Biya’s 33 Years In Power And The Forgotten Sections Of Our Constitution (I)

By Macdonald Ayang Okumb

President Paul Biya (Photo courtesy PRC)

     The first ever President of the United States of America, George Washington, once said “the Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.” He was right. An explicitly drawn up constitution is a requisite instrument for every democracy. In fact, it is a workbook. And the simple reason is that it is the mother law that defines the fundamental political principles of a nation. Constitutionalists are very much aware of this fact; reason why they are always laborious and meticulous in drafting up constitutions. Having a fine constitution and implementing it is a good thing, but ignoring some of the pertinent provisions there in, or may be manipulating them to suit the vaulting aspirations of the Guarantor of that constitution, is quite unfortunate.

      Strangely in Cameroon, the President appears to be more powerful than the constitution. Apart from just twisting the constitution to suit his aspirations, political pundits hold that it is because the same constitutions arrogates to him, sweeping powers. In fact, he has the powers to dissolve Parliament. Just last week, he clocked three decades plus three years as president of Cameroon. Within this long uninterrupted period of his presidency, some portions of the constitution have virtually and regrettably been ignored in the day to day business of national life. 

Things have been in such a way that he orders for an amendment anytime he wills. Not just that; he also chooses which portion of it to implement and ignores others. It is in the spirit of such vexing discretional actions of President Paul Biya that it took seventeen years for the Senate to be put in place, for instance. And there was no genuine excuse for that. But maybe, let me begin with this bothersome issue which is about;

Bilingualism

     Section 1, paragraph 3 of the 1996 constitution as amended by law no. 2008/001 of 14 April 2008, states and I quote: “the official languages of the Republic of Cameroon shall be English and French, and both languages having the same status. The state shall guarantee the promotion of bilingualism through out the country. It shall endeavour to protect and promote national languages.” This is such a clear constitutional provision that has often been forgotten and relegated to the back ground to the chagrin of mostly Anglophones who constitute a minority population.

When francophone government officials struggle to speak English when they are required to do so, they behave as if they are doing a favour to anybody. I cannot recall when the Head of State last released a decree simultaneously in both languages. Many times we have heard English-speaking journalists of the national broadcaster struggle on air to translate documents signed by the Head of State. An aberration!   

     We are tired of this anomaly. For a country that boasts a number of training institutions for translators, this is not being fair to the constitution. And what even stops government from making it an official policy for some major national languages to be taught in our primary and secondary schools like the constitution states? South Africa has eleven official languages and about nine of them are their national languages which they promoted to that status. Let me leave the issue of language to talk about;

Appointments in Government

     Section ten (I) of the constitution says the President of the Republic shall appoint the Prime Minister and, on the proposal of the later, the other members of government. But over the years, we have seen the Prime Minister and Ministers appointed on the same day whereas the logic could have been that; the Prime Minister is first appointed and then days later, the other members of government. It is unconstitutional. That’s why in recent times, some members of government demonstrated unbridled obstinacy towards the head of government because probably they know he did not play any role in their appointment. That’s also why ministers do not thank the Prime Minister whenever they are appointed because they are not sure he is the one who proposed that they be appointed.

However, in the most recent cabinet, Minette Libom Li Likeng, set a new precedence when she publicly extended words of thanks to the Prime minister after she was appointed Telecommunications Minister. The constitution also says the president shall preside over the council of ministers but forgets to define within which duration it should be convened. Such ambiguities give room for inertia, just as is the case with the problem of;

Cumulation of functions

     This is a problem that continues to find fertile ground in a country crumbling under the weight of unemployment. Section thirteen of our fundamental law says “the office of member of government and any office ranking as such shall be incompatible with that of Member of Parliament, chairman of the executive or assembly of a local or regional authority, leader of a national professional association, or with any other employment or professional activity.” In outright defiance of this provision, many top government officials hold more than one official function. How do we expect to attain emergence by 2035 when people who are old and weak accumulate several crucial functions? This retards development and it is one of the reasons why skeptics are questioning the workability of the Emergency Plan. Then enter the issue of;

Private members’ Bills In Parliament

     It is always a strange thing to talk about private members’ bills in our parliament. The last one on the protection of water catchments and wetlands proposed by SDF’s Cyprian Awudu Mbaya was thrown to the dustbin by a CPDM dominated Chairmen’s Conference. Proverbially, it was like a baby killed at birth without allowing it the opportunity to breathe some life. Is it not a shame that, unlike provided for by section 25 of the constitution, private member bills have hardly scaled through?

