OPINION

CPDM delusional politics of motions of support

Government is a service industry that is responsible for delivery of services to society.  Politicians are the “experts” that provide the raw material for the services, while public servants – in the civil service – and other co-opted agents are the vehicles for delivering the services that they use the raw materials to manufacture. Government’s promotion of the private sector is usually in this realm.

Political parties are organized groups that seek to control state power, and form governments to provide these services to society in ways usually defined by doctrines, and visions packaged under various universal labels – socialist, social democrat, liberal, conservative, Christian democrat, you name them. Some people usually claim that Africa does not need these labels, as if to say that Africans do not have scales of values.

 These doctrines are ideas articulated by people and implemented for society. Interestingly, there seem to be no doctrinaire CPDM people in Cameroon because the politics of the party is centered on one man and implemented for one man through motions of support. This has seemed endless, for 30-some years and still going. The politics has seasonality - like locusts - coming and going with society’s mood.  As described by one of them in the heat of recent conflicting motions-of-support, “they are made to sign these motions of support at night, with torches, often on blank sheet”; and they are always told that their One Man agrees with them.

 In the nature of all human effort, there comes a time when even the best intentioned use of a fraudulent tool begins to backfire. And when it backfires, there is always cacophony. That is what the fate of the CPDM is today!

 For all the emphasis on stability, the end-of-reign mood in Cameroon has been jittery for some time now. This is probably why Cavaye Yeguié Djibril tried to exploit our scare about Boko Haram by making the unsubstantiated declaration from the tribune of the national assembly that “…Members of Boko Haram are among us, some acting in the dark while others act as hypocrites, pretending to help (the regime) but actually hiding their intention to set the country on fire…” Many CPDM militants cheered, with Guillaume Sorro looking on in deep reflection about North-South divides. At that time, my good friend of communication who usually fumbles the vital job of providing information to Cameroonians about how the power they have delegated to government is being used, was quiet. With probably Marafa and other supposed candidates for succession in mind, the silence was spent in celebration of the Cavaye bluff.

 Well, the elite of Lekie Division probably reasoned that if “members of Boko Haram are among us,” they must be within the ranks of people of Adamawa, North and Far North, since the perception daily distilled to us is that the people of those regions want to destabilize “their” One Man, and takeover his power – “their” power! And since Cavaye Yeguie Djibril has been using all subterfuges to claim leadership of the “Northern Block,” he felt obliged to react on behalf of the Block in spite of his previous grandstanding about Boko Haram. And then this time around, as if from a deep slumber, my good friend of communication rushed in to tell us that “there is no Cameroonian Boko Haram.” Good Job!

 This is all like CPDM politics, except that when a similar declaration was made in the past about “enemies in the house,” no leader of the Block against which the declaration was made emerged from within the CPDM regime to counter it. It is the fault of the Block, not that of any one else. It shows the Block – again - as the weak link of the politics of the united Cameroon – of the CPDM!

 In a system where decentralization is not forthcoming, the CPDM has based their motion-of-support politics on decentralized motions of CPDM barons that they claim, represent the voice of the nation. This is attested by the volumes of motions of support published by the public corporation, SOPECAM. Paul Biya agrees indeed with the politics and lives by it. He has used motions of support in the past in lieu of his party convention to declare himself candidate for the presidency.

 CPDM militants have learned to deceive themselves convincingly using motions of support. Motions of support have become a powerful protective vaccine that gives the money-hungry, me-firsters in the CPDM the energy to embezzle public funds and engage in all types of self-serving maneuvers against national interest, with impunity.

 The CPDM may sing itself hoarse, or write their pens dry, or spend precious time on their keyboards writing motions of support. That will not change the reality that no one will ever finish the job of President of the Republic. Not in Cameroon; not anywhere in the world. Ahidjo did not finish it; Biya will not either.

By Tazoacha Asonganyi