Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

In Memoriam: Dakole Daissala, the man who helped consolidate the CPDM's 30-year grip on power

"Will the MDR set the course for true political change in Cameroon thereby making history or will they join Biya to bring about some cosmetic changes and continue to lord over the people?" Le Messager, March 23, 1992.

"In a context of unleashed passions, people (politicians) don't yet have to calmness of mind to assess our courage and our sense of responsibility. History will prove us right." Dakole Daissala, La Vision, 15 Juin 1992.

Dakole Daissala, the Camerounian opposition politician who famously threw in his lot with the ruling CPDM regime after the multiparty legislative elections in April 1992, died this week in Yaounde at age 79. Dakole wanted to be remembered as the hero of Cameroonian democracy, as the one who saved the country from the clutches of political extremists on both sides of the isle. 30 years after he threw in his lot with the Biya regime the verdict is in. Or is it? Here is the story of those fateful events of March-April 1992.

 

An Overview and Full Text (English) of the New Cameroon Penal Code

By Dibussi Tande

President Paul Biya has signed into law, the bill relating to the (new) penal Code (Law No. 2016/007 of 12 July 2016).

Prior to its adoption by Parliament last June, the penal code bill was the target of widespread criticism from legal scholars, the Bar Council, civil society organizations and the general public because of a number of controversial provisions. Specifically targeted was the provision granting government ministers immunity from prosecution, along with other provisions punishing rent defaulters, criminalizing begging and adultery, and maintaining the death penalty.

Cameroon: Governance Performance on the Decline According to Ibrahim Foundation

Early this week, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation released the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) report for 2015. The report revealed that over the last four years, governance progress in Africa has stalled.

Published annually, the IIAG provides a comprehensive assessment of governance performance for each of the 54 African countries. The 2015 IIAG consists of 93 indicators which fall into four categories: Safety & Rule of Law, Participation & Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development.

Memory Lane (April 1984): Rare Audio Files from Coup Attempt in Cameroon

Find below a playlist containing two rare audio files. The first is the radio broadcast by 2nd Lt Yaya Adoum announcing the April 6, 1984 coup attempt in Cameroon, while the second is President Biya's nationwide address after the coup attempt was crushed by loyalist forces.

 
Click here to read the April 6, 1984 coup proclamation in English.

Memory Lane (Nov. 4 & 6 1982): Ahidjo Resigns, Paul Biya is Sworn In (Audio)

On November 4, 1982, Ahmadou Ahidjo, president of the United Republic of Cameroon resigned from office and handed over to his Prime Minister, Paul Biya, who was sworn in on November 6, 1982. In this audio excerpt, we listen, first, to Ahidjo announcing his resignation in a speech to the nation, then to Biya being sworn in as President of the Republic by Solomon Tandeng Muna, Speaker of the National Assembly.

 

The SDF Proposes Bill to Amend Cameroon's Nationality Code; Recognizes Dual Nationality

The opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) has relaunched the acrimonious dual nationality debate in Cameroon by drafting a private members' bill to amend the country’s nationality code adopted in 1968.

While the SDF’s proposed amendments are fairly modest considering widespread calls for a vast overhaul the law, they nonetheless tackle the key issue of dual nationality head-on. In the unlikely event that the amendment becomes the law of the land, “Any Cameroonian citizen who acquires another nationality retains the Cameroonian nationality, except repudiation thereof.”

In the same vein, individuals who previously lost their Cameroonian nationality because the country does not recognize dual citizenship will regain their Cameroonian nationality under this law: "Restoration to [sic] Cameroonian nationality is granted de facto without condition of age or probation, but subject to necessity of proof that the applicant… has been deprived of the Cameroonian nationality as an effect of having willfully acquired or kept a foreign nationality."

Here is the full text of the proposed amendment along with its explanatory statement.

President Biya Appoints 30 Senators: The Complete List

President Biya today appointed the 30 Senators who will complete Cameroon's 100-person Senate, 70 of whom were elected by indirect suffrage on April 14, 2013. As a reminder, According to Chapter 1, Section 3 of Law No 2006/005 of 14 July 2006 to lay down conditions governing the election of Senators:

"(1) Each region shall be represented in the Senate by 10 (ten) senators 7 (seven) of whom shall be elected by indirect universal suffrage on a regional basis and 3 (three) appointed by decree of the President of the Republic."

