province during his tenure contributed immensely to his failure. "The Old Fox" as he is fondly called, did not, however, only crash because he failed to win elections. Biya needed a Prime Minister credible in the eyes of the IMF. That was why Peter Mafany Musonge, with no political reputation, was appointed.
PM Musonge: The Technocrat
Musonge was the General Manager of the CDC at the time of his appointment. He succeeded soon after that to convince the IMF to sign the first Economic Programme with Cameroon. This was thanks to the support of Alasane Ouattara, IMF's Deputy Director at the time.
Believed to have been his classmate, Musonge served as Biya's campaign manager for the 1997 Elections, just as Achidi Achu had been for the Presidential Elections of October 1992. Musonge also initiated dialogue with the SDF in 1997. It had a still birth.
Musonge did his best to fight corruption, but just how ineffective this best was is that during his era, Cameroon won the world's trophy in corruption twice. Despite this humiliation, he lingered on and helped to give Biya electoral victory in October 2004 before being ordered to pack bag and baggage out of the Star Building on December 8, 2004.
Ephraim Inoni - Anti-Corruption Crusader
Ephraim Inoni was a "child born with teeth" in the political sense of the word. As soon as he stepped into the Star Building, he set the anti-corruption train in motion; Polycape Abah Abah, then Minister of the Economy and Finance as well as Benjamin Amama of the Public Service and Administrative Reforms jumped in.
Corruption officials were forced to adjust to escape being crushed. Laxity in public offices stopped and those who thought rendering service to the public was a favour which must be paid for were forced to reconstruct their philosophy.
Inoni seemed to have resolved, like Christ, to ensure that the Cameroon people's house of worship (the public service) should not become a den of thieves.But, like all other ventures begun enthusiastically, the zeal soon died down. Inoni was forced by necessity to become a politician and so embarked on winning the Southwest Province for the ruling party.
In fighting corruption, he was in effect applying the tenets of good governance. A man who is bent on correcting others must first himself be correct or appear so. That is why the allegations of his involvement in the Albatross scam generated so much public interest. Some press reports actually predicted Inoni's arrest.
But while it is yet to be established whether he soiled his hands or not, great is the number of those who think that he is more sinned against than sinning.Whatever scurrilous remarks his critics may make, Inoni has proven so far to be the epitome of administrative creativity and certainly Biya's most effective Prime Minister.
His prompt handling of the Mungo Bridge collapse and his endeavours to attract foreign investors to Cameroon confirm his capacity to cope with national emergences. Among Inoni's achievements is Cameroon's attainment of the HIPC Initiative completion point. The President is so sure of his ability to steer the ship of state that he can spend 45 days abroad and allow his Prime Minister to chair the Cup of Cameroon finals.
Biya might not have always been lucky in his choice of Prime Ministers but he certainly does some good reflection before appointing them.
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