Mola Njoh Litumbe in VOA on Southern Cameroons Independence

Cameroonian Statesman Mola Njoh Litumbe

Mola Njoh Litumbe in Voice of America (VOA); classic interview on Southern Cameroons Independence:


http://www.voanews.com/MediaAssets2/english/2010_08/butty-cameroon-southern-independence-litumbe-31august10.mp3

Ghana is The New Brazil

Louis Egbe Mbua

Not since we all watched the classic Cameroon-England quarter finals confrontation in Italia’90, has a match stirred so much passion, fascination and controversy as that between Ghana and Uruguay last Friday, 2 July 2010 in Johannesburg. Ghana has a pedigree in football that many fail or refuse to realise or recognise. In the days of the invincible Goal Keeper Mensah of Ghana to the of legend of Asante Kotoko FC and Hearts of Oak FC, Ghana has always had football talents in graceful abundance. The supremely talented Karim Abdul Razak, Samuel Opoku Nti and Abedi Pele are names that have instilled tremendous panic and fright in opposing teams in Africa and international world football. Incidentally, Abedi’s son, the immensely talented Ayew, was innocently yellow-carded by an incompetent referee in Ghana’s 8th final encounter with the United States of America. A keen football observer will note Ghana’s supreme skills in ball control, deft ball touches, accurate passes and undisputed style. All Ghana has to achieve now is to hone their striking skills in scoring technical goals as it appears they seem to fail to convert clear chances into goals in front of the goal post. Having said so, Ghana is a pleasure to watch. Brazil or any other team doesn’t come close in this tournament.

So, when Luis Suarez‘s deliberate handball on the goal line defied all laws of ethics in sports and profession, it was not only sad but extremely shameful. What Suarez did was a blatant and deliberate act of cheating unbecoming of a professional on the world stage, a monumental disgrace to football and a bad day for sports. It was made worse when Suarez was caught on Camera ecstatically celebrating the Gyan penalty miss. It appears there is a propensity to cheat in crucial matches in this World Cup which, so far, has been wonderfully hosted by South Africa. This writer is not sure how football is played in South America, whether cheating is glossed over in very important matches. However, in this world Cup, a Brazilian clearly controlled the ball with his hands twice and scored; the referee saw the dreadful unfair advantage but mysteriously allowed the goal to stand. Argentina scored a clearly off side goal last week; and Maradona cheated England in 1986 World Cup in Mexico when he shamelessly punched the ball passed a protesting Peter Shilton to score a handball. Furthermore, a Uruguay referee disallowed a clear England goal against Germany.

It should be made clear that such tenuous matches can be changed by one crucial mistake by a referee. The English players have had a mauling in the press in London since their unceremonious ejection from this World Cup. However, it has to be said that had that disallowed goal stood, one is sure that it would have regenerated England’s confidence, changed their tactical approach to the match, altered their psychological well being for the better in that instance; and that one is not in the slightest doubt that we could have witnessed a completely different match altogether in the second half. This same or a similar psychological syndrome must have affected the Black Stars of Ghana. Gyan’s missed the penalty seemed to have provided a psychologically crippling blow to the team thus causing two more players to miss their penalty kicks in the penalty shoot out that unfairly resulted after extra time in the thrilling encounter.

One is of the opinion that If cheating is the method invented so as to achieve greatness in football or other aspects of social, economic and technological development, then one would prefer Africans to remain "under-achievers" in these areas rather than to engage in a perfidious outrage; and questionable moral fortitude. The deliberate act of Suarez can be likened to a banker knowingly stealing money from his own bank when times are hard, and then given the chance to refund the money when he is fine.

To me, Ghana won the match squarely; and as a consequence, an automatic semi-finalist in this World Cup adventure. Whether Gyan lost the penalty or not is a matter of profound irrelevance because there should never have been a penalty in the first place. This was, clearly, daylight football robbery in every sense of the word, on the part of Suarez, a thorough indignity, a crime to football and a downgrading of himself as a respected footballer. It should be drawn to the reader’s attention that Henri has never got over his hand ball against Northern Ireland in the France-Ireland qualifier that effectively knocked out Northern Ireland from SA WC. FIFA’ failure to punish this ill-conceived act meant that players believed they can get away with using their hands when they see fit against all the rules of decency. Why can't we just name the sport hand-football? If all players were allowed to stop all goals within their reach with their hands, what will happen? Sending them off culprits every 10 minutes and then take a penalties? In this kind of blatant hand madness, as in the crucially nail-biting quarter-final Ghana-Uruguay clash, the goal should be awarded rather than waste time on a penalty which can go either ways -- miss or win.

