Cameroonian Youth, Patriotism and Participation in Development

By Mofor Samuel

“The youth are the leaders of tomorrow.” This statement that is often been made by the powers that be in different occasions, when addressing youth has rightly or wrongly been received by the latter with a lot of mixed feelings. This skepticism on the part of the youth is due to the fact that policy makers scarcely or simply do not match words with action.
In every generation, there are problems a community must try to solve, dangers it must overcome and opportunities that it must seize. Cameroonians have long understood that education is the main escape route from poverty. Little attention is paid to educating youth to understand and cope with changes in social, economic and political life, and to opening their minds to changing ideas and values about the world. There is almost no political education to prepare for responsibility in a world where youth increasingly desire to share responsibility. Economic and political pressures on students and pupils therefore encourage passive conformity and discourage independence and responsibility.
During the last Youth Day, thousand of youth were seen marching past. But then one begins to wonder and imagine where they are marching to when the future looks so bleak. With little or no job opportunities, the rate of unemployment keeps soaring every year as young people are been churned out of schools. Some observers are of the opinion that the youth in Cameroon have no future because our leaders have mortgaged this future. Our leaders on their part say that they are doing everything possible to remedy the situation. The creation of the National Employment Fund, Vocational Centres to orient youth towards employment opportunities and above all, the creation of the Ministries of Employment and Vocational Training as well as of Small and Medium Size Enterprise are just some measures taken by government to curb unemployment. According to the National Employment Fund, the rate of unemployment for the cities of Douala and Yaoundé stood at 25.6 and 21.5% respectively.
The inability of the state to absorb the teeming number of youth or to create a conducive atmosphere for them to be self employed has put the youth at crossroads, with the immediate consequences being a high rate of unemployment, hardship and poverty amongst them. This has led to an upsurge in crime wave, fey mania, cultism, sects, kidnapping, murder, duping, drug trafficking and addiction, homosexuality etc to make ends meet. Others have turned to prostitution thus contracting HIV/AIDS; w hich is killing them in thousands thus affecting the labour force of the country. The bottom line being that there is a high rate of insecurity all over the country. Even government is helpless in the face of this increase in crime wave perpetrated by the youth.
Why is it that picking up a job in Cameroon has become a hard nut to crack? Who is to blame for the present situation; the high rate of unemployment in spite of all the employment opportunities in the country? Are Cameroonian youth just being lazy or lack initiatives, or is it the government that is indifferent to their plight? Does the government take major decisions before taking measure decisions concerning them? How are the youth involved in decision making as far the issue of employment is concerned?
Real and lasting development based on social justice can be achieved through effective participation of youth in decisions affecting their future. The youth must effectively participate in development programmes targeting them in decision making, planning and implementation of such projects, to enhance the success and future sustainability of project activities and outcomes. Programmes designed for youth should help them to become independent. They should be able to, orgnise change on the basis of their access to knowledge, to political process, and to financial, social and natural resources. The State has an important role in providing a policy and legal framework that promotes free and autonomous youth organizations. For example, by-laws and property laws needs to be re-examined and where necessary modified to encourage youth’s entitlement to membership and access to management committees. Procedure by which organizations can acquire legal recognition should not be cumbersome and should not impose internal structure and rules on organizations.
The solutions to practical and immediate needs usually serve as the easiest and the best entry point for mobilizing youth, for building social cohesion and for creating self- management capability.
The social cohesion of youth groups is best strengthened by encouraging youth self organization, creativity and initiative. Youth should be allowed to devise their own form of organization and rules according to their needs and particularities, although participatory and democratic management within youth groups should be encouraged. It is usually effective to build upon already existing, if any youth groups.
The Cameroonian youth have often accused the government of not letting them have a say in many decisions taken concerning them. The issue of employment and the high rate of unemployment is an ocular proof to this accusation. The youth in their vast majority believe that the existing powers are placing a lot of stumbling blocks and obstacles in front of them as far as employment is concerned.
One hand cannot tie a bundle and secondly the future of every nation belongs to the youth, and so it is very normal for policy makers to involve them actively in the designing, planning and shaping of this future. The theme of this year’s Youth Day is youth, patriotism and participation. Patriotism is not pretence and so if the powers that be are really serious as far as the future of the youth is concerned then they have to put in place the necessary mechanisms needed to attain this objective.