Nanje
School of Creative Thinking has turned its focus this time around to reveal the
findings of its investigations. At issue, is the way the Cameroon Embassy in
Washington DC conducts its daily business with its clients.
By
Jackson W. Nanje
Over
the years, Cameroonians residing in the United States have always complained
about the poor treatment they get from their embassy in Washington DC, which is
a place they ought to call home. Rather, it has been a place where hostile
treatment has been the hallmark to have necessitated this investigation. Also,
it is the opinion of most Cameroonians that the Cameroon Ambassador to the
United States, His Excellency, Joseph Foe-Atangana, just like his predecessors,
has not been able to adequately address the frustrations of Cameroonians. It is
also the conclusion of our investigations that the reason some of these
problems have not been solved is partly due to the selection process of our
ambassadors (described below) by the President of Republic, who does the
selection strictly on tribal grounds rather than on meritorious considerations.
The present ambassador may be a good man as some have testified; however, his
inability to address the numerous problems that Cameroonians are confronted
with tends to give credence to our conclusive investigative report---which
hinges around the poor selection process of these ambassadors. These
ambassadors lack the necessary fundamentals in conflict resolution to be able
to address these problems which have kept stirring at them like a deer in a fog
light immediately after Cameroon established diplomatic relations with the United
States. Indeed, because all of our ambassadors,
including Foe-Atangana, have never been tested in the field of real diplomacy,
and because they were hand-picked without any form of scrutiny by Members of Parliament,
they therefore lack the ability to understand the complexities that come with
the responsibilities as a Cameroon Ambassador to the United States. This is
even more complicated because, if all of them, beginning from Ambassador Paul
Pondi to Jerome Mendounga and now to Joseph Foe-Atangana had been previously
tested through the ascendency process prior to coming to the United States,
they would possess some form of creative imagination in disentangling the web
of problems at the embassy that Cameroonians have constantly complained of. All
three ambassadors lack sophistry in dealing with the problems; and their
inability resonate from the selection process. It is also our understanding
that visa requests and passport renewals and issuance are the two sought-after services
of most Cameroonian-Americans. Why the embassy cannot accommodate these basic needs,
is beyond comprehension.
Our investigations further reveal that
Ambassador Foe-Atangana merits a C-plus in his job approval ratings due to the
fact that he has been able to address some of the problems better than his
predecessors. Some will even attest to the fact that the ambassador has made it
a pledge that anyone who is unable to get good service from any of his embassy
staffer should contact him via his direct line with their problems. Indeed, it
is the testimony of a few whom the ambassador has intervened on their behalf
that, he has in fact, resolved some of their problems at the embassy. But is
that what is expected of an ambassador, who is suppose to imbibe in each of his
staff the call of duty, to rise to the demands and responsibilities of public
service without choosing who, which, and whose problems to solve? This, in no
small way calls on the President of the country to revisit the selection
process of his ambassadors. He needs to appoint them while the parliament
confirms them.
The
issue we are confronted with isn’t whether the ambassador is a good man or
whether a few of his staffers who have chosen to ply their career in the public
service are good civil servants; we are expecting the embassy servants, under
the guidance of the ambassador, whom we expect to possess the necessary skills
and credentials, to tackle these problems and also for them to perform beyond
the call of duty in the delivery of services to their clients, regardless.
When we take an ephemeral glance, for
instance, at the estimated annual revenue raised by the Embassy officials from
visa applications and other services it renders to clients alone, it is unimaginable,
unpardonable and unconscionable why a portion of that huge revenue it raises
annually cannot be ploughed back into addressing these age-old problems. The
embassy can self-finance its activities based on the vast revenue it generates.
The embassy processes approximately five hundred (500) visa applications weekly with exceptions to the months of
November and December, whereby the weekly numbers double to about a thousand (1000) visa applications. In a year, the embassy processes
approximately twenty-eight thousand (28,000)
visas at one hundred and forty-one ($141.00)
dollars each. The revenue raised from visa applicants alone is $3,948.000.00 (1,974,000,000FCFA). This is approximately 2billion FCFA raised in the United States alone. And this sum is expected
to increase each year because the numbers of Cameroonians who apply to become US
Citizens increase yearly and very few Cameroonians retire finally to Cameroon
to realize a downward shift in revenue. This is stunning revenue that the
embassy (Cameroon government) makes from visa applicants (mostly Cameroonians) compared
to the documented (lousy) services
that they provide to Cameroonians in return. From this revenue alone, one can
clearly discern why the request for dual citizenship, which would erase this
vast revenue from the government’s coffers and equally ease the problems of
Cameroonians, is a far cry, and at best, a futile effort by some Diaspora
groups even as the government fails to see the amount of remittances this same
individuals transmit via money transport agencies and what they carry along with
them during their annual pilgrimage to Cameroon. However, this is a topic for
another day.
