Bribery,corruption and mediocrity now walk around like human beings in my country of birth. In fact it is more normal to be mediocre than not to be. The infamous phrase wosai money for my mimbo dey widely acceptable from someone sitting in an office just doing a job he is paid to do with tax payers money!!! I applaud the initiative of Bishop Leonard Vando and Alenne Menget for starting a discussion on Facebook this morning on the issue.Until we look at our national disgrace squarely we cannot want to fix it. However what remains troubling is not the epidemic of corruption and the below-average mentality now a national emblem. It is the resignation to the idea that nothing can be done about it. Ask someone what the proper solution is and they tell you Biya must go. Well Africa has seen kings called presidents come and go but corruption remains. Of course for anyone to cling to power for 30 years pretending to have been elected is insane!!! How long shall we then remain in the deep dark pit? Without being apocalyptic, we shall for as long as corruption begins sadly in the family, in the church, in schools etc. Those in govt we scream about dont fall from the skies. On Sunday mornings they are sitting in pews, they were raised in families. How can anyone explain parents bribing High School principals for their children to be admitted, bribing for their children to enter professional schools , civil servants bribing their way in ministries in Yaounde to turn around and complain in beer parlors how the country is mired in corruption? Did you say the Lord have mercy? Some say the more we pray the better. I laugh. Faith without action is dead doesnt the bible teach us that? The Scriptures ask us to put on righteousness. That means we have a responsibility. Like Joyce Meyer teaches, you dont stand in front of a closet and your clothes jump on to your body.To begin with, some churches worry about preaching against corruption the way they should so not to offend their big check writers or how can anyone explain how in good conscience a church accepts donations of Holy Maria shrines from the hands of a citizen well known with dirty hands? Another piece of the corruption pie is the holiday retreat in Yaounde called Nkondengui. You know why Cameroonians dreaded just whispering Ahidjos name even in bedrooms? We knew what the consequence from Jean Forchive and his BMM (My old parents called God no dey) would be. Punishment must be a deterrent.Punishment must be exemplary to be effective. Operation Sparrow Hawk as the so-called fight against corruption is nicknamed appears to be as flat and toothless like a mannequin in a police uniform standing in a clothing store.Corrupt officials locked up ought to be forced to clean public toilets at Marche Central or Hopital Central in Yaounde, forced to cut grass with blunt cutlasses at especially ENAM where the thieves were trained in the first place. Nkondengui like the BMM in Ahidjo days ought to be the place Cameroonians know about but no one wants to get close to its gates. What do these embezzlers held there miss? Nothing. They carry around sophisticated electronic gadgets, have access to whatever including women as rumors go around !!!! Nkondengui simply scares no one. We citizens cannot remain compliant by just complaining or sloganeering on how if someone at Etoudi left corruption disappears like darkness when a light bulb is switched on. Radical problems call for radical solutions.We are yet to see the day when a civil servant engages a bribe taker in a physical fight in Yaounde regardless of whether he faces a jail term. In fact that is when ngata cool. We are all part of the problem when we do nothing but pity-party and worse still,intimidated believing bribery and mediocrity is someone elses fault not ours.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 13:17:09 +0000
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