To divert public attention from fuel prices

Biya to order new corruption arrests
By Ayukogem Steven Ojong in Yaounde
President Paul Biya knows only too well how bitter Cameroonians have been, since the announcement last week of an increase in fuel prices.
    That is why the President is now resolved to order new arrests of senior state officials suspected of embezzling public funds, if only to reverse the public’s mood of disappointment and bitterness with the regime. This was our take from the press outing last Thursday by the communication minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakari, sitting alongside the minister of Justice, Laurent Esso.
    In his scripted opening remarks at the press briefing, Tchiroma touched on a number of issues about the war on corruption but dwelled on nothing in particular. He stopped just when his audiences was expecting to pick up the main theme of the statement, if there was any.

    Press men in the hall became jittery and wondered aloud what exactly Issa Tchiroma wanted them to take back  to their newsrooms.
    Tchiroma started by saying that a certain public opinion was employing every means to throw doubt on President Biya’s sincerity to fight corruption. He said this opinion used both national and international media to relay information that the clemency granted some embezzlers by the presidents only portrayed weaknesses in the war on corruption.
    Just when the listener thought Tchiroma would now make his point, the goverment spokesman started enumerating the different structures created by government to fight corruption, and the successes of these structures.
    Then Tchiroma moved from there and started reciting Biya’s different and separate utterances against corruption since his ascension to the helm of the state in 1982. Some of the statements by Biya were the following:
    “The embezzlement of public funds, no matter what form it takes, is a crime against the people that are being deprived of their resources. This must therefore be severely sanctioned..........Be aware that my determination to fight corruption is total and the fight will be pursued with more intensity, without fear and complacency nor discrimination, notwithstanding the social status or the political affiliation of the accused persons. Nobody should consider himself to be above the law.”
    Media analysts who took interest in Tchiroma’s statement said it was easily the most controversial and least convincing of Issa Tchiroma’s press outings since he became government spokesman in 2009.
    Many were quick to extrapolate from the statement that it was a way of informing the public that new corruption arrests are imminent, and that some of the victims will be the president’s very close collaborators.
    Some colleagues even hinted that Bapes Bapes’ embezzlement file has been picked up again,  and that some well placed Anglophones who were also cited in recent investigation reports may also be moved to the Kondengui prison. We gathered that 16 new VIP cells have been prepared at Kondengui prison waiting for occupation.