Which are these
problems that Cameroonians have been so eager for (the ambassadors) or the
government of Cameroon to fix? The problems are the following: (a) poor
customer service; (b) high visa fees compared to those of other countries
similarly placed; (c) delay in processing passports and the need to
decentralize consular services; (d) selection process of ambassadors to the US;
(e) poorly constructed website.
(a) Poor Customer Service
“The amount of money Cameroonians pay to
process their visas and passports compared to the quality of service they get
from their embassy in return, is, indeed, pathetic and pitiful” Anonymous.
“We can have an irate
customer who is very wrong; but good business practice requires that you, the
provider of the product or service, not argue with the customer. You appease
the customer. Let the customer go home happy even if he or she is wrong. That
is the overarching goal.” (SAF, Camnetwork)
The above statements
were made by two trained Customer Service personalities from Cameroon, residing
in the United States, who see customer service completely differently from the
way the embassy personnel (who are always confrontational and rude), see it.
Their statements above are the prototype examples of what is expected of our
embassy staffers as opposed to that which we currently endure from them.
You will be lucky to
get a staff of the Cameroon Embassy on the phone with good scruples, to
empathize with you and address your problem in any way or form expected of
anyone who serves and is being paid by the same tax payers who foot their
salaries but whom they despise. The staffs hardly answer the phones. I wonder,
to begin with, why there are phone lines at embassy which they hardly answer!
And if and when they do answer the phones, you will even regret why you ever
stayed on that phone to listen to their unpleasant service to you. The staffs
are a product of bad selection process and of a poor or insufficient training
given them by the Cameroon government.
In other African Embassies, for instance the Nigerian Embassy, trained
customer service personnel address the concerns of every caller with respect
and due diligence. They do transfer callers to the appropriate authorities and
if one leaves a voice mail, the customer representative will ensure that a
response to your request or inquiry is communicated to you somehow. Sometimes
they go the extra mile to ask you if you were satisfied with the services you
received at their embassy. However, this is not the case with the Cameroon
Embassy. The ambassador must
address this problem and others because, Cameroonians are very unhappy with the
poor services they get from his leadership and management of the embassy, which
ought to be a safe-haven for them.
Why is Mr. Gervais
Bindzi, who is in-charge of passport renewal and issuance as well as visa services,
doing this heavy-lifting alone at the embassy? Cameroonians believe that because
he is overwhelmed with his workload, and has not been given adequate back up cover
by the ambassador, is one of the reasons for the unacceptable delays and poor
customer service that has been substituted for courteous, pleasant and swift
services? In Cameroon, for instance, the department of Special branch of the
Police department is charged with the issuance of new passports and visa
processing. Why the ambassador took away this service from the Commissioner at
the embassy needs further clarifications.
(b) High
visa fees
In order to justify the
high cost of Cameroon’s visa fees, Nanje School of Creative Thinking did a
comparative analysis of six countries in Africa, which have embassies in the
United States, of the cost of their visas vis-à-vis that of Cameroon. The countries
on the survey are South Africa, Nigeria, Gabon, Ghana, Sierra Leone and the
Equatorial Guinea. It is important to know that if a country like the United
States raises the cost of her travel visa it is usually tied not only on budget
constraints but also to the interest-benefit (or utility) to be gotten by
applicants once they arrive in the United States; but the high cost of visa by
the Cameroon government (which ought to encourage migration into the country),
defies the interest-benefit logic.
The chart below shows
what other countries in Africa charge for a travel visa. We selected countries
in Central Africa, which is in the same zone as Cameroon, and also, from West
Africa and South of Africa as well. If one compares the cost-benefit-interest
analyses of South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana to those of Cameroon, there is
absolutely no justification for the imposition of the high cost of the Cameroon’s
visa. Also, in countries like Gabon that charges $141.00 as Cameroon, the visa
demands for multiple entries whereas that of Cameroon is only for a three (3)
months stay. Ghana, whose visa is for three (3) months stay comparatively to
what the Cameroon government charges, her visa cost is only $60.00 compared to
the $141.00 of Cameroon. See the chart for more comparative analysis.
