The Socio –Economic State of Cameroon and the Way Forward (By Nanche Billa Robert)

The Socio –Economic State of Cameroon and the Way Forward
By
Nanche Billa Robert

Cameroon has been held hostage by a group of persons who manipulate state power for their enrichment. It is time we told them that Cameroon is nobody’s farmland that it belongs to all its compatriots.
Cameroon’s economic activities are below expectation because consumption have overtaken production .No importance has been given to development, instead we have become dependent on the western states which set low prices for raw materials and high prices fro manufactured goods. This dependence is because our bourgeoisie is intellectually lazy; they do not produce, build nor labour. They have no economic power, ideas nor are dynamic. It will be difficult to industrialise Cameroon because of their incapability to accumulate wealth. They are more of businessmen than industrialists. They embrace conspicuous consumption in order to hide their stagnation; they build grandiose mansions, drive luxurious cars, and spend week-ends in sybarite night clubs
A society progresses when part of its products meant for consumption is invested in its economy. On the contrary, Cameroon’s elite does not invest in their stagnating economy. Their savings are sent abroad rather than being invested in productions and the rest are used to pay people who are not involved in production but render auxiliary services such as civil servants, merchants, soldiers, entertainers etc. They do not reinvest in agriculture nor industries. They squander the wealth produced by peasants and workers by purchasing cars, suits, whisky etc. Wealth does not come from taxes, it comes from nature: turning raw materials into finished goods for human consumption.
In 1968, when Cameroon became an entrepreneurial state, about forty industries were created. This was a very good step but these industries were not well managed: their surplus was not invested in them but sent to the state and there was no systemic innovation: similar industries were not created in other areas .In 1979, petrol brought a lot wealth to the country but this wealth was not put in the national budget which was regrettable. Our rulers said they were preserving it for rainy days. Where was the money when the economic crisis struck in 1986?
The above cases could have transformed Cameroon into a veritable industrial nation as the case is with Hong-Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea today.
It is ironical that it is the peasants who produce wealth; it is thanks to their food and cash crops that our sterile civil servants are champions of consumption. If this poor peasants stop production, will there not be famine and malnutrition? Cameroon rulers give more preference to political than economic power because they love dignified life. The situation would have been different if they had thought of economic power at independence. One notices that Cameroonians lack capitalistic spirit: hard work, austerity and knowledge. Cameroon has great natural resources but the poorest in terms of goods and services provided by and for its citizens.
Can you imagine that 16.8% of Cameroonians in the urban areas and 45.6% in the rural areas have no durable goods such as television, refrigerator, cookers; about 8.5% in the urban areas and 2% in the rural areas have a personal car, about 50% of Cameroonians have access to potable water, infant mortality is about 151 out of a 1000; 80% of Cameroonians are below poverty line. The percentage of 3-4 Cameroonians sharing a room is about 18.7%; the life expectancy is about 47 years as compared to about 74 in the western world. It is estimated that at least 15,786 students graduate from Cameroon’s six state universities annually and only about 2,951 of them finally gain employment in both public and private sectors. Is it not funny that people should lack jobs where everything has to be redone? Unemployment has led to high rate of prostitution banditry and feymanism. Nearly everyone wants to fall bush. How many Cameroonians can today say in good faith the words of the head of state “I am born a Cameroonian, I will live a Cameroonian and I will die a Cameroonian”?
As Lincoln is reputed to have said, “you can fool some people some time; you can fool all the people some of the time; but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” That is the reason why we must fight to put an end to such wanton plunder of our resources, the regression of our nation and the total neglect of Cameroonians. For us to breakthrough this mess, we need the energy of everyone. Let’s join hands to formulate a new order, to build a new Cameroon.

For this new Cameroon to be possible we need to:

-Adopt an aggressive industrialisation and export policies, strive to copy, to innovate, to invent and to buy designs abroad whenever we have difficulties.

-Develop economic nationalism; hard work and the desire to catch up with the industrial world. We must have a sense of saving for investment and the acceptance that enjoyment must be postponed; instead of using huge sum of money to buy conspicuous goods, we should use it to buy the technology used in manufacturing them. We should take great interest in the law of science which can be harnessed in the form of machinery to work and make profit on their behalf. An economy economy’s strength is measured using its productive capacity and not its capacity to import goods.

- We must sensitise the public on the disadvantages of sumptuous consumption and the advantages of investing in the agricultural and industrial domains of the economy.

- We must also have to encourage our elite to invest in the agricultural sector because the food production sector must flourish in order to feed its citizens and the surplus on it will generate industries.

The above are some of the policies we have to adopt if we want to march forward .Let’s work together as one person.