Cameroon: Raiders of the Found Bounty

Louis Egbe Mbua

Confusion is reigning as to whether the Cameroon Minister of Communications, Jean-Pierre Biyiti bi Essam, actually carried huge bags of money on his back and on foot; to Gabon for the financial purpose of renting four giant televisions to the tune of at least £70,000 as reports have it: and that four burly men delivered those bags of money from the Cameroon treasury onto his residence; for the Pope's visit. Whatever the truth behind such hilarious financial transactions on a national level of a country, this particular incident appears to have fully exposed the country as being run and controlled by a purely incompetent bunch of maladroit au pouvoir de La Republique. When, recently, a month or two ago, the Head of the Catholic Church landed in Nsimalen Airport in Yaounde, Cameroon, the entire world was held spell-bound by the antics and fashion display of Madame Chantal Biya, La Premiere Grande Dame de La Republique. The entire international press were hypnotised by her sense of style and the reverence she held for the Pontiff. Much more recently, she exacted the same spell to the entire world on her visit to Los Angeles: cavorting with and upstaging famous for being famous heiress of the Hilton empire, the very Paris Hilton herself. It is not clear why the two society women took to each other but it seems that Hilton's Paris appellation may have caught the attention of La Grande Dame. On the other hand, it would be inappropriate to downplay Mrs. Biya's powerful persona, social talent, style and charisma. Well, that is all about it now.

The point to be made here does not dwell on fashion and style; but that it is apparent that a financial racket exists in Cameroon: perpetrated, pepetuated and promoted by a group of hard-core right-wing politicians at the apex of power in that nation. There are reports that people of power in Cameroon carry suit cases, evelopes or sacks of hard currency in cash when visiting foreign countries or when doing government business in the country. For a country with a GDP of about £20 billion, one of the largest in Africa, and with an outstanding portfolio of resources -- including the recently discovered huge diamond reserves -- this is an extremely disturbing finding. A tentative suggestion for such cavalier treatment of the peoples' finances can only be embedded in the miasma of endemic corruption; for this kind of operation to prevail.

Modern governments deal in bonds and cheques and not in cash in envelopes or bags. Moreover, there are self-confessed reports of government officials employing their personal bank accounts to handle these sacks of money in complete violation of business and public ehtics and regulations. It is common knowledge that those who are not wont to resist embezzlement would be in pole positions, in this instance, to forfeit, for themselves, these funds for their personal use or to further propagate absolute corruption of power in Cameroon or abroad. If Mr. Biyiti engaged in such shabby financial deals, no matter, his good intentions as his recent interview appears to portray, then he is not qualified to hold such a position of trust. Furthermore, it is alleged that Monsieur Paul Biya, Le President de La Republique, ordered that Mr. Biyiti should act in this direction. A Minister of Communications is not the Chief Secretary to the treasury. As a consequence, it was inappropriate for Le Chef de L'Etat de La Republique to assign him the task of procuring television screens without the consent of the Minister of Finance.

This brings us, therefore, to the question as to whether Cameroon's Minister of Finance was aware of this gross mismanagement of public funds or that he was by passed for reasons yet to be discovered. Again, if he agreed, wilfully or unwittingly, to such a tattered and ineffective financial operation, then we must assume that he is too incompetent, unknowlegeable, or that he knows about deals of cash carrying in huge sacks delivered by huge burly men, who would obviously have a chance of helping themselves with a sack of two. It is not clear what the Pontiff will make of these dealings after his well-publicised visit to Cameroon. However, all the indications are that, he must be aware that there are those who continue to raid -- by chance, default or pure greed -- Africa's patrimony for their own benefit while the poor and destitute continue to eke a marginal existence from a bountiful nation. This calls for the application of conscience: for a man of God, while ministering to all men, must not suppress his venerable opinion so as to placate political bucaneers so that he may obtain material profit. Biblical evidence is clear on this occasion: spiritual and moral strength can never be bought with money. Such wanton raid of the peoples' wealth is evil and one expects a man of God to speak out against this act of financial and national vandalism.