No excuse for unfilled vacancies in state portfolios.

Easily one of the most capped personalities of the CPDM regime, Prof Owona died as one of the serving members of the Constitutional Council. Before then, the man from the same South Region as the Head of State, served in several apex positions in the country such as Director of IRIC, Chancellor of the University of Yaounde, Minister of the Civil Service, Minister of Higher Education, Secretary General of the Presidency, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of State Control, Minister of Public Health, Minister of National Education, Minister of Youth and Sports, President of FECAFOOT Normalisation Committee. He was also a member of the Central Committee of the CPDM.
Prof Owona has left another empty seat at the Central Committee of the ruling party, and the Constitutional Council, to add to some other five that have been fallowing in the government and more recently at the Investment Promotion Agency. The Agency's first General Manager, Marthe Angeline Minja, passed on in Morocco, last December.
Others whose obituaries are recent history include another pillar of the Biya regime, former vice Prime Minister, Ahmadou Ali, who passed on in Switzerland.      His death added to that of the Secretary of State for Public Health, Sultan Alim Hayatou; Minister Delegate in the Ministry of External Relations in charge of Relations with the Islamic World, Adoum Gargoum; Minister Delegate in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Clementine Ananga Messina, and the Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development and Vice Chair of Cameroon Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, Committee, Gabriel Dodo Ndoke. Minister Dodo Ndoke died on January 21, 2023, at the CNPS Hospital in Yaounde.
There are others in the legislative realm of state who have died, but no elections have been conducted to replace them.

Replacing legislators who have been called to glory is, however, a complex situation, as it requires an electoral process which is often in contention and could trigger violence. But that is, nonetheless, no excuse for unfilled vacancies in a country where unemployment has been classified as a time bomb.
Nevertheless, a government with five ministerial vacancies begging to be filled raises eyebrows. The positions remain empty, despite many predictions of a sweeping reshuffle in a country that is confronted with challenges in every sphere of public life.
It has been the tradition for President Paul Biya to reshuffle his cabinet after every election, but since the 2018 presidential polls, later the municipal and legislative elections in 2020, and senatorial elections in April 2023, speculations about a new government have been rife.
Following the COVID-gate scandals in which some 15 members of government were grilled by the investigators of the Special Criminal Court, and some found to have sold gifts to government at inflated prices, questionable contracts awarded and medications ordered in India rebranded as made in Cameroon, in order to rip off, transparency civil society watchdogs had expected that those suspected of being implicated in the scandals would be replaced to face the sword of justice.
So, why has there not been a reshuffle, even if it is just to replace the five members of government who have passed on? Does it mean their functions were not even relevant? If it is because those acting for the dead ministers are performing satisfactorily, would it not mean the regime was overloaded with positions that need to be trimmed to size in a reshuffle to cut costs? If there was no need for the positions they hold, why were they appointed in the first place?
Will cutting down the size of the government not tally with President Biya’s declaration in his end-of-year address "to reduce recurrent expenditure"?
Whatever the answers, it has been said time without number that the CPDM government is too bloated to be effective. The government has also been criticised as being laden with inertia and lack of collaboration among some members.
But as long as the portfolios remain and the dead members not replaced, it gives the impression of a government short of vision.
In politics, like in management, every post has a job description. To continue to operate a government with five shouting vacancies leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth, especially when there is escalating unemployment and some Divisions grumbling aloud that they are not represented in government.
While The Guardian Post prays for the repose of the souls of the five members of government and other Biya regime barons who have gone to rest in the Lord, we hope the vacuum created should trigger a sweeping cabinet reshuffle sooner than later.