The pressure and the pain of eking out a living, direct effect of corruption, inefficient government services and abusive human rights practices, combine to make another great and unpardonable evil of the Biya regime not appear so obvious. However, if you look at the way the entire public sector is organized the South province; Paul Biya’s home province always gets an exaggerated share of scarce public goods to the detriment of other provinces. Social injustice is just as destructive as other well known evils of the Biya regime, even if less obvious.
Not a few Cameroonians were surprised that a new reference hospital is to be located in Paul Biya’s hometown of Sangmelima.
Only a month ago the same town received a well-equipped modern primary school of the champion series donated to the government through Chantal Biya by French publishers, Hachette.
The school was built and equipped at the colossal sum of 500M FCFA. For a primary school where there is crying shortage across the country of classrooms and desks, that was much too exorbitant.
The criticism came not only from the press but also, some said, from Paul Biya’s family. Yet the very location of the school and its lavishness were done to favour the South province and placate the president who hails from there.
The location of both the hospital and primary school would ordinarily not cause a stir if there were enough public goods equitably shared among all ten provinces. ZERO SUM GAME No, that is not the case! The South province has a disproportionately larger share of public goods. With the national cake as tiny and in-expansive as it is, the more one province takes, the less there is for others to have. A zero-sum game indeed.
The former Ntem division of the former Centre-South province was upgraded into a full-fledged province by Biya, “son of the soil,” in 1983 for the very reason of pushing the development of the area – even at the high cost of the other parts of the country. As a province the former division would instantly qualify representation of the Yaounde ministries. It would also have its own share of members of parliament, government ministers, heads of public corporations, army generals, police commissioners, and much more. Not many people would want to quarrel with the idea as such.
But as it is everyone can see that Paul Biya has overdone it! For its size and population, the South has a far greater share of public goods, even in absolute terms in many respects, than any other province.
When it comes to representation in public institution the South is by far in the majority. For its population of about 350,000, which is a little less than that of Mezam Division in the North West Province with a population of more than two million.
In the government, the South easily has ten ministers, including persons of ministerial rank, ie if you consider the national security delegate of the police force and the secretary-general at the PMs, office.
But for the minister delegate at MINATD all are portfolio ministers with strategic positions e.g, finance, economy, pubic works, defense, higher education, communication. Compare that to the North West province again, with one portfolio minister (of culture), one minister for special duties and two secretaries of state. OVER REPRESENTED
Again the South is over-represented in the management of public corporations and institutions. The number presently stands at seven, after the GMs of FEICOM, Credit Foncier, and SIC were dismissed and arrested for corruption. The South holds the juiciest jobs, with corporations like the CNPS, CAMTEL and the contracts regulatory board.
In the army there are six generals from the south province, after one died recently, out of a total number of twenty-five. The North West and South West have only one each.
The South province also has a disproportionate majority of secretaries-generals, directors and sub-chiefs down the hierarchy chain and throughout the public services. They also have more rank and file personnel in the civil service.
This pattern is generally reflected in all public corporations and institutions. Because elite of the south control the public apparatus they instinctively recruit more of their own kith and kin at every opportunity.
Under the Biya regime, the public service does not function on professional lines. Because hard work, competence and seniority are not often taken into consideration, that opens the way for the same people to advance themselves, always at the expense of workers from ‘outside’ provinces. Even the president’s appointments do not pay regard to fair play or regional balance. This favoritism for the south and the centre, close allies of the south, permeates the entire constitution of the Biya regime. This has provoked accusations at various times in the past of marginalization by elite of the Littoral, West, the North and the East, and the Anglophones. It is the Anglophones that have been more persistent and militant in their outcry against Biya. At a well attended All-Anglophone conference held in Buea in April 1993, speaker after speaker condemned the failure of the 1961 union with Francophone Cameroon. SHORTCOMINGS
Allowing for the shortcomings of Anglophone leaders who failed to secure a union based on spelled-out terms, they accused Ahmadou Ahidjo of bad faith in disrespecting the spirit of the union.
