Cabinet Reshuffle: Inoni is New PM

By Francis Wache

For over a month now, since Mr. Biya was sworn in as Cameroon’s President, Cameroonians have been living in a state of psychosis as national life virtually ground to a standstill with speculations running riot about the new cabinet.
Yesterday, Mr. Biya, finally stunned Cameroonians and most observers when, rather than search for a broad-based consensus, he took the same old brooms to usher what he trumpeted during the elections as “greater achievements” (grandes ambitions).

The biggest casualty was Mr. Peter Mafany Musonge, who lost the post of Prime Minister to a fellow tribesman, Mr. Ephraim Inoni.

Although Mr. Musonge served as Biya’s Campaign Manager during the last presidential election and the “brilliant election results” could, to a large extent, be attributed to him, most observers were surprised that Biya could dump him so soon after such a performance.

Musonge had been Prime Minister for the last eight years and remains the longest serving Prime Minister, so far.

He was generally believed to tackle his job with so much seriousness that the toll was beginning to tell on him. In fact, once during a public occasion, he collapsed and had to be rushed to hospital for urgent attention. The illness? Fatigue, his medics said.

In a sense, then, he is proceeding, as they say, to a well-earned rest.
Furthermore, in appointing Inoni, Biya seems, somewhat, to have compensated Musonge.

For like Musonge, Inoni is of the Bakweri tribe. A question of saying that power has, as it were, remained in the house. Inoni, however, is considered in most circles as a workaholic and an unflinchingly loyal Biyaist, who deserved rising on his own merits.

After the election, Biya had been expected to stretch a hand to the hardcore opposition and independent personalities from the civil society. He ignored them and turned, once more, to old time cronies to help him accomplish what, together, they have failed to achieve in the last 22 years.

It is difficult to figure out, for instance, how people with such entrenched mindsets like Amadou Ali, Laurent Esso, and others could change their way of doing things and give Cameroon a fresh start.

True, baobabs like the unshakable Joseph Owona, Hamadjoda Adjoudji and Meva’ a m’Eboutou have been booted out.

They were replaced, invariably, by successors of their ilk.
In essence, the rulership of the country has been confiscated by the Grand North and the Grand Centre.

The North, for example, has a Speaker of the National Assembly, a Deputy Prime Minister and a Minister of State. For delivering the crucial North to Biya, they have, by all standards, been more than compensated.

Besides, the manner in which the Betis and the Northerners have carved the cake seems to lend credence to an entente cordiale whereby, after Biya’s septennat, power will shift back to Ahidjo’s Northern fief.

Otherwise, how else can you geopolitically explain that the Betis have carted the Lion’s share of about 20 ministerial positions with the Northerners clutching an astronomical 17?

Globally, between them they share a hefty 65 percent of the total cabinet.

Nonetheless, in the distribution of Ministerial posts, it is quite difficult to say who was punished and who was rewarded, after all, from the results of the last Presidential polls, Biya won - everywhere.

Even the fractious Northwest and the bastion of the SDF, was not left in the cold, because although Kibuh was fired from Mines and Power, Philemon Yang, who spent 19 uninterrupted years as Cameroon’s Ambassador to Canada, moved to the arguably strategic position as Deputy Secretary General in the Presidency.

However, some critics point out that, as an Anglophone, he could only be an Assistant.

As in the past, Anglophones have fared poorly in the present cabinet. Overall, they have merely harvested 12.5 percent of the ministerial portfolios. Yet, other commentators argue that with the post of Prime Minister and the influential position of Assistant Secretary General in the Presidency, they don’t have much to whine about.

Over a decade ago, when Anglophones assembled in Buea for the historic All Anglophone Conference, they denounced the fact that, “For 32 years since reunification, Ministries such as those in charge of Territorial Administration, the Armed Forces, Education, Finance, Commercial and Industrial Development, Foreign Affairs, etc., have never been headed by Anglophones…

when the office [of Prime Minister] comes to an Anglophone, he is hedged in between a Francophone Secretary General at the Presidency and another at the Prime Minister’s office.”

Today – 43 years after Reunification – the situation is as grim as it was painted at Mount Mary in 1993. In reality, Anglophones are still wandering in the political wilderness.

In the current cabinet, as in previous ones, they received a raw deal. What positions they have been offered are nothing but Ministerial crumbs. This confirms the point that certain positions are taboo for them.

