Youth and the political order in Cameroon 

A topic such as this one can only be understood if we investigate its constituent parts a bit more closely. First of all, what does it mean to be a youth? Secondly, what is political order? Is there one in Cameroon? If there is, where do the youth belong in it, if they do at all? These interrogations, it seems to me, supersede such other considerations as the origin of a national youth day, a special day for the youth, etc. In Cameroon, what we say is generally the diametrical opposite of what we intend, so I do not lay much store by external shows of interest in the   Cameroonian youth.

The Physiological Youth            

A youth, we know, is a young man or woman. How old or how young is open to debate, and that is precisely where our first difficulty lies. The absence of clear-cut age frontiers in this matter means that the concept is open to all kinds of interpretations and-inevitably- all kinds of abuses. We have instances of octogenarians claiming to be more energetic, and therefore younger, than twenty-year olds. But that is another matter altogether.

For our own purposes here, we will shed off the excesses and view the concept within its generally accepted frame to mean young men and women in the early stages of their life.  That stage is characterized by vigour, temerity and a good dose of inquisitiveness.  It is an active age, one in which energy, positive energy, is on offer in plentiful supply.  Persons in this age bracket want to be useful because they are armed with certain natural capabilities that predispose them to services.

The Psychological Youth

Youth is a period of maturation, when hopes and ambitions spring to life and seek fulfillment.  A certain saying makes of the youth the future of a country.  That saying, which is not totally bereft of cynicism, fails to tell us who the present is reserved for.  We will here clarify the situation by stating boldly that youth are the present of any country.  It is in them that the country’s hopes and dreams, ambitions and vision are most clearly defined.  If you want to know how well a country is faring, see its youth. Because they make permanent demands on the society, the youth become a chosen yardstick for the assessment of society’s ability to provide the conditions for self-realization.

The Political Order in Cameroon

Self-realization is a fundamental quest and also the bedrock factor in all choices.  We are asked in this topic to ascertain the place of the youth in the political order in Cameroon.  What this topic demands of us is that we see how well the political order aids the self-realization of the Cameroonian youth.

We shall not embark on this investigation by falling prey to the crime of complacency, which consists in believing that because the thing is referred to, it exists.  The simple fact that reference is made to a political order in Cameroon does not necessarily mean that such an order exists.  We therefore need to find out first of all whether there is any political order in Cameroon before proceeding to measure its youth-friendliness quotient.
What do we mean when we talk of an order? 

We mean, I think, a structured layout approved as such by the community.  We can therefore talk of a social order in which parents look after children and children look up to parents; a religious order in which priests minister to the lay faithful and monks dedicate themselves to prayers.  Once an order is well defined, it enjoys the sanction of the community.  It does not generate controversy.

Now, does Cameroon propose any political order that is immediately recognized as such?  Or is the concept its own very negative?  What are the basic features of a political order?  I see two of them: 1) a known demography and 2) a clear and respected political choice.

A)Demography
All developmental strategies depend for their soundness on the population count and spread of the country.  If you do not know how many citizens a country has, it will be difficult to know how to plan and distribute development projects. Is Cameroon’s population and its geographical, gender and age distribution known? 

Here we are talking about the youth.  How many of them are there?  How are they broken down in gender and geographic terms?  Supposing we want to tackle welfare issues relevant to them, how are we going to proceed?  Are we going to prioritize early pregnancies where there are few or no female youths, or for that matter launch agric extension projects where there are no sturdy young men to work the farm?

But the refusal to provide credible demographic figures hides a more insidious intention: that of manipulating votes and investment projects.  In the absence of verifiable figures, abuses of all sorts are practiced: under-populated regions are over-represented in parliament and in government; heavily populated regions are abandoned to their own devices; youth here are over-privileged, youth there are neglected, and so on and so forth.  Under such circumstances, election results are anybody’s guess.  More often than not they are tailored to suit expected outcomes, with no bearing whatsoever on the real exercise.

