Commentary: Of What Cameroon?

Peter Esoka

Of what Cameroon should I be proud? Is it of a Cameroon whose soldiers are engaged in battle for supremacy but would desist from carrying the flag of my country as a sign of conviction and commitment – of such soldiers who ostentatiously humiliate their Prime Minister by snobbing his excitement to have them carry the nation’s symbol of pride and belonging?

Of what Cameroon should I be proud? Of one that produces vandals in a sporting environment? Of one whose ambassadors react as uncontrolled policemen chasing after a thief or a mob going for a kill? Of what Cameroon should I be proud? Is it of division and internal squabbles where two comrades in a battlefield are engaged in atrocious demonstrations of ill-fatedness and affirming that a house divided within itself falleth? Is it of a Cameroon whose image has been run down to its lowest ebb and heads are bowed down in disgrace? Is it of a Cameroon that displays immaturity, childishness and a sense of indiscipline? Of a Cameroon with so much potential but so little to show for it?

I am nostalgic, nostalgic of a Cameroon that once upon a time had everything going in its favour; of a Cameroon which was, despite certain limitations, considered as the citadel nation of our continent.

I am nostalgic of a Cameroon that had the Abegas, Omams, the Njitaps even the Eto’os of yesterday and the Mbomas, the Tataw Stephens and the Mfedes and most especially the Millas. I am nostalgic of 1990 when from nowhere this same Cameroon stunned the world of football with its dramatic annihilation of Argentina in the opening game of the 1990 World Cup. I am nostalgic of a Cameroon whose economy boomed and was highly respected and things developed according to projections put in place. I am nostalgic of a Cameroon which meted out appropriate sanctions on any defaulters. I can remember 1972, how those who mismanaged the organization of the only African Nations Cup we have ever organized, and got their reward as they were all bundled into prisons to render an account of their misdeeds.

I am nostalgic of the Roger Milla dance, as he wriggled his waist holding the corner post as his dance partner and the other players rushing to jump on him in joyous celebration.

That is the kind of Cameroon I want to dream about in which, no matter the false steps taken by one or the other, the walls would not come tumbling down. I do not want to conjecture or even contemplate a Cameroon in which managers of our football are the greatest beneficiaries. They transport members of their families and domestics to the place of the game or live in plush suites at the expense of the nation.

I do not want to dream ever again where the ordinary people of this country sacrifice their little pennies to raise funds for the upkeep of the team and the money never gets to them because suitcases or rather brief cases are still in transit since 1994. I do not want to dream of a country whose high sports authorities quarrel or fight among themselves because of money and its mismanagement.

I do not want to dream of a Cameroon in which the whole population is drooping in shame because of the comportment of its leaders and the dreadful and uncontrollable behaviour of its players.

Haven’t I had enough of this mess?

I cannot figure out how the Prime Minister felt when he found himself stuck with our nation’s flag and at the end had to hand it over to a foreigner – the coach. From that day we sold our birth right because of greed and ostensible bad faith. And the results are clear. Say what you like, the bottom is almost crumbling on us if it hasn’t done so yet.

The Brazil experience is once again a major message to us. We took the warning after 2010 in South Africa with absurdity and light-heartedness. When a situation repeats itself over and over and no measures are taken one is bound to conclude that the authorities even the highest authority condone with such mediocrity. For it is a crime, a treasonable crime to jeopardize the image of a country and its serenity.

I am certain the President has been watching as his Lions on whom he has always placed his trump card for nation building is being torn to shreds by irresponsible football authorities and rascally players. That’s obviously the Cameroon I would not want to be part of. I want to be part of that Cameroon where I can sing with pride, “Land of promise, land of glory.’