As it turned out, Francophone power received Anglophones as a conquered people whom they sought instead to assimilate into their own system rather than recognize their integrity and values as a sovereign people.
Such was the foundation of the Anglophone problem. The problem itself lay in the policy of marginalization. As much as possible Anglophone were (and are still) left on the margin, instead of being brought into the centre of public affairs and given a central role in the march of the new nation, their nation too.
Correspondingly, Anglophone territory is neglected. Activists say that for the contribution that crude oil, explored in the off shores of the south west province, makes to the national budget there ought to be some return to the area in infrastructural development. Forty-six years into the 1961 union, roads are even worse than in the colonial days!
The third dimension to marginalization is total disregard of the Anglo-Saxon values that inspired Anglophone society. A bilingual policy exists only in name. French is the working language in Cameroon while English is accepted as a second language. Neither Ahidjo nor Biya ever used English in transacting government business.
The SCNC, the southern Cameroons National council, which was founded to militate for a more central role for Anglophones, since decided that separation was the only answer. In December 1999, they forced their way into the studios of Radio Buea and ran a message for the independence of southern Cameroons.
Social injustice does not usually attract press headlines as such in Cameroon. That is because of the greater prominence of other evils that have a direct effect on the daily lives of the people.
People will raise a hue and cry over electoral malpractices that rob them of their victory. Long months of daily struggle to get a claim out of inefficient and long-finding government services; the toil for daily bread; corruption in its many forms that cheat people of their day’s earnings and the unjust court verdict are among the many pains of everyday living.
What time and energy are there left to worry about the social injustices built into the very way society works to keep some permanently outside while others, owners of the regime, are inside to savour the cream?
Courtesy - The Herald
Yemti Harry Ndienla Esq
Senior Journalist,
P. 0 Box 494 Buea,
Southwest Province
Republic of Cameroon, West Africa.
Cell; 237 772 52 03
mcyemtih@yahoo.com
Not a few Cameroonians were surprised that a new reference hospital is to be located in Paul Biya’s hometown of Sangmelima.
Only a month ago the same town received a well-equipped modern primary school of the champion series donated to the government through Chantal Biya by French publishers, Hachette.
The school was built and equipped at the colossal sum of 500M FCFA. For a primary school where there is crying shortage across the country of classrooms and desks, that was much too exorbitant.
The criticism came not only from the press but also, some said, from Paul Biya’s family. Yet the very location of the school and its lavishness were done to favour the South province and placate the president who hails from there.
The location of both the hospital and primary school would ordinarily not cause a stir if there were enough public goods equitably shared among all ten provinces. ZERO SUM GAME No, that is not the case! The South province has a disproportionately larger share of public goods. With the national cake as tiny and in-expansive as it is, the more one province takes, the less there is for others to have. A zero-sum game indeed.
The former Ntem division of the former Centre-South province was upgraded into a full-fledged province by Biya, “son of the soil,” in 1983 for the very reason of pushing the development of the area – even at the high cost of the other parts of the country. As a province the former division would instantly qualify representation of the Yaounde ministries. It would also have its own share of members of parliament, government ministers, heads of public corporations, army generals, police commissioners, and much more. Not many people would want to quarrel with the idea as such.
But as it is everyone can see that Paul Biya has overdone it! For its size and population, the South has a far greater share of public goods, even in absolute terms in many respects, than any other province.
When it comes to representation in public institution the South is by far in the majority. For its population of about 350,000, which is a little less than that of Mezam Division in the North West Province with a population of more than two million.
In the government, the South easily has ten ministers, including persons of ministerial rank, ie if you consider the national security delegate of the police force and the secretary-general at the PMs, office.
