Change in Cameroon shall be realized within a decade. I mean total, complete change of the system. I say so because this system will ultimately sap itself completely as it continues to invest much energy to keep true believers happy, turn apparently loyal double-thinkers into reliable subjects and crush dissent. All we have to do when that time comes is to give it the final push and put in place a progressive and united system that will realize the goals of reunification--- liberty, freedom and economic advancement.
Cameroon is at the stage of political lethargy. We failed in realizing change during this third phase of the struggle and the vast majority of Cameroonians who were on our side and who were looking forward to the New Cameroon became disillusioned . The people are weary and wary of both the Biya regime and the so-called opposition parties that have finally revealed themselves as stakeholders in the system. But the stage of political lethargy will pass very soon. When that happens, the struggling masses would need a vibrant force that is vested with idealism, uncompromised by the negative values of the system, hardened by the struggle and unwavering in their commitment to realize total complete change. It would be a revolutionary force steeped in the ideas of Cameroonian union nationalism. And it would be led by those who have put the general purpose of the struggle far above their personal interests and personal considerations. That is the alternative. That is the future. It would take a while for some of those who are still trapped by the failed past to realize that the system is unsustainable and that the political game players (the ruling party and the so-called opposition whose leaders decamped from the ruling parties and formed their parties when they realized that the struggling masses were clamoring for change) are incapable of moving Cameroon forward. This moment of stock taking, this moment of realignment, this moment of regrouping and revising of strategies is a necessary phase, but then it should not be for too long.
It is hard to take. But the system can change only when we reject it totally and completely. And that goes with self redemption. Self redemption is accepting the harsh reality that it is hard but necessary for all Cameroonians, especially Fulanis to reject the Ahidjo legacy; that all Cameroonians and Betis especially must also reject the Biya regime; and that the co-called opposition leaderships betrayed the ideals of the struggle to change the system. The Fru-Ndi led SDF committed political suicide years ago. It is a spent force just like the betrayed and hijacked UPC that emerged in the 1990s.
Cameroon needs a new force, a force of post-independence Cameroonians who are not a by-product of the system, a force that is untainted by the system’s negative values, one that understands the failures of the so-called opposition led by pre-independence Cameroonians who failed to cut their umbilical cord to the system. This force should totally and completely reject the system and all its values and must be prepared to fight it to its death.
Cameroon: France’s Dysfunctional Puppet System in Africa
by Janvier Tchouteu
