The visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Cameroon at the behest of President Paul Biya, has been seen by many as a redemptive move to salvage a relationship that had begun experiencing cracks. In this regard, the patronising attitude of the French President, particularly, during his first tenure, characterised by undisguised disdain for his Cameroonian counterpart, readily comes to mind. In all the seven years, he did not deem setting foot on Cameroonian soil a worthwhile enterprise, even as other less strategic partners enjoyed the privilege of welcoming him to their countries. Another aspect of his paternalistic bearing is his choice of first name relationship with President Biya, who is fit to be his grandfather. Indeed, his condescension knew no bounds as was seen in his reply to journalists who sought to know why he had not intervened in the matter of post-election incarceration of Maurice Kamto, the self-acclaimed winner of the 2018 presidential election. “I have told Paul Biya to release Maurice Kamto,” and true to the master-servant relationship, Kamto, was released shortly after.
As riposte to such irreverence, President Biya, began accentuating ties between Cameroon and China. Another aspect of calling off the French bluff can be seen in the recent diplomatic deftness that culminated in the military entente with Russia, despite the fact that President Biya when answering a question from a journalist, posited that it was merely a renewal of an existing accord. These moves, definitely, do not bode good tidings for the French, given Cameroon’s strategic location and stature in the Central African sub region. The romance between the Central African Republic and Russia too, is a cause for concern and should this drift continue inching its way into other countries of the sub region, French hegemony will, indubitably, capsize.
Such a diplomatic summersault is, definitely, not what should be courted by the French, especially, at this moment when the frenzy emergent from the quest to abrogate adhesion to the Franc CFA is assuming a worrisome pitch within the 12 countries in Central and West Africa, currently being suffocated by oppressive cooperation agreements signed upon accession to independence. Within this context, the necessity for a relationship that guarantees a win-win political and economic ecosystem becomes incontrovertible for the two countries. To this already perplexing atmosphere is the recent setback suffered by the ubiquitous Bollore, in Cameroon. The elimination of its clamp on the Cameroonian economy through Douala port is still a festering sore.
While admitting that such visits always elicit reactions with variegated complexions, some of which exude excesses that evoke loose grasp of the issues at stake, the need arises, also, to streamline their essence, such that only the most predominant are retained for discussion.
In this regard, the petrifying insecurity that currently envelopes the polity takes precedence over all other considerations. From Boko Haram in the Northern part of the country to the internecine skirmishes in the Northwest and Southwest regions with nationwide repecursions, and the inflections of renegade soldiers from the Central African Republic in the East, Cameroon is suffocating under gruesome insecurity challenges. Thus, the visit of Macron can be redemptive in the sense that material resources can be provided to fight Boko Haram and the renegade soldiers from the Central African Republic.
This of course raises the spectre of a felt need to review military cooperation between the two countries such that foreign threats will be issues of the past. Furthermore, in the case of the quasi civil war pitting separatist militia against the regular army, in the Northwest and Southwest regions, all the French President needs to do is, pressurize President Biya to see the need for a more inclusive dialogue, and why not, negotiations, as way forward to cessation of hostilities. Take it or leave it, the instability occasioned by the incessant killings of mostly youths that drain the vitality of the polity is, also, affecting French businesses as well as local initiatives that would have enhanced bilateral trade.
Oh, yes, because our perception of French grip on Cameroon is one in which whatever their president says holds as instruction to be enforced, we are not thinking of what is trending on our hierarchy of priorities. Issues like our continuous adherence to the suffocating edicts that bind us to the Franc CFA are not receiving the clamour that they deserve. Even though economic cooperation was one of the issues that received adequate attention, the lopsided relation in which French companies enjoy privileges that are not accorded Cameroonian businesses in France is a sore point that needed to be addressed. The political space is being overheated by requests for reparation for crimes committed by the French army in Cameroon during the pre-independence era. Granted that the families of victims of atrocities, particularly, UPC adherents deserve reparation, is this visit the appropriate vehicle for such a momentous yearning? We spend time quarrelling over mundane issues like the decision to meet the French community in Cameroon at Yannick Noah’s renovated family residence cum touristic resort.
The view taken here is that government’s decision to host the French President in such an outfit is in itself an innocuous measure that would not have required a second thought. After all, Cameroon’s rich culture was on display as well as providing a convivial setting to exchange views with the civil society. However, the fact that many innocent Cameroonians had their abodes sacrificed for the comfort of a few, just for a single day, brings to focus once more, our penchant for alienation of those who, ab initio, deserve special attention, given that those in authority are there because there are those who sacrificed their right to direct participation in governance to them. We react instead of being proactive.
Furthermore, whether we like it or not, the visit is a public relations highpoint for President Biya. After being snubbed for seven years, he has succeeded to make Cameroon the first country to be visited in Africa by President Macron, three months after his re-election for another seven-year mandate. Whatever that means, depends on the latter’s perception of success. If success connotes depletion of the nation’s wealth through revelry that makes no difference in the lives of the suffering masses, then there must be a rethink and restructuring of our priorities.
The losses incurred through disruption of business in Yaounde, and its snowball effect on the rest of the country, given our over-centralised system of administration, are such that evoke profligacy and disenfranchisement of the starving poor. Hired youths numbering no less than fifty thousand were used as objects to adorn the course through which the August visitor and his host were to cruise past. It is precisely this deification of ordinary mortals that makes us not to be efficient and effective in leadership. Has Mr. Biya in his 40 years of regular visits to France and Europe experienced the personality cult that he so much relishes.
In actual fact, an evaluation of the cumulative man-days lost in buffoonery that the so-called hectic welcome represents is food for thought. The hope is that during his planned meeting with Civil Society organisations, it dawned on him that there is an urgent and irrevocable need for France to support a peaceful transition in Cameroon. Such peaceful transition should not be tailored to suit their imperialistic inclination. It should rather be the outcome of free, fair and credible elections conducted under a serene atmosphere. What happened in Chad must not be given free rein in Cameroon. We are already inundated with political instability that has its root in misrule.
We cannot be seen to be deliberately inviting an outsider to bring more misery in the form of full-blown civil war, simply because a surrogate leader who kowtows to their whims has to be foisted on a sovereign state.