Headline News

28, March 2024

MTN Cameroon sees record growth with CFA325.7bn revenue in 2023 ⁰

MTN Cameroon reported a robust revenue of CFA325.7 billion for 2023. According to data released on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in South Africa, this figure marks a 10.9% increase from 2022, showcasing a notable acceleration in growth and performance.

Analysis by Business in Cameroon reveals that revenues rose by 8.7% in 2022, 2.2% less than last year. MTN Cameroon’s revenue substantially outpaced the CFA312.9 billion reported by its main competitor, Orange Cameroon, highlighting the company’s dominant market position. A significant driver behind this growth has been internet connection services, which accounted for nearly 38.4% of total revenues. For the first time, these services have overtaken direct call services as the leading contributor to MTN’s revenue in Cameroon.

The company also saw significant strides in its fintech services, including credit lending, which surged by nearly 44.5% to reach CFA57.5 billion, based on the conversion rate at the end of the financial year. This is a sharp increase from the 10.2% growth in 2022.

Data and fintech services combined have formed 52.13% of MTN Cameroon’s total income, up from 51.4% in 2022, 47% in 2021, and 40.6% in 2020. By the end of December 2023, MTN boasted a record 5.8 million active internet subscribers and 5.6 million active Mobile Money users in Cameroon, marking the highest levels in five years. The average revenue per user in Cameroon reached a new high of CFA2542.02 in 2023.

Amidst this positive trajectory, MTN declared a pre-tax and depreciation profit of CFA123 billion in Cameroon, constituting 37.8% of its revenue, the best margin recorded since 2019. However, despite these favorable outcomes, challenges persist. The internet market faces ongoing consumer grievances regarding service quality across all providers. Furthermore, the South African company is currently embroiled in legal proceedings where its bank accounts were frozen due to a dispute involving Baba Danpullo’s holding company, Bestinver, and its South African banker, First National Bank (FNB), a subsidiary of FirstRand Bank (FRB), one of MTN’s shareholders.

Source: Business in Cameroon

27, March 2024

US: Joe Lieberman, former vice presidential candidate, dies at 82 ⁰

Former US Senator and vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman has died at 82.

The cause was complications from a fall, according to a family statement obtained by CBS News, The BBC’s US partner.

The centrist represented the state of Connecticut in the Senate for nearly a quarter of a century.

Mr Lieberman became the first Jewish person to join a major party US presidential ticket in 2000 when Al Gore selected him as his running mate.

Source: BBC

26, March 2024

Yaoundé: Cabinet Reshuffle is in the Offing! ⁰

As news of a coup d’état in Cameroon spreads across the country, a source at the Unity Palace has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group that a cabinet reshuffle is on the horizon as members of the president’s inner circle start strategizing on how to grant the ailing and collapsing Biya a massive victory in the 2025 presidential election.

The source, which elected anonymity, said there was panic in Yaoundé, especially after the coup d’état in Gabon which led to the ousting of former president, Ali Bongo, who had been hit by a massive stroke, leaving him paralyzed on one side of his body.

Following the coup d’état in Gabon, Mr. Biya has shaken up the military twice, taking possible suspects from strategic positions and dumping them in the periphery where they have little or no influence.

“The fear of a possible coup could be read on many faces in Mr. Biya’s circle. The president and his men do not have confidence in any of the military generals, most of whom have connections with the French and American forces,” our source at the Presidency said.

“The coup carried out by President Olingi in Gabon has struck fear in many minds in Cameroon. There is no trust between civilians and the military right now. The president is thinking of increasing the salaries of our soldiers as a way of calming down the military which seems to be harkening calls for a military take-over in Yaoundé,” the source added.

“Some news organizations are already suggesting that a coup d’état could be cheaper than the so-called democratic elections where millions of dollars are wasted, people killed, ballots printed and the same unpopular person is returned to power by crooks,” the source stressed.

“The purpose of the upcoming cabinet reshuffle is to take out unpopular ministers like Atanga Nji, the territorial administration minister, who is more of a liability than an asset to the President and the country. Others like Victor Mengot Arrey and Paul Tasong who actually have no portfolio and are not loved by their people are clearly on their way out. There are also rumors that the Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, might not go beyond 2025. He will be promptly replaced by a more popular Anglophone after the presidential poll and a list of possible candidates has already been established. The President is looking at South westerners and North westerners who are working at the international level as he plans to contract massive loans which will help in the country’s reconstruction after the poll,” the government insider said.

