Egyptian Leader Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt , has failed to rebutt
accusations by leading presidential candidate Kah Walla.
Ms Kah Walla, who runs a management consultancy with a global reach,
and is also the founder of a grassroots organization called Cameroon
O Bosso has said Paul Biya's regime has systematically used brutal and
repressive means to suppress youths seeking a better future.
While the world watches and waits for Biya to explain the images of
extreme brutality against the country's first female presidential
candidate, Western diplomatic representations accredited to Cameroon
like the United States' are issuing travel advisories to their
citizens. Such actions are routinely taken when the intelligence they
possess gives cause for alarm. Such was the case recently in Tunisia
and also in Egypt and currently in Libya.
Paul Biya's failure to respond to the concerns of millions of
Cameroonians is the reason why there is widespread discontent with
his regime. For 30 years, Cameroonians have complained of Biya and his
ruling family have been completely disconnected from the reality of
the man or woman on the street of Douala, Yaounde or Garoua.
The only link he has to Cameroon is in pocketing the oil revenue, and
his son, Frank Biya exploiting the rich equatorial forests in a non
sustainable, and environmentally damaging manner.
Furthermore, Paul Biya and Chantal Biya hardly go anywhere in the
impoverished country, abandoning the suffering masses to their
plight. All roads, rail, and other infrastructure were built by his
predecessor, El Hadj Ahmadou Ahidjo. For the past 30 years, not a
single inch of rail has been laid in the country and the existing
aging infrastructure is taxed to its limit.
Many companies have folded their doors, and Biya did the most
unbelievable and unpatriotic thing a sitting despot may do to his
country. He granted a tax - free concession to Chinese to establish
businesses in Cameroon, impinging on every economic sector. In
reality, each and every one of these Chinese shops sell lead tainted
products that damage the health of Cameroonians. Biya couldn't care
less, for him, and his wife and children live in Geneva, Switzerland,
in an expensive, multi-million dollar luxurious lakeside residence.
There are just no controls on what the Chinese can bring into
Cameroon, and Biya says they SHOULD NOT pay a dime in taxes, while
many Cameroonian youths are taxed out of business.
While trying to deflect attention to the unraveling of his despotic
regime, he has announced that the failed national airline, Camair Co,
which he uses to ferry his family to his home in Switzerland and for
shopping trips in Europe will resume flying next month. What the
people need is a better life. Few Cameroonians make use of this
particular airline. Its fate is a matter of concern for Paul and
Chantal Biya, for that is their personal transport, to their home in
Geneva.
What will it take for Paul Biya and Chantal Biya to realize
Cameroonians don't want them in Etoudi. When will they realize they
are holding back the dreams and aspirations of a whole generation of
youth? When will Paul Biya and Chantal Biya stop using the collective
wealth of Cameroonians derived from oil exports as their personal
fund, coming every two months or so to withdraw huge amounts of
money, then returning to Switzerland where they live a lavish
lifestyle with their ill-gotten wealth?
Kah Walla, Brice Nitcheu, Tobie Mbida, Mboua Massock, Lapiro de Mbanga
would have all been silenced forever had it not been for Facebook.com,
Twitter.com, and the Internet, which keeps Biya's hired thugs in
check.
Like they say, "it ain't over until the fat lady sings." The way I see
it, the Fat Lady is not even in the house yet. This is the year Paul
Biya and Chantal Biya will have to leave, so that Cameroonians can
carry on with the development of their beautiful country. Cameroon
needs to take steps like Ghana or South Africa to move ahead. The
whole process will begin the moment Biya leaves. He now has the option
to quietly resign and go to Switzerland where he already has elected
residence, or he may insist to remain in power as a stubborn great
grand father mired in the past, like Mobutu of Zaire, or Ben Ali of
Tunisia, or Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
Either way, the people don't need an absentee despot occupying the
highest office in the land, they need a leader who understands their
problems, and lives amongst them and has a genuine interest in seeing
the country move forward.
The time is now, and if this opportunity is missed, the backlash from
Biya's thugs will start. We should not forget Bibi Ngota, Pius Njawe,
Atangana Mebara, Titus Edzoa, Lapiro de Mbanga, and other patriot who
have lost their lives, or are living in jail, away from their families
and loved ones, their crimes being simply that they dared to air a
different and more enlightened and prosperous view of the future for
Cameroonians.
Cameroonians must not relent, change is possible, and the winds of
change are blowing, straight from the Sahara desert in the North, to
the lush equatorial forests in the South, via the grasslands in
between.
If one unarmed lady, Kah Walla, can brave Biya's hired thugs in
public, in the light of day, in a major square of Cameroon's second
largest city, Douala, if Louis Tobie Mbida, all alone can sit firm and
majestically, with dignity in the face of armed thugs, if Biya can be
forced into hiding, afraid to face the people he has held at bay for
so long, then it reaffirms the collective belief that change is
possible in Cameroon, and that change is really near.
While Biya plots ways of hiding his ill-gotten wealth before it gets
frozen, the question on everyone's lips is "where is Paul Biya and
Chantal Biya?" Are they in Cameroon, or in Geneva, Switzerland? Why
the silence in the face of extreme brutality on Kah Walla, Louis Tobie
Mbida and other peaceful activists. Why is Lapiro de Mbanga still in
jail? Biya may refuse to address these questions, but one point
everyone seems to agree on is that;
"Biya Must Go!"
