By Canute Tangwa
On the eve of February 11, 2006, President Paul Biya, told the youths that there was need for a new patriotism; Cameroon has to reinvent itself. It was a subtle admission of failure, an inability to forge a nation after forty-five years of independence.
When there is no zeal, no dream, no motivation, no values, no models and no willingness to die for one's country, nothing works; inertia sets in. The President identified inertia as one of the ills plaguing Cameroon in his 2005 New Year message.
Welcoming the US Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dr. Jendayi Frazer in Yaounde during the commissioning of the new US embassy, Biya said the youths in Cameroon are lured by the American Dream; a dream that makes them go the extra mile. What became of the Cameroon dream then?
In Cameroon, patriotism began a slow painful death with the April 6, 1986 abortive coup d'1état, the introduction of multiparty democracy and the imposition of IMF and World Bank conditionalities.
Cameroonians began viewing issues that affect their survival through tribo-parochial prisms. Communal solidarity gave way to real individualism; greed and the attendant consequences. What whipped up (whips up) patriotism in Cameroonians is something as ephemeral as victories in football matches. In fact, our barometer for patriotism has been reduced to how much one can scream, jump or cry in support of the Lions.
Conversely, democratic governance should instil a feeling of patriotism in the citizenry. This is possible if citizens are free to select the leaders of their choice in free, fair and transparent elections. But how free, fair and transparent an election is in Cameroon depends on which political shade one belongs.
In his early years in office, President Biya apparently understood that values are important in galvanizing Cameroonians. He devised rigour and moralisation as guidelines to his policies. But it went haywire; probably because those who professed these values were not sincere or subsequent political events made mince meat of these values.
Values like rigour and moralization can only be extolled by morally upright and sound citizens: role models/icons.
For sometime, our role models have been the Indomitable Lions. It is true that they have a fighting and an indomitable spirit. But that is not all it takes. The Lions, epitomised today by the soccer wonder boy, Samuel Eto'o Fils, constitute the Cameroon dream. That is, any Cameroonian no matter his/her social status can make it (through hard work and luck) dramatically to the top.
If we accept that science, technology and the humanities are the kingpins for our socio-economic and political uplift, then we have to look beyond our present notion of role models/icons. In this light, role models/icons are those who "love the salutary dirt of labour" in the Fonlonian sense: references, standards, yardsticks, and consciences in specialized domains, fields or areas. For example, a Cheikh Modibo Diarra or a Philip Emeagwali in astrophysics and the supercomputer, respectively.
Before football, there was a time Cameroonians wanted to be like a Bernard Fonlon, a Ferdinand Leopold Oyono, a Mbella Sonne Dipoko, a Victor Anoma Ngu, a Mongo Beti, a Manu Dibango, a Zachary Nkwo and so on.
In order to stimulate a nationalist spirit in Cameroonians, Upecists like Felix Moumie, Um Nyobe, Ernest Ouandie and other historical figures like Rudolf Duala Manga Bell and Martin Paul Samba, were declared national heroes. However, there was no follow-up. For example, there is no public holiday for these heroes. Such a day should be set aside for workshops, talks and shows on these personalities in schools and universities.
Inevitably, a sense of history is a building block for patriotism. The serialisation by Prof. Tazoacha Asonganyi of the life and times of Ndeh Ntumazah in The Post newspaper is laudable. He is seemingly the last of the old guard who truly believed in a united Cameroon. Our universities should not shy away from personalities like Ntumazah; a discourse during convocation might be all it takes to make our youths dream a Cameroonian dream.
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