Saturday, January 6, 2018

CAMEROON: A CAMOUFLAGE DEMOCRACY



 The political parties themselves must reform and manage themselves in a democratic fashion so that they will be able to produce democratic, resilient, focused and patriotic leaders, who shall in turn lift this
By Wilson Ngoh
Attorney at Law
nation beyond the moment
         *******************


Since the dawn of modern society, the basic responsibilities of government have been to ensure security of lives and property of its citizens, safeguarding the country’s territorial integrity, stability of the polity, to improve the economic and social wellbeing of its people. With this consciousness, those who control the levers of power and saddle with the duty of running the affairs of the country are burden with the not-so-easy task of formulating a political system and that of building institutions that they would consequently leverage upon in achieving their political agenda for the people, since every government comes to power with a clear-cut agenda. There are two operative words here for emphasis, political systems and the people that run they political systems.
The political system is the platform by which government formulate, articulate, convey and execute their political agenda. It is a recognized process for allocating valuable resources to the various sections of the country. It is the political system that engenders the institutional framework of the country. The type, nature and the functioning of the institutions are political sign posts of the type of system in operation. But systems don’t operate in vacuum. You need people (politicians) to drive the political process; the politicians form political parties that control government. The politicians are those that animate the political system and drive policies. For every system to work in an effective, efficient and sustainable manner, it must be ideologically grounded and driven by statemen who are patriotic and visionary. Both elements of political systems, institutions and government must synchronize and work in tandem to achieve ultimate result. The best political system will fail obviously without the right political minds because it is great minds that build great nations. Many others have articulated this thought before now. The right Rev Dr. Nyansako-Ni Nku- Moderator Emeritus PCC in his FOREWORD to Nfon V.E Mukete’s “MY ODYSSEY Cameroon Reunification Story said, “what makes societies great is the illustrious citizens they produce who lift them up beyond the moment.”  Conquered power is difficult to sustain and maintain. Every government or system holds its success or failure to the caliber of people driving the political agenda. History is inundated with example of great minds making remarkable break through and lifting their societies beyond the moment irrespective of the political system. I’m not so much a fan of systems than the people driving it. Systems don’t make country great, but people do.
President Mao Ste Tung, was a principal Chinese Marxist theorist, who laid the foundational building blocks that transformed China’s economy from an agrarian to an industrial economy, modernizing china and building it into a world power, improving education and health care as well as increasing life expectancy under an autocratic authoritarian communist regime. The USA pride itself today as the world’s leading democracy, world’s greatest economy, world’s strongest military because of visionary leaders like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Roosevelt, J.F Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Obama Barrack etc, etc.  Ayatollah Khomeini, an Iranian cleric leader, through theocracy was able to gather and inspire a downcast people and give them a vision despite squeezing international sanctions that has been able to push their technology and science to such a point that Israel feels threatened by their growing military and might of their missiles program. Examples abound of leadership taking their countries beyond the moment. Leadership most be forward-looking because no matter the system the masses desire better living conditions.
                     What System Does Cameroon Operate under?
As political dynamics is constantly changing, and political systems are contesting and contending, one is tempted to ask the question of what type of system is operating in Cameroon? A microscopic analysis of the political realities in Cameroon would lead one to the conclusion that Cameroon, like many Africa countries, is in constant search of a political system or model that would position her as a global player in politics, economic and diplomacy. Our inability to evolve a political system based on vision whether it is foreign-inspired or indigenously-rooted tailored to guarantee economic and political emancipation and transform the country from third to first world is the bane of our under development. We mimic the west in nomenclatures; we toy with this golden word democracy but fail to apply the concept, spirit and principles behind that system. I need to reiterate that our brokenness or backwardness is not because of the system we operate under, but it is because of a complete lack of leadership. For every political system to succeed must be ideologically-grounded and driven by strong leaders (should not to be confronted with a brute dictatorship) with vision, resilience and conviction.
A cursory perusal of the Cameroon constitution law No 2008/00/ of April 14, 2008 to amend and supplement some provisions of Law No 96/6/ of January 18, 1996 leaves no one in doubt that Cameroon is a democracy. It is stated in black and white in Article 1 sub 3 inter-alia that, ‘Cameroon is ……….secular, democratic and dedicated to social services, it shall recognize and protect traditional values that conform to democratic principles, human rights and the law, it shall ensure the equality of all citizens before the law. It goes without saying that Cameroon shall respect and uphold all the traditional principles of democracy. These democratic principles are the keys to any democracy worthy of its name. The people are paramount and sovereign, whether it is the America Presidential system, or the French Semi-Presidential system or the British Parliamentary system, the people are central. The principle of separation of power operates freely and effectively and the different arms of government functions at the same level, independent of each other guaranteeing checks and balances. A free and independent judiciary and legislative bodies is at the cornerstone of every democracy.

