RESPONSE TO END OF YEAR SPEECH BY PRESIDENT PAUL BIYA
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| Jude Thaddeus Njikem |
As a youth activist, I make it a point of duty to follow up on policy
development and major pronouncements that might have an impact on young people.
I therefore listened to the speech by the President of the Republic of Cameroon
and read the transcript and I felt oblige to write, at least since the Cameroon
National Youth Council is unable to comment on our behalf.
As my friend Nadege Yoko puts it, it was a speech well made, the
president made very interesting pronouncements about the importance of peace
and development, which are intrinsically linked.
Let’s look at the other unreported issues;
Appreciate the efforts of BIR for fighting the insurgency in the North.
Greatly appreciated, our hearts go out to the fallen soldiers who have lost their
lives in the fight. We pray, your families find consolation. You have proved to
us that you can be more patriotic than some of us who sit and complain like I
am doing.
What I don’t understand is why a speech such as this, which is supposed
to give insights to the common man, on the state of the country-is empty with
statistics. We don’t hear how much of public investment budget was spent, how
many schools , bridges, hospitals, were built or teachers recruited, farm to
market roads tarred, we don’t know which effort at alleviating poverty has been
successful and what strategies will be deployed subsequently.
Malaria, one of the main course of maternal deaths is free but Président
Paul Biya, would you please instruct the Ministers of Health, Communication to
reiterate this information to all stake holders and communities in a country
where there are more private clinics/hospitals than state owned,? How does the
malaria treatment go in those private hospitals? Is it the same as with
education section where primary education is free in government run schools but
expensive in private run schools?
283443 new jobs created in 2014? It would be quite interesting for the Minister
of Employment and Vocational Training to break it up for us as well as in terms
of underemployed and percentage of unemployed youths.
What more did the recent triennial appraisal report say about Growth and
Employment Strategic Paper?
What steps have been taken to use up the Public Investment Budget?
We were unable to use 1000 billion in 2014, can we use more in 2015?
Public contracts marred by poor execution, late deliveries etc, how will this
be addressed in 2015?
Industrial development/big companies are coming, we clap our hands and
welcome them, what about starting small businesses for our youths?
When will the Small and Medium Size Enterprise bank be eventually put in
place and what steps have been taken to promote startup and support Small and
Medium Size Enterprise?
Moving from a state-dominated economy to a more liberal system would
mean prices of goods and services be moderated by global market prices? I wonder
however why despite the fact that global petroleum prices have faced its
lowest, we are still tight to the increment signed by Prime Minister Yang, and
does commonsense not tell us it is a state dominated economy?
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| "...I make it a point of duty to follow up on policy development" |
As a response mechanism to Ebola outbreak, we closed down our borders
with Nigeria, what is our emergency response mechanism, aside from shutting
down our borders? How prepared is our state?
With regards to the Anti – Terrorism Law, I reserve my comments to a
later date, at least when my team would have advised me but one question that
lingers is “why try civilians in military courts?” in my opinion, we have shifted
from the democratic institution we wanted to build and have put our citizens at
the fore of intimidation and entrapments
“man weh no know anything, make he lock mouth. No spit noting man tok
like me”
Jude Thaddeus Njikem
Vice President and Cameroon Country Coordinator
Organization of African Youth
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