How Cameroon Government Silences Dissenting Voices: How Citizens can Overcome the Oppression

By Jackson Nanje

 

The use of imprisonment, arbitrary arrests and detention without trial, continuous and unnecessary postponement of court proceedings, disappearance of arrested victims, unexplained deaths of arrested victims and intimidation by the Cameroon government as weapons in silencing political opponents who hold dissenting viewpoints is nothing new. It started with Cameroon first-ever president (there has only been two presidents since 1960), Ahmadou Ahidjo (1958-1982). President Ahidjo ruthlessly silenced political opponents by arbitrarily arresting and imprisoning majority of them and intimidating some, to obtain their deafening opposing silence. Famous amongst them was Albert Mukong. Upon his release from a six (6) years prison sentence in 1988, Mukong wrote the famous book “Prisoner without a Crime” in which he depicted Ahidjo’s use of imprisonment as a weapon to silence him and other political opponents. Albert Mukong was not the only person that faced the wrath of President Ahidjo’s despotic reign, Um Nyobe and Ernest Ouandie and many more did as well. It is apparent why Ahidjo imprisoned and intimidated his political opponents; it was to shield his lack of education (holder of Primary school certificate which he obtained after a second attempt in 1938) from his more sophisticated and well-educated opponents. But what could be the explanation why President Biya is threading on a similar path of destruction like his poorly-educated predecessor?  

One would have easily concluded that the foiled coup d’état in 1984 in Cameroon would harden President Paul Biya’s heart to assume the despotic ways of his predecessor. One could also be compelled to believe that his stellar education from a reputable French institution could’ve compelled him to prominently frown at his predecessor’s old ways of governing the country and do what is right for a nation that has been yawning for help. Additionally, one would imagine that after being an understudy to President Ahidjo for many years, observing all that needed to be corrected, President Biya would be using his time in office as lessons learnt, to correct the unforgivable atrocities of his predecessor. He started brilliantly by easing the one-party system, dominated by CNU, to a much-welcomed multi-party state. The entire nation was relieved at this political gesture as there was a sense and sensibility that, at long last, Cameroon was on its way to being reformed.

Under normal conditions, you have to compare two things to determine which is better of the two. It is the determination of Nanje School of Creative Thinking investigators that the Biya regime has done well by out-pacing that of his predecessor in every category. For an educated man, who is suppose to be an enlightened despot, he has secured his position in history as an autocrat, an unenlightened despot who, with the help of the people’s House of Assembly, military and the police decided to run roughshod the Cameroonian people. All of his political opponents from Ni John Fru Ndi, Onyori Onyori Mokube, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Samuel Wazizi, Col. Dr. Patrick Ekiko (Ret) and wife, Yondo Mandengue Black, Felix Agbor Nkongho Balla, Michele Ndoki and Maurice Kamto of Cameroon Rennaissance Movement party have all been victim of imprisonment and intimidation to buy their political silence. When great minds are suppressed by the President of a country the quest for democracy is hardly achieved. Cameroon is by far a police state---and it has been like that for more than half a century---because of President Paul Biya’s desire to suppress freedom of speech of his political opponents, which is a right he advocated when he let the country embrace multi-party politics.

For a longtime running Cameroon has increasingly been a laboratory for criminal justice reform prior to, and after Kamto’s electoral demise in 2018 which he claimed to have unjustly been denied the presidency by the Supreme Court. It is so true that several of his MCR compatriots have been in and out of prison for one reason or the other by the Biya regime to buy their political silence. Maurice Kamto himself, who previously served more than ten (10) months in Cameroon maximum security prison for same, has been placed under house arrest again with his lawyer, Barrister Richard Tamfu. The MCR party’s latest victim of the regime is the President of the Women’s Wing, Barrister Mispa Awasum, arrested for protesting for the release of her party’s imprisoned leader, Maurice Kamto. The law approves of a peaceful protest once a permit is obtained and they protesters seemed to have obtained one and respected the ambit imposed on them by the approving magistrate. However, there was an unusual twist in their arrest. First, the women were arrested as they protested half nude. I would have anticipated their charges to have been indecent exposure not “simplicity to revolt and rebellion against the state.” [Guardian Post; Nov. 25 Issue #2020] Ridiculous!!! Second, the government did not respect the rights of the protesters who respected the terms imposed on them by the approving magistrate.