Apart from a few exceptions such as Dakolle Daissala, a longtime ally of the President and leader of the MDR party, or Pierre Flambeau Ngayap of the UNDP, which is traditionally part of the “presidential majority,” practically all  the Senators are from the ruling CPDM party.

Cameroon’s New Senate: An (Anti)Democratic Anachronism

By Dibussi Tande

"The new Senate has no power to impeach the president, to approve or reject presidential appointees to the executive and judicial branch... and no power to conduct investigations of malfeasance in the executive branch. In short... the Cameroonian Senate has no power of restraint over the executive branch."

On February 27, 2013, some 17 years after the 1996 constitution established  the Senate as the upper house of parliament, President Biya finally signed decree N° 2013/056 scheduling the first ever Senate elections in Cameroon for April 14, 2013. As with past elections, this date was chosen on a whim, or more precisely, at the discretion of the president who ignored persistent calls that municipal elections be organized prior to the senatorial elections since the mandate of municipal councilors expired in June 2012. As they say in Cameroon, the president alone understands the “intricacies and imperatives” of the country’s political and electoral calendar...

Rising from the Depths of Despair - A Review of Enoh Meyomesse’s Prison Poetry

Reviewed by Dibussi Tande

Enoh Meyomesse. (November 2012). Poème Carcérale… Poésie du pénitencier de Kondengui. Yaounde : Les editions du Kamerun. 56 pages. [e-book version]

"Prison is a place, but it is also an idea, an idea that has engaged writers and thinkers ... because it offers a way of expressing the helplessness we all feel at some point in our lives... The idea of prison gives us a setting in which to imagine our relationship to the world when we are feeling frustrated, limited, hedged in, stymied. We can then go on to identify the forces that have landed us in this situation... and those that can release us." The Kingis Quair and Other Prison Poems 

Nearly one year after he was imprisoned in the Kondengui prison in Yaounde on charges of “aggravated theft”, Cameroonian writer and political activist Enoh Meyomesse has just published a poetry collection detailing his arrest and life behind bars. In this moving collection, Meyomesse bares it all, vividly describing his moments of hope and despair, his anger and anguish at the fate that has befallen him.

Against All Odds, the Biya Regime Clocks 30...

Dibussi Tande

I was going through some old boxes a few days ago when I stumbled across a bunch of pictures I had taken back in 1991 of an anti-Biya rally organized by university of Yaounde students in Limbe following the May 6, 1991 events at the university.

May 24, 1991: University of Yaounde students march through the streets of Limbe with a mock coffin of President Biya and "Biya Must Go" placards.

The placards that the students carried were replete with "Biya Must Go" type messages at a time when the President was on the ropes, and being pommeled by a buoyant pro-democracy movement.

In His Own Words: Enoh Meyomesse on Life at Kondengui Central Prison

"My days follow one after the other in a deathly monotony, like the hours on a clock." [Enoh Meyomesse about life behind bars]

The trial of Cameroonian writer Enoh Meyomesse begins at the Yaounde military Court today, August 31, 2012.

Enoh Meyomesse (in blue shirt) with his alleged accomplices

Meyomesse, a founding member of the Cameroon Writers Association, is charged with aggravated theft and the illegal sale of gold. In an article which appeared in the Hufftington Post (Gold, Guns and Books: the Meyomesse Affair), Deji Olukotun sheds light on the origins of what he describes as a “bizarre case”:

An Overview of Cameroon Prison Literature From Albert Mukong to Titus Edzoa

By Dibussi Tande

In the last six months, three former high-ranking government officials currently in jail for a variety of financial crimes have published books about their prison experience. These books also explain their own version of events that landed them in jail, while casting a critical glance at the political system in which they once played pivotal roles.

The courtyard of Kondengui Prison in Yaounde

Prominent among these unlikely authors are two former Secretary-Generals at the Presidency of the Republic, Atangana Mebara and Titus Edzoa, and Nguini Effa, the former Director General of Cameroon Petroleum Depot (SCDP).

Peeking Beneath the Veil of the Albatross: Why Inoni and Marafa are in Jail

By Dibussi Tande

Even though it was not completely unexpected, the arrest of  Chief Inoni Ephraim, former Prime Minister and Head of Government, and Hamidou Marafa Yaya, former Minister of State in Charge of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, is a bombshell that is still reverberating across the Cameroonian political landscape.

