THE NATIONAL CAKE: TO BAKE OR TO SHARE?

About the Book

In this book the reader is told that the unjust gap between the rich and the poor leading to social injustice in Cameroon and the world results from elite globalization and the reliance on the concept of sharing the National cake. The idea of baking the cake collectively and sharing it in an equitable manner so that everyone has a fair share is not known by the political and administrative culture. Consequently, Cameroonians spend more time talking about their share of the national cake instead of how to make the cake. The underlying principle of governance in Cameroon is best captured in the clause “national cake.” Call it public resources. Should the cake owned by everybody be baked or shared? Many politicians and administrators get lost amidst the intricacies of power and the grandeur that comes with it and feel that the national cake is only to be shared. They forget that they had made promises prior to their appointments and regard the civil service as an end rather than a means to an end. Money to them is the defining value and the primary mediator of relationships among persons and institutions. Ideals of equity are out the window and at the national and local levels, governments and citizens alike have become economic beggars and a “consumer-nation” has been created. Beggars don’t create jobs; they take from those who have. Nothing paralyses a nation like citizens who lack a sense of mission for their country. In my opinion, Cameroonians should spend less time on politicking and more on constructive endeavors. They should be challenged, activated, motivated and transformed into nation buildings or bakers of the national cake that will be equitably shared. They should be builders of a sustainable, emerging and democratic Cameroon united in diversity. An emerging and sustainable nation refers to a nation that is embarked on a holistic development that can continue indefinitely into the future by properly addressing human, political, social, cultural, economic, ecological and spiritual dimensions of development. This author envisions a better quality of life for all Cameroonians through the development of a just, moral, creative, spiritual, economically vibrant, caring, diverse yet cohesive society characterized by appropriate productivity, participatory and democratic processes, and living in harmony within the limits of the carrying capacity of nature and the integrity of creation. In Part one of this book therefore, this author describes the problems affecting the process of baking and sharing the national cake in Cameroon as reflected in neopatrimonialistic and clientelistic ties. In Part two, the author carries out an assessment of the material, capital and human resources of the country, including technical personnel, and investigate the possibilities of augmenting these resources if found to be deficient in relation to the nation's requirements. This part also indicate the factors which are tending to retard economic and sustainable development, and determine the conditions which, in view of the current social and political situation, should be established for the successful execution of President Biya’s major ambitions and accomplishment programme. The discussion framework in this part follows the seven dimensions of development: spiritual, human, social, cultura, political, economic and ecological. In Part three of the book, a complementary Plan to the Cameroon Vision 2035 that will lead to the most effective and balanced utilisation of the country's resources in making the national cake is formulated and the nature of the machinery which will be necessary for securing the successful implementation and financing of the plan is determined.

About the Author

Attempted Senator nominated by the incumbent CPDM party Central Committee as one of the candidates for the West region, for the first ever organized Senatorial Elections in Cameroon, I, author Akwalefo Bernadette Djeudo, is Cameroonian by birth and a veteran educationist involved in community affairs, civil society activities and the political development process of my country to ensure my voice is heard and my vote counted. I have a BA, MA and DEA in economic geography, a post graduate diploma in Education, a certificate in pro-poor project design of development interventions and recently an MA in Public Management. I was born on the 3/3/1966 in a small clan called the Fondonera Kingdom where I am today the Regent Paramount Ruler. My biological father was the paramount ruler of my clan, a clan made up of 26 administratively recognized third class villages. He had more than 100 wives and about 200 children. During his reign, children were looked upon as wealth, but wealth itself excluded any formal educational training. Living in conditions of extreme poverty, it took God’s abundant Grace for me to go to school. My career goal at the moment is to get involved in public affairs with a concentration in economic and social development and to acquire skills in analysing the political, economic, organisational and normative aspects of complex societal and political problems related to sustainable development and poverty reduction. My definite major purpose and labour of love is to fight poverty with its political and environmental ramification, with passion and professionalism. I do not believe that men were meant to live in the foes of poverty, degradation, slums and ignorance. I believe that man by virtue of his humanity should live in the light of reason, exercise moral responsibility and be free to develop to the full the talents that are in him. I also believe that poverty can be done with not by increasing the number of well to do people who think about poverty, but by increasing the number of people who purpose with faith to get rich. What tends to do away with poverty is not the getting of pictures of poverty in to the minds but getting pictures of wealth into the minds of the poor. The poor do not need charity; they need inspiration that will cause them to rise, out of their misery. I believe that the poor can develop their minds to attract only positive vibration of prosperity, health, success, happiness and not those of fear, poverty, disease and misery from the Universal storehouse of the ether. I want to always speak of the poor as those who are becoming rich, those who are to be congratulated rather that pitied.