“The ruling party’s current concern is to win hearts and minds in the Northwest and Southwest regions where the population is anti-CPDM due to the conflict in those two English-speaking regions where more than ten thousand Cameroonians have lost their lives in a conflict which could have been avoided. In the coming months, supporters of the government will carry out provocative actions in those two regions to reignite the fighting, thereby causing separatists’ forces to become active as a means of rigging elections. We hope Ambazonian fighters will be smart enough not to fall into the trap. A peaceful northwest and southwest will definitely hand a huge victory to the opposition and this will be a huge blow to the government’s game plan,” our source pointed out.

“Though the Biya government is very unpopular across the country, many ruling party supporters are counting on a massive rigging machinery which the government is already designing and deploying. Ruling party stalwarts are all trembling and it is that fear which is pushing them into urging the desperately ill Biya to run again in 2025,” he added.

“Cameroonians are really counting on the military. The country is in a total mess. Only a coup d’état can help to bring back some sanity to our country. Corruption is rife, and the looting of state resources is taking place openly. There is nobody in charge in Yaoundé and many people want to amass more resources before any clean-up operations begin. I pray the military heeds the people’s call,” our source concluded.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-in-Chief and Group Chairman

26, March 2024

Yaoundé: Martinez Zogo trial opened, adjourned ⁰

The trial for the killing of a popular Cameroonian journalist opened on Monday with 17 people in the dock, including an ex-secret service chief, but was immediately adjourned until April 15.

The badly-mutilated body of reporter Arsene Salomon Mbani Zogo, known as “Martinez”, was found a few days after he was abducted in front of a police station outside the capital Yaoundé on January 17 last year.

The 50-year-old ardent anti-corruption and anti-cronyism campaigner had often singled out government officials by name, earning the ire of powerful figures.

Those on trial at Yaounde Military Court include Leopold Maxime Eko Eko, the then-director of Cameroon’s powerful military intelligence service, his head of operations Justin Danwe, and members of a military commando accused of Zogo’s kidnap, torture and murder.

Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, a wealthy businessman believed to be close to ministers and officers in the Central African nation, is also amongst the accused.

All are accused of either actively taking part in or complicity in Zogo’s kidnap, torture and murder.

The killing caused an outcry in the country, which has been ruled with an iron fist for more four decades by President Paul Biya, 91.

The defendants showed no signs of any emotion during a three-hour hearing as the charges against them were read out.

The lawyers were then invited to present their initial observations by Colonel Jacques Misse Njone, presiding the session, before he adjourned the case to next month “to respond to all the observations and communicate the lists of witnesses”.

Calvin Job, the Zogo family’s lawyer, complained that “the civil parties have never been asked to participate in the investigation”.

“This is unacceptable. To date, I have not had access to the file,” he added.

The court commissioner promised to rectify that and make the file available.

Source: AFP

26, March 2024

CPDM supporters want Cameroon’s four-decade President, 91, to run again ⁰

Supporters are urging the world’s oldest leader, 91-year-old Cameroonian President Paul Biya, to run for office in the 2025 presidential election, potentially extending his more than four-decade rule.

They say Biya is the only one who can bring peace and development to the country, but the opposition says Biya must leave office after running Cameroon for decades.

Several hundred people sang in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, on Sunday, calling for Biya to accept the nomination of the Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, or CPDM party, in the 2025 presidential election.

Biya created the CPDM on March 24, 1985, three years after his predecessor, Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, stepped down due to ill health and handed power to Biya.

Biya has been president of Cameroon since 1982 and leader of his party since 1985.

During the party’s 39th anniversary on Sunday, party officials organized rallies in all Cameroon towns and villages to ask people to support Biya as their candidate in the 2025 elections.

Senior CPDM official Fru Jonathan described Biya as the party’s natural candidate, saying there is peace, unity and economic growth in the country. Jonathan said Biya is strong and healthy.

