Every Cameroonian minister is a potential prisoner
- MarafaHamidouYaya
 |
| Marafa Hamidou Yaya |
MarafaHamidouYaya does not know how to stay quiet. If he is
not writing letters, he is either writing books of granting interviews. In a
recent interview French language newspaper, Germinal, the Kondengui prison
inmate delves into many hot topics including the state of Cameroon’s prisons,
his deteriorating health situation, Cameroon’s porous justice system, the
country’s poor governance record, Boko Haram’s terrorist attacks, the
Anglophone problem, amongst others. The interview makes for enriching reading.
Read on…
Good
morning, Mr. Minster. If we may ask, would you like to be referred to as Mr.
Minister or Mr. Marafa or Mr. Prisoner?
Irony
for irony, I would respond to you: I am Marafa by the grace of God; while I
became minister and prisoner by the will of one man. But Mr. Minister is
suitable for me, for I assume, with pride, the honour of having been one at the
service of my nation. Moreover, this is even more suitable because in Cameroon
the title of minister is synonymous with potential prisoner.
What is
your state of mind, your present morale after slightly above five years of
incarceration? And your state of health which has deteriorated and sometimes
caused you to consult doctors? Is there a relationship between your different
visits to hospital and your detention condition?
It is a
tough and long test for my family, my friends who support me and myself. But I
have a steel mentality and a calm conscience. As for my morale, it is sometimes
overwhelmed by a deep feeling of injustice and inner anger given that I’m in
prison without having committed a crime or an offence, and also given that I’m
maintained here despite the judgment of the United Nations, of April 2016,
demanding my release. But, very quickly, my combativeness takes precedence. My
state of mind is positive, I believe in my destiny at the service of Cameroon.
Of course, if my health so permits.
Generally
speaking, what is your appreciation of the detention conditions in Cameroon’s
prisons?
According
to the International Observatory of Prisons (IOP), Cameroon, with a detention
density rate of 296%, occupies the second position in the world just after
Barbados (302%). This rate which brings back the number of detainees to the
functional capacity of penitentiary establishments in our country masks the big
disparities according to prisons. In Kondengui and New Bell, this figure is
largely above. They are, for a prisoner, inhuman detention conditions for which
no one is prepared. Beyond moral considerations, overpopulation in prison is
also a public health problem. In fact, prisons are incubators of illnesses such
as AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis C. Suffice it to consider the number of
detainees infected by these viruses who leave the prison daily on permission or
after serving their various terms – a
UNAIDS report in 2007 put the prevalence rate of AIDS in Cameroon’s
prisons at 12%! – to understand that overpopulation in prison is a factor of
propagation of this illness in the country.
In
Kondengui, I have seen young people detained for months in the midst of
hardened criminals for floating bounced cheques. Upon release, some of them
become dangerous criminals and carriers of serious transmissible diseases, thus
posing as a great danger to the society. Prison is a matter for everyone.
Cameroon has to review its criminal and penitentiary policy! This goes from
criminal policy (prison must be the ultimate punishment) to the creation of
arrest houses (for accused persons awaiting judgment) and to the construction
of new detention centres.
Within
the framework of the search for solutions to improve on detention conditions, I
had proposed, in 2004, that the responsibility of penitentiary administration
be withdrawn from the ministry which I was heading and given to the Ministry of
Justice. In fact, it seemed logical to me that those who were in charge of
announcing punishments should equally be those supervising their execution. But
I realise that my proposal was in vain.
Perhaps
there should be an innovation and test of assigning the management of prisons
to private service providers.
Had you
ever imagined, before your arrest, taking into account the services you rendered
to the regime that you served loyally for many years, that you could one day
find yourself behind bars, due to the manoeuvres of the persons you served? Put
differently, were you surprised by your arrest?
I had
said it before that the Operation Sparrow Hawk was diverted from its initial
purpose which was to fight against corruption by means of an independent law,
and was transformed into an instrument of political intimidation and
scores-settling. Every minister in Cameroon, despite their reputation and
honesty, knows that they can be thrown into jail at anytime, for political
reasons disguised more or less in a legal affair. And no matter whether they
are innocent, a part of public opinion will see it as a just sanction just
because they participated in government. In my case, the famous
“you-were-a-pillar-of-the-regime” is enough to justify an expiatory sanction.
If you
make abstraction of all what has been said and written, will you understand why
you are here?
