Since the death of
Professor Peter Agbor Tabi, we have been made to understand through online
commentaries that he loved Manyu people dearly, he was an intellectual and due
to African tradition, we shouldn't speak evil of him. I want to state that we
are dealing here with the same problem, same backward thinking, same
psychological damage of the minds of Cameroonians by Mr Biya’s system.
Predominantly, natives of
Manyu have claimed he loved them because he used his influence as a Minister of
Higher Education to ensure undeserving Manyu youths are admitted into Cameroons
premier teacher training college –ENS. This was at the expense of other
deserving and qualified Cameroonians. According to them, he was a bold man who
played with the system for the benefit of his people.
I just want to state that
I personally find these comments insulting, even though I have members of my
own immediate maternal family who benefitted from this scam. There is nothing
wrong in wanting to help your own people and to love them. But you do not
express love to your own people by denying others of their own right as
Cameroonians to pursue their own careers.
ENS was never Agbor
Tabi’s personal property. It was a state institution designed to accommodate
every deserving Cameroonian. Denying others the opportunity to pursue their
careers there purely because they came from the wrong tribe was completely
wrong. And to want to justify it purely because everyone else in his rank as
Minister was doing something similar is naïve. A wicked system is a
wicked system and there are always people who even in that kind of a system
will always want to act right.
As an example, Chiune a Japanese diplomat during
World War II used his influence to help 6,000 Jews who were at risked of being
killed by Hitler to leave Europe by issuing transit visas so that they could
travel to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's lives. During
the Rwandan genocide, there were people who lost their lives because they
refused to act like a majority of people by killing others from other tribes.
That’s how love can be expressed even in dangerous circumstances.
Agbor Tabi’s case was a
choice which expressed hate on Cameroonians/Cameroon. He didn’t love Cameroon
and he didn’t love even those he helped as in his pursuit for power, he was
using them and he didn’t mind setting them up against other Cameroonians.
Everyone wants to become something in this life and the desire to realize
innate possibilities is inherent in human nature. Once rights are denied or
people are forced due to circumstances to pursue the wrong career choice, then
society can’t function properly.
On the issue of African
tradition not to speak evil of the dead, I will like to state that we are not
interested in any lectures that are not based on sound moral principles and
critical judgment. Just like what the Germans and Europeans did when Hitler was
defeated, we are never going to be bullied but we are going to study the life
of every Cameroonian who has worked closely with Biya.
SENATOR MBELLA MOKI |
The reason for this is
very simple - we don’t want some of the wicked things they did to happen again
and we also have to try to recover some of the money they stole from the
system. Once Biya is out, we are going to enact new laws to ensure what the
likes of Agbor Tabi did should never happen again.
Every Cameroonian
deserves respect. Those who always invoke this issue of African tradition only
when they want to silence the voices of other Cameroonians should be careful.
The same African tradition suggests that the youths have the right to kill
through stoning anyone who is “suspected” of bewitching them.
Does Mbella Moki
Charles who brought up this issue consistently want us to ask the unemployed
Cameroon youths to start picking up “suspects” randomly and stoning them? The
CPDM should stop their foolishness and let us live.
By Rexon
Nting, PhD
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