Ex-Bar President tells Biya: Improve governance to avoid ongoing ‘wind of change’.

The celebrated international lawyer and politician stated this in an open letter addressed to the Head of State.

In his epistle to President Biya, a copy of which The Guardian Post obtained, the senior legal counsel at the International Criminal Court, reminded the Head of State that: “Today, a new wind is blowing stronger than the one from the East…It's coming from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and to some extent neighbouring Gabon. What are you waiting for? To jump on the bandwagon of change?”

The onetime frontline supporter of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, wrote in his piece to Biya that: “This wind demands respect and consideration for the sovereignty of our young state long subjected to colonial yoke, respect for the human values, rights and freedoms that nations have recognised for mankind”.

Simple change to improve way of life

In what appeared as a pro bono counsel to the Head of State, Barrister Yondo Black stated that: “A simple change in our mode of governance is all it takes to improve our way of life”. 

He said: “For now and without mimicry, this change invites you to get closer to the sovereign people from whom you hold your power, see and listen to them. You're so far away from them that you don't know to whom to turn to for solutions to their problems”.

“You remain immersed in a lethargy that you end up wondering in Cameroon, who governs,” he said, stating that “the questions are many…your compatriots don't know where to turn to for solutions to their numerous challenges”.

He then rhetorically questioned: “From whom do they expect the solution to their problems if not from you, in a country that you have politically placed in a presidential regime that borders on monarchy, arrogating to you in practice the exercise of all powers (executive, legislative, judicial)”. 

Absence of roads no match to country’s riches

He said the absence of the Head of State, “wherever the sovereign people would be proud to see you holding the banner is worrying. What do you do with the happy days?”.

Yondo Black regretted that: “As the saying goes, where a road passes, development follows…the country, 60 years after its accession in the concert of nations, has no roads to match its means”.

“Mr President, when you watch the TV and see your senior civil servants, all senior administrators on official outings, with their state-of-the-art cars, mired in lakes that have been improvised in the in the pavement of never-maintained roads and getting out of their vehicles from their vehicles in full regalia and begging people to help push their cars, aren’t you ashamed?,” he questioned.

Cameroon in misery despite riches

Stating further his submission, Yondo Black said Cameroon has the potential of being a leading nation in the world.

He cited amongst others, “minerals of all kinds that would make several countries in the world envious”.

He regretted that despite the natural wealth, the country is bathed in misery. 

“Mr. President, you don't understand all this because you live so far from the realities of the country, a country you never visit,” he stated.

Criticises Biya for not visiting Mbankolo landslide site 

The man of law also added that: “Look at what has just happened in Mbankolo…Elsewhere, it would be the Head of State himself who would travel to be the privileged witness to the story and show how saddened he is to see”. 

He furthered that in 40 years in power: “We have never felt your effective presence in the face of the disasters that have plunged the country into mourning.”

“You seem to view all this from a distance with both disdain and contempt. Is your place that of a Head of State in a democratic republic…?”, he questioned.

Insecurity alarming

He lamented that “insecurity is a taboo subject, because the absence of state authority has made everything possible. Our towns and villages have become a jungle where only the strongest, the cleverest and the most vicious make the law”.

Yondo Black also argued that President Biya has, “simply been overtaken by a mafia system of your own making…”.