I was imprisoned
and I am being maintained in prison strictly and exclusively for political
reasons. The UNO demanded the release of Pierre DésiréEngo, he is free today.
The UNO demanded the release of Michel Thierry Atangana and Mrs. LydienneEyoum,
they are free today. Despite the demand of the UNO for my release, despite all
international calls in my favour, I remain a prisoner. Proof, if need be, that
my case is of another category.
After
the different verdicts pronounced in your disfavour, what is your view of
justice in Cameroon?
My case
was judged by three courts. First of all, the Mfoundi High Court which
sentenced me to 25 years in prison for “intellectual complicity of embezzlement
of public funds”, a crime which does not exist in Cameroon law. Then, by the
Supreme Court which annulled the judgment of the High Court and reduced my
sentence to 20 years. The decision of the Supreme Court clearly establishes
that its specialized section, before which I appeared on 17 and 18 May 2016,
had sentenced me two weeks before judging me! Finally, I was judged by the
United Nations Labour Group for Arbitrary Detention at the end of a
contradictory procedure of many months, and after the examination of thousands
of documents furnished by both state lawyers as well as mine, it made a
decision demanding my immediate release, and even a compensation for my
prejudice.
My view
of justice in Cameroon is not different from that of my compatriots or that of
the international community. In the 2016 Mo Ibrahim index…our justice system is
classified on the criterion of its independence in the 42nd position amongst 54
African countries. This saddens me, for most of our judges are of high quality
but they do not have the means to resist pressure from the Executive. But I do
not despair that some of them decide to raise their head, following the
Malagasy example.
Should
we despair for our justice system? How do we make it truly independent from the
Executive?
Has it
ever occurred to you to request presidential pardon? Why?
No.
Presidential pardon is not a right. It is granted, it is not requested for.
Recently,
you told a colleague that you are a prisoner of the system and at the same time
Mr. Biya’s prisoner. This means that it is not only because in 2011 you advised
Mr. Biya to not be candidate in the presidential election that you are paying
dearly. Do you know other persons in the regime who want your head? Could we
have an idea of these persons and their motivations?
What I
said [to your colleague] was meant to place me above these persons, be they
those who want to maintain themselves in power or those who want to accede to
it. I was calling to question the global system for which all of us are
responsible. That said, my imprisonment is clearly rooted in a context of a war
of succession which is worsened by rivalries between partisans of a status quo
who are preserving their perks, and those who, more ambitious but less
talented, have been reduced to vile expedients whose purpose is to make the
justice system an instrument to discard every serious potential competitor.
For all
the years that you spent beside the President of the Republic, in your capacity
as his close collaborator, did you fear his conception of supreme political
power?
His
manner of exercising power points to two things: on the one hand, it points to
his character – thoughtful, prudent, conservative, naturally suspicious (the
events of 1984 accentuated this trait), pessimistic as to human nature, secret,
mystical up to the point of occultism, engaging, jovial; and on the other hand
it points to institutional practice which he inherited from his predecessor and
which enabled him to subscribe to a tradition made of tribal and religious affiliations,
violent repression of anti-government manifestations, etc.
Why, in
your opinion, can his governance not permit Cameroon to take off in such a way
that foreign observers can believe that the emergence promised for 2035 is not
just a political slogan?
In
fact, the concept of Emergence, reechoed by many African countries, covers a
corpus of (10) neoliberal rules referred to as the Washington Consensus, and
which States must respect in their development plan and budget if they want to
obtain finances from the IMF and the World Bank. Emergence is less a project
than a reformulated conditionality. These rules envisage notably: the
privatization of government enterprises, the elimination of barriers to the
entrances and exits of markets, the liberalization of exchanges, etc.
So, is the project
of Cameroon’s emergence which, less ambiguously, is the Strategy for Growth and
Employment, on a good footing? “A country that is emergent, democratic and
united in diversity” is the formula that summarized the vision of the
Development of Cameroon by 2035, presented by Prime Minister Philemon Yang.
True it is that clear progress has been made in economic growth since the
beginning of the 2000s, but it can also be realized that the objectives set by
the government for the intermediary period 2010 – 2020 are already
unattainable. Be it infrastructural development (energy, buildings, public
works, transport, information and communication technology, urban and housing
development, water hygiene), modernization of the productive apparatus, or
human development (health, education, professional training). On all these
points, we are late in relation to our road map or other countries like ours
such as Côte d’Ivoire.
A
democratic country? Let’s not play with words. The recent case of Gambia
teaches us that a democratic country is not a country in which a President is
elected by a majority but one in which the citizens can get rid of him/her
without the risk of going to jail or losing their lives. Democracy implies alternation.
Peaceful alternation.
Finally,
a country united in diversity? The Anglophone crisis is very symptomatic of
progress to be made in this area.
How
will the Society of Confidence that you promise Cameroonians bring solutions to
the multitude of problems that affect them?
Only a
Cameroon that has regained confidence in itself will be able, head high, to
take this triple challenge:
1) the
challenge of economic development at the service of the real interests of the
Cameroonian people. Presently, we don’t have the least capacity to negotiate
with international institutions. We are simply playing games, we claim to
believe that their recommendations will be effective, and they claim to believe
that we are a democracy.
2) the
challenge of a true democracy. The Society of Confidence will be based on the
constitutional principle of alternation at the summit of the state, at the end
of one or two mandates – a thing that will keep our country out of voluntary
slavery.
3) the
challenge of national unity. The Society of Confidence will enable the putting
in place of a sincere decentralization policy which is the indispensable tool
of national cohesion.
Where
are you with this Society Project?
The
project is advancing. In one way or the other, I hope that the main proposals
of the Society Project will be debated during the next presidential election.
In your
recent work, “Le choix de l’action” (The Choice of Action), you write that
Cameroonians “want to believe in their future, and all that this declining
regime offers them is the tragicomic spectacle of its inaction”. Who bears the
responsibility of this inaction which is denounced at length?
Enough
of subterfuge. This inaction is the consequence of lack of goodwill of the Executive.
Why has a country which is able, in the heart of the economic crisis, to raise
500 billion FCFA to build football stadia, not made available for decades the
necessary means, which are even more modest than those raised for the next
AFCON, to construct a second bridge on the Wouri, a road and railway leading to
the North, a highway linking Douala and Yaounde, or a road linking Douala and
Lagos, whereas we can travel from Abidjan to Lagos in one day. Lack of
political will is the only explanation. Our country has become one that
suffers, and only reacts under pressure or constraint.
What in
your opinion explains the gap that exists between the speeches of the Head of
State and his acts?
This is
due, to a great extent, to his isolation which keeps him away from the reality
of the people. We cannot sustainably feed political action with beliefs in
reports, memos, and notes of collaborators or international organizations.
Going to the scene of a terrible railway accident is not only a way of showing
compassion but also of coming to terms with environmental factors such as the
policy of buying equipment, health networking in the country, etc. Going to
meet fellow citizens on the field – a privilege I’ve had and for which I thank
the Head of State, during the nine years I spent as minister of Territorial
Administration and Decentralization – is imperative for the appreciation of the
real needs of the country. Besides, the concentration of powers in Yaounde,
into the jealous hands of some ministers, or crypto-ministers, slows the
implementation of projects.
In the
book cited earlier, you declare having “taken cognizance of the past to
construct the future”. In it, we can also read: “in the course of time the
regime of which I was one of the actors disappointed the hopes of Cameroonians
whose great capacity of resilience helped to prevent the worst from happening”.
Is this not a way of saying that you are also responsible for the inaction that
you are denouncing, you who served this system for 19 years?
I served
my country in government for 19 years, and I’m proud of my contribution. And
it’s because my work and my conduct were appreciated that a good number of our
compatriots, and international partners, were able and continue to see in me,
despite the condition in which I’ve been placed, the best candidate to succeed
Paul Biya.
Still
in the same book, you show how you saved the regime during the 2002 elections.
Why is it that in this work, written long after the February 2008 riots, you
don’t say a word about the repose of the souls of many Cameroonians killed by
Mr. Biya’s soldiers?
If my
compassion for these lives lost and for the bereaved families does not appear
clearly, I regret it, for it is great. I’ve always been opposed, in public
action, to blind repressions and their processions of useless deaths.
Concerning the February 2008 riots on which enough light has not yet been shed,
they are, in the same way as the affiliation to terrorist groups or exposure to
the dangers of clandestine immigration, a dramatic illustration of what
inaction and despair of our youth can lead to. Have we, 10 years later, learned
the lessons of these sad events? Manifestly not. As for the electoral fiasco of
2002, it was a catastrophe that was avoided just in time. It was not about
saving the regime, as you say, but rather about remedying the malfunctioning of
our administration, to reassure and give back confidence to our compatriots.
