Thursday, October 9, 2008

President Biya faulted for having lost interest in his job and also for not willing to do it well



One unmistaken way in which you know how concerned a leader is about the welfare of his people is how he reacts to a national emergency. Even on relatively minor but important matters good leaders do have the good taste of solidarising with their people.
But President Paul Biya of Cameroon seems far from this. He has been faulted by many Cameroonians for having lost interest in his job and also for not willing to do it well.

The herald newspaper recently criticized him for his conspicuous absence from the country and his absolute couldn’t-care-less attitude following the brazen terrorist attack on Limbe and their banks which resulted in deaths, injury and the ripping away of the cash till of Amity bank.
As it turned out the three-hour assault on Limbe was not only a dare-devil bank robbery, it has severe national security implications. The military, the navy, the police and gendarmes were all asleep for the entire period of the attack.
However, the question now is that Paul Biya doesn’t care a dime about the attack. Analysts believe the normal thing would have been for Biya to take the very next plane back home and extend a word of sympathy and solidarity to the inhabitants of Limbe who were frightened like they have never been before. It took about three days for many businesses to resume activity out of uncertainty.
On this score, the paper questioned Biya's continuous stay abroad after the UN general assembly and many more."One week after his business at the UN general assembly finished what is Paul Biya doing abroad? Every head of state or government who was in New York with him has since returned home to work. How many holidays does the president give himself in the same year?
Can’t he break off the holiday to return home over a national emergency?"
It should be noted here that Gordon Brown, only a few days into his holiday, sometime last year, hastily returned to London with news of the outbreak of the cattle disease called “foot and mouth.” Also, Silvio Berlusconi was unable to travel to the UN this year because he was concerned about the threatened bankruptcy of the national carrier, Alitalia. George Bush was absent from the Republican convention a few weeks ago to travel to Texas where he wanted to monitor the disastrous aftermath of a destructive hurricane on the southern coast of the US. Back in Africa, Laurent Gbagbo didn’t travel to New York also because of the delicate preparations for the coming presidential election in Cote d’Ivoire.
But Paul Biya does not care about Cameroonian tragedies. Last year he flew to the UN to make a speech on climate change but ignored to visit Maroua where a flash flood had destroyed a village and left many homeless.
The president showed the same disregard for the victims and people of Kekem, following a landslide that killed people and rendered many homeless.

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