FECAFOOT Elections: Diffusing a time bomb

If football philosophers in Cameroon are struggling to become national assets or treasures, then, finding the right specimen of a true FECAFOOT President can be a very dreary exercise.

Running for the post of Executive President of the country’s local football association has become dramatically sensitive. The exercise is branded with the volume of importance a Ministerial portfolio carries, and so arouses attention in high profile quarters because one nasty move is capable of causing enormous security bridges in the whole country.

So much water has been flowing under FECAFOOT’S troubled bridge, but stubbornly refusing to sweep away the debris left by the Iya Mohamed dynasty, which, today, is on a crusade to impose its never-ending looting creed.

In a system where the privileged bend rules to suit their egos and stretch the people’s patience to breaking point, one can only but muster enough elephant skin to accustom the effects. Football’s World Governing Body, FIFA, evidently made a timely intervention to harness what would have continued a disgusting litany of a masquerade of an election exercise.

It would have been practically immoral to have paraded only one candidate to stand for the post of President after five others had been declared unfit for the race.

That charade was announced with an important dose of shamelessness, crafted with the same Iya machinery, and perfecting the football mafia chain that rumbles on with devastating effects. It is unimaginable that only one candidate for the post was made available by the Normalisation Committee, now becoming infamous for its insatiable appetite for power, thus reluctant to vacate the Federation.

The immorality deepens when one considers that the Committee’s lone candidate is an administrative staff of the structure. How would the candidate, organise the elections from the Divisions to the Regions and then stand as Presidential candidate? Certainly, the battle of resistance to this pyramid of disgrace, put up by the likes of Bell Joseph Antoine, Jules Frederick Nyongha, Pene Robert and Atah Robert did well to raise Government attention to, in turn, recommend FIFA’s intervention to put forward the elections.

The political gimmicks that abound in FECAFOOT follows a certain sit-tight pattern and focuses on the policy of exclusion. The unfortunate trend is that insiders, who, themselves are players, simply make it impossible for opponents to meet up with the challenges of composing a comprehensive list, and so concentrate the game on themselves.

The Normalisation’s modus operandi had simply angered its opponents that the possibilities of deep and devastating skirmishes on the planned Election Day could not be ruled out. The sorry thing in it is that most of those involved in the fight are more interested in the money football generates than the true interest in developing the game.

A survey of the election exercises which took place in the various Regions, simply speaks of the acute shortage of dignity. Some candidates transformed themselves into punching bags; others got flogged by the forces of law and order, many traded insults to public hearings, which was typical with the elections in Douala, where the Normalisation had the greatest opposition.

The postponement should be able to repair the damages that have been constructed by the Normalisation Committee, especially if more sane minds are introduced in the process. The race track should be cleared and rendered pliable for contestants. And all the current warring parties should be eliminated from the race to make way for more neutral and new faces.

However, the Normalisation Committee has gained another extension, much to the relief of its departing members; but this should be an illustration of the Committee’s failures. If for over a year the Committee was unable to meet up with its road map, then, it simply failed.

Three more months added to its mandate may not do much and it may require an added effort with Government or FIFA’s muscle to run the elections which have now been scheduled for next February. We are waiting anxiously when they next take a deep into their repertoire of antics.