Can Philemon Yang Be Maintained As PM?
When the sitting Prime Minister, Philemon Yunji Yang, was
appointed to the Star Building on 30 June 2009, not many were Cameroonians who
saw him keeping the job beyond a few years. But after staying 9 years five
months and counting on the job, the tall, soft-spoken, self-effacing and
taciturn son of Jikejem Oku, in Bui Division of the North West region, has
proven political bookmakers, and especially, his detractors, both within and
out of government circles, wrong. But today, no one can be sure anymore of
Yang’s continued stay at the Star Building as PM. Bookmakers say his poor
handling of the Anglophone crisis stands him in bad stead in Biya’s
calculations for the future.
By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde
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| Philemon Yang is the longest serving PM in the history of Cameroon |
With his over 9 years at the Star Building, Yang has created
a record of stay as PM that may never be broken in Cameroon. He shattered
Mafany Musonge’s 8 years and 4 months record (June 1996 to December 2004), and
made nonsense of the 7 years and 6 months (May 1975 to November 1982) that Biya
stayed as PM before becoming the president of Cameroon.
For the
very discreet persona that Yang is (some commentators say he sometimes
overplays his discreteness to his disadvantage), it is difficult to say with
certainty, what his true position is especially concerning burning issues of
national interest.
So, the reason for Yang’s perennial stay as PM has remained
a mystery to Cameroonians, many of whom thought he should have been off-loaded
from the government long before now. But as it is the case with many of his
trusted allies, President Biya alone knows why he has continued to maintain his
confidence in Yang, even when popular opinion thought the latter had outlived
his relevance.
Reason
why the political bookmakers are still not certain about Philemon Yang’s fate,
even as the president is understood to be busy fine tuning his new government,
which should be released anytime after the close of the present session of
parliament. Recall that following the presidential elections of October 2004
and October 2011, the President published his new government before 10 December
that is, on 7 December 2004 and 9 December 2011 respectively. Whether he would
maintain this schedule is a matter of wait and see.
Yet, it
should be recalled that in his traditional end of year address to the nation,
on 31 December 2014, President Biya took on the Yang-led government,
criticizing it of inertia, red-tape and of being too spendthrift. After that
public bashing of Yang by his mentor, Biya, many thought Yang’s days at the
Star Building were numbered. But the pure-breed from Oku has stayed on, until
now.
However,
commentators say if there were some arguments that motivated Biya to continue
keeping Yang as PM even after he publicly lambasted his inability to ensure
proper coordination and impulsion within the government, theose arguments have
been watered down by Yang’s rather catastrophic handling of the Anglophone
crisis, which has now transformed into a full-blown armed conflict and which
has inflicted immeasurable losses in men and property to the state and people
of Cameroon. That Philemon Yang was unable to travel to his native Oku, to vote
in the 7 October presidential election only demonstrated how truly daunted and
helpless he had become in the face of the raging conflict.
Then,
the scandalously low voter participation rate in the NW (the lowest
nation-wide), in the election and worst of all, the very paltry contribution of
the NW region to Biya’s overall victory, only leaves Yang standing in bad stead
in bookmakers’ predictions about Biya’s next government.
Yet,
all of this is mere conjecture. This is because in Cameroon, President Biya and
only he alone, knows the criteria he uses to pick his collaborators, especially
the very close and trusted ones.
Reason
why political watchers are saying they may not be surprised should Biya decide
to extend Philemon Yang’s stay as leader and coordinator of his new government
of great opportunities.
Observers
say if this were to happen, it would be an unpleasant surprise to the Anglophone
community, many of whom are today running helter-skelter in search of shelter
and succor, after they have been rendered destitute and reduced to refugees in
their own country.
Many
Anglophones blame Yang’s lack of clairvoyance and pro-activeness, when he
failed to arrest the Anglophone crisis, when its fore-runners were still
spoiling to start agitating, way back in 2015. It is believed that if PM Yang
had even acknowledged receipt of the various memoranda that were addressed to
him by teachers and lawyers in 2015 and even before, or had he invited the
“agitators” and talked them, in a fatherly tone, to give the government time to
look into their grievances, the conflict might have not gotten to where it is
today, not to talk of getting started in the first place. It simply could have
been nipped in the bud. But Yang ignored his brothers and sisters from West of
the Mungo.
Reason
why when upon the escalation of the crisis the PM travelled to Bamenda to talk
with the same lawyers and teachers, the former did not give him the attention
and respect deserving of a sitting PM. They said Yang was selling after the
market; he was acting a little too late.
Be it as it may, it must be
pointed out that beyond all other projects that President Biya may want to
prioritize in this his umpteenth mandate, lies the Anglophone conflict. And
whether the President still strongly believes that a solution to the conflict
could be found with Yang acting as PM, would be known only latter on. And that
would be when the new government would be announced.
But
until that happens, it behooves this newspaper to acknowledge that Yang has
written his name in bold, in the Cameroon hall of fame, even if some would
prefer hall of shame, as the longest serving Prime Minister in Cameroon’s
chequered history. As an Anglophone, Yang is also credited with one of the most
stable and successful public service careers in Cameroon.
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