In honor of today’s Cameroonian elections, and in lieu of a long, rambling finishing post (yeah, I know that I didn’t blog at all my second year in-country…) that would aimlessly attempt to dissect my two years, make some overly intellectual comments about on-the-ground development issues, and bore you all with more verbose sentences like this one, I’m just gonna go ahead and post a partial, imperfect transcript of a long, informal interview I had with John Fru Ndi, leader and presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Front, Cameroon’s main opposition party, in March 2010 at his Bamenda home. This is definitely not an endorsement of Mr. Fru Ndi in today’s elections. Think of it more as a thank you, since he sat down with me and a couple others for a good three hours (though he nodded off at a few points), and then fed us some awesome fufu, djamma djamma and katy katy right afterwards…
Can you tell me a bit about your view on elections in Cameroon?
Elections are prepared by the government, but you see that in Cameroon, there are no structures at all. ELECAM (the Cameroonian electoral commission) means nothing so far. ELECAM is just another wing of the CPDM (ruling party). All the officials and officers are CPDM people. We decry that out of twelve members of ELECAM, nine were directly members of the central committee. The provincial people in ELECAM are still all CPDM provincial executives, section presidents, CPDM, WPCM, this and that. So, the neutrality of the executive that’s choosing to do this is not guaranteed. If you look at it, in Santa, where I come from, I witnessed 5,000 fake names on electoral cards. I saw one of the boys buying votes. I went wild, and I had to punch him. I removed 80 something thousand in clean, bank notes.
You will see that, for instance, in the elections in Santa, the results took five days. They went and arrested my electoral chairman of Kumba. And he called, “Chairman, I have been arrested. What should I do?” You see, the method they used in rigging – they don’t even want a single ballot paper, but multiple sheets to make the counting even harder.
There was a year we had elections. We started at 8am. By 10am, Mr. Biya cancelled the elections.
What is your opinion on the government’s recent efforts to promote decentralization?
Every [local] council, whether CPDM or SDF, is directly under the helm of the central government. The only cure is either federalism or effective decentralization.
The people of the Northwest, for instance, they know that we have here, our budget. They know the contractors to whom they are giving the contracts. So when you decentralize this, you let the people of the different regions make the best decisions for themselves. Their own (government’s) decentralization is changing the names from provinces to regions. So how do you administer with this? Let the people sit in their own areas, their own local governments, and debate what they want to. Local councils would react faster to local accidents. So, you decentralize this, and let it go closer to the people. Let the people have a direct say.
We have tried centralization, the China model, and we’ve discovered that there’s a limit. We need a laissez-faire model.
Compared to the past, the SDF does not seem to be really preparing for the coming 2011 elections. Why is this?
So, we are not preparing our elections in 2011 because ELECAM is not put right. There is no proper system of registration. Because presently, Cameroonians have been disenfranchised. Even me. When they tell me to go register, how do I convince myself? They will tell you that your polling station is somewhere about two kilometers away. On the day of the election, the disabled people are not given an opportunity to go and vote. Even the domestic staff of the US Embassy, who are mostly Anglophones, never vote. So, how can I convince that person there to go and vote, to go register?
Even a CPDM Parliamentarian in Baffoussam said that elections cannot take place in Cameroon under this body. ELECAM is a brainchild of the Commonwealth. And they wanted ELECAM to be completely and truly neutral and independent. So that no party should have a representative at the polling station.
Can you tell me more about the electoral problems in Cameroon?
The first issue is at the level of registration. Local CPDM candidates know which quarters are SDF-prone. When people come from this quarter, they (the government) don’t register them. There is physical intimidation. It comes at the level of holding the payments of workers hostage. Then, secondly, it comes from CPDM resource persons. Everything is at the center. You either join the CPDM and cut your own cake, or join the SDF and starve.
There has been intimidation of SDF observers. Cases of multiple voting, using one envelope that contains 10 ballots. Instant ID cards given to Nigerians, which we actually caught. Also, only parties who are represented in Parliament get media time, and this is based on their proportion of seats.
I saw gendarmes with guns inside the polling stations. I had to personally see the gendarmes out. I saw the swapping of voter registers. In ’92 (referring to the disputed 1992 Cameroonian presidential elections, which many believed Fru Ndi actually won), almost all the army headquarters voted for the SDF. Now, you must show your ballots in the military before dropping them.
It was known since 1992 that parastatals (government-owned companies), directors of parastatals, government ministers, should use everything at their disposal to campaign. In fact right now, there is no difference between the government and the party, and the party and the government.
Our boycott in ’92 (referring to a boycott of French goods called by the SDF shortly after Fru Ndi lost in the controversial presidential election) was because we wanted legality. The fact that somebody wins does not mean that the person will deliver the goods.
ELECAM was set up from international pressure, from the Commonwealth, the British and American embassies, the United Nations. 10 members from around the country were appointed directly, and at the discretion of the president. Nine were from the CPDM central committee. They had no political experience, no administrative experience.
The SDF was given latitude for election observers, but can’t compete with the government’s resources. Civil society [in Cameroon] is often factious or bought off by the government. The international community must tie any help, anything, to free, fair elections, which will give room to governance, which will give room to development.
You can succeed in beating and in having your way some of the time, but not all of the time…When you bring up a criminal society, you should be prepared to face the consequences. Look at the double face of our government, or a government of mispriorities. We know the people who had organized this (protests after disputed 1992 election) – it was Fru Ndi! If Northwesterners could hold you hostage for 48 hours, then you better dialogue with them.
When these boys were rampaging (during the 2008 riots), I said I support the boys fighting for their rights. I was the only political leader taking that position. And you know, most francophone governments survive on lies. Blackmail. And that’s as I said before, the moment you make a man minister, he automatically becomes a mouthpiece of the area where they come from. So, we are talking of a government with misplaced priorities. They don’t know what to do. And when they want to do it, they do it the wrong way. There is so much in this country that when you want to correct it, I don’t know. We just started, I don’t know if we’ll see the end of it.
In ’92, Cameroonians across the board voted for me. I even defeated him [Biya] in his presidential guard. I even defeated him in his own polling station, in Bastos (upmarket, posh area of Yaounde)!
These are the types of things we’re talking about. We’re talking of a ruthless country. And some of us have had it right here (points at head, probably referencing the time in 1991 when security forces shot him in the head with a rubber bullet during an SDF rally).
What about the reports of growing discord within your own party, especially with several long-serving SDF members recently resigning?
You cannot have a party with mass followership without problems. The problems people see are because we are trying to correct the ills of society. The problems that we have in the country, whether in Cameroon or other African countries, come from indiscipline. What’s killing us in Africa is indiscipline. Because that’s the head of state’s son. That’s this person. You should be able to discipline people.
The UPC, UNDP (Cameroonian political parties), and the like, these are surrogates of the government. It’s the SDF alone that is condemning ELECAM. No other political party is condemning ELECAM. We are not saying that we’re saints and angels, but please, people should be given an opportunity for alternatives. When we started out, we wanted a federal system of governance. Because if there’s any politician who’s toured Cameroon, it’s Fru Ndi! I’ve toured Cameroon at least fifteen times, and five of those times with my wife.
How large of a role does corruption play in Cameroon?
The present budget of Cameroon is about 2,700 billion (CFA, equivalent to about $5.5 billion). Just give 100 billion to each of the 10 states. They [the government] award contracts in Yaounde, to people they know in Yaounde. The beneficiaries of the contracts have no say. The SDF believes in participatory democracy, where the people have to participate in the government. Social democracy. The people should be working together. Most of those contractors in Yaounde don’t even have offices.
You see in the West Cameroon days, when we were still West Cameroonians, if they sold coffee for 500 francs per kilo, they paid the farmers 300, and with the [remaining] 200, they saved 100 francs in case of fluctuations. The other hundred francs, they used in awarding scholarships, and tarring roads. Now, at unification, they saw this money that was being saved for a rainy day. And always, they put somebody who can destroy money very well in charge. Mr. Biya just told you Cameroonians that he wants to tour the northwest. Every week different generals are coming here. Out-of-station allowance. Pocket allowance. Hotel bills at Ayaba (probably the nicest hotel in the Northwest Region).
The government is scared of efficiencies. They are suffocating leadership at the grassroots. At the end of the day, the government is not afraid of federalism, not of decentralization, but afraid of not controlling power. [In Cameroon,] you don’t grow by merit. You grow by fraud. You grow by compensation for the crimes you’ve committed.
A couple other random tidbits:
“They (the government) say if the SDF wins, I will destroy your business. They wanted all the transport agencies to leave town, to the periphery. They gave special permission to Amour Mezam (popular Bamenda transport agency that travels to Douala, Yaounde, Buea, and Kumba, and other destinations) [to stay]. Mazi (another transport agency that plies the Bamenda-Baffoussam and Bamenda-Dschang routes) built [their station in town] themselves, and is the only agency that doesn’t disrupt vehicles on the road. If you tell them to leave the place, and I get up there it’s going to be bloody. Before they block the business, we’re gonna carry corpses. When we look at this, this is the politics we’re playing. Cameroon is a delicate state. Very delicate. But you get to the Francophone areas, the Bamileke man in the West cannot agree with the Bassa (ethnic group spread throughout the Center and Littoral Regions) man. With the northerners and these other people. The people that will hold them together are the Anglophones.”
“With the Francophones, before unification, if you just saw a gendarme’s cap, you just had to run.”
Nick and a couple of Fru Ndi's friends at the table after our long interview/conversation, preparing to gorge down on the best of Anglophone Cameroonian food.
Fru Ndi advisor, my coteacher/friend Mr. Awah, Kelly, and myself beside the Chairman himself.