If Biya’s December 8 cabinet reshuffle is anything to go by, it would appear that what he has done is nothing more and nothing less than the Biblical putting of new wine into old wineskins.

In other words, in carrying out what is clearly a cosmetic cabinet shake-up Biya seems to confirm his critics who maintain that his recent incantations about change are nothing but a chimera that would lead, ineluctably, to deeper delusions rather than his much trumpeted grandes ambitions.

Comments

[Solomon]

After reading over and over the recent cabinet shake up,my only advice to some top anglophone civil servants is either they should resign and join their SCNC brothers for change.They should not stay with false hope from a regime that has openly eliminated them from his boat.
They should also stop spending their hard earn saving financing the "Cameroon People Drinking Movement" activities with the hope of compensation that will never come.

[Jamie Makum]

Now Ephraim Inoni, who has basked in appointed positions this far in the civil service and is steeped in politics must prove himself before the domestic and international audience. The economy and the Bakassi dispute with Nigeria are testing grounds.

Nigeria will justifiably not hand over the Bakassi Peninsula to Yaounde for overt French exploitation unless the Proxy Government in Yaounde disavows its colonial subservience to the French Presidency and improves trade ties with Abuja.

The longterm interest of the Cameroon People warrants that Nigeria hangs on this precious peninsula until there is a genuine nationalist government in Yaounde that talks African, works African, lives African and thinks African first and foremost, before external partners.

The current gang in power are thieves wielding French passports and have cheated the Cameroonian People since Independence. They spend more money on French goods than on capital investments. In 1984, Cameroon imported more champagne using petrodollars than Great Britain. This is the worst edifice of a Black State.

James Makum
St. Louis, USA

[neba funiba]

Thank you Mr. Mukum for the brief but insightful historical materialist overview of the political imbroglio in Cameroon. The recent cabinet scheme in Cameroon can be likened to putting dirty clothing on an already stinking body.

[Martin Douala]

Peter Mafany Musonge will be a hard act to follow for any appointee groomed in the lazy Camerounian civil service.

Before becoming PM, Musonge was an accomplished Chief Executive with a record of getting things done. His greatest success as PM was getting his country into the league of heaviest indebted nations on Earth. The reward was handsome - billions of US$ written off Cameroon's overseas debt. In a nutshell, Peter Musonge outperformed Paul Biya in both fore sight and accomplishments in office, 10 to 1.

Inoni's ocassional rantings to the press suggest a liking for power politics. However, the position of Prime Minister is one of office and less power, accomplishments instead of promises and posturing.

Martin Douala

[Ntchanang Mpafe]

I cannot beleive my ears.So i when online and found that Mr Biya has added 6 other ministries.Okay!!! I think that fellow is a bigot with no sense of direction and purpose.he will continue to foster division in Cameroon by his marginalisation of some groups of people.
Cameroonian nature will solve our dilemma

[UK BOY]

Anglo's have been marginalised in the new govt.....true
the NW prov being the most affected........true
well that is not new to us!

But the question is do we really have to bother? No ofcourse.We have never actually seen the benefits of having a minsiter in cabinet.Well...his family may have... but not the general anglo group.We also have repeatedly rejected Biya and have massively favoured the SDF and the Anglophone movts.So why do we have to bother if he fails to invite us to his dinning table?

Again Mr Criminal Biya and Criminal Inoni...Get this loud and Clear... We dont give a damn! Go ahead feast,embezzle,plunder do as it pleases u but note! You or you children will be held accountable.It failed in Romania,Central Africa,Zaire,Uganda, It is failing in Ukraine..dictatorship and fraud has an end.The time will come when the masses will arise as one to see through your demise.As for us Anglo's we shall keep fighting,hoping for our liberation from the dirty grips of La republique and her puppets in the likes of Inoni.

We shall overcome someday...till then We dont care about your appointments,make Anglo's 20 ministers and we shall still vote SDF and ask for seccession.WE DONT CARE!!!!

