Unrest in Cameroon: End Time Blues and A Clouded Future

By Ajong Mbapndah L

Recently the Republic of Cameroon was in turmoil and chaos of great proportions. For a country that the President, Paul Biya has so tactfully deceived the international community into believing was an oasis of peace in a troubled central African sub region, the chaos not only exposed the façade but left additional doubts in many minds on the future of the bilingual country when Biya eventually relinquishes power. Prompted by a strike action (initially?) called for by the group of Driver syndicates to protest against unbridled hike in fuel prices, things completely went off hand. As if the people were just waiting for the slightest signal to vent their anger against all the evil that the government of President Paul Biya and his ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) has brought, leading towns in the country took the queue and the result was massive destruction of property and the military at its best in spraying harmless citizens with live bullets.

Students & peaceful demonstrators killed, no human rights in Cameroon says this placard at the Cameroon Embassy in Washington DC: pictures courtesy of Civil Society PlatForm for Democracy in Cameroon; email: contact@savecameroon.org

The unrest in all fairness was not a surprise to many. Using the heavy hand of the military as he always does, President Biya may have restored a semblance of calm but it may just be postponing the inevitable. The calm may just be postponing a fight which may be fought some other day. In quest of scape goats the Minister of Communication was quick to accuse the opposition Social Democratic Front-SDF of instigating the violence, yet everyone knows that the SDF has long lost the capacity for such large scale mobilization. As wide and varied as the reasons for the unrest may be, one of the principal cause’s remains designs by President Biya to alter term limits in the constitution so as to prolong a 25 year sojourn in power, come 2011. At the age of 75 and with more than 25 years spent in power (from the coveted post of prime minister in 1975, he eventually inherited the presidency in 1982), it baffles the imagination that he is ready to risk everything, including plunging the country into total chaos just because he wants to eternalize himself in power.

Youth in bamenda lift a fallen comrade

Fru Ndi’s entrance blocked by irate Biya’s soldiers

Biya’s departure from power is a thing many yearn for, but it is also a scenario that so many dread especially those who have plundered the country economically and served as accomplices in flagrant human right abuses and other crimes against the people of Cameroon.Perhaps what makes the prospects of the post Biya era unpredictable to some and scary to others is the way he has managed the country for the last two decades and some 5 years.

On his accession to power in 1982, Biya inherited a buoyant economy from Ahidjo, which was virtually debt free. Although the economic crisis that nearly crippled the country were attributed to the slum in prices of agricultural products in the world market, blatant mismanagement and the siphoning of public funds with impunity contributed tremendously in ruining the oil-rich country. Asked about the state of corruption in Cameroon some years back, President Biya asked for proofs. Many do not know if the conviction of a few barons of his regime is as a result of the proofs he has finally gotten or an attempt to fool the international community as he has always been so good at doing. It is illusory to think that the President can genuinely engage in a serious fight against corruption because it may lead to the collapse of the regime. His government and the ruling CPDM party are well known sanctuaries for all sorts of embezzlers and con men.

Display of government atrocities by protesters, Cameroon Embassy, Washington DC

The government may be quick to say the unrest is over and everything under control but the human right violations is still very flagrant. Besides the number of people that were shot dead, there are reports of arbitrary trials in various chief towns of the country of numerous people arrested. The bulk of people arrested are the youth and many of them are denied access to legal aide and this has incurred the wrath of Lawyers many of whom are prepared to offer free services to the detainees.

In the face of the rioting and the opposition for his tenure elongation bid, the press has been hard hit. The privately owned radio and television station Equinox in the economic capital Douala was sealed. Another privately owned radio station considered very critical of the government Magic FM in Yaoundé was sealed. The publisher of La Nouvelle Press Jacque Blaise Mvie was recently abducted by security agents.

Journalist Jacques Blaise Mvie: abducted by security operatives

Honourable Jean Michel Nintcheu , Member of Parliament and Provincial Chairman of the SDF party in the Littoral province who is a staunch opponent of the constitutional amendment bid, was barred at the Douala International Airport from traveling to France for a business trip and his passport seized.

In the face of all these atrocities and more, President Biya recently ordered a 15% increase in salaries for state workers. Salaries of state workers were slashed twice in 1994 and this coupled with the devaluation of the CFA currency made things extremely hard. Appeals for the salaries to be reinstated to the pre-1994 level have fallen on deaf ears and some state workers like Simon Nkwenti of the Teachers Syndicate CCATU think that 15% falls way short of expectations especially with the massive hike in prices of basic commodities. The nation’s parliamentarian’s (MPs) had earlier and in the most surreptitious of manners received a huge pay hike in what many anticipate as moves to buy their loyalty to the constitutional amendment project.

Protesters Take on Cameroon Embassies Abroad

That he may be more of the problem than the solution is the message that Cameroonians in the Diaspora have been sending to President Biya. In Bonn, London Washington DC etc, Cameroonians have protested at their embassies to manifest their discontent with the state of affairs in the country .The Embassies in London and Bonn were closed on the protesters and in Washington DC a second protest March is slated for the 14^th of March with protesters expected from all over the USA. The civility of the police who accompanied the protesters , contrasts sharply with the situation back in Cameroon, were there are reduced to agents of repression. In the face of these, the regime may find it harder this time around to sweep things under the carpet. As one of the protesters in Germany said, Biya had the option of leaving power like Abdou Diouf who lost elections and left or Mobutu of Zaire (D.R.Congo) who was chased by rebellion and he seems to have chosen the path of Mobutu.

Protesters at the Cameroon Embassy in Bonn, Germany. Embassy was shut down to avoid the anger of protesters

Dialogue has never been the strong point of the regime which feels more comfortable with repression. Problems which would have been easily solved with dialogue are allowed to degenerate into explosive situations like the case of Southern Cameroons that is today a time bomb. Cameroonians are indeed living in very anxious and uncertain times and with a leader who appears completely out of touch with realities bent on achieving his desire to be a life President, there is every reason to fear for the future.

Enough is enough, was the message of the protesters at the Embassy in Washington DC to Biya

Protesters in Washington DC on their way to the White House to register the people’s grievances