Background of ruin XV

How wonderful it is to be back again with our series, ‘Background of Ruin’ and, in this edition, I am indicting our country’s police unit for gross theft, neglect of function, highhandedness, partiality, nepotism and corruption.

No need to use as observed evidence the many illegal revenue collection points set up randomly almost everywhere in this country and no need to mention the fact that security checks and police control points, if at all they are mounted, come about only to give our uniform guys reasons to make superfluous money.

As I travelled to Kwakwa Bakundu recently, hale and hearty policemen lined up along the tattered roads, not to do security checks, but to collect a fixed amount from commercial bike riders and drivers of cargo vehicles. An informant around Ekombe Mbonji told me that the policemen camping on this road line leading to Mbonge and connecting other local places like Three Corners Bekondo, make not less than FCFA 40,000 a day.

To my greatest displeasure, it has been alleged that even the authorities along this stretch have approved of this conspiracy. How can this country get better when powerful men congregate to put barricades on the way of those who must ‘swim’ inside mud before they can ever make some money for garri? In places that have become settlement configurations, policemen do checks to add their monthly remunerations - the salt of others’ most righteous tears.

Now, Boko Haram is threatening and again the safety and health of the whole nation is being undervalued and it is an open secret that, because of acts of thievery, the police that should be for the people and by the people and even of the people, is experiencing the pangs of despised love of their people because of laws delayed or not well executed and also because of the insolence of office and the spurns of unworthy takes.

Let the Government know that when they demand too much as tax from motorcycle riders, who know they are supposed to register and comply with regulations, injustice is done and people do no wrong when they look for other means to dodge Government’s obnoxious tax policies.

While bike riders grunt sadly and perspire under a weary life on those bad roads around Mbonge as they try to connect the whole country to other undiscovered places, they carry within them much paranoia for this country’s policemen who are well known as men who always seek the kind of comfort that brings tears. And no one, not even Paul Biya, seems to be disturbed by the clamours of these young Cameroonians who, in a difficult way, try to do things that put them off wrongdoing.

Because of this endless desire for more, like Oliver Twist, allegations have also been made that if clearly proven beyond reasonable doubt, will clearly illustrate how some police units cooperate with high way robbers. It is a fact that when policemen leave school with a ravenous desire to get money just from anyone with the slightest motif, nothing can stop them from conniving with criminals.

The police need to reconcile with the so many they have hurt and beg the pardon of the whole people for setting a very poor pattern, especially at this time when genuine Cameroonians have been serious with the fight against bribery and corruption. As they embark on their task of bringing about public order and security, they must do their work well, rewarded or unrewarded, in rain or shine and at sun up and sundown and also strive to give back to the police force, as a whole, the good name it deserves.

Cameroonians want to see changed voices and not hunters hunting their own people with hunts up; when all are singing songs against bribery, our uniform men ought to join the choir and stop singing out of tune, bringing forth unpleasant sounds and straining harsh discords. If the police remain envenomed in foul practice, their reputation will be lost forever and always, they will be remembered as men who get drunk occasionally.

As it appears, the police are now bearing the whips and scorns of Cameroonians because they have, hitherto, been missing the great pulsations of their purpose, bending over to the enticements of profiteering and enslaved in the domineering root of self-enslavement.

For the police to be truly our friends once again, they ought to help preserve the rights of all Cameroonians and render each man the respect that is his due. So far, their work has been quite poorly done and they neglect the practice of solidarity. All Cameroonians must be allowed to work in peace in their fatherland, so, policemen must be careful with the way they treat drivers and other road users. Our national motto and also the seventh commandment of the Christian God forbid selfish, ideological or tyrannous acts that cause the enslavement of human beings, to their being used by fellowmen as slaves [for truly, road side policemen who have made bribery a virtue are only reaping where they did not sow].

It is a sin against the dignity of persons and their personal rights to reduce vehicle or motorcycle drivers by violence to their productive value. The approach of policemen is morally unacceptable, even if these drivers are unauthorised, they must be treated with love and respect, first of all as Cameroonians who, in their work as drivers, are only trying to exercise and fulfil in part, their potential as human beings and again, they should be treated with love because, like all men, they are also trying to draw from work the means of providing for their lives and that of their families and using their economic initiative to serve humanity.

Efforts should be made by the authorities to end the conflicts of interest between policemen and drivers and transport officials must know today that a system that subordinates the basic rights of fellowmen is contrary to human dignity. Every practice that relegates and brings low a particular group of men, making them appear as mere nothings or sees them only as a means of realising more money, enslaves man and leads also to the idolising of money.

This disordered desire for money that has tiptoed slowly and gained solid momentum within the police force in Cameroon cannot but produce perverse effects that will inescapably disturb the social order before too long.