The two maps below are for the years 1990-2007, and are based on the data obtained from the United Nations Statistics Division.
GDP growth (annualized)
GDP per capita growth (annualized)
Pose this question to any Cameroonian with a deep perception of the world: Who is Africa’s most dishonest and illusionary head of state? The answer from the absolute majority would be obvious. Our tenant in the unity palace is that head of state.
Cameroon’s second president is a bad leader in the furthest sense of the word. His governance has destroyed most of the foundations of our people’s way of life and progressive values. Unprincipled, unscrupulous and visionless, he was elusive enough during his early years of leadership by convincing many to regard him as a brilliant leader. Yes, he made himself brilliant and appealing to the people even despite his true convictions.
The second Cameroonian president as the demagogue he is, harangued about his NEW DEAL of Rigor and Moralization, when he never intended to work for the interest of all Cameroonians. He came to power for the sole purpose of defending the interest of his patron(The mafia in the French establishment over its African policy), to enhance the material well-being and social position of his clique of unscrupulous businessmen, politicians, functionaries and above all the ethnic group of his birth.
The second Cameroonian president is a dishonorable man without convictions. He began his political manifestations as a Cameroonian nationalist of socialist orientation under the banner of the Union of the Populations of Cameroon (UPC), but soon unhesitatingly discarded his nationalist garment for the high positions offered to renegades of the Cameroonian struggle by the Anglophobic Ahidjo regime and its French masters. Having switched his loyalty to the glory of naked power in the French-backed regime overseeing the genocide of the union-nationalist forces in Cameroon, Paul Biya quickly won the hearts of his patron to become prime minister in 1972 and later president in 1982. After that, he shed all aspects of his ties to Cameroonian nationalism and became a fervent Francophile and Anglophone manipulator. Today, it is clear for all to see that Paul Biya stands as the leader of the renegade forces that may eventually kill Cameroonian nationalism and lead the nation into abyss, denying it the realization of its century old Cameroonian dream of unity, independence, prosperity and open opportunities. He is a purposeless, faceless and paranoiac leader whose long years of power and the emptiness of his rule have been masked by France and his Cameroonian collaborators.
During his early years as head of state, Paul Biya talked of rigor in the implementation of progressive work ethics, rules, laws, freedom, Human rights and economic reforms, when he never intended to see the slightest change in the French imposed system he inherited from his predecessor. Biya never had any intention to change the course of dictatorship, corruption, kleptomania and division that was the rule of the system and the trappings of power and wealth it offered. A decade after his pronouncement of rigor, Cameroon which had the second fastest economic growth rate in the world after South Korea in 1986( though it lagged behind its true potentials even then), is today with the least promising economy in Africa.
Biya’s moralization rhetoric is an unacceptable abuse to humanity. Promising to make his rule a moral one where governance would be based on a program to enhance the right conducts in public, social, economic and political affairs, he reneged by presiding over the worst degeneration of a non-war ravaged nation in Africa.
Unfortunately, for Cameroonians, Biya is one of those regrettable products of nature with quite an exceptional strength of character that is a negation of a good leadership. It does not bother him in the least that his practically wrong actions and leadership has reduced Cameroonians into a poverty-stricken people, eroded their sense of purpose, divided their ranks, rendered them into the grips of despondence, denigrated their influence in national and international politics, and encouraged corruption to the form of an art; and above all, it suits his propose that he has wrapped Cameroon into the clutch and whims of France.
After becoming the president in 1982, Biya has ruled Cameroon more like an absentee caretaker than even an absentee landlord. A two-month trip abroad for amusement using the taxpayer’s money is unprecedented from any head of state. Nevertheless, it surprises only those who have no insight into his personality. Biya committed moral suicide years ago and now lacks the morality that is expected from a head of state. His rule has shattered the bilateral respect that prevailed between the different generations.
From peasant origins, Biya has learnt, but wrongly assimilated aristocratic values. The sad result of this is his blatant and unjustifiable contempt of the masses from where he had his origins. As a man of high learning, it is unfortunate that despite his long years of service in the system, he still possesses all the traits of a pseudo-intellectual and a pedant. And it is due to his awareness of his intellectual feebleness that he has developed a masked inferiority complex. That is why he rejects, snubs and shies away from the good ideas of his intellectual superiors.
Cameroon is the only nation in Africa where its true liberation fighters and nationalists were never permitted to the helm of power. It is the first nation in Africa where France became deeply involved in collaboration with Ahidjo, in the genocide of those who resisted its deception (close to a million deaths in the 1956-1970 war against the UPC). Cameroon is the only country in Africa, which has been the most cruelly raped in our modern times by France. Even though Cameroonians are one of the most dynamic people in the continent, they have never been left to their devices to harness their potentials and build their country into the great nation that it truly deserves. Instead, Cameroonians have been brought low by a conspiracy hatched during the years of Jacques Foccart’s control of French policy on Africa, a conspiracy that has effectively used Cameroonian collaborators, especially Paul Biya.
It does not bother the second Cameroonian president in the least that the Cameroonian people are suffocating in his bondage. He has lost touch with the Cameroonian masses, the Cameroonian reality and life in its different forms. However, unlike his psychopathic counterpart, the Roman emperor Nero, he has mastered one art―the art of retaining power despite the opposition from the masses. And as most megalomaniacs and experimentalists, he would continue to experiment with his theory of power retention, despite his unpopularity, not worried that the Cameroonian people are being dragged into abyss in the process.
Biya is performing his theory of power retention on us, an experiment that will go a long way to destroy the best of our creative forces if left to persist. Moreover, with that will be the destruction of the faith we have in our dream and worst still the mother of progress, which is hope. The sad result of the disaster of Biya’s rule would be the death of Cameroon. To the rational mind, that is unacceptable.
Perhaps for a little while longer, the living specter of the second Cameroonian president will continue to haunt the people―treacherous in his ways, ruthless in his methods and nonchalant in his views. It is our unavoidable task, if only for the sake of our children, that we rise up― take back our dignity, hope and future from him and his patrons. Then following the natural course of history, we shall confine him and his legacy to the dustbin of history.
February 28, 1995
Janvier Tchouteu, the author of Triple Agent, Double Cross and THEIR LAST STAND: Donald Trump’s Upset Victory…
Janvier Tchouteu, the author of Triple Agent, Double Cross and THEIR LAST STAND: Donald Trump’s Upset Victory…
