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Cameroon: Good Results Have A Price

Nkendem Forbinake

3 December 2008

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Last Monday, the Minister of State Property and Land Tenure made a spectacular outing in Yaounde. In several government residential areas, he personally oversaw the eviction of some individuals illegally occupying government quarters. This outing could pass for routine government work.

But not quite so because of the scope of the reckless illegality of the situation and the fact that the Minister made it a point of duty to supervise the expulsions himself. Understandably this outing had a resounding echo in the media as many citizens would readily relish such human interest events.

Of significant note is the fact that some of those expelled were living in absolute illegality with a case reported of someone who simply remodelled a government house which he sublet and received rent regularly. Of course, the Minister did not have it easy, even bracing open threats to his life. Mr Anong Adibime hardly budged in the face of those threats and has stated his resolve to take his mission to the end (see interview elsewhere in this edition).

With this latest action, the Minister of State Property and Land Tenure is taking the posture of a no-nonsense decision-maker who is bent on results. It was the same Mr Anong Adibime who stirred the hornet's nest last year, barely weeks after taking office, on the disorder that reigned in the government housing sector.

Through his efforts, a lot of muddle, piled up with years of corrupt practices in the allotment of government housing, was cleared off. The government was able to retrieve property and housing units that had been occupied illegally for years , thus putting an end to a veritable financial haemorrhage the State suffered as a result of these malpractices. He has been tenacious all along and results are there to vindicate his actions.

The object of this piece is not to throw encomiums at the Minister. He can be said to have just been doing his job correctly. Beyond singing deserved praises, the purpose of this write-up is to slap other decision-makers awake. Ours is a country where commissions of enquiry are hurriedly set up in the wake of any major incident.

But of the hundreds of commissions of enquiry we have seen or heard being set up, when are we ever told of the results? This has led many critics to say that the best way of killing an investigation in Cameroon is by setting up a commission of enquiry.

In his state-of-the-nation address last December 31, 2007, President Paul Biya condemned the armchair attitude of the nation's decision-makers always prone to pushing responsibility to others. He chastised those who would spend hours, days or weeks on end organizing seminars or making declarations of intent without any concern for immediate results.

Mr Anong Adibime's style is not necessarily a turnkey model of solving problems. No one is asking, say, the Minister of Transport to go to the highways to check the correctness of traffic flow; the Minister of Finance to go down to a revenue office to see to it that government money is not embezzled;

to the Minster in the educational sector to go down to the classroom to see to the effectiveness of teaching; the Minister of Health to be in a hospital all the time to see how conscientious medical personnel are etc.

The business here is about taking decisions and ensuring that such decisions are effectively carried out. It is also a matter of style; a matter of the best strategy to put in place to ensure that government decisions are implemented. There is always a price to pay and a strategy to work out in the search for good results.

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