By James Brooke (Originally published in the New York Times)
September 7, 1987
They are called ''Pajero-crats'' - a proud caste of bureaucrats who ride around town in luxurious Jeep-like vans made by Japanese auto makers.
In Cameroon's oil boom years of the early 1980's, these enterprising public servants borrowed small fleets of Government-owned Mitsubishis and put them to use as inter-city taxis. It was hard to lose money: Government chauffeurs drove Government cars fueled by Government-issued gasoline coupons.
But the boom years are over. Last year, with tumbling oil, cocoa, coffee and cotton prices, Cameroon's export earnings dropped in half.
This summer Paul Biya, Cameroon's President, a conservative, declared war on the ''Pajero-cracy,'' a term devised from the brand name of the vans they drive.
The battle against bureaucracy is becoming a familiar stand in Africa, and it crosses ideological lines.
In left-leaning Ghana, the state Cocoa Board cut its ranks nearly in half - from 92,000 workers in 1982 to 48,000 today. Burkina Faso, Ghana's left-leaning neighbor, froze civil servants' wages, cut housing subsidies and decreed mandatory Thursday afternoon athletics. In centrist Nigeria, the Government began a ''War Against Indiscipline.''
In Cameroon the civil service ballooned out of control with the oil boom of the 1980's.
During the first half of the 1980's, oil brought Cameroon the continent's highest average growth rate - 7 percent a year. Oil brought skyscrapers to this inland capital, a fast rail link from here to the Atlantic port of Douala and, for the first time, television to this California-sized nation of 10 million.
Cameroon became black Africa's third-largest oil exporter - after Nigeria and Angola. But the oil billions also brought a doubling of the civil service in five years, to its current level of 170,000.
But more civil servants, unfortunately, did not mean more service.
As of late August, one foreign investor - with a $30 million project here - had been waiting since April for Labor Ministry officials to grant him a work permit.
''Civil servants - I don't call them servants - they work to stop you from getting things done,'' one European businessman said. ''My passport has been at the National Security office for the last two months to get my visa renewed. I heard today they have lost it.'' A Report's Harsh Wording
Even the American Embassy's annual economic report on Cameroon -usually a diplomatically worded document - describes ''the bloated Cameroonian bureaucracy'' as renowned for slowness and ''administrative inefficiency.''
The Information Ministry was unable to arrange any interviews for the preparation of this article during a 10-day period. A ministry director, who asked not to be identified, said he needed ''more time.''
Faced with this kind of foot-dragging and a tight national budget, President Biya chopped the budget in June by an inflation-adjusted amount equal to 30 percent.
Generally Mr. Biya is cautious about making dramatic political moves. In April 1984 he survived a coup attempt by sitting in the basement of the presidential palace and rallying loyal troops by telephone.
In May, before announcing the budget cuts, he sent delegations from his political party to each of Cameroon's 10 provincial capitals to warn of the gravity of the nation's fiscal crisis - and to test the waters.
''The measures proved very popular,'' said Eric Chinje, an anchor for Cameroon Television's evening news program. ''The President has also used television to appeal directly to the public. It's a way of getting around the bottlenecks.''
In an initial move, the Government mounted a secret payroll review, code-named ''Operation Antelope.'' The review caught 20,000 ghost workers - people who receive paychecks but are not actual employees.
For the flesh-and-blood civil servants, the Government adopted a wide range of measures.
Government ministries have repossessed their vehicles. Many cars have been sold at auction.
''All those guys with the Pajeros -Where did they get the money?'' asked Elisee Kwami, a Yaounde taxi driver, as he steered his battered Soviet-made Lada through this city's congested traffic.
Strict new rules now govern the use of official vehicles. Government chauffeurs are to refuse assignments that are not work-related. Fuel coupons are to be rationed. After working hours, cars must remain parked.
In a country where civil servants often made leisurely telephone calls to friends overseas, the use of phones is being curtailed.
A Call for More Trekking
''Sometimes it may be necessary to trek to the next office to get the information or document you need,'' the official newspaper Cameroon Tribune told government workers. ''Trekking is good for your health.''
Employees of the state electric company no longer get free electric power at home. At many ministries, employees now must sign in if they arrive at work 15 minutes late.
Crackdowns are promised on free water privileges and on the estimated 80,000 people who illegally live in Government housing.
''Even the United States - the richest country in the world - doesn't offer housing to its civil servants,'' said Dieudonne Etende Ondoa, a Cameroonian newpaper editor who studied business administration at American University in Washington.
A clampdown on customs has caused the port of Douala to become congested with 1,500 containers, abandoned by importers who assumed that they could bribe their way out of paying full duties.