“We think that you don’t change a winning team,” Jonathan said. “If there is any challenger, let him come up, but we have not seen any challenger who can beat our candidate, so we all rely on him and call on him to continue to rule and bring our country to emergence as that is his vision.”

Biya has not said if he will be a candidate.

Cameroon senior state functionaries appointed by Biya, along with Biya’s party officials, credit the long-serving leader for constructing at least 6,000 kilometers of roads, providing electricity and water to towns and villages, and building several hundred classrooms and hospitals.

But Cameron’s opposition and civil society disagree with that positive assessment, saying under Biya the Cameroon Bank and the Fund for Agricultural Development created to fund farmers’ projects crumbled.

The opposition also says corruption has become widespread during Biya’s rule, with Transparency International ranking Cameroon as the most corrupt country in 1998 and 1999.

Cabral Libii, 44, an opposition parliamentarian with Cameroon’s Party for National Reconciliation, or PCRN, placed third in Cameroon’s 2018 presidential elections.

Libii said Cameroonian youth will not continue to watch Biya cripple the economy, deprive civilians of their liberties and freedoms, and rule Cameroon with an iron fist while now showing signs of being ruler for life.

He said Biya is the cause of sorrows brought about by extremely high unemployment, underemployment and crises in the English-speaking western regions that have claimed more than 6,000 lives.

Libii said Cameroon opposition and civil society are organizing themselves to present a candidate to oust Biya, whom they describe as elderly and frail to the point he is hardly seen in public.

Libii said Cameroon needs young dynamic leaders to salvage the country from underdevelopment.

Opponents said many youths were hired to take part in rallies to give the false impression that Biya is popular.

Both the government and Biya’s CPDM party officials deny that civilians, especially poor youth, were hired.

At 91, Biya is the oldest leader in the world and the second-longest-serving president after his neighbor, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.

Biya’s party says he has won all presidential elections since the return of multiparty politics in Cameroon in 1990, but the opposition says previous elections have been marred by fraud.

Source: VOA

25, March 2024

Biya’s Replacement: A Coup d’Etat is cheaper ⁰

As usual, there is news all over Cameroon on the possible replacement of Paul Biya, the country’s longest serving president in 2025. Mr. Biya has misruled the country for 42 years and he is slowly but surely yielding to the passage of time. Mr. Biya, who was considered by many in 1982 as a better option to the country’s first president, Amadou Ahidjo, is really running out of steam. His mine is failing him at a pace never seen before and this has become a huge concern for his entourage, especially those who have engaged in acts of impropriety and serious misconduct.

To the ordinary Cameroonian, Biya has become a millstone around his neck as suggested by a CPDM official. Speaking to the Cameroon Concord News, a key CPDM militant who elected anonymity said that “Biya has failed himself and Cameroonians and he is aware of his own catastrophic failure. When his mind gets reset by the strong drugs and steroids recommended by his Swiss doctors, he resorts to blaming everybody except himself for the excruciating pain he has inflicted on Cameroonians. Biya is like our own Holy Ghost, unfortunately with an ironic twist. The Holy Ghost in the Bible is noted for its positivity, but Mr. Biya’s presence among Cameroonians is huge symbol of negativity. Where two or three Cameroonians are gathered, Biya is with them and they are always talking about him. The disaster which Mr. Biya and his henchmen have unleashed on Cameroon will linger for a very long time.”

“I have been hearing all this noise about replacing Biya through elections. Cameroon will never change through an election. The system is mined and if Cameroonians are looking forward to elections as the only way of changing things, then they are in for a tough disappointment. Cameroon is ripe for a coup d’etat and a coup will be less expensive compared to a fake election. A so-called election will require huge amounts of money. Many people will die before, during and after the election as the government is already strategizing on the type of terror it will unleash on the population during and after the election. There are many plans under way to exclude opposition voters and, as usual, after the results get published by the Constitutional Council, troops will be deployed and a state of emergency will be declared,” the CPDM stalwart lamented.

