The Cameroon Diaspora has, over the last two decades, grown exponentially as many people from Cameroon seek new ways of kissing goodbye to the humiliating poverty that has become the hallmark of their country. As the number of Cameroonians living abroad increases, many development experts are still wondering why the country is one of the most underdeveloped in Africa. The country’s roads leading to all the regions – are really begging for an extreme makeover. During the rainy season, these roads are simply non-existence. This has affected the country’s trade with neighboring countries such as Gabon and Nigeria and farmers, in particular, are feeling the pinch as most of their produce decomposes in their homes as they cannot move it to other parts of the African continent which serve as a good markets for Cameroonian produce. It is estimated that post-harvest losses in Cameroon alone stand at about 70% as the country is noted for its perishables such as oranges, mangoes, cassava, cocoa and coffee. But getting highly needed foodstuff such as beef, cabbage, maize from other nearby African countries such as the Central Africa Republic and Chad into Cameroon is proving to be very challenging as the main roads to the country remain impracticable.

This unfortunate situation is causing food process to escalate, making life unbearable for residents of nations like Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Chad. With regard to healthcare, Cameroon has divisional and provisional hospitals some which became operational in 1972. Over the years, the hospitals have been reduced to consultation clinics with many Cameroonians ending up in the mortuary for little health issues such as constipation and seasonal flus. The outdated equipments and lack of commitment on the part of the Cameroonian medical staff have made Cameroonian hospitals a gruesome environment whose main role is the issuance of dead certificates.

Also, as education in the area is unfortunately underfunded, the country which is noted for its talented people has taken a huge blow to the liver. The educational infrastructure is suffering from acute ageing and most of it is crumbling with Cameroonians looking helplessly. This, coupled with the grinding poverty, unemployment and despair is making many Cameroonian to simply bid farewell to formal education which was in the past, the region’s hallmark. However, many development experts remain hopeful, especially as the Cameroon Diaspora grows exponentially, with the majority of them living in Europe and in North America. But what role can and will this growing Diaspora play in efforts at reshaping life and mentalities in Cameroon that is begging for meaningful economic and social investments?
Making the Diaspora part of the development process in many developing countries is an idea whose time has come, even in Cameroon. While Asian communities have been using their Diasporic communities since the 1970s to boost their development efforts, African countries have just recently embraced the idea and, in Cameroon, there has been some reluctance even among members of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate due to past experiences and mentality issues. However, there are efforts underway to help members of the Cameroonian Diaspora to embrace this new idea. Members of the Cameroonian Diaspora have to understand that there is power in numbers and that their little contributions could, if well managed, turn things around for their beloved country. The Diaspora, it should be recalled, constitutes a huge treasure trove of development information, experience and investment resources. Cameroon is mired in abject poverty and the country’s Diaspora can work towards rebuilding modern schools, upgrading hospitals and clinics in the region. Their contributions could transform these clinics from glorified mortuaries into life-saving institutions.

Cameroonians living abroad have the means to help make their country an earthly paradise. This is, if they change their thinking and believe that working together is an idea whose time has come. They must understand that development ideas might not necessarily be theirs. They should rather look at the merits and good such projects will spin out to the people in the Cameroon. They have to quit their old squabbling and bickering mentality to embrace collective effort which is a notion that is very much alive in their new countries. Little contributions of about US$50 a year from every member of the Cameroonian Diaspora will go a long way in changing things in the country. This implies paying US$4 a month. This sounds small, but its impact will be marvelous. With such contributions, school infrastructure can be built, hospitals could be equipped, scholarships could awarded to smart kids on a yearly basis, programs to transform mentalities could be launched, and mayors in all major Cameroonian cities could be given an opportunity to travel abroad and learn from mayors in large Western cities.

