By Yerima Kini Nsom
A group that calls itself militants of change in the three northern regions of Cameroon says it is advocating change at the helm of state given that President Paul Biya’s balance sheet in 43 years has been largely negative. Their grievances are contained in a memorandum that they published last week.
The tune and tenor of the memo signed by some 16 people, lay bare the content penned and sealed with accumulated rage and frustration. The group says the people are tired of the bad governance that has gripped the country since the advent of the New Deal to the helm of the state in 1982. The group accuses the New Deal regime of abandoning almost all the projects that President Ahidjo initiated for the development of agro-pastoral and agro-industries projects in the northern regions.
They strongly condemn the liquidation of some enterprises that were created in the 70s and 80s to accelerate the development of the three northern regions. Such liquidation, they go on, has a very negative effect on the socio-economic lives of the people of the three regions. They conclude that the Biya regime has failed in all fronts including the socio-economic development of Cameroon. They equally blamed the Biya regime for not giving due consideration to the Grand North in the Presidential majority.
The group says the Northern regions are wallowing in poverty, bad roads, disease, lack of portable water and electricity. They equally say the regions were suffering from the negative effects of climate change because of the abandonment of the Green Sahel Project that was conceived in the 80s to fight against drought and desertification.
They equally expose the failures of the New Deal regime in many spheres of national life and call on other groups that are advocating change to join them in their efforts to flush out the regime from power.
This is not the first time the northerners are expressing their grievances against the Biya regime. Such memoranda always come up whenever it is time for elections.
The people of the Northern regions are not alone in this memo-writing ritual. The people of the East Region and the people of the Mbam and Inoubou Division of the Centre Region, among people of other areas, have all written memoranda, expressing their grievances against the regime. It is likely that there will be many more memoranda before the October presidential election.