Paul Biya: The president who fools himself

One provision of the articles of the constitution of the republic of Cameroon that was revised last April was that the president would not bear responsibility for his acts during and after leaving office.
Given the urgency of other changes at the time, this one went unnoticed, and un-discussed! This same provision had in fact been included in the draft of the 1996 revised constitution. At that time Paul Biya allowed public debate of the draft and the hue and cry against that article led to its being withdrawn.

That it came back again this time into the constitution suggests clearly that the president sincerely believes that in the exercise of his powers he should not owe responsibility to the people. What a shame!

At governance level, non-accountability of leadership is a cardinal feature only of dictatorships. If Biya believes, as he says often, that Cameroon is democratic then its leader owes to render account to the people from whom he is supposed to have derived his power. Now that he does not want to render account to anybody that can only be proof that Cameroon is a dictatorship.

At a more fundamental level the president acts out of ignorance of the nature of man. Isn’t that unfortunate at his advanced age? The very nature of the human being obliges responsibility. This means to be accountable for one’s deeds. Being answerable for one’s deeds is an intrinsic (inseparable) quality of the human spirit. Contrary to the wishes of the likes of Biya accountability is an automatic function of the human being.
Man therefore has no choice about this. Whether he likes it or not the self-active Laws oblige man to account for his acts. Adamantine stands the Law: whatsoever a man soweth, that same shall he reap. ‘Shall’ indicates obligation. Therefore let Paul Biya and his equally ignorant parliamentarians know that nobody has ever escaped the obligation to render account for his deeds.

But the Laws of existence are not one-sided. Because of the obligation to render account for his deeds, man is also endowed with a free will. He is therefore completely free to decide as he wills but remains irrevocably tied to the consequences of his decisions. Such is the great grace of the free will which human beings are urged to use wisely.
A political leader who uses the power he gets to raise his people and make them prosperous and happy will inevitably earn the praise and blessing of his people. But that will not be all. He will earn the eternal reward of his master whose gifts he would have put to good use for the benefit of the people.

It is needless here to warn Biya that he cannot escape the hand of fate that will bring him to render account for his stewardship as a leader of the people and country of Cameroon.
If the president had been confident of his performance and was proud of it why would he go so far as to inscribe it in the fundamental law of the land that nobody should ever ask him what he did with the power he held for so long?

That refusal to be answerable is already a grave self accusation and condemnation. Let Paul Biya be advised. His ignorance of the Laws counts for nothing. Adamantine stands the Law: Whatsoever a man soweth that same shall he reap. Where shall Biya escape to when the time of reckoning strikes?

The only anti-dote to this is to start vigorously reversing the enormous and long suffering his regime has visited on the people.

The observer