If Biya’s generation has failed, on which
generation should Cameroonians depend for their political destiny?
By EkinnehAgbaw-Ebai*
 |
On Feb 23, 1969, Paul Biya aged 36; then
Director of Cabinet at the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Culture
presided at the opening ceremony of College STOLL, Akono-Yaounde, in the
presence of Charles Odilon Roger Rousseau, then Canadian Ambassador to
Cameroon, and Gabon and Archbishop Luigi
Poggi, Papal Nuncio to Central Africa (Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Congo and Gabon).Biya’s
today, a 50-year old man
is still considered a youth!
|
The 39-year-old President Emmanuel Macron
has defied all the rules governing politics and is poised to remake the face
and shape of French politics. There is absolutely no reason a Macron cannot
ascend in Cameroon. The country is blessed with a large number of young people
waiting for just the opportunity to excel. But for a Cameroonian Macron to
emerge, the gerontocrats in charge must, of course, allow it. And the youth
must muster the confidence, the competence, and the courage required to take
the baton. But, too many of the old guard are deeply sunk in delinquency and
political cannibalism -destroy the youths from rising to crowd the top - to
either show good example, or create an environment conducive for youth
leadership development.
At
this critical point when the country is structurally fragile from Anglophone
separatist agitations, giving rise to negative and frightening
prognostications, Cameroon needs a new crop of leaders who are endowed with the
gift of steady application, imbued with the ability to control events rather
than drift with the tides, and who in range of vision and depth of conception,
tower above their contemporaries. Cameroon needs young leaders of iron resolve,
indomitable courage and sharp intellect with acute and exceptional sense of
history to lead this nation out of the doldrums. Such youths abound in their
numbers but are choked by a warped and corrupt recruitment process, run by
so-called “godfathers” with dubious connections and access to the corridors of
power, who think they have an exclusive right to nominate people for
appointment to all offices in the land.
Cameroon
is blessed with a vast array of highly competent, globally acknowledged
distinguished professionals; persons of honor and integrity. There is,
therefore, no reason Cameroon cannot be governed with the best hands except for
the wrong disposition of the appointer. The consideration for appointments to
high public office may be discretional to the President but Cameroonians bear
the brunt of such poor choices any time he hires the wrong set of people. That
is why his right to hire must be exercised with circumspection and great
introspection. When he makes the wrong choices, it is the nation that suffers
for it. Biya owes Cameroonians good governance as a matter of obligation and
social contract. So, his right to appoint is curtailed by the right of
Cameroonians to be well governed. Because ultimately, the Cameroonian people
pay the salary of the President and his appointees and they are the ones who
must be satisfied with their performance.
The
current Anglophone separatist agitation is partly a rejection of a system which
rewards mediocrity with the appointment of parvenus, political jobbers,
sycophants, court-jesters and opportunists who see their appointments as an
invitation to “come and chop” instead of an opportunity to serve. Anglophones
by their upbringing cannot be enthused by the hackneyed mantra that youths of
today are the leaders of tomorrow. The more serious questions to ask are: what
quality of youth? Which future? If Biya and his generation have failed, on
which generation should Cameroonians depend for their political destiny? Is it
the generation that succeeds Biya’s failed generation? Is it a generation that
has been cut off from meaningful participation in the running of national
affairs by the greed and primordial interests of the president’s generation? Is
it this generation onto whom no values seem to have been passed by older
generations? A generation that has been abused, demoralized, instrumentalised,
onto whom has not been bequeathed any moral armament to tackle tribalism and
corruption?
In
line with the spirit of collective responsibility, the young and the old are
useful for any positive transformation and development of man and society. Age
is not a hindrance to socio-economic and political development, just as the
ideas of progress are not exclusive to any generation. It depends on the
persons in question; which is why today’s youth will ignore the older generation
to their own peril. But the old guard, who see themselves as kingmakers, should
stop trying to become kings themselves. In one phrase, their role should be
that of selfless mentoring and purposeful succession management, rather than
shrewd manipulation for self-preservation and personal aggrandizement.
