PRESIDENT BIYA’s LIFE TERM ON WHEELS

In a much anticipated move, the septuagenarian who has been holding unto the helm of power in the dog-eat-dog country known as Cameroon is pulling the rug of democracy from underneath his brazenly docile citizens. In his 2008 New Year address to this Central-West African nation that has won three gold medals from Transparency International (TI) for the most corrupt country, President Paul Biya made it known that he could no longer remain “indifferent” to popular calls for a Constitutional revision that would make him President for life. In other words, he would jump in a lake with hungry crocodiles if this was the “people’s will”… You think? Well, Article 6, Paragraph 2 provides that “the President of the Republic shall be elected for a term of office of seven years renewable once”. Oh, how convenient that the “people’s will” is for him to become President for life! If this is not a mockery of what democracy is, then nothing would qualify as a slap in its face and what common sense dictates.

It is absolutely nonsensical for any Cameroonian, even if endowed with a brain half the size of the shit of a rat, to ruminate the thought that this despot that is clinging unto power could ever effect or be the agent of positive and meaningful change in the beautiful land that has been turned into a hell-hole under his 25 years of unaccountable stewardship. It is under his watch that Cameroonian youths have become worldwide conmen and are becoming a monthly staple of American media for all the wrong reasons. Little town newspapers and television stations have become so familiar with the` location of Cameroon on the map of Africa they can point to it in their sleep. The story line is the same: We can double your money in a twinkle of an eye if only you entrust us with so much of your American currency.

The line is taken right out of the pocket book of their commander-in-chief, President Paul Biya who is constantly feeding lies to Cameroonians while robbing it of life. After his ostensibly stolen victory at the 1992 Presidential elections he earned a five year mandate that was renewable once. However, like the puppets that many African leaders are, he conveniently made revisions to the Constitution for no other reason than the fact that France had also changed the mandate of its Presidents to a Seven year term. But he did not stop there. Together with his subordinates that had marched the streets clamoring against multiparty politics in Cameroon, the slate was wiped clean and he was eligible for a new seven year term renewable once, a term that is slated to expire in 2011 on his 78^th birthday.

His cowardice at addressing the issue when asked by journalists at France Channel 24 on October 30, 2007 was the only constant for a ruler whose country has become a dragnet of poverty in the region. Indeed, according to his very own admission, economic “growth… stood 3.5% in 2006; it will probably reach 4.1% in 2007 and forecasts put it as 4.5 in 2008. This is not bad, but it is not sufficient to ensure the effective takeoff of our economy.” One thing that is striking about this section of his speech is that it speaks of the year 2007 and 2008 in a future tense! And it is difficult to wonder whether this is not an old script from 2006 that was dusted and presented to his “Excellency, the President of the Banana Republic”. Also, one would be amiss not pointing out the low expectations that he sets for his country and the fact that he inherited a robust economy that had never grown at less that 4.5% under President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Furthermore, it is his own admission that he is a failed leader: I instructed the government to speed up the launching of major agricultural and industrial projects that I have listed time and again.” Why would he have to list projects “time and again” if he is serious about them and have Ministers that execute his orders?

One also loses a pulse even as foreign interests are discovering more reserves of natural resources under his Royal CLOWNSHIP, while his forecasts remain less than promising for the majority of citizens that are living at less than a dollar a day. Far from his earlier rhetoric that the light was at the end of the tunnel, Cameroonians seem not to even know whether or not they are in a tunnel or in a sealed cave. Unemployment rates are above 20% and are hardly ever published. Survival for most is hinged on remittances from the Diasporas, which is said to account for a little less than $1.5 billion in 2007 alone. These disbursements can help only so much in taking care of tuition, putting food on the table, clothing and cell phone bill payments to keep the lines open for the next month or next pay check. No one seems to even care about how the sender is surviving, so long as they can milk the cow dry.

In the morbidly dry speech, he flies over enumerations of the achievements of his government to include “hundreds of new school (that) have been opened”. Really! This is a country where government’s responsibility in opening a new school all but means that the President issues a Decree to this effect without allocating resources for the building of the structures. It behooves the villagers or Parent Teacher Association (PTA) to figure out how to beg, borrow and steal to build the school and even house the administration. In the meantime, a bunch of self-seeking and misguided elite draft and send “Motion of Support” letters to their idol President thanking him for his benevolence and wondrousness.

Cameroonians truly deserve what they have if they can no longer find reason in why six young people died in Bamenda on May 26^th, 1990 while marching in hope of a better future. Many more have died after them. Many more are incarcerated across the country. Several have been maimed. Dreams have been crushed. The temptation to get out of Cameroon has never been so pressing. China. Dubai. Australia. Russia. Germany. Ghana. Equatorial Guinea. America. South Africa. Nigeria….. Anywhere! Cameroonians just want to get out of there. Then what?

Running from the country must not tantamount to running from the problem. It would be a disastrous proposition for sensible Cameroonians and just the type of victory that Biya and his cohorts await.

It is time for the masses to stand up and give these lying bastards a taste of their own medicine. According to the Liar-in-Chief, his desire to review the Constitution is based on popular will. Well then, let’s try this:

1) Cameroonians at home that do not want the furtherance of this monarchy should bombard any government institutions including Divisional Offices, as well as private and foreign media with letters stating where they stand. We know that the government media will not publish them or talk about them. But let it be done even for the sake of archives.

2) Cameroonians abroad should also write letters about this affront to democracy. They should copy their embassies, international financial and humanitarian organizations doing business with Cameroon, and flood news outlets that deal in international affairs like CNN, BBC and France 24 with these developments.

3) Cameroonians in the Diasporas have to infiltrate colleges with African Studies Departments to talk about the reversal of the democratic process in Cameroon. This may provide some understanding to the US Immigration and Naturalization Services that is quite alarmed by the staggering numbers of Cameroonians that are applying for asylum.

4) Each time and everywhere that President Biya goes on an official or officious visit, even one Cameroonian should attract the attention of the local press with placards or posters exposing the dictator.

The blood of over 300 Kenyans has not dried off the charred church building. The genocide in Rwanda is still fresh on the minds of caring beings the world over. The carnage of Darfur is ever still present in living rooms. Cameroon is in toe. The only question that observers are agreed on is when? But observers have been wrong in the past. This is what Cameroonians are banking on – fading hope.

Innocent Chia
Citizen Journalist.
email: innochia@gmail.com