The Cameroonian Diaspora could work for twinning projects with cities in the West. Other Diasporic communities such as those of Kenya and Ghana and Nigeria are already making the most of these opportunities.
Furthermore, the collective efforts of those living abroad can help transform the mentality of those back home. A bad mentality is a poverty generator. Our people are mired in poverty because their thinking has not evolved for decades. They still believe in having many kids and wives including a harem of mistresses! The days when people were proud to have large families are long gone. Fighting poverty requires sharing information with those who are not lucky to have access to that information. With Cameroonian Diasporic communities setting up many organizations abroad, they should understand that those organizations could be used as NGOs for the sensitization of those who have been caught in humiliating poverty back in the Cameroon.
With some Cameroonian organizations clearly playing significant roles in Cameroon’s development efforts, these organizations could be empowered to play an educational role in the whole of Cameroon. Our people could be helped to understand that there are educational courses in life that can open more doors. Besides, the students could be made to understand that it is not just enough to have certificates. It is a lot better to have a certificate and be knowledgeable to defend the certificates we have. And this can only be achieved through continuous reading and research. If the Cameroonian Diaspora can build libraries back home in Cameroon, it will be able to make reading a culture and many poor kids in Cameroon will have reliable places where they can conduct research and have access to information that can help transform their lives.
This does not apply that the Cameroon Diaspora is not doing a lot back home. There is much going on right now at the individual level, but most of these efforts are personal and the results are hardly visible. Currently, capital flows from particularly the Nkwen, Manyu, Fako, Kumbo, Lebialem,Bali, Metta, Mankon,Douala, Bassa, Bamilike, Ewondo, Beti and Fang Diaspora are currently spent on education, hospital bills and the consumption of foreign-made goods such as TVs and clothes. However, if the country has to benefit from its large population abroad, the numerous Cameroon organizations abroad have to work hard to bring the Diaspora together. The leaders out there must embrace new ways which are predicated on reliability and transparency. Back home, the Diaspora must ensure that it has reliable partners to work with. Without reliable partners in Cameroon, the Diaspora’s efforts will only go that far.
All across the Sub Saharan African region which I covered as a news reporter some two decades ago, there are huge infrastructure gaps which have made the region less competitive when it comes to trading with neighboring regions and countries. Poor roads, unreliable energy systems and declining state-owned telecommunication systems clearly explain why Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and even mighty Nigeria cannot put its best foot forward against other regions of the African continent. But some of these shortcomings can be reversed through the transparent management of Diaspora remittances and the Cameroonian Diaspora must shake off old ways of thinking and embrace new ones. Consensus building is an idea whose time has come. Cameroonian leaders – both at home and abroad – must ensure that they and their people are reading from the same script when it comes to development projects.

If Cameroon has to develop, the Diaspora must understand that it has a significant role to play and living abroad comes with a huge price tag – that of reaching out to those who are unfortunate in life. That is where annual individual contributions come into play. Cameroon has a chance to move forward as its people migrate. There is power in numbers, but Cameroonians have not yet seen those benefits. The Cameroon Diaspora must ensure that huge development opportunities do not pass the country by. Other Diasporic communities are transforming the lives of their people. The Cameroon Diaspora has to wake up from its slumber and indifference if it has to be counted among the important Diasporic communities across Africa. It must be united and purposeful. Squabbling and bickering will not take anybody anywhere. Like my mentor Chief Bissong Etahoben of the Weekly Post newspaper regularly observed ” A stitch in time, saves nine”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

President Biya and his ruling CPDM party are now scaremongering that our nation is at war and needs continuity in leadership. MPs and top government officials are warning that any change in Etoudi could cause a political tsunami that may destabilized the nation.  Mr Biya is directly behind these manouevers and he is expected to order a constitutional change soonest. Such a change could cause an unprecedented collapse of Cameroon as a nation.

The French are not happy with the arrangement but have no neutral third option. It is hard to say which political grouping really thinks well for the country as the blatant scaremongering from Etoudi and Ngoa Ekele has been very efficient eventhough it has no grounding in reality.

The Cameroon army is fighting the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram in the Far North region and the anti Belaka terrorist group in the East as a matter of principle not because of our absentee Commander-in-Chief. Clearly, Biya is in a blind panic over the failing motions of support.

The youth of his home constituency including those of the Far North region have all asked him to step aside.The claim that we are at war has been branded preposterous by Cardinal Tumi who say Biya no longer has the physical and moral ability to govern the nation. A new head of state and commander-in-chief in Cameroon would give our nation control of its borders policy and attract thousands of foreign investors from Europe and even beyond.

Any new constitutional amendment that will guarantee Biya’s continued stay in power will be making a mockery of our national assemblies, our judiciary and our military. A change of the current leadership in Cameroon is not only urgent but non-negotiable. There is need for an emergency brake on Biya’s attempt at holding on to power at 83.

The ruling CPDM party should organize a congress and elect a young and dynamic national chairman to take over from the frailing President Biya. Whether Biya changes the constitution or not, his days at the head of our nation and politics are drawing to a close. Any moment from now, the world will see Cameroon as a nation and not as a person.

