50th Anniversary of Cameroon’s Reunification

Great Expectations, hollow outcome

The people of the South West expected a surprise package from the President, and he served them in truckloads. Without mincing, every South-westerner without exception, even the zealots and hallelujah singers who went on air the day following the main reunification event, should naturally be dissatisfied with the address delivered on the occasion by the President of the Republic, H.E. Paul Biya.

From the editor’s suite

With the curtains now drawn on the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Cameroon, time has come for a first appraisal of the event. The people of the South West expected a surprise package from the President, and he served them in truckloads. Without mincing, every South-westerner without exception, even the zealots and hallelujah singers who went on air the day following the main reunification event, should naturally be dissatisfied with the address delivered on the occasion by the President of the Republic, H.E. Paul Biya.

Great Expectations
    A translator friend once told me that “Great Expectations” should have been a more acceptable rendering for “Grandes Ambitions,” which were the compass of President Paul Biya’s maiden seven-year tenure. And since then, wherever he went, the President announced projects which, at the beginning of his second seven-year mandate in 2011, became “Grandes Réalisations” which should translate as “Major Achievements.” These were to be given concrete expression through the integrated projects, better known by the French appellation “projets structurants.”
    It was thus normal for South-westerners to expect much from the President’s address during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Cameroon in Buea. Speculation was rife, and with good reason: transformation of the Buea Council into a City Council, transfer of the regional transport office facilities from Limbe to the regional headquarters in Buea, official confirmation of the construction of the Limbe seaport, creation of a referral hospital in a town in the South West, establishment of more professional and higher educational institutions in the Region, construction of roads to link up the inaccessible divisions of the South West region, construction of a reunification road to glue the reunification pact, appointment of a son of the soil to appease the region  prior to the celebrations and following the incarceration of Chief Ephraim Inoni. South-westerners dreamt of all these and much more.


Hollow address
    But none of these was to be. The bulk of the docile people of the South West who watched or followed the ceremony either on telly or radio kept sighing as the President moved from one achievement to the other. As he rambled on, many kept asking themselves where the South West stood in all that. For instance, when the President bragged about the thousands of kilometres of tarred roads, the question that popped up in most minds was “how many of those kilometres can the South West pride itself on?”
    It is a truth, generally acknowledged, that Paul Biya is a master juggler and dribbler, a man commonly referred to as a sphinx. He thus enjoys displacing people. And he lived up to his reputation on this occasion. Though even those who know him very well expected at least one pleasant surprise at the worst, the lion man served us many in very bad taste. We were full of hope, expectantly looking forward to the anniversary for three long years! Those hopes were completely dashed by what turned out to be a cynical campaign address, which has left a sour taste in every mouth. Yes, we were expecting everything, but the President said nothing. Even the griots cannot gainsay this fact!
    Perhaps that is why there was not even a befitting public address system for fear that the empty speech may incite trouble from the mammoth crowd that turned out for the event. The privileged few, who sat at the grand stand, availed themselves of every silly opportunity to clap, giving the rest of the underprivileged who never heard what the President was saying the impression that it had some substance. Those who used their mobile phones or radios to follow the address were too intimidated by the overwhelming presence of brutal security operatives both in uniform and in mufti.

Explaining the unexplainable  
    In trying to explain away the issue of the public address system, some say it was merely an organisational lapse. They further state that there were also no loud speakers outside the Chariot Hotel hall where the gala night took place. So, those who sat under the canopies did not follow the DCC’s speech on the night of the 21st. Another organisational lapse, ascribed to greed, was the shabby treatment given to the ushers. They had initially received CFAF 12,000 each. After the main event, some were dropped and those who were selected for the gala night further received a paltry CFAF 2,000. This reporter gathered that when they tried to complain, they were curtly told that they were privileged to serve on such an occasion.
    Some say the President made no announcement because it was a national event. This is just arrant nonsense, blatant demagogy. Which of the President’s outings in recent years has not been a national event? He used the opportunity of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the army in Bamenda to make major pronouncements. In Douala, he outlined his vision of emergence with the advent of integrated projects. These took him to Kribi, Memvele, Lom Pangar and Douala where he laid the foundation stone of the second Wouri Bridge.
    So, what stopped him from announcing the construction of a seaport at the Limbe natural harbour? Let it be assumed (and we are merely assuming) that the Kumba-Mamfe road, on which construction work is yet to begin, was an unnecessary repetition. But why did the President evade the Tombel-Bangem road which he had promised during his maiden visit to Buea as President some 30 years ago? Assuming, once again, that it was a national event, the President should have at least made mention of the reunification road from Loum to Bakassi, and which cuts across Kupe-Muanenguba, Meme and Ndian. Nothing stops that road from being linked up with the Santchou stretch, through the Mbo plains to Lebialem and Manyu!

