Why Cameroonians Survive by Corruption

 

Inertia, which seems to be Cameroon’s trade mark without any doubt, it the ingredient of the ubiquitous and rampant corruption in Cameroon. Cameroonians siphon and steal state’s funds with impurity and go scot-free. Like a man of God, once remarked; “In Cameroon, it’s like people are persecuted for out being corrupt enough”. He opined that most Cameroonians in government do not have the fear of the Lord and so they operate as if God is kilometers away from them.

Come to think of it Cameroon has for two consecutive times been rated by Transparency International as the most corrupt country in this planet, earth, yet no one cares. Remember a former famous Minister under this Regime, who was given millions of FCFA to take to the National Team and he shamelessly told Cameroonians that the bag of money disappeared while on air to the U.S World Cup. And of course, nothing has since been done to him, the spirit of Cameroonians.

And even despite the fact that Government has now waged a war against embezzlers with several members of government and civil servants in jail, corruption has continued to be on the increase.

So, why Cameroonians survive by corruption? The answer is not far fetch. To begin with, there’s this acute lacuna in job opportunities in the country and so jobseekers must bribe or corrupt to have jobs. When they succeed to get the jobs through bribery, they also demand bribe from other to make up the money they spent to get their jobs.

Today, it’s open secret in Cameroon that to get admission to ENS, candidates must bribe for between FCFA 700000 and a million. To go to ENAM, the bribe is between 2 million and 5 million FCFA. Even primary school kids are aware of these rates.

And of course, Cameroonians love flashy cars and mansions. To get these, they steal money from even corpses.