Interview

Any Nation Without A Moral Foundation Is Bound To Collapse 
- Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle
    Barrister Nico Halle, there is an upsurge in immorality, violence, juvenile and adult delinquency in Cameroonian society today. What do you think is the cause for this breakdown in morality in Cameroon?

  

    Ntumfor from the way you speak, you seem to be sounding an alarm about a runaway, a holistic breakdown of morality and a galloping upsurge in adult and juvenile criminality. Is that the picture you are painting?

    It is even worse than I have painted because what I think we merit in this country is divine intervention. As yourself the question: When a student picks up a knife and stabs his teacher to death, where did he learn that kind of behavior from? When a Divisional Officer, DO, a woman, slaps a teacher, a man far older than she is, in front his students, is that what she was taught in ENAM? When in one week we hear of three cases of fatal violence perpetrated by students in three different schools and in different towns, does it speak well of our society? Perhaps I should ask you the question: Is the stabbing to death of a teacher by his student as bad as when a state agent embezzles 50 billion that was allocated for the construction of a hospital in a locality and hundreds of Cameroonians die of lack of adequate health care as a result? When people who pass around for political leaders tell lies to the electorate; when government ministers tell blatant lies, embezzle state funds, ask for kick-backs before awarding contracts, award public investment contracts only to their incompetent friends and girlfriends; when marks are sexually awarded in high schools and universities; when parliamentarians siphon money for micro-projects into their private pockets; when contractors collect so-called ‘mobilization fees’ from the state treasury for contracts awarded only to abandon the projects in the end; when government ministers ask for kickbacks, retro-commission in French, from a foreign investor who wants to invest in a project to give jobs to hundreds and thousands of Cameroonians; when in our hospitals treatment is given only to those who can pay extra money to the doctors; when in our courts justice is sold and to the highest bidder etc etc, can such a society thrive? Is there no cause for alarm to be raised? It is for this reason that I am seizing the opportunity of this interview to announce the re-launching of the nationwide crusade for moral rearmament that I started some years ago when I was the president of the Christian Men’s Fellowship of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, PCC. When I launched that crusade I went all round the country preaching the need for morals to just every segment of society: office holders, teachers, lawyers, magistrates etc. And I bought thousands copies of the Holy Bible which I distributed to governors, ministers and in fact all those who deal with the public. It may interest you to know that I shared some copies of the Bible even to churches. I did this for more than 15 years running, from when I was group president up to when I became national president of the CMF. I did this to fight moral decadence; to fight corruption, bribery, tribalism, sexual deviance, homosexuality, in fact immorality in all its forms. I fought against all of these.

    Ntumfor from the answers and explanation you give, you seem to exonerate the state from any responsibility for the chronic breakdown in morality in Cameroonian society. You mean the state; the government has no hand or doesn’t share the blame for this?

    No, I cannot leave out the state. Of course, the state shares in the responsibility. Otherwise, how do you explain the fact that a country so richly endowed with natural resources: Oil and Gas, Timber, Diamond, Gold, Uranium, Cocoa, Coffee, Banana, and all varieties of food crops, has become so poor as to be branded heavily-indebted poor country, HIPC? How did we descend so low as to be going around cap in hand and begin for what we should be helping other poor countries with? It is all the result of bad governance: long years of institutionalized corruption and impunity unbridled. Steve, I believe that Cameroon is a country favoured by providence. The vast human and material wealth with which we are endowed bestows on us a role in Africa and the world which no one else can assume or fulfill. But the fear that haunts me daily is that we might have betrayed irretrievably this high destiny of our nation. For instance, can you explain why a richly blessed country like Cameroon should be going about begging and borrowing? What did we do with the countless billions that a generous providence poured into our state coffers in six decades of our independence? That money was enough to launch us into the middle rank of developed nations and transformed the lives of our poor masses. But what did we do with it. It was stolen and salted away by corrupt state agents and their accomplices. It was squandered through uncontrolled importation of luxury cars and other goods for state agents and office holders. It was embezzled in through inflated contracts to an increasing band of party loyalists who have neither the desire nor the competence to do the jobs. It has been consumed in the escalating salaries of a grossly overstaffed and unproductive public service, Money that was supposed to be used to create employment through industries has been embezzled with impunity by a few unscrupulous individuals, who have either starched the same in foreign accounts or bought shares in foreign companies to the detriment of the majority of Cameroonians. But in as much as I am appalled and outraged by what is happening to our country, I must at the same time acknowledge the effort that the government is making recently to try to correct the situation. But we must at once admit that the state can do very little when the parents don’t take their responsibility in the homes. The state cannot go into individual homes and ask parents to correct their children. I think the state is doing much. It is not the state asking state agents to embezzle; it is not the state asking teachers not to teach morals to students. I think the state is doing a lot. We see structures put in place to fight corruption, monitor human rights abuse, regulate the press etc.

    But Barrister Nico Halle, for the man of law that you are, I haven’t heard you castigate the judicial system for failing to play its role adequately or for participating and promoting corruption in the country.  You mean our judicial system is upright?

    I have not said or insinuated that our judicial system is playing its role satisfactorily. I did not say that. I think our judiciary has its share of the blame. There are so many corrupt magistrates and corrupt lawyers, just like there are good ones too. But I must say that the number of corrupt lawyers and judges is overwhelming. The good ones represent a very small percentage. Otherwise, how do you explain the fact that a very rich nation like our has become so poor, heavily indebted and beggarly yet culprits of embezzlement are walking free and brandishing their stolen wealth in public with impunity? Why should a few be swimming in superfluous wealth, while the majority is wallowing in abject poverty? Why should the treasurer, tax officer, customs agent from ENAM own several houses and drive in luxury cars, while teachers from ENS are so poor and desolate? What explains these discrepancies in our society. It is nothing else but corruption and embezzlement. And the buck stops at the table of our judges to bring culrits to book

    Ntumfor how did you receive the news of the student who stabbed his mathematics teacher to death in Yaounde recently? We saw the Minister of Secondary Education rush to the school to calm down flaring tempers and reassure the teachers. But is that enough? Can government not do more?

