THE HOLES IN THE VERDICT AGAINST SAMUEL ETO’O AND HIS TEAM MATES:

In one of my 1994 articles entitled WHO THE ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE ARE AND HOW THEY ARE FIGHTING AGAINST CHANGE: , I listed the self-centered flag-bearers as the number seven in the list  of groups working against the interest of the New Cameroon that would be free,  progressive, democratic, liberal, united, advanced and respectful of human values. I listed them as a group helping to ensure the survival of the anachronistic, corrupt, repressive, undemocratic, cheating, oligarchic and retrogressive French-imposed system currently under the Biya regime when I wrote:

7) Depressing as it may sound, another set of enemies of the people is the self-centered flag bearers. These are our artists, players, writers, scientists and representatives of Cameroon abroad who in the quest for glory conceal the plight of the Cameroonian people behind the façade of success. They would not stand by the people if it means working against their interests at home and abroad.

The action of Samuel Eto’o and his team mates of not traveling to Algeria for a friendly last month is the most patriotic and revolutionary the country has seen in a while.  They did what most of Cameroon’s discredited opposition parties failed to do against Paul Biya’s election masquerade last October 09, 2011. They walked out of the largely ignored farce by a cheating mafia of a system that has been feeding off the glory of Cameroon’s most achieving sector (its footballers). Our football stars have been giving the Biya regime some semblance of achievement over the past three decades. By openly refusing to play, the country’s national football team sided with the people and rejected the evil ways of the system and the Biya regime.

No system in Africa or the world has taken its people for granted as much as this six-decade old mafia. From  killing Cameroonians in one of the world’s most untold crimes against humanity to  denying the people a voice in the affairs of the land; denying them  their history; denying them economic and social  opportunities; to  denying them the  option of even  seeking a redress to their plights.

For a country that is known internationally for one thing only--- its football prowess, one would have thought the evil system would invest in the only functioning Cameroonian group that gave it some respect at home and abroad. No, they have not. The arrogance of this system goes to the point where fifty years after Cameroon’s reunification and independence, the country can not boast of a stadium that meets international standards. Africa’s number one football playing nation is incapable of hosting the continent’s nation cup when small nations like Equatorial Guinea are doing so. Yet, it is no secret that government thieves have made fortunes from the country’s football legacy.

The complaints from the players are not a phenomenon of today. It has been persisting for more than thirty years. The first time it became public was in the 1990 world cup in Italy, in a rebellion led by Joseph Antoine Bell. Our patriotic, nationalistic and football-loving Cameroonian players put aside their grievances and made the country proud by going as far as the quarter-finals and securing the fifth position for Cameroon. It  became public again in the 1994 world cup with the information minister Augustine Kontchou claiming that the suitcase of money he had for the players’ allowances got missing while he was on the plane. Cameroon underperformed several times after that due to the corrupting influences of the Biya regime spilling over to the country’s national team. The 2010 world cup became a glaring case in point. And today, Cameroon even failed to qualify for the African Nations cup--- the first time in more than thirty years.

When our footballers play out of the country, they are our champions fighting for the glory of our country. They are like our soldiers at the front in a war. Lying to them, depriving them of support  and cheating them  is like depriving soldiers at  the  war front of  ammunition, leadership and a plan. It is like directing them at the fire of their enemies. The authorities subject the players to ridicule. And when soldiers abandon a fight due to the  corrupting influence of their officers and the government, they usually turn against the system and bring it down. Russian flag-bearers in the form of its soldiers  forced the czar to abdicate and  usher in the Russian revolution when they got fed up with the system for sending them to the slaughterhouse at the war front during the First World War.  The harsh reaction of the Cameroonian  authorities  towards the protesting action of  Samuel Eto'o and his team  mates is a reflection of their fear than their rationale.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky once wrote that “…The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons…”

In the case of Cameroon, the ongoing malady in our football and the national team is a reflection of the putridness of the Biya regime and the anachronistic French-imposed system.  The action of our national team players is a cry for help by the only group of patriotic voices left that the system is determined to crush too.  The actions by our players is their only way of  telling us that  they do not want to lose their love for Cameroon and  become like the  custodians of the system that  is suffocating them. Punishing our players instead of those who caused them to take such a stand is an act of injustice that those responsible might have to answer for one day. The 90+% of Cameroonians who reject the system and the Biya regime should come out and voice  their protest against  this government of thieves and liars that is punishing our patriotic footballers for exposing their mafia.

December 20, 2011                                                                Janvier Tchouteu