The Problem with Anglophones
    In an interview with a local newspaper, Barrister Nico Halle pins down all Anglophone woes to the PHD (Pull Him Down) syndrome. The eminent legal mind evaded some of the questions and at one time even claimed not to know that the bulk of our drilled oil came from Ndian and/or that Ndian division was not linked up by a tarred road. This is our real problem, that of always being evasive, mealy-mouthed and blaming others. 
    This reporter’s take is that our underdevelopment is rooted in ill-will and the ineptitude of our leaders. The truth is, all those who can voice our grievances are either stifled, Simon Munzu for instance, or are in government with tied hands and sealed lips.   

Disappointment
    It is said that the President was very satisfied with the massive turnout. Yet, he did everything to avoid the very people he claims to be satisfied with. All the people who came to Buea in the hope of seeing their President, left quite dejected. As a matter of fact, what a very insignificant number of them saw was a quasi baby’s hand (by virtue of its softness) waving behind tinted bullet proof glasses. With the unprecedented and intimidating security machinery that was mounted in Buea, there was no reason to fear for the President’s life. In fact, the people came to see their President, and again he played the sphinx to the letter.
    Buea residents are all the more disappointed by the breakages by the presidential guards. Though nobody made an official announcement that cars were not to be packed by the roadside, the bully boys gave no one a chance to clear them and systematically broke open all cars along the road. One Buea resident who made the unfortunate move to cross the road so as to have a better view of the presidential cortege had the scare of his life. He was brutally grabbed by the neck, hastily searched and given a good drubbing with gun butts. Residents of Clerk’s Quarters have no different story. One of them said she was surprised by a gruff voice and came out only to see a man who, pointing his gun at her, gave her family five minutes to leave their house.

Audiences    
    Some optimists believe that the people of the South West used the opportunity of the audiences to present their plight to the President. But this is mere conjecture. And thinking of the fact that most office holders are intimidated in the presence of the President, we wonder what courage they can sum up. We wonder what they will say, when Musongo, Ebong Ngole and Agbor Tabi (the onus of South West spokesperson should be on one of them) glare at each other and agree on virtually nothing. Musonge from Fako certainly does not have the same worries as the latter two.

Telling signs 
    At all events, some of the things that happened on that occasion should serve as an eye-opener. The applause received by Mola Njoh Litumbe just indicated how receptive people, especially Anglophone Cameroonians, were to the facts others tried as much they could to prevent him from tabling.
    Yes, PM Yang asked SCNC activists to form a party in order to dialogue with government. That alone shows that they are given consideration in some quarters. The vast majority of people from the North West and South West Regions are not for secession! Yet, it should be understood the more we lend a deaf ear to the genuine grievances voiced by these people, the more supporters they win. The vast majority is not SCNC today! But the more we keep pestering, incarcerating and even killing those who are, the more sympathetic people will be to their cause. If President Biya is really committed to solving the succession problem in Cameroon, then he also has to heed the call of the Anglophones. We should be made to feel Cameroonian in all respects. John Ngu Foncha, before he died, apologised for some of the errors of his generation. Succeeding generations have been virtually cowed into submission. But if things continue like this, there shall come a time when one generation will ultimately take its destiny into its hands!

Mr President,
    You reduced the South West Region to Buea. But it should be understood that Buea itself was merely catching up with other regional headquarters in respect of infrastructural development. Yet, our people at the grandstand pumped up the clap metre to max when you asked whether they too were seeing what you were seeing. They grinned like dumb fellows and clapped when you expressed the wish of bringing other regional headquarters to the level of Buea.
    Of course, this only confirms the erroneous information you apparently are being fed with. We are told a whopping CFAF 35 billion, coughed up by the state treasury, was supposedly used in giving Buea the facelift you alluded to. Yet, Mr President, a sizable chunk of this dough went into private pockets. Mr President, people in Lebialem, Kupe-Muanenguba, Manyu, Ndian and a good portion of Meme divisions go through hell to get home even now in the dry season.
    The sad thing about politics is that it accommodates demagogy and hypocrisy, a blend of which it often thrives on. Your address will be hailed as a political speech, but there is no gainsaying that it did not address the concerns of the South West and utterly fell short of our expectations. If our people fear to tell you, please know that your speech was a disappointment to South-westerners! Cameroonians cherish the peace that supposedly reigns here. But the absence of war does not denote peace. Peace can only reign where there is justice. You have the option to right some wrongs of the past, or to keep playing the ostrich and singing dimabola!
    We cannot hide behind the massive mobilisation and fact that the event was well-organised (the lapses notwithstanding) to pretend that all is well!