By Yerima Kini Nsom
The sight of visa hunters in long queues at the visa application centres of foreign embassies has been has been commonplace in Yaounde for long. These visa seekers are mostly young people who seem determined to leave the country at all costs.
While many of them are genuinely bidding to travel for further studies or to attend one training course or a conference, a majority of them are a disgruntled lot seeking to flee from the hostile socio-economic and political environment that Cameroon has become.
And so they remain tenacious and resilient even when they are roasted by the sun or drenched to their underwear by the rain. They believe that when hope is obliterated everywhere in the country, going out of the country remains the best option. So they choose to become epitomes of human perseverance even when they are treated with scorn and insulted by arrogant visa clerks who are quite callous and insensitive to their plight. These young men and women are specimens of the country’s museum of joblessness. They are mostly young people who have gone through the rituals of education but have ended up without jobs. Their attempts to have self-employment through the creation of business enterprises have hit the stone wall of heavy taxes.
The unfortunate ones, who are denied visas, embark on illegal emigration, thereby laying bare an endless procession of shame and misery. Small wonder that there are over 1,700 Cameroonians in list of illegal immigrants that the US President Donald Trump is threatening to depot. These young people may carry the blame for this misadventure, but they are mostly victims of a monstrous system whose commitment to youth employment, respect of human rights and democracy only end up as hollow media propaganda. Unemployment is so high such that a job now is considered a favour. Many job applications now have become portrayals of desperation and entreaties for survival. In one of such applications to a certain company in Douala, the applicant wrote: “Please sir, save my family by giving me this job”. Many of them are bereft of self-confidence and self-esteem.
The situation is more appalling than meets the eye because there is an array of strong forces against the youth in Cameroon. Besides their economic hardship, there is very little space for free expression. So, even when the odds are high against them, they hardly complain for fear of being arrested and shoved into detention on charges of terrorism. A few years ago, I met a former schoolmate of mine in Yaounde shortly after he was denied a visa to the United Kingdom. It took me a supreme effort to recognise him. His exuberant looks had all gone barely three weeks after he was denied the visa. He was then a young man in his late 30s but cut the exhaustive posture of an 80-year old man. All the features of an ailing octogenarian had taken a great toll on him—frail limps, a premature wrinkled face, a preternatural grey hair, a sagging gait and epileptic speech.
My feeling was a profound sense of shock and consternation. For, he was a brilliant chap who had bagged his degree with honours. He told me that for many years, he never had a job no matter how hard he tried. The young man was not alone in the endless journey of job-seeking. Stress is taking a toll on many of our unemployed youth. That is why many of them embark on illegal emigration, running the risk of dying in the desert or being eaten up by wild animals in the forests of South America in a desperate attempt to seek for greener pastures in Europe or America. The malfeasances of those who rule and equally ruin us has caused them to believe, rather erroneously, that just anywhere else can be better than home. Just take a quick look at groups of unemployed young roaming the streets in desperation. You will see blank faces staring at no one and nowhere. You will see young people with bent shoulders that betray the hasty arrival of hunches. Look deeper! You will see people wandering about instead of walking. They stagger about lost in uncertainty as to where their next meal will come from.
It is not surprising that once these young people succeed to travel and settle in different countries, they become very hostile to their home country. And once they do that, the authorities vilify them as unpatriotic citizens who are hostile to their country. Some hardliners of the regime even claim that those Cameroonians abroad are among the most unpatriotic people in the world. This may be true, though. But they are not patriotic because they are wicked.
They are only nursing vengeance against a country that took away everything from them. It should be noted that patriotism is part of an unwritten social contract between the citizens and the state. Therefore, patriotism cannot prosper where the state reneges on the agreement. For, the state undertakes to organise the society in such a way that the citizen can enjoy peace and justice. On the other hand, the citizen agrees to perform his patriotic duties. In such a situation, there is nothing as dangerous as the denial of merit in employment opportunities. If we create more job opportunities, give peace, democracy and meritocracy a chance, brain drain and illegal emigration will be reduced to the barest minimum. For, the hostile socio-economic and political environment is fuel for brain drain and illegal emigration.