-Says the Fcfa 75 bn for Biya's 500,000
mini laptop computers could provide at least 6,000 jobs with a salary of
100,000 frs per month for a period of ten years!
 |
| Justice Ayah Paul: Biya is using the laptops as a bait |
The Minister of Higher Education, Jacques
Fame Ndongo signed communiqué No. 16.000/MINESUP/CAB/nn on July 26, 2016
explaining Biya’s regime’s “Plan SpecialeJeunes”. China’s Sichuan Telecom
Construction Engineering Co. Ltd has been contracted to supply 500,000 mini
laptop computers to university students. This will gulp some FCFA 75 Billion of
borrowed money from China’s EXIM Bank.
PAP amongst other issues, pick the
following:
1) The government failed to inform the
Cameroonian people of the interest rates of the loan that the country shall
incur within the 20-year period. We ask that such figures be made known
immediately;
2) Such a venture is not only a very bad
investment, it is also a complete waste of resources
Much
as computers are vital for research and other academic work, PAP believe that,
this does not beat urgent priority projects on Cameroon’s development totem
pole such as fighting the scourge of unemployment, provision of potable
drinking water to every household, mechanising agriculture, putting meaning to
‘free primary education’ etc.
Talking
about combating unemployment,75 billions can do a lot! Go also, to our state
budget line by line and cut back on fuel, out-station allowances and other
reckless spending such as entertainment. Put all of these together and create
factories across the country that would finish our raw materials … create a
name for the country as a manufacturing hub in the region.
And
by the way, in case this embarrassment of a regime didn’t know, 75 Billions
could provide six thousand jobs for youths with a monthly salary of 100,000 frs
for the next ten years.
The
bidding process to pick Sichuan Telecom Construction Engineering Co. Ltd is
mired in mystery and constitutes a very bad deal for Cameroon.
At
the press conference of Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo, he brandished a sample of
the said computers. It emerged that what the government intends to supply are
only mini laptop computers. The
Intelligence Unit of PAP contacted seven major laptop manufacturers in China’s
leading manufacturing city of Shenzhen
and requested for Pro forma Invoices (PI) for 500.000 pieces of the
highest grade mini laptop computers with each having a warranty of 2 years. Lo
and behold, the prices ranged from 52 dollars (29,350 Fcfa) to 79 dollars
(46,373 Fcfa) per piece
The
arithmetic mean of the prices is 65.5 dollars (38,448.5 Frs). So, if government
is buying 500,000 laptop computers for a whopping 150,000 Frs per piece, it is
either she has been duped or some minister(s) have inflated the prices four
fold.
There is no doubt the computers are a bait
president Biya is using to hoodwink the youths as elections draw to a close.
Biya’s so-called “Special Plan for the Youths” is a mockery to the youth of
Cameroon. PAP believes that it is the youths who ought to be the commanders of
their destiny and not some octogenarian who is tired, unproductive and lazy!
The
youths must remember that research research has shown that cognitive ability
depreciates with age. That explains why in 1981, Cameroon’s economic growth
rate stood at 12%. Those presiding over
the country at the time were young, vibrant and energetic people.
When
in 2004 the economic growth plummeted to 4.2%, the country was governed by old,
tired, unproductivegerontocrats! These
old men cannot therefore pretend to be mapping a future for the youth.
AKOSON A. Raymond, PAP Secretary General
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