Society

CEMAC can't promote internet governance with shutdowns.

The 2023 Central African Internet Governance Forum, which ended in Yaounde last Friday, focused on how to have better internet connectivity in the Central African Subregion, through the provision of efficient internet services in terms of quality, wider coverage, online protection and infrastructure.
Addressing participants, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng, called on member states of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, CEMAC, to step up efforts towards improving development-based digital growth and inclusive internet space in the sub-region.

Minister Li Likeng praised the efforts made by Central African countries in pushing forward the Subregion’s agenda of tackling challenges faced by internet governance and the development of the digital industry in the zone.

She emphasised the need for more of such efforts to be made to address issues linked to cyber criminality.

“This forum was to enable the different members of the Central African states to reflect on how to succeed in having a strong Subregional digital inclusivity which entails an inter-connectivity among member states,” the minister told reporters.

“As we all know, the former economic systems we had in place have not been fruitful for our economies as a Subregion. That is the reason we believe that Information and Communication Technology, ICT, is a link that is going to oblige us to do more because we do not have a choice but to be interconnected,” Minister Li Likeng explained.

She cited Cameroon as an ICT leader in the Subregion and added that the country has already made strides in developing the digital sector not only nationally but internationally through connections with its various neighbours.

“...Cameroon has been able to get connected with all its neighbouring countries in the Subregion. What we need to do now is to be able to protect the country from the risks that can come out of those connections, including online dangers,” she added.

“Cameroon as a country has a National Development Strategy but that cannot be successful if the country is not interconnected with other countries,” she said.

It is that interconnectivity that has made the world a "global village". But for CEMAC countries, like any others in the world, to derive those economic, commercial educational and other amenities provided through the Information and Communication Technologies platforms, it should not use internet as a political weapon.

The paradox, however, is that countries in the CEMAC Subregion hold the spiteful record of being notorious for internet shutdowns.

Internet Without Borders, in a recent report pointed out that of the seven countries to have shutdown interment in the continent, four are from the CEMAC zone.

The blacklist is made up of the governments of Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Gambia, Mali, Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, that have interrupted access to all or part of their countries.

"The common thread between these shutdowns is a tensed political context, in a continent where calls for democracy are expressed by a growing number of citizens," the report detailed.

The case of Cameroon is particularly bleak, given that it has the longest shutdown in Africa -94 days; from January 17, 2017, to April 20, 2017; in the North West and South West Regions. That eclipse cost the economy of the country as estimated by Internet Without Borders, 2.7 billion FCFA.

The then Minister of Communication and Government Spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, explained that “…the Government of the Republic reserves the right to prevent the Internet from being used to incite hatred and discord between Cameroonians or to create disturbances to public order”.

In its report, Internet Without Borders said the Cameroonian Government was using Internet access "as a tool to muzzle the free expression of citizens and the free flow of information".

The United Nations opposes governments that intentionally disrupt its citizens’ access to the internet because it violates the human right to freedom of speech and information access.

“The same rights people have offline must also be protected online,” notes the United Nations.

Cameroon, as Minister Li Likeng said at the CEMAC forum in Yaounde, “...is aiming to become a place where ICT development starts before reaching other countries in the Subregion. This is a key element for Cameroon’s 2035 emergence plan. The digital economy plays a key role in the emergence of countries”.

To achieve that noble objective, Cameroon and other CEMAC member countries must recognise that access to internet is a public good, superior to political contingencies.