By Azore Opio
Nothing is now more common than the great idea that those ruling this great country are either eminently insane or they more or less suffer severe forms of mental illnesses.
That was no way to talk to a people who had been under siege for three horrific hours and only inches away from death. I mean what the Minister Delegate in charge of Defence, Remy Ze Meka, said after the Limbe heist.
In his excessive eagerness to offer a belated advice where and when it was neither requested nor needed, the Minister uttered probably the most ridiculous statement of the century, coming only a poor second best after "ou sont les preuves?"
Ze Meka journeyed overnight, all the way from Yaounde, only to come and tell the people of Limbe that "some individuals attacked some banks, notably Amity and SGBC…. [and] made away with… FCFA 100 or 200 million (Eden No. 312, Monday 29, September - Wednesday 1, October, 2008).
The Minister was "breaking the news" to the Limbe inhabitants whom, we may now suppose, did not know that armed robbers had pulled a fast buck, right under the noses of the military.
With more than excess zeal, the Minister went ahead, regardless of the impact of his statements, and blurted out: "We are not surprised because we were informed some time ago that our financial and economic bases along the coast of the country would be attacked, notably Limbe and Douala so we had taken precautions and it is because of these that the damages were minimised…" (ibid).
So what? Come to think of it, Ze Meka might have been next door, watching as the bandits vandalised the banks and terrorised Limbe. If truly Ze Meka had compassion for Limbe and Douala, and he was aware that some financial houses in those towns would be attacked, why then didn't he put his soldiers on red alert?
Why did he have to wait until the bandits had looted a bank, destroyed a good portion of another one, killed and maimed innocent people and vamoosed in one piece, then he zooms into town to rant about how they minimised the damages caused by the robbers.
God in heaven! So, to Ze Meka, FCFA 200 million is chicken shit, a life lost is petty and several injured is minimal, better than no casualties, so to speak? After all has been said and not yet done, little doubt remains that the Limbe Heist story resonates like a bogus lie told by a school boy caught sneaking a smoke in the toilet.
In fact, lies that were previously passed on casually have now taken on the weight of Scripture, and the weight of Scripture, as it is, is heavy enough. So far, no issue has proven more explosive than the Limbe Heist.
There have been others which were equally explosive in their own time and right; the infamous denial coated with the question; "where are the proofs?", Augustine Kontchou Koumeni's 1994 "coup de couer" that vanished in mid-air between Paris and New York; President Paul Biya's "death" in 2003, the Albatross scam, the February upheaval, unexplained killings in Bakassi and recently, an aide de camp trying to steal billions from a presidential suite.
Surprise Party
The Limbe Heist was kind of a surprise party at which the guest of honour never showed up at the expected time and so the organisers of the party descended upon the high table, gorged themselves and afterwards shattered utensils for the joy of it.
Nonetheless, the guest of honour and the other guests that could have been invited from the Tiko Special Amphibious Battalion [boatless?] the Rapid Intervention Battalion, (BIR) [something conveniently slowed them down] the Man O' War Bay Military Base, [repelled by flaming guns] the Special Battalion for the Protection of SONARA (CSPS), the Delta Command, the Isongo Naval Base and the Buea 21st Battalion, showed up only after the party was over.
The police are nothing to talk about. They abandoned ship and fled. But
were it a "bush faller" without proper car documents, they would not
have hesitated to slap him to death.
In fact, remarks from a certain naïve participant at the Press Club
debate on Saturday 4, on Mt. Cameroon FM, Buea, insinuated that the
booms of guns and explosives were heard exclusively by civilians, not
soldiers; that the soldiers had to wait for orders, which came but too
late.
Protecting A Secret?
People were enraged by the slur on the banks' insecurity and the security of the Limbe inhabitants. Ze Meka was unusually testy as if he was protecting a secret. What was a simple bank robbery that had been announced much in advance, suddenly became a national issue, which only the Ministry of Defence could handle. In any case, it wasn't a war situation by a long shot.
Remember that the US Navy has, on a number of celebrated occasions, given Cameroonian soldiers expert training for what they call increased maritime security? Or is Limbe outside the maritime perimeter? Far be it from us to condemn sophistry which God has given us, but the fact remains that lying; whitely or blackly, is repugnant.
Can you imagine if some students, drivers, nurses, teachers or lepers or cripples, had taken to the streets on a peaceful march to try and catch the president's ear or eye, what would have happened to them?
A Fish's Eye View
A week before the pirates hit Limbe, a fisherman who likes angling along the stretch of beach between Mars Snack Bar and Miramar Hotel, said he espied a sailing boat with a mast but no sails, and flying a Swiss flag, anchored dangerously close to shore. What was more curious about boat, he said, was that it wasn't flying the Cameroonian flag as seafaring ethics demand.
Tickled by curiosity, the fisherman, who pleaded for anonymity, said he used binoculars to observe the boat. He said he saw that the boat, which must have measured 40-60 feet long, had two Zodiacs (inflatable rigs) floating by its side.
According to him, he was expecting that the Marine Martial or Coast Guard could have noticed the presence of the boat. Much more to his surprise, the fisherman said on Sunday morning after the bloody heist, he was on his way to the West Coast to fish when he noticed that the "Swiss" boat had vanished.
There seems to be no guarantee for the security of the public; the armed forces seem to be for the protection of the state and its institutions only on one hand, and the harassment and intimidation of citizens on the other hand. They are quick to attack and terrorise defenceless civilians. This makes the citizen the enemy to be exterminated with extreme precision, without a second thought.One good day, a plague of scorpions will descend on them and strike them to eternity.
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