|
S. Africa
|
Cameroon
|
Gabon
|
Nigeria
|
Ghana
|
Sierra Leone
|
Equatorial Guinea
|
|
$72.00
|
$141.00
|
$141.00
|
Varies but less than Cameroon
|
$60.00 &$100.00
|
£75.00/
£100.00
|
No fees
|
|
Valid for 3months
|
Valid for 3months
|
Valid for 1825days
|
Multiple entry
|
3months &Multiple
|
6 months
Multiple entry
|
Visa not required
|
Obviously, there should be more explanations
which the government of Cameroon may provide to justify the high cost of their travel
visa fees to visitors different from those of countries similarly placed than
meet the eyes. Whatever explanations the government may give for the high cost
of its visa fee eludes the cost-benefit-interest analyses. Therefore, the call
for a reduction of the fee or the extension in the entry period (multiple) into
the country is absolutely needed. The government cannot postpone this issue
anymore. They must be addressed now.
(c) Delays
in Passport Issuance & a need to Decentralize Consular Offices
Presently, the Cameroon
embassy, like those of other nations in the United States, is situated in the
capital city of Washington DC. It caters for the needs of Cameroonians and
non-Cameroonians in United States, Mexico, Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico
and the United Nations Diplomats. Most African nations have had exponential growth
in their population in the United States over the years as a result of
migration from their native countries. And as a result of the increase in their
population they have expanded their consular services in strategic population
belts as well. Cameroon population in the US has experienced similar increase;
however, in spite of the growth in population, Cameroonians have relentlessly
demanded of their government to expand consular services in states closer to
them, to ease the congestion at the embassy and to reduce the delays in
services. From ambassador to ambassador, promises have been made but none have
been kept by all these ambassadors. In fact, they have taken Cameroonians for
fools.
If one should indeed examine the annual
revenue (2billion FCFA) earnings of the embassy, with Cameroonians as the
primary source of the revenue, it is apparent that, at least two other consular
installations in addition to the embassy in Washington DC could be built in the
US, and another in the Virgin Islands. But these demands have fallen on dearth
ears. Cameroonians have expressed their displeasures for the lack of action through
various cultural groups and other ancillary organizations beginning with
Ambassadors Paul Pondi (in the 80’s), to Jerome Mendounga (in the 90’s) and now
to Joseph Foe-Atangana, for them to inform the Cameroon government of the need to
honor their repeated request, to decentralize consular services within the US.
The Nigerian government
for instance, has its embassy in Washington DC but it also has consular offices
in Atlanta, Los Angeles and in New York. The Cameroon operates an embassy in
Abuja, Lagos and in Calabar, where Cameroon’s present ambassador to the US,
Foe-Atangana came from. Also, the Ivory Coast government has, in addition to
their embassy in Washington DC, a consular office in Los Angeles. The list is
endless. We are however hopeful that the government will undo its wrongdoings
and for a change, “listen” to the people in 2013.
Since 2008, the
government of Cameroon stopped using the Cameroon passport and in its place,
adopted the Central African Regional passport that bears the acronym-CEMAC.
Cameroonians with the old passports were given substantial time to change from their
Cameroon-issued passports to the CEMAC regional passports. In Cameroon it is
easy to change or be issued a new passport once all requirements are fulfilled.
However, in the United States, as it is with other Cameroonian embassies
abroad, there are some bottlenecks involved that has necessitated this report.
The Cameroon Embassy in Washington DC serves the following countries: the vast
country of the United States, Mexico, and Jamaica, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico
and United Nations diplomats. Also, Cameroonians who reside in countries out of
the United States must make travel arrangements, usually costly, to come to the
United States (which is the only passport renewal/issuance authorized center in
the region), in order to get a new passport.
The reason why those
making a new passport must travel to the embassy is because the new passports
are required to be biometric, that is, passport applicants must provide their
fingerprints to be inscribed on the passports. The government ought to have
sub-contracted the fingerprint to local Police departments (and have the
materials mailed to that police department at cost to the applicant) wherever
the applicant finds himself/herself, to prevent the displacement of the
applicant, which comes with huge travel cost. In every country of the world
today, the Police departments handle the fingerprinting of any sort; and why
the Cameroon government cannot outsource the fingerprinting at cost to her
clients, stretches my imagination.
Another disheartening
aspect in this passport snag is the amount of time it takes for applicants to
receive their passports once the renewal process has been completed. The
passports are not processed at the embassy in Washington DC; they are
transported to Cameroon by an embassy staff or a reliable individual who
happens to be traveling to Cameroon and they are equally brought back by
another reliable source when one is found in Cameroon who is coming back to the
United States. Why the embassy has not contracted one of these several courier
services like UPS, FEDEX, or DHL, all of which have a base in Cameroon (even at
cost to the passport applicant), defies every theory of system of organization.
