Cameroon is retrograding rather than forging ahead:Hon Ayah Paul

Hon. Ayah Paul, who is  Secretary-General  of People’s Action Party (PAP) and an Outspoken MP has made the above statement in his 2012 End-of Year Address to the Nation, in which he also stresses that Cameroon is the mother of waste. Hon Ayah then challenges the Cameroonians, especially the  youth and women to take their destiny into their hands, by taking part in active politics to effect positive change. Following is the full address:

Hon. Ayah Paul: SG PAP

 Fellow Cameroonians,

 It is rare honour indeed for us to commune with you through this medium. You very well know as we do that 2012 has not been spared the natural law of ups and downs. The successes were many as failures. There were deaths and births; sorrow and joy. We thank the Almighty for everything, and pray that His will be done in the coming year.

 The Almighty is the highest judge: infallible, incorruptible and most just. That is a stark truism! Therefore are we forbidden to judge – we mere sinful mortals! But it is no less a truism that we have been instructed by the Almighty to be each other’s keepers. We are of opinion then that that window opens unto the realm of appreciation. On that platform are public morals built. It is akin to judgment but it is not judgment itself.

 Availing ourselves of that leeway, we feel emboldened to state without fear of contradiction that the Almighty has more than endowed our country with both natural and human resources hugely enormous to keep suffering at bay. We are of course conscious that every coin has two sides. Naturally then is imperfection human. Yet must bad governance, inertia, corruption, and conscious arrogant leaning on perversity be decried.

 We are all living witnesses that, for the past thirty years and more, our country has been infested with such slogans as “ Rigour and Moralization(?). New Deal. Larges/grands  Debats. Grandes Ambitions. Grandes Realisations. Projets Structruants. Vast Construction Site…” We are all living witnesses that none of these slogans has been translated into any concrete action. If anything it is the reverse that has been true! Take for instance just the most recent slogan of “a vaste construction site from January, 2012”! Look back from December 2012 and tell us…Yes, tell us what you have seen. Tell us what you do see! Yes, tell us…!

 Sad to say, but truly, our country is retrograding rather than forging ahead. No-one can dare to contradict this assertion, conscious of the fact that Equatorial Guinea has only petrol as against Cameroon that has petrol, cocoa, coffee, banana, palm-oil, rubber, tea, cotton, timber, minerals etc. Is not it a shouting ignominy that Equatorial Guinea should bail out Cameroun with 400 million cash even as the two countries have a common central bank? Is not it very like carrying palm-oil to Lobe?

Difficult to understand! Difficult even to imagine! For all that we have! Look at the deplorable state of our roads – mud, lakes, craters everywhere! For all that we have, look at our institutions! Schools without classrooms, without teachers! Health centres on paper only! Hospitals without drugs; with disgruntled doctors, with nurses without salaries! 

 How can anyone explain it: that, in the face of all the chanting about the merits of “budget programme”, the 2013 budget should increase by some 16% and yet the investment budget has gone up only by 1%? That the investment budget is under 30% of the total budget? That, at the time you are reading these words, many are a Cameroonian in need of 5 francs for food whereas the Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic has 2.5 million per day for petrol (including Sundays and public holidays when he does not go to work)? How can a country that hopes to develop set aside 82 billions (82 thousand million) for such opaque budgetary line as “intervention directes”? What justifies the “Direction Generale du Budget” having a budget of as much as over 95 billion on top of the budget of the Ministry of Finance of which the “Direction Generale du Budget” is only a unit? Why, and why and why without end Amen!

 The answer simply is that our country is the mother of waste; a country where the masses are languishing in the refugee camp of misery with the term “peace” inscribed in the tents. A country flowing with debilitating drinks that water down thought and lull reaction! A country where poverty is imposed in order to lower the bargaining power of the masses! A country of collosal negation!

 Dear youth of Cameroon,

 You know full well right at the moment of reading these words that, within a certain time period, all the elders of today will die. But it is impossible that within that same time period all the present youth will die. It follows without more that the future is yours – you the youth of Cameroon. It is a grave mistake to continue to allow people on their way to the cemetery to pretend to be preparing a future that they know just too well they will not live. Take your destiny into your hands! You cannot do that without taking leadership positions. Get involved in politics today and not tomorrow that may never come. Register on the electoral rolls now! Put up your candidacy when the time comes! You will change nothing by abstention; by surrender, by resignation, nay sycophancy! 

 Where is your courage, youth of Cameroon? You cannot get to the land flowing with milk and honey by staying put in old Egypt. Verily we say unto you that you must cross the “Red Sea”! That you must do! Get up therefore and get going! To dare is to do! And do remember always that nothing good comes easy! 

We of course agree with you that the waters of the Red Sea may not part in our days; and that you need a bridge to cross to the other side. But the bridge is right there at your doorstep! It has been there all this time! The bridge is People’s Action Party – PAP! Just start the walk here and now! Victory stares at you at the other end! It is even beckoning!

 My dear Cameroonian woman,

 Remember that you joined other women of the world at Beijing to demand for 30% share of decision-making positions. Even the United Nations’ Organization did endorse your demand! But convinced that the Almighty made man and woman to complement each other, we of PAP offered you 50% - the first political party in the world ever to stand for gender equality.

 Avail yourself of the opportunity PAP does offer you! Let us repeat what you know so well already that leadership begins with registration on the electoral roll. Presentation of candidacy follows. Successful election places you in a position to crusade for female causes. Do have at the back of your mind always that a copy can never be like the original, much less the original itself. PAP is the original solution for you, my dear Cameroonian woman! PAP is where no woman is limited to the Ministry of the Interior! Come and see!

 Fellow Cameroonians

 We are on the threshold of 2013. Changing the past is not possible. But shaping the future is, with the Almighty by our side! That endeavour should be ours from the very first day of 2013! PAP counts on you all! ONLY the best for 2013!

 May God/Allah bless Cameroon!