I read Paul Biya’s New Year speech and since then have been resisting a response my guts wanted to spill out. I have worked out a compromise to reach a restrained version that I can share with you. It would have been better for me not to have read the speech but then I could not resist to read what someone planted by the French enemy to take care of enemy business among his own people will tell the people at the end of the year when good people and organizations are taking time out to reflect on the past year and refocus to do better in the new year starting. I must tell you that I was not surprised.
Paul Biya in his New Year speech told the people of la République du Cameroun (LRC) that he and his gang of French hired agents representing French colonial interests in that colonial state did well in 2005:
a) They paid salaries and pensions on time. What an accomplishment.
b) They also paid outstanding domestic debts and contained price hikes. Incredible! Does this mean they actually redeemed and stopped paying rents/salaries to people whose houses/labor they have taken for years with fiscal stamps, bonds etc. etc., or does it simply mean they just passed out more pieces of papers, without the consent of the receivers, and with no recourse if they do not like it or ever get paid?
c) They said, “while our growth rate has somewhat dwindled and business has been rather sluggish … our future is secured." Only in Françafrique.
Jacques Chirac once said the only things Africans need to worry about is food and medicine. Well, Dr. Paul Biya must have scored an A+ to him for his performance in the year 2005 and may actually qualify for a bye year in 2006 where he’ll do nothing.
After 24 years, sitting on his high horse, on high ground, watching his own people toil in muddy disease infested fields for the Frenchman, Mr. Biya, a whip in hand and a gun in his holster, declares at the end of 2005 that “we pursued the consolidation of the rule of law.” His field hands must be asking whose law he’s talking about. But the answer is not hard to find. It is the law that allows him to promise “decentralization” for 10 years at the end of which he declares it to be “entering its implementation phase.” Great progress.
“Our domestic system is improving from day to day,” the man boldly declares” Mr. President, the system of colonialism cannot be improved. Paying peoples their earned salaries and pensions is not improvement. Well, except in Françafrique. That is why “security” will “remain a cause for concern” in yours and any other French colonial states for a while. The security concerns of LRC are like the security concerns faced by apartheid South Africa not too long ago and Nazi-occupied France. They will not end until you and your kind are gone for good, forever.
When plantation economies talk of progress, they are talking in terms of “improving the living conditions” of their field hands. It is the progress envisaged by slave masters and colonialists. Mr. Biya in that tradition, using almost the same words in the 21st century, is all about that kind of progress. These slave drivers are only about providing sustenance to maintain the workhorse in working condition and “security” to make sure the free labor is always there and secured. So the promise made by Mr. Biya in his New Year speech that “all will be done to preserve the peace and stability,” is a promise to preserve peace and stability at the bottom of human achievement for the people of LRC, closer to animals than civilized human society where thinking out of the box and challenging the status quo is a mark of a vibrant and progressive society.
“I will be revisiting this issue in the future,” Mr. Biya promises his people. The issue is his concern for security. He can revisit it as many times as he wants, but like slavery, colonialism and apartheid they have no future and when the time comes the only thing he and his accomplices will be revisiting will be the fear under whose grip they now live.
The efforts that truly pay off, Mr. President is not what your so-called government “concludes with the international financial institutions” but what you conclude with your own people. It is not the commitments you make to these foreign institutions but the commitments you make to your people that count for them to take initiatives that depend on your joint efforts to do what it takes to succeed in facing the challenges that face you all. That is how these so-called international institutions get what you enslave your own people and capital to get from them. What you are selling your soul to get from foreigners is right there at home, just let go your seductions and you’ll see how foolish you have been.
The ones to encourage not to “relent’ their “efforts” should be the people (common people, not government) because they are the only creative force in LRC. They are the only ones who can produce that which they consume. You are urging people in government, in the administration, and public and semi public enterprises to “mobilize.” No, these people do not produce anything at all. If anything will be produced in LRC it will be the private sector, which you did not even mention in your speech by name. That is who you need to “mobilize” and challenge so that they can take you to “sail through” not only “the remaining hurdles but actually catch up with the rest of humanity and become a contributing population, a contributing country, and a contributing race in the world; away from the bottom and from being a dependent ratio where others hold conferences (G8) wondering how to help. How do you feel, as an African, when other humans hold conferences, without even inviting you, to decide how to help you survive, not catch up with the rest of the world, but survive? How do you feel when you introduce yourself somewhere out there as the president of la République du Cameroun? Do you know and care what images come to their minds? Do you even know what those people think when you just show your black face? Do you care.
