2025 elections: Administrators not soothsayers to predict chaos by opposition!.

A decade along the line, that freedom has been in question, including freedom of assembly, which is enshrined in the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Cameroon is a signatory.

Truth be told, there is some level of freedom, not only of the press but of association, which are the bedrocks of democracy. 

But some overzealous administrators, influenced by pseudo-ruling party politicians, have put those cherished democratic values in the shadows of conflicting government actions.

At the last Governor’s Conference in Yaounde, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, warned that:  "These people in the opposition, you must be humble and speak in measured tones", adding that the 10 governors have been instructed to "stop" any pre-election disorder.

The opposition was even warned for calling for a review of the Electoral Code, considered as engineered to favour the ruling party candidates.

Following the governor's meeting, which was ambiguous in explaining what constitutes "public disorder" or "measured tones", Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent, SDO of Mfoundi Division, seat of the national capital, issued a controversial statement last Tuesday, threatening to expel those “who would incite an uprising” in his jurisdiction.

The contentious statement raised hell, questioning his competence to accuse, prosecute and sentence his convicts by banishing them out of the national capital.

The myriads of criticisms of the administrator's fiat, which is at variance with the constitution that guarantees the rights of everyone to reside in any part of the country, and the CPDM policy of "living together", ignited criticisms across the board.

Communication Minister and Government Spokesman, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, hurriedly stepped in to douse the flames.

In a statement, the minister wrote that: “Cameroonians can express themselves without any fear, approve or disapprove of the action of public authorities, make their points of view known on all issues relating to the life of the nation”.

The freedom, thanks to President Biya, he explained, is the “evolution” of the country in the area of freedoms “after long years of monolithisism”.

The Guardian Post joins other lovers of freedoms, democracy and the rule of law, to appreciate the minister's declaration, which contradicts those of overzealous administrators.

We recognise that in a democracy, citizens should not swallow hook, line and sinker, any decision taken by the government, especially when they consider it to infringe on their inalienable rights of free speech and association.

Such freedom, however, should not incite violence. Where it does, there are draconian laws in the country to arrest and subject suspects to a judicial trial, which can also be challenged when civilians are taken to military tribunals for offences that universally fall under the jurisdictions of civil courts.

But is that what happens in Cameroon?  Has President Biya, a legalist, ever complained of being insulted?If that happens, should he not be the person to take the suspect to the National Communication Council or to court as stipulated by law?

Do some administrators roll crystal balls to predict a political party meeting or even a press conference in a small hall will breach public order as they have said to proscribe some opposition meetings?

There is no qualm that government officials, ruling party politicians and administrators, are in the CPDM fan club. They cheer the Head of State and his institutions at every turn and twist. It is their right.

But they should concede, democratically, that many of the institutions are faltering and embedded with corruption, embezzlement and underperformance. 

Electricity supply, drinking water, bad roads pruned to accidents and youth unemployment, due to a bad educational policy. 

That bitter truth to the regime, does not amount to "insulting" the Head of State and the institutions he "incarnates".

Socrates insists in The Republic that the power of dialectic alone can reveal the truth. 

Bravo to communication minister, Rene Sadi, for reiterating President Biya's commitment to freedoms to disagree with what they consider to be propaganda, not fact, nor truth.

But if they cross the red line to "incite disorder", which only a court of justice can determine, not a DO, an SDO, Governor or minister, the suspects should be arraigned in the courts. 

Administrators are not soothsayers or Pentecostal prophets to prophesise about doom as a pretext to curtail freedoms, especially in an election era where divergent opinion and manifestoes are traded to the electorate.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3176 of Monday July 22, 2024