“A coup d’etat is cheaper! If we take a look at what has happened in Guinea, Gabon, Mali, Burkina and Niger, it is clearly emerging that a coup d’etat is the best option for Cameroon. In the other countries, there was no bloodshed. No money was spent on arms and ammunition. But a so-called democratic election in Cameroon will imply that billions will be poured into a flawed process, innocent lives will be destroyed, military resources will be wasted to intimidate the population as well as the political opposition, and the country’s infrastructure will be destroyed in the process. If Cameroon’s military is patriotic, it can help the country by putting an end to this nightmare which has already lasted 42 years. Biya is a real pain in our side,” the miserable CPDM supporter wept.

“I cannot speak up and out because I have already eaten, drunk and danced with the devil. The CPDM is like a cult. When you join them, you will never leave. Any attempt to leave will be met with all the intrigues and violence which will make your life and that of your family miserable. Biya has taken the country down a dark and treacherous path and our fear even within the party is that after him, the country would be enveloped in a thick cloud of violence. There are so many skeletons in Mr. Biya’s cupboard and that is why he wants to die in power. His dishonest collaborators know that and they have already been bought over. They are all willing to sink with the dying Biya because they know Cameroonians will never forgive them. The military will find it very easy to overthrow Mr. Biya whose grip on power is already loosening,” he added.

“Within the party, there are huge concerns about the future. Most party stalwarts are very sick. Marcel Niat just as Biya himself is a colony of diseases. Niat too is losing his mind. An enlarged prostrate triggering incontinence is keeping him permanently in diapers while Cavaye is staging his one-man show at the National Assembly. He has reduced the place to a drinking parlor, with his office drawers containing some of the most intoxicating liquors. On a normal day, Cavaye can down two huge bottles of liquor and that is just for the day as he will still drink more at home before going to bed. It is as if the taxpayer is paying him to slowly kill himself. Cavaye really wants to give the country a bad name. Many fear he might one day die in his office due to alcohol intoxication,” our source said.

“For now, the Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, is just looking for an exit strategy. He is sick and tired of all the games which have set the country back by at least a century. He cannot wait to leave. In his mind, everything in Cameroon is simply a pretty mess. Nothing is working. The country cannot boost of any good roads. The country’s railway system has collapsed while the national airlines is sinking further and further into bankruptcy. The young people within the corridors of power are working hard for the mess to continue so that they can continue to rob the country blind. Many of them have their family members in schools abroad. They are looking forward to completing their fees before Biya gets kicked out. The increasing noise about a coup or a strong opposition coalition is unsettling to them and it is keeping them awake all night,” our source concluded.

Meanwhile the country’s opposition is taking steps to weave a strong coalition. Last week, Professor Titus Edzoa, a former minister under Biya, was in Europe to garner more support for the opposition project and the project is gaining traction with the country’s Diaspora supporting any and every effort which will see off the country’s president.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-in-Chief and Group Chairman

25, March 2024

Senegal’s ruling coalition presidential hopeful recognises opposition Faye’s victory ⁰

Senegal’s governing coalition candidate Amadou Ba on Monday recognised a win by anti-establishment candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye in the first-round of presidential elections and offered his congratulations, a statement said

“Considering the trends of the presidential election results and awaiting the official declaration, I congratulate the president Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye on his victory in the first round,” Ba said in the statement.

The concession came a day after Senegal’s presidential election Sunday, which followed months of uncertainty and unrest that tested the West African nation’s reputation as a stable democracy in a region rife with coups.

This is Senegal’s fourth democratic transfer of power since gaining independence from France more than six decades ago. It took place one month later than initially scheduled after President Macky Sall tried to delay it until the end of the year. Sall is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term and is expected to step down on April 2 when his mandate ends.

After the polls closed Sunday, voters praised the peaceful outcome amid concerns after months of deadly protests ignited last summer by the jailing of the popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and concerns that the president wanted to stay in power. Rights groups said dozens were killed, while hundreds more were jailed.

In a move that defused tensions just ahead of the election, Sonko was released after months in prison along with Faye, to jubilant celebrations on the streets of Dakar. Sonko was barred from the race in January due to a prior conviction and Faye ran in his place.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

25, March 2024

Race For Etoudi: Cameroon Concord Editorial Chair endorses Professor Titus Edzoa ⁰

It is becoming clear that there is a massive power vacuum in Cameroon as the country’s ailing leaders are incapable of making sound economic and political decisions which can help steer the country out of the mess for which the country is now noted.

