YOUWIN2018

The National Chairman of the Alliance of Progressive Forces, APF, Barrister Bernard Acho Muna, says the sit-tight attitude of President Paul Biya for 27 years, is an affront to democracy. In an exclusive interview with The Post in Yaounde this week, the tough-talking lawyer cum politician reveals that he is rallying a coalition of opposition parties to field a single candidate to defeat Biya in the 2011 presidential election. He calls on members of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, to demonstrate patriotism and the fear of God by organising free and fair election. Excerpts:

It is expected that Presidential election in Cameroon will hold next year. From the look of things, the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, CPDM, is preparing quietly and surely for the election while the opposition appears to be in slumber. Does your party intend to field a candidate?

Evidently, there will be Presidential election in 2011. Our party, at the moment, is also consulting with other parties on the issue of fielding a candidate. We think that our party, with other political parties, will field a single candidate to defeat Biya.

We have made elections an important event for this year in our party. We have a programme not only to organise the party at the grassroots but also make sure that the Chairperson and his vice tour the whole country. We are trying to print and publish electoral material; material that will publicise our party and its programme. We have the National Council of the party which will meet at the Yaounde Conference Centre from the 5th to the 7th of February.

The sitting of this intermediary organ, which controls the executive and which can debate political issues and forge a programme for the next year. We hope that this organ will give the political bureau the clarity of what they should be doing. We are going to present a budget and ask for the implantation of the party in all regions of the country and the registration of voters. It takes a little bit of money to organise. These are the things that we are slowly moving up to.

You mentioned the idea of a single candidate and we know that the failure of the opposition in the past to defeat the incumbent President Biya has been linked to their inability to put a single candidate. Can you give up your own ambitions and support another person as the single opposition candidate?

The problem is that people don't know me at all. I should have been the first Bar Council President of Cameroon in 1977. We were five of us elected. The Bar Council was only five people. There was Dinka, Sendze, Tokoto, Madame Siewe and myself. I withdrew in favour of Dinka. There are many other instances in which I withdrew my candidature to give other people a chance for the sake of general interest.

I withdrew my candidacy in the 1992 Presidential election in the SDF in favour of Fru Ndi. My character is not that of someone who would want to grab something at all costs. It is the character of someone who wants the best for the nation. So, if we are going in for a single candidate I can withdraw in favour of another person if it is in the best interest of the nation.

We also know that some leaders of political parties have been a stumbling block to this kind of dream. Don't you see the same attitude repeating itself this time around?

One of our vice chairpersons who is carrying out the consultations was a kingpin in other attempts. He knows the traps that await us. There are dangers in this endeavour but I don't think that they should make us shy away from this initiative. I think the process we follow is an accountable and transparent one such that when any of them betrays, we should expose him to the people. We should have an open press conference anytime that we sign a pact so that everything is transparent.

The Vice President of our party, Mr. Pascal Zamboué, spent a whole day in Douala last week drawing up strategies with other parties. We are discussing with other parties in the background. I know that our past experience has been very disappointing, but I don't think that should stop us from trying again. But this time we are trying to look at people who have the same spirit with us. We don't want to get people who will turn out to be agents of the ruling party. We are looking for parties, people who are patriotic and have a vision.

With this sluggish start of the opposition, inadequate financial resources and other problems that are inherent in building such a coalition, do you think that the candidate the opposition will put up can ruffle the feathers of Paul Biya let alone defeat him in the election?

We must admit that financial resources help especially in the building of propaganda, in the paying of party's agents, in the printing of leaflets, programme and so on. I think that money plays a big part and that is why the CPDM has a big edge over the opposition parties because they are in power. We know that many of the CPDM people receive money from business people who have to validate their businesses by paying these illicit taxes to the party.
We know that some of those business people who want to give money to the opposition are heavily taxed. So, the opposition parties face financial difficulties. But by the grace of God, money is not everything.

We know at the moment even within the CPDM, people are discouraged about what the party is doing. This is where the opposition can take advantage. What picture can the opposition create to attract the population so that they can vote for them? Can we be trusted?

One of the worst things that is happening in Cameroon now is that politicians are generalised and that no one should trust a politician. I am a victim of this situation. But individually people think that they can trust me. The opposition parties have the challenge of building up their parties with spiritual, moral and social values that will convince the population that they can be trusted. Therefore, it is important that you look at the message even if we have limited resources to present it.