Let us learn from contemporary history; in particular the war history of the countries directly involved in the war against Boko Haram. No country has emerged from war and remains the same. This was the case with the Biafra War at the end of which an armistice was signed and thereafter a profound restructuring of the Federation. Also, credible attempts to redress historical wrongs that led to the war in the first place were and are still being made. Only intermittent coups and brutal dictatorships by the Northern Military/Feudal alliance short-circuited the drive to address these historical wrongs.

This led to the Delta Niger insurgency, provoking a Northern response through the craving for sharia law perceived as a political ploy to take back and retain political power that accidentally shifted to the South when the Northern incumbents Murtala Mohammed and Yaradua died. The reality of the situation is that a comprehensive failure to address historical wrongs that brought about the war in which millions died has come back to haunt Nigeria to the extent of shaking yet again, the foundation of the Federation. Chad has been perpetually at war which commenced shortly after it attained independence from France.

A semblance of stability has been attained due to the support provided by a permanent French military base in the country. This indictment of Hissene Habre, an erstwhile rebel President of Chad by an African Union Special Court in Senegal for crimes against humanity perpetrated against his own citizens who opposed his government, is a significant development that arose directly from the cycle of conflict that has afflicted that country. Niger Republic has been at war and is still at war with its Tuareg dessert population seeking autonomy.

The inability of successive governments since Hamani Diori to comprehensively redress the situation through meaningful national dialogue led to a destabilizing war which left the country a viable attraction of terrorist infiltration. Other examples too many to discuss in an editorial of this nature, include Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Cote D’Ivoire, Central Africa Republic, DRC and Burundi as well as many more beyond our continental shores. Will Cameroon be an exception to this historical trend?

The answer to this question must be ascertained from a candid consideration of a number of troubling indicators that are perceptible from an anxious assessment of the manner the war against terror is being prosecuted and its potential enduring impact on a rudderless citizenry and polity. There is no gainsaying that the Commander-in-Chief who is the President of the Republic failed the nation by declaring the war against Boko Haram from a foreign capital, Paris.

This was undoubtedly disrespectful of our national sovereignty. However a developing story regarding a potential deployment of French troops purportedly to support Cameroon in its war effort at this point in time has created reasonable suspicion from a number of social media activists who are accusing President Biya of drafting in the French army for political as opposed to genuine military objectives.

They see no strategic military need for French neo-colonial forces to deploy at this point in time. Rather, they believe that the President is bringing them to come in and impose another neo-colonial regime that may replace him when his mandate comes to an end in 2017. The fear expressed by these Cameroonians may be well founded considering that until the UN and the AU made the critical determination to deplore forces to confront the combined ISIS/Boko Haram/Al Khadal forces in the Sahara ravaging the sub-region, France did not evince this intention. Significantly the French deployment will not be under UN or AU command. It will be an entirely Cameroon affair. For what purpose?

The Commander-in-chief is not and will likely not provide an answer. The manner President Paul Biya has handled the question of the deployment of foreign forces to assist Cameroon in its war effort has been most embarrassing. Chad for example obtained a resolution from its Parliament before deploying Chadian forces, so also Niger. President Paul Biya did not obtain Parliamentary approval or even inform Cameroonians about the deployment of foreign forces or the terms of the deployment.

Significantly, he has not addressed the nation about the war and failed to do so when the opportunity arose during his Youth Day Speech to the nation. He defined the war in very troubling language equating it to the pre-independence war against French colonial rule by the UPC and the “Villes Mortes” pro-democracy campaign. He made this embarrassing analogy in one of his rare press statements to the national press shortly before boarding his plane for the summit organized by President Obama with African leaders in Washington DC last year.

Biya has also failed to visit the troops supposedly under his command at the battle front or the wounded who are receiving medical attention. He has not paid due respects to the fallen heroes of this war who sacrificed their lives for our collective security. Rather, probably embarrassed by the perception of heartlessness and failed command capability, those intend on whitewashing his image committed a forgery by imposing his picture in front of the remains of one of the fallen heroes.

The allegations made by the Goebbels of the New Deal Isa Tchiroma that the forgery was perpetrated by supposed enemies of the President were as pedestrian and it was infantile. It took some three days before the picture could be removed and before this explanation was made. Those may accept this explanation must remember that it creates a more serious problem relevant to this editorial. It will confirm the amateurish nature of presidential close security organization and his communication network.

