Biya needs less ministers, not more.

17/01/2023

There is evidence that President Paul Biya is likely to overload an already bloated government. 

For the 40 years that the CPDM government has been in power, it has been accused of being inclined to cronyism, nepotism and inertia that annihilate the desire to perform well.

In all those years, President Paul Biya is noted to have been reshuffling his team on average every two years usually after an election so as to replace deadwoods with invigorated ideas for peak performance.

After the last presidential election in October 2018, Paul Biya in 2019   slightly modified the structure of the government team retaining most of its members.

It was a surprise for all political observers who expected a big cleanup, especially after the fiasco which led to the postponement of the organisation of the African Cup of Nations, AFCON.

The new team was entrusted with the difficult mission of recovering a country undermined by a conflict in the North West and South West regions and Boko Haram in the Far North which posed serious economic and humanitarian consequences.

There problems remain unresolved till date.

So there have been numerous speculations about impending reshuffles.

Scandals surrounding the alleged embezzlement of money given by the IMF to fight COVID-19 pandemic and the construction of Olembe Sports Complex which political pundits thought would trigger a massive cabinet reshuffle since several ministers were reportedly implicated did not come to pass.

Last week's appointment of members of the board of directors for the National Institute of Statistics also revived the debate of a cabinet reshuffle.

In the decree of January 13, 2023, appointing members of the board of directors of the National Institute of Statistics, INS, Paul Biya revealed his intention to create a new "Ministry of Population Policy".

The decision of the President of the Republic is clearly apparent in Article 2 of the said decree, in which he indicates that the "Ministry in charge of Population Policies will have a representative on the Board of Directors of the INS, and that the Chairman of the said Board will be informed when the time comes".

This suggests the formation of a new government very soon.

Since the last government, some CPDM acolytes, their stooges from the presidential majority and even civil society advocates have lobbied to enter government in a reshuffle, others have prayed and even consulted soothsayers to be maintained.

But very often, the speculations and political gymnastics all wait in vain for a presidential decision which has not come.

But now there is some tangible evidence that it is in the making with the possible addition of a new ministry in an already bloated cabinet of some 64 members.

There is no question that with 64 portfolios, the government is too large to be effective given that there are possibilities of functions overlapping and creating unhealthy competition among ministers which does not augur well for a performing government.

Take the case of the Ministry of Decentralisation for instance which was carved out of Territorial Administration. Senior divisional officers continue to serve as "supervisory authority" of councils. 

What then is the role of the Decentralisation ministry if councils are answerable to those who work in a different ministry? Does that arrangement not create a conflict between the two ministries?

The President has in a few council of ministers’ meetings he holds, emphasised on cooperation and deplored inertia in government.

There have also been visible failure in several government actions such as delays in hosting African Nations Cup, lies concerning the ongoing conflict in the two English speaking regions and inability of some ministers to handle labour disputes in their ministries.

President Biya is known to have had to climb down from his high horse to resolve labour matters which some ministers and government corporations have failed to prevent strikes.

All that is indicative of a non-performing, fluffy and obsessed government needing to be trimmed down to size. Experience and research around the democratic world indicates that such oversized governments principally meant to reward bootlickers are not result oriented.

France whose population far outnumbers that of Cameroon and whose system the CPDM regime borrows much from has only 19 ministers including a prime minister and secretaries of state.

Next door Nigeria which is the leading economy in the continent has a population almost 10 times more than that of Cameroon but has just 34 ministers.

Senegal with similar francophone and population specificities has 32 ministries and is rated democratically and economically more progressive than Cameroon.

Are those not enough reasons for President Biya to cut the size of his government to ensure results, invigorated idea from a new team to take the country towards Vision 2035 rather than increasing the obesity in the system with no positive results to show for in terms of governance and socio-economic development?