2005: Inoni Government, The Press And The Rest Of Us

Prof. T. Asonganyi, Yaounde

At the heart of the melee in 2005 was the determination of the Cameroonian people to improve their living standards. Guiding all of this was the vision and dominance of a neo-colonial ruling clique in government, in parliament, in academia, in the press, in civil society. It has been so for the last forty years. It was so, this year.

In all of this, participants remained conscious of the fact that to promote their point of view, they must yield to the word in print, the airwaves, and TV images. The press spent the year hungering for political drama and always reported the larger drama of upheavals, change, and erosion in old faiths.

As always, friendship, money, and other elements played a role, but for the true journalist, it was pure journalism. There were people who controlled the press in one way or the other, but, fortunately, they lacked the ability to control events.
Our journalists may end the year thinking that the perceptions they made an effort to distil had no effect. They should always remember that it might take years before the people see the big picture.

This year, there were floods in Buea, Limbe, Douala and other towns. Due to the lack of seriousness in government town planning programmes, every town has its shanties: unplanned housing, lack of safety. In general, ecological issues were still treated in a low-key manner and were not effectively integrated into government policy framework.

One hopes that the government will build our country along more environmentally defensible lines, especially in Buea, Limbe, Douala, Nyos and other places where such disasters loom. Disasters aside, the Inoni government, most likely directed from Etoudi, has done little to write about.

The immense moral authority of Etoudi failed to offer leadership and inspiration on issues of voting rights, which remained a hostage of the regime, corruption continued to gallop forward uninhibited, the 2006 budget remained as unrealistic as all others before it. Instead of facilitating the creation of wealth, by companies, entrepreneurs and workers, government enacted policies that only tended to ruin businesses.

The government has not ensured a pool of well educated people to recruit into the workforce, providing a low inflation environment for businesses to prosper, promoting long-term investment to sustain the economy; providing roads to move goods and services around; promoting regional development; seeking to open markets for the country's goods around the world; regulating markets in the public interest; fostering regional and transnational alliances, government perpetrated mediocres in the system.

It spent the year seeking new ways to raise money to pay debts. Members of government created "shadow enterprises" with which they won and executed government contracts. The government also spent the year running after a monster called "completion point."

The performance of the December-2004 government was also felt in the Post Office Savings Bank, which collapsed because government cronies gorged themselves on corruption and embezzlement. Customers whose money disappeared with the collapse fought all year long to recover their savings, only to be brutalised by the security forces or mocked by government.

Further, the year saw the publication in newspapers of names of enterprises whose debts were to be paid off by government. At the rate the debts are being expunged, it is doubtful that they will ever be paid off. Also published regularly in newspapers were taxes paid to council areas where forests provided timber for various companies.

The people of Ndian Division, where oil is pumped out on a daily basis by SONARA, continue to wonder why government pays taxes for one natural resource and not another.During the year, tribe came first in government circles. Even the composition of the cabinets of opposition members of parliament, is no different from the rest of the society. 

Of course, the SCNC has retained national attention. Although all nations are built on a diversity of cultural fragments, the ruling clique in our country has refused to carry out genuine decentralisation - federalism - to take care of these fragments. This is essential if the unity of Cameroon is to be maintained and strengthened. The only choices are dialogue, real democratic reforms, and a focus for self-determination.

Xenophobic nationalism which preaches that the nation is one, indivisible and irreversibly united is based on the ignorance of human nature. Xenophobes, whether they be the unitarists or the separatists, live with anger and hatred towards people who are not part of their "nation".

The cure for this is not violence but dialogue. Unfortunately, all those who stood above the crowd who passed away in 2005 - E.T. Egbe, Nzo-Ekha Ngaky, Tchouta Mousa, Tsanga Abanda never left behind any compass - a biography - to inspire us to achieve greater things than they, or give the youths a sense of history. Opposition Parties, Rising Taxes, Prices

Because of the dormancy of the opposition political parties following their 2004 debacle, citizen initiative groups (associations, trade unions) took over power unilaterally, without waiting for the politicians. The students were up in arms, asking for fair conditions in the universities. The trade unions and other associations flexed their muscles.

But unlike the students that were relatively successful, these other groups lacked leadership that could stir them into concrete actions. Consequently, petrol prices continued to rise without transporters and drivers having the ability to even make noise.

In general, the consumer price index rose significantly during the year, with essential commodities getting out of reach. From all indications, these citizen voice groups were completely infiltrated by government to render them powerless sometimes by dispensing bribes.

