Reflections on President Paul Biya’s New Year Address & Matters Arising

The President is in a better position to appreciate the parlous state of the nation and do something about it instead of just lamenting. He should, for now, spare Cameroonians the crocodile tears.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

     The avuncular admonition over the inertia and lack of performance in government,by President Paul Biya in his traditional year-end address to the nation,was preposterous and ridiculous, to say the least.Coming from a President who has been in office for 32 years; and is very much aware that under his watch, Cameroon has become a forsaken nation riddled with corruption and institutionalized banditry, Biya’slamentation and ostrich fatalism amounted to naked provocation and acollectiveinsult on the intelligence of Cameroonians. How could the President expect high performance from clueless, inept tired old men,ill-equipped for the enormous responsibility of 21^st century nation-building?Even if their age is no problem; what about the age of their ideas? The nation undoubtedly gets a raw deal when the wrong people run the country -garbage in, garbage out! The point must therefore be driven home to the President, in whatever language he chose to understand that democracy thrives on regenerative change.It might be good for Paul Biya to reviewhis own performance to realize that, at 81 years and counting, there is something absurd in him still ruling Cameroon. Otherwise, bemoaning problems rooted in a system he created is meaningless.

     Given the woeful state of affairs in the country, manifested through bad governance, and misplaced official policies that have given vent to mass unemployment, abject poverty, high corruption in government, gross official recklessness and near zero governance,the President did not say anything useful. Rather, the muddled speech was a damning self-appraisal that underlined Biya’s profound lack of strength of character; indicative of leadership dysfunction and a pointer to the manner in which the country is run. Biya must get his act together and seriously address nagging problems facing the country. The job of the president, after all, is to solve problems and not lament. The buck stops at the President’s desk. For now, he should spare Cameroonians the crocodile tears.

     The President accurately captured the gravity of governmentfailurewhen he noted that: “in some sectors of our economy, State action often seems to lack consistency and clarity. Why is it that in many cases, decision-making delays still constitute a bottleneck in project implementation? Why can’t any region of our country achieve a public investment budget execution rate of over 50%? ”This kind of glib talk reeks of self-righteousness and if Biya thought Cameroonians would clap for him, he was wrong; his candor and honesty of speech notwithstanding. It is pathetic that, by his own admission, Biya has failed to elevate the budget as a document of vision for the nationto a priority policy tool for national development. It is a sad comment on the President’s style and an unflattering advertisement of his apathetic approach to governance, which illustrates another amplification of the absence of good leadership examplesfrom the person Cameroonians elected as their President. Theunacceptable budget anomalyis symptomatic of a collapsed systemthat should worry all Cameroonians, including the President. Certainly Biya can do better than he has done in tackling these problems.

     As President, he bears direct responsibility for the perfidy and ineptitude. The fact that his actions account for the nation’s continuing misfortunes renders hissermonizing as a moral ombudsman and conscience of a drifting nationinsincere. It may be just that Biya is frustrated knowing, from his own self-assessment, that he has failed Cameroonians.Hence, to assuage his conscience, he is doing what he thinks is statesmanship. Yet, in advertising his lamentationfor public consumption,Biya unwisely reflected on his own leadership failures. His lamentation would have made sense only if he had taken steps to ensure that political appointees and top civil servants take ultimate responsibility for what happens under their watch. The buck must stop at someone’s desk! Ministers will bear ultimate responsibility for lapses in their departments only if Biya demonstrates leadership and acknowledges responsibility for the quality and performance of national institutions. This is about setting powerful precedence by personal example; not reciting slogans andempty platitudes about economic emergence by 2035. Not until that is done would Mr. President have the moral authority to insult Cameroonians the way he did.

     Among other notable misrepresentation of reality was the President’s assessment of the Senatorial and twin Legislative/Municipal elections organized by ELECAM.The standing view is that the electoral process in Cameroon continues to mockdemocracy with impunity. There was no excuse for ELECAM, whatsoever, to have delivered such a poor performance, other than gross incompetence and partiality.The shoddy manner in which the Senatorial elections were conducted and the fact that the President appointed 30 of the 100 Senators not only belittled Cameroon before the international community; more importantly, it advertised to the whole world a certain Cameroonian definition of democracy that diminishes the ideal and mocks the primacy of the people in the process.

     The President castigated Cameroonians for individualism - working against the national interest. This is unfair; in fact, look who is talking!Unless Biya has the memory of an elephant, he cannot claim ignorance of the fact that most of the corruption and gross embezzlement of public funds has been perpetrated by his Beti tribesmen, whom he has appointed tocommanding heights of authority in all important positions in the country. In a country where government has crowded out the private sector, and the public sector is the biggest business entity, government action remains the oxygen of national life.Thisis a country where a few citizens live in untold opulence, while the vast majority wallow in poverty.Hungry and unemployed, many youths lend themselves to criminality. The social systemhas collapsed placing the people at the receiving end of official mismanagement and bad governance.