                  The Problem with Cameroon Democracy
For all intent and purpose, it is extremely hard to ascertain the form of system that Cameroon operates under. The power that be saved every known democratic form into one in a bid to confuse the populace. Our democracy has the semblance of the American Presidential System, only that the presidential ticket is not a joint with the Vice President. Then it has some element of the French Presidential System just that in this case, the President appoints the Prime Minister and all the ministers (the appellation head of government attributed to the Prime Minister) is only on paper with absolutely no power. The Prime Minister is like a penguin, a bird with wings which cannot be used to fly. We practice democracy superficially but in substance and reality it is a bottom line dictatorship. This is easy to dissent. For democracy to thrive there are critical elements that must come to play. There is no perfect democracy as enunciated by William Churchill, “no one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise; indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried.” Certainly, we can have a thriving and healthy democracy; but for this to happen, there must exist within that democratic system the following:
1.   Democrats
2.   Democratic institutions and
3.   Democratic parties in the real meaning of the word.
It is my belief that these three critical elements are missing in our body polity.
Lack of Democrats.
This is not a blanket statement to wrap all Cameroonians into one undesirable and undemocratic robe. This writer knows that within Cameroon there are people who fit the description of true democrats, but equally this assertion is true to the extent that it seeks to put the government or ruling class in focus. There can be no democracy without democratic minds. Leadership is at best when it lives by example. If it practices what it preaches? The leaders must be patriotic enough to believe in the system and institutions they project. Fidel Castro was a typical example of a leader who believed in the system he fought and died for. As a fervent Marxist, coming from a wealthy background, his father was a sugarcane plantation owner. During the Cuban revolution Castro was the first to seize his family land and redistributed it to the landless peasants.  
 Democracy calls for respect for due process, rule of law, human rights, and equality before the law. Democratic leaders should be more than be prepared to respect and uphold these principles. Democracy is not just a concept but a way of life-once a leader is elected, he must go above and beyond, to provide quality leadership to all citizens irrespective of their political preferences. A democrat must be close to the people and have listening ears all over his/her governing territory. A democrat must not confiscate power and must freely give up the reins of power once his ideas and policies no longer resonate with the people. A democrat must learn to ‘debate not debase, convince not connive, persuade not perverse’ according to Colonel Ojukwe Odumegwe in his book titled, Because I’m Involved. It is easy to question whether our beloved President, Paul Biya, upholds these qualities. The answer is blowing in the wind. We have a president purportedly a democrat but with the reflexes and instincts of a dictator.  He does not show sympathy and empathy to the masses, the national disasters of Lake Nyos, Nsan fire and the Eseka train are marked testimonies of his lack of leadership. These national disasters offered him the opportunity to show solidarity, love, connect and share the people’s pain but he blew it up. He did not pay a single courtesy visit to the victims of these disasters and lack of empathy defiles common sense even to the vilest dictator. A Democrat must always communicate in the most decent and inspiring manner with the people. Dialogue must be initiated and pursued to diffuse national crisis. Conversely, our government officials oftentimes communicate badly, provocatively, and they fail to understand that effective communication requires skills and practice, it takes everything in to account, your dressing your tone, mannerism and facial expression or body language at the time of making that communication.
                             Lack of Democratic Institutions.
Nothing underpins democracy than democratic institutions. President Biya is a product of a One-Party State with inherited institutions that were undemocratic. When Biya made his camouflage transition from dictatorship to democracy, the repressive and undemocratic institutions prevalent at the time were maintained and even those that needed to be reformed and upgraded to conform with new democratic dispensations were never transformed. It becomes a matter of putting new wine in an old wine bottle. It is important to comparatively look at how some key institutions operated under President Ahidjo and how they operate under President Biya now.
During President Ahidjo’s reign, the BMM acted as a repressive force to entrap political opponents of the regime real or imagine maintaining Ahidjo’s grip on power through fear, intimidation, killings, false charges and imprisonment. There is no or little different to SED under president Biya
The prisons are still Chambers of Torture instead of reformation or correctional centers. These facilities are meant to break down political opponents’ will and morals. In a good democracy, like that depicted by John Howard in 1777 in which he said, “prisons are not meant for imprisonment alone, rehabilitation of the convict should be considered the primary function.” To better understand torturous Ahidjo or Biya’s prisons are, I urge readers to read “Prisoner without a Crime” by Albert Mukong and Prison Graduate co-authored by Boh Harbent and Ntem-Fa-O fege. Both books paint gory pictures of prison experience in Cameroon. The former under President Ahidjo and the later under President Biya who claims to have embraced the principles of democracy.