Thanks Ghana (And South Africa as well as all other nations in the world cup) for your heroic efforts; and not reacting in a Machiavellian manner in this debacle; and to represent Africa with style and humility, keeping your dignity and talent. Tomorrow is another day. In today’s world of over-rated, overpaid and over here arrogant and petulant professional footballers, one is pleased that a quiet and striving nation continues to maintain the beautiful game. With more courage, support and encouragement, this writer believes Ghana will go on to win the World Cup at one point in the nearest future. Ghana began the match to independence of Africa. It seems the spirit of high achievement has not been destroyed. Other African countries should follow this example, doing what is right to their people and their various nations; giving to the world what is good, pleasant and just.

As for Cameroon, I have absolutely nothing to say in this instance since there is no word that has been invented to paint what one has come to consider as a display of the horrifyingly abysmal --not attaining a single point nor win or draw a single match! While it is difficult to rise in global and international prominence in any aspect, it takes only one to three hours to fall to the ground. The risks here are that falling may be perpetual; and that that one falls does not necessitate that one must automatically rise from their fall. Some fall and rise again while others fall and never rise again. While some fall by accident, others are the architect of their own downfall. In the former scenario, the victim has a higher chance of rising again since they fell unknowingly, while in the latter case, chances of their re-emergence is pitifully slim as a result of deceiving themselves into falling. However, we should give Cameroon credit for playing a clean and fair game without attempting to engage in an outrageously platitudinous hand-football or other forms of indecency of the game. That is sportsmanship.

Living in the 21st Century (6): Man and His Sun

Louis Egbe Mbua

A nuclear factory the Devine Hand flung
Into space the yellow disc afloat stays
In suspense, a mystery to man clung
In search of answers the straight rays
Bring onto earth: ninety three million
Miles adding in eight seconds a blaze,
Half the earth a shine to be gone
The light to the other side the earth rotates
In slight tilts, the slight wobble known
But no man a spinning feeling to gaze.
Round and around the earth spins
On its own axis forms nights and days;
Morning comes and evening returns
As the yellow giant around it spins in space.

In the middle of its core 15 million superhot;
Of two gases one from the other derived
From floating primeval hydrogen super gas
Under pressure another element created;
And the thermo-nucleus a dense fiery core
That explodes so all stars are renewed
With energy as light and heat radiates
Through the cosmos giving matter and life
On earth maintaining energy balances
So, man to see a reason to work and live.
All is in full harmony, are heavenly bodies
Created from dust of stars in the Universe
And from Devine dust the man emerges.
In the Universe the man forever will dwell
Until dust will all stars and man return?

Over and Over

Louis Egbe Mbua

If man was created
To work and keep
Earth’s abundance
Then this task has
To be done well
Over and over!

Repetitive work is good
If it is directed
Towards the greater good
Of man, woman, child
Affecting the entire
World in abundance

Again, a task done
Over and over again
Becomes part of nature
Because man is glued
To the earth to be
Duly recycled.

A catch does exist
In this strange cycle:
Recycling good things
Is of beneficence
But to repeat folly
Is to multiply trouble

Something is grave
In this world of ours:
One man knowing evil
But jumps into the same.
Any reason why a man
Throws away his lamp?

That question, I can’t answer
For there is no answer
But that a mistake can
Only manifest in darkness.
Thus in pure darkness,
Man learns not!

While in the dark
He pursues his wants
But a want in the dark
Can never be for all,
Since the vast majority
Of man is not blind.

Thus a man in isolation
May become blind while
a man of the people can
Never be blind:
Even if he sees not,
He will be led to light.

The fact of the
Matter is that
Though we may see
We become blind alone,
So we make same errors
Over and over!

