No Trifling Matter: Contributions of an Uncompromising Critic to the Democratic Process in Cameroon

60 Keeping Yaounde Clean

170 6 60 Keeping Yaounde Clean (Published August 14-21, 1992) One of the depthless aphorisms of the mundane political wisdom of Biya Bi Mvondo, for which he will long be remembered states that “When Yaounde breathes, Cameroon is alive.” Well, what Yaounde has been breathing is highly polluted air. Yaounde is a city literally drowning in dirt, filth, garbage. Acrid smoke from burning garbage is oozing out from every street corner in Yaounde. Unable to clear the garbage, the authorities concerned are trying a clumsy method of recycling it on the very spots where it is dumped by setting it on fire. This might even have been understandable, if most of the garbage were combustible, but it is not. Some six months ago, when the city was nearly submerged under mountains and mountains of garbage, the authorities in charge took one of their usually panicky measures. They ran to their Master, the French, and arranged a contract of several hundred millions for a French company to collect refuse for six months. Of course, for such a contract, they must have got their normal kickback, be it in hard cash, bags of rice and flour or crates of wine. At the time, I asked the following question: “Are these people crazy? Do we need to go and bring French people to help us clear our own refuse? And at what price? And what will happen when the contract terminates?” This contract was evidently a political gimmick at the time, similar to the action by which ministers are presently going round with trumpets and alarm bells, paying farmers money they have been owed since 1989. But the contract has now come to an end and Frenchmen are no philanthropists. The authorities concerned don’t seem to know what to do next since the little money in public coffers has other more urgent needs. They seem to have exhausted their originality and ingenuity with the erection of their gigantic posters on which they could not even inscribe an intelligible message: TO MAKE DIRTY IS GOOD, TO GATHER DIRTINESS IS 171 GOODER. I recently passed by what has been christened “Carrefour Emah Basile.” The garbage pyramid is half-way up the skies again! Every city in the world has its own personality, its peculiarity, its most striking feature which every visitor remarks and retains as a souvenir on the walls of his/her memory. That of Yaounde is garbage or more abstractly, dirtiness. In their “Proposals Relating to Reform of the Constitution” Drs. Simon Munzu, Carlson Anyangwe and Mr Sam Ekontang Elad propose the creation of a “National Capital Territory” in the following articles: Article 25: There is created in the area of Yaounde, a National Capital Territory the boundaries of which shall be defined by an Act of Parliament. Article 26: The National Capital Territory shall be the capital of Cameroon and the seat of the Government of Cameroon. All lands comprised within the National Capital Territory shall belong to the state which alone shall determine the use or uses to which they may be put. Article 27: The provisions of this constitution shall apply to the National Capital Territory as if it were one of the provinces. However, the National Capital Territory shall come under the direct rule of the authorities of the Republic and shall accordingly, be independent of the Regions. The creation of such a National Capital Territory is indeed very necessary. But Yaounde should not be designated such a territory for several reasons among which pride of place should be given to its insanitary condition. We should learn a good lesson from Nigerians and create our National Capital Territory on suitable virgin land, which meets certain specifiable criteria and which can be developed over a period of time, according to a specific blueprint. That way, we will end up with a capital city we can all identify with and of which we can all be proud. I don’t know of any inhabitant of this stinking hell called Yaounde who would not be happy to get out of here for a breath of fresh air anywhere else. The sanitary situation of Yaounde reflects very accurately the moral condition of the country’s leadership resident in the city. People who are completely unmoved by moral dirt cannot be 172 expected to notice its physical counterpart, let alone doing something about it. Let these people GET THE HELL...