By Hon. Nerius Namaso Mbile(RIP)
Being an article published in Cameroon Life magazine October 1990
The question of multiparties in Cameroon has reached an advanced stage of discussion but I fear that we may be stampeded into a choice based on no clear and thorough examination of the subject.
Hon.Nerius Namaso Mbile
It is unfortunate that certain incidents have so far thrown into the debate an element of passion unhelpful in the matter. These elements include the loss of lives in Bamenda during the attempt to launch a new party, the conviction of Yondo Black and others and the timing of Foncha's resignation from the CPDM.
These elements are harmful to the debate because the passions they have thrown up are adversely affecting feeling against a subject that should otherwise have been dispassionately discussed.
In 1961, Southern Cameroons voted for unification under passions similar to those now prevailing in regard to the question of multiparty in Cameroon, and some of us still alive did speak out our minds on the future of this country.
In undying evidence of the attitude that grips men under the force of influence of multiparties, I shall quote what one typical citizen said of me at Kombone Mission at the height of the plebiscite campaign in 1960, "the thing wey dis Mbile idi talk ibi true, only na opposition".
When men polarise in camps under multiparties, they behave like victims of a rival secret society, but fight and die by their point of view no matter the demerits.
Cameroonians across the entire social strata have voiced opinions on the multiparty debate and I can see us fast drifting to a categorical decision on the matter.
The least any right-thinking person can do is neither to treat the issue lively nor to allow the weaknesses of personal prejudice, political ambition or the quest for office to blind him/her from seeing the unfailing merits and demerits of the issues.
Indeed, even though we must concede to the human weakness of leaving decisions to be taken by a few on behalf of the often silent and unthinking millions, the case of multiparties in Cameroon is one on which we changed our stand as recently as in 1966, and for those who were not babies then, there is no excuse for failing to benefit from the errors of the past.
When we changed from multiparties to a single national party in 1966, we had the most compelling reasons for doing so. I shall endeavour to spell out these reasons here for the benefit, especially of those who were yet unborn or who were too young to have fully understood what was going on.
At the end of the list any honest Cameroonian shall be free to consult the depth of his/her conscience as to whether these ills and obstacles have now disappeared or whether they are still there as well as new ones, fully staring us in the face.
1) Due to our tribal compartments people followed leaders of their tribe or clan rather than the ideas they propagated. Tribal loyalists wanted to see one of their own members on the plum tree in order to be sure of the ripest fruits. And, of course, when anyone went to the top of the tree he/she knew to whom to throw the ripest fruits first.
2) Whatever views were put forward by the group leader had to be defended to the end even if such ideas led to a blind alley. Followers only told you, "Our leader knows what is good for us", and they often only asked for the colour of their ballot box and this was whispered down the voting queue. Opposition views, no matter how right or brilliant, were regarded as the views of the enemy and were rejected out of hand.
3) The spoils of office were regarded the exclusive preserve of the winning party. Short only of carrying the losers' wives and children off as happened in the old tribal wars, everything was seized by the winning party subjecting the losers to sometimes inhuman treatment.
In January 1959, CM.7, the Premier's car, was still with Dr. Endeley, who kept it as he was yet hosting Dr. Nkrumah who was on an official visit to Southern Cameroons. As soon as Dr. Nkrumah flew off, Dr. Endeley's car was seized by KNDP thugs and driven away. Dr. Endeley was stranded at Tiko Airport in the face of thousands who had come down to see off Dr. Nkrumah.
When a large number of teachers were recruited to become DOs in 1961 in order to replace expatriates who were leaving as a result of independence, every one of them was a member of the KNDP party. P.M Efange and Eric Quan were suspended as Administrative Officers for being suspected of opposition leanings and long black lists of public servants with opposition leaning existed.
(I have in my possession one of such black lists of suspected CPNC members in the CDC). Foncha said openly during his visit to Ekondo-Titi, my constituency, "As long as you continue to support Mbile and the opposition, don't expect anything from my government".
Indeed, it was not until 1967 after the CNU had come that we got Ndian Division when A.N. Jua was Prime Minister. The list can go on.
4) The towns were in camps, the villages sometimes split down the middle and suspicion crept over into the sacred recesses of the family. A man coming home to hear his wife talking amicably to the wife of a neighbour in an opposite political camp would query to know what the conversation was about.
Many villages and traditional communities hitherto peaceful and undertaking much of their economic activities by communal effort were torn apart as the political camps issued divergent party programmes, many of them distracting the people from their normal duties, to attend party rallies.
5) Multiparties often forced men to descend to acts contradictory to the norms of decent human behaviour, in their quest for power and political office. In the 1961 elections, the CPNC lost four out of their nine members to the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly by carpet-crossing. Three of them became Ministers in the KNDP government.
How dedicated truly are the average Cameroonian political adherents to an idea beyond the quest for office? Even kings and custodians of sacred dynasties have been known to forsake their thrones and their subjects in quest for political office. How truly prepared, therefore, is such a society for the multiparty political system and all it entails?
I cannot end this case without spelling out certain ingredients imperative in the society without which multipartism in a democracy shall be an illusion.
a) The entire civil service must be totally non-partisan. In particular, the top civil servants like Secretary Generals, Directors, Chiefs of Service, and especially Governors, Prefects, Commissioners of Police, Commanders of the Gendarmerie, and officers of the army etc, must be totally non-partisan.
b) Of course, the judiciary and the entire armed forces cannot harbour partisan political leanings in a multiparty system.
c) The public media cannot support or project the views of any political party at the expense of others. The public media must, therefore, be neutral.
d) The cost of running the political parties must, to the last franc, be born by the members of each party. Government funds, cars, fuel, etc., must be strictly for government business.
e There can be no elasticity in the treatment of the resources of the state between exigencies of the government and those of the party, in the multiparty arrangement. In the single or national party a lot of overlap is quietly accommodated.
After examining the above causes that led us to the dissolution of political parties in Cameroon in 1966, along side the list of ingredients prerequisite to the working of a truly democratic multiparty system, I leave it to honest Cameroonians to say if we should take a leap into the abyss of multipartism with our eyes wide open.
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