By Neba-Fuh
The Ondo Ndong embezzlement scandal is just a drop in the ocean of unchecked managerial or let me say, administrative excesses (because Cameroon is not managed, it is administered), that the Yaounde oligarch is reputed for.
It is a 'laissez faire' system where the Chief Oligarch himself, has never been audited for almost 25 years at the helm of this nation. The guy rules the country as a private enterprise.
When one continuously hears a lie, that lie starts sounding to be true. It really beats my imagination when one hears compatriots say 'the problem in Cameroon is not the President, but the Ministers, Directors, and other appointees, spiralling down to underpaid civil servants'. What a disastrous illusion!
It takes a mentally sound President to identify and appoint men of integrity. It takes a patriotic President to propose laws that can stand the test of posterity, as well as manage a country that is long-term development oriented.
The job of President is not for playboys and tourists. A great nation cannot be run from hotel apartments in Europe. It marvels me how a President does not make a tour to the Provincial headquarters at least once a year to get the tempo of the developmental projects for the previous year, but takes lavish holidays abroad, anytime he wishes.
Cameroon is a country void of any accountability. The so-called Ministry of State Controls, as well as the Audit Bench are just joysticks controlled by the Etoudi oligarch. One really wonders why an individual, Ondo Ndong, and co, will swindle so much money (FCFA 52 billion) in so many years, unchecked by a Government, which claims to safeguard the common wealth of its people.
If you lived in Cameroon years before Ondo Ndong's sacking and arrest, you would have had no iota of doubt that this fellow was toying with the people's money. Worst still, he was often seen on State Television (CRTV) distributing gifts to all kinds of groups and associations, dishing out the people's money without their permission.
The Oligarch and his accomplices knew this but did not react. When it was time to go begging again in the highly publicised 'Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative', Brettonwood Institutions served as the purgatory. The thief caught a handful of his accomplices and presented them, then we entered the 'club of shame' -HIPCI.
A lot of the people's billions have been embezzled by a lot of unpatriotic Cameroonians who still parade freely in Cameroonian soil. See the mansions and ostentatious cars some of those oligarchs own. No problem with mansions and big cars, if only you own them through hard work while paying your tax. I am talking about people's money misused and unused. None of them will go free. They will be booked.
The election fever is on now. The ruling party oligarchs will not distinguish between the people's money and party money. Treasuries will be looted to sponsor party campaigns, as if they wouldn't rig if they don't win.
We wait for the 2011 exit election. When they leave the stage, we will search them, and let them answer in the people's court, even after they have received ablution from their favoured clergymen. After all, don't they say that: 'Better late, than never?'
Waiting that they go may be tacitly brooking them and their unabated bestial acts.Rigging even then will unabate cause skanky hoodlums wanted will not freely relinguished Power.They are obsess with it,need it to stop and or evade prosecution and being sent in a calabozo. You mean the cup of endurance has not yet ran over?You could wait ????????
Posted by: Ndiks | Monday, 23 April 2007 at 08:06 AM