Section 18, 2 (a) says “all private members’ bills and amendments, which if passed, would result in the reduction of public funds, or in an increase of public charges without a corresponding reduction in order expenditure or the grant of equivalent new supply of funds, shall be inadmissible.” So how then was Hon. Awudu Mbaya’s proposed bill, which only sought to guarantee safe sources of drinking water for Cameroonians especially in rural areas, repugnant to this provision? See you shorts for part II when I shall begin by questioning the non existence, up till date, of the Constitutional Council, which is why the Supreme Court, which is now working in its lieu, is over-stretching itself by executing assignments that are not constitutionally ascribed to it.

Littoral Region: Four Health Institutions Get FCFA 10 million Medical Equipment

By Macdonald Ayang Okumb

    Some four health institutions of the Mungo Division of the Littoral Region, last 4 November 2015, benefited from the donation of 48 medical equipment distributed amongst them by a Njombe-based Micro-financial institution, Muteuelle Communautaire de Croissance (MC2).

Donors, Beneficiaries With Some Of The Equipment

    The equipment worth over FCFA 10 million were distributed amongst the four health institutions which are: Dispensaire Publique de Njombe, Dispensaire Catholique de Njombe, Hopital ST Jean de Malte, Njombe, and Centre de Santé de Penja.

    The Equipment included: Delivery beds, Office chair, Microscope, Dressing trolley, Digital blood pressure machines, Otoscope, Surgical aspirators, Fridge and Stethoscope. The equipment were supplied to MC2 by Cameroon’s giant medical equipment company, Premier Medical SARL.

    With over fifteen years of experience in the sector of medical equipment, Premier Medical officials promised to take charge of the installation, user training, and after sales maintenance of the equipment in the various health establishments.

    The representative of the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Njombe-Penja, Abel Tidsani, who presided over the distribution ceremony, acknowledged the massive turn out of the population for the event. Tidsani also congratulated MC2 for their commitment to community development, and reiterated the importance of communal growth, as a door way to achieving Cameroon’s emergence vision of 2035. 

    Also present during the ceremony were the Mayor of Penja, some traditional dignitaries, as well as the Director General of Premier Medical, Ebung Chrysantus.

    According to the Unit Director of MC2, Pierre Céléstin Themah, last Wednesday’s ceremony was another humbling activity for MC2, adding to a series of good will gestures carried out  by the institution to improve and promote community development.

    MC2 prides itself as a Microfinance institution, whose principal objective is to fight poverty in the community, through the provision of socio-Economic services.

Prior to the donation, MC2 had also been very active in the educational milieu, providing many benches to some schools in the area.

Rumours ‘Arrest’ Buea Chiefs’ Conference President

By Macdonald Ayang Okumb

     Rumours circulated for most of last week in Buea that the President of the Buea Chiefs’ Conference and traditional ruler of Wokaka, a small village near Muea in Buea, His Royal Majesty Chief Johnson Njoke Njombe had been arrested and detained.

Chief Njombe (Picture, courtesy cameroonjournal)

     Going by the information that circulated, Chief Njombe has been ‘arrested’ at the behest of a CONAC Mission that was in the South West Region the week before to investigate what has now been known as the Fako land-grabbing saga. By same information, Njombe had unjustifiably sold huge portions of land ceded to his and a neigbouring village.

     The CONAC mission had met with all the chiefs within Fako division, administrative officials as well as other stakeholders involved in land management in the division to investigate into the way land surrendered to villages by the Cameroon development corporation, CDC, had been managed between the period 2012 and 2015.

     When we met Chief Njombe last Tuesday during the launching ceremony of reorganisation activities for the Fako III section of the CPDM, the former secretary general of the Fako chiefs’ conference rather expressed surprise. “Arrest? That’s what people have been calling me ask. What have I done to be arrested?” Chief Njombe, who was putting on a hat adorned with CPDM colours, wondered.

     Within minutes of our chat, many other persons, including some of his royal colleagues, came around with the alleged arrest constituting the subject matter.

While some think that information about Chief Njombe’s arrest, was just a smear campaign cooked up to sabotage him, others strongly hold that there can't be smoke with out fire.

Fako Lawyers Refresh Skills In Legal Procedures

By Macdonald Ayang Okumb

Barrister Agbor Balla: The Visionary FAKLA President

     Over 300 lawyers based in Fako Division have upgraded their knowledge on issues of legal practice and procedure under the Cameroon judicial system.

