The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Yaoundé is in its 41-year plus in power amid a sea of broken political, economic and social promises.

Biya was ushered in with grandiose promises of economic prosperity and stability for the United Republic of Cameroon. However, after 41 years, it has become painfully evident that the so-called University of Sorbonne graduate remains a prominent and successful failure and his rigour and moralization policies have also been unfulfilled and has left Cameroon a divided nation with an economy that is in a state of continuous deterioration.

In his New Year address to the nation, Biya and his gang simply plagiarized his past speeches and the 2024 presentation to the people of Cameroon was an empty economic promise unveiled by a 91-year-old grand dad who should be in a care home in Mvomeka’a.

For 41 years, the Francophone dictator and his Francophone dominated regime have presented an array of promises spanning domestic and international matters, raising hopes for a brighter economic future in both French and English speaking Cameroon. Unfortunately, the passage of time has revealed these promises to be empty and baseless, perpetuating a shameful, disgusting and disheartening trend within the Biya administration. The Biya regime politics is all about money, women and sex including sponsoring irresponsible children in funny academic institutions abroad.

Nothing good can be attributed to Mr. Biya and his government. Immediately after Joseph Dion Ngute was appointed Prime Minister and Head of Government, Yaoundé told the world that the new Dion Ngute administration would bring down inflation. It was the same story with all the numerous Southern Cameroons prime ministers: Peter Mafany Musonge, Inoni Ephraim, and Philemon Yang.  However, the harsh reality is that inflation is skyrocketing and escalating and Cameroonians are dying like flies.  

Low-income households in both French and English speaking Cameroon have borne the brunt of Biya’s 41 years of economic failures, with housing rents and essential food items experiencing the most significant price hikes.

We of the Cameroon Intelligence Report and the Cameroon Concord News are of the opinion that the most important outcome of the 41-year rule of the Biya administration has been the collapse of the Cameroonian society with medical doctors now telling us that HIV is like malaria.

The French have been helping the Yaoundé regime to manage its budget deficit by printing money and borrowing from French financial establishments. The Biya government and by extrapolation-the Cameroonian people after 41-years actually owe the French thousands of billions of dollars.

For 41-years, Cameroonians have gone through everything name them: escalating prices, devaluation of the FCFA, Lake Nyos, Eseka train disaster, poverty, disease, genocides, Nsam fire disaster, diminishing incomes, rapes, political assassinations, rigged elections and by some strange happenstance, none of these ills fueled public discontent against Biya in French Cameroun.

For 41-years, Biya has continuously appointed his Beti-Bulu kinsmen who lack qualifications and experience to key positions. This questionable decision-making has undeniably contributed to the worsening economic situation in both French and English speaking Cameroon and has encouraged many who had hoped for competent leadership to leave the country. This begs the question: For how long are we going to continue watching these Francophone criminals destroy our future generation?  

The stark reality is that all of the political, economic and social promises made when Biya took office on November 6, 1982 remain unfulfilled.  Addressing these challenges will require not only a new and effective leadership but also a commitment to transparency, accountability, and competent governance.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Hello Cameroon Concord People,

Thanks to you, 2023 was a year of unprecedented effectiveness and major successes for the Concord Group. Our ability to cover events everywhere and the reporting speed of our correspondents in all ten regions have been up to the challenges and dramatic events around Cameroon. We informed the world that there is genocide going on in Southern Cameroons and we told the EU and the UN that both journalists Samuel Wazizi and Martinez Zogo were killed by state agents. I thank you very sincerely.

Ever since we moved our editorial office from Essen in Germany to London in the United Kingdom, we resolved not to bother our readers with New Year resolutions. But we opted for New Year predictions and we were right with Minister Amadou Ali, Hon. Lifaka, Sultan Mbombo Njoya, Gervais Mendo Ze and Mayor Patrick Ekema.

We are already in 2024 so who are the politicians to die this year? Which African country would win the Africa Cup of Nations? Interestingly, our London Bureau Chief Isong Asu says that our focus should be on the most notable obituaries to read in 2024. Correspondingly, the 91-year-old Biya has wrong footed us again and again! But this 2024, he will not.

We of the Cameroon Intelligence Report and the Cameroon Concord News enjoy making predictions! But we are also aware that prediction is an unforgiving art. Sometimes, outcomes that you might expect such as the demise of an evil man like President Biya may turn out to be wrong. However, one of our readers in Leicester in the United Kingdom noted rightfully that faulty predictions can be helpful and also entertaining.

So here is what we of the Concord Group have set out as 2024 predictions! We also expect you to identify which of our predictions will turn out to be untrue on December 31st 2024.

Biya will win another presidential election and die in office.

After staging the election that will keep Biya in power, Minister Paul Atanga Nji will suffer a massive stroke and will die in a hospital in France.

Minister Ayang Luc of the so-called Economic and Social Council will move into his new mansion that has cost the Cameroonian tax payer hundreds of millions of FCFA and will die of an undisclosed illness in Yaoundé.  

Chief Dr. Dion Ngute will be replaced as prime minister and head of government due to underperformance.

Minister Laurent Esso has led the ruling CPDM government to its last journey of many dangers—-the Martinez Zogo affair! He will receive his P45 this 2024.

Hon. Rose Abunaw, having been MP for both the CPDM and UNDP political parties will make a comeback into active politics in Yaoundé.

Write to us at cameroonconcordnews@gmail.com with your own predictions. Happy New Year!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Fellow Cameroonians,

My Dear Compatriots,

Over the past year which is drawing to an end, our country has been faced with numerous challenges.

Some of them result from an increasingly difficult international context. Others are due to purely domestic issues, most of which are long-standing.

I would like to start by assuring you that in spite of this difficult situation, we continued to cope, together, like the united and close-knit Nation that we have always been, our eyes riveted on a single objective, the only one that matters, namely progress.

As in the past, the said international context weighed heavily on our internal situation.

The lingering war in Eastern Europe continued to disrupt the supply channels of the global consumer products market.

Foodstuff and energy resource prices thus continued to rise as the conditions for accessing external financing tightened.

The resurgence, last October, of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict worsened the rifts within the international community and is now monopolizing its attention.

As expected, such a situation adversely impacted our country. It led to a general price hike in consumer products and, consequently, the cost of living. It also resulted in various types of shortages, including a shortage of petroleum products.

My Dear Compatriots,

The difficulties that I have just mentioned in no way dampened my resolve to work for the well-being of our people, who, without any doubt, massively trusted and continue to trust me.

Despite the unfavourable context, the Government, under my authority, continued its action with greater determination.

The laudable efforts made following the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure economic recovery yielded appreciable outcomes. The resilience of our economy was confirmed.

Proof of this, is our growth rate which continued to progress and was estimated at 3.9% in 2023, thanks notably to the performance of the non-oil sector.

The consumption support measures implemented by Government helped to contain and stabilize inflation at about 6.7%.

The implementation of various projects was continued or launched to meet the aspirations of the people and improve their wellbeing.

I would like to dwell for a moment on the most sensitive sectors.

The Project to Supply Drinking Water to the City of Yaounde and its Environs from the River Sanaga is virtually completed. Its imminent commissioning   will help to substantially reduce the drinking water deficit in the city of Yaounde.

Studies on the Project to Supply Drinking Water to the City of Douala and its Environs are well advanced. In the long term, the city will be supplied an additional 400 thousand cubic metres of water daily.

Moreover, the Government has embarked on upgrading drinking water production stations in several secondary towns, namely Dschang, Yabassi, Garoua-Boulai, etc.

The requisite efforts will continue to be deployed to rehabilitate and extend the distribution networks of this precious resource in our towns and villages to make it more accessible to households.

Major strides were also made in the electricity sector to reduce our country’s energy deficit.

About 44 thousand solar panels have been installed in the three northern regions, covering 40% of electricity needs in the said regions.

The 420-megawatt Nachtigal Dam will be commissioned in the coming days.

The Lom Pangar Dam-toe plant will also be operational in 2024. It will help to increase energy supply in the town of Bertoua and its environs.

Several other hydropower facility projects are also planned or being launched. These include the Kikot, Minkouma, Grand Eweng and Bini à Warak dams.

In the long term, the installed capacity of all these facilities will secure our country’s electric energy self-sufficiency. Additionally, it will make us reach the enviable status of electricity-exporting country.

My Dear Compatriots,

I am aware of the extent to which the frequent water and electricity cuts are impacting your daily life and disrupting your activities.

I can assure you that the Government is sparing no effort to improve the situation in these core sectors.