Though the country’s Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, has, out of fear, banned all activities aimed at building coalitions against the crumbling Biya government, there are still huge efforts underway both in Cameroon and abroad to engineer a solid coalition which will successfully oust Mr. Biya and his corrupt CPDM party from power once and for all.

It is gradually emerging that a massive coalition is being built around Professor Titus Edzoa, who is currently in Europe to discuss various political possibilities which would lead to the building of a coalition.

The Chairman and Editor-In-Chief of the Cameroon Concord Group has welcome the news of growing support for Professor Titus Edzoa to head a three-year transition program beginning 2025 in an inclusive government.

Speaking on Saturday in London during an event organized for Cameroon’s Diaspora and in which Biya’s succession was on the agenda, the Concord Chairman said:

“All progressive forces both in French- and English-speaking Cameroon should place their support behind Professor Titus Edzoa, as he gets himself ready to head a new Cameroon Government next year. This is an important step at a crucial moment for our divided nation.”

Chairman Soter Agbaw-Ebai added that Professor Titus Edzoa, if given the mandate, will act in the national interest of a federated Cameroon.

“Cameroon is badly in need of a smooth transition of power and many around the world believe Prof. Titus Edzoa will contribute to the quick formation of a unified and inclusive government which can address the serious security, humanitarian and political challenges facing Cameroon,” Agbaw-Ebai said.

“Professor Edzoa can be assured he has Cameroon Concord News full commitment to working with an inclusive Cameroon government formed with all blocs including the detained leaders of the Ambazonia Interim Government” Agbaw-Ebai concluded.

By Chi Prudence Asong

25, March 2024

North Korea says Japan’s PM Kishida has requested summit with Kim Jong Un ⁰

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister said Monday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has requested a summit with her brother, adding a meeting was unlikely without a policy shift by Tokyo.

Relations between the two countries are historically strained, including by a long-running kidnapping dispute and North Korea’s banned weapons programmes, but Kishida has recently expressed a desire to improve ties, which Pyongyang has hinted it is not opposed to.

Last year, Kishida said he was willing to meet Kim “without any conditions”, saying Tokyo was willing to resolve all issues, including the abduction by North Korean agents of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, which remains an emotive issue in Japan.

“Kishida… conveyed his intention to personally meet the President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as soon as possible,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Kim Yo Jong — who is one of the regime’s key spokespeople — had hinted last month at a possible future invitation for the Japanese leader to visit North Korea.

But she said the “history of the DPRK-Japan relations gives a lesson that it is impossible to improve the bilateral relations full of distrust and misunderstanding,” without a substantive policy change on Tokyo’s part.

She warned that were Japan to remain “engrossed in the abduction issue that has no further settlement” then Kishida’s hopes of improving ties would not materialise.

Kishida said Monday that he was not aware of the KCNA report, and did not directly comment on its contents, while calling top-level talks with North Korea “important”.

“For Japan-North Korea relations, top-level talks are important to resolve issues such as the abduction issue,” Kishida said in parliament, referring to kidnappings that took place in the 1970s and ’80s.

“This is why we have been making various approaches to North Korea at the level directly under my control, as I have said in the past.”

North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had sent agents to kidnap 13 Japanese people in the 1970s and ’80s who were used to train spies in Japanese language and customs.

The abductions remain a potent and emotional issue in Japan and suspicions persist that many more were abducted than have been officially recognised.

Analysts have long said that contention over the issue could hinder progress towards a summit between Kishida and Kim Jong Un.

But North Korea’s statement appeared to be an attempt by Pyongyang to negotiate terms for any future summit between the two countries’ leaders, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, told AFP.

“It seems the North sees there’s no point in making contact with the Japanese side without checking what requirements each side has in mind that could lead to nothing after all if those requirements are too different to reconcile,” Hong said.

“It is Pyongyang’s way of testing how serious Japan is in holding the meeting and setting its own summit prerequisites in order to host the meeting.”

Japan’s former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi paid a landmark visit to Pyongyang while in office in 2002, meeting Kim’s father Kim Jong Il and setting out a path to normalise relations in which Japan would offer economic assistance.

