95% Of Cmr’ian youth want Biya out of office - Report

Ninety-five percent of Cameroonian youths between the ages of 18 and 35 want a regime change in the country, according to the findings of a research document made public recently by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

The research carried out by philosophy professor Eboussi Boulaga and Ernest Nkolo Ayissi titled “Youths and Politics in Cameroon: What Perspectives for What Participation”, found that over 70% of Cameroonian youths are of the opinion that no business can succeed in Cameroon without involvement in politics, while 30.3% of young Cameroonians feel very strongly that politics is the exclusive preserve of a certain class of people in society.

“If a large majority of the youths who are supposed to be the leaders of tomorrow think only the politically involved can succeed in business and that only 30% of the population has the opportunity to get politically involved, then what this study shows is that Cameroonian youths feel there is no future for them in this country. And this accounts for why most of them, especially university graduates want to migrate in search for greener pastures elsewhere”, opines sociologist AkumeAkume Georges.

The study reveals that 50.2% of young Cameroonians strongly hold that the powers of government and especially the head of state should be subordinate, linked and dependent on the legislature and the judiciary, while 38% of them think the gap between the promulgation of laws and their execution which depends on the whims and caprices of the head of state, is a political gambit put in place by government in order to circumvent the proper application of the laws of the land.

Elections have been the main flashpoint in the African political dispensation and 54.5% of the Cameroonian youths feel that only an Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) can guarantee free, transparent and just elections, the study found. The research which was conducted in six of the ten regions of Cameroon namely the Southwest, Northwest, Far North, East, Centre and Littoral involved interviewing 650 youths in each of the regions.

According to Prof. EboussiBoulaga, the research was intended to “make a situational analysis of the perceptions and attitudes of youths concerning politics as well as their actual engagement or non engagement potentials. It was aimed above all at determining their perceptions and attitudes concerning the values, the institutions as well as their actual implication” in them.

In spite of the negative perception Cameroonian youths have of politics and politicians, 30% of them were of the opinion that they would want to be involved in politics if the system were giving adequate attention to youth problems. 27.1% said their main preoccupation would be the employment of youths while 13.3% felt youths should be given the opportunities to become more responsible in society.

The authors of the research have concluded that in order to avoid violent confrontations which must come when they must come, the anxieties, aspirations and wishes of the youths must be given the consideration they deserve before things get out of hand. “Faced with the conditions posed by the youths, it is necessary to look into them, protect them from extortion, exclusion and exploitation”, the research advises, adding that the “youth factor” must obligatorily be included in all actions at all levels as “a considerable segment of the population”.

If the findings of the research were to be true, and there is no reason to doubt them, then it is almost certain that most election results in Cameroon have not been a true reflection of the wishes of the Cameroonian masses because more than 60% of the population of Cameroon falls within the ages of 18 and 35.