Whilst
a systemic failure signposts the leadership deficiency quotient of Biya’s
generation, it is also obvious some like AbdoulayeBabale, David Abouem a
Tchoyi, Garga Haman Adji, Joseph Owona, Dorothy Njeuma, PokossyDoumbe,
CavenNnokoMbele, Jean-Jacques Ekindi, Raymond Gwanyalla, turned around the
fortunes and prospects of their respective leadership spheres. That Biya has
been unable to scout the best and the brightest hands and harness their talents
to lift his administration to a commanding height of moral regeneration and
socio-economic progress is a regrettable personal failure. After many false
starts, dashed hopes, and perennially low expectation, it’s time to reset the
national agenda. And this can only be done by a new kind of leadership. Such
leadership must be driven by a sense of urgency to correct the contradictions
in the land, to infuse hope and purpose in the citizens. It is a different
culture of leadership that will galvanize the country in a totally new
direction, and place emphasis rightly on the interest of the Cameroonian
people, not the temporary occupants of high offices. Questions remain as to how
we can get the right kind of leadership at all levels.
In
the past in this same country, leaders did not emerge by accident. They were cultivated, they had clear
pedigree, they knew the nation, they captured the imagination of the people by
the way they articulated the problems plaguing the people and seeking solutions
to such problems. They led by being led by the people. They thrived in
competence, and sought the best materials available from all corners of the
land. They were religious but not bigoted. Nor were they driven by the madness
of primitive accumulation and conspicuous consumption. They were sometimes
wealthy but not vulgar. They were intelligent, but not geniuses. They developed
a crop of not just faithful followers, but competent future leaders. Today, the
memories of men like Victor AyissiMvodo, Samuel Eboua, MaikanoAbdoulaye, ET
Egbe, AndzeTsoungui, NamataElangwe, MoussaYaya, ChongwainAwunti, SengatKuo,
NdamNjoya, SadouDaoudou, MbomboNjoya, Donstop Paul, Marcel Yondo, Charles
Doumba, DelphineTsanga, Felix TonyeMbog, and others have become legendary as
Cameroonians look back to the good old days.
The
little progress seen today across the country takes it’s bearing from these men
of yester years. This country must somehow recapture that true spirit of
leadership, of service, of sacrifice. Such new kind of leaders must espouse a
clear vision for the country. They must possess big dreams for Cameroon and
sell it to all Cameroonians. They must be men and women capable of empathizing
with the people. Such leaders must possess the acumen, candor and courage to
weld together all of the nation’s disparate parts. Cameroon is a bilingual
country of two nations with many tribes, hence the new kind of leader must show
the capability to establish and model the common aspirations of all
Cameroonians.
Such
new kind of leaders must not be men and women of doubtful character and
credibility. They must be those who find themselves in public office by clear
grooming and preparation. Cameroonians must stop moaning and start questioning
those who offer themselves for leadership positions. They must look beyond the
immediate gratification and challenge the corrupt process that estranges them
from political power. Politicians say thoughtlessly that politics is a game of
numbers. Indeed it is! Youths outnumber the octogenarians and can effect a change
with the power of the ballot.
From
a sober outlook, the predominance of tired old men running the nation’s affairs
is a mea culpa demonstration of leadership incapacitation to evolve from a
culture of recycling and is a very grave self-indictment that calls to question
the capacity of the president and older politicians to clean the mess that is
fueling primordial sentiments and threatening national unity. Cameroonian
youths, especially the “Android Generation” must stand up and address
critically, the phenomenon of having tired old people in offices. Youths of
proven integrity should come out like Macron and give it what it takes to
assume positions of responsibility. The price young people pay for not engaging
in the political process is that they allow wrong people to lead them. The
youths must back up their desire for a better country, by queuing behind only
leaders – language, religion and ethnicity, notwithstanding – who can recapture
the dreams of our founding fathers and once again, begin the earnest journey to
true nationhood.
The
election of Macron is an opportunity that beckons on both political parties and
the Cameroonian people, with the next general elections now in sight.
Cameroonians must begin now to ask themselves the kind of leaders they desire
for the country. There is no doubt that the nation is still without visionary
leadership but those campaigning for another seven-year term for the ailing
President, are misguided. This purposeful mischief is nothing but sheer
provocation that stands condemned as it does nothing but emasculate the destiny
of a people. In effect, another mandate for Biya in 2018 does little credit to
the image of Cameroon’s democracy. To say the least, it is an embarrassment.
What this means is that there is little to be achieved from Biya dying in
office. Against this background, Biya should do the right thing for the
country, and come 2018; he should stand down and stand tall. That will free the
nation from ineptitude; and give Cameroonian democracy a new identity to live
up to its billing as government of the people, by the people, and for the
people. Should the President choose to do otherwise at this critical period of
palpable tension and uncertainty; history will be there to judge.
*EkinnehAgbaw-Ebai is a Public Intellectual
and graduate of Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, where
he was Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of African-American Public
Policy. A former Research Analyst for Freedom House, he is a Consultant and
lives in Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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