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| Marafa Hamidou Yaya |
You were admitted in hospital in Yaounde on two occasions. How are you feeling now?
Intellectually and mentally, I’m okay, but I have respiratory and sight problems which are getting worse. My state is not compatible with my detention, and the authorities know this very well. That said, I left the hospital hurriedly because my presence was disturbing the other patients and workers. Each time I was there, the hospital was transformed into a military stronghold, with about 50 soldiers armed to the teeth patrolling the corridors and the roofs!
How do you spend your days in prison?
I reflect and work. I ask the few people who are authorized to visit me to give me a summary of what is said in the newspapers, since I’m not allowed to receive the press.
You have also written a book. How was this possible?
The greater part of this book, “Le Choix de l’action” (“The Choice of Action”) was written when I was arrested. It’s a project which I made confidential; very few people knew about it.
Did you understand, when you were sacked as minister of Territorial Administration, that you would end up being arrested?
It appeared possible even before I was dropped from government. Did I not say to the United States ambassador, Janet Garvey – and the content of this conversation was revealed by Wikileaks – that Operation Sparrowhawk was a campaign of political purification which I would undoubtedly not escape from?
Why did you not attempt to leave the country?
Many people advised me to do so, including those at unsuspected levels of the state, but I was not tempted for a second because I’ve always served my country with honesty and I had nothing to reproach myself for. I had no reason to run away, rather I had every reason to stay and explain myself publicly on my role in the presidential plane affair. From this point of view, the trial was a good thing: the judges realized that I did not embezzle or receive the least amount. This did not prevent them from sentencing me to 25 years in prison for “intellectual complicity of embezzlement”. But everybody knows I’m innocent and a political prisoner.
Do you regret the fact that you had confidence in the court?
No. I was sentenced on a false basis by judges who were under pressure.
Would it not have been better, since you hope to succeed Paul Biya, to be free in your movements?
You are the one saying I’m a candidate! For the time being, I’m only the carrier of a project of development, peace and equity known as “Society of Confidence” (“Société de confiance”). When the time is right, it is the people who will decide who to give them the reality. Besides, given my situation, my voice is now free. I’m no longer obliged to be in solidarity with the government. I express myself in all independence, in my capacity as a man who assumes his past.
Word has it that Boko Haram carries out recruitments in the North of Cameroon. Does this seem possible to you?
How could this have been otherwise? If the Jihadists of the Middle East succeed to carry out recruitment in the West, why would Nigerian Islamists not recruit in their immediate neighbourhood, in a context of poverty and despair? We have to pay particular attention to those youths who have fallen in the trap of extremism. They have learned to manipulate the gun, they might have killed. What shall we do with them when they return to the country?
What is the situation in the north, where Boko Haram is progressing?
These regions, just as those which are adjacent to the Central African Republic, have been abandoned these past thirty years. No serious economic project has taken place there. There are differences, of course, and the situation is not the same in the Adamawa, which is more and more linked to the rest of Cameroon, than the North or Far North. The North is a region that could have been very rich, but the state does not exploit this potential. Finally, the Far North is the most thickly populated region in the country, but it is completely abandoned to itself. It goes through the horrors of drought, floods, famine, epidemics and insufficient provision of education…Not surprising that the youths are sensitive to the calls of Boko Haram.
Some newspapers have accused you of instigating a rebellion in those areas…
It is false. It is more than 15 years since the north of Cameroon is at the mercy of highway robbers and bandits. The Kolofata killings at the end of July and the abduction of the wife of the vice prime minister and of the lamido of Kolofata and his wife make us see our inability to ensure security in the region. Now, what is the regime doing? It is looking for scapegoats. It wants to give the impression that our social and economic model is so strong that radical Islamism cannot take root in it; that our borders are so impermeable that Boko Haram cannot dare penetrate! But the rebellion in the north is a fantasy.
At what level is the affair that opposes you to the state of Cameroon and for which you were sentenced?
I came up with an appeal against my sentence and I’ve been waiting since two years, instead of the six months prescribed by the law, for the matter to be called up. I should recall that after my sentence, my successor at the secretariat general of the presidency [Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara] was sentenced for embezzling the money that I was supposed to have cheated the state of! I should also recall that one year after my sentence, the counsel of the state of Cameroon held a press conference in Yaounde during which he admitted that the litigation on the acquisition of a presidential plane had occasioned an agreement validated by American courts. This agreement made provisions for the compensation of the state of Cameroon and established the renunciation by the latter of the case and earlier claims related to the same facts!
Your assistant, Christiane Soppo, was murdered in January. At what level are the investigations?
A Rwandese refugee in Cameroon was arrested. But I insist that this murder is odiously political. The regime would do honour to bring true murderers before the courts but it will dare not do so. The investigation of your magazine [Jeune Afrique n° 2801] on the demise of opposition leader Guérandi Mbara lends credence to the idea that groups of individuals create occult courts and render such justice with the sole aim of satisfying private ambitions and interests.
You wrote in one of your open letters to the Head of State that you feared for your safety. Is this still the case?
Why do you think I’m accused of preparing a rebellion? My imprisonment is not enough. They have to silence me completely. My assistant was butchered to death. A former opponent of the regime disappeared. The warnings are clear for all.
You were a member of government for close to two decades. Do you have any regrets?
I’ve said it, I assume my past. It is for the public to judge my balance sheet. But I’m convinced that they will recognize two things at least: the first is that I’ve always had as my lone guide the general interest. I didn’t serve the regime, I served the country. The second is the courage I had to expose myself, to contribute in my own way to the advancement of Cameroon, be it under the authority of a president who has ended up disappointing the country. I’m paying the price today.
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