[mukete christopher tahih]

I am not surprise with the action of biya.he knows that that his time is at hand as such he is doing everything possible to see that he accomplish his develish wish which he and his governement have been nursing since he was handed power by the former doctator.I for one would have prefered that biya should stay in power forever,to experience what God did to nebucadinezer.and I am sure that no metter what happens biya is going to pay for what he and his government has done to the cameroons, especially the anglophones.
I am sure that after his dead his children and those of his followers will bell the cat.And I still hope that our country will one day become the paradise that we have been waiting for.nothing last forever,I know that the Almighty GOD is there to free us at the right time,for only his time is the best.the anglophones will be freed by GOD himself.all we need to do is to keep on persevering.We should not base our hope on any of the corrupt appointed ministers from the anglophone zone they are not brave enough to deffend us,as such biya should continue doing what he knows doing best for his tribe and friends.
MUKETE CHRISTOPHER,UK

[Baron]

Mr Biya, remember what happened to Mr Sadame Hussien on December 13,2003 and how he was smoked out of a hole..Watch out.U and your click will be the next.Nothing Bad lives forever.

[Sankara Lumumba]

There will be consequences for those anglo traitors. Mark my words.

[njang t.]

UK Boy if you don't care why are you crying so much in here? Sankara there is no such thing as anglo traitors. Who made you the judge on what opinion anglophone people should have? We shall eventually be free of the likes of Biya, I pray for that and I work for the benefit of the people of my country. And when we are rid of Biya, I don't think separating from a country I've worked so hard for will be my first move. It will be making sure that my children realize the dream that I am working towards. You obviously don't understand what that means because you are cowards who want to run and join Nigeria instead of staying and fighting for your right. It is just like Africans to seek the easy way out. Run if you must, but the rest of us will be here waiting for you when you come to your senses.

[ako orock]

reading today 12/10/04 about cameroon;s cabinet reshuffle,i think mr biya is taking cameroonians for a joke and anything.i dont see how those who have manage the affairs of blessed cameroon for decades and did nothing can have the vision now to change anything b/c to me that, isn,t a reshufle but inhouse departmental change as all are the same corrupt administrators of yesta years,who lack credibility in the eyes of any progressive ,patrotic camreoonian who thinks better for his fatherland and the future generation.i call biya,s reshuffle a disgrace.

[Tandong Calistus Jong]

LEBIALEM STILL WAITING AND HOPING.
After the Cabinet Reshfflement the Lebialem people of good will, have been wonding and asking themself what is realy happening to them this time around again.
Lebialem people for since has been waiting for (Mr Biya)to composite or showed them complacent for their work too with one of his Ministerial post since the independent of Lebialem from Manyu Division as a full division on his own in the south west province.
Lebialem is the only division in the S.W.P-in Mr Biya's Goverment that has never produce or hold the post of a minister nor secretary of state.
For how long will Lebialem people keep on waiting for the son of man to come with the post of mininster

Tandong Calitus--Buea

[Divine]

Who is a Bakweri, Ewondo, Bassa, Bamileke, Haousa minister in Cameroon? In principle, they represent the government of Cameroon.In practice, Bi Mvondo's Homecoming Doctrine and practices manifest tribal representation in government. Most of us have been overtaken by Biya's political construct. Rather than accuse Biya for his pensée unique on nation-building,we have espoused it to the extent of making it a daily chorus.

[T. Victor]

Reading from some of you on this web site realy makes me
sick. Who cares about Biya's 36 ministries? Do most of you so-called anglophones realy think that Cameroon (la republique du Cameroon) is your country? The Ndian crude oil being refined in Victoria is completely dried. France is now forcing la republique du cameroon, your so-called country to enslave the Bakassi people for another oil source. What a shame. From so many of your comments on this web site, I have come to the conclusion that you fear competition, and merit. What I mean is that some of you have been induced to the francophone fraudulent ways of life, and you are afraid that any change will take away your fraudulent position, education, and fraudulent wealth. Your beloved Cameroon is so corrupt that even children demand bribe for minor services, the educational system is terrible, one cannot write a clean entrance examination to any higher institute of learning. Teachers, students, and even parents are all corrupt individuals who go with the flow. With all of these buried in the minds of most of the commentators on this website, things are not to be changed, or Southern Cameroon should not exist. I am glad you are the minority. Southern Cameroon MUST exist, and your fraudulent life styles days are numbered.

[Dinga Ambe]

Did some body notice that out going PM Musonge was really full of joy to be going away from what most have been hail to be a so called head of Government without any powers except to appoint deputy directors in your office and even then with prior approval from the LORD President.Musonge felt so relieved he made his first impromptu public speech and in English,pease!Mola as you take a well merited unwinding from the stresses of being used by a selfish and uncaring regime, revisit the Southern Cameroons Course for the sake of your children and children's children!