The trip led to the return of five Japanese nationals and a follow-up trip by Koizumi, but the diplomacy soon broke down, in part over Tokyo’s concern that North Korea was not coming clean about the abduction victims.

Kim Yo Jong said that Kishida “should not think that it is possible for him to meet our state leadership when he has wanted and decided.”

“If Japan truly wants to improve the bilateral relations and contribute to ensuring regional peace and stability as a close neighbor of the DPRK, it is necessary for it to make a political decision for strategic option conformed to its overall interests,” she added.

Source: AFP

24, March 2024

“2025 will be a critical year in Cameroon” ⁰

2025 will be a critical year in Cameroon as parliamentary and presidential elections will be held and the presidential elections in particular will either make or break the country which has been in the spotlight for decades for all the wrong reasons. As Cameroon’s political parties start strategizing on how to edge out the unpopular CPDM, the country’s ruling party, which has been responsible for the economic and political cataclysm which has befallen Cameroon, Cameroon Concord News turned to Dr. Joachim Arrey for expert analysis of the trends, fears and concerns of Cameroonians. “Fru Ndi clearly won the 1992 elections as reported by Albert Dzongang in a video given that he willfully participated in the fraud which robbed Cameroonians of their victory even when other major political opposition parties did not stand with Fru Ndi. Fru Ndi of blessed memory won not because Cameroonians loved him, but because they were simply sick and tired of a government which had spent most of its time sleeping at the switch. Corruption and indifference had become the hallmarks of the government and Cameroonians wanted to rid themselves of this government and the destructive malaises it had engineered for them,” says Dr. Joachim Arrey, a committed observer of Cameroon’s political landscape. Read the full interview!!

Cameroon Concord News: It is always a pleasure having you. From the last time you shared your thoughts with us, a lot has changed and Cameroonians are really desperate for political and personality change. However, this week, we saw more of the same following the election of Marcel Niat Njifenji and Cavaye Djibril. What is your perspective on this?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: I am really surprised at the behaviour of those Cameroonians who really thought the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate would not be returned to their positions. The truth is that Cameroon’s political leaders do not care about the population. The future of the country is the least of their concerns. Today, the country is on the edge of a cliff and there is nobody to pull it back from the brink. Cameroonians are leaving the country in droves and this is not a concern to the authorities. Our youths are unemployed and wasting the best part of their lives and the government has simply gone to sleep. But again, if you grumble in your bedroom and after that you head to an off-license to drown your sorrows in alcohol, nobody will know that you have been hurt. Our country’s youths must be politically conscious and active. It is their future which is being ruined by their grandparents who should not be having anything to do with politics. However, nobody hurts or exploits you without your approval. Your attitude towards life determines how people see you. Cameroonians have cheapened themselves and they are only worth a bottle of beer or a can of sardine for a seven-year period.

Coming back to your question, why would anybody think that because someone is sick and old, he cannot do his job? There are no age limits in our constitution when it comes to standing for an election. Marcel Niat Njifenji and Cavaye Djibril have the right to stand for elections in Cameroon though they are desperately sick and old. If Cameroonians need real and meaningful change, they know what to do. Nobody hands you the change you need on a platter of gold. Cameroonians are the architects of their own problems. The country’s constitution provides for peaceful demonstrations if the population disagrees with the government and its actions, and I think if Cameroonians want to see genuine change, then they must use this provision to make their point. Indifference and silence are tantamount to acquiescence. If Cameroonians think that somebody will come from a different planet or country to change their destiny, then they will have to wait for too long. The state capture will continue for decades if Cameroonians continue to be sorry spectators of political events in their own country.

Cameroon Concord News: You just spoke about unemployment and a stalled economy in Cameroon. In your view, what could be responsible for Cameroon’s underdevelopment at a time when most countries are taking giant steps forward in terms of development?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Cameroon’s dismal economic performance is nothing new at the international level. The country is bereft of modern transformative and transformational infrastructure. The country’s cities and towns are shadows of their former selves. Douala and Yaoundé need an extreme makeover. Yaoundé is 90% slum. There are few structured neighborhoods in Yaoundé. There are many neighborhoods in the nation’s capital which have gone for decades without water and electricity and this is not a problem for the people and their leaders. Douala, once a vibrant city, has lost its shine and it is now mostly a massive slum.

