Cameroonians in the Diaspora React to Biya's Decentralization Decree

I just received this document written by a group of Cameroonians in the Diaspora who wish to remain anonymous.

"It is hard to figure out what’s next for Cameroon. Decentralization is certainly not in the works. Certainly not until provincial (regional) governors become accountable to citizens and the ballot box replaces the presidential decree as the means for determining who governs and to whom governors are accountable!"

The following letter is a reaction, by a group of professional Cameroons of various political persuasions living in the Diaspora, to the presidential decree on ‘decentralization’ published recently. It is a dispassionate and apolitical assessment in which we also express our considered opinion of the decentralization measure. We are not members of an association or political organization, but Cameroonians brought together by the love of our country to examine the merits of a milestone marker that has long been promised to the entire nation. To make sure that this letter is judged on its merits rather than on the names of the personalities behind it, we therefore opt to remain anonymous and allow our fellow citizens to join this debate in the same spirit.

We have read with a lot of interest the new decree by the Head of State, Paul Biya that outlines “new” measures for decentralizing public administration in Cameroon.  The decree was a long time coming! The country’s development partners had been asking for it for quite a long time: it was, they hoped, the only way left to circumvent a recalcitrant national leadership whose approach to economic and political governance continued to defy norms of best practice and impede any real progress in wealth creation and distribution – poverty alleviation. It took years of false starts, for example, for the Biya government to finally scrape through and qualify for much needed debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

Administrative decentralization is supposed to result in a relative devolution of power from the center to the periphery, from the top of the ladder to the base, and from the national to the local.  “All politics (systems of social governance) is local,” an American political icon once said. The push for decentralization is intended to give citizens a real stake in the management of the commonwealth. Democracies advocate it; constitutions in free societies mandate it.  In pseudo-dictatorships and afro-democracies, real decentralization is a means of taming the greed of leadership and moving both political power and responsibility for their own development to citizens.

We were all waiting to see how this will play out in Cameroon if and when the Biya regime finally gave in to pressure and moved on decentralization. The long wait came to an end on Friday, November 14, 2008, with the publication of the decree on decentralization. The question now is: was it all worth the wait?  The response, without a flicker of hesitation, is a resounding “No!”  Hopefully, no one will be fooled!  Nothing has been decentralized in Cameroon. A hapless President still sits at the helm of the totem pole, in charge of everything but controlling nothing. The majority of Cameroonians sit haplessly at the bottom of that pole, in charge of nothing and controlling little but the poverty in which they must continue to wallow. 

The centerpiece of the new decree is a name change: the country’s ten provinces have been transformed into ten regions, and a few districts would be upgraded to sub-divisions.  Nothing else is new.  Governors who headed provinces will now head regions; prefects who headed divisions will continue to head divisions and their sub-divisional collaborators will continue to head sub-divisions.  A handful of district officers will earn a few more francs when they are re-appointed as sub-divisional officers.  The story ends there!

Nothing in this pathetic game of cards has anything to do with the welfare of citizens in Cameroon. All the governors and their regional underlings represent and report to our very detached and always-traveling President. Somewhere in their job descriptions, they are supposed to oversee the economic and social development of the regions they are in charge of. In an environment in which no development strategies, no “grand projects” have ever been clearly identified, budgeted for or launched, gubernatorial oversight is little more than a semantic exercise.  And since they are not accountable to voters – yes, the word ought to mean something even in this afro-democracy – decades come and go with nothing to show for economic and social development. 

This devolution of power is not rocket science. It is the means by which responsible governments give their citizens the opportunity to set their own development priorities, choose their leaders at the local level and hold them accountable for the faithful implementation of their development desires. Devolution would also mean that these locally elected leaders are allowed to collect and spend taxes on local development projects, with the active participation and keen oversight of the citizens, instead of sending almost all tax revenue to the central treasury, to be doled out parsimoniously to favored municipalities while the rest is plundered by bureaucrats and cronies of the regime. The evidence from those countries that have chosen this path shows that this is also the quickest and most effective road to balanced and truly sustainable development.

It is hard to figure out what’s next for Cameroon. Decentralization is certainly not in the works.  Certainly not until provincial (regional) governors become accountable to citizens and the ballot box replaces the presidential decree as the means for determining who governs and to whom governors are accountable! There is an urgency to fight corruption, strengthen accountability, and transform the country’s enormous natural and human resources into wealth, jobs and a better life for Cameroonians. Mr. Biya’s response to corruption, the so-called Operation Epervier, simply ensured that lady justice would remain wedded to – who else? – Mr. President!  The big strategy for fighting corruption in Cameroon has been the arrest of the few thugs in government who have, consciously or inadvertently, crossed Mr. Biya.

When the President came up, in 2003, with the notion of “grand projects” as a campaign gimmick he never went out on the trail to explain, some in Cameroon thought Mr. Biya was finally thinking “legacy” after over two decades in office. Many thought there would finally be a concerted effort to address the huge infrastructure gap that had stymied the country’s development since this President came to office with great promise in 1982. It turned out that “grand projects” was just another pipe dream a la Paul Biya!  When Mr. Biya ultimately passes on, as he certainly will some day, there will be nothing small or grand that history will attribute to this man whose only accomplishment will probably be his success in putting a nation with great potential to sleep for a good part of its early history.

The Biya system is at the end of its road.  It has run out of ideas and options. It probably had none in the first place. It sold illusions to an unwitting population: continuity in 1982; the promise of change in 1985; structural adjustment and a new economy in 1987; democracy in 1990; grand projects in 2003 and decentralization in 2008!  It delivered none of the goods. Mr.Biya wants to stay on as President and has, once again, re-written the latest of his ever-changing constitutions to allow him to run for office in 2011. His hope, no doubt, is that the nation he successfully put to sleep for over a quarter century will continue its soporific slumber well into the new century. And he will continue to hold on to all the levers of power, leave his countrymen and women in the grips of pervasive poverty, keep aid agencies busy pontificating on economic policies that no one understands or commits to, and continue to grace the corridors of uber-luxurious hotels in Switzerland, France or Germany for months at a time – all at the expense of the Cameroonian taxpayer! 

Comments

[Ma Mary]

Biya and Mugabe should marry each other.

[Tayong]

"I just received this document written by a group of Cameroonians in the Diaspora who wish to remain anonymous"

A nation of 17 million cowards.

[UnitedstatesofAfrica]

"A nation of 17 million cowards"
- Tayong

Including you Tayong? its easy for you to call Cameroonians cowards when you are hiding in the West, selling ice cream or washing dishes and dreaming away in your mediocre life. Be the example and ignite the change

Great read Dibussi, as usual. I'll give my opinion later, when I fully have a grasp on what is really going on and the implications

[Tayong]

There are some buffons here who cant read between the lines and rush to react before understanding.The crux of my statement is the word "anonymous" not people living in the west!

[UnitedstatesofAfrica]

Mr. Tayong, the crux of your statement was not "anonymous". Your signed your write-up with the phrase "A nation of 17 million cowards". Thus, you are insulting Cameroonians as a whole and not just the "anonymous" group that contacted Dibussi.

I also didn't say that you were referring to Cameroonians in the West. I said, it is EASY ( STRESS ON THE WORD "EASY") for someone living in the West to criticize Cameroonians for being cowards when they are away from the country. If you were in Cameroon, would you have acted any differently?

With due respect Tayong, you are the buffoon.

[Simplice]

Good Write-up

[martin]

There is no new thing that Biya can bring to the table. He is too old!!To borrow from Obama ´´you can not take somebody from 20th century to solve 21th century problems´´ period

[Andrew Edimo]

Understanding that the people of LRC do know little or nothing about the constitutionality of their so called 1996 constitution and elite of Southern Cameroons have been brainwashed to forget where they came from politically, Mr. Paul Biya pulled a fast one them last November in name of a decree renaming provinces as Regions as part of the so called decentralization, although it is embed the 1996 constitution.

Candidly speaking, I think Mr. Paul Biya’s November 2008 decree renaming the provinces to regions in triangle called Cameroun provoked by the second SCAPO/SCNC suit, registered as Communication 337/2007 at the Africa Commission on Human and person (ACHPR) in Banjul, The Gambia, against La Republique du Cameroun (LRC) and the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN), requiring them, among other things, to produce their countries’ maps showing their boundaries at Independence, pursuant particularly, to Art.4b of the constitutive Act of the African Union(AU) to which both are signatories, and in pursuance of the African Union Charter and subsequent enactments of the AU, and the relevant principles of International Law.

As renaming of Victoria to Limbe in November 1982 was a diabolic plan to stop the ambitious world bank plan of the 70s’ to develop the Victoria Natural seaport to service Cameroon and the then congestion in the Nigeria ports, so too is the November decree with regards the suit in ACHPR. After all, SCAPO/SCNC having being claming that Southern Cameroons is an entity and cannot be crafted as two provinces of LRC.

When the world bank came back to follow up the Victoria seaport plans, it was told they do not have any Victoria in the triangle called Cameroun; there will be no Southwest and Northwest provinces in the triangle called Cameroun tomorrow.

The name Limbe has no meaning in the Languages sopoken in fako division. It is from the German name Limburg, the name of German who lived in biggest Island in Victoria and comes to swim in river that empties its water into the Atlantic Ocean around the now pressbook. The locals pronounced Limburg as Limbe; that is how limbe river came about.

Much have been said about the so called decentralization since Mr. Paul Biya’s November 2008 decree. It seem the people in LRC have been brainwashed to the point that they do not realize they are ruled by the colonial standard.

The appointment and imposition of the so called DOs , SDOs and Governors on the populace with diferent cultures and languages is a human right abuse on that region and a colonial rule.
Can any one tell me the deference that will come out of the so much heralded decentralization with such a status quo.

[dango tumma]

if only, 5 of my brothers can see what
mr edimo sees, and know what i too know about the diabolic plan of french colonial
bastion of cameroun and its french colony .
then we wont waste our energies fighting ourselves, we will all unite and fight the common enemy , anf chse this five headed
monster from our country southern cameroons. the devil(cameroun) came to southern cameroons to steal and to destroy, thats what their french written constitution stated since their 1960 independence. soo wake up and let fight the right fight. for our indpendence