TRUTH THAT MUST BE TOLD

World Cup commission: 
Yellow card to PM Yang 
By Asong Ndifor

The commission which President Biya instructed prime minister, head of government, Philemon Yang to form and present a report on the reprehensible outing of the Indomitable Lions at the World Cup in Brazil should have had its details at the presidential desk by latest yesterday. But what could discredit the integrity of the report is the leakage of its content to the media before the president sets his eyes on it.

    

According to leakages made to the press, commission members recommended that five of the key actors in the display of shame wrought the nation’s image by the team should be fired. They include German-hired coach, Volker Finke, team captain, Samuel Eto’o Fils and Jean II Makoun. Others are Alexandre Song who brutally hit an opponent off the ball and Benoit Assou-Ekotto, team-mate head- butter.

The commission which is headed by the secretary general at the prime minister’s office, Louis Paul Motaze, is said to have been made up of mainly people from the service of the prime minister with little knowledge about the intrigues that go on at the Cameroon Football Federation. The credibility of the work of the commission as was suggested earlier would be based on members’ integrity, neutrality and an in-depth knowledge of the problems that have over the years blemished the game in Cameroon.

But did members of the commission meet those rigorous criteria? It is doubted and that is why the PM deserves a yellow card especially as he did not make the members of the commission known in advance so that the public privy to some of the machinations in Cameroon football could give them background briefings.

  Those familiar with the tomfoolery that goes on behind the soccer pitch in Cameroon know that the problem started when former Lions’ captain, Regobert Song Bahanack was fired and replaced by Eto’o Fils. Pragmatic management required that Song would have been retired by then, but he remained in the squad which split into two.  Eto’o even complained after the World Cup in South Africa that those in the other camp would not pass the ball to him. Even when Song went on retirement and returned to the team in a managerial position, only the sharp edges of the division were still blunt.

Added to that, the personal rivalries among players of the two camps is a three-face monster - “money matter” which involves officials of the Normalisation Committee of FECAFOOT, the ministry of youth and sports and the players.

It is greed and hankering after money that is in the public terrain which is the epic centre of the problem that has relegated the Lions into domitable cats.  And all those mired in the muck are keeping sealed lips. Eto’o Fils promised to spill the beans on return but instead was hooked up in a love affair scandal with a lust mate.

The national assembly had no headway when they grilled sports minister, Adoum Garoua whose relationship with Gregoire Owona, president of the Normalisation Committee of FECAFOOT was reported to be so sour that both officials were not on talking terms. But when asked in parliament to say what happened in Brazil, he parried most of the question with the excuse that President Biya had ordered an inquiry and he did not want to pre-empt the outcome.    “An inquiry instructed by the head of state is ongoing. I don’t want to give you a partial account. I remain at your disposal for more interrogation at any time you want,” the minister said.

 The minister argued further that the defeat was not unusual given that the team also has a good track record. Everyone agrees with the minister on that point, but the problem was not just that of disastrous failure on the pitch but the barbaric behaviour of the players. They exhibited it by abandoning the prime minister with the national flag they were going to defend in Brazil. They refused to travel on time because they wanted to get the Lion’s share of the World Cup booty before stepping boarding the plane. The official delegation was reported to have been bloated by soul-mates of some officials.  

  

Adoum Garoua however gave the Honuorable House a shrill indication that parliamentarians were a party to the scandal. They sent representatives to join the delegation, some of who had no role to play, not even to cheer the players. “Even you here at the national assembly interrogating me now also sent representatives there”, the minister charged.

So what were representatives of parliament doing in the official delegation which should normally be made up of soccer technocrats and committed supporters and animators?  Minister Garoua did not name all the services that sent representatives for the official delegation.  But what is without squabble is that most of the members of the official delegation were government employees. The Yang commission is also composed mainly of government officials and will civil service solidarity permit them to call a spade by its real name, if for instance the youth and sports minister is culpable?

    

 Yang’s commission has however completed its work within the one-month time frame given by President Biya. The ball is now at the presidential court. President Biya has the prerogative to accept or reject the recommendations of the report but he owes Cameroonians, especially sports lovers, an obligation to make the entire contents of the report known to the public. Soccer is a game played not in political boardrooms but on the global stage.

 That is the reason why the entire report should be published sooner than later and nothing should be covered by the thin veneer of a mask Adoum Garoua used in parliament. It will also give the public the opportunity to form their own judgment with the sole goal of restoring the 1990 glories that put the image of Cameroon on the front line of world football.