You can develop a long-term development program and turn the tide and revive growth, Mr. President, because there was a time when the world came to Timbuktu in Africa for what was cutting age. Your growth should not be limited to agricultural output, for animals too do produce agricultural output just as well as we do without knowing and without thinking about it. African peoples have the potential to go high- tech and fly Africans to lands where no man has gone before.
If we Africans look to ourselves, organize our society to bring out the best that is already in us, our future will be made brighter, not by “Lom Pangar, Nachtgal, Memveele and Colomines dams and power station projects” but by what our people will do to better all of our lives. I agree with you that “we should stop wasting time,” not to implement these pet projects, but to let our people go. When we let them go they would use all of their talents and resources to develop more than aluminum, chemical and ship building industries that will be artificially planted by French colonial enterprises to exploit them. They would build industries that are relevant to their lives and reflect the talents and abilities God gave them to then “go and multiply.”
The drawbacks to our peoples development, Sir, are not just “government lack of determination to succeed,” but governments inability to succeed where it has no ability at all. Any government that is truly the government of the people by the people is only as good as the people themselves. The government of America does not produce anything; not arms and not the food that it gives free of charge all over the world. Private American firms built by American citizens produce the arms and the goods and services that make the American government a superior force in the world. The corruption that you complained about (you should be complaining because you lead it) in your country is more a sign of a people trapped in poverty and wasted abilities and lives without a way out other than banditry, than a sign of bad and incapable people specially created by God for your country. NO.
The drain on the wealth of your country and the humanity of your people, Mr. President, comes from your government, planted by the French and what it has done to your people and our people in the Southern Cameroons. It is intolerable especially as a part of our population and must be destroyed by all means. The National Employment Fund, the promotion of self-employment, assistance to SME/SMI (whatever that means) or the professionalization of education (you mean colonial education) will undoubtedly lead to no improvement in a situation that is more than worrying, it is unacceptable.
The answer to your country and its peoples’ problems lie in fighting French colonization and dislodging its African agents like you who are planted to give them cover from a world that has rejected and criminalized the colonization of one people by another. This will free up the people of your country and their talents to do for themselves what other people in other countries have done for themselves to improve themselves.
Finally, the rest of Africa must make sure people like you are never again allowed to speak any where Africans speak, for you are the African who caught and sold his fellow African into slavery, and you are the African chief who gave his people away for a mirror, to look at his ugly face for all the remaining days of his miserable life. I say your people because ours, the people of the Southern Cameroons, have crossed the Rubicon.
Augustine Ambe
Secretary of Media & Communication
Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG)
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New Year 2006: President Biya Addresses the Nation
Fellow Cameroonians,
My dear compatriots,
As I told you a year ago on the same occasion, a few weeks into the current seven year term, we were going to put order in certain sectors of government activity before proceeding to the implementation of our “greater achievements” programme.
Accordingly, we gave priority to restoring our fiscal balance. There was a need to improve revenue collection and better control expenditure, without however crippling our economy. To a certain extent, this has been achieved, thereby enabling us to carry through our recovery programme concluded with the IMF for the first half of this year.
Of course, I am well aware that this stringent policy has not been good news for everyone. Enterprises which rightfully complained about energy shortages and contraband also deplored the tax burden. However, the government was able to find favour with the majority of the population by paying salaries and pensions on time, expediting the settlement of outstanding domestic debts and containing price hikes as much as possible. While our growth rate has somewhat dwindled and business has been rather sluggish, the expected outcomes have essentially been achieved and our future secured.
Similarly, we pursued the consolidation of the rule of law. We now have a penal code which is better tailored to our contemporary realities. Our Audit Bench will soon be operational and decentralization is entering its implementation phase. In short, our domestic system is improving from day to day.
In spite of the laudable efforts of our forces of law and order, which have yielded unquestionable results, security remains a cause for concern. It is a knotty issue affecting all societies. It is very close to our heart and rest assured that we will spare no effort to resolve it.
