Call for collective efforts by the opposition to fight the regime
Boniface Forbine, publisher of Cameroon’s leading News paper of English expression, The Herald, says president Paul Biya’s arrogance is causing him harm and call for collective efforts by the opposition to fight the regime govern by the Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM), party.
The publisher in a recent editorial says though the Biya regime is presently weak and inefficient, President Paul Biya, takes advantage of the rather lazy opposition that exist in the country to do as he likes. He however intimated that the government has been damaged by the recent controversy surrounding the country’s electoral body – Elections Cameroon (ELECAM). On this score the paper noted for tough editorials on the regime states, “We think this is a timely opportunity for the remnants of the opposition to pull themselves together and give the regime a fight. It won’t be a wasted effort”.
Below is an excerpt of the editorial
William Shakespeare, the 16th century English playwright once observed thoughtfully, that there is a tide in the affairs of men which when taken at flood leads on to good fortune.
It is clear that Paul Biya’s 26-year regime is presently at a bumpy turning. We think a timely opportunity now presents itself for the opposition not to miss but to rise up boldly and challenge the regime.
By arrogantly taking the people for a ride as he normally does, Paul Biya has inadvertently put his regime on trial. Condemnation is raining not only at home but also from abroad. Opposition forces couldn’t have a better time now for a good partisan aim at the weakened regime.
ELECAM, Paul Biya’s new election management organ is a sham and could never deliver on its promise of free and fair elections.
To divert attention from the hogwash, Paul Biya cleverly, arrogantly filled ELECAM’s board with senior CPDM operatives in obvious violation of the law that stipulates neutrality.
That way he could then revise the appointments and win public applause for having harkened to the people. No doubt public outrage has not been wanting.
Still, the president took a risk. Barely controllable, the extent of the anger seems to have been more than expected. Opposition forces that had gone to sleep awakened, challenging not only the illegal appointments but also ELECAM itself as incapable of organising credible elections.
Albert Ngwana, leader of the little-known Cardinal Democratic Party wasted no time in summoning a press conference in Douala at which he called for the boycott of future ELECAM elections. Fru Ndi also echoed the appeal.
John Fru Ndi and his SDF also woke up from a slumber lasting more than a year. Fru Ndi and the SDF shocked the public with their absolute silence over the highly controversial constitutional revision for Biya’s term extension and other big issues last year.
Adamou Ndam Njoya also summoned his CDU party and used the occasion to take an aim at the disappointing ELECAM. Bernard Muna, even before his AFP party’s convention at the weekend, had castigated ELECAM in no uncertain terms.
As if the pounding was not enough the government has also had to cope with a scandal in which the newly appointed board chair of ELECAM Samuel Fonkam Azu’u is implicated. His signature was found on fraudulent travel warrants intended to facilitate illegal immigration. The culprits claimed they bribed him for the service.
Personal integrity
The scandal further raised questions about the personal integrity of not only Fonkam but also other board members, thus causing double damage to the perception and public acceptability of ELECAM.
Matters appear so bad that senior CPDM officials simply think that Fonkam, who is supposed to have tendered his resignation from the ruling party, should nevertheless be expelled from the party.
To these problems add last year’s highly controversial constitutional amendment intended to facilitate term extension for Paul Biya and the long relationship of abuse and mistrust between Yaounde and the Commonwealth. What you get is a potentially weakened regime.
Yaounde diplomats may not yet have commented on ELECAM since the year-end appointments but their disgust for Biya’s unending manoeuvring on this and other issues is no more hidden. They unveiled their feelings at the Cameroon-EU dialogue last July.
It was clear at the second session at Christmas that the European Union had lost enthusiasm in providing support funding for ELECAM due to the government’s inability to be transparent on it. The Commonwealth will also not find justification for funding ELECAM for the same reason of Paul Biya’s untrustworthiness as a partner.
There is a campaign already underway, spearheaded by Lord Avebury a member of the British House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British parliament. It is an error to underestimate the damage that Avebury’s campaign can do. He is addressing not only donor members of the Commonwealth but also powerful multilateral organisations like the EU.
We think the time is strategic now for Cameroon’s opposition forces to come together and cash in on the regime weakened by these developments and especially by the discomfiture of powerful foreign partners on whom it often depends for vital aid and validation.
In spite of their personal disagreements opposition leaders and parties share in a common disgust for the Yaounde regime. It is this common disgust that we suggest they should articulate and use as the centre of an international campaign.
