Who is funding the war against Boko Haram?

A new commerce has come and Cameroonians, in their habitual criminal intelligence are making brisk business.

The new business is for want of a better nomenclature, called, “Contributions or Fundraising to Support our Valiant Forces Fighting in the Far North Against the terrorist Islamic sect, Boko Haram.”

It is a new vent for criminally clever people to make fast money. At every twist and turn, the same people, friends and favoured ones of the King, are organising fund raisings purportedly for the soldiers and the people in the Far North. But part, if not all of it, is entering these con men’s private pockets.

The other day, it was Northwesterners who cried foul when their contribution of FCFA 80 million at a fundraising chaired by Prime Minister Philemon Yang was not acknowledged by the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakari, while the latter was announcing everything that had come in.

A few days ago, it was the Governor of the Littoral that complained bitterly that some people have been using the idea of raising funds to support the local people and the soldiers at the front, as a guise to raise money for their private pockets.

There have also been complaints by the rank and file at the war front, about their military bosses keeping most of the funds that have come in, so far, to themselves. They say they are laying their lives to defend citizens and the country’s territorial integrity, but their bosses are sitting in their cosy offices and feeding fat from the money.

Cameroonian authorities are noted for collecting money from poor citizens and never channelling such to their destination and or never rendering account for same.

Once upon a time, Professor Peter Agbor Tabi collected money from poor citizens for the establishment of national identity cards to enable them register for the 2011 Presidential elections, but President Biya, immediately after, decreed the issuing of the ID cards free of charge. Agbor Tabi has not accounted for the money so collected.

Yet, in spite of the decree sanctioning the ID cards gratis, identification officers kept collecting money from citizens before establishing the ID cards. That, however, is another matter.

Also, before the celebration of the Unification anniversary in Buea, former PM, Peter Mafany Musonge, championed a fundraising purportedly to support the Government for the entertainment of the local people and guests. But the people who contributed the money did not have any befitting entertainment and the money was not accounted for.

Another former PM, Simon Achidi Achu, once orgainised contributions dubbed ‘Operation Coup de Coeur’ to support the Lions at the World Cup in 1994 in the United States of America, but the money never reached the Lions.

Professor Augustine Kontchou Komegni later claimed, with no qualms, that the money ‘mysteriously disappeared’ between Paris and New York. Nobody was brought to book for that. The people do not know if CONAC has ever interrogated the people involved in order to bring them to book.

This kind of heist visited on the people by authorities can only happen in Cameroons. Nigeria has not collected money from citizens to fund the war against Boko Haram which is in its own backyard. Chad has not. Neither has Niger. It is their military budgets that are being used.

Nevertheless, it is a lofty idea if citizens decide to support their armed forces fighting and laying their lives so that citizens’ lives are protected.

The citizens should be hailed for supporting their military forces. But, for the very authorities that have, in the first place, impoverished the citizens through embezzlement and corruption, to collect such money and add on top of what they have misappropriated, is a seditious crime.

And yet, the recognition for that are rather going to the person who keeps appointing the few to continue robbing the State and the masses.

Since the Government added the price of drinks, I thought Cameroonians would reduce or even stop the consumption of beer and liquor.

They have not relented. It means you and I, who drink at least two bottles of beer every day, are contributing at least FCFA 200 every day to support the war against Boko Haram. Rather, the thanks are going to President Biya.

What Affects Part Of The Nation Affects The Whole I hope our brothers and sisters in the North will now realise that insecurity anywhere in a nation is insecurity everywhere - whether it is health insecurity, food insecurity or physical or psychological insecurity.

During the hunger riots of February 2008, that were a consequence of the increase in the price of petrol, leading to the increase in the price of food and basic commodities, culminating in food scarcity and hunger; the people in the North refused to join the popular uprising, claiming publicly that the petrol price hikes did not concern them because they get their own petrol but from Nigeria.

No one was brought to book for declaring that they were dealing in contraband petrol. Rather, at the same time, a police officer was renowned for persecuting other citizens down here in Buea and Victoria for dealing in the Zua-zua from Nigeria.

If our brothers in the North had joined the hunger strike, even just for solidarity, maybe the results would have been different. Maybe it would have caused the powers-that-be to change their mind and reduce the price of petrol and the prices of commodities would have dropped.

Maybe, just maybe, it would have changed like it happened in Burkina Faso; for the good of all and everyone.

Today, the fight against Boko Haram has not affected the southern part of the country, but the people in this part of the country have demonstrated solidarity by contributing money to help them up there. What if the people here in the southern part of the country, also did, as they said and acted in 2008, by going about their business normally, because it does not affect them...?

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