Fortunately, I was not the only one engaged in this task, even though it was on
me that the projectors were focused.
Do you
understand the position of those who say that you are victim of a system that
you built with the New Deal regime?
I’m not
asking anybody to excite pity on my fate. I didn’t build this New Deal regime,
which is based on voluntary servitude in which we are locked up since
independence, and in which all Central African oil-producing countries still
find themselves. The only therapy that can sustainably pull us out of lethargy
is, giving back to everyone the taste of freedom, of autonomy, of risk. This is
the centre of the project of Society of Confidence. It is not an empty slogan.
West African countries, from Senegal to Nigeria, have gone beyond this towards
democratic freedom and have begun reaping the benefits. There is no reason why
our sub-region should not get there too, why our compatriots should not benefit
the confidence of the State – the key to a harmonious social functioning.
Democracy is like running water or electricity. Once it you taste of it, it
becomes difficult to voluntarily deprive yourself of it.
It is
said in some circles that you are in prison because France had manifested the
intention to help you to succeed Mr. Biya. And the fact that you advised the
President in your writing to not stand for another election is far from proving
the contrary. Could you confirm or invalidate this suspicion?
I’m
neither the candidate of the French nor the Americans. In Cameroon as
elsewhere, France, like all great powers, follows its interest. For more than
30 years now, has President Biya ever called her [France] to question or
threatened her in any way? Of course, no. Why then should France seek to
replace him? Those who make me the candidate of Paris so as to exacerbate the
nationalist feeling of Cameroonians are the first to plead with France to not
allow the Muslim that I am, a pro-American, according to them, take power, for
that would be against the interests…of France!
After
three decades of rule, the impression that prevails in our country is that the
New Deal has succeeded in making the people forget Ahidjo, especially in the
socioeconomic domain. How would you explain this kind of situation?
The
1984 coup attempt had as effect the installation of a cover of silence on the
Ahidjo years. In fact, the balance sheet and inventory of the Ahidjo years have
never been done. So we idealize or denigrate this period without really
debating about it. Yet, this debate is crucial, for it is a heritage that
weighs so much – and slyly – on the manner of functioning of our institutions
and of our country in general. On the Cameroon page on Wikipedia, the free
online encyclopedia, the name President Ahidjo is hardly mentioned under the
History and Politics columns. How then do we give references and values to our
youth? How do we build a strong national identity by hiding close to half the
recent history of our country? Yet, if this period engenders severe criticisms,
it also constitutes a source of inspiration if only to affirm the voice of
Cameroon in the regional and international scene.
And
when CavayéYéguié declares on the rostrum of the National Assembly that “Boko
Haram is in our midst”, how do you understand it?
I fear
I’m not the best interpreter of the sinuous thought of the President of the
National Assembly. All I can say is that his function requires that his speech
serve to bring Cameroonians together rather than put them asunder.
Could
our country prevent the terrorist attacks in the Far North region? How?
Like
geology in petroleum mining, geography counts in politics. Maiduguri and the
Sambisa forest, the cradle and epicentre of Boko Haram activities, are situated
some kilometres away from the Cameroonian border. It was foreseen that our
country would be touched by this world scourge which has become terrorism. I
once gave the President of the Republic my opinion and recommendations on the
situation that prevailed and the threats that came from that part of our
country. My last note on this subject dates back to February 2012. You will
understand that I can no longer delve into this particularly sensitive subject.
For
quite some time now, the so-called Anglophone regions are in turbulence. The
solutions proposed and/or brought by the powers that be are considered by a
section of the public as mere palliatives.
Do you
understand their demands? Do you share this opinion?
At the
beginning of this crisis, the demands were essentially sectorial. The poor
responses made by the government to these demands led to radicalization which
resulted in a sociopolitical crisis. Having come to reason, the government made
responses some of which went beyond the initial demands which in all were
legitimate. But with time the crisis took a different turn. This ought to have
given us the opportunity to re-express our common will to live together and to
come up with hew rules.
In
searching for solutions to what is now called the Anglophone problem, should
some subjects be taboo? What sustainable, not to say definitive, solutions
should be brought to this problem?
In
politics, no room should be given to the existence of taboos. My conviction is
that every sustainable solution passes through a sincere and real
decentralization which ought to be periodically and democratically
re-evaluated.
