Snapshots: An X-ray of Cameroon�s Democracy, Governance and Unification

42. Economic Sabotage

165 42 Economic Sabotage Friday, May 9 2008 Snapshot has received reliable information that there is some sharp black marketing of imported rice going on the creek port of Ekondo Titi, while Cameroonians are languishing and paying exorbitant retail prices for that essential foodstuff and other basic commodities. Eyewitness accounts speak of dozens of 20-tons trucks and converted Dyana buses on a daily mad rush to deliver huge consignments of rice destined for Nigeria by engine boats docked at the creek port under the watchful eyes of a few uniformed men of the Customs department and the armed forces. From the look of things, it would not be an exaggeration to put the daily smuggling of rice at 1000 tons of the foodstuff, which, presumably, has just been cleared from the Douala port by importers who are now taking undue advantage of recent duty-free measures taken by government to alleviate the crucial shortage of basic commodities and the attendant galloping inflation. These importers and wholesalers are taking undue advantage to do brisk business and make windfall profits at the expense for the Cameroonian consumer. The entire business cannot be described merely as economic crime. The penal code ought to be amended to consider such activities as a treasonable offence deserving capital punishment. It would seem that what is happening to rice is the same as what is happening to cement and other commodities. It is the same hideand -seek game whereby unscrupulous businessmen are bent on a serious campaign of economic sabotage, not only for profit, but to undermine the regime of president Paul Biya, who should have known before long that he had it coming to him. As they say, what goes around comes around. 166 When Mr. Biya was alerted 20 years ago about embezzlement of state monies by government officials, he waived the matter aside, saying there were no proofs. When he began his selective anticorruption campaign by piercing a few sharks, he should have known that the fish begins to rot from the head, not the body. He should have known that the every cleansing act or ablution begins with the head down to the toes. The regime’s spin doctors are quick to explain Cameroon’s economic woes as a consequence of globalization but that cannot convincingly justify the fact that a bread basket like Cameroon cannot now boast of feeding itself. It cannot feed itself because of illtimed policies, bad faith, egocentric interests and a shameful lack of patriotism on the part of the ruling class. Instead of deploying its uniformed men to do meaningful work, hundreds of thousands of troops are deployed along the highways to harass peaceful travellers under the pretext of checking identity cards and the imaginary transportation of arms by the public transport network, for the purpose of overthrowing the regime. Uniformed men are idling about, intimidating impoverished citizens in the towns and cities, while a crippling economic sabotage is taking place in remote places like Ekondo Titi. Eyewitness reports emphasize the mad rush with which the smuggling of rice is being conducted, probably because the saboteurs want to hit the jackpot before anyone takes notice and probably because the muddy roads to Ekondo Titi may soon become intractable with the coming of heavy rainfall. The quagmire Mr. Biya has dug for himself is rougher than the road to Ekondo Titi and if he cares to read the handwriting on the wall, he should be able to see the monstrous hydra head of the G11; the Frankenstein monster he gave birth to and which, willy-nilly, is out to get him despite his ambition to rule Cameroon for life. What is happening in Ekondo Titi is a mere tip of the iceberg and when the avalanche finally sweeps down the May 20th avenue, right in his backyard, then shall the story be told. I have always pondered why the Ondo Ndongs and the Abah Abahs did not border to flee the 167 country even when it had become clear that they had been earmarked as sacrificial lambs. They had all the opportunity to escape, passport or no passport. But they did not. They are out to defy Ali Baba and if they must go, Ali Baba too, must go. It is a nasty power game in which the poor unsuspecting and docile citizens of Cameroon, who, having been anaesthetized by the false political doctrines (the absence...