Francis Wache
10 November 2008
opinion
Mr. Paul Barthelemy Bi Mvondo Biya has been in power for 26 years. Some people consider those years too long. Biya and his acolytes consider them not long enough. That is the rub.What is interesting is that, when, in 1996, Mr. Biya increased the mandate from five to seven years, he must have thought that that was a long time.
Time flew fast and, today, he finds himself at the end of his time - asking for more.
Yet, after 26 years at the helm, Biya should be seriously thinking of quitting the stage. In fact, his term expires in 2011.In 1982, when he became President, Biya inherited a country that was awash with wealth. Today, the situation is dismal. The economy is in the doldrums; political life is a circus; socially, disaster looms.
Biya is aware of the spreading sense of doom and gloom. Says he: "My ambition ... is to modernize our country and, at the same time, to roll back poverty which is still widespread in our society."A few years back, when asked what he would love to be remembered for, Biya gloated that he would want history to remember him as the man who brought democracy to Cameroon.
Yet, it took the bloody launch of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, party to compel Biya to acquiesce to a form of democracy where elections continue to be rigged, New Deal minions continue to oversee electoral processes and procedures and opponents of the regime are molested, intimidated, arrested, imprisoned, maimed; and, sometimes, murdered.
Although Biya grudgingly accepted multiparty politics, he stands accused of 'stealing' the 1992 presidential election from his rival, Fru Ndi.Today, the National Assembly is virtually monolithic with the few opposition voices unable to make any impact as their opinions are crushed by the CPDM overwhelming majority.
These flaws notwithstanding, Biya still has a chance to construct a positive legacy before the curtain falls. If Biya wants, for example, to be remembered as the person who brought democracy to Cameroon, then, he must, as a matter of urgency, create an Independent Electoral Commission which should conduct elections from registration to the final proclamation of results.
Also, the sense of national unity is less tangible today than it was 26 years ago. Witness the Anglophone strident clamour for a separate State. The New Deal has done nothing to assuage this feeling of marginalisation. It has simply ignored it, hoping that, of its own, it will vanish. It won't.
Another problem that has refused to go away is corruption. In his 2000 New Year Message, Biya admitted: "Selfishness and the love of money have overshadowed the traditional moral values of charity and solidarity. Clearly, some form of materialism has developed to the detriment of spirituality."
Although Operation Epervier was supposed to serve notice to financial miscreants that they would be severely sanctioned, the manner the operation has been handled leaves observers concluding that it is "selective punishment". Arresting and locking up those guilty of corruption doesn't seem to be commensurate punishment.
Listen to Biya himself prescribing how they should be treated. He was speaking at the 3rd CPDM Extraordinary Congress: "Despite our efforts to combat social ills, fraud, misappropriation of public funds and corruption continue to erode the foundations of our society... Those who enriched themselves by embezzling public funds will be forced to give back ill-gotten gains." (Our emphasis).
In spite of the arrests and detention of high profile politicians, corruption has become a national industry. It is ubiquitous. It pervades all sectors of the society. Biya must halt this degenerate culture.Public servants pillage, plunder and rape national resources with astonishing impunity. The President should stop them.
Mr. Biya needs to wage a relentless war against those guilty of economic crimes and punish them without complacency so that their examples should serve as a deterrent. In other words, to combat corruption, Biya must take radical measures. Others are in the wings watching before swinging into action. Biya should do what he knows should be done.
Didn't he say that, "The fanatical individualism that characterizes our modern societies has given rise to selfish and even criminal behaviours that we must fight if we do not want to see our social fabric degenerate. The State has not been spared by this ill. Some State servants who abuse their powers have used their positions to serve their personal interests." As President, Biya has the responsibility to destroy personal interest and promote concern for the public good.
Socially, Cameroonians are unable to survive. The prices of basic necessities have become astronomical. Worse, rates for basic utilities, like water and electricity, are exorbitant. Parents find it difficult to send their kids to school.President Biya is conscious about what ails Cameroonians. Hear him in 2000: "Our objective will also and over and above all be to fill the social gap that the economic crisis and rural exodus have widened in recent years.
In our eyes, this is a priority task. Access to education, healthcare, employment and acceptable living conditions will have to be addressed more vigorously by the State." Part of his legacy resides in accomplishing these tasks. Writing in Communal Liberalism in 1986, Biya observed, "Despite our country's immense economic potential, material comfort is still the prerogative of a privileged minority, while poverty is the lot of the majority of Cameroonians." One wonders why with such "immense economic potentials" Cameroon remains poor.
For the last 26 years, Cameroonians have become increasingly dejected, disillusioned and disappointed.Biya, if he wants to obliterate that feeling, needs to implement people-friendly policies.All in all, Cameroon needs change. The only way Biya can hope to bequeath a worthwhile legacy to his country, is to don the cap of a patriot, fold his sleeves and embark on cleaning the nation. Differently put, he must adopt drastic measures.
To govern Cameroon, Biya must jettison the erstwhile policy of recruiting only members of a particular tribe or party cronies. Rather, he should extend a hand to other Cameroonians with the expertise that could pull us out of the current quagmire.
Interestingly, Biya, himself, has said it over and over again: things must change! Strangely, he has done little to ignite that critically needed change. He must act now to bring about the multifaceted change that Cameroon need.
If there is to be a worthy legacy then Biya must operate a clean break with his past which represents a gory tapestry of dismal performance. Biya is a survivor. True. But as a patriot he must become more preoccupied to leaving a peaceful and prosperous Cameroon to future generations rather than being obsessed with clinging to power.
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