Do you think, like some observers, that this Anglophone
crisis is a prelude to a battle for the presidency in 2018? And
given the current situation marked by the fight against terrorism, many social
demands, high cost of living, the Anglophone problem, amongst others, shouldn’t
we fear an abrupt alternation in Cameroon?
The Anglophone crisis touches on the very essence of our
nation: what is Cameroon? What makes our particular identity? My vision of
Cameroon is very clear: we are a nation of challenge. Taking the challenge is
in the spirit of Cameroonians, and in our history. From this point of view, the
historic vote of our Anglophone compatriots, through which they reconnected
with Francophone Cameroun rather than Anglophone Nigeria, is as consubstantial
of the Cameroonian identity as the armed struggle for independence which our
elders led and for which we are proud today. Two challenges which durably
shaped our way of seeing the world, and the perception that the latter has of
us. And of which the souvenirs have to help us take the many political, social,
economic challenges which present themselves today before us, Cameroonians,
Francophones and Anglophones alike.
If you
were the President of the Republic, what are the five priorities on which you
would focus your attention so as to satisfy the expectations of your
compatriots?
Today,
we’ve done 10 rules of the Washington Consensus, voluntarily masked under the
term emergence, the goal of our economic development. Yet these rules are only
means whose efficiency is not demonstrated. If I were the President of the
Republic, I would change the paradigm: economic growth would not be made an
objective of its own; it would be, as in the case of India and Rwanda, a means
to attain the Wellbeing of the population, who would become the targeted
objective. I would forget the false-claim of Emergence and engage our country
on the objective of Wellbeing, still targeting 2035. More endogenous and
territorially-based, this development strategy would fall and be measured in
terms: of satisfaction of essential needs first amongst which are education,
health, and security; of the development of productive activities, particularly
agricultural; of access to the labour market for the youth, and for
entrepreneurs of access to capital market, and finally in terms of policy of
the town. To attain these objectives, my five priority measures would be as
follows:
1) Reform the institutional arrangement
in the sense of the “presidentilisation” of the regime, so as to put in place
an Executive which acts and which reports. At the summit of the State, a President
who governs and not a President who reigns. At the legislative level, a smaller
and more demographically representative Parliament…In order to guarantee a
real, and not virtual, democratic alternation, the new Constitution would limit
the duration of the seven-year-mandate renewable once to a period of five
years.
2) Moralize public life and fight
against corruption: The citizen would be at the centre of this moralization
which, with the reform of our institutions mentioned earlier, constitutes the
preliminary condition for the establishment of an honest and independent
judicial system.
3) Change our economic model in order
to register our country in the globalization process: a) Competitive
development of services, industry, and agriculture. b) Regional integration
towards the East, according to a Kribi/Douala to Mombasa in Kenya port to port
highway; massive development of our technological environment.
4) Ecological responsibility:
…Cameroon… disposes of ochre soil, trees, fauns, hills, mountains, rivers,
shores…If we fail to protect this environment to which we are attached, and
which has carved our identity, others would monopolize it and shamelessly
exploit it for strictly commercial purposes. With the same vigour deployed by
our soldiers to defend our boundaries, we should protect the forests of
Yokadouma, the savanna of the Adamawa, the shrimps of Edea, the elephants of
Waza, the falls of Menchum, the shores of Kribi and Limbe. This fight is a
priority. Not only does it engage our ecological responsibility, it also
requires the transformation of our institutions and our economy which will be
salutary for the country: a true decentralization, a more inclusive and endogen
economy, an increased implication of the civil society, a greater efficiency in
the use of natural resources, and also less corruption and more transparency in
the award of public contracts. Moreover, this fight requires the putting of
science and technology at the centre of our development project. I would wish
that at the end of my mandate [as President] Cameroon should become a country
of engineers or more exactly ingenious people, for it is not only about
creating a new techno-structure filled with engineers, but also to spread the
scientific and innovative spirit in the society by integrating the forgotten
people who are often the first to find personalized solutions to their problems
which could be extended in large scale thanks to technology.
5) Cameroonian identity: Give back to
our compatriots the strong feeling of belonging to one Nation which is proud of
its history, its culture, its traditions and its values. The history of the
Cameroonian people is one of a march towards full and complete emancipation.
It’s now time for us to resume our march towards shared freedom, justice and
wellbeing with a strong determination and confidence in ourselves and in our
common destiny as a Nation.
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