Biya's 2008 Youth Day Speech: An Evidence of Neglect of Cameroonian Youths
In his annual recitation to the Cameroon youths, President Paul Biya made one of the most unpersuasive of speeches ever, in a national address to the Nation. It seems the President expects the country's youths to continue to be patient as he informs them about his eagerness to lead them into his self-designed youth focused projects that would ultimately lead to their well-being. Ironically, this same President has been in power for over 25 years, with no real positive plan or political will to alleviate the suffering of the youths. It is doubtful whether the President himself thinks for a moment that he sounds convincing, let alone believable.

The speech was very uninspiring, probably an indication of a recognition of the fact that the Cameroon youths are more conscious of things affecting them than previously thought. CCDHR notes that the youths need to be properly consulted in the identification and design of projects intended to address issues affecting them. Meanwhile, the various youth projects and institutions described by the President in his speech only add to the level bureaucracy which in the past has successfully supported nepotism and corruption in the country.

CCDHR acknowledges that the government continues to give budget priorities to the Ministries of Education but deplores excessive corruption that continues to plague these government Ministries. Management and embezzlement of public funds has left the country's educational infrastructures in a situation of decay. Several new schools are created each year without classrooms or teachers, while the declaration of free primary school education is yet to have any effect on the situation of parents who continue to pay very high Parents Teachers Association (PTA) fees to ensure the operation of some public schools. CCDHR however lauds the government plans to widen educational opportunities, including the prospect of the introduction of important new fields of education and increasing the capacity of existing ones in the areas of medicine, engineering, and technology.

The President stated that he needs "the contribution and youthful enthusiasm" of the country’s youths to achieve the great ambitions he has set out for the country. Laudable as this may sound, Cameroon youths must reflect on the fact that this same President is responsible for turning this country that used to be full of hope and promise, into a dungeon of absolute poverty and lack of simple means of subsistence. The same President who asked youths in the 1980s to persevere and join him in the struggle for better days ahead, better days that has never been these youths two decades after. The struggle for survival has reached its apex among Cameroonian youths and it is doubtful how they can be responsible for the future without the necessary framework and strategies to get them involved in the decision making process, development initiatives, and economic revival of the country.

CCDHR is therefore very concerned at the future of the youths in Cameroon, especially considering the fact that some of the youths who began listening to President Biya’s annual youth day recitations two decades ago have reached retirement age without ever getting a job. His reverence and willingness to surround himself with his circle of old and corrupt friends and party loyalists has shunt out brilliant Cameroonian youths from the possibility of contributing to decision making and management of state affairs, partly explaining why the country is today in a state of decay. The President is probably conscious of the fact that the prevalence of ravaging poverty across the country and among the youths in particular gives him no legitimacy in the eyes of any conscious minded Cameroonian.

President Biya brought up the recent Chadian crisis in a bid to publicly pronounce the legitimacy of the Chadian government, a government that is in power today because it manipulated the constitution to extend the term of the President. It is not surprising that Mr. Biya would call such a government legitimate since he has himself already given his blessings to the same constitutional  manoeuvre in Cameroon and may currently be in the process of setting his dubious machinery in motion to achieve this selfish and power mongering ambition. While CCDHR sympathizes with the situation of ordinary Chadians who have become the real victims of the power struggle in that country, CCDHR is also calling on President Biya to immediately reverse his position on constitutional amendment in Cameroon and publicly declare his intention to leave power at the end of his term in 2011.

Cameroonian youths, most of whom have lived all their lives under the Presidency of Paul Biya are geared up for a change after decades of wasteful hope under the current regime. Cameroonian youths have also been exposed to the limitless possibilities of a democratic society and are thirsty to live and enjoy the experience of these ideals in their own country. Dictatorship, corruption, and public mismanagement remain the main experience of most youths under the more than 25 years rule of President Biya. CCDHR is therefore calling on Cameroonian youths to stand as a strong force for democracy in Cameroon. The future of the country clearly rests on youths and they must defy any attempt to institute authoritarianism or to manipulate them into endorsing any dubious propaganda. The establishment of a strong democracy should remain the ultimate goal and focus of all Cameroon youths and they must condemn and vehemently resist any move that violates the principles of democracy in Cameroon.