Last Monday, a group of resentful teachers from the Littoral Region encamped in front of the Prime Minister’s office, protesting what they said was unfair treatment in a recruitment exercise that they were supposed to be immediate beneficiaries.
Even with placards flying high in the air to the eyes of the Prime Minister as he walked in and out of his office for the four days they sat there, the PM made little or no attempt to have them in audience to listen to their grievances. It wasn’t until Friday, – fought day of the protest that an envoy of the PM finally consulted with the protesters before referring them to the Ministry of Basic Education.
That the Prime Minister allowed these teachers – not beggars, squat in front of his office for four solid days without common courtesy of consulting with them, begs us at the Cameroon Journal to question whether PM Yang is truly the Head of Gov’t that the regime in Cameroon wants everybody to believe.
In Cameroon, the idea of PM being head of gov’t stems from the fact that he’s bestowed with powers to hire and fire at will, any misbehaving or incompetent ministers and or administrators. But from recent events, it does appear that title – ‘Head of Gov’t,’ is mere window dressing in Cameroon. Never in Cameroon has any Prime Minister hired or fired a Minister – NEVER! Not even a director – it always comes down to some Presidential decree.
The Minister of Basic Education, going by the definition of the powers of the PM, is supposedly the PM’s appointee. Yet, when these poor teachers came protesting the treatment they get from their ministry, it took them four days and nights sleeping on concrete in front of the PM’s office for him to listen to them.
The Cameroon Journal asks, what was so difficult for the PM picking up his phone to tell the Minister of Basic Education, ‘look, you must address the grievances of these teachers,’ then as a gentleman who understands the plight of other workers, walk down to the protesters and say to them, ‘I feel your pain and I have demanded that the Minister of Basic Education take you in audience and address your problems?”
That is how a responsible and skillful administrator could have handled the problem.
Succeeding PMs in Cameroon have demonstrated again and again that they’re never fully in charge. Consider the recruitment scandal that rocked the International Relations Institute recently – when students who didn’t pass its entrance exam were placed ahead of those who passed. Our Prime Minister, “Head of Gov’t” so called, could not act to save the reputation of the Institute and the country. It took President Biya returning from a foreign trip to address the situation.
The other day at recruitment into the Police force, another scandal – what many described as a set-up for Anglophones to fail, was again witnessed. A pro-active PM who feels really in charge would have come out swinging at the conduct of the exam as dished out to residents from another part of the country – but he did nothing still.
If the Cameroon Prime Minister is truly Head of Gov’t and yet doesn’t have the effrontery and clout to step up and address trifling issues such as these, of what benefit or use is that office?
Why can’t our PMs for once be independent? Why can’t he take care of simple things without having to ask or wait for instructions from the President?
As we criticize PM Yang, we cannot claim to be ignorant of the fact that he isn’t the real problem here. The real problem is the system – the President. If he wants things done they will be done. But the system has to change and our Prime Ministers truly imbued with the powers and functionalities we are told they have.
