Another Failed State? Cameroon's Descent

By Ozong Agborsangaya-Fiteu (Originally published in International Herald Tribune)

Unless there is clear political reform that will allow citizens to finally enjoy basic civil liberties - including full freedom of expression, free elections and the rule of law - a crisis is inevitable.

Leaving Yaoundé, Cameroon's capital, after a recent business trip, my colleagues and I settled into our airliner's seats and breathed a sigh of relief. We had planned a retreat for emerging African leaders to devise practical ways to produce change within their individual countries and institutions. We had selected Yaoundé as the meeting place because of Cameroon's presumed political stability, relatively reliable infrastructure and easy access.

But within days of our arrival in my country, riots and protests ignited by the rising costs of fuel and food resulted in a nationwide lockdown.

Much of the public's frustration is due to the stark need for political reform. Cameroon's 75-year-old president, Paul Biya, suggested in his New Year's address that he intended to modify the Constitution to extend his term in office beyond 2011. Biya has been in power almost as long as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. Under his rule, Cameroon has endured endemic corruption, weak institutions, official impunity and fraudulent elections.

During our trip, I found the presence of armed security forces across the capital's hilly landscapes frighteningly reminiscent of the atmosphere in Rwanda and Burundi in the mid-1990s. Thousands of ordinary citizens suspected of participating in the protests were arbitrarily rounded up and detained, subjected to summary trials and harsh sentences, some for up to six years in prison. Witnesses reported that many people in custody were beaten, tortured and abused. There were also reports of dead bodies floating on the Wouri River in Douala, the country's economic capital, although it is unclear how many people died.

Even more disturbing is the inflammatory and divisive rhetoric by some high-level government officials seeking to incite hatred and manipulate ethnic differences. In a country with over 125 different ethnic groups, this is a sinister game that could trigger inter-community conflict.

The president recently made good on his New Year's promise. The ruling party has formally introduced a bill that would amend the Constitution to allow Biya to run for another seven-year term after his current mandate ends in 2011.

It is unclear what may happen next. Resentments were simmering long before Biya's New Year's speech - resentments that could have been addressed, but weren't. Instead, the president ignored all warnings in his bid for increased power. The outcome could be very scary indeed.

Although calm appears to have returned, for now, the human rights situation is seriously deteriorating. The few human rights lawyers in the country are overwhelmed. Intolerance and hate speech are rising. Campaigners for a civil society report that the government has them under surveillance and that their family members do not feel safe.

There also are reports of increased arms trafficking into the country, with ordinary citizens buying and burying guns in their backyards - "just in case."

The international community could take steps to help prevent a crisis. Unfortunately, promises of preventive measures and "never again" rhetoric regarding Africa rarely translate into action on the ground. I fear that the international community will wait until it is too late to prevent a major conflict in Cameroon - and will then have to spend massive resources in response to a humanitarian crisis.

Today, many people are trying to leave the country. But most of Cameroon's neighboring countries are themselves collapsing states and cannot provide a safe haven.

Unless there is clear political reform that will allow citizens to finally enjoy basic civil liberties - including full freedom of expression, free elections and the rule of law - a crisis is inevitable.

Cameroon is another Central African country where time is running out.

Ozong Agborsangaya-Fiteu is senior program manager for Africa at Freedom House. You can read her profile in the January issue of Success Story Magazine

Comments

[Akame mbulle]

The bomb has been detonated already and the victims are innoncent bona fide Cameroonians.The disastrous effect will not only be felt by an ordinary Cameroonian but equally the so called parliamentarians who voted for the bill.Ahidjo tried to covert Cameroon into a monarchy but he failed.Is a matter of time Biya will crumble into the same demise.
President Mbeki in South Africa was voted out by his own political party, Babangida wanted to extend his mandate but he was barred by the Nigerian Law makers. Mugabe could not believe even in his dream that he will one day be voted out of office by Zimbabwens.President Kibaki is still in doubt why only one term in office he could be voted against overwhelmingly by the Kenyans.Politics is a game of give and take.The poor are usually manipulated with propagandas and tips to rally behind he who think with his riches the whole world belongs to him.Cameroonians have complained, agitated, cried, expressed their mounting frustrations by taking to the streets, a good number are currently lamenting in jails with no justification.By all indications a civilian uprising is inevitable.The day that time will come, nobody and even Biya and his military junta will be unable to stop the uprising.When discussions fails on a negotiating table, the next option is plan B which is violence.what Biya is currently pushing Camerooninans into.You may deceive people every day, trample upon their feet. spit on their faces thinking they are helpless but the day those same people make about turn against you even your blood children will refuse you.
A man who refuses to listen to the cry of another is heading to a paradise of doom.

