WHAT IS CARDINAL TUMI’S BUSINESS IN THIS BEPANDA YOUTHS AFFAIR?

Yes, you heard me correctly. I am not in the habit of speaking with water in my mouth. I am asking what Christian Cardinal Tumi’s business is in this affair of the 9 missing youths of Bepanda? What is the business of a wifeless, childless man in the fate of 9 obscure children missing in an obscure part of a big city like Douala?

I am not asking this question to the cardinal although he is free to answer it, if he wants. But I am not even interested in the answer. I know that an adequate answer exists and I can even give myself a fair chance of being able to guess it correctly. I am not interested in the answer. I am only interested in the question.

So, let me repeat the question: Why does Cardinal Tumi, a wifeless and childless old man, seem to be the only Cameroonian who is shocked and worried by the disappearance of the 9 Bepanda youths and by the piecemeal but fairly systematic genocide that has been going on, side by side with crime control, in this country, since the creation of the so-called Commandemant Operationnel, when parents and other young people are standing by, hands akimbo, some even chanting the praises of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes? I am asking this question as a parent myself to all other parents, as a young old man myself to all youths without any further qualification.

Well, a ‘thorough investigation’ has now been ordered by the President of the Republic into the particular affair of the Bepanda 9. In this country every problem can be solved by a simple communiqué read over the radio. So naïve are we. But, note the following:

• The presidentially ordained ‘thorough investigation’ has no terms of reference.

• We are not told who will do the thorough investigation.

• No time reference is mentioned. When should the results of the investigation be submitted and what should happen thereafter?
• Half of the ‘thorough investigation’ communiqué is devoted to singing the praises of the Head of State, for making Cameroon a state of law where the safety of persons and property is guaranteed.

The following questions spring to mind like dirty slaps on the face:

• If the Head of State had truly made Cameroon a state of law where personal and property safety are guaranteed, would nine youths, arrested by the ‘forces of law and order’ in broad daylight, disappear without trace to the extent of requiring a presidentially-commissioned ‘thorough investigation?

• Is the so-called ‘thorough investigation’ not a clever ploy to calm tempers, stem the rising tide, and divert the increasing critical attention of the outside world?

• Is a ‘thorough investigation’ needed to find nine healthy young men in the safe keeping of the forces of law and order?

• Is it not rather likely that the government knows very well and in detail the fate that has befallen these young men; if not, why not simply order the leader of the commandement operationnel  to produce them?

Well, what would it take the investigator whoever s/he is to do the investigation? A trip to Douala would take at most a few hours from any part of the country. However, let us give a week and insist on knowing the results by Friday, 30 March 2001. In most other countries, the government would honourably resign on mere allegations of this sort. If the Bepanda 9 are not discovered, or discovered no longer alive, the government should have the honour, for once, to resign in shame. (This government has shown a lot of cleverness since 1990. But cleverness has its medium and long-term limits and these seem to be in sight.) Otherwise, within another week, that is from Friday, 06 April (!) 2001, all Cameroonian parents and youths should start an indefinite strike until the government throws in the towel. Indifference may only be permitted to old men and women who have never had the privilege of being parents and to children below the age of reason. Haba! Trop c’est trop!!

GOBATA