Our police force and gendarmerie have not changed much in terms of investigating and maintaining peace and order. They still use the primitive method to brutalize and intimidate citizens as instructed by presidents who ought to have embraced democratic principles. Their training and formation as far as the respect of individual and human right leaves much to be desired. And as if this were not enough, in 2015 the police as well as the judiciary were indicted as the most corrupt institutions in Cameroon by Transparency International.
The SDOs and DOs and Government Delegates are another example of undemocratic failed institutions that we must get rid of, urgently. They are a burden and act as a drain on the economy. They have no place in modern democracy.
The National Assembly was used to rubber-stamp all what President Ahidjo sent to the house and the same is obtainable under President Biya who is supposed to be an enlightened democrat. The most democratic of all the institutions, the assembly, is to be closer to the people, articulate the people’s grievances, check and curtail the excesses of the executive. Rather, the House of Debate has become the House for the Deaf and Dumb. Our parliamentarians are shockingly deaf to the cries and aspirations of the people and dumb to voice out the pains of the people. They swallow, and pass bills sent by the executive in wanton disregard. Something unheard of in a democracy. Not much different in the days of President Ahidjo.
The judiciary that is supposed to be the last hope for the common man is in dire need of hope itself. The judiciary is tied to the apron strings of the executive and are only willing to do the bidding of the executive. The inability of the judiciary to dispense justice on the bases of fairness, equity, and to break loose from the executive branch of government, is a call for grave concern. To end, I will like to cite a dropping statement made by justice Ayah Paul in one of his many interviews. ‘The judges have failed to embrace the Principle of Separation of Power.” It is a simple but powerful statement, which underlines the corrupt nature of our judiciary.
                        The Lack of Internal Democracy
  The practice of internal democracy within the political parties themselves act as a lubricant to the democratic machinery. Unfortunately, this is far from being the case in our country. The process of producing party officers and candidates for elective positions are highly doctored and controlled by party hierarchy, who at the end trample and abuse the democratic rights of militants of the party. In a thriving democracy the people own the process and decide who is voted in or out of power on a level plain ground. Candidates can test their popularity in a free and fair contest. But in the Cameroon ‘Democratic’ System the major political parties are organized and run like personal organizations of their founders. A simple fact to note is that their founders are at the same time chairmen and always presidential candidates. This is something unheard of and it does not argue well for vibrant democracy, which must encourage fair competition of ideas to produce the best leaders to run the affairs of the party or the nation. The CPDM and SDF are good case studies to elucidate the will analysis.
The C.P.D.M party stands out as a glaring example of an undemocratic party running a supposed democracy. To fully postulate this point, one does not need to go further than to look at the executives of the party. The Secretary General, Treasurer, Publicity Secretary, Educational Secretary, Members of Central Committee and Political Bureau Members are all appointed. Elections are only a mirage to give some democratic legitimacy. President Biya is the undisputable Chairman of the CPDM. That position is not up for contest, nothing can depict the undemocratic nature of CPDM like the statement often use by party stewards, that the president is the Natural Candidates of the party consequently, the CPDM is controlled and managed by people who are handpicked by authority, people who have never been tested or proven by the ballot box to be good leaders, people who were not known by the rank and file militants prior to their appointments to those high positions. These are the people, who will unfortunately end up bossing militants’ choice. What a mockery! The organs of the party are often mysterious to the ordinary militants.
The SDF, arguable the leading opposition party in Cameroon, still headed by the fire-brand leader Ni John Fru from inception, is also guilty of imposing candidates on militants and thereby exhibiting a dictatorial tendency. It has been opined by many that article 8.2 of the constitution of the party is meant to axe opponents of Chairman Ni John Fru, discouraging criticism of him and it helps to maintain the Chairman’s grip of the party in perpetuity. The fact that within a space of twenty years more than four Secretary Generals have resigned citing threats, intimidations and dictatorial tendencies of the chairman speaks volume of the lack of internal democracy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
   In conclusion, I have been able to show that the elements of democracy, of democratic institutions and internal democracy are primordial in advancing our budding democratic journey. For us to make progress in our democratic journey, we must look inward and ask the tough questions and make tough decisions. We must start reforming our institutions to meet democratic standards. The political parties themselves must reform and manage themselves in a democratic fashion so that they will be able to produce democratic, resilient, focused and patriotic leaders, who shall in turn lift this nation beyond the moment. If not, they will continue to wander like clueless and pointless leaders sailing ships which could be blown away by the rising tides, undetected.