This was during a one day symposium that took place last Friday 23 October in Buea, organised by the Fako Lawyers Association, known by the acronym, FAKLA.

     The symposium that was opened by the President of the South West court of appeal, Chief Justice Bechem Eyong Eneke, had four main subjects namely; criminal procedure, civil procedure, execution of court judgments and the OHADA law and practice.

     Limbe-based senior barrister Ngale Monono delivered one of the four exposes on; “the law and practice of adoption in the common law jurisdiction of Cameroon.” FAKLA president, barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor, agreed that Barrister Monono’s presentation was insightful given that “the issue of adoption is a very thorny one especially given the fact that there is a difference between what is happening in the civil law jurisdiction and what is happening in the common law jurisdiction.”

     One of the vice presidents of the court of appeal, Lord justice James Agbor Eyong, talked on “instituting and perfecting an appeal against a criminal judgment and seeking bail for the convict pending hearing of the appeal.”

His colleague of the same court, Lord Justice Martin Mbeng Ako, delved into the “provisional execution and stay of execution: the law, practice and procedure”

     Meanwhile the attorney general of the appeal court, Lord Justice Emile Essombe, talked elaborately on the OHADA law and practice with focus on “recovering a debt/securing the delivery or restitution of specific personal property.”

On this presentation, FAKLA boss, said the attorney general did a wonderful job because this “is a law we are just coming to grasp with because it was conceived in French and the English translation is not up-to-date.”

     After each of the four presentations, there was a question and answer session during which participants cleared some of their doubts. At the end, FAKLA president, Barrister Balla said this of the symposium; “What happened today was part of our continuous legal training, when I was campaigning to be FAKLA president; I said in my campaign manifesto that we shall engage in continuous legal education and training for our members. This is just the first in a series of conferences that we shall be holding; and this will help not only lawyers but law students, judges and magistrates of the bench.”

     Some of the participants confessed that they had become more knowledgeable in issues of their legal practice, which according to barrister Balla, “is helpful to the legal profession and also it would trickle down to the clients because the more knowledgeable the lawyers and judges are, the better for the client because they will brief them well and decisions from the judges would also be good.”

     Apart from Fako lawyers, representatives from the Meme lawyers as well as the North West lawyers associations were also present.

Limbe To Host First Ever Cameroon Wedding Expo

By Macdonald Ayang Okumb

     Preparations are far advanced for the first ever edition of a Wedding Exhibition Fair to be staged in the South West seaside city of Limbe.

Under the theme “Atlantic wedding Expo”, the show is slated to run from 13 to 15 November 2015 and is expected to see a cumulative attendance of about six thousand visitors.

     To be organised by a conglomeration of business firms under the banner of CORE5 network, the fair which is the very first of its kind would be a platform for professional vendors and service providers in the wedding industry to showcase their products and services to the public. CORE5 network is an events management company made up of a group of professional photographers.

     At a press briefing at the Buea chariot hotel recently, the Chief Executive of the organising company, Stanley Miki, revealed that the level of preparations had heightened ahead of the event which will be the first ever in the country. He said a mini exhibition at the chariot Banquet hall that sanctioned the Buea press conference actually marked the officially launch of the wedding expo which is expected to last three days.

     Hear him: “the Atlantic wedding expo is a marketing platform where people from different domains in the wedding business are going to come together to be able to showcase their products and services.”

     “We came out with this concept because people have been looking for quality services especially in the wedding business because a wedding is that one thing that happens once in your life. We are going to bring these business people together so that individuals who are looking forward to wedding can be able to select good services that suit their budgets” Miki explained.

     Miki justified the choice of the city of Limbe as venue for the Fair by laying claims to the presence of “the Atlantic Ocean, its touristic value….and its rare and very beautiful locations…”

“That’s why we think that if you want to get a dream wedding, go to a location like Limbe” he added.

     About the attendance and exhibitors, Miki said; “We are expecting over 6,000 guests. We have already printed 6000 tickets. We are as well expecting 25 vendors for this first edition. We are still having some vendors who are interested to take part but since this is the first edition, we want to limit the event to 25 vendors”

     Miki also told reporters that some of the exhibitioners would be coming from abroad.

Biya’s Day Of National Mourning: Genuine Grief Or Political Stunt?

