Grandstand. On January 22, we were all shocked by the assassination of Arsene Salomon Mbani Zogo says Martinez Zogo, a journalist working for Amplitude FM, a radio station based in Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital.
Following this heinous crime, one of the most perpetrated in Cameroon, we express our deep concern at the violent turn of the public debate in this pivotal country of Central Africa whose stability is threatened by bitter clan struggles. rivals at the top of the state, because of an end to the cycle that is both near and inevitable.
Killing a journalist is always more than taking a person’s life. It is a crime against society because it undermines freedom of expression. Therefore, urging justice to relentlessly seek out, arrest and try the perpetrators of such acts is no longer enough.
The chase in the city, the kidnapping of the victim by his executioners, the torture, the humiliation of the victim, his mutilation and the exposure of his remains represent a challenge to our ability to react as a community of life and civilized society. It is a provocation aimed at testing what we have left of benchmarks, rules and the ability to deliver justice and protect the living. This spectacularization of violence is also intended to strike minds and infect our imaginations in order to validate an insidious process of loss of freedoms and fundamental rights.
The dark forces of oppression
The assassination of Martinez Zogo comes after dozens of other unsolved to date: Engelbert Mveng, Bishop Yves Plumey, Joseph Mbassi, Antony Fontegh, sisters Marie Germaine and Marie Leone, Bishop Jean-Marie Benoit Balla, Germain Cyrille Ngota Ngota and several others. It is added to the long list of other crimes committed in the course of the war which, for several years, has ravaged the English-speaking regions.
Since the discovery, on January 22, of the body of the journalist, kidnapped five days earlier, no official information has been given by the authorities on the progress of the investigation. Thus, the dark forces of oppression that are the instigators of these crimes perpetuate a long tradition of trivializing impunity and accepting atrocity aimed at scaring and diverting citizens from their duty to watch over the quality of the management of public affairs.
The “addiction” to violence against intermediate bodies, such as the press, trade unions, clergy and associations, also has the effect of arousing the disgust or indifference of the people vis-à-vis politics. The power of images of desecrated bodies and the impotence of justice form a cocktail of anesthetic psychotropics.
The plan hatched by the perpetrators of these crimes is to disgust us with democracy by passing it off as an anarchic system where violence and impunity reign. They want to divert us from our dream of building a rule of law guaranteeing the separation of powers as well as human rights, public and individual freedoms.
Power-hungry Nebulae
It is our duty to oppose this project whose unacknowledged objective is to arouse a desire for order, even for a strong man at the head of a central power which would certainly be violent, but allegedly protective.
Cameroonians therefore have a date with history. All together as a people, they will have to ask and answer this existential question: how can we live together today and tomorrow without killing each other?
They have the choice to let flourish these powerful interest groups which try to impose their law above the general interest to slow down the establishment of a modern State. A free people, having at its head not masters, but freely appointed leaders, could on the other hand oppose to these power-hungry nebulae its unshakeable faith in the emancipatory virtues of democracy and the effective protection of the general principles of law.
The time has come for a demanding, sincere and inclusive national dialogue. For our country to recover and resume its forward march, it is urgent to carry out a compliance audit of the governance in progress with regard to the initial social contract. The time has come to put back on the table the rules that govern the great moments of our democracy under construction, namely: an authentic palaver, followed by a consensus around the rules of the electoral game, a redefinition of the modalities of the surrender of accounts and the conditions of the deliberation.
The deadly trap of identity withdrawal
It is equally urgent to renew the terms of our membership in this nation in light of the principle of equality and the values ??linked to fraternity.
It is imperative to open a dialogue to reaffirm what it is to be Cameroonian and African if we want to avoid the deadly trap of identity withdrawal. We believe it is essential to discuss again our relationship to the common good, the meaning to be given to public service, the restoration of confidence in economic and commercial transactions, respect for the common rule, equal access to public resources, of the climatic and environmental emergency and of our integration into our rightful place both in our continent and in this changing world.
No doubt, whatever their political opinions or religious beliefs, the majority of Cameroonians aspire to live in a peaceful and united country. Inevitable changes are looming. We would benefit from preparing them gently, without external interference, within the framework of a vast national consultation. We ask the rulers and all the living forces of our people to adopt the principle and set the terms.
To all souls of good will, we say that it is getting late and night is approaching. But there is still time to stop the charges before disaster strikes.
