Lapiro’s Musings on President Paul Biya and His CPDM Regime: Tête-à-Tête with Dr. Peter Vakunta

During my stint in Cameroon in June this year, I paid Cameroon’s political gadfly, Pierre Lambo Sanjo (Lapiro de Mbanga), a courtesy visit at his home in Mbanga. It was an opportune moment for me to pick the dissident musician’s brain on what he thinks of President Paul Biya and his government. What follows is a translation of his reflections from French into English.

Follow this link to listen to the audio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QtD1ep2hik&feature=relmfu

Dr. Vakunta: To bring you back to your imprisonment in 2009, your fans have not hesitated to describe your incarceration as a miscarriage of justice. Do you share their view?

Lapiro de Mbanga: You know what? Justice is rendered in the name of the Cameroonian people; not for the sake of an individual. So when justice is rendered, there are people in the community that experience it and take note of it. I am going to say something that may surprise you: when I was thrown in jail, many people from Paul Biya’s party came to see me. Just so that you, my wife is member of the CPDM party; she is even a member of the CPDM bureau here in Mbanga. But I want you to understand that we don’t play politics in this house. Militants of the CPDM party brought bags of rice and envelopes to my wife because they know that justice exists. They did that because they were aware of the fact that I was imprisoned arbitrarily. I would not say that I am against the CPDM party. I would never say that. The CPDM is a Cameroonian political party that exists and has the right to exist. The question that needs to be asked is how is this CPDM managed? Sadly enough, by thieves! I would not say I have issues with the CPDM as a political party. I may even go further by making the following observation: ideals expressed in the book titled Pour le libéralisme communautaire brought a lot of hope to Cameroonians. That book made Cameroonians dream a lot about the future of Cameroon. But nothing that is written in the book has ever been implemented! Nothing at all from Mr. Biya’s book which critics claim was written by Senghat Kuo, peace be upon him, has ever been put to practice. So, I have no problem at all with the CPDM. It is important to be clear about this. But this party is managed by people who are involved in homosexual mafia, occult mafia, you name them. There are millions of ordinary Cameroonians who believe in the ideals of the CPDM. Sadly enough, the status quo of the party doesn’t change. I know people here in Mbanga who have been in the Youth Wing of the CPDM for 25 years. Their status never changes. I was under the impression that people are in the youth wing of a party because they are youths and climb up the echelons when they grow older. But for 25 years these people are still in the YCPDM! You see what I mean? I don’t have issues with the CPDM party as such; but I do take umbrage at the people at the helm of the party.

Dr.Vakunta: Apparently you have banished the word ‘fear’ from your lexical bank. What gives you the courage to say the things that you say about those at the helm in Yaoundé? Very few Cameroonians have the audacity to say the things that you say.

Lapiro de Mbanga: Yea, to fear someone you must first of all respect them. You fear somebody that you respect. I for one, I don’t have any respect for Mr. Biya, so I can’t fear him. I have not an iota of respect for that man. For this reason, I don’t fear him. I will tell you why I have no respect for Mr. Biya. Listen, as an individual, as a creature of God, I respect him but his attitude; his acts make me nurse nothing but disdain for him. Why so? I can’t conceive the fact that in a country of 22 million inhabitants, Biya always manages to conceal the real census figures from Cameroonians. I don’t know why he does that. I can only hypothesize by saying that it’s because he wants to rig elections. And when he does rig elections, he often declares that two million Cameroonians have elected him into office. Among these two million voters, there are dead people; there are people who have voted twenty times in order to inflate the number of voters to two million! I can’t respect a man of this caliber. I don’t respect him and that’s why I don’t fear him. Who is afraid of a bandit? Who fears a thief? I would rather die. I’m aware that he can eliminate me if he wants. But it’s because he is not God that I can simply tell to get lost! That’s all! It’s for all these reasons that I don’t fear Biya. He that speaks the truth does not fear lies. I am on the side of truth; why would I be afraid? When you are a truthful person, you’re proud even if your pockets are empty. I feel proud of myself. That’s it!

Dr.Vakunta: You’re a traditional leader here in Mbanga. I was wondering how you handle your role as auxiliary of Biya’s Government. How do you deal with Mr. Biya whom the Fons of the Northwest have baptized ‘Fons of Fons’?

