Many, if not most, of the snags in Cameroon’s developmental efforts are very often blamed on Cameroonians themselves, especially on their inability on a double front – to preach by example or to show patriotism and love for the fatherland by promoting acts and deeds that ensure the progress of the country.

President Paul Biya might have broken a record – without actually figuring it out – with his repeated appeals for citizens and decision-makers alike to sit up. At theoretical level, he has stirred the hornet’s nest repeatedly over inertia and the lack of resolve in tackling even the most scandalous of developmental setbacks. His views are well-known on a broad spectrum of areas where Cameroon’s developmental listlessness is most manifest: transportation, better health services, improvements on the school curriculum, adaptation of training at all levels to the exigencies of the job market, the provision of potable water for the population and for industry, the provision of electrical energy as a base for industrial development, the easing of conditionalities for investors, the facilitation of entry conditions for tourists… and the list is far from exhaustive.

In a clear show of anger, the President of the Republic has initiated a procedure through which those found guilty of obstructing these noble objectives, especially through acts of mis-governance or misappropriation of the commonwealth are brought to book. For now, people held are being asked to account for every huge sums of money. And this situation is leaving many and numerous other reckless managers of public funds with the impression that those managing paltry sums are out of the view of the “Sparrow hawk,” as the entire operation to rid the nation of graft and corrupt officials has been termed.

The determination to recount this situation is informed by a recent report by the CRTV regional station in Maroua. Last week, a reporter of the station painted a very poor revenue collection picture in the Region, blamed largely on public officials who shine by bad examples.

The report clearly indicated that the attempt by public officials to get all vehicles plying the public highway conform to the official CEMAC vehicle registration number plates was having the greatest difficulties not from ordinary citizens, but from people holding even the smallest parcels of public authority. The situation of the Far-North where administrative authorities, regional delegates and security officials refuse to conform with prescribed texts, is only the tip of the vast iceberg of other malpractices which invariably lead to the question whether anybody really listens to the President of the Republic; or what sense people make of his numerous appeals.

And yet, the President is no do-as-I-tell-you preacher. On countless occasions, he has stopped to dutifully pay his toll gate fees. Tollgate officials at Sangmelima and Ekoko (near the Nsimalen International Airport) can quickly attest to the President’s disposition to behave as a responsible citizen as he regularly pays his way either on his way to or back from Mvomeka’a, his native village. The President is equally on record for regularly paying his way for football tournaments, especially in Yaounde.

Revenue services are counting enormously on this first quarter to ensure a full safe. Most disappointing therefore is the news that revenue collection law-breakers come from the ranks of those expected to show the good example by paying.

A cash-strapped citizenry can only be encouraged when public office holders show the good example by paying their taxes and other government revenue, rather than intimidating revenue collectors with their titles or placing complacent “pass” notices on their windscreens, such as we observe so regularly these days and which, in the main, undercut revenue estimates with their attendant drawback effects.