Techniques Of Corruption (VI)

By Clovis Atatah

A Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Gerddes Cameroon publication, "Corruption in Cameroon" (1999) gives interesting anecdotes on corruption in the soccer arena, amongst others. One of such anecdotes is that concerning the Challenge Cup second leg semi-final match between Olympic Mvolye and Leopald of Douala at the Amadou Ahidjo stadium in 1993.

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Curiously, one of those involved in the match-fixing scandal is the current Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Philippe Mbarga Mboa, who was then President of Olympic Mvolye. The referee, Tomota Christophe "gave" the match to Olympic Mvolye, that had "fixed" him.

Policemen had to escort Tomota out of the stadium because angry spectators wanted his head. Tomota later made a signed confession to the police that goes thus: "On Wednesday 27-10-93, I received a phone call from Mr Kaham Michel who suggested that we should meet at Luna Park [a rather discreet hotel at Obala, located about 40 km from Yaounde] around 10.00 am.

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When I arrived there at the appointed time, Mr Kaham (coach) said he had come on behalf of the President of Olympic, Mr Mbarga Mboa Philippe; he gave me the sum of 200,000 FCFA and insisted that I should do everything for Olympic to win the match… During the second half and at extra time, the second linesman Mr Zambo Roger told me not to worry.

He informed me that Mrs Mbarga had called and told him that her husband was waiting for us at home after the match. After the match, Zambo and I effectively went to Mr Mbarga's home. The President of Olympic was waiting for us. He told us not to bother about our career. He gave me 10,000 frs for my return trip and we parted.

" In spite of this confession nothing happened to Olympic and Mbarga Mboa. Incidentally, a similar case in France around the same period led to an entirely different outcome. The President of Olympique Marseilles (another Olympic), Monsieur Bernard Tapi, tried to fix a match and was jailed. Conversely in Cameroon, there is match fixing with impunity.

Last year, towards the end of the National League, the coach of Botafogo AFC in Buea said boldly in an interview published in The Post that he would "give" Victoria United victory, under certain conditions, in a future encounter with his team.

Nobody raised a finger! Yours sincerely once heard a story of a match-fixing arrangement that went wrong. Team X had arranged with the coach of home Team Y to "give" them a match. The coach of Team Y gave a bit of the "chop package" to a few strategic players. His goal poacher was not supposed to score and the defenders were to feign paralysis.

But the coach underestimated the goalkeeper and failed to "fix" him. When the goalkeeper learnt about the deal, he decided to catch like he had never done before. He reportedly vowed: "Ai go catch my last belle." (Apologies to Ndeifi Pius).

As was expected, the defence wall of Team Y was very leaky, but all attempts by Team X's attackers were futile as the goalkeeper served as a veritable stone wall. At one time, one of Team Y's defenders got so desperate that he attempted to score against his own side. His goalkeeper stopped it, to the consternation of his coach.

The coach then tried to approach the goalkeeper but he refused to listen. Exasperation set in. The final option was to replace the goalkeeper. But the home crowd that had been so impressed with the performance of the goalkeeper saw through the coach's diabolic plans and rioted.

That coach spent a few weeks in hospital nursing wounds inflicted by supporters of his team. The history of football in Cameroon is replete with cases of coaches who lost their lives because of bribe-induced bias. Yet, nothing significant is done about it.

Cameroonians routinely complain about the falling standards of local football. How can they have quality soccer when the better team is very unlikely going to win the match?

Economic Gymnastics

A senior official in one of the ministries in Yaounde was having an informal chat with journalists and complaining about liquidity problems when something suddenly hit him. "You're journalists," he said, "and you probably understand what this thing they call HIPC Completion Point is all about.

Please, tell me what it is all about because I, like many Cameroonians, don't understand anything." Unfortunately, none of the journalists succeeded to make the senior official understand the meaning of the HIPC Completion Point. However, there was unanimity that the sacrifices that Cameroonians are making to reach this apparently elusive Completion Point is too much.

We are told that if Cameroon reaches the Completion Point of the HIPC initiative, it would enjoy debt relief funds to the tune of FCA 1400 billion.

That of course, is tantalising. No right thinking Cameroonian would blame government officials for having sweet dreams about thousands of millions of banknotes that may just be within their reach in a matter of months.

What Cameroonians don't comprehend is why the government every so often fails to make a clear distinction between the cosy world of sweet dreams and the harsh world of realities. In December last year when the government tabled the Finance Bill at the National Assembly, many people pointed out that the budget was bloated and unrealistic.

Moreover, the bill envisaged government taxing Cameroonians through their skins. Government did not budge and pushed through the bill in a National Assembly where the ruling party enjoys a crushing majority.

The Prime Minister promised that although they had raised taxes (which he preferred referring to as "broadening of the tax base"), inflation would be caged. Credulous Cameroonians believed that there would be no price increases. But since January when the 2005 Finance Law went operational, the prices of commodities have been shooting skywards.

From a taxi drop to foodstuff (and even beer, lest bar regulars take me to task), Cameroonians are paying much higher prices. But if you thought these tax increases and price hikes have made government financially more comfortable, then you are gravely mistaken.

Recently, the Minister of the Economy and Finance reportedly convened cabinet ministers for a secret meeting. The main item on the agenda was the execution of the 2005 budget. Ministers, who had been living through liquidity crises, thought that the meeting was meant to solve their problems.

After the ministers complained of the belated execution of projects due to lack of funds, the Finance Minister solemnly informed them that the budget had been scaled down by over 30 percent. Reason? The HIPC Completion Point.

So much for the Completion Point! Yesterday, Cameroonians suffered through the so-called Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP (imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions), that saw salaries slashed by up to 70 percent and many lives destroyed. The SAP is over but there is nothing (except broken dreams) Cameroonians can show for it.

Today, Cameroonians are again suffering through another Bretton Woods imposed programme. As Lapiro de Mbanga questions, "Na which kind kontri dis?"