CAMEROON`S FAILED DIASPORA

By Tikum Mbah Azonga

Cameroon has failed its Diaspora. The country has turned its back on the group of its citizens who live abroad and that is regrettable because if this situation is seen as a double-edged sword which cuts both ways, then obviously it is bound to be one that hurts the nation more than it hurts the Diaspora itself. From that perspective, the majority back here at home paradoxically bears the brunt of things more than does the minority out there. There is therefore need for redress.

A good number of Cameroon`s most qualified professionals work and live overseas, and I use the word “overseas” in the broad sense. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with such a choice on their part. After all, anyone should be free to choose where to live and work. However, the bitter truth is that when you come to think of it, it hurts because those who have elected to operate in the Diaspora end up by paying taxes to their host countries and not the home country that is Cameroon. They also help in developing the host country and not their home country, Cameroon.

Those of us who are at home have traditionally been – rightly or wrongly – very critical of those who are abroad. We are quick to conclude that they always display a “know-it-all” attitude. I have also personally criticized them for being arrogant and unpatriotic, although I am a former Diasporan, having lived there for twenty years. I have – perhaps exaggeratedly – often wondered where their real loyalty lies.  I have wondered whether they  would not find themselves rather cheering for the host country – instead of the country of their birth - if the former were playing a football match against the home country.

To be fair to our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora, let us concede that they too have a story to tell and that we would all be in a win-win situation if we were patient enough to listen to their own account. Why do we blame them if they come home and criticize us for having one and the same person as president of the Republic in a country of over twenty million inhabitants? Why should we blame them when they shout that there is endemic corruption in Cameroon and that there is hardly a single service anyone would ask for in a public office without being directly or indirectly being asked for a bribe? Why should we not listen to them when they visit and tell us that we are too slow in the way we reason and do things and that “if this was in the States, you`d be fired”, or that “if this was in Europe, you`d be out of business”?

Sadly, some Cameroonians in the Diaspora have lobbied and brought business partners to invest in Cameroon, only to discover that “Cameroon is not yet ready for business”. There are Cameroonians abroad who have decided to come back home and contribute to nation building who have been so frustrated every step of the way that they have packed their bags and returned to where they came from because they could not cope with our sub standard way of doing things in the country.

Worse still, some of those who have decided to stay the course against all odds have died while in the country, either because they lost their way and their resources at some point in time or because their lives were taken away by people who did not want them.  Often, because people from the Diaspora are outspoken and want things to be straight, they become targeted by home people who have been hardened by our corrupt way of life who now see them as a threat. As a result, the new comer is blocked at the work place and blocked in the neighbourhood and even trapped in such a way that he or she succumbs with the innocence, candour and naivety that are characteristic of people who have lived abroad.

Despite what we may think and say, Cameroonians in the Diaspora do want to return home. But are the conditions right for them to do so? We must realize that where they are, they are obviously deeply-rooted in those communities, they have forged lifelong relationships in them, they have well paid jobs there, they live in good homes, their families out there are assured a certain degree of security. To suddenly uproot all of that and return home for good is therefore not a decision to be made lightly because the consequences can be fare-reaching and irreversible.

Interestingly, of all the stakeholders involved in ensuring that conditions are right for Cameroonians in the Diaspora to return home and develop the country, the government has the greatest say. This is because it has both the yam and the knife. Unfortunately, the same government just recently lost a golden opportunity to cash in on that asset. Perhaps as a prelude, we should recall that in the just-ended political exercise that involved elections within the basic organs of the ruling CPDM party, the party`s hierarchy sent delegations to various key countries in the Diaspora to reorganize the basic organs there. But that was because the party needed support, not because it felt it necessary to meet and brainstorm with our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora. So, it is not the same thing.

Prior to that, Paul Biya had carried out a cabinet reshuffle in which he ignored the Diaspora. Despite promises and assurances made about the impending involvement of the Diaspora in the running of state affairs, they were still left out in the cold. No attempt was made to woo them. No ministerial department was set up to specifically be in touch with them, listen to them and ease their return to the country. And so for that reason, Cameroonians in the Diaspora have continued to be held at arm`s length. As far as they are concerned, the cabinet reshuffle was simply a hundred kilometers to nowhere and a back-to-square-one deal.

If Paul Biya`s current term in office which expires in about two years turns out to be his last – either because he is pushed or he jumps by himself – then it is unlikely that he will look back and count inclusion of the Diaspora in mainstream politics as one of his achievements. Perhaps that is food for thought for Cameroon`s next president.