by Sylvester Tetchiada, Cameroon, December 1997.
THEME = POLITICS
Paul Biya called upon to declare his assets
Article 66 of the Constitution, promulgated by President Paul Biya on 18 January 1996, states that "the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, members of the government and officials must declare their goods and assets, both before and after their term of office".
On the 12 October 1997, the President was re-elected (wrongly) for another seven years. When he came to take his oath of office, The Committee For The Release Of Citizen Titus Edzoa (COLICITE) (1), wrote an open letter to the presidents of the National Assembly and of the Supreme Court. In both these letters, attention was drawn to the above mentioned Art.66, demanding that President Paul Biya be made to declare his personal financial situation before starting his next seven years' stint as President.
This letter provided Cameroonians with matter for endless debate on whether "the President will agree to declare his assets". Led by the well-known writer, Mungo Beti, COLICITE's members won't be satisfied with an ambiguous answer. "Since the Constitution is our country's basic law, no citizen can evade it, least of all the President".
In its letter upholding human rights, COLICITE calls upon all Cameroonians and the International Community as witnesses, if the President of the Republic fails to declare his assets at the start of his new term of office. That term, in effect, began on Monday 3 November 1997, when he was sworn in.
Some think COLICITE has made a mistake in writing to these two highly-placed officials. Not only are the presidents of the National Assembly and the Supreme Court themselves affected by the terms of Article 66 of the Constitution, but in addition they have often shown what can only be described as a "disgraceful loyalty" towards Paul Biya.
In his speech opening the Second Ordinary Session of the National Assembly, Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, didn't hesitate to present Paul Biya to Members as "a providential miracle-worker, preoccupied by the constant care of keeping intact the republic's institutions". Djibril is a prominent member of the Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (RDPC).
Be that as it may, hasn't Biya himself, who has never missed the chance to lecture his compatriots on the necessity of respecting the law, caught himself out?
Everyone's convinced that during the 15 years he's been President, (he became President on 6 November 1982), Paul Biya has managed to amass a vast fortune, making him one of the richest living Cameroonians. In it's issue of 22 May 1997, the French weekly L'Evénement du Jeudi, in a special report "Africa, the hit-parade of hidden fortunes", put Biya's fortune at 45 billion CFA francs, while Yaounde's weekly Perspectives, recently called him "a haughty braggart".
According to L'Evénement du Jeudi, Biya has exploited the Law of Finances, which, right up to 1994, stipulated that "the President can, in case of need, levy and allocate by decree to a special account, outside the budget, all or part of the profits of State enterprises". Brilliant!
That incriminating arrangement has allowed Paul Biya to turn petro- dollars to his own advantage. From 1988 to 1993, 2.3 billion french francs, (230 billion CFA francs) have disappeared; likewise, through tax evasion, 20 billion french francs (2,000 billion CFA francs) have been spirited out of Cameroon between 1983 and 1993. These are enormous sums of money. And from 1994 to 1997, who knows?
The President is said to own an 18-hole golf course at Mvomeka'a (his Gbadolite), as well as idyllic mansions in France and Germany, notably at Baden-Baden. This was alleged last May in the magazine L'Expression by Professor Edzoa Titus, who called him the richest man in Cameroon. Edzoa should know what he is talking about, since he was Biya's former close colleague and had regularly attended to his property acquisitions.
To this must be added the investments made by the former director (now in exile in Canada) of the Cameroon Bank (SCB) which became the SCB-CL (the Commercial wing of Credit Lyonnais), after the SCB's liquidation/ reorganisation. In a long interview in Jeune Afrique Economie in 1992, he accused President Biya and his family of destroying the bank of which he was in charge. He had evidence supporting his accusations.
Paul Biya, about to start his seven-years term, will have a direct grip on a reality built on poverty and misery. He has never missed the chance to appear as law-abiding. Is he now prepared to show he's being questioned, to boot, on a fundamental point, deriving from a Constitutional clause?
NOTA - (1) Titus Edzoa, held in detention at the Ministry of Defence (National Gendarmerie), was Paul Biya's close colleague, from the time Biya took over as President in 1982. Edzoa was first of all personal physician to Paul Biya, then became Minister attached to the Presidency. In 1992 he was appointed Minister of Higher Education. In 1994 he became Secretary-General of the Presidency leaving it at the beginning of 1997 when he became Minister of Public Health. On 15 April 1997, he resigned and announced his candidature for the October presidential elections. It was then that the repressive government machinery began to turn against him. He was accused of diverting public money, sentenced to 15 years in jail and fined 350 million CFA francs.
END
PeaceLink 1998 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement