Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Mimi Mefo Info
Published on 2024-03-20 11:02:01
In an open letter that he published a few days ago, the law professor at the University of Ngaoundere accuses senior officials from the Ministry of Territorial Administration of allowing Paul Atanga Nji to publish a statement that outraged several Cameroonians. The leader of the Univers Party insists that Paul Atanga Nji, who is just a politician, is not equipped enough to understand legal issues, but that his collaborators, who are sufficiently equipped, have a duty to advise him. MMF brings you his full statement.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Senior Officials at the Ministry of Territorial Administration, on March 13, 2024, your superior, the Minister of Territorial Administration, signed and published a statement banning the activities of two (02) political organizations, namely: the Alliance for Political Transition (ATP) and the Political Alliance for Change (APC). This statement surprised and outraged many Cameroonians. I wondered how such a document, with content dishonorable for Cameroon, could come out of the offices of the Ministry of Territorial Administration. I will not blame the signatory of the document, who is just a politician, evidently not well-versed in legal matters and public administration techniques. I address you, the Minister’s collaborators, whose primary mission is to advise him in the decision-making process. You are presumed intelligent, and equipped with knowledge acquired after many years at the university and, for many of you, at the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM).
The difference between illegality and non-legality
Ladies and Gentlemen, the statement from your superior addresses the two (02) organizations mentioned above; it claims that they are “clandestine.” For anyone who has attended a French language school, the term “clandestine” refers to an existence that is both secret and illegal. However, in the Minister’s statement, it is said that these organizations hold press conferences, activities that are essentially public. The organizations mentioned could therefore not be described as “clandestine” since they are visible to the public through these press conferences. At this point, the statement contradicts itself. Furthermore, it is important to remind you that undeclared organizations, such as APC and ATP, are not necessarily “illegal”; they would be so if in their creation and/or existence, there were points of law violation. In reality, they are “non-legal” organizations because they are not legalized, that is, not declared to the state administration. The declaration of a group allows it to take one of the legal forms provided for by positive law: civil association, political party, civil or commercial society, and others. The distinction between “illegal” and “non-legal” is learned at the university where you have passed, Ladies and Gentlemen, collaborators of the Minister of Territorial Administration. Students in these training institutions are also taught that there are “legal” associations and companies, those that are declared, distinct from associations and companies “by fact” or “created by fact” which, although not declared, are entitled to conduct, openly and freely, activities of their choice, in compliance with the laws and regulations of the Republic. That said, labeling organizations like ATP and APC as “clandestine,” informal groups, is an act of defamation for which the author of the statement, and his possible accomplices, can be pursued before criminal courts.
The duty of truth
Ladies and Gentlemen, your superior, the Minister of Territorial Administration, claims that groups formed for the preparation of the 2025 elections are “illegal” as long as they have not been declared as political parties. You had the duty to tell your Minister that meetings, friendships, alliances, and groups are free in a rule of law. You should have invited the Minister to remember that he himself is part of a political group called: “RDPC-UNDP-FSNC-MDR-PADDEC Alliance,” which governs Cameroon at the moment; his attention should also be drawn to the fact that his political mentor, President Paul Biya, was reelected in 2018 thanks, among other things, to a political alliance called the “G20,” a strategic alliance of twenty (20) political parties, to whom the Minister of Territorial Administration did not demand party status to allow them to carry out political activities. You should have asked your Minister why what is possible in the interest of his mentor, and in his own interest, is no longer possible when it comes to an alliance in favor of other citizens. You should let him know that he is in the service of the Republic and not in the service of politically partisan interests; this would lead him not to intimidate those who are not of the same political persuasion as him. Political activities in a country are not limited to those of political parties: politics is everyone’s business. Indeed, citizens who go to vote on election day are not necessarily members of political parties, but on that day, they perform a major political act; groups of people, like individual citizens, have the right to discuss political topics, carry out political activities, in cities and villages, privately and publicly, in the media and other spaces, without necessarily forming a political party beforehand, contrary to what the Minister mistakenly believes. In short, groups like ATP and APC, without being political parties, have the right to discuss and carry out political activities, especially in the context of the preparation for the 2025 elections; against this, the Minister can do absolutely nothing. Many other movements and organizations, not declared as political parties, exist in Cameroon at the current time: “Elite-residents of…,” “Circle of Friends of…,” and many others. In their highly political activities, these groups ask, at the slightest opportunity, President BIYA to run in the 2025 presidential election; they refine strategies for the success of their future candidate; there is even a well-known organization that, without being a political party, calls for the candidacy of Paul Biya’s son. Why does the Minister not want organizations, “by fact” or “by law,” to form to call for the candidacy of other citizens? or simply to reflect on the strategies to adopt to approach the 2025 elections? Whether the Minister likes it or not, whether he is happy or not, ATP and APC, to name just these two (02) organizations, will exist “in fact” and carry out political activities.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Senior Officials, have the courage to tell your superior that the Republic does not belong to him; that he will pass and Cameroon will remain; give him good advice; help him in his work; you will thereby render a great service to the Republic, the nation, and the history of Cameroon.
