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Cameroon |
TENSION
There’s tension in the Great North where a Memorandum accuses Biya
of ignoring the people living in this part of the country.
Indeed, there’s uproar as the 2004 presidential elections come closerDuring the last ten years, Cameroon has been busy trying to end the threat of secession by the South-East and North-East Provinces, both English-speaking. At the same time, since September 2002, there’s rumblings in Cameroon’s northern region — commonly called the Great North. This is a vast geographical entity consisting of three provinces: Adamaoua, the North and the Far North. According to UNDP statistics published in 2000, the Great North has a population of 4,575,000, plus 2,100,000 others scattered all over the south of the country. In other words, the Great North has 47% of Cameroon’s population.
Men and women from the «Great North», led by former ministers such as Dakolé Daïssala, Garga Haman Adji, Hamadou Moustapha, Issa Tchiroma, Sanda Oumarou, Antar Gassagaï, are now issuing threats to the government in Yaounde. They’ve sent a document entitled: «A Memorandum on the Great North’s Problems» to the authorities. The document’s tone towards President Paul Biya who has been in office since 1982 and is now campaigning in view of the 2004 presidential election, can best be described as «scathing». Here’s an example: «This document will give all Cameroonians who love peace and justice, the chance to judge for themselves to what depths the Biya government has now sunk. The present government is characterised by encouraging misinformation, corruption and cheating. All spurred on by hard heartedness, thus endangering the State, the Republic and the nation when faced with its very survival». All Cameroonians are invited: «to take to heart Cameroon’s future and their common destiny».
Reproaches
The Great North’s leaders condemn (among other things) the region’s under-representation within the State’s institutions. Vis à vis political institutions: Bénoué Administrative District (North Province — population 676,000), has four Members of Parliament (MP)s. Whereas Dja-et-Lobo, the President’s home administrative district — (population 138,000) has five MPs. If Bénoué were to have the same proportion of MPs per population, then it would have 24 sitting in the National Assembly. «This is clear discrimination» say the Great North’s leaders, «and to our way of thinking can in no way be called democracy».
The same situation prevails in the judiciary. There’s no Supreme Court Judge from the Great North; likewise there’s no-one from the Great North presiding in the Appeals’ Court. And although there are people from the Great North in the Government «all the crucial problems remain. They’re only in government to act as stooges». (Presently, six of the twelve Secretaries of State originate from the Great North).
Things aren’t much better in the administrative services. There are 100 senior presidential aides. Of these, only nine come from the Great North. Within the Ministry of Public Investments there’s no director of central services from the Great North. The same goes for the Ministry of Territorial Administration and the Foreign Ministry. As for the Health Ministry, there’s nobody from the Great North in senior positions in any of the country’s three referral hospitals; neither in the public health training centre. Since President Paul Biya took over as President, there’s never been anyone from the Great North in charge of the nation’s security services i.e. national security, border police, Special Branch, counter-intelligence. Apart from the Defense Minister and the President’s personal security chief, all the other people in charge of national security come from the Centre/South-East.
In another section of the Memorandum, the authors pin-point «the government’s indifference or lack of concern vis-à-vis the Great North’s problems. The government only seems to show some interest when the problems are over and done with». The authors insist that the Great North is an area where cholera epidemics are always taking place during the rainy season. And there are outbreaks of meningitis when it gets extremely hot. And what about available medical help? Nationwide, there’s one doctor for 14,730 inhabitants. In the Far North Province, there’s one doctor for 46,972 inhabitants; no surgeon, dentist or cardiologist; just one gynaecologist. The Memorandum’s authors also emphasise other facts and figures dealing with social problems such as drought and lack of education.
Reactions
The Government hasn’t reacted officially to the Memorandum in spite of an uproar from other Great North leaders. However, a high-powered delegation led by Marafa Hamidou Yaya, Minister of State in charge of Territorial Administration and Decentralization; Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, the National Assembly’s Speaker; together with other members of the Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (RDPC), the Government’s party —all originating from the Great North, did criss-cross the Great North’s three provinces for a week. They wanted to reassure the people that President Biya and the RDPC do firmly and unconditionally support them. All of which is in complete contradiction to the Memorandum. The government delegation asked the people to ignore the Memorandum’s contents.
However, there’s someone from the RDPC‘s central committee who has dared to speak out. In an brochure entitled: «The Great North’s Third Voice», he refers to the RDPC delegation as: «People who ought to have taken to heart the Great North’s cause, but who by their ambiguous behaviour, their irreducible conservatism and blindness, their prompt hypocrisy when it comes to espousing a position, have gone out of their way to prove their loyalty to President Biya». In his opinion, Mr. Biya should listen first of all to the ordinary voters in the Great North (as he should elsewhere in the country). He would then appreciate that the electorate is made up of poor peasants beset by poverty.
All this tension in the Great North as the 2004 presidential elections draw closer, means that the nation’s politicians, before they do anything else, are going to have to prove that they’re suitable candidates for high office. And don’t let’s forget that the voters are nearly 50% of the population.
- François-Xavier Eya, Cameroon, September 2003 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment