CPDM ridiculing Biya's living together policy!.

26/05/2023

The South Region where President Paul Biya hails from and least populated, is often criticised for being the most favoured and pampered in public appointments. It is supposed to be the most supportive of the policies of their son, President Biya, affectionately called “The Father of Living Together” policy.

That policy, which has become just a slogan, was amplified nationwide during activities to mark this year’s National Day celebration. It was also highlighted in a press conference organised by the Minister of Communication and Government Spokesman, Rene Emmanuel Sadi. 

He was flanked by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji and the President of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, NCPBM, Peter Mafany Musonge.

But before the effervescence of the presser during which hate speech and xenophobic practices were denounced and punitive sanctions expatiated could fizzle out, people of Bamoum, from the West Region and indigenes of Sangmelima, were at each other's throat.

According to various concordant media reports, there were violent clashes between Bulu and Bamoun communities in Sangmelima, Dja and Lobo Division of the South Region on Wednesday.

A business misunderstanding is said to have been at the origin of the dispute between a young indigenous trader and his partner from Noun Division.  

The trader's suspicious death sparked accusation with fingers pointing at his Bamoum partner who, the natives, taking the laws into their hands, attacked.

The tension dangerously flared as both sides were at daggers drawn, causing a standstill in economic activities and disruption of road traffic. Immediately alerted, the Governor of the South Region, Felix Nguele Nguele, rushed to Sangmelima to address the situation. 

The Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze and his counterpart of  Decentralisation and  Local Development, Georges Elanga Obam, also left their cozy offices and rushed to Sangmelima. 

It is not clear if any arrests were made as the violence followed the playback of some xenophobic attacks that have been made against people from other parts of the country in the Beti/Bulu geopolitical localities with unknown consequences.

On March 6 last year, the lifeless body of a native of Memve'ele, in the South Region, was found in a dam. The indigenes accused the Bamoun community living in Memve'ele who are mainly fishermen for the death.

Faced with the gravity of the accusation, representatives of the Bamoun community, while contesting the accusations made against their members, approached the indigenes for appeasement.

It was then that a group of furious locals vandalised and destroyed the canoes of Bamoun fishermen. They had also promised death to any Bamoun who would not leave Memve'ele after the burial of the deceased.

In panic, several members of the Bamoun community, fearing for their lives, were reported to have hastily fled to their various villages in Noun Division. 

The catalogue of xenophobic atrocities and hate speeches which have become recurrent continue to question President Biya's policy of living together, and above all the constitutional provision which gives every Cameroonian, and even foreigner, the freedom to live, work or do business wherever he/she finds self in Cameroon.

In January 2008 in Yaounde, during the riots against hunger, a government Minister publicly stigmatised the people of the West Region for being the originators. 

The same year in Akonolinga, the indigenous population was at daggers drawn with the people of Menoua Division of the West Region.

Another hotspot was in Obala in April 2019, when some members of the local communities were against compatriots of the Far North Region. The same year in October, the shops of several traders, mostly from the West and the North Regions, were ransacked. This, was following an accusation brought against the Bamoun community for the murder of a motorcycle rider.

The sad saga about the bizarre exhibition of hate or "people we do not like" is that they are mostly, if not exclusively, occurring in the Head of State's geopolitical constituency. 

Why do people who are known to vote predominately for the President not translate that vote into adhering to his policies and constitutional provision of freedom of residence?

Why are Cameroonians against each other? Why do they take the laws into their hands to administer kangaroo jungle justice on people who may be innocent?

Minister Atanga Nji, at the press conference with the Communication Minister last week accused “…unscrupulous politicians…for fuelling hate speech, xenophobia, unprecedented tribalism and stigmatisation of some ethnic groups with the aim of harvesting some political gains"..

Frontline opposition MRC leader, Prof Maurice Kamto, in reacting to the Memve'ele incident last year blamed "the complacent and complicit attitude of the administrative and political authorities of the party in power". 

He said the ruling party has "chosen to exploit tribalism and xenophobia for political and electoral purposes, in defiance of unity and national integration that they exalt all day long without any conviction".

The blame game has never been a solution to any problem. The cycles of political blood feuds, tribalism and vengeance, intertwined with deep-rooted, egoistic political interests and poverty are responsible for the xenophobic atrocities.

It is however the duty and responsibility of the government, not the opposition, to service excruciating sanctions to the perpetrators to deter others. 

But has government been doing that?