PAP National Secretary
General, Hon. AYAH Paul Abine, in his traditional end of year address to the
nation, enjoined the youth and women to vie for parliamentary and council
seats. Here is that speech in its entirety. AYAH PAUL ADDRESSES THE NATION...
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-ono 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 cemetary 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 cndidacy when the time comes! You will change nothing by
abstention; by surrender, by resignaton, 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!
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. Minute by Minute Report on Cameroon and Africa
