A day with Hon. Paul Ayah Abine

When I first spotted him that Sunday afternoon after an almost-2-hr wait, I was first of all relieved that he had honored our invitation, and at the same time humbled by the challenges that we were going to face to rally others to see what we have seen in this man: one who has the moral and intellectual credentials to pull Cameroon out of its lethargy and complacency. I noticed that his hair was grey and he was not nearly as tall as I had imagined. People never look like they are described; neither do pictures do justice to the real image of a person.

I was not the only one at the Dulles International Airport that June 26, 2011.

After settling down into the program which the Ayah Paul Campaign in the USA (APCUSA) had designed, I had an opportunity to spend a few hours with Hon. Paul Ayah Abine. I had written an endorsement statement and published it for all to see that I am not “neutral” when it comes to Cameroon politics and that I believe in the courage, if such a term be permitted” of standing firmly by what one believes.


My opportunity came when I was picked to be his chauffeur for his official appointments at the Congress of the United States. We agreed to meet at a certain time and by the time I arrived atour meeting location, Hon. Ayah was ready and I didn’t have to wait a second. Phew!

As we drove to the Washington DC he filled me in on the latest campaign news, one of which was the bill tabled before the National Assembly giving the Cameroon diasporas the right to vote. I asked a stupid question: will the Bill pass? Without the slightest hint of condescension he explained to me why the bill will pass. To begin with, every bill proposed by the executive, that is, the presidency of the republic has ALWAYS passed without as much as an “I” dotted, or a “t” crossed.

As we got to one of the House Buildings that houses the offices of Senators and Congress men and women, I asked Honorable if they had offices in the National Assembly and if they as members of parliament were easily accessible as the members of the United states Congress were. No, there are no offices for ordinary members of parliament. MPs typically make themselves accessible one way or the other. There is no established formal procedure to be followed by the ordinary citizen.

On his proposed empowerment of the councils: he states that it starts with a federation of regions based on the current ten regions of Cameroon. Within each region, the councils will be responsible for, amongst other things, education, road maintenance, basic hygiene and to a certain extent, law enforcement. Currently we spend too much money on Yaoundé and Douala while the rest of the country languishes and toils on bad roads and sometimes lack of basic personnel. I liked what I heard and thought how easily that could solve the problem of ghost teachers, solve corruption and at the same time create a sense of accountability and responsibility in local governance.

You want to reduce the number of ministries to about twenty with an equal proportion of women and youth. Why not base it on competence? The men and women we chose will be competent quite alright. he quietly explained. Women have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they can manage affairs as well as men. At his day and age, a women’s wing of anything is recognition of a woman’s inequality. The same thing can be said about Cameroon’s youth. As we phase out of active duty, we should have a well trained replacement in place, people who have seen us do things and who can do better than us. The next generation must always be better than the previous. These remarks made me recall him joking a day earlier that he was a “young youth” of 61. Although my ideal candidate would have been someone in his forties or fifties, I couldn’t help but think that Paul Ayah is 17 years younger than Emperor Biya who by the way has no trace of white hair!

The judiciary and the military are the two well-organized corps in Cameroon Hon. Ayah remarked. The current and incumbent President has dulled the military’s sharpness with too much indulgence. Their salaries have always been better than the rest of most Cameroonians and advancement is systematic. The military belongs in the barracks and not on our streets and corner bars and drinking houses. We must have a military that will be the pride of our nation. A military force that is alert, made up of people trained to defend the honor of their calling, the colors of our flag and every piece of real estate that belongs to our nation. The judiciary must be independent of the executive. Justice seems to favor those who have the money to buy it or the power to influence it. Cameroon has good laws that are simply abused. I was once summoned by a high ranking official and interrogated on a statement I had made about the judiciary being weak. “I told him that I did not say that the judiciary was weak, I said that it was very weak”. “Honorable I have heard testimonies about your record as a judge. It seems quite impressive” I said. “Thank you,” he replied.