-I must be honest with you in saying that Prof. Nalova Lyonga is one of the ministers that I admire a lot. In fact I was so touched by the fact that she rushed to the school instead of staying in the comfort of her air-conditioned office and giving instructions to her collaborators like we see some other ministers do in similar situations. That shows a woman who is compassionate and who is conscious of the role society expects her to play as a high public office holder. That she rushed to send comforting words to the deceased’s family and his colleagues the teachers, was quite commendable and comforting. Her mere presence and the fact that she made firm pronouncements denouncing such scenarios henceforth in schools should be applauded. She urged the ‘surveillants’ to do their job of preventing and punishing delinquency in the school milieu. She urged them to control the students to make sure they don’t infiltrate dangerous weapons in their bags and the pockets of their uniforms. But we must also admit that a student who is morally upright can have a dangerous object on him, but he would not use it to harm his neighbor. Conversely, a student who is morally depraved and badly brought up may not have a weapon on him, but would rush a pick a stone to harm somebody who provokes him. So you see that the bottom line is morality. And like I said earlier, there’s an urgent need for the government to consider re-instituting moral training (religious and civic education) in our schools.

    But Ntumfor, when you consider the salaries of teachers, magistrates and even doctors in Cameroon today, do you think it is good enough as to motivate them to do their job diligently as to really follow up the students and shun corrupt practices?

    I can’t say I know how much these categories of public servants are paid, but I hasten to note that when somebody works for just little pay then that person cannot be expected to do their job properly. The likelihood is that such a worker becomes defective, effective and inefficient because of de-motivation. So, when you say that teachers, magistrates and doctors are not adequately paid then it is a call for concern and I use this opportunity to urge the government to look into the situation with a view to review the salaries of workers in these very delicate and essential services, upwards. When worker are not well paid they only become vulnerable. Government should try to harmonize the salaries and advantages of its workers. It should avoid discrepancies which only engender frustration and demotivation.

    Ntumfor what last word to our readers to close this interview.

    My last word is Cameroonians, all Cameroonians – youths, adults, teachers, doctors, magistrates, lawyers, police, gendarmes, soldiers, administrators, ministers etc should see the urgent need for a moral rearmament of our society. The government must make the teaching of moral and spiritual education compulsory in schools, from primary school to university. University campuses should have chapels and mosques as is the case in other civilized societies. Then this policy of the government not recognizing religious knowledge as a condition for admission into high school, Universities and the public service should be abolished. Instead, a pass in religious knowledge should, as a matter of fact, be a pre-condition for entry into the public service. Then Cameroonians must learn to love one another because it is from love that all other things emanate: unity, peace, solidarity, respect, honesty, reconciliation, forgiveness, restraint etc etc. God is absent wherever there is no love. It is Godly to love. So let’s love one another for peace to reign, for corruption to end, for violence and banditry to disappear.

    Ntumfor thank you for accepting to share your expert and most sought-after views with our readers.
    It is me to thank you for choosing my humble self from among the millions of knowledgeable Cameroonians to seek my modest opinion on the upsurge in moral decadence and juvenile and adult delinquency in Cameroonian society. I think the pleasure has been mine. Maybe I cease this opportunity to wish the bold, independent, authoritative and widely read The Median good luck and brighter days ahead.

Barrister Nico Halle

Before I say what is responsible for all these, permit me to first of all share in your observation and disappointment about an upsurge in juvenile and adult delinquency in Cameroonian society. It is quite appalling that morality in our country has been thrown to the dogs. In fact any nation without a strong moral base is resting on a weak and shakable foundation. Immorality is a phenomenon that can easily lead to the breakdown of any nation. It can only bring a nation on its knees because any nation without god’s vision is likely to perish. Coming back to your question, I think that all these deviant behavior you mentioned are the result of a failed responsibility. Beginning from the home, parents have failed to bring up their children in the fear of the lord. All what we see in society are a manifestation of what happens in our individual homes. So, when governance in our homes is not based on spirituality and morality, then what we obtain in society are those behaviours that you decry: delinquency, both adult and juvenile: breakdown in morality; corruption; embezzlement; violence; banditry; anarchy etc. The failure of parents to raise their children to be morally upright spirals into our schools, where those who pass for teachers today were themselves not properly brought up by their parents and teachers and so what they impart on the students and pupils is just education without morality and spirituality. Ask yourself the question: can a morality bankrupt teacher or parent give morality to a child? You answer is as good as mine. It is an emphatic no. So, I think there is an urgent need for moral and spiritual emphasis to be inserted in our school curricula so that pupils and students, who are the parents and teachers, and in fact the leaders of tomorrow, should be brought up to be morally upright. This is because any child who has only circular education and no moral and/or spiritual education is a potential danger to society. That is about it for our schools. We also have peer groups where children and even adults copy from their friends and those they interact with in society. If the majority of your peers know only bad things then you will only copy bad things from them. Human nature is such that man has a greater tendency to copy only things that are deviant and unusual. In Cameroon today, you realize that pupils, teachers, state agents, leaders of peer groups etc are all morally decadent. This is because they all had no moral foundation as children and as students, and what they copy from their peers are only bad things: corruption, embezzlement, violent behavior, disrespect for elders and constituted authority, banditry, rape, homosexuality, occultism, feymania, get-rich-quick syndrome etc etc. So when a country fails to impart moral education to its citizens that country is doomed.