During the period known as the “Burning Years” (90-92), faced with his defiant and numerous, voluble detractors, Paul Biya made this simple yet devastating statement to all those vying with declarative exuberance and escalatory attacks against him: “gesticulation is not proof of vitality.”
And time proved him right, and time continues to prove him right. For the “seasonal heroes,” the illusory messiahs, last only as long as a flower, or no, as long as a campaign, before being swept away by the uncontrolled/uncontrollable waves of their own inconsistencies; leaving in disarray and disillusionment the mass of followers who, poorly or badly informed, are tempted by the adventure of empty promises.
It’s curious how history stutters and repeats itself in the 237… Today again, facing the critical deadlines that loom, spontaneous/self-proclaimed messiahs multiply, strong in criticism, competing with promises of an improbable nirvana, which disturb the uninformed or troubled consciences by the difficulties of the moment.
But what is behind all this agitation? What can really come out of this all-out cerebral outburst, without any grip on the complex realities of the effective management of our country? Would the Continent then be a testing ground for enthusiastic political ambitions, perhaps even generous and well-intentioned, but without relevant experience or validated experiential competence? What risk would we dare to take here? It’s up to each person to answer, in their soul and conscience.
But what must be remembered is this awakening of conscience that Paul Biya again made to his fellow citizens in 1992, when they were, as today, the object of real harassment from political adventurers of all stripes: “we must not play with Cameroon.”
Fortunately, while some continue to feverishly seek bearings and humiliating unctions through the “great capitals of the world,” Paul Biya, without deviating from his trajectory, deploys his quiet and silent political vitality. The statesman acts for the country, takes strong and impactful actions, which only wise and lucid people will know how to decipher. While he is said to be absent, tired, he pushes decisive pawns, without wasting energy.
Afterwards, when the results come, when the tears flow:
Let some well remember the time lost (by them) in the useless legal grandiloquence they maintained in public squares, about the laws they would have wanted to tailor to their own measure, instead of going to mobilize their militant bases, in the respect of institutions and legislation in force;
Let others realize that surfing all day long and with an annoying monotony on the real difficulties of survival of fellow citizens does not really bring votes, because easy criticism does not predispose one to be able to do better, or to produce the expected solutions. And the good people of the country know it, and they see it;
Let all remember that the presidential election is a meeting between, on the one hand, a serious, credible, competent, just, reassuring, unifying, legalistic, patriotic, humble, open, etc. man, and on the other hand, a people who see him as such, and accept, in their deep interior as well as by their common sense, to trust him. It is not a matter of age, or diploma, or ostentatious legal expertise, or more or less well-established external support, or violence or fierce militancy, etc.
It is, beyond all else, about knowing well the functioning of the State, about loving the republic deeply to defend its sovereignty firmly, everywhere without ever betraying it; about loving the Nation and serving its people with dignity, always; about being in the eyes of all, a reliable and inspiring leader, an authentic, truthful, attentive leader to all, especially the weak.
All this, gesticulation cannot provide, only in-depth action of a quiet but effective vitality counts, without useless waves. And Paul Biya is the absolute master of that.
Jouvence Clovis Toukam
