Biya Should Run On His Record

Now that Biya has insisted on running for the presidency of Cameroon for the umpteenth time, he should do so on his record. Many of those who are bribed to speak for Biya often do so in generalities rather than pointing to specific reasons why Biya should continue to remain the president of the country. Rather than speaking in generalities, these supporters should give us specific reasons why Biya should continue to be president of the country. Two of the reasons that Biya's supporters usually give for why he should remain the president of the country include the claim that Biya brought democracy to Cameroon and that he maintains peace in the country.

The first of these reasons, namely that Biya brought democracy in Cameroon, is a baldfaced lie. Anyone familiar with the history of Cameroon would remember that Biya was forced to participate in multiparty elections in the country. He killed many people in the process and ended up concocting a sham in the name of multiparty elections. What Biya has brought to Cameroon is a confused form of multiparty elections rather than democracy. There is no democracy in Cameroon; the country is still a dictatorship in which one person can be president for thirty years. I cannot remember any democracy where one person has been president for thirty years.

The second claim that Biya has maintained peace in Cameroon is also farcical. The man is a brutal dictator who has killed and maimed many. The kind of peace Biya has brought to Cameroon is merely the peace which is the absence of war. But peace is not merely the absence of war. It is the creation of prosperity and creativity. It is the promotion of a sense of general well-being. Now, if a poll can show that Cameroonians live lives of prosperity and general well-being, I may believe that Biya has brought peace to the country. However, the fact that most young people in Cameroon have plans to flee the country because of a general sense of despair and hopelessness shows that there is no peace in the country. There is no peace where people are hurting as they do in Cameroon.

If Biya wants to run for re-election, he should do so on his record. Let him answer the following questions:
1. How many jobs has he created in the country since the last election? This question requires specific figures that can be checked.
2. How many kilometers of tarred road has he build since the last election?
3. What improvement to the infrastructures of the country has he made since the last election?
These are specific questions that demand specific answers. I wait to hear from Mr. Biya.