As of the 12thof June, the World Cup kept football fans internationally enthralled. To say some people take their football as seriously as an HIV test (maybe more so) is understating things. Case in point: Cameroonians. The majority of Cameroonians kept the timetable for the World Cup in their back pockets or imprinted in their minds as though it were the timetable of let’s say… their GCE examinations.
It is sad to hear that professional players got attacked by people who can best be described as idle over a game of chance, but the most disturbing reaction to the debacle to date has been the president’s decree via state media giving his prime minister one month to submit a report on the Indomitable Lions’ ”inglorious campaign.”
A statement on Cameroon radio said: “The President of the Republic, President Biya, instructs the Prime Minister, Philemon Yang, to open investigations on the causes of the unfortunate participation of the Indomitable Lions at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He should provide results within a month and make proposals for a deep and urgent reconstruction of Cameroon football.” (http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28035926)
Yes, this is very disturbing. Why? I don’t know about you, but I think we have a WHOLE lot more to be angry about than the performance of Eto’o and co. I think we have a lot more people worth mob beatings than Stephen Mbia. And I think we have a great deal more worth investigating than the poor performance at the world cup. Let’s just list some of these shall we?
How about an investigation into
1- The truth in Marafat’s letters?
2- Just how many prisoners are in Kodengui and for what crimes?
Earlier this year the Cameroon Tribune mentioned there would be an expansion of the the infamous Kodengui Prison facilities. The Post on the other hand has been claiming there are prisoners who have been held there without bail for years to never see the light of day or trial for that matter. Could someone please do an investigation of just how many prisoners we have in that top penitentiary and for what crimes?
3- Where all the embezzled money goes to and was it ever returned? To who?
In similar light a damn good investigation to start promptly would be that to find out how much each minister which was locked up for embezzlement in the last 5 years or so stole, where the money is, if and how it has/can be returned. Quite frankly I’ve stopped being impressed by ministerial crackdowns. Catching a thief isn’t enough when the goods stolen are never accounted for or returned. How do those in jail pay for the money stolen? And if the money is locked up in some Swiss account what efforts have been made to return it?
4- How Boko Haram insurgents enter the country and what can be done to stop them?
5- Investigations into why accidents occur on particular roads? Despite their being better tarred/constructed than others?
You would think given the number of accidents that happened in 2013 only along the Tiko Yaounde route our esteemed president would have made an extraordinary decree right? But nope, such things are reserved for football #smh
These are just five instances, but you get the drift right? To make a public decree announcing investigations into something as trivial as football makes one wonder if the evaluation of national teams’ performance is more important than looking into operations at the Douala Customs and finding out why the hell it’s so expensive for a Cameroonians to ship things into their own country? Or how best to address the long standing problem of brain drain?
Or why we need 53 ministries which clearly overlap each other. I mean there’s a Ministry for Labor, Ministry for Public Works, and Ministry for Employment… Errr?
Then there is the Ministry for Wildlife, the Ministry for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, and then the Ministry for Agriculture… correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t Animal husbandry and fishing a form or Agriculture? A department under one ministry would have sufficed no?
The list goes on and makes us question the sanity of those we have in government.
2 Comments
Wow! "I think we have a lot more people worth mob beatings than Stephen Mbia"! One of such is Monono Humphrey! He keeps candidates under tension for hours, after having pocketed money from a phone company
HAHAHAH! Yes, that is sad but funny