When impunity reigns supreme
The New Deal
government in Cameroon, despite its numerous fallibilities, is
often credited with having good laws. The problem has been the ineffectiveness
of implementation that has degenerated into impunity.
Take the
case of non-degradable plastic bags which the ministry of environment and
nature protection made so much fuss about its proscription last April.
For
environmentalists, the ban was intended to protect the environment’s fast
destruction by an ineffective waste management system especially in major
towns. It was a welcomed legislature.
But one
needs no research to observe that the environmentally-damaging plastic bags
continue to be used in markets and on streets even in the very presence of
those expected to enforce the fiat.
The banned
plastic bags are being used to hawk commodities like groundnuts, foodstuff on
the streets and markets. The bags have even become goldmines for traders in the
sector who have increased the price by over 200 percent. Asked why there is
such a price hike in a proscribed commodity and the reply is that the importers
do bribe law enforcement officials to smuggle in the plastics from neigbouring
countries.
It is not
only the law against plastics that is violated with overt contempt despite the
stern sanctions for culprits. Early this year, the government cracked down
on some one thousand “illegal clinics and medical training institutions” in
Yaounde and Douala, about 500 medical training centres and about 600 private
clinics were shut down for operating without the required licence.
The national
health inspector in the ministry of health, Biwole Sida, said the ministry
launched the operations to bring order to the medical sector, which has gone
out of control, with anybody now able to own a medical institution. Most of
them lack the training, appropriate staff, equipment and infrastructure to
operate either a medical training institution or a clinic.
The illegal
facilities flourish because of two main reasons: High costs at government
hospitals and insufficient trained medical staff. In order to remedy the
situation and curb the illegal practice in a crucial field like health,
government carried out an evaluation of the ten official medical training
institutions, four state and two private universities.
It resulted
into the introduction of a national entrance examination for higher
institutions under the supervision of the National Medical Council. But that
has not stopped the illegality in the medical field which has been wrecked by
brain drain and the appointment of doctors into administrative and political
positions.
Sources in
the ministry of public health estimate that 5,000 Cameroonian medical doctors
are currently working abroad, while about 1000 work in administrative positions
or lecture in medical schools.
Faced with
such debilitating situations and ignorance to
sieve the
fake medical facilities, patients continue to go to the illegal centres where
the operators are more out to make money than save lives.
Even if the
physical lives are not protected, it is the same with the spiritual life where
illegal churches sprout like August mushrooms with “healing priests” and
“prophets”.
Some 34
churches were closed down last year for operating illegally after a child
seeking “spiritual treatment” for an ailment a hospital would have
handled successfully, died in one of the churches in Bamenda.
The illegal
evangelical churches were accused “of disturbing public order with raucous
services, extorting the spiritually vulnerable, destabilizing family structure,
and practicing unsafe spiritual medicine such as exorcisms, which reportedly
led to some deaths.”
Communication
minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary used the banning order to blame the unauthorised
churches for encouraging worshippers to seek spiritual medicine in lieu of
professional medical assistance.
But the
banned churches continue to operate and some claiming to cure diseases like
AIDS where medical science is yet to find a solution.
The Cameroon 2013 International Religious Freedom Report notes that the New Deal government has approved just ‘’one religious group in the last 15 years and none since 2010” to make a total of 47 operating legally in the country where numerous are preaching, some just demonic sects using the aegis of religion.
The Cameroon 2013 International Religious Freedom Report notes that the New Deal government has approved just ‘’one religious group in the last 15 years and none since 2010” to make a total of 47 operating legally in the country where numerous are preaching, some just demonic sects using the aegis of religion.
For a church
organisation worth the salt to register, it has to have a congregation
with a “vocation of divine worship in accordance with a religious doctrine.”
It has to
submit an application for authorisation first to the ministry of territorial
administration and decentralisation which studies it and send to the presidency
for final approval by decree or rejection.
The
ministries of education, be it basic, secondary or higher, have not succeeded
in closing down illegal schools, despite alarm bells by parents, the media and
members of the civil society.
In a society
where the majority are people who are gripped by raw state of mental poverty and ignorance, such
illegalities are expected
to be corrected by administrators who represent the government at local levels.
But when
some of them are blatantly violating the law boasting of being untouchables,
irritating unanswered questions are imposed. Are some Cameroonians above the
law or the security forces cannot enforce the laws. Why promulgate laws that
cannot be enforced?
The case in
Fako division where the South West governor and Fako SDO are involved in the
land-grabbing scandal makes the answer to the questions more argument.
The rule of
law is the foundation of any government based on good laws. There is no doubt
that there are fine laws intended to keep peace and order in a country
advertised as an “island of peace and tranquility in the troubled Central
African sub-region”.
But that
peace cannot be sustained for long if laws are not respected to the letter. Laws
to protect the environment, illicit land-grabbing, health care, registration of
religious groups and educational establishment which form the basics of human
existence cannot continue to be abused with reckless disregard.
The New Deal
regime must step up to the plate and ensure that its laws are fully implemented
for the achievement of the public well-being; irrespective of the societal
standing of those involved.
“If citizens cannot trust that laws will be
enforced,” Dale Carpenter says in Flagrant Abuse, “they cannot be said
to live under the rule of law. Instead, they live under the rule of men
corrupted by the law”. Such a situation does not guarantee the peace the
Biya regime sings as its greatest achievement.
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