God save Cameroon.

[Akame mbulle]

Correction.
innocent rather than innoncent

[Ndim Bernard Ngouche]

I have tears on my cheeks soiled so heavily by grief for my fatherland ruined by monsters and blood thirsty Gendarmes sent to kill, maim or render incapacitated Cameroonians by a people who should be accountabe to them. There is this saying "when you sow the wind be prepared to harvest the whirlwind" Cameroon land of milk and honey has become a land of beggers and gnats. What a shame for the cultic regime that has no results to show-case after twenty eight long years in power. The day Cameroon will rumble and bubble like water in a kittle; there will be no hidding place for him and his bastards called Gendarmes. I have always likened Biya to a python that only needs to swallow an animal in times of need and thereafter the bones are spweed away. If you doubt this hypothesis then meet his ministers who embezelled billions and used it for his campaigns though always defeated by the conscious Cameroonian public. The last strike was only the tip of an iceberg and should be a warning to those in power who insult Cameroonians on a daily basis.
The quest for power and authority has drunken so many leaders in Africa especially Those in Cameroon. What a shame and disgrace for such shameless people who worship and adore Western Countries; when theirs is a toilet that badly needs cleaning and maintenance.

[ETEKI ELAME]

AKAME MBULE,
If you live in CAMEROON, then you suprise me, but if you are out there suffering in another man`s land then no doubt, you are forgiven for wishing your country all the worse. Blessed is love and less blessed is hatred. Please come back home. Learn to love your country. Our blessed land is really beatified. The Divine superintendence gave us H. E. Paul BIYA. He is not like, MBEKI, MUGABE, BABANGDA, or KIBAKI. He is himself, the one God gave to us, the one who loves his people, a man with divine inspiration. A hero, because a hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer to save his people. There are very few men who can bear authority if they haven`t been born with the shoulders for it. If you gave a man a nose who never had one,he would be blowing it all day. Don`t pray for what can never take place here. Just be patient, even if you don`t like what you have. Patience is a bitter plant that has sweet fruits. He that can have patience can have what he will. CAMEROON is still just growing, so let us be hopefull. If you cry about not having shoes think of he who is without feet. Look at the dreams of the future that is better tnan the histoy of the past.

[Franklin for President]

Mr Eteki Elame,

Are you for real? I have nothing against Paul Biya as an individual, unfortunately I just do not understand why he (or any other leader) is so important to Cameroon. What has he invented? What new philosophy has he introduced into the Cameroonian psyche? When someone is surrounded by a host of advisors, and does not even write his own speeches, to my mind that person is dispensable. Why not do away with his services and take advice directly from the advisor and save the much needed cash. I do not know Paul Biya personally and he may have some admirable qualities I am unaware of, but I just find the whole cult of leadership in African societies a bit sickening. Until our governments become more people-focused we will never get it right. Whenever one hears the sound of sirens in Cameroon it means a "dignitary" is being escorted, even if emergency services are desperately needed elsewhere. The plight of the ordinary citizen is completely ignored.

[ngum]

@ eteki elame. i'm hoping you do irony very well. otherwise, let me echo the last commentary and ask if you're deluded.

[ETEKI ELAME]

Dear NGUM,
Sorry I am not mislead by anyone, I am niether expressing anything that is oppossite. I live in CAMEROON. Just trying to cajole you to join me to bring to light, show off, the attractions of CAMEROON. It is better to believe in the essential goodness of the universe, rather than otherwise. If we all do so, great things will happen to our dear fatherland. It is not the president who runs the country. Its you, its me. If things go wrong, its all our fault. One tree,no matter how big cannot build a forest. But mark you all is well in CAMEROON.

