CAMEROONIAN REJECTION OF THE ANACHRONISTIC FRENCH-IMPOSED SYSTEM

I have observed after the self-defeating path taken by the opposition leaderships in Cameroon that the fallout of that betrayal affected  the post-independence generations  the most;  and that those of us  born in the 1960s and after, still have a lot of work to do  on our  thought formulations. Nevertheless, I am happy that we have taken the first step in that direction. Many of our compatriots commenting in the multiple forums or online groups are now talking of changing the system, unlike the pre-independence so-called opposition leaders who were talking of changing the Biya regime or the government. That is a positive development. Fru Ndi-led SDF, Njoya-led CDU, Bouba-led NUDP etc failed because they were incapable of rising up to the challenge of confronting the depth of the Cameroonian malady(the short comings of the system)and of coming up with an alternative direction and values to lead Cameroonians to the change and a desirable society. In fact,  their paths of conciliation veered too far away from the noble path of Cameroonian Union Nationalism  conceived by Martin Paul Samba and Rudolf Manga Bell; brought to prominence by the historic UPC of  Um Nyobe, Felix Moumie, Ernest Ouangie, Ndeh Ntumazah, Abel Kingue and  Ossende Afana; immortalized by  Foncha  and the Reunification Movement in British Cameroons;   and upheld today by the vast majority of Cameroonians that reject the anachronistic French-imposed  system and who crave  for the New Cameroon.


Changing the system calls for fundamental changes in ourselves. It involves rejecting all the wrong values of the system, even if it means doing so to our detriment (economic, social and political). Such a rejection requires identifying our enemies, who in reality are those who are sustaining the system. That could be us, people in our families, personalities in our tribes or ethnic groups that we look up to, revered figures in a movement or political party that we support or even an idea that we are benefiting from. Besides the mental ability to identify the enemies, we also need the ability to identify the true friends of the people. I say so because during the third phase of the Cameroonian struggle (1990-2002), more effort was made to hunt and betray the true friends of the people (the union nationalists and revolutionaries) by the cliques in the leaderships of the so-called opposition parties, than was made to confront the system and the Biya regime. And unless the true friends of the people―the union nationalists and revolutionaries lead the struggle, it becomes difficult, if not impossible to imagine that change can ever take place in Cameroon.

Posted by: Janvier Tchouteu | Tuesday, 15 February 2005 at 11:56 AM