In many parts of our major cities, you will see garbage heaps lining our streets and fecal matter is a constant presence in many of our streets, reminding the vulnerable that they could be easily swept away by cholera or other water or air-borne diseases. Our cities do not have proper fecal sludge disposal mechanisms and this is hurting the health of our people. Each year, thousands of children in Cameroon die of water- or sanitation-related diseases and since the government has decided not to establish any vital statistics department, many Cameroonians are simply in the dark about the disaster that has visited their country. If this unfortunate trend has to be bucked, then a change of mentality and personalities must be on the country’s political agenda. It will be preposterous to use the same people who have engineered the problems for them to find an appropriate solution to the same problems. They will definitely come to the solution laboratory with the same mindset and this will cause the problems to linger.

As you already know, Cameroon is among the most corrupt countries in the world and our country had in the early 2000s earned the infamous distinction of being the most corrupt country in the world and it won this disgraceful award two years in a row. That was what Transparency International told us and, to the best of my knowledge, the country has only made giant strides backwards in this regard. Corruption is a major economic killer, especially when the corruption is fostered by those who are supposed to check it. I would like to refer Cameroonians to the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published by Transparency International. They will certainly gain a better understanding why their country’s economy is facing some of the challenges it is facing.

Mr. Editor, good governance is the fertiliser which brings about economic prosperity if well combined with other economic factors. Cameroon has been mired in controversies which have ruined its reputation abroad and this is striking fear in the minds of many potential investors. Nobody in his right mind will like to put his hard-earned money in a country whose future is uncertain. Many investors see Cameroon as a ‘tinderbox’ which might go off any time if care is not taken. If you take a look at the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), you will see Cameroon’s position and you will gain a better understanding of why our economy is making giant strides backwards. The country is being run like a personal plantation. Cameroon is the only country in the world where the price of alcohol is regulated with presidential decrees. It is the only country in the world where even night watchmen are appointed through an administrative instrument. Competence and effectiveness are not the determinants of who should occupy which position.

The beer sector is the only economic sector which is doing well as most Cameroonians sedate themselves regularly with these liquids just to forget about their multitude of sorrows which has been stalking them for decades like a stubborn shadow. Unbeknownst to them is the fact that alcohol is a suspect in the many cases of diabetes and kidney failures which are sending our young men to an early grave. Some of these drinks are now being produced at home in very filthy environments. There is no Drug and Food Administration in Cameroon which can regulate such activities and law enforcement is a joke as the law enforcement agencies are replete with the proteges of the politicians who are the architects of the mess playing out in Cameroon.

Cameroon Concord News: Recently, we have been hearing some concerned voices calling for a coalition of opposition parties in Cameroon as a possibility of beating Mr. Paul Biya who is being touted as the ruling party’s candidate in the 2025 Presidential election. What is your take on that?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: I look forward to the day that idea will be incarnated in Cameroon, but I don’t think it is a prerequisite. It will take more than an election for genuine positive change to be part of Cameroon’s political landscape and culture. I have been reading some articles that the country’s political parties must unite if they really want to win an election in Cameroon. Unity is good but, in our context, where disunity is strength, it will take a miracle to achieve total unity.

Honestly, those pushing for a coalition of the country’s political parties are either too young to remember that there was a “Union for Change” which stood behind Mr. John Fru Ndi in the 1992 Presidential Elections which Ndam Njoya, Bello Bouba and others sabotaged, or they are just too naïve to know that the country’s political mess is coded in its electoral law and constitution.

Mr. Fru Ndi clearly won the 1992 elections as reported by Mr. Albert Dzongang in a video given that he willfully participated in the fraud which robbed Cameroonians of their victory even when other major political opposition parties did not stand with Mr. Fru Ndi. Mr. Fru Ndi of blessed memory won not because Cameroonians loved him, but because they were simply sick and tired of a government which had spent most of its time sleeping at the switch. Corruption and indifference had become the hallmarks of the government and Cameroonians wanted to rid themselves of this government and the destructive malaises it had engineered for them.