Blood Diamonds: A Rendition of an Apocalypse*

Louis Egbe Mbua

For wrongs and trespasses committed
Against the Most Holy One enthroned
Above seated on high, lapis and carried
By Seraphim worshipped and praised;
By creatures so celestially crowned,
Created with fire; with movements
At speeds of lightning deportment;
Pray the Holy One does redeem
The people, gems, champions of esteem,
Making atonements to rejuvenate
On what once was lost but now found;
For no man does self-elevate
To self-made a sovereign as to pound
His mortal chest-beating in defiance
Of the Only One on Most High watching;
His creation; a melting disappearance
Of Beauty; malfeasance despoiled
By him who by fallen pride recoiled
Not from casting lustful eyes awide
As to spread fear, lies on either side
Of the Chasm: Heaven and earth
Where dwells all creatures; living
By the power of Spirit that cleaneth
All creation, all creatures; enlightening
To know the wicked enemy roaming
And see the adversary deceiving;
Coverting and stealing; eyeing
The kingdom; Him not duly given
To the whole truth but Air Prince stolen
Title; forever not given or sustained
Since in fraud this title contained;
In a hollow darkened plan prepared
In empty pride; no love conceived
By his hapless troopers so out fought
In their futile battle unappeased
By their diabolic aims so sought.

War for Diamonds – Blood Diamonds

Thus the great hand battle emerged
To dislodge the Great Ogre lodged
On the neck of Diamonds squeezed.
As the huge Red Dragon tightened
The enormous grip on free red blood!
He sucks:apocalyptic blood flood!
And then Diamonds came off stumps;
Her hardness greater than ord’ rock
Found in all earth and the heavens
To stand up as one; weakened in stills
The broken parts no longer holds
As the Great Ogre with an iron frock
And a clay foot had Diamonds picked
Up from aground to be swung around
Like a swirling boiling sea raged
By a fierce wind: hurricane laced
With torrents; and raindrops flicked
Around Diamonds with savage drones
As in the sounds of a great myriad
Of chariots: a furious army of dunces.

The Terrifying Scene

Appeared a terrifying scene so dreadful
That never before earth has been seen
On earth since Diamonds turned bountiful
To the resting princes resting between
The freezing west and the burning east.
The Great ogre his left foot planted east
And a monstrous kick with right foot west
But with a great rush of wind did he miss
His intentions to destroy the serpent lest
The Red Dragon gathers his stars thrown
On Diamonds humble dwelling down
The devastated planet; man’s sure curse
Fooled by Dragon; ruler with no course
And with no known truth and torch light
But love of darkness: propensity to blight.

The Red Dragon; an advantage gave
Not least chance for Ogre who craved
For assistance from his fall brought
About by miscalculations untaught
By ages of co-habitation disallowed
From above ‘cause celestially created
Must he keep his realm: not alloyed
With Diamonds from dustly earth created.
Yet Ogre, same wicked spirit enchanted
As in Dragon the celestial demoted
From above to cause chaos; drawn
To earth by vain power: greed blown
By covetousness, murder committed
Against man, woman above commanded.
Thus, Great Ogre and Dragon friends; swore
To destroy Diamonds break her with sworn
Grave vengeance; to have her people wiped
Out of the face of the marked land swept
With a single mighty blow delivered
With precise wickedness obtained
From the deep; authority denounced
By the High Principalities; announced
By Holy Providence; residing
In the Highest alters; arising
With great power and compassion
Grant Dragon and Ogre permission
To rule and consume part Diamonds
But time is truth; as sweet as almonds.


The Apocalyptic Struggle

So began the terrible struggle in earnest
To dislodge Ogre and Dragon in tempest
Being that Diamonds were to be recovered
Put again together as was Diamonds favoured
By natives and heirs of gold Diamonds given
To them by heavenly fortune-named proven
By Providence's advance; so man is not pained
By his lightning fall from blinding beauty gained
From glorious Providence's prodigious creation;
And lost with pure watered paradise in unison.
So united poor indigenes; so noble they were,
Began a challenge for Diamonds’ recovery
With a new song called out: Come! Come! Rally!
For the new gainful struggle in savoire-faire:

The delivery of Diamonds defined
The day of rescue reckoned
The moment of history ushered
To scoop repositories plundered

We agree that all are whole
Were born the same way
And are free to away do
With Dragon and Ogre’s hold

The elasticity of mercy strained
Of compassion restrained
By the cruel over-burden
Of man by beasts in the open



We must fly like a falcon
Into albatross must we turn?
Above mountains on high erupting
To initiate the earth shaking

All trees shaking in tremor
Like a man caught in cold tenor
Of bitter mountain breeze
At good times no freeze

Brothers and sisters of call
Join hands as one: the fall
Of evil; plot the end of lust
Dragon and Ogre’s end a must.