This poses a legitimate question about the ability of the President to lead considering that the posting concerns military communication on an ongoing war. The repeated and unexplained absences by the President from the country during this crucial period of warfare, in which hundreds of our brave soldiers and the civilian population are dying, leaves the country and the army an absent and defaulting commander-in-chief. This again questions the ability of the President to lead.

The bravery of the army in his absence and his inability by his presence to support the army, the wounded, and the devastated affected civilian population demystifies his prior claims of indispensability. His inability to reassure a nation in search of answers to critical questions surrounding the war, the future and direction the nation is taking, also fundamentally questions his ability to lead. As the war progresses, critical fault lines on the fabric of the nation have appeared on the watch of the President, who is the constitutional supposed guarantor of national stability.

First, the memorandum of the Lekie elites against Northern elites created a potential for enduring animosity that may last long after the war. There are ongoing verbal missiles between the Beti elite and the Bamileki elite. The escalation of these tensions without him considering a need to intervene and resolve, can only be construed as carefully planned by the President and his political advisers.

Their reasoning may reasonably be explained that the fall -out from the divide and rule policy may weaken the resolve of a united citizenry to mobilize to change the political and social order to make room for a genuine political renewal and nation rebuilding. There is how ever a perception that behind the façade of the stability of the presidential more than three decades of reign, are critical signs of fatigue and genuine fear of an end of the road for the regime.

Two competing centres of power are perceptible within the system. One component still believes that President Paul Biya will rule for fifty more years or will be there as long as God blesses him with good health. There are others who have seen the end of the road and are working to step in to occupy the emerging political vacuum. These have skillfully relied on Operation Epervier to keep potential rivals under lock and key in prison.

There is Paul Biya himself who believes that he may not succeed in enthroning his successor through any form of democratic process; and this includes rigged elections. He must have considered and discounted the idea of imposing a leader as Ahidjo did. But the consequences of the conduct of Ahidjo and its enduring negative impact on the nation frighten him. Besides, the unpredictable conduct of soldiers at war towards such conduct makes this option tenuous and even potentially dangerous.

It is in this perspective that he is inviting France and its soldiers to come back to mid-wife and babysit a political process that will largely impose another French stooge to oversee French interest as opposed to those of a free and genuinely independent Cameroon. The invitation of French soldiers therefore must be seen from the perspective of a carefully planned and imposed French neo-colonial political calculation aimed as restraining the army and democratic freedom seekers from facilitating a peoples’ oriented transition.

The signing into law of the very contentious law against terror that targets civil society mass mobilization for political change and the invitation of French soldiers even as the UN, AU and regional forces are committed to combatting and defeating the terror forces must be construed within the context of politics rather than a genuine support of the war effort.

One of the most critical developments which support the resolve of the power seekers cabal around Paul Biya to escalate and internationalize the conflict to precipitate his departure for them to take over is the escalation of the Southern Cameroons problem. The attempt at abolishing the practice of the Common Law in Southern Cameroons courts, the imposition of French in its courts, the bastardization of the English Educational system, the erosion of the use of the English in public administration, in particular within the territory, and the egregious violations of human, economic, cultural and social rights of the targeted people, has alarmed and greatly mobilizing Southern Cameroonians from all walks of life to take self-preservation actions.

This escalation has alarmed the international community which is mobilizing to get into the sub-region to attenuate the frames of the ongoing conflagration. The escalation of the Southern Cameroons problem about which the African Commission, the UN and the AU strongly recommended dialogue as opposed to the use of force at this point in time when Cameroon is at war, can only be construed as an attempt by power seekers to create chaos and generalized warfare in order to facilitate their access to power.

The above painful assessment of the national condition brings to the fore a silver lining in that it has finally broken some myths that Paul Biya created over his thirty years to justify his reign of personal power. The bravery and sacrifices of soldiers at the battle front and the general mobilization of the people without him have exposed and demystified his claims of indispensability and invincibility.

The nation and the citizenry can rest assured hence that a Cameroon without Paul Biya is possible. It creates potential problems as well. Calling in the French when the scars of the French genocidal war before and after independence are still available is ill-conceived and will likely height national tension and prolong the national agony. Victims of French colonial administration are still suffering from the pains of their military misadventure and the crimes that alarmed the conscience of humanity and deprived the nation of genuine independence.