According to reports by the State-owned CRTV, both men had showed up at the offices of investigative judge Pascal Magnaguemabe for what was expected to be a routine encounter, but were instead bundled off to the Kondengui Maximum security prison in the latest chapter of the decade-long probe into the Albatross Affair, or the botched attempt to purchase a brand new aircraft for President Biya – a dizzying fall from grace of two “golden boys” of the Biya regime who were once considered (particularly in the case of Marafa) potential heirs to the octogenarian Paul Biya.

Why Cameroon Does Not Have a Two-round Presidential Election System

Or how the parliamentary opposition shot itself in the foot in 1992...

By Dibussi Tande

The Republic of Senegal has a new president following run-off elections which resulted in the defeat of outgoing President Abdoulaye Wade by Macky Sall, his one-time protégé and former Prime Minister. One of the main reasons for Macky's victory is Senegal’s two-round electoral system, which calls for a second round of voting if no candidate obtains more that 50% of votes cast. This is unlike countries such as Cameroon which have a one-round/first-past-the-post electoral system.

In 1992, Cameroon's National Assembly failed to vote on a motion instituting the 2-round system.

In the first round of voting, President Wade obtained 34.81% of votes cast while Sall obtained 26.58%. If this had been the first-past-the-post system practiced in Cameroon, Wade would still be President of Senegal...

[Video] Kah Walla's "Fiery Call to Arms" at the Women in the World Summit

Kah Walla, president of Cameroon's People's Party, talks about her call to action – women have to help elect other women to government.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 Click here for more on Kah Walla's declaration at the Women in the World Summit.

Boko Haram and the Fear of Islamic Extremism in Cameroon: Part 2 – The Changing Face of Islam in Cameroon

By Dibussi Tande

The evolution of Islam in Cameroon can be split into three major phases or generations; a the period of complete dominance by traditional Islam, followed by the era of the emergence of the “Arabized Intellectuals,” and finally, the period marked by the appearance of Islamic fundamentalism in the public sphere. Of course, this is not a linear trajectory since there is a certain amount of overlapping between these different periods.

The face of moderate traditional Islam in Cameroon:. Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, Muslim ruler of the Bamoun, at the ordination of a Catholic Priest, Father Mbouapegnigni, in Foumban.

Boko Haram and the Fear of Islamic Extremism in Cameroon: Part 1 – Boko Haram’s Cameroon Connection

By Dibussi Tande

“Biya was concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism.… He was beginning to worry about Islamic extremists infiltrating Cameroon from Nigeria and making inroads through Cameroonian mosques.” Wikileaks

The wave of Christmas Day bombings in Nigeria carried out by Boko Haram, the extremist Islamist sect which has its base in northeastern Nigeria, has once again raised the specter of religious extremism gaining a foothold in Cameroon.

Rhodes Journalism Review: Cracking down on the Diaspora and Dissent

My article on the Cameroon government's attempts to crack down on diaspora and online dissent, which appeared in Rhodes Journalism Review No. 31 of September 2011, is now available online. Click here to read or download the article (pdf).

Click here for all the articles in RJR, no. 31.

Law N° 2011/013 of 13 July 2011: Relating To Voting By Cameroonian Citizens

The National Assembly deliberated and adopted, the President of the Republic hereby enacts the law set out below.

Section 1. Cameroonian citizens settled or resident abroad shall exercise their right to vote through their participation in the election of the President of the Republic and in referendums.

Wikileaks: Cameroonian President Biya Gives Ambassador Political/Economic Overview

In this most revealing wikileaks document on Cameroon thus far, President Paul Biya makes a number of interesting revelations during a February 2010 discussion with (former) U.S. ambassador Janet Garvey – a rare window into the mind of Cameroon’s taciturn and inscrutable ruler. For example, during the discussion the President "confirmed that more corruption-related arrests were coming under his anti-corruption initiative Operation  Epervier" (Sparrowhawk), although (contrary to rumor) he thought this would not likely include former Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni because the evidence against him was thin and he didn´t steal much money".  The president also "professed frustration with China contrasts with the rising profile of Chinese investments in Cameroon..." Read on.

 

¶1. (C) Summary: On February 4 [2010], Ambassador met with President Paul Biya for a two-hour tour d´horizon of domestic and international issues. Biya was concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism. He praised growing Central African regional cooperation and improved relations with Nigeria. He was positive about the recent Copenhagen summit although frustrated with China´s role.