And then gathered all natives versed
With the fine-tuned stanza: composed
To reflect the peoples’ deep thoughts,
To affect the natives; swinging modes
Of thoughts reversible but distorted
By Ogre and Dragon so heartless
As to spread falsehood to harness
And harass Diamonds: not for sale
Meme pour la utilite nationale,
For oppressed natives unconcerned
With greed, organised lies pertained.
Their heritage enmeshed in couture
That lasts Cinquant Mille au futur
In the reign of the trusted leader.

An Unexpected Victory

Victory won and Diamonds regained
And handed to natives for safe keeps,
So men have Diamonds justly retained
In precinct state; to not due sleep
One moment standards maintained
At a novel level; not a daring slip
Into a lethargy so attained
By the elected ones on the ship
To drive them; in benefits accrued
Shared in most solemnest equity
So all can share in Diamonds mined
From times and times in antiquity
When Diamonds and Gold were valued
In all estranged lands in entirety
And respect always expected

From natives in posterity.

Thus began the Odyssey fudged
By natives in broad Diamonds land
With new leaders: now they found
Of no great wisdom, talent and plan
To usher a new era that is meshed
In peace, prosperity;equality,
Endless opportunities buried
In the bosom of law: severity
Of judgement crimes committed
By any native: in citizenry
Against Diamonds, now shinning
With lightning brilliance; stainless
By natives with best minds hoping
That Diamonds transform: priceless
Into topaz, onyx, titanium adding
To the riches; Diamonds twinkling.


The Transmigration of RajaKaiser

And the unending rumours like wild fire
Spread as come the voice down the wire:
That Kaiser no more a single breathe
On his lungs deflatedly sagged breadth
Unimagined before the man departed
To Eu-Amerique seeking aid; panting
With large pieces of Diamonds looted
In an hexagonal cut, prized booked
By the Prince in Amerique engrossed
By the power allotted him, enthralled
To high heavens by the sudden wealth
Bestowed on him by night in stealth
While Kaiser laid horribly seared
By the burning fire on which he swore.
There, confusion and delusion reigned
In the entire Diamonds land frightened
But filled with no small enchantment
And anxiety of coy containment
As questions upon questions asked
Of Diamonds on this news of Raja:
Was it truth or falsity at hand?
Those indigenes wondered, bemused
By all the news and all no news!
And reports; genuinely true or false
They could tell not from all media:
The internet, radio, multimedia
'Could not be so precisely inferred


To ills befell Kaiser thus interred
Within the stalked halls of rumoured
Demise, Diamonds in hand, chain on foot
Caught half-way two wise and the fool
And no description fit for purpose
In this design of grand larceny
And stupendous deception to boot!
That one is enslaved indefinitely
And Raja Kaiser chained slyly.

Fifty days gone, the bright new dawn
All indigenes heard, that Raja is gone
Taken away into gloom to no more live
On earth not to sift Diamonds gratuit:
On no account to check validity
And no judge with gruesome impunity
With a Senate promptly docile
On the orders they heartily receive
From rejected Brutus the traitor
Bent on slaying le spectateur
In the shameless utterance;
And pretentious magnificence:
“Mr Sanopona is a bad man”,
In a bid to illicit favour gain
And to get a defective pram
To be cushioned as a new born
RajaKaiser; a tragic twist
Of asperity and unquenched thirst!
Of usurpation savage abandon
In part Diamonds, partly Dragon
That'd be laid in fiery waste
By greed, breeding unwanted hate
To the entire Diamonds in a haste
To free herself from mocked Kaiser.

The Return of the RajaKaiser


Rumours and news dematerialised
While bird Albatross materialised
In the ramshackle Diamonds’ fields,
Flowing with indigenes at hand for fills
For crumbs of fallen bread they beg
As fallen dew down, worshipping
Transmigrated RajaKaiser, an egg
To be rehashed, back-patted ruling
Les citoyens in all but by proxy
Being inadvertently deluded
To judge not Kaiser in posterity

RajaKaiser lives a god excluded,
So they inexorably exclaimed:

Long live Rajakaiser!
Long live the saviour!
RajaKaiser lives forever
The saviour dies never
Dimabola loba
Masoma na linga

And RajaKaiser 's teeth beamed
A huge plastic grin that showered
His time-ravaged face bleached
With stolen blood Diamonds brace
And done with imaginative brio;
Face glowing in the sun bright
Red, crimson, an artistic sleight
On nature that free gift endows;
Present in good and evil beings
That nature adorns as law allows;
Each one a reason to rejoice.
Les citoyens a novel view held,
To argue on the land despoiled
By three-score years of disgrace;
Joining in the enigmatic chorus:

Jimbi Kumbi!
E’Njuma emuka
A Sango Loba
O Gwindea
Osi Nanga!

RajaKaiser's heart burning with rage
Since he fondly cherished this not;
So sent him violent men of pure nut,
Men with no clean souls but shadows
From the depth of the fearful void
Like a tuned reportage from Hades:

Guns and Roses!
They proclaimed in prose
Guns to pounce!
They shouted in poem
Roses a ruse!



*To be continued in print......

Citizens, Constitutions, Institutions and Systems Part 3

Louis Egbe Mbua

The idea that Europeans created the present African chieftaincy to propagate or advance their interests is totally without foundation. While, they may have manipulated African chiefs to suit their interests or agenda on slavery and colonialism, it is clear from reliable accounts that African Kingdoms were always there before the arrival of Europeans. So, if we turn our attention to the African method of traditional governance we may be able to understand how such societies were able to be kept politically stable for thousands of years before the arrival of European culture. While it is true that there were inter-tribal wars – there were also inter-nation wars in Europe -- it seems the present historical accounts of early Europeans are skewed – giving the impression that no system of government was present in Africa. This is evidenced in this statement by Lord Lugard, the British Colonial Commander in East and West Africa in the colonial era. In The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, Lawrence James wrote:

He [Lugard] wanted government along the lines that had evolved in India in which the administration would be impartial, firm and respect local institutions and conventions. He had in mind the Indian practice of indirect rule by which British had adopted and sometimes adjusted existing political structures and co-operated with established rulers. It was an attractive alternative to the infinitely expensive and wearisome process of creating and entirely new system of government, which was bound to provoke upheavals and resentment.

Thus, there always had been established institutions, laws and systems in Africa. If we take a closer look at the present African Kingdoms, it bears a striking semblance to those of both Egyptian and ancient African Kingdoms like those of the Songhai and the Sudan: there is the Monarchy, a Council of Elders and the Chief adviser ruling in tandem; all mutually interdependent; exhibiting the separation of powers. So, what went wrong with the present African political system?

As mentioned earlier, a society can only advance if they maintain their systems, constitutions, and institutions in line with their cultural roots. They may then have the opportunity to adjust them to suit the times and circumstances. It is a matter of irrelevance how long this process towards the match to advancement takes. The ancient Egyptians, following a similar method of governance, took at least 1000 years from an unknown system to the Old Kingdom; 1000 years to the Middle Kingdom; another millennium from the Middle Kingdom to the New Kingdom; and then another 1000 years for the Egyptian civilisation to reach her heights and then fall. The interesting part here is that ancient Egyptians, at first united their land; and then defended their land from invaders. This could only be done because they followed their laws and system as closely as they could. Once they could not maintain or lost focus of their cultural system and laws, they were conquered and as a result their destiny was altered. Since the new system was in complete contrast to their conservative system that served them so well for millennia, they had to capitulate as they had to completely learn a foreign system.

To master this foreign system will no doubt last a millennium, at least. Similarly, the arrival of the Europeans with their own system destabilised Africa since their system and their laws were thrown out for them to relearn an alien system. The point here is not whether the new system was good or bad for humanity; but that their path to development as suits their political, economic and social alignment had been disturbed. How Africans would have developed without western interference is open to question. The simple fact is that human beings in a particular environment do not remain stagnant in developmental terms forever. A typical example is China. They have resisted all outside interference to alter their method of governance for millennia – from Japan to the West.

For millennia, the Chinese stayed true to their cultural system. Although it is secretive in its outlook, it would seem that they continue to apply the rules of separation of powers. As long as they maintain the system which they follow, it is clear that they will come to master their own system, harness it to attain a critical mass to move forward. Once this system has been mastered, development can come at an astronomical speed as we see today in China. Had China succumbed to Western methods of governance, it is unlikely that they would today be a superpower. Similarly, had Africans been left to their own devices, complete with their own system and institutions and laws, they would have come to master this system and once mastered, development would have been rapid as applied to all peoples.

Thus, interference of foreign powers; and imposition of alien systems for their own interest seems the main problem that stifle social, economic and political development in a conservative or liberal society. In so doing, they may have to search for the gullible and unwise to execute their agenda of mass exploitation and devastation. The problem is dire because it becomes a system of recycled beggary. As the foreign powers exploit the people, they become poorer and weaker while the interfering power becomes stronger and richer. The resources they loot are used to further develop their own system, economically, politically, and socially. Additionally, they use the excess resources to develop their education, arts, technology and weapons to intimidate the exploited nation. This has been the case for millennia: it was applied by the ancient Egyptians, the Romans and now the Western nations and China continue this grand larceny of reducing the African and other unfortunate people of the world to nations of beggars.

It has to be understood that all humans are similar in their greed and quest for power. This power is that power to dominate other peoples as to prove or demonstrate a kind of delusional superiority that does not exist in human beings. On top of this food chain are not only the foreign powers; but includes collaborators with the same stagnated and illusory mindset that may be likened to a man who is drunk; and is misled to believe that the power of the foreign is automatically transferred to them from Washington, Paris, Beijing or London. In the ensuing confusion of mind, he transforms himself – in another spectacularly grand delusion- into a French or Chinese person; in which case, he believes he is superior to his own countrymen. In this pathetic case of affairs, he throws reason to the wind, abandons his cultural system and enters into a state of trans-in-tyranny: imposing his debauched will on his own people; destroying their institutions, constitution and the system his forefathers left behind. This, reader, is the cause of backwardness in most societies.

With the breakdown of a system, the interferring foreign powers become alarmed because this would mean their interests are threatened since there is every risk of a revolution to sweep away the corrupted tyranny that they created. In this dangerous situation, they attempt a futile balancing act: attempting to pretend to sympathise with the people while at the same time maintaining a cunning plan to maintain the same tyrannical system that has served them so well and which is still serving them. When the centre no longer holds, they concoct another “change of system” by bringing in another gullible and unwise ruler whose name is cowardice to repeat the same process by deceiving the hapless citizens that a revolution has occurred to save them; when there has been actually a non-event but the status quo remains to serve the foreign powers rather than the citizens.

What the citizens may not discern is that it is the same corrupt system designed to enrich the new masters and their foreign sponsors that is in place. What these rulers, on the other hand, fail to grasp is that those who bestow power on another are the powers behind the throne. The following is that all important decisions conceived, and to be executed by the imposed ruler must be cleared with the powers abroad so that their geo-political and economic interests are protected and maintained at the tremendous cost to citizens of that nation state. Most of such rulers have a firm belief that they may be able to balance the interest of their nation state against those of their masters abroad. However, this is a mistaken view because running a nation state itself is a noble task. To add on the awareness that one is also answerable to interests of an outside party with a totally different agenda; and which the ruler may not be fully aware or have full knowledge, is a much more difficult job.

A foreign power may have a long term plan to colonise the country but will disguise these objectives in sugar-coating economic concessions and “bilateral corporation” without revealing their true aims. Consequently, citizens of the now unwittingly subjugated state would now have two jobs to do so as to meet both their fundamental subsistence needs as well as maintain the luxury life style and objectives of the foreign power. Since there is limited capacity which humans can perform work, it is clear that they won’t be able to increase their hours of work past a maximum effort.

Even if we assume that citizens of that nation state have enough working energy to attain these double tasks, this will prove unsustainable in the long term. The results are that they will return to their normal human state of work with the consequences that the quality of their output may either fall or attain stagnation. In this scenario, therefore, the nation would settle for the basic in human wants; and if the trend continues, then stagnation will follow. With time, social, economic and political stagnation will ensue. Quality and quantity of output will fall giving rise to instability. The power-hungry rulers would be left with no alternative then but to go cap in hand to their foreign masters to come to their “rescue”. The foreign power will be only too glad to return and “help” the citizens out of their misery.

In comes the World Bank, The Paris club, The International Monetary Fund and the G. 8 or “G20” and other “Developed” nations who would then provide funds on strict conditions: to “privatise” the entire doomed nation state on the pretext of capitalism. The problem here is that such privatisations are normally done corruptly because those who would buy up the country are the richest men and institutions. And where are these organisations based; and where do they pay their corporate taxes? Well, in the land of the same foreign powerful masters. So, while citizens of the doomed nation state may be deceived into believing that they are being rescued, they are actually being duped into selling up their patrimony. Once these foreign institutions are well entrenched in the country, they again begin dictating the social, political and economic trend – the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. And the cycle continues.

How and when should this cycle be broken so that the citizens would realise the full benefits of their hard-earned human and capital investment? That is the question? And what happens if the new ruler decides to defy the foreign powers who installed them? Another question altogether. Worse still, what are the consequences to the nation state if citizens decide to challenge both installed rulers and their foreign masters? A much more tricky and difficult question because:

1. They would be fighting a battle on two fronts
2. Their energy is now marginal after decades or centuries of dissipation and exploitation
3. Their resources have been depleted
4. These foreign powers will arm their puppets
5. These foreign powers will support the junta in words and resources.
6. These foreign powers control international organisations to suit their interests
7. The valliant efforts by citizens to throw out these corrupt rulers will be blocked at the UN.

So, what exactly is the way forward in this sombre scenario? A new kind of international-cum-national democratic ideal to be invented? Revolution? Resigning to fate in the status quo?

Citizens, Constitutions, Institutions and Systems Part 2*

Louis Egbe Mbua

When the situation in a society has reached a state whereby a respected man of God begins to question his own conscience, then what use are institutions or laws to help a long suffering people. Citizens are the law because citizens create and run institutions and the system. So, when Christian Cardinal Tumi once wrote in the early 2000s that: "Les problemes economiques du pays sont "aggraves par la malhonnetete de certains governants corropus qui, de conveneance avec des interets prives locaux ou etrangers, detournent les resources nationales a leur profit, transferant des deniers publics dans des comptes prives, dans des banques etrangeres,"" [ The economic problems of the country are aggravated by certain dishonest and corrupt leaders who, to satisfy their local or foreign self- interests loot the national resources for their own profit, transferring public funds to their private bank accounts and then into foreign bank accounts], are we to say that there were no laws against blatant theft of the Cameroon's resources by selfish people? Else, why was this not prevalent in the UN Trusteeship era; and the era of the Federation when the constitution was reasonably respected; especially in the Federated State of West Cameroon?

The conclusion of this particular saga is that once morality breaks down in a country, especially if instigated from the top, nobody bothers to follow the laws of the land – constitutions are violated and laws are ignored by the same people who are supposed to be custodians of that same law – and so the vicious cycle continues. Since no country is capable of establishing perfect laws, the social and political order that are prevalent at the time takes over. That was why Cardinal Tumi mused, "Et l'argent du petrole? Un Secret d'Etat! Et L'Etat c'est qui?" [And the oil money? A State Secret! And who is the State?].

Citizens make up the state and the system. Since the system is corrupt, the institutions would not function irrespective of how good they are. If not rectified, the decline will continue unabated in other spheres and the eventual corrosion of all good institutions. Cameroon’s moral fabric is worn out, in which case the country is actually heading for a decline into obscurity and possible disintegration: and not glory. The dismal showing of the Cameroon National Team in this year’s recent Cup of Nations is one pointer. The dangerous Southern Cameroons question is another one. Thus far, we can argue that the presence of an all-encompassing and elegant constitution that normally precedes the creation of institutions and the subsequent development of a system is not necessarily a guarantor of prosperous nation states. To uphold a well-endowed system requires that those who are vested with power, as overseers of that created system, must not only have impeccable moral track records but that they must be subjected to rigorous checks and balances by the people who are stake holders of that nation state. There are several reasons that guide this principle:

1. Since no human is perfect; and that human nature has this inherent urge to abuse power, the possibilities of a decline is always present if not checked

2. Systems involve an input of effort by humans; this effort then is processed by humans to warrant the eventual outcome. Thus, the outcome of the system is vastly dependent on the quality of effort by all involved. If the quality of effort is degenerate, the logical conclusion is that the outcome would deliver a thoroughly corrupt and inefficient system

3. Moral compass alone is not enough to produce a workable and efficient system; but that a meritocratic culture – whereby only those who are supremely capable in their particular field and talent would be apportioned what they so do deserve within the system. Therefore, both a moral yardstick and a supremely appropriate talent may determine if a system may succeed or fail. Both characteristics are interdependent. One cannot work independent of the other.

If we agree on the above points, then we may now see that a system that is monolithic in nature always results in a totalitarian state. Although certain totalitarian states have shown a semblance of success in economic benefits, it cannot be adduced that the same totalitarian system would produce an enviably prosperous nation in terms of social and political advancement. A state, as we may infer, is not constituted of economic or financial development alone.

Again, development is a combined notion of the three cardinal points: social, economic and political paradigms. So, while a totalitarian state may have a successful outcome, the entire mass of the people, who make up the system, are deprived of social and political development because they have been excluded from participatory power and sharing in the process of governance of their own state. Consequently, the system evolves into a government of the people by the few. In this case, therefore, only the few who monopolise power are educated politically as to exercise these powers; and to socialise amongst themselves while the vast mass of the population are left “happy” with economic prosperity.

As one cannot guarantee the ability and moral imperatives of the few, there is almost certainly the risk of installing a tyrant who is educated in the realms of exercising power; and having the right social connection to perpetuate power together with his few friends. Since the entire population of this kind of system are left out, they become ignorant over time. The consequences are that, they may forget about their human rights, the natural law of self-preservation and self-defence; and their right to know what exactly the tyranny does with their invested human and material capital. With the passage of time, the system becomes irrevocably corrupt because their financial investment which they have been brought to believe in will evaporate: squandered by the dictatorship in their lavish social life styles. Since economic resources are limited, it is only a matter of time before the entire system collapses because the society was already socially and politically bankrupt. When this happens, we enter into the territory of a time-warped vicious cycle. As the masses are politically and socially deprived, it would require a time span almost equivalent to the reign of totalitarianism to recover from the psychological traumas. Worse is that, the next leader may also be politically ungrounded or might have been groomed by the previous system. In this case, he may continue from where the last tyrant ended his reign; and then perpetuate another years of terror. That has been the state with post-independence African governments.

The way forward for such a dire politico-economic quagmire may be attained if we draw examples from the ancients who appear to have been wiser, in some respects, than the present generation of Africans. It appears the most successful systems work in a golden triangle of constitution working in singularity. If we recall that ancient Egypt had three arms of power sharing, then we may begin to see why several successful systems have adopted the separation or diversification of power. The diversification of power, even in modern times, does not mean that there would be no head of government or system.

The ancient Egyptians had three powers viz: The Monarch, the Priesthood and the Vizier. The Monarch was responsible for the executing projects and ensuring the well being and defence of the state; and to create institutions to realise these objectives. The Priesthood was responsible for the spiritual and moral uprightness of both the society and the Monarch. The Vizier was the legal arm of the state: ensuring that all laws of the land were perfectly maintained. While the executive monarch had ultimate powers and was treated as a divine, this “divinity” was derived from the powerful priests who could destabilise the monarchy if the monarch acted contrary to the moral and spiritual standards of the day. Meanwhile the Vizier was overseen by the Monarch but had little alternative but to take advice as regards to the law from the Vizier as such.

The three institutions acted so as to create a balance of power and therefore obviated abuse of power and truning the King into an absolute Monarch. It has be recalled that when the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten made a radical turn and contradicted the Priests to transfer his capital from Waset [Greek: Thebes (Present day Arab: Luxor) ] to Amarna and attempted to defy the priests, his downfall and that of his dynasty was assured – his name was erased from Egyptian history until it was only rediscovered in modern times. Whether the Priests or the Monarch were right in their polytheist religious dogma is not the question. The point here is that the Monarch acted unilaterally and in a totalitarian manner in contravention to the accepted law and traditions of Egypt; and that he defied one of the powers, the Priesthood. What would have happened if he took counsel from the Priests before beginning a new religion is an academic and moving the capital away from them is another matter altogether; and a question that can only fit into the diktat of wild speculation. The point is that he never did what was right; and as a result, he broke the law. In so doing, he disturbed the stability of the state and the system with unprecedented consequences for Egypt.

* Part of this work first appeared in the Cameroon discussion group: camnetwork.