The officials running the government must know that the surest way for citizens to have their rights redressed is through protest. Oftentimes, the government is the aggressor of every peaceful protest for fear of what the perceive a large crowd may do. But the bigger the crowd it only shows the enormity of the problem which the government should take seriously and create avenues to redress the problem(s). There should be absolutely no reason why any government, which has good intentions to solve the people’s grievances should be agoraphobic (fear of crowd). The government has seen this enochlophobia (perceived fear of what a large crowd may do) and have acted quite irresponsibly. The government, in the most part, have been the instigator of violence in the country. Take for example the 2016 Anglophone lawyers and teachers peaceful protest, it took some low level, less educated peace officer to ignite violence and escalate the situation to what it has become today, uncontrollable.     

It is always usual that a country that boasts of good governance or good politicking gives expression for its citizens to speak freely without fear of political repressial. When citizens are silenced and rendered unable to express themselves in their country, change is stagnant. This has been the case with Cameroon and it has caused progress to be retarded. A few people are charged with the responsibility of running the country for many years and there’s no view of sunlight in the foreseeable future for the country and when you protest for improvement of a decaying system, you receive the brutal arm of an uneducated police or military sent by few who relish to place a stranglehold on power. Wrong! Things ought not to be this way in a country which UNESCO rates as having 77.07% (82.63% male and 71.59% female) literacy rate, yet, she has been unable to use this adulation to change the misfortunes of the country for the better.

What the Cameroon government must do to liberate its citizens from shackles of despotism

The analog train has since left the world stage and has been replaced with a digital train; meaning, oppression, intimidation, arbitrary arrests, detention without trial, continuous and unnecessary disappearance and unexplained deaths of arrested victims, postponement of court proceedings and imprisonment are no longer hidden weapons used presently like they were in the past by the state governments. Therefore, things that were/are usually done in the shadow of darkness can no longer be done again because, the world is clearly interwoven and with the availability of highspeed internet, information is readily available to millions of people in picosecond. Besides the invasion of the internet in our homes, another formidable force even greater than the internet is the intellectual diaspora class. This is the group which comprise the intellectual bunch who can no longer take the government’s despotic deeds for normalcy. The government must know that the diaspora intellectual class cannot sit comfortably by while their counterpart in Cameroon are suffering from despotic rule. They will continue to apply pressure on the government by exposing its malfeasance, and rightfully so, until they achieve desired outcomes.

With these consequences that the government faces they are bound to change its crude ways and open the country up to democratic values. The following mechanisms, if applied may help ease the tension?

a.      Open the country up to Human Rights watch groups such as Amnesty International and be willing the apply its recommendations unlike now that the government contests the validity of such recommendations.

b.     The government must follow the Common Law practice of no arbitrary arrests and should abstain from detaining the arrested for more than 48 hours without allowing them the opportunity to come before a presiding magistrate.

c.      There should be no warrantless arrests as it is common practice throughout the country. Any arrest must be preceded with a warrant, signed by a judge, indicating the crime that the accused has committed, restricted manner of conducting a warrant and in some cases, indicate the amount of bail allowed to the accused to be released promptly.

d.     If the government yearns for a democratic society, criticism of its day to day running of the way it executes its business and its officials without prejudice .form the bedrock of any democratic society.

e.      There should be no torture of detainees because it violates all Human Rights practice and treaties which Cameroon is a signatory to those treaties.

f.       The government must build a working relationship with the diaspora community who are the most vocal. And because this group cannot be silenced by the government, it is therefore imperative for the government to do things right in order to appease them.

g.      The government must free up its citizens, newspapers, radio and television personnel to enable them to write and speak freely on issues that warrant redress without facing any backlash. This is very important aspect of nation growth which is completely absent in today/s Cameroon but it is needed in order to build a lasting democracy.

h.     An educated police force is desperately needed in Cameroon. Uneducated police force which understands little about the application of the law but cherishes the abuse of its citizens is no longer priced in today’s society. The police force must be educated to arrest citizens when they do not comply with the General Will of the police. And the police themselves must know when to apply such lawful commands and absent of compliance they can then proceed to arrest without torture of its citizens.

i.        The government will encounter little problems with its citizens if she sets her priorities for development straight. What citizens want is development and somehow, to leverage with them, which is completely non-existent now.

The afore-mentioned are some of the few ways the government can liaise with its citizens to eradicate or reduce the tension that currently exists in the country. The government should cease to scapegoat the Anglophone/Francophone divide and build a Cameroon based on patriotic citizenry.