I have instructed my Office to ensure celerity in administrative procedures and in sourcing for related financing by the relevant ministries.

The same instructions have been given with respect to the need to improve the situation of our road infrastructure.

As you must be aware, this problem is at the core of my concerns. The related challenges are multiple, the most acute of them being the inadequacy of financial resources. 

However, I am pleased to note that we are also making relentless progress in this sector.

I am therefore satisfied that, during this year ending, over 700 kilometres of roads were asphalted or rehabilitated nationwide. Several related highway engineering structures were also built in the process.

Construction works on the Lékié loop, as well as the Kumba-Ekondo Titi and Babadjou-Bamenda roads are ongoing   and will be continued at a satisfactory pace.

Regarding the Ebolowa-Kribi road, negotiations with donors, which for long were stalled by environmental issues, are finally being concluded. All the requisite measures will be taken to ensure that the construction of this road, so eagerly awaited by the populations concerned, effectively starts in 2024.

I recently issued instructions for the rehabilitation of the Ngaoundere-Garoua road. Negotiations are also ongoing with our financial partners for the completion of construction works on the Mora-Dabanga-Kousseri road and the rehabilitation of the Edea-Kribi and Douala-Bafoussam roads.

The repair of urban road networks is continuing in the towns of Maroua and Ngaoundere. The related programme will extend to other regional headquarters.

Motorway projects will not be left out during the coming year with, particularly, the launching of the construction of the urban section of the Yaounde-Nsimalen motorway and that of Phase 2 of the Yaounde-Douala motorway.

Additionally, faced with the worsening situation, I have instructed the Government to urgently find a lasting solution to the problem of household garbage collection in our cities, in collaboration with Councils and City Councils.

Fellow Cameroonians,

My Dear Compatriots,

Over the past weeks, you were faced with a shortage of petroleum products, suffering many inconveniences as a result. To address this situation, I have instructed the Government to take urgent measures to ensure constant supply of the market.

However, the challenges in the sector are broader and more complex.

You must be aware that to maintain pump prices of fuel at their current levels, which are far below those in neighbouring countries, the State has to make huge financial sacrifices to subsidize petroleum product imports.

The burden of these subsidies weighs heavily on our budget and significantly reduces the much-needed resources to address other problems facing our people.

Last year, the Government increased slightly the pump prices of fuel.

As a result, the subsidy on petroleum products decreased from over 1 000 billion CFA francs in 2022 to around 640 billion CFA francs in 2023.

However, this subsidy continues to weigh heavily on public coffers.

Though we will most certainly have no choice but to reduce it further, we will ensure that the requisite adjustments do not significantly impact the purchasing power of households.

Ultimately, the rehabilitation of SONARA, which must be expedited as I have instructed, should help to improve the situation in this sector.

My Dear Compatriots,

Despite the Government’s goodwill, it is clear that the implementation of various projects to meet our people’s aspirations faces a major impediment, namely inadequacy of the required financial resources.

This is why I have repeatedly ordered the Government to streamline public spending and find new ways and means of boosting public resources.

Regarding the reduction of public spending, I have strongly reiterated my previous instructions to the Government to reduce recurrent expenditure.

Actions implemented to combat corruption and misappropriation of public funds are essential for protecting public resources. They will be intensified in the coming year.

The Three-Year Integrated Import Substitution Plan for 2024-2026, which I have instructed the Government to implement, is also part of my effort to enable our country to save on its precious resources.

This plan should help to reduce the negative impact of imports on our trade balance by strengthening our food sovereignty. Its deficit is estimated at just over 1 500 billion CFA francs per year.

To increase public resources, there is a need to explore new avenues, given the constraints of broadening the tax base and the slump in oil revenue.

In this regard, solid minerals, especially old, appear to be an excellent niche for financial resources.

Our country is richly endowed with   mineral resources that need to be exploited.

I am delighted that the mining projects I announced last year for the development of the Kribi-Lobé, Bipindi-Grand Zambi, and Mbalam-Nabeba iron ore deposits have been launched.

Improving the business climate is clearly a prerequisite for attracting foreign investment and creating a robust private sector that should facilitate our transition to emergence through dynamic job and wealth creation.

Trust in the judicial system is inevitable for  perception of the business climate. As you are aware, the judiciary is one of the pillars of the rule of law.

Therefore, it is imperative that it should act with complete impartiality and should be impervious to any manner of interference. I would like to assure you that, as guarantor of its independence, I will continue to take all the requisite measures to ensure its proper functioning.

My Dear Compatriots,

Allow me to say a few words about the national education sector. Despite the Government’s efforts, calm has not been fully restored therein.

Yet, according to stakeholders, the Government has made commendable efforts in this regard.

In addition to the various types of measures taken by the relevant ministries, more than 72 billion CFA francs was disbursed in 2023 to cover related expenses.

An additional amount of 102 billion CFA francs has also been provided in the State budget for the 2024 financial year to cover residual expenditure.

Therefore, it will be difficult for us to accept that a handful of teachers, who seem to have ulterior motives, should continue to hold our children’s education hostage.

Let me be clear on this issue. As much as I am committed to ensuring that teachers practise their noble profession under appropriate conditions, I am equally uncompromising about respect for the right of our young people to education. Strong measures will be taken to ensure that our children do not fall victim to substandard education.

Constructive dialogue will also be pursued with the recognized trade unions to address the aspirations and concerns of teachers in a peaceful manner.

My Dear Compatriots,

Regarding safety, numerous road accidents continue to plunge families into mourning and rob the country of precious human resources.

I want to make it clear that this is unacceptable! Once again, I appeal to the sense of responsibility of drivers and bus service operators. All necessary measures must be taken to ensure the safety of passengers and other road users.

The Government, for its part, will not only step up efforts to improve the state of the road network, but will also rigorously apply the necessary preventive and repressive measures.

My Dear Compatriots,

Thanks to the people’s active cooperation with our defence and security forces, the situation in the North-West, South-West and Far-North Regions has improved significantly.

It is now possible to calmly implement the reconstruction and development plans for the said regions.

However, atrocities committed by terrorists have not completely disappeared. Unfortunately, civilians are the main victims.

On 6 November 2023, the town of Mamfe was the scene of a barbaric massacre of some twenty civilians in the middle of the night.

I strongly condemn such atrocities, which defy reason and have no justification whatsoever.

I encourage our fellow citizens in the regions affected by terrorism to continue to cooperate with the defence and security forces, whose courage and professionalism I salute.

I reiterate my appeal to armed groups to lay down their arms and join Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Centres. I am pleased to note that an increasing number of these combatants have responded to this call in recent weeks.

For those who persist in criminal activity, be it terrorism or organized crime, the fate that awaits them is not an enviable one. They must know that our firm determination to ensure the security of our fellow citizens will never falter.

Fellow Cameroonians,

My Dear Compatriots,

In a few weeks, our beloved Indomitable Lions will participate in the 34th Edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire. On behalf of you all, I would like to encourage and urge them to defend our country’s flag with courage and honour, as they have in the past.

I wish you all a Happy New Year, 2024.

Long Live the Republic!

Long live Cameroon!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2024, to the Valiant people of Ambazonia

The feel of the Season is once more upon us. The glory of the Lord has manifested itself one more time, through another year. Twelve months have blown past us and it feels like yesterday. It is difficult for me to say this, especially given where we were this time last year. The circumstances we find ourselves may be trying and tempting but we remain hopeful.

When so many around us are burdened with fear and uncertainty, I invite you to make room for the brothers & sisters who now are struggling to understand the ultimate reason for our fight, for the liberation and independence of our people. No gifts will mean as much as acts of pure love that you offer to the rejected, the worn down and the weary. Please notice and take care of the needy of the struggle.

We have watched the days turn into weeks, months, and years. It is understandable for some to count these years as lost time and lost opportunities. But we have chosen to quantify and qualify these days, weeks, months, and years in terms of our determination and commitment to our cause of freedom and liberty. We are on a quest for the unique feeling of belonging to a homeland wherein all are valued and dear ones can strive to bring out the best in themselves. This is the feeling of ultimate happiness that only the certainty of our fatherland can produce. We are fighting to give our children and theirs a nation that they can call their own; something which none of us now can say within LRC.

As we look forward to spending the sixth and seventh Christmas in the pursuit of this unique endeavor, we should take time to contemplate not only on the purpose but also on the course of our journey. For our purpose, I can assure you that it has never been clearer and brighter. For the course, we remain steadier, sturdier and more resolute than ever.