Lapiro de Mbanga: It’s true that traditional leaders are considered auxiliaries of the administration. It’s for this reason that I have resigned from my position as chief here in Mbanga because I don’t want to serve as an accomplice of a regime against which I am fighting. I have let go my position as 3rd class chief here in Mbanga. But God is great. I continue to be chief elsewhere. The voices of men constitute the voice of God. In Banso, I have been given the title of Shey. In other words, I am a representative of the Fon of Nso wherever you find Nso people. Moreover, in my hometown of Bangoua in the Nde Division, I am a Notable in the Fondom. For those who know it, I am considered a sub-chief given that I am offspring and friend of the village chief. I have inherited the throne of my grandfather who was a Notable. They bestowed his title upon me. So, you see why I say I continue to be chief even it I have resigned from the chiefdom of Mr. Paul Biya in order to not be his accomplice in electoral fraud and gerrymandering(laugher). I am the people’s chief; the chief that the people have enthroned.

Dr.Vakunta: Your piece titled “constitution constipée” is the one that I love best. I was wondering what circumstances led to the composition of that song.

Lapiro de Mbanga: Ah! It’s the song that you like the most because that’s the piece that sent me to jail (laughter).I sang many songs before going to jail. Given that “constitution constipée” is the song that led to my imprisonment, it is totally understandable that people of good faith like yourself begin to wonder why it’s only now that Lapiro, who has been singing for many years, is thrown in jail. As soon as a freedom fighter is incarcerated, people normally begin to try to know why he has been imprisoned. Like most Cameroonians, I have had enough. Every Cameroonian is fed up. You are probably aware of the fact that I put my life at risk in this country in the 90s. Even before the advent of multiparty politics, which does not translate to democracy in my opinion, I had already taken it upon myself to denounce misgovernment in this country in my songs. You remember the Ghost Operations and all that stuff. What brought Operation Ghost towns to a halt was the Tripartite. For those who were not born then, it is crucial that they be told that there was a Tripartite in Yaoundé comprising the government, opposition parties, and members of civil society. It was through my intervention that opposition parties in Cameroon agreed to go to the Tripartite because I had told them that no war ends on the battle-field. All wars end diplomatically. When there is pressure at the battle-front, people resort to diplomacy to get what they want. So, with this reasoning I convinced them to go to the Tripartite in Yaoundé. Some people may ask in bad faith why opposition parties would wait for Lapiro to tell them to go to the Tripartite. My response to that question is that at that time, no want really knew John Fru Ndi, or Adamu Ndam Njoya or other folks in the opposition. The only person that had captured the attention of Cameroonians at that time was Lapiro de Mbanga. I started this fight for freedom in 1985 in my musical compositions; we’re talking five years before the institutionalization of multiparty politics in Cameroon. Thus, the people of Cameroon already knew where I was coming from. Members of the opposition were cognizant of the fact that what they were doing had traction because Lapiro stood with them. I told them that if they were not prepared to go to the Tripartite, I would wash my hands because I don’t know of a war that ever ended on the war-front. One resolution resulting from the Tripartite that sat well with the opposition was the agreement that Mr. Biya would relinquish power in 2011. But Biya reneged on this agreement. He amended the Constitution and stood for elections. Now, I felt bad because it was me who urged the opposition to go to the Tripartite. I felt that they would infer that I had lured them into a raw deal. I found myself obligated to denounce Biya’s volte-face. I said no to Biya because I viewed myself as the founding father of the Tripartite. Cameroonians must know this! The opposition did not want to be part of the Tripartite. It was I who pressured them to go to Yaoundé. They left the Tripartite knowing that Biya would not stand for elections in 2011. However, Biya being the sly that he is, later granted an interview on France 24 where a journalist asked him if he was going to stand for presidential election in 2011. His response was, “you know, 2011 is still far!” Upon his return home, he didn’t even wait for 2011 to arrive; he began to fabricate fake calls from Cameroonians asking him to run again. Who are these Cameroonians that asked him to run again? The two million out of twenty-two million people? I believe this is an insult on the intelligence of Cameroonians…!

NB: The rest of the interview will be published subsequently.

About the interviewer Dr. Peter Vakunta is professor at the United States Department of Defense Language Institute, POM-CA.