By Writam-pen
The money party lackeys
(asshole-lickers) of the Biya regime as well as the (s) elected officials like
to talk about how things will keep getting better. But when things happen contrary
to what they said, they pull out the "S" word - sacrifice. Yet none of them is ready to sacrifice any of their privileges, positions, and power for others.
When the Manyu delegation to the 50th Anniversary celebration of
reunification was spotted passing through Bamenda, I recalled what Rick Gaber
said about these people of the lie. He said that the politician is a type of
creature known for its propensity to lie, exaggerate, embellish, and use all
kinds of hysterical or bombastic attention-getting. There would be no exaggeration
if the statement is contextualized to fit the plight of the beloved Manyu
people and the floating banner in Buea welcoming President Biya.
I have often heard people say that it is
outlawed to make significant opinion psychoanalysis on the neglect of the Kumba-Mamfe
Road by the Biya regime and that making such a critical judgment is like
writing satanic verses that lead to divine sentence. But let the word go forth
from this time and medium to friends and enemies of progress alike, that the
torch has been passed to a new generation that will talk than die in silence. The
cry from the wilderness is indicative that it is there that humanity lives.
During a standing discussion at Bongo
Square, a young man said that the people of Manyu Division have been tempered
with carelessness by the Biya regime. I understood he was aghast with the fact
that for 53 years now, the people of the Old Mamfe Division now Manyu have
reluctantly accepted the slow shame of those human rights to which this nation
has always been committed and to which the nature of this country and the
powers that be have imposed on them shamelessly. In fact if a free society
cannot help the many who are poor, it can never save the few who are rich, says
the impressionist.
When government institutions were the
pillars of moral value, any public pronouncement of the Head of State was
considered by all and sundry as part of the Presidential largess that the
President dishes out every time he visits any locality. Such a pronouncement
was considered as a symbol of decorum because such promises were immediately
followed up and realized within the shortest time possible. It happened with
the creation of the Bamenda University, the construction of the Bamenda Ring
Road and the studies on the Menchum Fall. The Kumba-Mamfe raod is not just a
nightmare but demands a week of serious fasting and prayer because you never
know when you will get to your destination. I do not know whether it is the
influence of the Western culture that has transformed government institutions
into negating its people or influence of politics that has made Head of States
to forget that where the road passes, development follows. However, anyone who
would maladroitly sit on the fence to declare that the Kumba-Mamfe Road is not
a necessity or a priority should be considered as being in a state of sin.
Being a respecter of the institution that President Biya incarnates and the
powers that he wields, I do not understand whether it is not another form of
subjugation of the Anglophones.
Even though there is a statement in the
Bible which states that people should pass round for judges on others, I
believe it is often quoted out of context because the Bible still tells us that
people should be judged if their acts are injurious. I am aware that this
critical judgment analysis is badly needed. It is imperative because the Manyu
people are weeping silently and the bells of anguish are being heard signaling
that Manyu Division may cease to exist in the map of this country. I am also
aware that this bit will offset many people, I mean the Manyu Vuvuzelas of the
regime but it is a fact. Even so, who is even going to twist my arm for
speaking the truth? Is it not a right for the people of Manyu to have a good
access road and even enjoy more as a border Division? Besides, should they not be compensated for
voting the CPDM as it is claimed by the vuvuzelas. Or it is true that the
rigging was massive as decried and indicated in security reports.
Notwithstanding, if anyone takes this opinion
for a misdemeanor, believe me it is a positive insult. And if today some of our
leaders no more command the powers they use to exercise, it is because of the
copious counterfeited promises they make. I recall how during the above
mentioned standing discussion, a young girl of about 30 years, said the contract
for the construction of the Kumba-Mamfe road was signed in Chief Nfor
Tabetando’s palace. On the spot another young man contradicted her by saying
that the contract will be awarded this year. I could not know where to put my
head. It pains and kills my imagination as well as the picture post-card I got
from my father that they decided to unite with La Republique because of what
was happening up the roads. 53 years after reunification the situation of these
roads are more pathetic than before. When I look across the river and see the
road network, I cry for my Fatherland. When I see politicians taking false
oaths because they have their interest to protect, I pity myself why I was born
a Cameroonian. In fact I disagree with people who would say that it is the
notion of personal aggrandizement that has pushed those who are closer to the
regime to loose sight of reality. And to me, it is some sort of a mental
torture that is being exercised on the ethnic person of the Anglophone.
The Manyu Division has had the privilege
that produce Ministers and Directors in this country. Hoping to see any of them
to create the unexpected like late Pefok who rejected a speech from the Yaounde
cronies and doled out one from his pocket to tell President Biya what the
Bamenda man thinks is like waiting for exhale. Anyone who has been on this road
any of these days will agree that no pregnant woman can dare. The story of the Kumba-Mamfe
road is not only that of pools of water; it is also dust. It may look pathetic
but the truth is that traveling from Manyu to Kumba demands two sets of
dresses, one for the mud or dust and another to wear at the destination. The
state of nature of this road has made it in such a way that it is the nature of
the weather that determines the transport fare.
Every similar proposal here has bogged
down until it was too late to save any lives. Anything newspapermen can write
about this in their own papers will help. It will help to save lives, the lives
of people like ourselves. I wish I were eloquent, I wish I could put down on
paper the picture that comes to me from the restrained of anger. I need not
dwell upon the authenticated horrors of the Nazi internment camps and death
chambers for Jews. That is not tragic but a kind of insane horror. It is our part
in this which is tragic. The essence of tragedy is not the doing of evil by
evil men but the doing of evil by good men, out of weakness, indecision, sloth,
inability to act in accordance with what they know to be right.
The Kumba-Mamfe
road, until it execution, actually presents the classic existential
argument about the existence of God or a higher power: if he did and does
exist, then the only natural choice is to become a disciple; but if he did not,
and there is no afterlife, then life is meaningless outside the present moment.
Hence, there is nothing to be done except to live every moment without a
thought to the next. The state of nature of the Kumba-Mamfe Road has made Manyu
Division an Island on land which makes them to feel and to be powerless to influence
the life of society by which their own life is governed. Change can occur only
by a great increase of participation and responsibility on the part of those
who now are well fed and amused but are excluded from effective participation
in political decisions or in the policies of the institutions and enterprises
they work in.
Today, thinking and feeling are more and
more separated from each other, and this separation leads either to an almost
schizophrenic intellectualism or to a neurotic, irrational emotionalism. Only
if emotions and reason are brought together can man function in a way which
makes life interesting and hence creates the possibility of a productive life.
To put it briefly, what Manyu people need is not speeches, if need be (s)elected
officials with character and conscience not those who see nothing good in
anything except in the form of bread.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. Minute by Minute Report on Cameroon and Africa