Now, to each member of our fight for freedom I say: Stay on the covenant path. Whether you are moving along the path or have slipped from it or you can’t see the path from where you are, I plead with you to remain steadfast. Your commitment to doing what is right, by making covenants with our people and then keeping those covenants will open the door to every spiritual blessing available to the people of Ambazonia.

Amid the internal division, sibling-rivalry, confusion, power-tussle and contradictions, we need to work tirelessly and ceaselessly to build bridges of understanding rather than creating walls of further division and internal conflict. More than ever before, we need unity of purpose. I plead with us all to work together for peace, for mutual respect and for an outpouring of love for all of Ambazonia’s children.

With this joyful hope and an abundant spirit of gratitude, I join hands with our mothers & fathers, all Prisoners of Conscience & War, and all Ambazonians to wish you the best in this very festive season, full of cheer and blessing. In this same spirit, I pledge and recommit myself to you, to the fight for Homeland and for the freedom and liberation of Ambazonia. With this spirit and in this spirit, I extend my appreciation & gratitude for all what you have been doing, for all that you have done and for what you will continue to do and be for the people of Ambazonia. The foot-of-the-mountain (Buea) beacons at the near horizon.

Sisiku AyukTabe

Kondengui Principal Prison, Yaoundé.

Soter Agbaw-Ebai, chairman and editor-in-chief of the Cameroon Concord Group has said that Paul Biya’s 41 years at the head of the Cameroonian nation has to end.

In a presentation today in Dublin, Ireland on the hydra headed political situation in Yaoundé, Soter Agbaw-Ebai stated that there is a ghost president in Cameroon and a pretended government.

Agbaw-Ebai furthered that an intellectual coup d’etat has already taken place in Yaoundé and he wondered aloud when the physical coup d’etat will take place, adding that the overwhelming majority of Cameroonians agree.

Soter Agbaw-Ebai told the sell-out crowd that Biya is naked and Cameroon is naked.  He stated that the new generation of Cameroonians has the right to see a new head of state.  

Soter Agbaw-Ebai, a former Yaoundé City Correspondent with The Herald Newspaper in the 90s said “Cameroon has a Paul Biya problem and that for 41 years of Biya’s rule, Cameroonians have been sitting in a car that has a puncture in all four tyres.”

Agbaw-Ebai also doesn’t think Biya and his Francophone dominated military will be able to eliminate Ambazonia Restoration Forces. He told the Irish present that both sides must end the war properly, stressing that it was up to Southern Cameroonians and their jailed leaders to handle the aftermath of the conflict as a united people.

Agbaw-Ebai opined that moderate French Cameroun political elites should start talking to the Ambazonian leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and that the jailed Southern Cameroons leaders should be in the driving seat.   “The idea that only Southern Cameroonians who have served in the Biya regime can do the trick isn’t going to work” Agbaw-Ebai submitted.

By Isong Asu on Special assignment in Dublin

Judging from all political gossips in the nation’s capital Yaoundé, it is evidently clear that Biya still wants to hang on. Biya is 91 and if Cameroonians are not deceiving themselves, can a 91-year-old man be enthusiastic about developing a country?

The time to make room for the youngest, for new ideas and for other experiences has come and the new commanders of the Presidential Guards and the Rapid Intervention Battalion must embrace it!

Since Biya and his generation have refused to accept their well-deserved role as retired senior citizens, we of the Concord Group are of the opinion that the military should stage a coup and restore the dignity of the Cameroonian nation.

Meeting with the new Gabonese leader General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema on Wednesday in Yaoundé, Biya showed multiple signs of fatigue, dragging his words, getting bogged down in his sentences, getting lost in his statements. Biya has gotten enough and he should go and go now!

If Biya decides to run in the 2025 presidential election, it will be mainly because of the crimes he and his kinsmen have committed against several innocent Cameroonian families.

Biya’s outing in Moscow during the Russia-Africa Summit demonstrated the risk posed by people in their 80s and 90s – who cling.

Corruption is everywhere and blood is spilling on town and city streets from crime the Biya hardliners are not fighting.

No fresh ideas coming from even the Western-trained Francophone political elite. Almost everywhere in Cameroon is the same. But Biya and his gang are only ensuring that he will be unstoppable in 2025.

Luckily, younger military leaders are popping up all over Africa including the one Biya received on Wednesday at the so-called Unity Palace.

So who is that presidential guard commander in Yaoundé who is willing to come to the rescue of the Cameroonian nation?

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The recent change of tactics by the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military in Southern Cameroons is not an honorable decision – it’s a capitulation. Biya and his Francophone political elites have already lost the war in Southern Cameroons.

The best Yaoundé can hope for is exit talks with the Ambazonia Interim Government and this will be after Biya with a promise that the two Cameroons will remain together under a federated structure.

After more than 6 years of conflict, with at least 8,000 civilians including some 4000 army soldiers killed and hundreds more injured or exiled in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, none of the objectives set out by the 90-year-old dictator following his declaration of war against the English speaking peoples of Southern Cameroons has been met. In short, Biya has lost the war in Southern Cameroons, and lost badly.

The Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces have stepped up their campaign against Cameroon government institutions and are now staging attacks deep inside French speaking Cameroun.  The Ambazonian leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides are still being held at the Maximum Security Prison in Kondengui but the Southern Cameroons resistance is on-going.  It is evidently clear that the Cameroon government army under Biya’s command can no longer provide security for anyone in Southern Cameroons.

The so-called North West/South West Reconstruction idea, promoted in Yaoundé and Paris has been exposed as a fantasy and does not even have the backing of top Francophone politicians running state affairs in Yaoundé.

Attacks in Manyu, Bui, Mezam and Menchum including Ndian heralds the point that the Cameroon government military cannot contain Ambazonia fighters and control the Southern Cameroons territory. Despite the Cameroon government army’s best efforts, soldiers and innocent civilians are being killed each day.

Biya’s government is taking the last kicks of a dying horse and it is now only being felt in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital which is home to his Beti-Bulu Ewondo ethnic extractions. Once Biya dies hopefully this December or early January next year, there will be a rapid descent into civil war, involving soldiers from his ruling clan, Fulanis and Hausa groups and rival Francophone army generals. The worst can never be avoided in Yaoundé.

Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief Isong Asu noted during this week’s editorial meeting that Cameroon after Biya could become a free-for-all involving Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Central African Republic and Gabon – and maybe Nigeria, too. To be more accurate, Biya will be leaving an unholy mess that he and his tribe men helped create.

Billions of FCFA meant for developmental projects have been wasted on a war that should have never been fought in the first place and hundreds of millions more is being lost to corruption.

In a significant shift, Vision 4 television which like all major Francophone media houses, supported the war in Southern Cameroons, aired a report last week saying Yaoundé as the capital city has collapsed.

The war in Southern Cameroons remains a political disaster and a catastrophic mistake based on a false premise, aggravated by self-righteous Francophone arrogance and an unforgivable Francophone ignorance on the part of a fool passing for a head of state. For 41 years, a lunatic and his gang of ideologues and know-nothings have destroyed a once-prosperous nation.

Instead of pushing the old and frail Biya to begin a new conflict with Gabon over lame and ridiculous excuse that the new leadership in Libreville is molesting her sister, Mrs Ali Bongo, Chantal Biya should be trying much harder to end the seven-year- old war in Southern Cameroons.

Yaoundé cannot maintain this war in Southern Cameroons, so the military leadership should get rid of this monstrous liability of a head of state in Etoudi and restore the dignity of the Cameroonian nation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Every media person is running away from the two Cameroons!! Nowhere is safe for Cameroonian journalists whether you are English or French speaking since the 90-year-old President Paul Biya launched his armed response to a strike action staged by lawyers and teachers in Southern Cameroons.

As a Cameroonian journalist, whether you are in Yaoundé, Maroua, Garoua, Douala, Buea or Bamenda working for the state-owned CRTV or a private media organization, reporters who continue to cover the Biya regime are in constant danger of being killed.

Cameroon Intelligence Report recently lost contact with some news men in detention centers in both French and Southern Cameroons who have been making public heartrending accounts of the disturbing situation in major Cameroonian towns and cities including Yaoundé, the nation’s capital.

Cameroonian journalists are under constant pressure with arrest, assassination and torture from every government official including Divisional Officers and Regional Governors.

 “There is suffering and pain all over the national territory,” said a reporter for a local radio station in Yaoundé, describing what news reporting in Cameroon under Biya is like for him and his colleagues.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group will continue to help all independent journalists in Cameroon who are risking their lives to keep Cameroonians informed. Be a part of this venture!!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Today marks forty-one years since Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya, took over from the country’s first President, Amadou Ahidjo, who resigned supposedly for health reasons. Ahidjo, the man who had made Cameroon the purpose of his being, had always dreamed of transforming the country into an earthly paradise. 

He had designed the educational system to enable Cameroonians compete favorably at the international level. The quality of education was good and this helped the country to make giant strides towards sustainable development. Though the country was bereft of massive financial resources, the country’s first president made up for this shortage of financial resources with discipline and determination.

Due to the lack of resources, the country did not have a good road network, but from 1977 when oil was discovered, the country’s fortunes changed for the better. Many infrastructure development projects were lined up and their implementation was marked by rigor and discipline.

But this changed in 1982 when Mr. Biya succeeded Ahidjo. Though he had served as the country’s Prime Minister under Ahidjo, he had not learned that discipline was a key ingredient in the implementation of national policies and projects. No initiative succeeds without discipline!

By 1985, the country’s economy and politics were already showing signs of chaos. Discipline which characterized the Ahidjo regime had taken French leave of the Biya regime. Mr. Biya, unlike Ahidjo, had prioritized loyalty over competence and this has cost the country a huge fortune. He brought his tribesmen into government without conducting the proper background checks and there are lots of crooks and dishonest people in the system.

Though the Centre and South regions of Cameroon account for less than 10% of the country’s population, Mr. Biya tribesmen make for more than 70% of appointed government officials, with many not having the appropriate experience and qualifications to drive major operations and policies!

Today, the country has one of the worst road networks on the continent. Each day, thousands of Cameroonians die of road accidents and, for decades, the government has not found it necessary to develop road infrastructure which will reduce both travel times and death toll on the country’s roads. Times have changed but the Biya regime is frozen in time.

Regarding the economy, things are not looking good for the country. Unemployment is high; many young Cameroonians are looking outward. Government policy regarding employment in the civil service has left many from other tribes desperate. Loyalty trumps over qualification and in certain cases, many people have been caught with fake certificates, especially people from the president’s tribe.

Universities which are supposed to serve as centers of excellence have been transformed into brothels as the culture of sex-for-marks has been fully entrenched and this is happening with the tacit approval of the country’s authorities. The country’s higher education minister, Fame Ndongo, has been presiding over this mess as he himself has been at the centre of massive sex scandals in the ministry he leads. 

Mr. Biya and his ruling CPDM may be celebrating today, but they know they have brought untold hardship on Cameroonians. Most young Cameroonians want to leave the country and even retirees are relocating to countries like the U.S and Canada because their retirement incomes leave much to be desired. 

The country is amongst the dirtiest on the continent with its towns and cities not going through any form of town planning. The government does not seem to have an inkling of structured existence as slums are popping up all over the nation.

Regarding security, the government is struggling. Crime rate has increased significantly, with soldiers and police officers even renting out their weapons to criminals for a fee. Even when the population reports a crime, the police hardly act. It is always a waste of time for police officers to be called to the crime scene as they will never make it. 

Either there is no fuel in the car for them to use, or when there is a car, there is no fuel. Sometimes, security forces even seek to know the type of weapons the criminals are carrying. This is to ensure that they do not get into a fierce fight with heavily armed criminals. Kind police officers will even tell the frightened victims to call neighbors to help them. That is the country Mr. Biya will be leaving for future generations.

Mr. Biya has been a master at divide-and-rule. He has succeeded to pit tribes against tribe, and there is evidence that the day he exits, there will be bloodshed in the country. Currently, there are killings going on in Southern Cameroons where a fierce rebellion against the Yaoundé government has sent some ten thousand Cameroonians to an early grave and things could get worse if Mr. Biya suddenly dies.

For the public service, it is the worst the continent has. Corruption is rife and Cameroonians have to pay millions of francs to get admission into professional schools. Every sector of the public service has come up with a scheme to exploit the ordinary citizen and the country’s authorities have decided to look the other way while government officials exploit their fellow citizens.

Cameroon under Mr. Biya has been a living hell. Many Cameroonians prefer to look outwards as the government has failed to create opportunities for its citizens. 41 years in power have rolled the country back into grinding poverty and, in development terms, the country has been taken back by at least 100 years. Today’s celebrations could be described as a celebration of failure, inefficiency, greed, corruption and dishonesty. This is the legacy Mr. Biya will be leaving behind.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai