Curious Embassy Attacks

Cameroonians in the towns of Yaounde, Douala, Bafoussam and Mbouda got up to a calm day on Saturday 26 January, 2019. The quiet presence of forces of law and order might not have meant much to peace-loving citizens who went about their usual activities. But for those who knew about the circulation of tracts by the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) calling for public demonstration against what they called an electoral hold-up following the 7 October, 2018 presidential poll, they could smell a rat.

However, no one could foresee the extent of the protest, especially in France where Cameroonians based in such a developed country who are expected to act in exemplary manner to reflect the good education they have received from advanced democracies, unfortunately changed the gear. The social media has been inundated with images and videos of wrath expressed by irate crowds against the Embassy of Cameroon in Paris.

Offices were turned inside out, stationery destroyed, the effigies of the Head of State vandalised. Speaking at a joint press briefing in Yaounde on 26 January 2019, the Minister of Communication, Rene Emmanuel Sadi in the presence of his counterpart of the Ministry of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji said; “Some participants in this illegal march organized them selves in a particularly aggressive manner and took upon themselves to face and challenge the Security Forces in the execution of their traditional missions of preserving public order.”

The position by Government paints a picture of the gravity of the situation: supporters of a political party defying the forces of law and order in a march that was not authorised in the first place. Minister Atanga Nji went further to state that the party leaders were pushing their demands too far and their actions bordered on outright provocation against republican values. Stirring up the political scene in the country and abroad after a presidential election which most citizens thought was behind them has only helped to recall a cankerworm in the political history of Cameroon. It is even in the image of most democratisation processes in Africa.

Political party leaders are often quick to spur their supporters to go out and face the unknown. Such political manoeuvres often have as sole merit the creation of doubts and uncertainty in the minds of the public. When they now come from abroad with unfortunate images of destruction of public property, it appears as if people went out to cut the branch on which they are perching given that they may be in need of the same structures days or weeks after. No matter how just a course may be, the solution has never been the destruction of valuable property or the ex posure of human life to danger. Minister Sadi further pointed out that; “After sca...