Finally, our diplomacy scored zero. There were thousands of African children, including our own, attempting to escape the failures of their governments by footing to Europe; most never succeeded. There were meetings upon meetings of the Bakassi commission that yielded no real fruits.

There were many conflicts in Africa that various African heads of state attended, yet there was neither word nor action from our own Head of State - perfect empty chair diplomacy. Age or longevity in power should breed wisdom and action, not indolence!

Comments

[Riccardo]

This is an example of a True Son of Cameroon giving his own critical point of view of the Biya's Regime.
Thank you Prof. Asonganyi.
Please keep on opposing the Regime for a Real Democracy in Cameroon.
Progressive Cameroonians are needed today more than ever.
With constructive criticism, we will weed out all evils in our society.
Democracy is coming and your work will be remembered by all Cameroonians.

May the Almighty God Bless you!

I wish you merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Riccardo
CAADIM (CAmeroonians Against the DIvision of our Motherland)

[Wilson Lobe Eseme, MD]

It takes a courageous mind to say the things Pr. Asonganyi is saying. While we appreciate this fine criticism, we would love to hear more about proposals for change.
Sir, your seat is certainly not enviable at this time, but you are not known to submit to demagogy.
Lead on Sir, lead on!

[Asonglefac Nkemleke]

Prof.,

You spoke our minds. You reviewed the year so eloquently we barely have anything else to add. Helas, "cry the beloved country". But then who is listening? Those upstairs remain adamantly immuned to their positions: cling onto power and use the power to boost personal egos not solve the nation's problems. Yes, the nation is adrift on the turbulent waters of today's world: leaderless, hopelessly tottering towards the brink. The absentee leaders are so full of themselves they ignore the judgement of history...if a history there is to look up to. As we enter a new year, can leadership sit up, take a long hard look at the path it traced for the nation more than 20 years ago, and do something to make things better? Can leadership revisit its own self-proclaimed road map of the 1980s? What really went wrong with those lofty promises of "new deal", "rigour and moralisation", "the higher interest of the nation"? Yes, we remember the early days. We remember the euphoria 23 years ago that drowned the nation and unfortunately turned a promise into a nightmare. But then, the road to development, a corruption-free society, and a fatherland in which selfless service is primordial cannot come riding on the back of good intentions alone. Good intentions like dreams are only as good as when we wake up from sleep after the dream, roll up our sleeves, and go to work to make the dream a reality. Can Cameroon's dream ever become a reality given the same dreamers? The answer is not blowing in the wind. The answer is in the hearts and minds of all of us: Cameroonians from east to west and from north to south. Cameroonian sons and daughters,speakers of English as well as speakers of French. For, who else but us Cameroonians are Cameroonians? Do we expect some Martians to take us out of the abyss into which we have so shamelessly let ourselves into? Power is sought with a purpose: in the general sense to serve the goals of ensuring prosperity of the people by the people and for the people; not power of the self, by the self, and for the self. Yes, we remember the early days: not nostalgically though, but with a sense of purpose, the purpose that the nation, the fatherland, "this good old country" (to use the late Etub"Anyang's words) is the home of every Cameroonian not some Cameroonians. It is not too late. But those upstairs must emerge from their comfort zones and face the realities confronting every single citizen. For the nation only exists because there are the people. And who are the people other than Cameroonians?

Asonglefac Nkemleke

[Madiba]

"Age or longetivity in power should breed wisdom and action not indolence"_Asonganyi.

That is the most grounded and effective statement I ever heard throughout 2005 from a person who needs to apply it to himself.And why not, to all the octogenarians in power.Long live Cameroon.
Happy X_Mas and a Proserous New Year to all patriotic comrades of our motherland,in the Motherland or the Diaspora.
WE SHALL OVERCOME.

NGA ADOLPH.
LEUVEN_BELGIUM.

[MFAOKORANTIMUK]

A true picture of the Country.
Thanks Prof. I hope you will be able to propose solutions to the failures you raised.
Where is the voice of the people?
My best wishes to Mr Asonglefac Nkemleke and his family where ever they may be. And to good old Zachary Nkoh. Its been a long time since i last heard your voices but it is equally very hard to forget the last time, some 20 years ago.Oh dear Cameroon, where art thou fathers.
'Truely the beautiful ones aren't yet born'(KA)
Let us pray ....................... Amen.