Ayah Paul bemoans Biya’s ‘wasted years’
-Says after 34 years and counting in
office, Biya’s report card is overly in red
 |
| Justice Ayah Paul |
Following announcement by the CPDM party of
nationwide events to celebrate 34 years of President Paul Biya, the National
Strategic Team of Popular Action Party, PAP met in Yaounde and did a fair
assessment of president Biya’s performance and here-in-below present his Report
Card.
The
PAP team comprising mostly youth politicians evaluated president Biya on both
the domestic and international affairs. On domestic affairs, nine sectors were
considered namely: the Economy, Education, Health, Democracy, Energy, Security,
Transport, Communication and Sports. On foreign affairs, Biya was scored on
International Cooperation.
On
the whole, the youth politicians of PAP scored Biya a Grade F and urged him to
resign. Below is PAP assessment of Biya 34 years after 6 November 1982.
ECONOMY
In
most of 1981, Cameroon’s GDP growth rate stood at 17.1% (Source: ReSAKSS, based
on World Bank 2014). This means President Paul Biya inherited a very healthy
economy from his predecessor on November 6, 1982. Despite richly blessed soils
and fertile lands on which all manner of agricultural products [coffee, cocoa,
cotton, rubber, bananas, oilseed, grains, cassava (manioc, tapioca); livestock;
timber] do well, and endowment of enormous mineral resources [Oil,
hydroelectric power, natural gas, cobalt, nickel], in 2016, the economy has
nose-dived to the neighbourhoods of 4% GDP growth rate.
What’s
worse? Little can be seen in economic growth terms from all the loans we have
taken. According to the Autonomous Amortisation Fund (CAA), the public
organisation in charge of managing public borrowing, Cameroon reached FCFA
4,502 billion during the first quarter of 2016 (3,480 billion representing the
external debts and FCFA 1,023 billion of domestic debts).
The
unemployment rate is 30% while that of underemployment stands at 75% (ILO
statistics). Our human potential (mental capacity) is fleeing the country for
jobs and better options elsewhere. President Biya has failed woefully in the
business of reducing unemployment by industralising our economy; create
industries that transform raw materials into finished products for national,
regional and international exportation. There’s no concrete framework to
encourage youth entrepreneurial spirit with accompanying flexible loan
structure.
Increase
in agricultural production and the rise in the per-capita income of the rural
community, together with industrialisation and urbanisation, lead to more increased
demand in industrial production. President Biya just doesn’t know this. PAP
therefore scores him F for a missed opportunity and wasted 34 years in office!
DEMOCRACY
To
fairly score President Biya, Popular Action Party, PAP of Justice AYAH Paul
splits democracy into five different elements namely: Personal Freedoms, Press
Freedoms, Political Freedoms, Political Equality, The Rule of Law, The Common
Good, Human Dignity, Being Informed and Getting Involved, and Respect. Before
we make an analysis of these elements, it is worth mentioning that contrary to
what some say, that Biya ‘gave Cameroonians democracy’, this is completely
false! On February 19, 1990, officers from the CENER, Cameroon’s national
intelligence service, raided the home and office of YondoMandengue Black in the
city of Douala. They arrested him and confisticated a draft document titled
“Coordination Nationalepour la démocratie et le multipartisme” (National
Coordination for Democracy and Multipartyism). And in Bamenda on May 26, 1990 FruNdi
defied government ban and organized a rally where the SDF was launched … the
lives of six Cameroonians ushered in democracy to Cameroon.
-Personal
Freedoms: Freedom of assembly for religious purposes has been good but such is
hugely undermined by freedom of individual expression. Biya’s men in uniforms
has mightily clamped down on individuals who’ve voiced personal opinions on
burning political issues in the country. Biya scores a D on this.
-Political
Freedoms: Though it is easy to form political associations in Cameroon, PAP
notes that the proliferation of political parties is a Biya design to weaken
the opposition. The intelligence unit of the PAP Strategic deciphers four
categories of opposition political parties: satellite parties erected by Biya
to spy on and weaken the opposition (some now called presidential majority),
political parties for Business purposes (to enjoy campaign funds), real
opposition political parties (those that are consistently banned such as PAP
from public manifestations), parties that originally had good intensions but
now cooperate with Biya’s CPDM to colour Cameroon’s democracy in the eyes of
the international community;
Skyrocketing
amounts are fixed for ordinary Cameroonians to cough out to register to run for
council, parliamentary and presidential elections thus making the dividends of
democracy for the rich only!
-Election
managing bodies (MINAT, NEO and ELECAM) are designed to rig elections for Biya;
-Intimidation
at the polls and vote buying: Vote buying is the norm. Citizens who stand up to
the status quo are intimidated. There are clear and documented cases of elites
protecting the regime getting into polling stations with guns and knives. These
cases are not isolated. PAP scores Biya an F on EMB;
-Protest
Groups: No allowance for political manifestation against the regime.
PAP scores Biya an F on political freedoms
Press
Freedoms: There’s systemic clampdown on the press and the media in general.
Twitter has consistently been shut down and press organs critical of the
government are either severely sanctioned or bought over. PAP scores Biya an F
on Press Freedoms.
-The
Rule of Law: For the sake of justice, everyone must adhere to the same laws.
These laws are known, predictable and impartial (unbiased). However, the
justice system in Cameroon is highly rigged; justice is bought, the police and
the magistrates/judges are the most corrupt in the world. Generally, the system
is characterized by arrest without due process, endemic corruption, long term
detention without trial, inhuman treatment and torture of citizens etc. PAP
scores Biya F on the Rule of Law.
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