Tunisia/Cameroon: similar destinies?
In a recent game played by Cameroon and Tunisia, both nations were unable to convince their supporters of their superiority. As a fan of the Cameroon National Footbal team, I am always disappointed by a loss or a draw of 2:2 as when Cameroon and Tunisia played recently. Cameroon seems to have led the way for the African continent in football, dominating teams like Nigeria and Tunisia.
Football, the world' most popular sport is glorified in Africa, and Cameroon and Tunisia are no exceptions. Besides sports in general and football in particular, one may think that there is very little both these nations share in common. Tunisia, in the North of Africa, for about 15 years enjoyed the status of an economically vibrant country with poverty curbed to 3.8% in 2005 from 7.4% in 1990.
Cameroon on the other hand is in West Central Africa and besides missing the semi-finals of the FIFA world cup in Italy in the summer of 1990, has not had any particularly good news in any sector. Both Tunisia and Cameroon have suffered French colonial exploitation and gained their independence from France in 1957 and 1960 respectively.
Bourguiba was the first president of Tunisia until doctors declared him incapable of performing his duties. That was in 1987, and Bourguiba born in 1903 was 84yrs old. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the prime minster used a constitutional argument and seized power in a bloodless coup d'etat.
Cameroon's first president was El Hadj Ahmadou Ahidjo. In November 1982, acting on doctor's orders, Ahidjo stepped down allowing his longtime associate and prime minister, Paul Biya to become President. It is not clear what actually motivated Ahidjo to step down, he was merely 58 years old, 20 years younger than Paul Biya today as he seeks an nth term of office.
Tunisia fared well under Ben Ali and its classification as the best nation in Africa, per capita considered and 32nd in the world just recently did not guarantee its citizens just what they needed: jobs and a sense of wellbeing and dignity. The President had earlier announced that he would not be seeking an extra term in 2014. He would be 78 years then. It came as a surprise to the world and probably as a shock to Ben Ali himself that the Tunisian citizenry habored such resentment to the extent of demanding his departure.
When all cards were played and the Tunisian street seemed to hold all the aces, Ben Ali, Tunisia's dictator of 23 yrs did an admirable thing, for a dictator: he fled the country before a lot more people could possibly have been killed.
Paul Biya, now 78, has not enjoyed the relative internal satisfaction that Ben Ali's economic success bought for him duing his first ten years. He promised rigor and moralization, but it wasn't long before his policies and his cronies plunged Cameroon into the dark company of the most corrupt nations on earth. He cut the salaries of civil servants twice and in the midst of currency devaluation. Cameroon has not been the same ever since. Cameroonians did not react.
Biya's successful dictatorship results from his astuteness in political maneuvering. He encouraged the creation of many political parties, bought the opposition by appointing them to posts of responsibility and or simply paying them off. This coupled with an opposition that cannot agree, and the fortune of governing the most passive people on earth have combined to keep and secure Biya's reign.
Recent events make me believe that Biya's fate will be similar to Ben Ali's. For one, the contention following the amendment of the constitution in 2008 that left about (euphemism for we don't know) 100-200 dead, the unemployed Cameroonian youth whose resolve has been strengthened by the boldness of the Tunisian example, the desperation of their parents, and now Egypt. Cameroon like Tunisia will not be the same again after November 2011 (or maybe before?).
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