Cameroun: Me Claude Assira expresses his disappointment to President Paul Biya

“PLEA TO PÂ PAUL.

Pâ Paul, many people who listened to you Wednesday night are all excited awaiting your government. They say you said that… it means that… so, it must be that…

Pâ Paul, me, my part of expectation is very simple: I stopped listening to everything you say with my heart a long time ago. I only listen with my head because I have to keep up, as some of your compatriots say I am an intellectual. So I must not disappoint them. But, before going further, know that if I don’t listen to you, it’s not because I don’t respect you. It’s because I’m disappointed. And I’m talking to you as one talks to his father. Besides, I talk like this with my real father and also with God the Father when I don’t understand him, rest assured.

I am disappointed because even when you make the right observations for the country to be better, it is not followed by any effective action, even though you know this country and its administration better than anyone, which you have mastered since 1962. Aggravating circumstances for you, you have all the levers of power. All of them.

This time, I will make no concessions to you. None. Excuse me. Perhaps the 83% that were attributed to you before made you believe that we were too happy with you. Perhaps before you thought you had time, and we did too. Today, officially, you have barely passed the majority, which means that the EXPECTATIONS ARE EVEN GREATER and you must make (more) efforts to win back my heart, our hearts. And then, the time that has passed, leaving many of us by the wayside, makes us more skeptical.

Today, Pâ Paul, I no longer want your speeches. I know them by heart in advance. I want actions, nothing but actions.

Because I cannot bring myself to hate you completely, I want to help you and give you some advice. If you believe that action involves a new government, that is your right, but for me, rather than a new government, it is new governance that I need. Keep your current ministers if you want. All of them, even, since they are your star team anyway. But give them a realistic direction, a vision, a horizon, a perspective based on studied elements and not on slogans and announcements. Control, monitor, and redirect or sanction the black sheep. None of your current ministers has ever been subjected to a real culture of performance and productivity with objectives and reports. Give them that opportunity if possible.

If you bring in new ones, which is your right, since it sounds punchier, I suggest this:

1. Submit the appointment of each minister and later each important personality to the approval of a joint parliamentary commission. Discretionary power has killed the energy of your previous decrees.

2. Organize cabinet meetings presided over by yourself. Preferably once a week, on Friday, before going to the village. Even if it’s once a month, that’s good. Your country is too complicated to leave it to guesswork, and you are better placed than anyone to know that even what is prepared by experts can evolve very quickly when tested against reality. Therefore, you must keep an eye on everything and everyone and maintain control at all times.

Later, you will think about truly implementing decentralization, which is a very good idea. Municipalities must have at least:

– waste management

– primary school management

– road management

– water management

Other measures are essential for us to truly reconcile.

But, alongside these long-term actions above, there are symbolic actions that constitute temporal markers. I already propose two or three specific measures that are within your reach:

– order a salary increase that can go up to doubling the lowest ones. The minimum wage should be 70,000 F in Cameroon.

– ensure that banks can lend money interest-free and with deferred repayment to young people and women for setting up projects,

– order the release of detainees sentenced to sentences of 60 months or less, as well as all detainees prosecuted following post-election demonstrations.

– order the release of all those convicted in the Anglophone crisis

– finally, order the release of all those convicted in Operation Sparrowhawk who have spent more than 15 years in detention.

If you do this, we will be friends again. But I believe that all of Cameroon will owe you a great debt of gratitude.

Thank you Pâ…”