Hello Cameroonians:
In trying times, as witnessed in 2017, the character of the Cameroonian society proved its gem: Cameroonians, in their daily interactions, have largely moved beyond colonial tools as certifiers of their personhood.
In the Diaspora, the pockets of noise may be shrill but the sociocultural interface of the majority is dazzling where ethnic factionalisms have crippled other countries.
Cameroonians, you are steady!
In your demonstrated maturity, you know the difference between government and country. It is the inherent liberty of individuals to exercise partisan affinities, belong or not belong to any party, or even oppose the ruling party.
However, sane people can understand that they cannot oppose or defile country without skating on thin ice to treasonable territories, even in the best of advanced democracies. You do not burn the country and institutions because you dislike the government or direction of the country.
This is not a line of reasoning I simply writing here. It is an abiding belief anchored on principles; not a transient preference. This week, I had the same exchange with an opposition Congolese politician, John Kalume. I held the same stance on Raila Odinga (Kenya).
It would be extra naive to think that the problems besetting Cameroon can be cured by Anglo-saxon-ness or revert to colonial partition. If so, why is Sierra Leone not Paradise or why do Senegal and Benin have democracies where underdogs stunned the establishments?
In Cameroon's National Vision 2035, the assessments criticize the system. For example, it qualified the country's satisfactory implementation of reforms that led to the attainment of the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative, which enabled significant cancellation of the Cameroon's debt, with these statements:
"However, growth recovery on the heels of devaluation was not strong enough to reduce poverty in the short term. It was proven that the presence of numerous reference frameworks guiding economic action in the country function without a common and coherent vision. This is one of the major loopholes of the national economic policy.
The result is a series of dysfunctions, followed by the lack of rational arbitration in programme selection, imbalanced regional development, significant reduction in public investment and poor capacity to own tools for evaluation, coordination and refocus of external financial package."
Here is government admitting its own failures. There are laws in the books on decentralization that enables endogenous developments where local communities are drivers of their own sustainable growth. It has not been implemented.
On education, Africa as a whole suffers from the same malaise, which is being redressed with the Continental Education Strategy for Africa. The Comprehensive Roadmap for Youth investments is being adopted by Member States and all linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Cameroonians must hold government accountable, the desire for change is a clamor protected within civic liberties. But it is irrational to think secession is one of the options for dialogue or accountability. Going back to colonially determined two-state federation is a dialogue of a can of worm in a country of ten regions.
Besides the patchwork of colonialism, Northwest and Southwest regions constitute a mere geographical expression without indigenous homogeneity.
In Manyu, the Ejagham peoples are indigenously linked to Cross River State in Nigeria. Southwest in the English speaking region is more related to Littoral in the French speaking region than Northwest. The Bangwa people in the English speaking region share more indigenous values with Dschang people in the French speaking region than any group in Southwest.
Evidently, the secessionists are culturally senseless to being incoherent. Their mentality is versed in a completely different era when Africa was partitioned as markets for raw materials and cheap labor. But in plying their politics, some even have even prophesied that it was also ordained in the Bible. In other words, colonialism in that part of the world was by divinity.
There is no compelling justification for the secessionist in their need to enforce cultural anomalies. They have already demonstrated extreme barbarisms.
MsJoe
To Lead You Must be a Servant
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