The electoral code stipulates that only ELECAM has the prerogative of publishing election results and only ELECAM-published results will be acceptable. Strangely, it is the president who appoints members of ELECAM. I am still trying to figure out how the country’s president will appoint his political opponents in high positions at ELECAM. He will have to be high on something strange or there must be divine intervention for him to lose his mind to the point of not knowing what it takes to rig elections. Who on earth will be popular after 42 years in power, especially when he has not posted any convincing results?

It should also be pointed out that in the event of any election disputes, only the Constitutional Council has the right to address such issues. Once more, it is the President’s constitutional right to appoint the president and members of the Constitutional Council. Except Mr. Biya and his people completely lose their minds, there will never be any accident in this regard. Mr. Biya knows that most Cameroonians are cash-strapped and giving them appointments is one way of buying their consciences. Poverty hardly breeds virtue and this has been clearly demonstrated in Cameroon. We all can recall the day Mr. Atanganang Clement was appointed as the Constitutional Council president and how he celebrated like a child in a candy store. Pushing for a political coalition of opposition parties as a prerequisite for winning the 2025 President election is like looking for a very small needle in a massive haystack in Cameroon.

The country’s political opposition will never win an election if the current political dispensation is not reformed to reduce the ruling party’s grip on the country. Besides, calling for that coalition is like looking for love in a brothel when we all know what the residents of those brothels are selling – sex for money. The country’s political opposition is replete with people who know that they do not have any political clout but they just have to throw their hats into the ring, hoping that they can get something from the ruling party after the election. Poverty can disarm even the strongest army in the world and many Cameroonian politicians are desperately hungry, making it hard for them to be disciplined and principled. Sometimes, those empty shells known as political parties are the creations of the ruling party as a strategy to sell the rhetoric that the opposition can never be united, hence diminishing its chances of winning any presidential election.

Cameroon Concord News: What do you think can be done to get the country out of its tight spot?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Despite the tough challenges which lie ahead and though the ruling CPDM is the front-runner in an election which has not even been announced given that it is in total control of the election mechanisms, I would still urge our young men and women to get registered and vote for a candidate who can really turn the country’s fortunes around. Currently, the political landscape is crowded but a few opposition leaders are clearly standing out, though they are yet to convince Cameroonians or establish a national consensus on their ability to engineer a brand new and prosperous country. The MRC which is still facing challenges due to its inability to emerge from its tribal shell could lead the pack if it organizes itself and if it reaches out to other political parties. The Social Democratic Front, which in the past had bruised the ruling CPDM, could also work with the MRC to give the ruling party a run for its money. The country is a year away from the presidential election and a lot can happen between now and the elections. The opposition parties, which genuinely want to bring about change in Cameroon, can start dumping enormous pressure on the crumbling government for election reforms to be undertaken before the elections. There are many refined and sophisticated legal minds in Cameroon who can provide the right advice to this political parties regarding constitutional and election reform in Cameroon.

Cameroon Concord News: It is always a pleasure talking with you. Any last word for Cameroonians?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Cameroonians are a brilliant people when it comes to academics but certificates alone will not enable them to live the life they want in their country. It takes a lot of courage and discipline to trigger change in any society. Cameroonians must drop their bad habit of thinking that they know everything just because they passed exams. They must learn how to listen to the experts and they must walk away from the straight jacket of tribalism and regionalism which the government has imposed on them. The government has worked hard to divide Cameroonians but it is time for us to read through the government.

Let us understand that every Cameroonian is in need of good roads, good hospitals, good schools and a civil and civilized environment which will help us to live a healthy life. We must embrace a structured existence which is underpinned by discipline. Cameroonians are generating slums which are killing them slowly. They must urge their municipalities to help them to live a structured life. Neighborhoods in Cameroon are not organized, making it easy for slums to emerge. The government might have failed us, but we cannot afford to fail ourselves. Through community effort, we can reduce some of the garbage which is serving as a good breeding ground for mosquitoes and diseases. A great health strategy must be predicated upon prevention. If we make prevention our mantra, we will stave off many of those diseases which are robbing us of our happiness.

Cameroon Concord News: Thank you, Dr. Joachim Arrey!