Cameroonian youth deserve more in politics.

06/02/2023

Saturday is the 57th National Youth Day that will be celebrated as in the past with a political speech on the eve by President Paul Biya. It will be followed the next day by parades, cultural dances, singing and sporting activities throughout the country by young people.

The significance of the day has often been crowded with controversies particularly within the scholarship of historical thoughts among the people of the South West and North West regions. It started in the former West Cameroon as National Day, but in 1962, John Ngu Foncha, as West Cameroon’s Prime Minister at the time, recommended that it was befitting to dedicate West Cameroon’s National Day to its youth on whom the future state depended.

Truly the future belongs to the youth and as Cameroonian politicians often quote legendary Nelson Mandela, “Youths of today are the leaders of tomorrow”. 

But is there any evidence on the ground to indicate that Cameroonian youth are future leaders? 

What in the first place is a youth in Cameroon when they are not represented in the senate where before getting to the senate one has to be older than 40? Even in a government of some 64 members, is there even one member younger than 50, which is even retirement age for some professions in Cameroon?

What future do the youth in Cameroon have when they cannot have a land certificate in their name if they are not above 40?

Who really are the youth? Scholars and politicians are unanimous that there is no universally agreed international definition of the youth age group. For statistical purposes, however, the United Nations defines 'youth' as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years.

In Cameroon, people who are 40 are still passing as youth and young people from age 18 and 19 are disenfranchised from determining who rules them since voting age starts at 20, against the internationally democratic age of 18 and even less in some countries.

The irony is that youth under 20 are allowed to get married and even be recruited into the defence and security forces to use weapons of destructions, yet old politicians, who make the laws in their glib logic, say they are not matured at 18 or 19 to vote who governs them!

But other countries in Africa and the rest of the world are proving that youth are even leaders of today, not for the future given their energy, dexterity, verve and audacity to invigorate change, which are attributes hardly found in the status quo of the Cameroonian gerontocracy.

In nearby Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, 35, is the world's youngest national leader. He rose to power after a coup d'etat in September 2022 that forced former leader, Paul-Henri Damiba, out of office. Mahamat Déby, the transitional president of Chad, got to the helm of state at just 38, following his father's death. Although The Guardian Post does not support military takeovers or father-to-son transition in non-monarchies, the youth in power is, however, an illustration that youth can perform efficiently as Heads of State.

Elsewhere globally, Sanna Marin, now 37, became the youngest-ever Prime Minister of Finland at 34, while Nayib Bukele took over as the president of El Salvador at 38. The list of democratically elected young Heads of State around the world is long. Many are in their late 30s and early 40s, yet in Cameroon there is not a single government minister, director or governor within that age group.

Even among the ruling party, there are old people in their 40s still passing as section presidents of the ruling party or other elective posts in YCPDM.

So, how will the current leaders in the executive, legislative or the judiciary, who are in their eighties and niceties, give the youth the opportunity for a smooth transition? Even when in top government appointments, the retired old people are still being recycled and given jobs when unemployment among the youth is a time bomb.

In one of his Youth Day speeches, President Biya refereed to the youth as being of the Android generation. He was right, but paradoxically challenged them not to relegate agriculture as it is the backbone of Cameroon’s economic growth.

He has always urged the young people to work in close collaboration with the elderly population. But for that to happen, youth from age 18 should be allowed to vote. Retirement age should be respected and youth, who statistically are the vast majority of Cameroonians, should be appointed into top government offices as proof that they are "truly leaders of the future".

Those should be the innovation expected from President Biya as he addresses the youth, who, as leaders of the future, should be politically groomed from today to gain the "experience" so much cherished by the ruling party.