I offered an alliance to all opposition parties very early when I declared my intentions to run. I am still working with other political parties to build an alliance that will win the elections. Some parties like to think that they are entitled to a certain respect by virtue of being there for some time. We recognize what they have done, but moving forward demands a new set of strategies. Whoever proposes the best way forward shall have the support of Cameroonians. The CPDM will once again control everything including many candidates of the opposition. Mushroom pro-CPDM parties will surface with trite agendas and shall collect money from the state which they will in turn pass on to the CPDM which already controls all the country’s resources.

"Honorable Ayah, why did you decide to run as President?" It started with a University of Buea assignment. I was approached by two students and as I helped them to complete their assignments, they took down notes. These notes were compiled by them and when they presented them to me, they seemed quite impressed and asked why I don’t run for the Presidency and implement these ideas. I thought about it, refined the notes and voilà. (My Vision of a Born-Again Nation can be found on P. Ayah's websites: paprc2011.com; ayahpaul.net)

Why were you the only voice against the most devastating legislature that ever passed through the National Assembly? Well to start with, you are right about about National Assembly law that was voted in April 2008: it is the worst piece of legislature that the National Assembly ever voted into law. I have been on record saying it will take our country 20 years backwards and that is a fact. I think the reason many people did not talk about it is that a lot of MPs are former employees of the government who have held positions of influence. A lot of them played with public funds and are using the Parliament as a cover. As long as the current regime is in place, they are protected. Some others want to curry favors from the executive and what better way to do that than to vote any or everything the executive proposes? "You must have been in a very uncomfortable situation. I can imagine all the pressures you must have been subjected." You know, Elvis, if you have a mandate from the people, you must be careful not to go against the interests of the people. I don’t know how many MPs communicated with their electorate before voting. Yes, I was threatened, of course, I was cajoled, offered money and even the promise of a position. Unfortunately, all they proposed or offered to me went against my principles and values. By this time, we were driving back from congress. We drove for about two minutes without anyone saying a word. I was thinking about how different things would have been had the constitution stepped in to save Cameroon from a dictator. It always brings tears to my eyes each time I think about it. What was Hon. Ayah thinking?

I decided to change the subject: tell me about your orphanage. Well it is the St Valentine's Orphanage and to me it seems a natural way to give back to the community. I feel that I have been blessed to have the career path and success that I had.

"Why did Manyu people dissociate themselves from you?" Well to begin with, the people often referred to as "Manyu people" are mostly those who can use the bully pulpit, and some use it well. I don’t have any problem with the Manyu people. I seem to be a threat to only those who personally stand to gain from Biya being in power eternally. We have a lot of support in Manyu and the Southwest region in general. As far as those who sabotage me is concerned, I understand it is politics and I don’t bear them any grudges. I didn’t expect them to support me... "but you don’t deserve to be sabotaged either!" I interjected. Well...the fight we all fight, if we are honest is for a better nation. A better Manyu stems from a better Cameroon and if we can identify a way that can bring that change, the least we can do is give it a chance to work.

"What do you really need right now?" We need money. We have a team of very enthusiastic young men and women. They need just the basics: water and food. The resources we use currently are my personal savings. That won’t last very long. I want to thank those of you here in the USA who have helped us. I pray that God continues to bless you even beyond what you imagine. We really need financial support.

Hon. Ayah and I talked about lots of other things. At no point during our conversation that I feel I was being lectured like the powerful all-knowing government officials like to make us feel. My impressions align with those of many others who have talked about him to me: his humility is remarkable. He also has an impressive wealth of knowledge of the issues Cameroon faces and some very common sense solutions to them. I am pretty sure that with elected officials like him accountability and effectiveness can make a comeback. He has already changed things in Cameroon. I shall vote for him and hope that others give him the go-ahead to head a 5-year transitional government.

God bless Cameroon.

Click here for more on Paul Ayah

Or here for the campaign page.

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