So, applicants who need to make their urgent business trips for instance must
wait (for approximately 3 months) until when the embassy can find their
so-called reliable source to take and bring back their passports before they
may travel. This is indeed, despicable. For the money we pay for services at
the embassy, they ought to be expedient with the services they provide to their
customers because, such delays, are, indeed, unnecessary.
In order for the
embassy to reduce the wait time necessary to process these passports, and
increase the positive feedbacks from her clients, she must contract the services of either UPS or FEDEX or DHL.
Once one of these agencies is contracted, it will reduce the uncertainty that
goes with the so-called reliable passport handlers.
(d)
The selection process of ambassadors to
serve in the US
We, at the Nanje School of Creative
Thinking understand that to include the critic of the ambassadorial selection
process may robe some officials of the government the wrong way; perhaps this
may be a start for others to start subjecting some of the government’s erratic
policies to some degree of scrutiny. It is the belief of most Cameroonians, as
our investigations gathered that, the reason why the services at the embassy
have been so compromising is partially due to the fact that the selection process
of most of our ambassadors, especially those posted to the United States of
America, have been wanting. The fact that none of the ambassadors posted to the
United States were tested before their diplomatic assignments to complex
diplomatic terrain, where superior diplomatic skills shouldn’t be in short
supply, is one of the root causes of the contempt. Take for example in America,
before one is thrown in the hot zones of diplomacy, such an individual must
have served in lesser challenging countries to areas of challenging diplomacy
before been posted to the highly compartmentalized diplomatic zones.
Alternatively, maybe it is about time that
the Cameroon government began reviewing the inadequacies of the School of
International Relations (IRIC) that trains these ambassadors. There are
Cameroonians who studied in schools
outside IRIC and out of Cameroon, who could complement the diplomatic core as
they make their passage through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into future
ambassadors. This unnecessary over-reliance on IRIC, is a disastrous policy
that the government must consider making a paradigm shift. Countries like
Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Ivory Coast, who are far advanced in
diplomacy and democratic values than Cameroon, often tap members of its
diplomatic core from universities abroad. Professors of Public administration,
history and political sciences make good members of the diplomatic core and our
government must start looking into those areas for selection of diplomats.
After all, they are teachers of diplomacy.
For
over thirty years that President Paul Biya has been in power, he has appointed
two ambassadors to the United States: ambassadors Jerome Mendounga and Joseph
Foe-Atangana, without the confirmation of the Cameroon House of Parliament. Mendounga
was a product of DR Congo (formerly Zaire) and Foe-Atangana came from a
consular office in Calabar, Nigeria. We cannot over-emphasize the inadequacies
in the selection process or the experiences these two men had prior to their
appointments to the highest diplomatic service center in the world; but
nonetheless, the conclusion we came to, is that, the poor services Cameroonians
encounter at the embassy may be a direct reflection of the poor selection
process. No one but President Paul Biya knows what matrix is used in the selection
of our ambassadors. We expect those who have excelled in tested areas like
Italy, France, Canada, Britain, Germany, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, to
merit the honor to be confirmed in our House of Assembly before they are sent
to serve in the United States, the heartbeat of democracy and diplomacy.
Ambassadors from those small states, especially those from most African
countries, who have not evolved through this natural ascendency process, do not
honestly qualify to serve as ambassadors in the United States, Britain,
Germany, Italy and Russia, no matter how hard the regime in Yaoundé tries to
doctor or impress upon us with their scanty credentials.
Also, ambassadors are supposed to be
career diplomats who have served in different countries for at least two years,
and at most, three years and be transferred immediately after to another
country where they are expected to stay same. But this is not the case with
ambassadors from Cameroon. Our ambassadors spend on average, ten (10) years or
more in posted countries before they are transferred. For instance, in the US,
Cameroon as a nation has had just three (3) ambassadors since 1960 (52 years).
These ambassadors with unnecessary long tenures see themselves as untouchables
and therefore, the peoples’ problems and concerns do not mean anything to them.
In fact, these untouchables do not see any urgency in addressing the problems
of Cameroonians who contribute billions every year to the national budget. And
since these ambassadors are answerable to their master (the President) rather
than to the tax payers (the people), the problems shall continue to stir at us.