As I have often told you, political democracy and economic growth are not an end in itself. They must be backed by social progress. That is why we are pursuing substantive efforts to strengthen our educational system, improve our health system, develop our road infrastructure, extend our water and electricity distribution networks and embark on social housing programmes. The outcome of this policy which seeks to improve the living conditions of the population and which has become our priority are already visible in our urban and rural areas.
This is certainly not enough. It never will be! We will therefore pursue the fight against poverty so that our people, who have sacrificed so much, may at long last hope for a better life.
Similarly, all will be done to preserve the peace and stability which our country is enjoying and without which there can be no progress. I will be revisiting this issue in the near future.
Does this mean that our suffering is over? Not at all. However, our efforts paid off a few weeks ago as we concluded a promising three-year programme for the period 2005 – 2008 with the international financial institutions. If we honour the commitments that we have made, we will probably be able to reach the famous completion point of the HIPC initiative in 2006.
This is not therefore the time to relent our efforts. I urge all those who are concerned, in government, in the administration and public and semi-public enterprises, to mobilize so that we can sail through the remaining hurdles.
Of course, this does not spare us from implementing our long-term development programme in order to turn the tide and revive growth.
We have a huge agricultural potential. Yet, the production of our cash crops such as coffee and cocoa is stagnant. We only need to develop our food crops since there is a market for them. It is high time we embarked on such a major agricultural policy for which we are well equipped.
Similarly, we have the requisite raw materials for an innovative and diversified agro-industry, notably in the wood, cotton and plantain processing sectors. The projects are there. They just need to be implemented.
We have been facing severe energy crisis over the last few years whereas our hydroelectric potential is one of the highest in Africa. Fortunately, after a trying period, the future seems to be brighter with the Lom Pangar, Nachtgal, Memveele and Colomines dam and power station projects, as well as the Kribi gas plant. We should stop wasting time. Let us implement these projects.
Our mineral resources and geographical position are asserts of the development of an ambitious industrial policy in the aluminium, chemical and ship building areas. We have the instruments with ALUCAM, SONARA and the Limbe Shipyard. The projects under discussion or implementation give room for some optimism. And this could be just the beginning considering the possibilities of exploiting our bauxite, iron ore, limestone, gas and cobalt deposits.
I can see only two possible drawbacks to our momentum.
The first relates to the inefficiency of some of the government services dealing with these issues. It is not their competence that is called into question but their lack of determination to succeed. Notwithstanding the prescriptions of their roadmaps, they are often content with red tape or indulge in personal conflicts or conflicts of authority. The lack of projects and very low rate of credit consumption are the most common results of such behaviour. This must change as it is a clear impediment to our development.
But, there is something more serious. I am referring to corruption which I have often denounced but which is still rife. There is a clear mismatch between our effort to alleviate poverty and the scandalous enrichment of a few individuals. Public funds are embezzled, it should be recalled, at the expense of the nation. I want t say very solemnly today: This must stop. The National Agency for Financial Investigation was setup for that purpose. I expect it to perform its duty without complacency.
Such a drain on national wealth is intolerable especially as part of our population, particularly the unemployed, are still suffering hardships. State action, through the National Employment Fund, the promotion of self-employment, assistance to SME/SMI or the professionalization of education will undoubtedly lead to some improvement in a situation that is worrying.
However, this cannot be a final solution to a problem affecting both the structure and the functioning of our economy.
Obviously, the answer lies in renewed growth. We have been working relentlessly toward this objective. By rehabilitating public finances and carrying through a number of structural reforms, we are building the foundation of our new economy. Reaching the completion point of the HIPC initiative should, as I have said, relieve us of the crippling debt burden. The major projects I mentioned, some of which are nearing conclusion, will generate all types of activities and certainly create new jobs. This will afford our youth, and especially our graduates, opportunities to put their knowledge to use and build a promising professional future.
Fellow Cameroonians,
My dear compatriots,
My conviction – which I want you to share – is that we have embarked on a sound process which should eventually enable us to carry out the transformation of our economy which is a prerequisite for modernity. To complete the process, the Government needs the support of all Cameroonians from all walks of life. Success in our great enterprise will be that of the entire Nation and also of each and every one of you.
I believe I can count on you.
At this juncture, I would like to extend to you my best wishes for good health and happiness in the New Year.
Happy and prosperous New Year 2006!
