By Brian Mackwright Afanyu & Jude Bame
Just
like the Prayers of a sinner, our cry for “Change” as Africans and Cameroonians
to be precise always seem to fall on deaf ears or never reach the right
quarters. Sometimes I wonder if we really want these changes to happen or is
that the slogan “We need change” makes only for a great cliché? As
Cameroonians, not only have we become numb to our bad behaviors, we go a
step further to defend it with many citing the famous John 8:7 from the Bible: “ So when they continued asking Him (Jesus), he lifted up
himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first
cast a stone at her.” Is
it because we all have sinned that we shouldn’t denounce sin and call it what
it is? I guess we all have in our own small ways spoiled this nation once or
twice but this does not ip so facto mean that we shouldn’t press for change in
every small way and or opportunity we get to point out that which can be
changed for the betterment of us all.
Recently
a friend posted a video on Facebook of himself at a financial institution in
Cameroon while he was waiting to be served, the lady behind the counter could
be seen making a PERSONAL PHONE CALL. The video prompted a debate of whether or
not he was right to have made the video and posted on social media with some
saying he could have handled it more “Maturely” by talking to the lady directly
or reporting the issue to her manager, arguing that posting such videos is an
attempt to “bring down a sister” and how nothing will change because of the
said video (Wrong). The poster of the video even got a “law suit threat” from a
close relative of the girl in the video should she lose her JOB. According to
this gentleman relative of the girl, he was or is also a shareholder in the
said institution. The video may not have had the required gusto to effect the
desired change on the entire system, but it is and will be a reminder to many
in her position that they could be on video should they attempt to use their
PERSONAL CELL PHONES on duty while a CLIENT waits to be served right in front
of them (You will agree with me that SMALL CHANGES matter right?)
Secondly, there was another video of a military personnel dancing and showing
off cash he allegedly has been collecting as bribe from road users and drivers.
The family of the individual as well as sympathizers requested the video be
deleted because the person in the said video had passed away and it was
disrespectful to him (Dead) and his family. All attempts to understand the
reasons behind such requests did not add up but rather prompted more questions
in my mind and made me wonder if the video depicted the young law enforcement
officer doing a heroic act or sending a positive message for change amongst
Cameroonians would the family as well as sympathizers request the video be
taken down? (I doubt).
One
thing all these events have in common is that almost everybody agrees that the
actions portrayed by the individuals in these videos are WRONG but “massa na
Cameroon, nothing no go change”. REALLY! To Cameroonians living in the diaspora, we all know and understand the
“advantages” that comes with naturalization and the power of your new country’s
passport, but what I might never understand is how eager and anxious we become
to travel home and rub this our “new nationality” in people’s faces so they’ll
FEAR and RESPECT us more for this “achievement”, we feel so invincible and
untouchable with this our new nationality when we visit our birth countries so
much such that one will think it comes with the “Blood of Jesus”. Perhaps what
is even more disturbing is the fact that this has become the “new normal” as
nobody sees anything wrong with this and nobody is doing anything (At home and
abroad) to address this epidemic. Mind you I did not say I’m perfect but at
least my skin crawls every time I think of it. Maybe if we stopped NORMALIZING
these issues, we could actually find ways to eradicate them.
When
we dig into these cited examples of misconduct that only help to draw us as a
nation backwards, we realize that they resonate with the Cameroonian cankerworm
syndrome of “man know man”. Unfortunately, this syndrome gives us as citizens
the largess to wave such negative behaviors with a flip of a finger for fear
that we are and may be hurting our own in the process of pointing them out for
the purpose of change. As earlier intimated, we must as a nation agree that
such an epidemic will only encourage us to maintain the status quo but go back
home to complain of how bad and rotten the nation has become.
I
must say I am prompted from the preceding paragraphs to examine such “man know
man” syndrome that normalizes mediocrity within the entertainment industry in
Cameroon. I have most often wondered to myself why we as Anglophones and
Cameroonians most especially take so angrily at criticism. Why are we seemingly
afraid to call a spade a spade? Is it because those involved in what we may
denounce within the showbiz industry are our relatives, friends and loved ones?
The answers to these disturbing questions as earlier observed in the afore
substantiated paragraphs are a sweeping YES.
Unfortunately,
it is not uncommon within the 237 entertainment milieu to get individuals pick
up fights with bloggers and content creators for delivering an objective
evaluation of a song, movie or some other content and ending their analysis
with a failed mark or negative comment. These fights and brouhaha are
stimulated because such individuals are in one way or another related to the
artist whose content has been critiqued. In our holy mind of minds, do we
really hope to get to the at which countries like Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana and the
rest of them have attained? Instead of wasting our time in meaningless beer
parlor affiliations that only will bring down our industry, we should rather
see how we can forge ahead while accepting and making changes that readily
accrue from criticism that content developers and writers provide.
The
rate at which mediocrity has cribbed into every fabric of life within our
nation is so alarming and appalling. We must agree to the fact that from the
highest level of government to the lowest ranks of social life and society,
mediocrity seems to have been instituted as the new normal. Politically, we may
have noticed how individuals who seemingly have nothing to offer have grappled
with the corrupt nature of the country to secure appointments and elections at
various levels. Of course it goes without saying that these only have been made
possible because of their political affiliations. As a result, we are stock
with mayors who verily can bring no change to their constituents, ministers who
can only close “connection doors” of their predecessors in order to open theirs.
We are stock with medical doctors who seemingly care not about the health of
their patients but for the extra consultation fees they illegally collect at
hospitals. We are definitely stock with a mediocre system that glories in
political affiliations and personality cults. This is a lamentable situation
that seems not to preoccupy anyone since they are connected in one way or the
other to the perpetrators of such acts that denigrate the nation and put to
jeopardy the economic, social and political wellbeing of the common citizen of
the country.
Personally,
I don’t believe we have been jinxed in Africa to live through such debasing
human circumstances that glorify and normalize mediocrity. It is a choice our
forefathers at the inception of independence laid down and bequeathed to their
predecessors in the name of postcolonial European watchdogs today. It is
regrettable therefore that we have seemingly endorsed and conformed to such
practices. If we do not see beyond the benefits we personally make from such
mediocre attitude, performance and show of our own “bad belle” then, of course,
we shall never liberate this country from the sociocultural and
politico-economic labyrinth in which our normalization of mediocrity has
plunged it.
In
this 21st century cutting edge technology, networking, and
amalgamation of individual strengths into collective forward pushing force, in
this modern age of multiculturalism and globalization, we in this country are
clearly so far behind to foolishly be caught in the false believe that mediocrity
can enable us compete with equality against other nations on the world stage
because seemingly, these other nations had and have realized early enough that
mediocrity, ill will, corruption and profiteering can never and will never pull
forward the ship of their nations.
Today four weeks ago, God blessed
me with the gift of life through my amazing husband who donated part of his
liver to save my life. I thank my Jehovah God for what He has done for me. I have learnt so much about God and about
life and appreciate God in a new way through my experience.
