Cameroon: Mendo Ze goes home to die ⁰

Over the last couple of weeks, Professor Gervais  Mendo  Ze, the former CRTV General Manager, has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

A video of the former pot-belly supporter of the Yaoundé-based crime syndicate has been trending, portraying him as a bag of bones that is a victim of a vile system he served and propped whole-heartedly for many years.

Mendo Ze has been brought down by the system in which he had unwavering faith and trust.

The most painful part of it is that the “God of Etoudi” that he served and applauded for decades is the one who orchestrated his downfall and possible demise.

Though Mendo Ze had been accused of embezzlement and sentenced to 20 years in the Yaoundé Maximum Security Prison, many actually wonder if his destruction is not the outcome of personal issues he had with his “god”. Could Mendo Ze have challenged his god after he had eaten to his fill?

This question will never be answered as nobody who is in the know of the truth really wants to talk. Many of those who know the truth have eaten, drunk and danced with the evil “God of Etoudi” who is known to be vindictive and they simply want to stay away from trouble. Cameroonians might only know the truth of all the arrests and killings in Cameroon when the “God of Etoudi” bows out.

But while it is appropriate to sympathise, Cameroonians should learn to keep things in their right context. This regime was never bad to Mendo Ze when he enjoyed all the fame and perks that came with the high offices he occupied. This regime was like his oxygen and anybody who held contrary views automatically became Mendo Ze’s enemy.

Today, he has been made to have a taste of the medication he helped the ruling crime syndicate to manufacture for Cameroonians. The best thing would have been to let him stew in his own juice, but human beings will always be human beings and their minds will always be full of human kindness. It is therefore normal to show sympathy even to a man who clearly deserves his unfortunate fate.

After the outrage expressed by Cameroonians across the world and human rights groups after videos of a dying Professor Mendo Ze emerged, his “God of Evil”, Paul Biya, finally accepted to grant him clemency.

The fat and bulky Mendo Ze has been reduced to a bag of bones and he has been let off the hook just for him to go and die at home.

The country’s president, Paul Biya, does not want him to soil the Yaoundé Maximum Security Prison if he dies there. He is not even worth the prison’s jumpsuit in which he will be wrapped if he dies in jail.

He does not want him to extend the list of people who have died because of his cruelty. Biya, a man who was thought to be the savior of Cameroon, has become an ill wind that blows no good to anybody.

Many Cameroonians have died in Cameroon’s jails because of their political beliefs and many are still very sick because of their conditions in jail. Mr. Biya, the Cameroon monarch, seems to enjoy seeing his own people die just because they have political views that do not tie in well with his.

Mendo Ze has been spared because of his illness, but he has very limited time to live. He has been sent home to die surrounded by his loved ones who have seen him melt like snow under very high temperatures.

Mendo Ze was a huge and fat person. Today, he is simply a shadow of his former self. His case simply points to the fact that anybody can lose weight. Those who claim weight runs in their family should hurry up to check with Mendo Ze whose days on earth are numbered.

For those who still trust the ruling crime syndicate and hold that they can only prosper by joining this devilish party, they must know that if a crocodile can eat its own eggs, then it will surely relish the flesh of a frog.

There are huge lessons to be learned here and only those blinded by greed will still not see anything bad in the story of Mendo Ze; a man who had risen to the top, but came down crashing because of the vindictiveness of his own architect.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai