Dear Minister of Territorial Administration,
My Dear Abakwa Brother,
Here I am writing a public and personal letter to you. Public because it relates to rather ostentatious public actions that you have and have not carried out. Personal because yes, you are my brother.
This letter is to ask you to cease, desist and take action.
Cease.
As a citizen of Cameroon, I ask that you cease immediately two things.
First you must cease to threaten and insult us, citizens of Cameroon. The use of such terms as “moulinex”, the intimidating language and tone, must immediately cease. You are a Minister of the Republic of Cameroon. Kindly reread Article 2 of our Constitution.
We the people, hold national sovereignty which we choose to exercise through the President of the Republic. You are appointed by the President of the Republic. In order of hierarchy, we the People are your boss’s boss. Under no circumstances are you supposed to insult or threaten us as you exercise your official duties. Our taxes pay your salary and the salary of the President of the Republic. You work for us.
As a Minister of the Republic, you are to maintain professionalism, etiquette and respectability at all times. We pay you to represent us with dignity and decorum.
Contrary to many Cameroonians, I have met and discussed with you. During a 3-hour discussion we disagreed over 90% of the time. Not once did you threaten or insult me during that conversation, despite our diametrically opposing views. I therefore know you are capable of communicating without threat or insult.
Cease immediately with the threats and insults you use when addressing Cameroonians. It is disrespectful of We, the People. It is a violation of Cameroonian law, and it is unbecoming and undignified of the office you have been appointed to hold. An office that represents us as a nation.
Cease immediately with the threats and insults.
Desist
As a citizen of Cameroon, I ask that you desist immediately with pronouncements that are illegal in nature. As a Minister of the Republic of Cameroon your job is to uphold and respect the law. You regularly make pronouncements and attempt to carry out acts which are contrary to the law. Let me cite two examples.
- Illegal Pronouncement on Freedom of Speech: Banning public debate on the state of health of the Head of State. The preamble of the Constitution of Cameroon says “the freedom of communication, of expression, of the press, of assembly, of association, and of trade unionism, as well as the right to strike shall be guaranteed under the conditions fixed by law;”. Freedom of expression is a Constitutional right! You cannot as a Minister of the Republic ban any Cameroonian from speaking about any subject unless there exists a specific law allowing you to do so. Your directive of October 9, 2024 to Governors is therefore illegal.
- Illegal Pronouncements on the Functioning of Political Parties: Banning coalitions and demanding that political parties request permission from Divisional Officers and Sub Divisional Officers to hold meetings, Mr. Minister, is in direct contradiction of Laws N° 90/055 and N° 90/056 of 19 December 1990 which specify the legal parameters for the holding of public meetings and the functioning of political parties, respectively. These laws render your communiques of March 12th and May 23rd 2024, which are also written in a threatening and insulting tone, illegal.
Mr. Minister, upholding the law of Cameroon is a fundamental and specific part of your duties. The law states that you are to provide a framework within which political parties exercise the freedom of political opinion, guaranteed by our constitution and carry out their activities. Under no circumstances are you supposed to immix yourself or interfere with the functioning of political parties. Despite our highly flawed judicial system, your attempts to interfere in the internal functioning of political parties have always been brought to a halt by the courts. I know this firsthand, having beaten you as President of the Cameroon People’s Party, not once, but twice in the court system. Various other political parties have also beaten you in a court system which in no way favors us as opposition parties.
Learn your lesson. Desist with the illegal ministerial communiques, decisions and actions. It is not only unbecoming and undignified of the office you have been appointed to hold, but it suggests you are unfit for that office.
Finally, Mr. Minister, you must desist from confusing your role as the militant of the ruling political party with your functions as minister. It is unfortunate that your party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement has for the past 42 years, confused itself as a party with the Government of Cameroon. You have confused state functions, you have confused state resources, and you have completely confused state interests with that of your party.
Be informed that this confusion is unfortunate, contrary to the interests of the Republic and unquestionably illegal. It is a confusion that has impoverished our country, obstructed its development and impeded Cameroonians from enjoying the liberties, resources and riches of this wonderful country of ours. You, Mr. Minister are one of the leading proponents of that confusion.
You must desist immediately from confusing your role as a militant of the CPDM with your role as minister. You are a Minister of the Republic of Cameroon. We pay you to uphold and defend national interests, not the interests of any individual citizen, even when that citizen is the President of the Republic.
Take Action.
While you are busy with insults, threats and illegal pronouncements, the actual work you are supposed to be doing, the work we as Cameroonian citizens pay you to do, is left very poorly done. The responsibilities which you are carrying out extremelyy inadequately are multiple. Let me focus on just three which need urgent and efficient action on your part.
The Crisis in the Far North
Mr. Minister, about half a million Cameroonians are in dire straits in the Far North of our country due to flooding. You banned (you and the banning, eh!) Cameroonians from mobilizing resources to assist their fellow citizens. Meanwhile, the Directorate of Civil Protection in your ministry has failed on multiple fronts.
- Prevention. These floods occur annually and the exceptionally high levels of water this year were predicted. Your ministry did nothing to prevent the deaths of Cameroonians and the disastrous situation in which nearly 500,000 of our compatriots find themselves.
- Adequate Response. The precise mission of the Directorate of Civil Protection is to prepare for and respond to disaster. So far, your response is highly inadequate. Shelters are insufficient and have been flooded anew. Assistance provided to victims is insufficient and inappropriate. Victims are traumatized and re-traumatized.
- Coordination, Planning and Resource Mobilization. Your ministry is supposed to coordinate with all other ministries as well as civil society actors and private sector to provide short, medium and long term solutions to these citizens in distress. Other than your pronouncements about gifts from the head of state (once again confusing your role of militant with that of minister), Cameroonians are not privy to the plan to support our compatriots. After your banning of private initiatives, despite the acute shortage of resources for victims, no one knows what your ministry is doing to respond to this crisis nor how we as citizens can contribute.
Urban Insecurity
Mr. Minister, we as citizens are living in alarmingly increasing insecurity in our cities. This insecurity is due to the lack of employment, education and training opportunities for an estimated 30% of our young people. The insecurity is also due to the proliferation and use of illegal drugs in our country. This insecurity endangers our lives, impedes economic growth and investment in our country. It is a complex and urgent problem that is at the heart of your portfolio as Minister of Territorial Administration.
Your days should be spent, not threatening and insulting us, but mobilizing your fellow ministers as well as all other stakeholders (how can you mobilize us when you are threatening us?), to resolve this urgent problem.
The Anglophone Crisis
Mr. Minister, as I have told you in person, I consider you to be one of main protagonists of a crisis that has killed almost 10,000 Cameroonians, created an estimated 60.000 refugees and displaced over 800,000 people. Your ill-fated CPDM “Peace Meeting” of December 8, 2016, triggered what was to become a low-grade civil war in our country. Citizens were upset with their Government and laying out legitimate complaints. You decided to respond with a partisan event and triggered catastrophe. Do you begin to understand the calamity that this confusion between the role of Minister and Militant has produced for our country?
Fast forward to today. The crisis is here and you are Minister. The responses you have brought to the internally displaced persons (IDPs)who are directly under your responsibility are entirely inadequate. IDPs need shelter, administrative documents, schools and jobs. You have occasionally provided them with a mattress or a bag of rice. The West, Littoral, Center and even South are flooded with waves of IDPs who in their vulnerability are being trafficked for sex and labor. Victims are revictimized over and over and over again. Mr. Minister, you were so quick with your arrogance, threats and insults to instigate this crisis. We ask now that you do the job for which we, the citizens, pay you.
- Develop a clear plan for administrative documents for IDPs. Hundreds of thousands of IDPs live in total insecurity because they lack birth certificates, national identification and other administrative documents. Organize with your minister colleagues and get these citizens out of this precarious situation immediately. They have suffered for too long.
- Provide physical and mental healthcare. Since the beginning of this crisis, your Government has offered little to no services to IDPs who have undergone severe physical and mental trauma. Organize with your colleagues in charge of health and social welfare to provide the services direly needed by these victims who have suffered for years with not a care on your part.
- Elaborate a clear strategy for jobs. Displaced people need a means to survive. Organize with your multiple minister colleagues in charge of decentralization, economic development, agriculture, etc. and develop a clear strategy for jobs. IDPs are citizens whom your CPDM Government’s misguided policies have rendered homeless and jobless. It is your responsibility to enable them to re-insert themselves into social and economic life.
Mr. Minister, there is more than enough serious work to be done. These are just a few of the exigent files on your desk. You have no time for frivolous communiques and illegal ministerial decisions.
Take action, Mr. Minister. That is your job.
My Dear Abakwa Brother,
Yes, I will conclude on this very personal note. You are my brother and I am your sister, no matter our feelings of ambivalence toward one another. Cameroon destines us so, Abakwa destines us so.
Anyone who meets you realizes immediately your profound and deep love, bordering on worship, for the head of state. As strange as I find that choice, it is yours and I respect it. That blinding love for Paul Biya however led you to carry out actions that very directly destroyed the Abakwa we knew and loved, for this generation and the next. Let that be a lesson. Let it not repeat itself across the entire nation. If nature follows its course, sooner or later, Paul Biya will leave this nation and you and I will be left behind. Brother and Sister, staring one another in the face.
Cease. Desist. Take Action. So that on that day, we may find the common ground to build again, from these ashes you and your love of Paul Biya have left us.
Most sincerely,
Kah Walla
Citizen