The President has prodded bureaucrats to take more initiatives. Handling Public Matters
''I am not sure it is necessary that a Cameroonian who wants to set up a pharmacy should seek the approval of the President,'' he said. ''The public health minister can do that.''
The austerity moves have been described to the public as ''the last alternative'' before turning to the International Monetary Fund.
''For the first time a third world country has dared to challenge the I.M.F.,'' the national radio trumpeted to listeners one morning.
But Peter Gisle, the resident representative of the World Bank, said in an interview here, ''Actually, the measures were a heck of a lot more draconian than the I.M.F would have imposed.''
The austerity measures were dictated largely by two factors - traditional Cameroonian prudence and a bleak future for oil production.
When Cameroon struck oil in the late 1970's Ahmadou Ahidjo, then the President, refused to disclose how much oil the country produced. To shelter the country from oil price shocks, he put the money in an offshore non-budgetary account. ''I have been looking for white elephants,'' the World Bank's Mr. Gisle said. ''I have found only two.'' These, he said, are a big cellulose factory and an international airport that was built in Mr. Ahidjo's hometown.
As President, Mr. Ahidjo refused to borrow against future oil earnings. He adopted a cautious slogan: ''Before oil there was agriculture; after oil there will be agriculture.''
Today, in sharp contrast to neighboring Nigeria, Cameroon is self-sufficient in food and is a major exporter of agricultural products. Cameroon also has a small foreign debt of about $3 billion and a low ratio of debt service payments to exports - about 20 percent.
But Cameroon's petroleum era appears to be drawing to a close.
Production of oil, pumped largely by Elf-Serepca, a subsidiary of Elf-Aquitaine, and Pecten Cameroon, a subsidiary of Shell, peaked here at 9.2 million metric tons in 1985. This year 8.2 million tons is expected.
The World Bank predicts that production will drop to a level of one million to two million tons by 1996. Oil Exploration Reduced
Oil companies, citing low world prices, have cut exploration budgets. ''We have found all the easy stuff,'' said one oil company official in Yaounde.
Some Cameroonians complain that the oil companies are holding out for more advantageous operating agreements. The Government is known to be preparing to negotiate operating conditions with the companies.
With less wealth to spread around, President Biya, a modernizing technocrat, is embarking on a cautious project to build a political base through limited democracy.
Last year, for the first time in 20 years, Cameroonian voters had a choice of multiple candidates at the polls. In the elections for party officials, 70 percent of the incumbent candidates - many tied to the old Ahidjo regime - were thrown out.
NY TIMES IS WRITING ANCIENT HISTORY.
THAT DOESNT REFLECT THE TRUTH AND FEELINGS OF THE PEOPLE. THIS KIND OF JOURNALISM ID TYPICAL OF NY TIMES ABOUT THE DICTATOR PAUL BIYA AND HIS FRWENCH COLONY OF CAMEROUN.
NEW YORK TIMES NEED TO DO MORE RESEARCH ON CAMEROUN AND REPORT ON WHY, HOW , WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ON THE CAMEROUNS FILE. AND STOP ACCEPTING PAYOFFS FROM THIS REGIME AS NY TIMES DID LAST YEAR.
Posted by: DANGO TUMMA | June 07, 2008 at 05:44 PM
Dango Tuma is back with his stupid analyses! It is clearly stated that this NY Times article was published in 1987, that is, 21 years ago. So why on earth is this Dango man acting as if the article was written today?
More than anything this article is a great snapshot in time which shows how the world and Cameroonians viewed the Biya regime barely five years after Biya became President. If anything, it shows that the more things change in Cameroon, the more they stay the same. Great walk back into the past... The predatory bureaucrats are still around, the cautious Biya has become a reckless ruler concerned solely about staying in power, the IMF was eventually embraced by the regime and the country's economic policy is dictated from DC, etc.
Posted by: Nyene Peter | June 07, 2008 at 07:49 PM
I feel tired and burning with anger with the manner information is treated in Cameroon. It is hallow and shallow mindedness that is killing us since we have often refused to use our eyes to see now than using them to cry. The IMF won't have been coming in to do the fire fighting for our battered economies if our elected thieves had done their jobs well. When Dango Tuma culls from an old NY Times magazine, this shows how much saw dust have been blown into our eyes by some zombies of the regime who can back it till tomorrow.Our Country today has been milked so much so that it has become so dry. Biya and his cohort have denied Cameroonians any meaningful election and all the elections that have been conducted have all been a charade and he knows it. The day Cameroonians shall vote one person per vote and each voice counted, then our mountains, hills and vallies shall rumble with joy.
Posted by: Ndim Bernard Ngouche | June 09, 2008 at 05:31 PM