Eto'o Fils, Président ??

 

 Cameroon's soccer team captain Samuel Eto'o Fils has taken a lot of flag since last week.

The Cameroonian super star player arrived Yaounde, and brought a lot of baggage.  First, he had a confrontation with Alexandre Song, an equally talented player on the rise. Alex Song famously refused to shake Eto'o's hand when prompted, infuriating the Indomitable Lions captain.

The incident required a crises meeting called by the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Michel Zoa, to bring Eto'o back into the fold.

 

Alex Song, and Samuel Eto'o Fils, who play for English Premier League team Arsenal, and Italian Serie A Club Internazionale respectively, are both at the very top of their game, and athletes in such positions have notoriously outsized egos. A Minister alone could never diffuse the time bomb as these two heavyweights measured up each other. A whole ad hoc committee was what it took to calm nerves down.

 

In the end, Eto'o prevailed and Song was excused from the Indomitable Lions for their match against Senegal in Yaounde on May 04 2011, part of the qualifying games for the African Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in 2012.

 

Cameroon did not win the match, a result viewed as a loss by local fans of the Indomitable Lions. Some took to the streets and it is being reported that as many as four people lost their lives in riots following this game.

Samuel Eto'o has emerged as the one polarizing figure who somehow finds his way into every conversation in Yaounde, Douala, or Yokadouma. Wealthy, fit,  very well spoken, and photogenic, this Cameroonian star is here to stay, and he is slowly moving away from the football pitch to other areas, diversifying his holdings from Nightclubs like Katios in Yaounde to vast real estate investments on the Atlantic ocean shores in Kribi

One cannot help but wonder what the presidential elections in Cameroon would look like if Eto'o decides to run as a candidate. He certainly stands a good chance. But is he ready to leave his hefty salary and endorsements and pick a fight with incumbent for the past 29 years, Paul Biya. Though iya is of a generation like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Ben Ali of Tunisia, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen that are prehistoric and decidedly being kicked out by their own people, they will fight, until humiliated and brought down like Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire.

Eto'o may yet be the solution to Cameroon's problems. Let's wait and see!

Esther Dang: Presidential Candidate or Sideshow?

One of the faces of the ruling regime in Cameroon during the 90s is
Esther Dang. She headed the National Investment Corporation, the SNI.

During those years, she was in charge of directing millions of dollars
of government funds into investments for the state of Cameroon.

And then, one day, she was removed from her duties by head of the
ruling regime, Paul Biya. She hoped to be given another plum job, but
it never came. She made pleas, which fell on deaf ears. And now she is
living like every other Cameroonian, and does not like what she sees.

She is now on the offensive. Ms Esther Dang has declared her
candidacy for the presidency of the republic of Cameroon. She poses no
real or perceived threat.

An economist who was propelled to the forefront by her appointment to
head the SNI, she forgot she had the power and means to effect
positive change in the lives of millions of fellow citizens. She has
no real political constituency to speak of, and any legitimacy she had
was simply by dint of her position as head of the SNI.

All declarations she will make in trying to run down the regime will
work against her, for she was one of them for very long.

We can expect a couple more also rans to show up in the following
weeks as the presidential race picks up steam in Cameroon.

Paul Biya will win, but will have to look for jobs for both Kah Walla
and Hon Ayah Paul Abine - maybe at embassies far from Cameroon so that
they may not challenge his every mistake. The race is on, and it will
be full of surprises.

DSK Dominique Strauss Kahn and the French Way

The soon to be former head of the IMF, french-born Dominique Strauss
Kahn who is currently jailed in New York in the USA on sex charges is
finally coming to terms with what the French have been getting away
with in many parts of the world for so long.

If a man of such stature is found guilty, it will truly mark the end
of impunity and reassert the primacy of the authority of the American
Justice System. You are presumed innocent until proven otherwise, and
all are equal before the law.

This contrasts sharply with the way this case may have been handled in
France and in Africa, where there would probably have been no case.

Bringing such charges against the high flying M Strauss Kahn who was
tabbed to be the next French president will invite more scrutiny of
public personalities in France.

In South Africa, where different social conditions exist, current
president Jacob Zuma fought similar charges and it didn't stop him
from becoming president.

But a similar case by famed movie director, Roman Polanski set the
precedent that has certainly caused M Strauss Kahn to be denied bail.
Polanski had sex with a 13 year old, and fled to Europe when released
on bail.

So it looks like it will be a long, and painful process for the French
political class as one of their own is paraded before the cameras, and
ripped apart in the United States.

The World will be better off whatever the outcome, and hopefully, the
presumed victim and her family will find some closure.