By Macdonald Ayang Okumb

     It is always not in the best of interests to question every action of the Head of State, lest we are tagged as being regressive. But when the Commander-in-Chief does certain things in certain ways, certain questions unavoidably come to mind.

     On Friday 16 October 2015, President Paul Biya, for the first time since the Banga-Mpongo Kenya Airways crash in 2007, decreed a national day of mourning in memoriam of the Cameroonian Muslim pilgrims who lost their lives in a stampede in Mina, a town near Mecca while on Hajj.

     That the day of mourning was instituted is not a problem, but the fact that it was not made a public holiday and that it came so belatedly - almost a month after the tragic incident occurred on 24 September, was questionable.

And not only that, the controversy that surrounded the exact figures of those who actually died in the tragedy was worrying. Communication Minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, said in a press conference that the death toll stood at 76, but his colleague of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, who’s the Chairman of the National Hajj Commission, contradicted him when he said on 20 October, and I quote; “nous sommes globalement à 104 décès.”

     This can be roughly translated in English to mean “we are now at 104 deaths.” So which of the ministers should we believe? I think for Cameroonians to have known exactly how many of the pilgrims either died or went missing in Mecca without any mix up, it would have been more expedient for government to rather tell us how many of 4,467 pilgrims who went on the Hajj actually returned home. 

     Although the fervour of national mourning can differ dramatically from one country to another, or may be from the discretion of one president to another, the underlying factor is that the exercise is such a solemn one that must be observed with all sacrosanctity. That’s why, for instance, I sharply disagreed with a political analyst who said on CRTV’s Sunday talk show “Press Hour” on 18 October that, what was of import was the fact that the Head of State ordered that flags across the nation be flown at half mast. And that it was not important whatever activities individual citizens engaged in on that day. Even so, I saw flags at some public offices and at chiefs’ palaces that were fully flown.

     In most parts of the world, a day of national mourning is referred to as a “silent day” where music, dance events, or other public demonstrations are totally prohibited. But that was not the case on 16 October. So can we say that we genuinely commiserated with our fallen brothers?

     There’s no gainsaying that even at the level of homes, it matters a lot the activities of family members whenever they are mourning a loved one. You would hardly hear secular music being played, and so loudly. Mourners would not chat and laugh so uncontrollably and lousily. They’d naturally maintain an extremely sober mood.

     That aside; even when four days later (on Tuesday 20 October 2015), the President decreed a national day of prayer for the victims, he himself did not attend the service.

Couldn’t it have been exemplary and maybe a demonstration of genuine grief for the Head of State to have attended the national prayers at the multipurpose sports complex in Yaoundé? Was it appropriate for him to have rather sent the minister of territorial administration and decentralisation to represent him? Was he not by his absence from the prayers somehow under looking its importance?

     Verily, this has actually pushed me to question the very essence of that national day of mourning; what it really amounted to in practice, or whether it was indeed a meaningful expression of the grief of the Head of State and the Cameroonian nation or it was purely a symbolic political gesture intended to flatter the Muslims, who constitute a reasonable portion of the country teeming with dissension against the regime?

     Certainly, the way president Biya treated the national mourning issue, gives ample credence to the views of a United States professor, Jill Scott, an expert in the social dynamics of mourning, who once told the BBC that days of national mourning are “inherently political”.

     If not, why has the Head of State not also thought of declaring a day, or days of national mourning for the hundreds of Cameroonians who have been killed by Boko Haram insurgents either through border attacks or suicide bombings which are now their modus operandi? With due respect for the souls of the departed Muslim brothers of ours, I however think that no Cameroonian soul is more important than another. Like a fellow columnist wrote in a sister newspaper, what is good for the goose is also good for the ganger. I was just musing randomly.

Buea Mayor Defies Fako Elite Consensus ‘Scheme’: Declares For Fako III CPDM Section Presidency

By Macdonald Ayang Okumb

     Buea Mayor, Patrick Ekema Esunge, is certainly not a chicken-hearted politician like some thought he was.  

Ekema Poised For Fako III CPDM Section Presidency

He demonstrated unmitigated effrontery Monday 28 September 2015 by officially declaring his intention to run for the office of section president of the Fako III section of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM in Buea. More than 1,000 persons attended the rally.

     Although Ekema’s declaration is at variance with the wish of some highly placed Fako political elite who have been pushing for a ‘consensus arrangement’ in the reorganisation exercise in the Division, supporters of the Mayor have however brushed such consensus talks aside, maintaining that the circular of the party chairman laying out guidelines for the reorganisation exercise didn’t talk of such an arrangement.

