REACTION TO THE LIKELY SACKING OF PRIME MINISTER YANG (Part 1 of 3)

REACTION TO THE LIKELY SACKING OF PRIME MINISTER YANG (Part 1 of 3)

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Below is the reaction of Milan Atam on the article I published on this blog a few days ago, entitled, `IS PRIME MINISTER YANG FINISHED? (Part 1 of 2)`.

You can read the story again by clicking on the link here below

http://tmazonga.blogspot.com/2014/01/is-prime-minister-yang-finished-part-1.html

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FROM: Milan Atam

TO: Tikum Mbah Azonga

Another good and incisive article - as usual grounded in the reality of Cameroon. I take a slightly different perspective though I would not be surprised if mine is seen as nothing but the rants of an idealist who has lost complete touch with reality.

That Yang gets yanked out of Biya’s cabinet makes no difference. He should have been on retirement anyway. But then this is Cameroon where our ‘Grandes Ambitions’ is built on recycling deadwood.

Consequently Yang losing the Star Building might not make much difference as I learned he had never really shown interest in the position and never fought for it like some of his predecessors.

I would like to make the following observations: 

1. Performance in Elections as Barometer for Qualifications

 If regional performance in elections had been the barometer for appointments  then many should not qualify and I think you have already covered that in your mention of Nji Atanga and Ama Muna. In fact I cannot think of any Prime Ministers since Achidi Achu, appointed on the performance of the CPDM in their regions – at least not before they became Prime Minister. And I might add Sadou Hayatou who came at a time when Maigari’s UNDP ruled the Northern Provinces.

2. Stamp of Authority to the Position of Prime Minister

 We have to accept that the position of Prime Minister in Cameroon is a joke. Normally the Prime Minister should either be Head of Government in the real and true sense or the Coordinator of Government. In Cameroon, while considered to be the Head of Government, the Prime Minister is a window dressing with absolutely no powers. He cannot discipline Ministers because they are appointed by the President. So it is a very confused system and probably Yang knows this. 

Yang’s refusal to submit to the pressures introduced by Achidi Achu is worth praising. Again, I would be the first to accept my sin of being removed from. You claim that  “there is not a domain in which Yang has stamped his image, unlike his predecessors. Achidi Achu was generous; Musonge was astute and fair; and Inoni made impromptu visits to some ministries and proved to be very bilingual”. I don`t see how these men contributed to nation-building. Mbu (Baforchu) Village had no roads when Achidi Achu was Prime Minister. And if that should qualify as tribalism, I would put it differently and say I cannot remember a single grand project that Achidi Achu carried out as Prime Minister except for initiating the system of ‘scratch my back, I scratch yours’. 

I was a student at Molyko when Musonge rigged elections and 13-year old Dora was allowed to vote in his village,  Bokova while the ‘bajili’ like myself were deprived of voting for fear of voting for SDF. That is how they managed to win elections in their constituencies, which is what Yang has failed to do.

3. Yang’s Grey Areas

 You mention Yang’s grey areas which include the fact that he is ‘too much of a gentleman’. Perhaps unlike the others before him, he was not desperately in need of the position. We learn that Achidi Achu at his age was still nursing ambition to head the Senate and if I’m not mistaken Chief Mukete was made a member at 95 (an age at which most people are senile and suffer memory loss). Where are the very illustrious Tikum Mbah Azongas  and other younger more qualified Cameroonians who could be running the country in line with the modern and

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FOR PART 2 of 3 OF THIS STORY, PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW TO THE APPROPRIATE PAGE OF MY BLOG

http://tmazonga.blogspot.com/2014/01/reaction-to-likely-sacking-of-prime_11.html