Cameroon’s popularity seems to be spreading, and from a distance, this country seems attractive, but it is a meretricious fact that it has no real value for the so many youths resisting invincible unemployment; many of who circumstances have conspired against and now function as hawkers, notwithstanding the degrees and diplomas they have earned from the best institutions in our country.
The papas and mamas, who once before put their whole faith on President Paul Biya, are now licking their wounds today as they have been anathematised by the delusion, fictions and scenes of disgust, frustration and infamy in the Biya Government.
In these few lines, it is my object to tell the sad story of Cameroon, so that, in future, people will comprehend these mournful listings, as a story of deluders on the one hand and deluded people on the other hand; a story of crimes without punishment, committed by our ruling men who are still free and never to be trapped and of punishment without crimes, endured by those who now believe that it is meaningless to be called Cameroonians.
Since God made heaven and earth, politicians in Cameroon have always not failed to adorn our understanding with imagery of progress, and for Biya, whose wedding to Chantal Biya on April 23, 1994, was to symbolise his commitment to Cameroonians, he too has been filling the people with sumptuous, marvellous and splendid appearances and has never stopped to give the international community the false notion that Cameroon for now is a State which spends its days in banqueting, binge drinking and song.
What we have achieved in reality is the progress of delusion and, symmetrically, we have also achieved the delusion of progress. Ethics lets us understand that the common good is so vital and each citizen must keep watch over any possible discord with the common good.
That is all what we have been trying to do, calling on the many deluded people of our country to open their eyes and see that we are enjoying only false glories; glories that only appear to be palatable.
The progress and growth of Cameroon, like unreal shades, is far from concrete and each time we have tried to embrace the much talk about development, our arms have returned empty to our breasts.
A lot of false principles and philosophies have been applied here in Cameroon so much so that it now seems right to exchange what is good and just for what subjectively brings pleasure, and in the end, it has become difficult for almost all our top ranking men to act other than for their own advantage. The law of egocentricity has absorbed almost all Cameroonians and men now even hurt other men in the name of the common good.
Paul Biya, the god-man, has set up an omnipotent Government and considers himself today as the permanent civil ruler of Cameroon. It is true that all power comes from God as Latin will put it: Omnis potestas a Deo, but if President Biya thinks that his authority equals that of God, he too is totally deluded because all men are empowered equally by God and all participate in God’s omnipotence.
It is probably to maintain the argument of supremacy that Paul Biya, Cameroon’s President for 32 years now, has been abusing power and thinking that his right as President of Cameroon is absolute and inalienable; going ahead to extend his rule unrestrictedly. When we confirm the power of authority, we must never lose sight of the limits of power.
Our President’s rule cannot be compared to God’s permanent theocratic rule of the Hebrews – God as King of Israel imposed an absolute government on them with strict instructions; it was a government in history that was most absolute, but least despotic because of God’s omnipotent love.
Unlike this theocratic Government of God, President Biya’s Government is a pure despotism and a wicked dominion that confirms only the chosen and chooses only the confirmed. A base thing remains such, irrespective of fine words or derogatory arguments that are used to describe it.
Today the idea that the government for the people is a source of the common good is a mere abstract concept in Cameroon, an equivocal term because of abuses that have been revealed by accumulated experience. Our country, Cameroon, has grown up like a deformed and lifeless child, a repulsive monster, instead of a beautiful offspring, a republic with loving lineaments.
Saying that an authentic government stands in locus parentis or in the place of parents to its citizens is something that President Biya must take seriously.
When President Biya got married to Madam Chantal Biya in 1994, many imagined that the love of the first family in Cameroon will flow into the life of the nation, ending the strife that characterised the connection between the leader and his people, since in reality, the leader and the citizens are meant to be each other’s aid, like husband and wife.
But the principles of paternal authority have been abortive in Cameroon or in the course of their application in Cameroon, patria potestas or paternal authority experienced a boomerang effect.
As Antonio Rosmini wrote towards the end of his life in 1855, the title of fatherhood bestows on the father a natural authority – paternal government is gentle, yet strict in effecting the good and only the good of the children because of the natural love nature has placed in the heart of the father.
But this is yet to come about in Cameroon as the unbroken misuse of the common fund illustrates in a mettlesome way that President Paul Biya and his ministers have only been working for their self-enrichment and they have even forgotten that imposing too much burden on the people is an abuse. The politicians and ministers of our day carry out their sedentary functions doing little or nothing and leaving every stone unturned.
President Biya’s political machinations, which some men like Ngute, AgborTabi, Ngolle Ngolle and Atanga Nji have ever been so sheepishly proud of, have not only been perplexing the measure of the public, but has given fresh impetus for turbulent injustice, the victimisation of the minority and the rancorous intemperance of the disfavoured Cameroonians.
It is too early for now to think of Biya and his ilk as winners and critiques of his administration as failures in this perennial struggle to win Cameroon from evil.
But it will be good to end this story about the progress of delusion and the delusion of progress in Cameroon in a dramatically suspending way by noting that in the midst of fads and the whitewash of development, it is President Biya who has failed his country, his people and his admirers.
His rule has seen the diminution of Cameroonians in an absolute way, and he has gone to the extent of subjecting his ministers, governors, senators and parliamentarians in all aspects to his will and as they have willingly and freely submitted to him, a condition of abiding and inherited servitude has been formed.
Biya has subjected every Cameroonian and ignored the moral reckoning that rejects absolute subjection even of pigs. It may take years to accept the fact that Inline image our President’s camp is the guilty party, but it is possible for a movie that has been enjoyable for 32 years to become sour unexpectedly.
