Cameroonian Diaspora & the Case against Paul Biya

Cameroonian Diaspora & the Case against Paul Biya
By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai*

It was a breath-taking display of arrogant impertinence and self-aggrandizing recklessness. A group calling itself the “Council of Cameroonians in the Diaspora” (CCD) filed a complaint against President Paul Biya in a French High Court for “embezzlement and buying stolen property”. From all indications, the Plaintiffs – Robert Waffo Wanto (President), Celestin Djamen (Vice-president - Judicial Affairs), Lamy Mahamat (vice-president - Culture) and Henri Kingue Kwate (Treasurer), are asking the French court to open a judicial probe into assets allegedly owned in France by President Biya and members of his family and entourage.

The CCD also indicated in the 19-page complaint that it will be a civil party in the litigation, and promised to provide evidence to substantiate their case, upon request by the court. The pedestrian manner in which the plaintiffs filed the complaint and the cavalier manner in which they approach the issues highlighted their remarkable unfamiliarity with the basic international instruments and legal principles that define state sovereignty and reflected the juvenile nature of their reasoning.

In a similar development, Celestine Bedzigui is reported to have petitioned the UN to open an enquiry into the food riots that rocked the country in February 2008. It is hard to figure out the motives behind Bedzigui’s timing. It is however easy to see that as a former political party leader, Bedzigui is merely trying to increase his nuisance value on the national stage for possible use as cheap political leverage.

But don’t take it from me: anyone with the remotest knowledge about how the UN system works will dismiss the public posturing by Bedzigui as a laughable waste of time venture that should attract no further comment. Likewise, the case against Paul Biya is, ipso facto, an inappropriate, annoyingly vexatious attempt to embarrass and ridicule the President of the Republic and the state institutions which he incarnates. All patriotic Cameroonians of goodwill should therefore be firm in their condemnation of this bellicose and presumptuous display of condescending public grand-standing.

If anything, these treasonable acts of political brigandage, in the countdown to the 2011 Presidential elections, are the latest signs of frenetic desperation by “Biya Must Go” apostles of monolithic hang-over, who are guided by a certain blind, narrow-minded hate, borne of an unseemly partisan prejudice against Paul Biya and the ruling establishment. While these kinds of politically-motivated gimmicks may score cheap political points in the media, it needs to be emphasized that such a confrontational disposition seem, in my view, unhelpful, as it further deepens the rumpus between Cameroonians in the Diaspora and the government that views its citizens abroad with anything but hostility and suspicion.

Some observers might simply shrug off the current case as being only the latest chapter in a long history of partisan attacks by political snipers and their paymasters who will miss no opportunity to impugn and smear the President’s character. But to the extent that Paul Biya is not just a private Cameroonian citizen, we must recognize that these silly, sensational distractions have a devastating effect on a country’s international image. The impact of a heated political environment can be extremely damaging to national unity and skew policy in dangerous directions, while compromising our unbridled quest for foreign investments.

When we as Cameroonians, go out of the way to ridicule and hold our public officials in contempt in front of the international community, we not only undermine those officials; rather we are holding the state institutions which they incarnate to ridicule. The institution of the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon is beyond any single individual; today, it is Paul Biya; tomorrow, it will be someone else. Suing their Head of State in a foreign country sets a wrong precedence and inevitably raises fundamental questions of judicial deference and ultimately, national sovereignty.

As a practical matter, the case against Paul Biya is baseless, entirely without merit and should be properly dismissed with prejudice against the plaintiffs. To begin with, the forum; (a French court without jurisdictional authority) is an improper venue that is offensive to common sense and out of all proportion to Biya’s convenience to enter appearance as a defendant even if he elected to. In addition, the plaintiffs failed to address the issue of locus standi. Beyond the mere fact that they might be Cameroonians living in France, who gave them the authority to speak for all Cameroonians in the Diaspora? A more appropriate name for their group would have been Council of Cameroonians in the Diaspora in France, owing to the fact that the group is based in France. As a member of the Cameroonian Diaspora in the United States, the CCD surely does not speak for me!

