Biya dribbles youths with vague promise
Young people and other Cameroonians who
spoke to this authoritative newspaper on 11 February said the 102 billion
special youth plan promised them by the Head of State on Youth Day’s eve was
non-specific and utterly revolting. They called it another hoax of President
Biya’s.
By EssanEkoninyam in Yaounde
As is the tradition, President Paul Biya
made an address to the youth on the eve of 11 February, celebrated in Cameroon
as Youth Day. The President usually seizes this opportunity to make special
promises to his young compatriots, some of which he fulfills. The special
promise he made this year was that of launching a special youth plan worth 102
billion FCFA. Hear the president: “…I have just
given instructions for the launch of a three-year “Special Youth” plan worth
102 billion FCFA in total. This plan should facilitate and accelerate the
economic integration of our youth. We should all take a keen interest in it. In
so doing, I believe, you all will be demonstrating your ‘economic patriotism’…”
However,
rather than please youths and give them hope for a brighter future, as
intended, this promise has left them more confused and frustrated than they
were before it was made. Many young Cameroonians who talked to The Median on 11
February said it was another rhetoric used by the President to bamboozle them.
They said President Biya’s announcement was not only vague but also revolting
to the extreme.
“What
does the President mean by a three-year special youth plan? How can he convince
us that a plan we know nothing about will facilitate our economic integration?
Are we dunces to accept a thing that makes no meaning to us? Is this not sheer
political chicanery meant to strengthen his hold on power, especially at this
time when there are hypocritical calls for him to stand again as presidential
candidate and even call an anticipated election? Personally, I want to see what
he means by “special youth plan” before I can believe him. But I would be
pleasantly surprised if any fruitful outcome springs from that announcement,”
Armstrong Berinyuy, an unemployed graduate of the University of Buea, said.
For
her part, Endale Marie-Laure, a degree holder in physics who works part-time
for a hairdressing saloon at Tsinga in Yaounde, said nothing entirely true
comes out of the mouth of the President who made the promise. “Did he not say
the other time that 25 000 young school leavers would be recruited? How many
graduates applied? And how many ended up being recruited? Were up to 15 000
youths employed despite the scores of thousands of applicants? Today, we hear
him talk of an ambitious three-year youth plan that would cost 102 billion
FCFA; call me a liar if anything worth a plan for the youth would effectively
be put in place between now and 2019.”
This
newspaper also met an adult politician who claimed to belong to what he called
the progressive wing of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement
(CPDM), but who asked not to be named. His were also not kind words for the
Head of State. He told The Median:
“Every
year, the President of the Republic who happens to be the chairman of my party
creates an avenue for some privileged Cameroonians to earn undeserved money.
This time around, it is 102 billion FCFA for a white elephant project that
nobody can presently put his fingers on. Before you know, half of this money
would disappear without a plan for the youth of this country being launched. It
is then that you will see him start looking for people – true criminals or
scapegoats – to send to Kondengui.”
Added
he: “The President had better invested this money for a more feasible project
that, for instance, would practically ensure the employment of young people
both in the public and private sectors; why not even in the domain of
agriculture which he also made reference to? There are experts and advisers
around him who should properly school him on this. Mr. President should not
wait to get it from the papers.”
All
in all, President Biya’s 2016 address to the youth did not play the role of a
tranquilizer in the minds of the people for whom it was destined. Rather, it
left many jobless youths disappointed and more confused. Until the promised 102
billion special youth plan takes off the ground, nobody, not even adults, will
take it seriously.
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