Philemon Yang

An unrepentant finance conservative
All those who jubilated and celebrated following the appointment five years ago, of Philemon Yang as the prime minister of Cameroon, have today realized that they had no cause to celebrate. Also, all those who thought that Yang’s appointment would usher in another spate of joyous moments for the Anglophones especially those from the North West, like was the case during the Achidi Achu and Mafany Musonge era have also had their hopes and dreams shattered, as Philemon Yang wasted no time to point out to them that he was a finance conservative and not a “father Christmas.”
    North West fons who paid a visit to Yaounde to congratulate their illustrious son on his brilliant appointment in 2009 could barely afford their return ticket to Bamenda.This was because the PM could hardly provide enough money for their return journey. The fons did not hide their disappointment. The fons have not forgiven their “stingy son” for the shabby treatment he gave them.

    The phenomenon of “trop percu” is still fresh in the memories of Cameroonians, when Philemon Yang after the failed adventure of the lions at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, asked for all members of the Cameroon delegation to refund part of the money they signed out as mission allowances. Even the minister of sport also had to refund the excess money he signed out, to the state treasury. Some people refunded as much as 25 million fcfa to the state coffers. It was the first of its kind in Cameroon. While some people praised Yang for the trail-blazing measure, others expressed surprise saying it was “du jamais vu” in Cameroon.
    The PM is also reputed to always reject proposed budgets for actions to be taken by ministers; he would always drastically down-size the budgets before he puts his visa on them. The case of the 2012 London Olympic Games readily comes to mind when the PM instructed that even federation presidents should not be part of the country’s delegation, talk less of journalists. It turned out to be the worst Olympic participation that Cameroon ever had. Even the recent Brazil outing was no different. We here that because of the paltry budget that was given the sports minister he could barely take care of members of the official delegation. We also heard of how the minister was thrown out of the hotel reserved for the Cameroonian delegation because he could not foot some of the bills.