Constitutional revision: Biya’s risky adventure: People power is already rumbling!

Courtesy - The Herald Editorial

Paul Biya’s bill had hardly been voted on when the streets began to rumble. In fright, the president called off his trip abroad where he had to rest after the great task. Whether the strike is true now or not, people power threatens and is something to reckon with. From the Church, an unusual and forthright voice also warns the Yaounde authorities to beware of people power. Says February was child’s play.

Ask just anyone you meet their opinion on last week’s illicit tampering with the constitution to allow Paul Biya yet another term in 2011, and the answer you get is the same: ‘ Cameroon has fallen backwards; Cameroon is sinking.’

Twenty-five years so far (and 29 in 2011) of failed economic policies; patently corrupt and inefficient government, questionable governance and failed democratisation, and more, combined to render Cameroon, endowed with natural resources, fertile soil and a hard-working people, a failed, poor and beggarly nation.

With enormous patience, Cameroonians had very much looked forward to Biya’s retirement in 2011, in the ardent hope that with a new freely-chosen leader, Cameroon could have a new beginning and make up for the lost years.

It is just that hope that Paul Biya and his oligarchy are determined to deny Cameroonians. The assembly that voted the amendment bill is a fake one, derived from fake elections. And, contrary to spokesmen of the ruling CPDM click, the amendment was grossly unpopular. (A February 2008 poll by Gallup showed that an overwhelming 84% of Cameroonians disapprove of Paul
Biya).

There was, of course, never a shred of doubt that the amendment bill, like any other government bill, would be voted as soon as it was sent to the assembly. The real issue was the mighty risk that the project itself held for Biya and his regime.

We already drew attention to Biya’s good luck so far in that Cameroon’s donor partners have never so far made up their minds to sanction him for his piling political misconduct. But this time he went too far in defying them. Can they continue to pardon him at the very high cost to Cameroonians?

We have also often noted the public’s new sense of self-confidence which manifested in last February’s strike. We are sure that when all fails that cannot because it is the very policies of the regime that nourish and strengthen it.

People power, as we call it, seems already to be rumbling. There have been persistent talks about another strike that is expected to begin today. Try as hard as we can, this newspaper has been unable to know who are its organisers. For this reason anyone would dismiss it as baseless.
Not until we learnt that Paul Biya cancelled a planned journey abroad at the last moment (see our
main story), and all the militarization of the main towns of the five provinces that took part in last
February’s strike.

Last year September, against rumours of a coup d’état, Paul Biya traveled abroad for three weeks, including a trip to the United Nations. That was followed by another long week in France in October. The story did not bother Biya because it was unfounded.

This time it is not a coup, only a strike. And if it could have such an effect, then don’t dismiss it. That only tells you how real the regime is considering people power.

The answer is not to go to war with the people but to respect their legitimate aspirations. In this regard, Samuel Kleda, the archbishop coadjutor of Douala, who chaired the very recent meeting of the Catholic Episcopal Conference made forthright remarks.

Kleda is absolutely in no doubt that the real problem of Cameroon is one of social injustice that has caused severe socio-economic dis-functioning. Consequences: youth unemployment, rising cost of essential commodities and weak purchasing power of the masses, and corruption that blocks economic development.

The archbishop calls upon public authorities to face the problems squarely and approach solutions with a spirit of dialogue, reconciliation and respect for Cameroonians.

Unless public authorities are serious and objective in this, let them know that last February’s violence was only a wake-up call. A greater shock is in store for them, ie a popular uprising that will embrace the whole country.