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In April this year, the coordinator of the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union (CATTU) mobilized people in the North West Region (NWR) to march down Commercial Avenue in Bamenda. The march was meant to thank the President for granting a higher teachers training college to the NWR and also to lobby for a University. The march sparked off heated debates in Bamenda and beyond. Critics pointed out that education was a right of Cameroonians; a responsibility of government – not a discretionary favour. To them, the march was a ploy of belly politics on the part of Mr. Nkwenti Simon, the CATTU coordinator.
In July, the coordinator of CATTU organized yet another `march of thanks´ to the Head of State. This time, the reason was to express gratitude to President Biya for appointing a son of the NWR as Prime Minister. By thanking the President for this appointment, the organizers of the march intended the Prime Minister to see that `his´ people were behind him. If the first march was controversial, the second one was even more so. Again, critics accused Mr. Nkwenti of politicking. They argued that the Prime Minister had a duty to serve the nation at large in justice and fairness, without regional bias. According to critics, Mr. Nkwenti’s true intention was to mobilize regional support for President Biya, with the hope of being rewarded with an appointment in high government.
The debates about the marches are still alive in Bamenda. One can hear them in taxis, between friends in bars, and among NGO workers. People wonder: was it really the civil society that marched on Commercial Avenue? Or was it just the ruling CPDM party out of its well known uniform? Was the march a cooperative action of many CSOs? Or did the organizer in collaboration with politicians, simply abuse the name of the NWR's civil society for selfish political ambitions? How could one really know the truth?
An NGO worker in Bamenda notes: “to know truth, we should focus on facts and not the logic of argumentation. Arguments can always be twisted, but facts speak only the plain truth”. By examining the facts of the two marches, the plain truth behind them comes to light.
[In this photo: Civil Society march or election campaign?]
In the first march, eleven NGOs and two cultural dance groups were present with their sign boards. NWADO, a network NGO that represents twenty-eight registered member organizations was among these NGOs. The presence of NWADO and these different NGOs is evidence that the march was accepted among these civil society organizations. Moreover, none of these organizations was paid for participating. A majority of the participants were youths. President Paul Biya’s picture was used in the march, but the picture carried no campaign slogan. The only sign of devious political manoeuvring on the part of the organizers were placards that read: "More Power to You Mr. President". An NGO activist who took part in planning the march confessed that he was embarrassed when he saw such messages that had not been agreed upon.
In contrast to the first march, only two NGOs participated in the second march. This time, as many as seventeen social dance groups were present. Some individuals from those NGOs that took part in the first march were present in the second. However, the sign boards of their organisations were missing. They did not want their organisations to be identified with the march. NWADO, the most dynamic civil society network in the region was conspicuously absent.
For this second march, buses were hired to ferry the dance groups to Commercial Avenue and back to their respective bases. This time, participation though voluntary, was financially compensated. Each association or dance group that participated in the march was paid a token of 2,500 FCFA. Furthermore, over forty motorbike riders who were mobilized for the march received 500 FCFA each. 
[A plethora of social dance groups proclaimed to be the NWR's Civil Society.]
It was easy to notice that the majority of participants in the second march were women, most of them in their middle or late ages. The youths that dominated the first march were missing. Those who processed at the forefront carried Mr. Paul Biya’s 2004 presidential campaign posters. The posters bore his widely known campaign slogan: “the Cameroon of Greater Ambitions”. Therefore, although the organisers portrayed the second march as apolitical, it was actually a campaign, well ahead of the official start of the 2011 presidential campaigns. The organisers of the march had used village dance groups as an impostor for the NWR's civil society. This allowed them to disguise their political objectives behind the so-called apolitical march.
The second march was called a civil society march, but where were the NGOs? How could village dance groups be said to be the NWR's civil society? Why was a majority of the participants elderly women from the villages? Where were the youths with critical thinking? Why would anyone pay people to participate in a march of thanks? All these questions lead to one answer: the NWR's civil society had been abused for selfish political objectives. And regrettably, the principal perpetrator of this abuse was a household figure within the NWR's civil society, Mr. Simon Nkwenti of CATTU.
If the abuse was not clear in the first march, the facts of the second march make it glaring. Facts speak the plain truth. In their various small corners, NGOs in the NWR have quietly condemned the second march. However, as the NWR's civil society, they have failed to put up a public statement to denounce Mr. NKwenti Simon as a manipulator. Their disapproval of the manipulation was only in the form of non-participation in the second march. Although they grumble about the political masquerade of this march, the NGOs have chosen to criticise in silence. But to stay silent in the face of deceit and abuse is cowardice.
To stay silent is to give consent. For change to happen, disapproval needs to be spoken, despite all odds. To say nothing and to do nothing is to endorse the status quo. If true civil society activists and organisations fail to uphold their courage and proclaim truth, then people-centred development in Cameroon is doomed. Positive change has never come to a people through silence. Never.
~Julius Lambi, Researcher, University of Vienna
