How Cameroonians In The Diaspora Are Betraying Their Country

Many Africans in the diaspora are working very hard to improve the lives of their people back in their home countries. Thus, many who have developed skills in business, medicine, engineering, etc. are taking their skills back home to help their people see a better day. In fact, one can justifiably say that many Africans who migrate from their home countries do so in order to be in the position to help their people back home see a better day. However, a recent shameful activity of some Cameroonians in the diaspora, especially those in the United States, threatens to vitiate this noble goal. This recent activity is not what has come to be known in Cameroon as feymanism, even though this criminal activity has done much to soil the name of the country abroad. The activity in question is the transfer of political corruption from Cameroon to the diaspora. Let me explain.

Many Cameroonians in the diaspora would acknowledge that they left their country in search of a better life abroad. In fact, many have died just in the process of fleeing the country because of economic hardship. When they go abroad, many of them file for asylum on grounds of being targeted for abuse by the autocratic Biya regime. Thus it is that many Cameroonians in the diaspora are refugees who claim to be fleeing the long arm of Biya's military regime. However, in the United States, some of these Cameroonians have turned around to seek the benefit of the corruption of the Biya regime. How do they do this? They do this by pledging support for Biya's ruling CPDM party. Concerned that his almost thirty years in power will raise eyebrows in international circles, Biya is using the instrument that he has always used to say in power - buying supporters. The ruling CPDM has now developed a new means of showing international support by opening branches in various countries around the world. And this is where Cameroonians in the diaspora, many of whom claim to be fleeing the Biya autocracy, come in. These very refugees now form cells of the ruling CPDM party in the diaspora in order to receive money from the Biya regime back in Cameroon. Thus it is that some Cameroonians in the United States went to demonstrate in support of Biya in Washington, D.C. Some Cameroonians in the United States are running around forming small cells of the CPDM and receiving cash from Paul Biya for doing so. While others from African countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, etc., are gaining skills in the diaspora in order to help their home countries, Cameroonians in the diaspora are instead teaming up with Biya to continue the exploitation of their people. This is a very sad situation that must be stopped. When Cameroonians in the diaspora who should know better enhance the subjugation of their people by staging support for Biya, the lives of those back in the country can hardly be improved.

This is not to say that Cameroonians in the diaspora should not support Biya if they want to do so. However, there is something quite contradictory and even foolish to be a refugee in a foreign land while at the same time pledging support for the person who forced one into exile. It may well be that those who pledge support for Paul Biya are motivated by greed. But is seems to me that there is more money to be made in America than in Cameroon. America has many opportunities for people to work and make their own money. Why would some Cameroonians be looking back to get their money from Paul Biya in Cameroon? It is a sad day for Cameroon when those who are abroad conspire with Biya to diminish the lives and livelihood of their people back home. Such conspiracy with Biya goes beyond mere support; it is betrayal. Many Cameroonians in the diaspora are in fact betraying Cameroonians back home. Thus, the Cameroonian elite who rob the majority of Cameroonians is made up of the political elite back in the country and those in the diaspora who are forming CPDM cells for money. It is a shameful situation that is partly responsible for the current impasse in which the country finds itself.