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The Genuine Worries of Global Information Network, GLOBINET*)
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mmorality, perversion and
depravation are vices that any sane person or community will shun and stay away
from, except the cousins of the evil one. These vices are all embodied in one
word called corruption, a phenomenon that has long become the pseudonym of
Cameroun. The long yearned-for ring road is so far at an advanced stage,
covering the Baba 1, Babessi, Jakiri to River Bui (Kumbo) stretch. As if this
silver linen in a thick cloud is irritating the authorities in hell, some nasty
development has been noticed on the entire stretch from Bamenda to even Nkambe-
poor old abandoned Nkambe. That development is called “Routiers” in the
parlance understood in our Camerounaise context as Traffic Police!
The Ugly Picture:
Long before the ongoing work on
the Bamenda Ring Road, passengers travelling on it paid for three things at a
go: first, they paid for the bad state of the road, as the driver had to pay
boys on the bad spots to push the cars; second was paying to make up for what the driver will
“bribe” the “Chefs Oficiers” on the way with; third, they paid for the normal
travelling in the vehicle.
Let us take, for instance, a
passenger travelling from Nkambe to Bamenda. The official rate we learn is cfa
3000, but what was being paid until recently was cfa 6000. Here is how the
other cfa3000 is shared. From Nkambe to ndu, GLOBINET saw gendarme officers and
police at two check points, then there is the so-called “Road Safety”. From ndu
to jakiri, you have five check points, with two of those “Road Safety” guys. From
Babessi to Bamenda, you have four control points and one “Road Safety” check
point. In all, we have eleven (11) police/ gendarme checks, and four “Road
Safety” points!
According to GLOBINET’s findings,
at each check point, the driver doles out a thousand francs (cfa1000) to the
police/gendarme controls (each force to take cfa500…while each of the “Road
Safety” crooks get five hundred francs! This entails that the driver doles out
eleven thousand francs to the supposed security guys in uniform, and two thousand
francs to the “Road Safety” people. In which case, if a small five seater car
loaded only at the regularized acceptable four passengers at cfa 3000, he will
collect 12,000frs, fuel it and on return trip could end up with a balance of
less than 7000frs…everything being equal.
So, what the driver resorts to is
to double the load, double the fare, take seven passengers at 6000frs each,
making 42,000frs. After giving out 13,000frs, to the highway authorized robbers
in uniform, and fueling the car for say 17,000frs, he is left with 22,000frs
from which the park boys squeeze out 7000frs as “camp”, with the Municipal
council having less than 500frs. If he were to make an immediate return trip,
he benefits as the “Control Security” will shut their eyes to him! In all these
arrangements, the loser is the state and the travelers! Isn’t it?
Enter the ‘Notorious Routiers”
Just as travelers on the Ring
Road were breathing an air of relief and raising their hands in thanksgiving to
God when the fare dropped from 6000frs to 5000frs, Bamenda-Nkambe, the agents
from hell have yet unleashed a bitter one once more-true to what Jesus Christ
insinuates in John 10:10(a)- that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. Otherwise, what
accounts for the sudden introduction of these “luxurious” looking guys in smart
neat uniforms called “Routiers” ( Traffic Police ). Hitherto, they had taken
permanent abode at a dangerous spot on the rough climb from Bambili to
Sabga…less than 500meters from another gang up at the Sabga Plateau. They come
in as early as 5a.m. in two beautiful luxurious expensive cars and a huge state
bike, sit in these cars smoking and sipping some expensive wine with a pencil a
notebook and a whistle. The regular customers know the rules. Whether your car
is in order or not, whether you are overloaded or not, you stop some ten meters
away from them, step out of the car ( most times the driver tells the 7th
passenger to put his left foot on the
brakes!!!) runs over to the ‘officer’s car, and simply drop your thousand
francs. If you pretend to have forgotten, they blow their whistle and you stop,
and if luck fails you, you pay 2000frs!
Passengers have been grumbling
and wondering why a state of law like Cameroon will allow this open vice to
ensue. Last February, a 4-seater car was overloaded to its brim, with 8
passengers, and it passed this point, performed the usual diabolic ritual as
well as with the other gang up at Sabga, and three kms away, somersaulted killing four of the passengers on the spot,
the other five occupants later perished in hospital simply because the driver
had lost control due to overload.
CRTV’s Morning Safari had called for
these officers who were on duty that morning to be charged to court for having
“closed their eyes” when this car passed their check points! Up to this day,
nothing has been done, because these officers are obeying instructions from
above!
Paradoxically, instead of
punishing them or removing them from the road, the authorities have multiplied
these check points on the Ring Road for no other purpose than extorting more
monies from drivers…and by extension from the poor passengers. ( The Matthew
Effect “ to those who have, more will be added…” Now, we can spot them, with
brand new sophisticated bikes and cars at Nkar, Kakar and Binshua doing the
same disastrous work like those at Bambili. They are arrogant, fierce and
lousy. They understand two languages… French and a thousand francs!
One would have taken them to be
some new toll gates on the newly constructed road, yet what of those in Ndu and
Nkambe with yet very poor roads. And to think that drivers have oncemore added
500frs to make up for what they have to give to these fellows! Since they came
around, how many vehicles have they intercepted for violating the highway code
or being out of order to merit additional points on the Bui and Donga Mantung stretch.
GLOBINET’s findings indicate that less than two transport vehicles are charged
to court each year for one or other illegal motives. So, the one conclusion is
that the state of Cameroun is openly endorsing bribery and corruption, yet
pretending to fight them.
Addressing the Syndrome:
In 1998, the Roman Catholic
Bishops of Cameroon stated that corruption has attained a suicidal level in our
country. It is accepted today as a normal way of life, so much so that those
who practice it no longer feel the slightest guilt. There is this girl at GBHS
Bamenda who keeps coming late to school on Wednesdays and Fridays. When the Master
of Discipline sought to get the reason why, she revealed that her father goes
to “work” on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When he returns at night, she is forced to
do the ironing and straightening of all the monies he squeezes from the drivers
on the highway. She just fell short of calling the father a highway robber! She
even said she had queried her dad as to whether he gives receipts to all those
who give him the cash, and he replied that it is a deal from the top in Yaoundé
and that if he doesn’t “work hard” to bring at least cfa500,000frs a day, he
will not be eligible to be in that sector which he “bought” with money! She
said her dad keeps 10% of what he collects and hands the rest to his immediate
next boss who keeps his share and sends the rest up, until the Big Man in Yaoundé
gets his own national share!
From the above analysis, we agree
with the Durban Commitment that “while corruption bears with special cruelty
upon the world’s most poor, it also debases human rights and destroys
confidence in democracy and the legitimacy of governments”. 99.9 % have no
respect for these guys on the roads, and worse still, they loath them like
hell. GLOBINET notes that the factors that facilitate the spread of these
horrendous activities of extortion, or petty corruption is greed and poverty.
When these are presented to Mr. Head of State, he brings in the concept of
“onus of proof”.
Isn’t it time we put in place an
Ombudsman’s office to hear citizen’s complaints headed by Civil society
Organizations like GLOBINET? It is time we adopt a “Zero Tolerance policy where
officials caught in fraudulent activities are instantly dismissed or
imprisoned. We recall that Botswana was rated the least corrupt African
country, yet it is not the richest country in Africa. It is the nation with the
best governance policy. It has an arsenal of measures very rigorous
anti-corruption approach with an autonomous Directorate on corruption and
Economic crime. It is GLOBINET’s wish that collective interest should always supersede
individual interest. What is going on is undermining the government in the eyes
of the people. We can only conclude that lack of morals and ear of the deity
has been sacrificed at the shrine of material gains. Like OAS’s Secretary General, Garira Cesar,
GLOBINET holds that fighting against corruption is a fight for social justice,
because the poor are corruption’s biggest victims. It is time we stop this
phenomenon the best way we can, and we have to start by doing away with these
obnoxious and offensive acts of our
so-called security guys on our highways.
·
Global Information Network (GLOBINET) is a Human
Rights Communication and Information Unit, affiliated to the African Commission
on Human and peoples’ Rights, Banjul, The Gambia. Its Regional Coordinator for
West Africa is Martin Fon Yembe, Publisher of The Frontier Telegraph, Vice
President of CJA-Cameroon.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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