(e) A Poorly constructed Website
The gateway into every country is through
the airport. And, taxi drivers give the first and last impression to visitors
that come into any city. Similarly, a hotel doorman, who welcomes the guests on
arrival and departure, gives the first and last impression to all guests. All
these hold same in our Cameroon embassy in Washington DC, where the first
individual clients meet or talk to on the phone is the receptionist, who does
not give Cameroonians a pleasant impression. Again, the story of the
receptionist at the embassy is one which will be told some other day. The above
indicators tell us all about an establishment. Nowadays, many people use the
internet as a tool to do business with any organization and/or establishment.
You take the American Embassy in Cameroon for an example, you can go online and
schedule a visa appointment and that appointment date shall be honored once you
arrive at the embassy.
In today’s world, computers have
practically replaced lots of the work previously done by humans. It has also
transformed the world and made tasks very easy to accomplish. Many have seized
the opportunities that technology has to offer but the Cameroon embassy is yet
to get a handle of technology because some of the duties that computers perform
are still being performed by the embassy staff. Quite rudimentary! The Cameroon
embassy’s website (www.ambacam.org) is one of the worst in the world. Even the
websites of some tribes like the Oroko (www.orokousa.org), Manyu (www.mecca-usa.org) and the Bakossi (www.bacda.org), Bali (www.bca.org), or my
village, Dikome Balue (www.dideco.org), have better websites than that of the
embassy. In most websites today, one can practically pay for everything through
the internet and place them in a cart. When these menu bars are made available
at the embassy website, the embassy will be left with very little to do. Such a
website is called an interactive one, whereby the customer pays for all his
services like visa application, passport size photographs, fiscal stamps and
notary online without going from place to place to get these documents
assembled. There is absolutely no reason why the high visa fee required of
Cameroonians cannot be paid directly into the embassy’s account from the
comfort of our homes like other embassies do.
The presentation of the website is very unpleasant
to its clients. Why the embassy cannot hire the services of its countrymen, who
are capable of lifting the image of the country by constructing a state-of-the-art
website, troubles my aching heart. And most of us are aware of how much it
costs to build a website. Why the government cannot cover some of its frailties
by changing the gateway (website) into the country, and with all the revenue
the embassy generates from visa and passports, it is, indeed, pitiful.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we found the need to
document these problems (which have existed shortly after Cameroon established
diplomatic relations with the US) not because we want to bring the embassy to
submission, but because of the need to draw the embassy’s attention to the grey
areas where it has failed to bring about effective, meaningful, and transformational
changes. Mindful of the criticisms lingering around the embassy, the ambassador
may be in the position now, hopefully, to search for alternative solutions to
address these problems. We are hopeful that our investigative and critical
analysis shall enable the Cameroon government, through its ambassador, to who
vested powers is given, to start making transformational changes at the embassy
in order to win the trust of Cameroonians. Some of such changes should include:
(a) sponsorship of many field trips to enable the embassy personnel to interact
with Cameroonians during their annual conventions; (b) have cultural
representatives or a goodwill ambassadors as liaison officers to the embassy
who shall provide updates to their respective communities; (c) Sponsorship of
programs to familiarize the embassy staffers to new approach in governance (d)
installation of consular services nearer areas in close proximity to Cameroonians
(e) employing Cameroonians within the United States who possess the necessary expertise
and better customer service skills to positions at the embassy and in the new
consular offices. (f) Employ Cameroonian interns (students of Political
sciences, hospitality, Public Administration, Liberal Arts) to intern in
various departments at the embassy all year round. All these programs are
geared towards establishing good and effective Embassy-Cameroonian community
relations so that Cameroonians can pride themselves to call the embassy home,
at long last.
Platitudes aside, whether the government
of Cameroon assigns incompetent personnel to the Cameroon embassy in the United
States or not, is really not the issue; the issue is, each of these ambassadors
ought to have used the powers decreed to them and the enormous resources at
their disposal, to transform the place into an institutional paradise. It is
the ambassador’s responsibility to bring necessary reforms that would transform
and uplift the image of the embassy. Cameroonians are tired to see that
ambassadors who are sent here only come to loot rather than transform the
place, and later abandon the place worse off than they met it. And the fact
that the Biya regime keeps each of these ambassadors here for more than ten (10)
years is also an issue of grave concern. In order for the embassy to evolve
from the present state of decrepitude the government must start rotating
Cameroon ambassadors and diplomatic staff members for at least every two (2)
years, and at most, three years. No embassy person is expected to stay in any
one embassy installations for as many years as Cameroon keep theirs. The fact
that they stay for so long in one country is the root cause of corruption and
the “I don’t care attitude” they often
demonstrate to clients rather than they need to serve them.