B)Political choice

Just as with demography, a clear political system is crucial to a political order.  The confusion stems generally not from the kind of political system a country chooses but rather from what it does with that system once the choice has been made. 

Cameroon is purportedly operating a democratic system.  We all know what the tenets of democracy are.  Principal among these tenets is that the system is an absolute:  It does not accommodate any qualifiers.  There is no such thing as advanced democracy or appeased democracy or large democracy or what else have you.  There is democracy, full stip.  And its sole known method of expression is one man one vote.  We now see the direct link between politics and demography.  For this political system to enjoy full practice, the demographic factor must be handled with limpid clarity.  This is a sine qua non of democratic practice.  If you disenfranchise one citizen, you disenfranchise democracy.

The other pillar of democratic practice is the majority vote.  In any competition, the winner must be seen to have won above 50 percent of the votes cast.  Any score short of this threshold negates democracy.  Where this threshold is not reached, a run-off (second round) is held between the two best losers.

A third and no less important component of democratic practice is a neutral organizing body, one that extirpates the player cum referee virus from the political game.  So long as one of the players confiscates the whistle, the game can only be a charade, not a true test of skill, in this case of popularity.

We point out all these factors against the background of Cameroon’s own democratic culture, and of the dangers inherent in this culture’s deliberate departure from standard practice.  Of course, there will be voices to defend Cameroon’s case, but that defense will not free the country from the political muddle in which its lack of will has quagmired it for so many painful years.  Political dishonesty benefits a few; political vision and practice of the right order benefits the nation.

And the youth in this political “order”

Youth participation in any social project is prompted by the quest for self-realization.  No youth will throw away his energy in any fruitless enterprise.  His dreams and ambitions demand that he invest his resources judiciously.  If he is entering any political order, it is for its opportunities.  A political order that does not open up avenues for fulfillment defeats its own very purpose.

The place of the youth in the political order in Cameroon is thereof to be understood within the context of that order’s innate potentialities.  A good political order will create jobs, provide security, open up new frontiers for development.

Current political sloganeering in Cameroon tells us that the youth are the “fer de lance de la nation”. I do not know what this translates into in English, if it does at all. My little French tells me that lance is a spear and that fer is iron.  Would that fer then be the metal blade of the spear without which the instrument would be nothing but an ineffectual club? In any event, if the youth are the trenchant part of the country’s hunting spear, then I’m afraid the metaphor is tellingly exclusive.  A spear hunts game, but never eats it.

There is a general feeling that the youth of Cameroon are the fer de lance in the literal sense of the expression.  Their services are enlisted when there is need to hunt wealth or protect it; but they are excluded when time comes from its enjoyment.  Rigging during elections is entrusted to the youth.  They are the ones to be seen carrying ballot papers up and down, even ballot boxes.  They are the ones armed and unleashed into society to perpetrate all kinds of crimes.  When they have done these dirty, not to say bloody jobs, and positions are saved, they are forgotten. 

The high rate of youth unemployment in an environment stuffy with embezzlement tells precisely of the place of the youth in the political order.  Under normal circumstances, and given Cameroon’s real potentialities, the country ought to be a labour-importing nation.  There is more work in this country than there are hands to do it.  There is more money in this country than there are mouths to eat it.  The trick to flip things into place is called good governance.  And like democracy, good governance is an absolute.  This requirement determines the place of the youth in any political order.  A political order is a national boat. 

If it is sinking, there will be nothing more tragically ludicrous than inquiring into the place of the youth on it.  If it is afloat, that is to say well piloted, surely, we will want to know how well the youth on it are enjoying themselves, that is to say fulfilling themselves.  When order negates itself, it begets disorder.

Ultimately, our topic demands that we do first thing first, that we see to it, first of all, that our country has a political order worthy of the name.  Once this is done, the origin of the national youth day in Cameroon will have meaning; the youth day will have meaning; presidential addresses to the youth will have meaning.  Any other emphasis to me is make-believe.

*Dr. Nyamndi is Vice Dean, Faculty of Arts, UB
President, Social Liberal Congress
President, Friends for Africa