Friday, January 5, 2018

Cameroon: Meet and Greet the New Teacher of G.H.S Dikome Balue


ByJackson W. Nanje
In our collective efforts to ameliorate the increasingly deplorable results of the General Certificate of Education (G.C.E) examination of Government High School Dikome Balue, which is a feeder school for fourteen (14) other villages in the Dikome Balue district, the leadership of DIDECO International, Inc. is beginning to address some of these ailing problems. For over ten (10) years now, the G.C.E results, which used to command an 80% and above has been on a steady decline. The responsibility to address these daunting issues rests squarely at the feet of the government of Cameroon and sadly enough, while the government has been extremely slow at addressing these problems, DIDECO International can no longer fold its arms.
A few years ago, DIDECO International conducted a feasibility studies to determine the needs of our local schools. The study identified a bundle of issues: inadequate classrooms, lack of a library with locally prescribed books, acute shortage of teachers, lack of a science laboratory, lack of a motorable road, absence of a computer laboratory, a healthy environment for learning etc, etc. It is therefore from these identified lists of inadequacies that individuals, donors, DIDECO International and DIDECO Cameroon are addressing the issues.
Ms Besingi
It is important to bear in mind that DIDECO International, Inc. is a not-for-profit tax-free organization; therefore, donations of any kind are tax deductible. We are therefore requesting friends of our organization to donate towards our cause. It is on this note that we announce one such donations this year to our organization. Meet and greet our new teacher---Ms. Jamaine Nde Besingi.
Ms. Jamaine Besingi
Ms. Besingi is the new teacher contracted with DIDECO International from January to December of 2018, to teach in G.H.S Dikome Balue. She’s a holder of a French equivalent of a Master’s degree in English Common Law from University of Yaoundé at Soa. She hails from Ikoti Ngolo in Ndian division. She completed her Primary education from Catholic School Mundemba and her Secondary education at G.B.H.S Mundemba. She later switched city to Kumba to attend Global Bilingual High School where she completed her Advanced Level studies. She’s academically qualified to teach in our schools and we are truly grateful to her for accepting our offer. We are hoping that our Dikome people, known for their hospitality, shall extend that warmth to her. We are equally expecting that she will find the place welcoming to the point where she might extend her contract for another year.
Ms Besingi
She recently had an interview with the principal of G.H.S Dikome Balue in Kumba and we were told that she will be teaching History and Literature. She will teach Forms 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. That is Lower and Upper cycles. Isn’t that nice? It is our hope that many more donors can take the initiative to sponsor teachers who can go teach in our local schools and by so doing, we must have addressed the problem of teacher shortage. Again, it is tax deductible.  

Leave your comments to Ms. Besingi on the comment area of the blog below. She will deeply appreciate it to see that you people care very much for individuals like her who volunteer to serve humanity.

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