Biya`s Cameroon and lack of Patriotism

Paul Biya

By Bertrand Etukeni Agbaw-Ebai, Boston Massachussetts
The pervasive manner by which Cameroonian state employees, private corporates and individuals steal money using chronic fraudulent means supported and justified by “dorky” papers in a passionate, derisive, satanic and hypocritical level is a convulsed crisis that is decimating the State of Cameroon`s Treasury and embroiled in a governance scandal critical in dire need of salvation. 
    At the campus of the International Relations Institute of Cameroon-IRIC the intellectually acclaimed and vociferous Prof. Emmanuel Pondi at the amphi 500 in the Theories of International Relations lectures said the next president of Cameroon after Paul Biya will have a lot of work in crafting a new Cameroon identity and international image. When asked about the challenging problems, he said the mentality of Cameroonians toward money had negatively over-powered the spirit of patriotism. Patriotism is the love of one`s country directed by critical intelligence. Meaning it is a citizen devoted love, support and defense of one’s country and national loyalty. The Median Newspaper opines that when the state fails in its duties towards the citizenry, the citizens find no reason to honor their obligations to the state.

    This is an apt description of the state of Cameroon under President Paul Biya, where everything has gone wrong; the signs and symbols of the nation are directed towards a failed state. From whatever angle you look at it one is astounded by the enormity of problems confronting the state of Cameroon. If you conduct a DNA test on the mental state of the average Cameroonian civil servant from ENAM and other such schools, you will be flabbergasted by their propensity to pilfer from the public till. Everybody is only concerned about protecting what he has stolen from the state or plans to steal. 
        Despite the selective process of combating corruption by Biya`s operation sparrow Hawk, there is still no fear as new methods keep resurfacing making corruption a way of life. As a consequence of corruption and embezzlement, the resulting effect is a deteriorating public service administration, poor health care facilities, educational infrastructural crisis including economic hardships and no foreign policy objectives; Cameroon continues to retrogress as an imminent civil strife looms on the horizon.
    What is more worrisome is the gravity of theft as very huge sums are stolen by these unpatriotic, white collar thieves, as if there is no tomorrow. The penchant of Cameroonians for easy pelf and their obsession to live unearned aristocratic and ostentatious life-styles is driving all to steal by any available means. Money now defines a person`s personal pedigree and has created a false social ladder in Cameroon. It is also used as the only yardstick to measure success. The penchant for wealth acquisition by Cameroonians only reminds me of Nigeria’s rebel president, Chukwu Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who said in his random thoughts about his country that: “I suspect extreme wealth wherever I find it. This is because as a student I learnt that behind every great wealth lurks an equally great or even greater crime…….I propose that wherever signs of wealth become conspicuous, the owner should be considered guilty until he proves himself innocent. If during the investigation he produces the fowl that lays the golden eggs or points to the tree whose leaves are Twenty Naira (N20.00) notes, we should not hesitate to rejoice with him and his good fortune. There is nothing wrong with wealth, the danger only lies in the method of its acquisition; that method must be clearly visible and acceptable.”
    Yes, the President himself as the number one state authority and the incarnation of state institutions is supposed to live by example. But observers contend that president Biya has compromised state patriotism especially with his lavish life-style which has a direct impact on Cameroonians’ way of thinking and living. The president’s official and private trips within and out of the country are too expensive especially bearing on a third world country that is still hoping to emerge by 2035.
    In Cameroon immediately somebody is appointed to any office that has a budget, his first preoccupation is to size up the budget and then look for ways of syphoning from the coffers. The quest for money has created a multitude of crimes. And at times it is exacerbated in connivance with outsiders.
    The pirate attack some time ago on our financial establishments in Limbe for three long hours without any intervention from Buea, Douala or Yaounde speaks volume of the lack of patriotism as it was an internal, well planned and cultivated act of banditry.  Twice the attacks on ECOBANKs in Douala reveals how Cameroonians are daring to sell the state for money. A frequent attack by pirates at the coast of Bakassi conducted by our citizens against our citizens is just a pitiable situation. The incursions of Boko Haram from Northern Nigeria into Northern Cameroon with Cameroonians providing safe haven for the terrorists for financial kick-backs thereby threatening our national sovereignty and destabilizing our economy all for selfish and greedy ends amount to lack of state loyalty.
    Today Cameroonian youths only think of how to get rich quick. Nature has it that if you grow up with a gun, you develop no fear for the gun making it easier to inherit the culture of stealing. It is a frightening situation which needs a quick resolution as Biya is approaching the exit tunnel towards the end of his mandate in 2018. With almost certainty including divine providence, the president will quit the helm of leadership. But before that happens what Cameroonians need now is a “change of mentality”.