The Supreme Court of Cameroon sitting last Tuesday threw out the appeal by former minister Titus Edzoa and his business acolyte Thierry Michel Atangana challenging a
judgment by the Mfoundi High Court which sentenced them to 20 years in prison in 2012 for the embezzlement of public funds linked to the management of road contracts.
The panel of judges, led by Mr Justice Marc Ateba Omballa who incidentally is also the President of the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court, confirmed the 20-year sentence on the two defendants. Barely hours after the judgment, two foremost French media with a worldwide audience - Radio France Internationale and France 24 - almost unanimously, have been awash, not with the news, but with contemptuous commentaries betraying a blatant ignorance of the functioning of the Cameroonian judicial system.
The same media has been steadfast in its condemnation of the handling of this common law issue and the insidious campaign has thrown confusion in the minds of those following the case from elsewhere because, at no moment has these media organs taken the pains to explain the reasons for which these people were brought before the court. Rather, the media has rested its coverage on peripheral issues, neglecting the substance.
Moreover, the nationality of one of the accused has become a major concern virtually neglecting the fact that the issue at hand has to do with embezzlement of public funds for which many other Cameroonians and managers of public funds are being called upon to render account. All along, Cameroon Tribune and its reporters have always upheld the independence of the judiciary and in various writing forms, tried to promote that sacrosanct principle. It is therefore an obligation on every young reporter joining the editorial team to adhere to this position without reserve.
If we today are commenting on a court sentence, it is simply because our country's entire system is being put to ridicule by a foreign country and, like a dumb ox which we have tried to be all along in due respect for the laws our country freely put in place and which have been respected all this while, we cannot fail to bellow so that the international community too can hear and make meaning of the entire process, rather than sacrificing the facts in place of the fable. For this is essentially what this campaign is about.
Take a random examination of some of the issues the French press has taken exception to. One: Is it fair to question the fairness of the Cameroonian judicial system simply because a French national has a case to answer? Is it fair that Mr. Atangana evoked his French "citizenship" status only when he found himself in the dragnet of those with a case to answer?
Is it fair to make a selective choice of cases when it is known that there are hundreds of cases of embezzlement and other corrupt practices in regularly constituted courts?
Is it wrong for an independent country to wage a war against corrupt citizens? Has France not joined its voice to other members of the international community to see Cameroon rid itself of corruption? Are the charges made against those standing trial today not legally backed and justifiable? Does Mr Atangana, for the sheer fact that he has French nationality, exculpate him from answering the charges laid before him?
Are these the first-ever sentences being meted out from a Cameroonian court? Is Cameroon an independent country in the eyes of France? Has the French media even as much as cared for the reason why these accused were sentenced? Cameroon is obviously a Third World country without the necessary means and influence in getting to mass audiences around the world; but one shared value in this new world of globalization is the truth.
The media in France cannot hide the truth in the name of some strange kind of paternalism which every meaning Cameroonian had come to believe was gone with independence and the voting into office of successive governments in France with seemingly avowed goals of shrugging off imperialistic and condescending attitudes towards former colonies or possessions.
It will not be excessive in the present circumstances to imagine that many people in France, especially at the decision-making levels, still consider Cameroon with the nostalgia of liking it to a French government outpost. If the questions asked above are correctly answered by the French media, thence shall we believe that they are out for the truth rather than for the fable.