There are many things for us to use to capture the masses.  President Biya has been in power now for 27 years. I think people are tired seeing this same face. So, these are things that the opposition shall capitalise on instead of bickering among themselves.

The President of the Republic indicated that a few changes will be made on ELECAM and that the electoral law was in the making so that it would bring together all these stakes. The opposition does not seem to be in this picture. How can you guarantee transparency when you are not participating at the level of ELECAM and the drafting of the electoral law?

Some of us live in hope. We have no choice. When you are in a country like this, you live in the hope that things will be done properly. I think the handing over of electoral material by the Minister of Territorial Administration to ELECAM was a good move which shows that administrative officers who have been the brain behind electoral fraud will have no hand in elections this time around.

Secondly, I expressed misgivings when CPDM barons were appointed into ELECAM. They are there. The question is, will they work for the party or for the nation? I hope that with the fear of God in them, they will work for the country. If they work for the country, it means that the changes that the President of the Republic will make on ELECAM will give them more powers to be able to organise free and fair elections; even though they may still have sympathy for the old party. I hope with the fear of God, they will try to organise free and fair election.

Many people do not know that Cameroon does not have an electoral law. We have pieces of legislation that deal with different elections. Now that the government is making an electoral law, that is a good thing. I hope that electoral law will lay the foundation for free and fair elections. The party in power, even in the US, even in Britain, does everything to win. The only thing is that they should not do everything illegally.

By creating the APF, you have not re-invented the wheel in anyway. What is in your party's manifesto that has not been articulated by other political parties?

I think that one of the important things about politics in Cameroon is the question of people perpetuating themselves in power. And when it is time before elections they say Biya must go. So, the question of seeing one person in power for a very long time disturbs the electorate. So, in creating the APF, we were out to show an exemplary conduct. We practice democracy in our party. The mandate of the Chairman of our party is limited to two terms of four years. You know that some leaders look for ways of either changing the country's constitution or that of the party to their own advantage.

What we have done with the APF constitution is that we have galvanised the particular provision on the limitation of the Chairman's mandate against any change. We have banned any such change for 20 years. We have also given power to any single member of the party to go to any court in the Republic of Cameroon by way of motion and stop any changes that some party members may want to bring to that article. That is to assure Cameroonians that we are running a truly democratic party.

Last year, we published our accounts, explaining where money came from and how we spent it to show the people that we are transparent. When you hear about other parties in Britain like the labour party, we hear that they are holding annual conferences. If a party does not hold its annual conference to review what has happened in the political scene in the past and to do projections for the future, how can it wait four years later to meet in a congress and do all these? We want to show the public that we are running a very democratic institution.

We are in for the building of solid institutions and let people fit into them. People will come and go but solid institutions will stay. When we build the constitution of the party, the next one should be the constitution of the country. The constitution of the country should subject those who are elected to it. The leaders should not twist the constitution to fit their whims and caprices. Building institutions is a very important thing in building democracy.

In our party platform, we have dealt with every issue that is touching Cameroon, like good governance, the Anglophone problem, the Bakweri land problem, agriculture and the distribution of wealth. Let me add the embezzlement of public funds. It is a good thing that some of the embezzlers are arrested. It is better than nothing. Instead of just arresting people who have embezzled, the President should also reinforce the control mechanism.

We are in an age of credit cards. As we are going to South Africa for the World Cup, we will again be given huge sums of money to carry which is very tempting whereas we could open an account, put the money in and use it through credit cards. I think that the President should not only arrest people but take measures that would prevent people from stealing state money.

Was Ben Muna designed to be Chairman of a political party or he was stampeded into it by a sheer conspiracy of circumstances?

You can also ask whether I was designed to be the Chairman of the Bar. Was I designed to be the Deputy Chief Prosecutor in Arusha, Tanzania? Was I designed to be the Chairman of the Central African Bar Association of ten countries? I think that every citizen should make himself available to his peers to use him for the benefit of the community. The positions which I have occupied were not self-appointed posts. They were elective positions. I thank God for giving me the wisdom to lead. I feel satisfied being the Chairman of a political party because I have a vision for Cameroon.

Interviewed by Yerima Kini Nsom & Martin A. Nkemngu

Source: thepost