Be that as it may; it is well recognized that, as a general matter, a plaintiff’s choice of forum is entitled to a certain amount of deference, but in this case, that deference cannot trump the public interest, while imposing an unfair burden on the French justice system to resolve an issue that can better be handled by Cameroonian courts. Since the CCD plaintiffs gave no reason to conclude that French courts are significantly better equipped to try President Paul Biya than Cameroonian courts; the case should be dismissed under the doctrine of forum non conveniens.

Seek ye first the asylum kingdom
There is absolutely nothing wrong if Cameroonians abroad decide to have a stake in their country. That much less, is expected of all patriotic citizens. Unfortunately, over the years, beyond the occasional visits to Money Gram and Western Union, their involvement has been limited to confrontational political snipping and working against the national interest simply because they hate Paul Biya. This has created a rift between the government and the Diaspora, making it impossible for Cameroonians to use the wealth of knowledge, experience and resources they have acquired abroad to contribute to the growth and development of their country.

A recent report by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) classified Cameroon with war-ravaged Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia as leading origins of asylum seekers in the world. Whereas 1,741 of our fellow citizens sought asylum in 2008, up from 1,338 in 2007, at least 745 more left our shores within the second quarter of 2009 in search of refuge away from their fatherland. It is pertinent to ask why this is so in a country that is neither at war nor afflicted by natural disaster. On the face of it, this question would be best answered by the asylum seekers themselves. But it would be disingenuous for anyone to pretend not to appreciate the many reasons that push ordinary, honest citizens to seek a better life elsewhere. The answers therefore are inside Cameroon.

In truth, many Cameroonian asylum seekers are economic refugees, persons running away from the harsh economic conditions at home to seek a better and more fulfilling life in other countries. It is never an easy decision to take that one leaves relations, friends and all that is familiar to start afresh in a strange land. But in order to gain sympathy, they often tell despicable lies - fear of genital mutilation, political persecution (SDF, SCNC). Curiously, the CPDM in the Diaspora is made up of political asylees, including family members of ex-government Ministers and CPDM barons). Worse even, Francophones who cannot string two error-free English sentences are using the SCNC to seek political asylum in the USA. This is a shame.

But it is a bigger shame that Cameroonian leaders have allowed the system to deteriorate so badly under their watch; to the extent that their fellow citizens (including many of the very best and brightest) are voting with their feet. It is no wonder then that Cameroonians, no lazy people at all, are fleeing in large numbers to other lands in search of opportunities. And, more often than not, Cameroonians do excel and do contribute in many ways to the growth and development of their host countries.

In fairness though, one of the greatest failure of the Biya regime has been its inability or reluctance to create a forum for constructive dialogue with the Cameroonian Diaspora, believing mistakenly, that any Cameroonian living abroad is an enemy of the regime.

Understandably, there are still urgent matters arising between the government and the Diaspora but the government needs to reach out to its citizens abroad. Studies have shown that remittances to some African countries like Ghana far surpass the total amount in the lending portfolio offered by the World Bank with all the stringent conditionality clauses. I don’t know of any other country where its foreign missions treat its own citizens with the kind of scorn and disdain that one witnesses in Cameroonian embassies abroad. Surely, nothing like this happens in any country with the slightest respect for its own citizens.

In his last Youth Day message to the nation, the President announced the creation of a structure to address issues affecting youths. Rather than waste time, engaging in such sterile political mischief like suing the Head of State in a foreign country, Cameroonians in the Diaspora should engage the President on the need for another structure – possibly a Ministry in charge of Diaspora Affairs; or a cabinet-level position in the Presidency to handle Diaspora issues. The government should understand that the era when every Cameroonian abroad was viewed as an “opposant” is over and must now end in the interest of peace and progress. The prevailing “us” versus “them” mentality has not served the overall national interest.

However, Cameroonians who take the easy way out to dump their country for where the grass is supposedly greener should be reminded that they are probably better off contributing to the transformation of their fatherland. We can copy the example of the Senegalese, Malians, Ghanaians and Ethiopians in the Diaspora who are making significant contributions to the development of their countries, rather than waste precious time engaging in egregious acts of sabotage against own country

*Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai; a Public Intellectual, is a graduate of Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government and former Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy.