The Future Of Cameroon Is Not Written With Paul Biya

Ten years ago, at the end of February 2008, many Cameroonians took to the streets of the southern cities of Cameroon to shout their anger against the Biya regime, which was preparing to amend the 1996 Constitution and to delete article 6- 2 which states: "The President of the Republic is elected for a term of seven years renewable once.

" Faced with the scale of the social movement that quickly took a political turn with slogans like "Touch not to my Constitution", "Biya must leave," the regime deployed its defense and security forces with their weapons of war. The demonstrations turned into riots and the repression was immediate, with excessive use of lethal force. 

According to the National Observatory of Human Rights, at least 139 people lost their lives between 25 and 29 February 2008. Only 40 (including a police officer) according to the official record. This bloody repression put an end to all social and political demands. On April 10, 2008, the Constitution was revised: "The President of the Republic is elected for a term of seven years. He is eligible for reelection. "There was no protest in the streets. No one was ready to die.

The Future Of Cameroon Is Not Written With Paul Biya

The malaise of the Cameroonian population has not disappeared. During the month of October 2016, in the English-speaking regions of the north-west and south-west, lawyers, teachers and students protested against the "francophonisation" of the legislative and educational systems. In the same way that in February 2008, the Paul Biya regime interpreted these peaceful marches as an attack on the security of the state and repressed them.

But unlike February 2008, the repression did not discourage marches and days "dead cities" that were increasingly followed by English-speaking citizens. To prevent this movement from awakening other Cameroonians elsewhere in the country - also victims of the abandonment of the primary needs of populations by the state - the regime of Paul Biya has intensified its repression and imprisoned moderate leaders, leaving more space for English-speaking separatists. 

Part of the English-speaking population then became radicalized by contact with leaders advocating armed struggle. The killings of members of the police force led to a cycle of violence on both sides.

Today, the security situation in the English-speaking regions is unmanageable. As in February 2008, the international community witnessed and complicit, by its silence, the repression of peaceful marches in English-speaking regions for more than a year. 

Now that this part of the territory is plagued by a low-intensity conflict, the international community is waking up timidly. It has long wagered that with Paul Biya, Cameroon - pivotal country between West Africa and Central Africa - would remain one of the most stable countries on the continent. By accepting that this president remains in power for nearly four decades, the international community has, on the contrary, profoundly undermined the foundations of stability in that country. 

There is no longer any counter-power in Cameroon today. All national institutions are dependent on the sole will of the Head of State. Any popular protest is immediately banned or repressed. Fundamental freedoms exist only in the texts. In the field, they are flouted daily. The international community does not seem to be aware of the fundamental problem that has agitated Cameroon for a decade: the exasperation - for the moment contained locally - of Cameroonians in the face of the regime of Paul Biya who, in thirty-six years of power, has not been able or did not want to deeply reform the institutions of the country to sustainably sustain democracy and failed to bring the necessary development to the country and its inhabitants. In the world rankings of the Human Development Index (HDI),

Cameroon is today at a turning point in its history. Cameroonians need to write a common future and project themselves into a future that benefits everyone. This future is not written with Paul Biya, who is going to be 85 years old ... While most of the youth is disillusioned and is losing interest in the elections, it is not impossible that Paul Biya will run again in the presidential election of November 2018 and that he wants to die in power as did Houphouet-Boigny in Côte d'Ivoire. 

Let's hope then that Cameroon will not imitate the Ivorian scenario with its fratricidal struggle between power-hungry politicians who dragged their country into a cycle of devastating violence for a decade ...