For this purpose such a campaign should express outrage at the very idea of plans for mandate extension for Biya. There is, of course, no shortage of material for such a memo, given the well-known record of the government in almost every area of development.
The case is certainly very good and appealing. What it very much needs is the agreement and unity of the opposition. With the right will a two or three man committee can draft an all comprehensive memorandum, something of a charter of grievances against the Biya regime.
Mobilise partners
The aim should be to strongly mobilise Cameroon’s partners and the international community to prevail on Paul Biya to retire in 2011 and at the same time prepare the nation for a free and fair election for the popular election of the country’s next leader.
Signed by the leaders of the main political parties, such a memo should be marketed by a three or four-man delegation on a tour of European and US capitals to personally present it to appropriate authorities. Such a move is not totally new, having once taken place in 1991. Only the spirit will be new.
The point about going oneself is that the international community works on the premise that political change in any country is a matter for its citizens themselves. This is correct.
Such an action is in nature similar to the nationalist struggles that took place to bring about the granting of independence to African countries by colonial masters. Just imagine how long more independence would have waited without the pressure mounted on metropolitan authorities by strong and purposeful nationalists.
We take this opportunity to hail them all.The following come quickly to mind: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nnamndi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria; Sir Milton Margai of Sierra Leone, Ahmed Sekou Touré of Guinea, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania; Gamel Abdel Nassar of Egypt and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
We are convinced that any well-conducted campaign of this nature will yield miracle results. It will convince foreign partners of the will of Cameroonians at last to fight for the liberation of their country from the death clutch of Paul Biya’s unprogressive regime.
Furthermore such a concerted international campaign will also awaken and mobilise Cameroonians to rise up like one man to challenge the regime. Weakened by the docility of the opposition Cameroonians are forced to resign to their suffering and hardship inflicted on them by 26 years of failed policies.
Don’t be mistaken to think that such a move will not rock the Yaounde authorities and put them on the defensive, to say the least. You need to know how profoundly disturbed and shaken they were last week when Catholic prelates meeting at their conference in Maroua fired volleys of criticism at Yaounde.
Cameroon, they alerted the Pope dutifully, in view of the pontiff’s coming visit to Yaounde, is a nation in which all evils have been allowed to grow and flourish because of the culpable neglect and incompetence of its leaders.
The example of the bishops, limited as it is, is a useful indicator of the success that awaits a good challenge of the regime that thrives simply because it is left unchallenged. That challenge must now begin, not an armed campaign but good purposeful partisan action. Isn’t that what party politics is about? Let it begin.
Personal animosities
In the past personal animosities were so strong that opposition leaders preferred to abandon the strength that unity always brings. They thus gave away the victory that was clearly theirs.
The result is there for everyone to see. In 1992 in broad daylight the government stole the election from the presumed opposition winner. The rancour that had separated the leaders apart even prevented them from coming together to challenge the thief and recover the stolen victory.
What a shame, the baby was thrown away with the bath! The nation lost a golden opportunity to effect leadership change. The continued division and weakness of the opposition only helped the ‘lion man’ to continue to take advantage of that weakness and lord it over Cameroonians.
Isn’t it the logic of that domination and the corresponding helplessness of Cameroonians that led Paul Biya to conceive of remaining in power ‘till death do us part’, and why not afterwards? What a shame that not a single soul can lift a finger of protest and undertake good purposeful actions to bring the regime and its arrogance to its senses!
The question now is whether we are comfortable with Paul Biya’s undemocratic and unprogressive rule. Do we want the same impotence and indifference to continue? No matter how weak individual parties have become we still believe that they can cause the regime no small damage if only they will summon themselves together and deny Biya his arrogance and dictatorship.
We therefore plead with John Fru Ndi of the SDF; Adamou Ndam Njoya of the CDU; Bernard Muna of the AFP; Albert Ngwana of the CDP and as many of the other parties as possible to awaken to the failure of the past and rise above personality disagreements in order to fight the Biya regime. That is a task that must be done.
We urge Fru Ndi to consider SDF participation and initiative in this idea as unavoidable. The SDF remains Cameroon’s most important opposition party. It must not allow its shortcomings to deny it its critical role in the process of political change in Cameroon.
By the way Fru Ndi must see this as yet another opportunity to redeem the pledge he still owes Cameroonians to fight and never tire for political change in Cameroon.
This is the time. Let the opposition, in the wisdom of Shakespeare; take the tide now at flood in order to lead Cameroonians to good fortune.
Cameroon's government has routinely used killings and torture to repress political dissent, according to a new Amnesty International report.
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