     Such proponents hold that the circular clearly states the eligibility criteria for the elections, which Ekema meets. Thus, to them, he has all the political acumen to run for the office, further arguing that the reorganisation activity is a grassroots exercise which must not be dictated by the influence of Elite in Yaoundé who also have their own selfish political interests.

     “…Be very vigilant! don’t allow what happened in 2002 in Fako III to repeat itself again. When the time comes, vote for the person you like…Is Yaoundé Buea?” the second deputy mayor of the Buea council, Lyonga John Efande, charged, as a mammoth crowd at the CBC field in Mile 16, Bolifamba, where Ekema officially declared his candidature, responded with deafening applause.

     Several other speakers, most of them sub-section presidents within the section, then took turns to read out motions of support, expressing their unwavering support to Ekema. All of them substantiated their motions calling on Ekema to run for the section presidency with what they said were the enormous development strides that he has embarked on within the municipality since he became Mayor.

     Representatives of the Buea as well as the Fako chiefs’ conferences also spoke at the event, promising to throw their unalloyed support behind Ekema. “…Our son Mayor Ekema has washed his hands clean, so he can dine with the elders…” Buea Chiefs’ Conference president, His Royal Majesty Chief Johnson Njoke Njombe, who’s also a councilor of the Buea council, stated. The about 15 Chiefs who attended the event had poured libations at its start.

     Mayor Ekema, who was the last person to speak, said it was with delight that he decided to respond to the call from militants of the 30 sub-sections of the party in Buea, calling on him to put forward his candidature. He expressed his readiness to go in and work for the good of the people and the party. As to why he chose mile 16 to declare, he simply quipped: “This is my political base.” He then urged the people to stay calm and be vigilant given the current trends of insecurity in the country, adding that whenever party boss, Paul Biya, would give the green light for campaigns, he’ll be back to do so.

     Ekema’s declaration now means there are two contenders; himself and one David Mafany Namange; given that incumbent, Senator Mbella Moki, had long stepped aside.

     Going by the consensus arrangement piloted by the “big Fako Elite”, the likes of incumbent section president, Senator Charles Mbella Moki as well as Mayor Patrick Ekema, who are all elected officials, shouldn’t have postulated for the position.

     To them, the consensus ought to have settled on Mafany Namange, whom they believe, has enough party experience, coupled with his youthful dynamism. But this latest trend of events means there’ll be a veritable political match to watch. Let the kick-off begin.

Plans To Expand Musonge’s Wife’s Memorial Scholarship Scheme

By Macdonald Ayang Okumb

     Senator Peter Mafany Musonge says plans are in the offing, once the means are also available, to extend a scholarship scheme instituted in memoriam of his late spouse, Anne Mojoko Musonge, beyond their indigenous Fako division.

Senator Musonge Handing over Envelop to Beneficiary

    He expressed the wish last week at the second ever edition of the scholarship award ceremony hosted at the head office of the ‘Anne Mojoko Musonge Memorial Trust’ in Bokova, Buea. Musonge is Board Chair of the Trust.

     70 awardees who were selected from over 250 who applied, received cash collectively amounting to millions of FCFA.  The packages ranged from FCFA 25, 000 for pupils to FCFA 50,000 for varsity students. Secondary school students as well as those from other professional institutions of learning had their own share as well.

Some of the Beneficiaries Pose with Benefactors

     The awardees, who were chosen based on certain criteria including academic brilliance and moral uprightness, were urged to use the money given them judiciously. They also were challenged to be studious in order to record impressive results in their exams; a thing which would encourage their benefactors to do more next time.

      The scholarship scheme is solely for girl children because late Anne Musonge (in whose honour the scheme was started) took unwavering interest in the education of the girl child and was also an ardent advocate for gender issues. No doubt she founded the popular Fako Women’s Development Association, known by the English acronym FAWODA.

       In attendance at the award event were; the MP for Buea Rural, Hon Emilia Lifaka, Cameroon Development Corporation General Manager, Franklin Njie, Former MP for Buea Urban, Hon Meoto Njie, Buea Mayor, Patrick Ekema, Secondary Education Delegate for the South West, Francis Ngundu, Principals of some schools in Buea, staff of the schools concerned, parents of beneficiaries as well as the population of the BONAVADA community.