[Ndim Bernard Ngouche]

It did not dawn on me that some rotten heads in Cameroon have eaten so full so much so that they are blinded to think everybody is as happy as they are! It is a shame that so many Cameroonians cannot afford to drink pipe born water whereas the government in power because of greed purchae military hard wares like cannon, bullets, Greanades, Tear gas,guns so as to shoot without missing the poverished Cameroonian public. We as writers shall keep on blowing our boggles and horns till the whole World shall hear. Pretending that Cameroon is fine is a crime for we know that all is not well. Biya and his bad government cannot show anything they have achieved for the past 28 years. I do not have any axe to grind with Paul Biya but i do have an axe to grind with his poor administration, bad governance, tribalism, nepotism, favouritism, corruptionism, divide and ruleism and above all the issue of cultism in Cameroon with him being the head of the gang. It is unfortunate that Cameroon has gone down this rough road. Some blind and misgiuded Cameroonians with bribed money in their pockets should rather stay mute. We cannot compare Babangida's regime with that of Paul Biya for Biya is supposed to be a civilian regime as compared to that of Babangida who was a General in the Nigerian Army. Todqy Biya has shown the world that he is a full fledged General in civilian attire. let us not be looking at regimes with fixed terms of office and a working parliamentary system. In Cameroon Biya is the state and the state is Biya. There is no parliament except for some hand picked CPDM clowns who do a circus show for parliamentarians. This sickens me and makes me to feel like throwing up each time i think about being a Cameroonian. If the regime in place or the junta in place wishes to cleanse its battered image, then it should scrap the recruitement into the military, scrap the importation of arms and construct better Hospitals of universal standards,provide free portable water for its citizens, scrap the fee issue in the universities and provide students with a monthly stripend for upkeep. This will curb prostitution and banditary amongst students who have to sponsor themselves in the Universities. It will help them construct new Universities and improve on the existing ones. This can only be done if there is a political will which is so glaringly absent from the corridors of Biya's regime. God save Cameroon and Cameroonians. The other day i pundered all alone if i should write to Professor Bernard Fonlon a mail requesting that he should come and change the out of tone so called National anthem. The lyrics no longer bellow with truth. A change of the Anthem is my cry and that of many others who now feel like being out of touch with reality. The Country has lost all that once made it proud. Where is CamAir, CamShip and the once booming economy? Those who think that i am out of touch should give answers to these questions.

[MacEtchu]

How long is the fight for change going to last? The world sees just Zimbabwe and mugabe. Who will alert the international community that another monster, who is even worse is still free in Cameroon? A country with an 'open-mandate' constitution, characterized with corruption, unemployment, under-development etc. What more are we to see from the Biya regime after almost three decades in power? For how long will, "thousands of ordinary citizens suspected of participating in...protests..." be "arbitrarily rounded up and detained, subjected to summary trials and harsh sentences, some for up to six years in prison?". Its no more a secret that we have reached a point of correction and I doubt what current status of our fatherland now has, if not a "failed state".

[kelly]

today Cameroonians are every where in the world suffering,but lloking back home Cameroon has every thing interms of resourse but here we are today in Europe, America, Asia running away from our own country which had been owned and control by one particular person in the name of Biya, and now he has taken another step to change the constitution of cameroon to be the life president but God knows what happen to his brother Bongo. graduate could not find jobs after University studies what is wrong with Cameroon many of us today out of the country just because of the darkness of unemployment God help Cameroon, i graduated with a degree in Management i could not fine a job for 5 years after my university degree, here i am in Europe working for the white man when my own country could not employ me what is the need, they are many Cameroonian Intellectuals in Europe and America, could not go back home to put their skills together because of the bad Government Cameroon had got. To the best of what i know Biya is not a Cameroonian. :-(

[Ndenkuesson]

I just read this 14 years later and things are even worse than they were in 2008. At this point I don't blame the leaders but I blame the people.

At grassroot level you still see people who are poor by all means and refuse to educate themselves on what can be better and how that better option can be achieved. You still see people today defending the undefendable ( the administration and its poor management).

So,to some extent Cameroonians deserve the leaders they have. Until they wake up from these nightmares, situations will keep worsening. No One is saving them!