Command at the service of the Republic
Ladies and Gentlemen, Senior Officials of the Prefecture, the statement signed by the Minister of Territorial Administration also addresses you in your role as “territorial command.” However, it is important to remind you that you are state officials, at the service of the Republic and not at the service of an individual, regardless of the position he occupies in state institutions. Some of you may consider me a dreamer in a completely dilapidated republican environment. However, my civic duty invites me to tell you what I know and what I think, with a freedom that not even the Devil can take away from me. In virtue of the freedoms proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of Cameroon, meetings and demonstrations in a private setting are absolutely free; they are not subject to any requirement of authorization or declaration to the state administrative authority.
Today, through his statement, the Minister of Territorial Administration asks you to even ban private meetings of ATP and APC. I ask you to kindly tell him that this is an unconstitutional and illegal mission entrusted to you: you should at least be outraged by it! The Minister asks you to violate the law by prohibiting private meetings; he asks you to infringe on the rights of citizens and to commit acts of delinquency and even criminality. I invite you to request a working session with the signatory of the wicked statement, to reason with him. Remember that as civil servants, you have the right not to carry out a manifestly illegal order from your superior. In accordance with Law No. 90/055 of December 19, 1990, public meetings and demonstrations are also free; however, these must be declared to the state administrative authority, not for “authorization” as is the administrative practice, but for declaration, which allows the latter to make arrangements to supervise the scheduled activity, with the primary objective of protecting the organizers and participants from potential disturbances from a third party. The administrative authority already does this very well when it comes to activities of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Rally (RDPC), the party to which the Minister of Territorial Administration belongs. A public activity can only be banned if public order is “seriously” threatened. All Cameroonians know: it is often from your administrative superiors that you are ordered to unjustifiably ban political meetings and manifestations, even though public order is in no way threatened. Only public activities of the RDPC, the ruling party, are carried out freely, sometimes even without prior declaration. A public meeting or demonstration in Cameroon is only “allowed” if it is intended to glorify President Paul BIYA. The statements that demand that Governors, Prefects, and Sub-prefects ban political activities of the APC and ATP therefore bring nothing new to what already exists. However, it must be reminded to the Minister of Territorial Administration that the world has changed. The dictatorial methods of past centuries are very ineffective against the evolution of public communication techniques: there is no longer a need to organize meetings at intersections, or in marketplaces, to convey political messages: there is the radio, television, and above all, there is the internet, a means against which political dictatorship, with its outdated methods, can absolutely do nothing. Ladies and Gentlemen, Senior Officials, These members of the ATP and APC, whom you are now asked to chase, mistreat, oppress, humiliate, and arrest, will probably be the leaders of Cameroon tomorrow; they will probably forgive you if you accept to submit to the clearly unconstitutional and illegal instructions contained in the statement of March 13, 2024; everyone will understand that you acted out of fear of losing the exorbitant advantages and privileges that you derive from your compliance with the current political regime. However, when you have obeyed such politically reprehensible orders, have the courage to look at yourself in the mirror when you are alone in your bathroom; will you have the pride to tell your children that you serve the Republic?
Read the original article(French) on Mimi Mefo Info