Ghost Gov't Workers In Cameroon: Use Biometrics To Catch Their Tricks

By Macdonald Ayang Okumb

     This is the proposal I made to government earlier this year in my column (in Eden Newspaper). Little did I know that as many as 10, 377 sate functionaries were not duly recognised as such, yet were paid. By the way, how can one readily believe the figures exposed by government when it cannot say with definitive certitude how many citizens it employs? And how can we also believe when, for example, The Guardian Post reported last week that 13, 600 farmers had been uncovered in the south Region as ghost workers, a figure which outnumbers what government published.

     Imagine that each of the 10,377 workers was receiving a monthly salary of FCFA 100,000 (one hundred thousand), then simple arithmetic shows that the state has been spending about one billion and 37 million monthly on ghost workers for God knows how long now. This excludes cash wasted on fuel for bogus cars of government officials, lengthy and at times useless missions, and that which is outrightly embezzled.

     Our economy is such a nascent and fragile one that cannot thrive and consequently meet the 2035 emergence target if it continuously makes such illicit payments to ill-intentioned citizens. I recall vividly when a writer and ardent militant of Hon. Paul Ayah’s Peoples Action Party, Njousi Abang, once questioned whether anyone had ever caught a ghost somewhere.

     It may sound funny but the bitter truth is that the phenomenon is very common in most African countries and Cameroon in particular.  Those keen on developments in next door Nigeria know for sure how that country’s president, Buhari, is currently waging a merciless anti-corruption war in public institutions with the intention of not only consolidating Nigeria’s position as Africa’s strongest economy, but also to make citizens taste a fair share of the national gateau. So if we mean it, we can fight it.

     That’s why government must be lauded for initiating such a campaign to purge out thieving citizens who pass for state workers. But publishing names and calling on the concerned to go regularise their status is just the first step of a fight that must be thorough and must continue. The names published were of those said not to be recognised by their user ministries. So what about those who are indeed state workers but who scheme and take home multiple salaries?

     Some may argue that salaries in Cameroon are so insultingly meagre that civil servants are forced to indulge in all forms of unorthodoxy to take home bigger pay packages, but the truth remains that we must do justice to our public purse. Govt also needs money to do other things for the benefit of those who are not civil servants. There is nothing wrong in copying a good example. That’s why when I first made proposals on the use of the biometric system to manage our civil service; I made ample allusion to a country like Kenya.

Some months ago, Kenya, which is East Africa’s biggest economy, took a drastic move to confront the cankerworm of ghost workers. President Uhuru Kenyatta, who happens to be that region’s second youngest Head of State, initiated a campaign that forced all workers on the state’s payroll to undergo a biometric registration process so as to rid the civil service of fake or non existent workers. The interesting thing is that President Uhuru Kenyatta was the first person to register.

     The move was instigated by startling revelations made by an audit that at least $1m, about FCFA 500 million, was lost every month in payments to ghost civil servants as well as other financial irregularities in the country.  Kenyatta realised that that if such a trend continued, it would have a destructive toll on the Kenyan economy.

     It may be an expensive venture for Cameroon no doubt but it would be worthwhile for, it would help the state save huge sums of Money wasted. No one doubts that we are in dire need of infrastructure and social amenities.

     Was it not the same case with our voter registration system? We all know that prior to the introduction of the biometric registration option of voters in Cameroon, numerous irregularities characterised the voters registration process. Cases existed of people who registered once but ended up having two or three cards. 

     This is what also led to the much criticised phenomenon of ghost voters. Government had demonstrated palpable reluctance on the issue but it finally yielded to pressure from both the international community and from opposition party leaders and civil society actors to introduce the biometric system of registration as is the case in other African democracies. The government said it spent well over FCFA 11 billion for the project but no one would deny the fact that it was necessary for the advancement of our electoral experience.

     Although softwares exist already with which government manages civil servants’ information, I strongly opine that establishing a biometric data base for our civil servants should be the next option as government says it is planning to put in place a new system. This would not only enable government to curb or completely exterminate undue payments to fake workers but it will also enable it have an exact knowledge on the number of its employees. At as now, it is understood that it is not clear the precise number of civil servants Cameroon employs. This is not good for government’s strategic planning and civil service policy formulation.

     The fight against corruption must be seen to be effective and not just based on slogans alone. One sector that very much reeks with corruption in this country is the civil service whereas the youth are wallowing in desperation and crumbling under the weight of biting unemployment.