The President’s insensitivity towards the Southern Cameroons problem, which he is currently escalating, may potentially internationalize the problems provoking an international response. He evinces a resolve not to address historical wrongs to pave way for national renewal, reconciliation and reconstruction. Considering the above, no matter how one perceives or construes the conduct and actions of President Biya at this critical moment in the nation’s history, they invite legitimate concerns and questions about his ability to continue to rule.

The publications in the French paper Le Monde concerning his state of health, whether genuine or not have only compounded an anxious problem requiring an urgent solution. Cameroon Concord therefore invites a dispassionate debate and discussion of this matter. It is a critical evolving problem which no conscious Cameroonian should ignore.

The recent closure and rehabilitation of the Douala International airport is critically important and is a matter of deep concern to every Cameroonian. The construction work at the airport is the largest piece of maintenance ever carried out by the Biya regime and cost billions of FCFA. Recently, the Minister of Transport, Edgar Alain Mebo Ngo’o revealed that all is now set for flights to resume at the airport. Minister Alain Mebo Ngo’o noted that work will still continue throughout this year.  We of this publication, after a series of visit at the site can now reveal that nothing new has been added to the airport. The operating, supervisory control and data systems are still the old ones that were there before the so called renovation.

Our Douala Bureau had sounded an early warning even before the closed down concerning the safety of the airport. The ministry of transport ordered a rigorous testing on safety issues regarding the aviation control system. To be sure, the Douala airport authorities were asked specifically about the safety of the runways and whether there were any issues in respect of it. The Douala International airport representatives working on tribal sentiments misled the duly appointed Edgar Alain Mebo Ngo’o committee by not reporting that the airport could still operate with the main runway often used by the military.

We of Cameroon Concord News Group contend that the current leadership at the ministry of transport has no credibility with regard to the transparency of what is going on at the Douala International airport and perhaps even with regard to the truth about what is happening in respect of the maintenance work. The current aviation system which they claim is modern is unable to ensure the required level of safety in take-off and landing.

Cameroon Concord Intelligence Unit is aware that there are design and operating deficiencies and a lack of reliability in all what have been done over a one-month period. What Minister Alain Mebo Ngo’o and his gang have there now is completely inefficient to improve and it would create more confusion with the system if there were attempts at upgrading.

Another key issue in this whole Francophone Beti-Ewondo process now taking place at the Douala International airport is the absence of documentation in respect of the award of contracts in the prime minister’s office and even at the level of the Douala airport administration. Without mincing words,documents on how to run the so called new system, what was there and what was not,are still not available at the level of the Prime Minister and Head of Government including the presidency of the republic.

It will interest our readers to know that returning workers who were seconded to the Yaounde Nsimalen airport have still not have any list of the alarms system. Our chief economic correspondent was heard murmuring privately that, “This would generate dangerous situations”. There are very serious problems with the Douala International airport and they have been known to the CPDM regime since the crash of the Kenyan airlines, yet no media outlet in Cameroon had put this into the public domain. Accountability, credibility and, most of all, safety of the Douala International airport are today in the hands of the man they call Edgar Alain Mebo Ngo’o, Minister of Transport.

Minister Alain Mebo Ngo’o is not accountable to us-the Cameroonian people nor even to the anglophone Prime Minister and Head of Government on what is happening in this matter. Instead (he) and his men are playing the CPDM game and he has issued a statement saying that work in the airport is being adjusted and improved. From what our cream of reporters have seen, we have concluded that nothing has been done at the Douala International airport. All the systems have not been improve and will not be able to accommodate the huge air traffic developing in Douala. Nothing has been replaced. The use of components, material and software,adequate for real-time monitoring are still issues that the regime still have to handle. No one gave us satisfactory answers as regard technical options which have been upgraded within this one-month period of work.

For instance, we wanted to know the response times for the commands and status reports, reliability of the communication system and data collection system, legibility and efficiency of the control interfaces, list of alarms, multiple windows and highlighting of important information relating to the structure. There is clear evidence of significant problems in the operating safety of the Douala International airport. Minister Alain Mebo Ngo’o has clear knowledge of the matter which he has failed to give to Prime Minister Philemon Yang.

The key points we are making to the CPDM government are these: Has a neutral government body gone to inspect the work done at the Douala airport? What was replaced during this one month period of work? How much did it cost the Cameroonian task payer? Can the Minister of Transport vouch for the safety of the airport? With regard to the current operation and money spent, we must have an independent assessment.