Cameroon's economic capital, Douala, in a bid to remove strongman,
Paul Biya.
For 30 years, the oil-rich nation has been racked by under development
and repression from thugs unleashed on the population by Paul Biya.
This motivated many youths who do not see any improvement in their lot
to take to the streets.
Paul Biya's thugs have a history of using extreme violence on peaceful
demonstrators. In 1990, and most recently 1998, thugs backed and armed
by Mr Paul Biya have cracked down on civilians seeking democratic
change. Women and children suffer severely under this repressive
regime.
It was a refreshing change when Ms Kah Walla took up the challenge to
face Biya in presidential elections. In a country where Mr Biya
encourages the repression of women and girls, where female genital
mutilation is still carried on to this day, where gay men are
imprisoned just because of their sexual orientation, and the prisons
are full of political prisoners, leading civil society and other
figures have decided the time has come for Biya to go.
So, in this spirit, a peaceful protest was organized in Douala by the
youths. Of course, as would have been expected, the Biya thugs showed
up again, with batons and guns and had the activists thoroughly
beaten.
But in true repressive fashion, they turned out not to know what the
Internet means and are clueless about facebook, Twitter or
Youtube.com. There, after Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya, "Cameroon",
and specifically "Paul Biya" is trending very well. Which is good
news for the people of Cameroon, but bad news for Paul Biya.
The first few wires have been put out. CNN has picked up on the story,
and there is an animated debate going on there.
More telling is the US embassy issuing a warning to its nationals
traveling to Cameroon. This means that the West has determined that
the government of Cameroon is no longer capable of keeping its
territory secure. A good indicator that the current regime is on its
way out.
Like clock work, the same chain of event in Tunisia, and Egypt are
taking place in Cameroon. By Saturday, things will be really bad and
protests may reach the capital Yaounde. It takes just a report on a
major news channel which is what Cameroonians watch anyway. No one
will want to be left out, and the movement will only grow.
Biya had the option many years ago to organize free elections and step
down with dignity. With each passing hour, his options are getting
smaller. Whoever takes over the reign of power after Biya will release
the hordes of influential businessmen like Michel Fotso and the Titus
Edzoa, former secretary general of the presidency, both political
prisoners of the Biya regime.
They will go after Biya with a vengence. Assets owned by Biya will be
frozen. The presidential jet will return to Cameroon, and now, CODE
leader Brice Nitcheu has proven Biya has a Chateau in Switzerland and
that too will be the object of scrutiny to determine the owner and
the provenance of funds to acquire the property.
Whatever the case, it does not look bright for Paul Biya. Kah Walla
and Brice Nitcheu are showing that tools like the Internet, Google,
Twitter, Facebook can be as effective, if not more so than the
Billions of Dollars Paul Biya pays public relations firms to
perpetuate his dictatorship.
The time for dictatorships in Africa is over, the time for despots
like Paul Biya is over, the time for the people of Cameroon to Rise UP
as one Man has come.
BIYA must GO!!!
Who do we sacrifice for this. Koutaba hasn't moved in yet. I fear for our people. I was there in the 90s and I tell you if we don't have guns, our blood may flow down the gutter.
ReplyDeleteIf the streets are not crowded, please go indoors. You cannot do it by yourself. Everybody or nobody
It's a common course for us all.Others have stood for it and have had Victory,so Paul Biya's day is dawn, goodbye Biya.....join your ancestors in hell
ReplyDeletectually my brother, we have started and we're going to see this through a success
ReplyDeletehe most go!
ReplyDeletefor 30 years hi hasn´t do ernything to better life of youths.
so let us go öut and fight fou our feuture!
enough is enough!
BIYA MUST GO1
But lets remember we are fighting for the nation as a whole and not for individual gains and remember we don't want 'paul Biya' out of power but we want the likes of paul biya out of control, so do not be misled and choose wisely
ReplyDeleteGood move but please I witnessed the demonstration in douala and we have to reorganise and mobilise because it does not take 1000 people to do that but ten and hundreds of thousand of people like in Egypt or Tunisia because its difficult to attack hundreds of thousand of people.Contact other leaders in the opposition if they don't contact you because we need all of our opposition to join hands and lead the demonstrations.
ReplyDeleteBIYA MUST GO.
ReplyDeleteTHIS WICKED INHUMAIN PRESIDENT MUST STEP DOWN FOR OTHERS TO ROLE
... Why do I care to protest? would the next person make a difference? would he not be backed by North American and European governments who aim at securing their interests only? Funny how time flies but nobody boards the plane
ReplyDelete