     With serious economic, infrastructural and security challenges to contend with, the worries of an average Cameroonian are about the basic necessities of life -food, shelter, healthcare, education andjobs all of which remain elusive. The point must be made with emphasis that, the cause of the unbridled individualism Biya decries is poverty; which is rooted in bad governance. The looting and waste going on in Cameroon in the name of governance has no parallel anywhere else and is responsible for breeding avampire ruling class,who suffer from incurable money-mindedness, and will stop at nothing, in their quest for personal gain.Collectively, the subterranean spoils of office in the executive, legislature and judiciary and the abuse of office among public officials, far exceed in quantumthe billions of francs regularly reported as stolen in Cameroon. Long-suffering Cameroonians have been waiting for Mr. President to sanitize the system but it gets worse all the time.

     While the need for public enlightenment is crucial in the circumstance, to re-orientate the people towards a Pan-Cameroonian vision beyond tribal, ethnic and regional jingoisms, Cameroonians can do little or nothing, faced with asystem of abusive patronage and ethnic-inspired clientelism which has become the official currency of governance of the Biya regime. The blame goes directly to the President for allowing a system where public officials would rather serve their personal interests and those of their paymasters than serve the state for whose sake they were appointed.It is this negative individualism, buoyed by rapacious corruption that has bogged down the nation.In Cameroon today, the standing view is thatfrom the high office of the President to the policeman at a checkpoint, everybody has a price.This is a tragedy for the country!

     Interestingly, the President did not even mention corruption; yet, corruptionremains the bane of national development. Cameroon shares the podium of infamy as one of the most corrupt nations in the world, according to Transparency International. Corruption is a national killer disease and its continued spread is a sad reflection on Biya’s style. Biya should prove himself as a man with zero tolerance for corruption by looking critically inwards and dealing with those around him or in his government, who are literally committing murder with state finances. Public officials are stealing the people blind and the war against corruption has been reduced to an embarrassing circus against perceived enemies of the regime. Regrettably, thePresident’s actions and body language exhibit a profoundly disturbing and confounding enthusiasm tonot only tolerate corruption,but to actuallyencourage it.

     This has created a human integrity problem; whereincorrupt public officials transfer corruption unto national institutions and create an institutional integrity problem for the country. Of course, Biya has been there as President;presiding over a nation plagued by monumental corruption, leadership profligacy, executive lawlessness and widespread impunity. Cameroonians have had, at the turn of each year, the assurances of Paul Biya that better times were at hand. For thatmany times, they have ended up with shattered hopes, broken promises and failed commitments.No wonder Biya’s address was at once an anticlimax and the butt of cynicism by ordinary citizens.

     Although every message is linked to the messenger,it is imperative,toisolate the intrinsicvalue of the message,while scrutinizing the messenger. It is just as well thatBiyais confronted with a hydra-headed national problem fuelled in part byhis own dereliction of duty. Either way,Biya’sadmonition was an apt reminder that,Cameroon as a nation is bigger than any ethnic identity, personality or interest. It was a restatement that the value of any individualor group should be reckoned with only on the basis of its potential to edify and enhance the collective wellbeing of the nation. As 2014 begins,Cameroonians who cherish the values that define a true democratic societymust rise to the occasion and demonstrate to the leadership by every means legitimate, that authentic power and sovereignty reside in the people. Cameroonians concerned about the country’s slide into dysfunction, must take up the challenge, speak truth to power and demand a commitment to a positive change in values.

     But the ultimate responsibility rests on the President, who must take the lead in giving meaning to responsibility and accountability.Rhetoric on national transformation is meaningless when the country preserves a system in which individuals convert institutions and official responsibilities to personal gain. Biya can arrest the drift if he reaches out beyond narrow, self-interested circles, for ideas that will promote effective functioning of national institutions.The dexterity of the leader is important. If the leadership is corrupt, the country would be corrupt. If the leadership is dynamic, the country would be dynamic. Cameroonians are confused about the present direction of their country. They are asking whether the President is really in charge and where the country is headed.Biyaseems to have perfected the fruitless modus operandi of running the country with the same questionable hirelings he has been recycling in the last 32 years. They are still in charge, repeating theirold mistakes.This must stop.

     What the country deserves at this critical point is a crop of young leaders endowed with the gift of steady application, imbued with the ability to control events rather than drift with the tides, and who in range of vision and depth of conception, tower above their contemporaries. Cameroon needs leaders of iron resolve, indomitable courage and sharp intellect with acute and exceptional sense of history to lead the country out of the doldrums. Such people abound in their numbers but are choked by a warped and corrupt recruitment process, which celebrates mediocrity and godfatherism. Something, afterall, is wrong with a process which arrogates to a few persons, in certain offices; with dubious connections, the exclusive right to nominate people for public office.

     In conclusion, Biya must accept that he set the compass that the country is following. His 32 years in power has featured too many malfeasances all of which has rendered a majority of Cameroonians helpless and hopeless.What holds the country together is the resilience of the Cameroonian spirit, now obviously stretched to the limit.Time is running fast and Cameroonians are losing their patience and running out of options.The status quo is not sustainable; Biya must think outside the boxand be a man and half to end the nation’s drift.It is not enough to throw up his hands in befuddlement, as he did in his speech. History is beckoning and giving him a chance at winning the battle for both self-redemption and national rebirth.Paul Biyahas a unique responsibility and an historic duty to redirect the ship of state in a new direction. To fail to do so will be the ultimate betrayal of the Cameroonianpeople.

 *Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai is a Public Intellectual and graduate of Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy. A former Research Analyst for Freedom House, he is a Consultant and lives in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Talk back at ekinneh@yahoo.com