But for the minister delegate at MINATD all are portfolio ministers with strategic positions e.g, finance, economy, pubic works, defense, higher education, communication. Compare that to the North West province again, with one portfolio minister (of culture), one minister for special duties and two secretaries of state. OVER REPRESENTED
Again the South is over-represented in the management of public corporations and institutions. The number presently stands at seven, after the GMs of FEICOM, Credit Foncier, and SIC were dismissed and arrested for corruption. The South holds the juiciest jobs, with corporations like the CNPS, CAMTEL and the contracts regulatory board.
In the army there are six generals from the south province, after one died recently, out of a total number of twenty-five. The North West and South West have only one each.
The South province also has a disproportionate majority of secretaries-generals, directors and sub-chiefs down the hierarchy chain and throughout the public services. They also have more rank and file personnel in the civil service.
This pattern is generally reflected in all public corporations and institutions. Because elite of the south control the public apparatus they instinctively recruit more of their own kith and kin at every opportunity.
Under the Biya regime, the public service does not function on professional lines. Because hard work, competence and seniority are not often taken into consideration, that opens the way for the same people to advance themselves, always at the expense of workers from ‘outside’ provinces. Even the president’s appointments do not pay regard to fair play or regional balance. This favoritism for the south and the centre, close allies of the south, permeates the entire constitution of the Biya regime. This has provoked accusations at various times in the past of marginalization by elite of the Littoral, West, the North and the East, and the Anglophones. It is the Anglophones that have been more persistent and militant in their outcry against Biya. At a well attended All-Anglophone conference held in Buea in April 1993, speaker after speaker condemned the failure of the 1961 union with Francophone Cameroon. SHORTCOMINGS
Allowing for the shortcomings of Anglophone leaders who failed to secure a union based on spelled-out terms, they accused Ahmadou Ahidjo of bad faith in disrespecting the spirit of the union.
As it turned out, Francophone power received Anglophones as a conquered people whom they sought instead to assimilate into their own system rather than recognize their integrity and values as a sovereign people.
Such was the foundation of the Anglophone problem. The problem itself lay in the policy of marginalization. As much as possible Anglophone were (and are still) left on the margin, instead of being brought into the centre of public affairs and given a central role in the march of the new nation, their nation too.
Correspondingly, Anglophone territory is neglected. Activists say that for the contribution that crude oil, explored in the off shores of the south west province, makes to the national budget there ought to be some return to the area in infrastructural development. Forty-six years into the 1961 union, roads are even worse than in the colonial days!
The third dimension to marginalization is total disregard of the Anglo-Saxon values that inspired Anglophone society. A bilingual policy exists only in name. French is the working language in Cameroon while English is accepted as a second language. Neither Ahidjo nor Biya ever used English in transacting government business.
The SCNC, the southern Cameroons National council, which was founded to militate for a more central role for Anglophones, since decided that separation was the only answer. In December 1999, they forced their way into the studios of Radio Buea and ran a message for the independence of southern Cameroons.
Social injustice does not usually attract press headlines as such in Cameroon. That is because of the greater prominence of other evils that have a direct effect on the daily lives of the people.
People will raise a hue and cry over electoral malpractices that rob them of their victory. Long months of daily struggle to get a claim out of inefficient and long-finding government services; the toil for daily bread; corruption in its many forms that cheat people of their day’s earnings and the unjust court verdict are among the many pains of everyday living.
What time and energy are there left to worry about the social injustices built into the very way society works to keep some permanently outside while others, owners of the regime, are inside to savour the cream?
Courtesy - The Herald
Yemti Harry Ndienla Esq
Senior Journalist,
P. 0 Box 494 Buea,
Southwest Province
Republic of Cameroon, West Africa.
Cell; 237 772 52 03
mcyemtih@yahoo.com
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1 comment:
What a great article about social injustice. This is exactly why things flare up when dictators leave office, and people target their tribes as in recent stolen Kenyan elections. FEDERALISM is the answer people, it is quite the answer. Let every province determine its need and solve its own problems.
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