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The Real Test

The committee set up by the Prime Minister to oversee the recruitment of 25,000 Cameroonian youth announced last February 11 by the President of the Republic has begun work in earnest. This is to the satisfaction of numerous doubting Thomas’s who were yet to go along with this exceptional largesse of the Head of State, especially in the dramatic context of the rarity of jobs for the youth. Many were at a loss over two weeks after the announcement. And the anxiety could be well understood given the immediate expectations the announcement engendered. Now, anxiety is over as to the people concerned by the recruitment exercise and the other conditions to be fulfilled.

After the first session last Monday of the coordination and supervision commission created by the Prime Minister to manage the exercise, its chairperson, Mr Jules Doret Ndongo (Secretary General in the Prime Minister’s Office) issued a statement specifying what would be required of all aspirants to the 25,000 available positions. It is now clear that the exercise is not exclusively for graduates of higher institutions of learning as many citizens had initially believed, but would extend to all strands of certificate holders; beginning from those with First School Leaving Certificates up the ladder to doctoral degrees as well as those with purely professional qualifications. It is also known, inter-alia, that postulants would not have to write a competitive examination, but would rather have their files screened by a technical committee; that such postulants should not be more than 40 years old as at April 30, 2011; that all files shall be received at regional headquarters and at diplomatic missions abroad for postulants living in foreign countries and that there will be no registration fees to be paid at all.

This situation, on paper, provides a very convenient setting for the exercise to be conducted without the usual hitches associated with public service recruitments. However, some important concerns about this setting are billowing over the commission’s capacity to avoid the possible booby traps one imagines can be found on the way of such an intricate mission. Take the sheer number of young men and women expected to apply. By extending the recruitment range to include all certificate holders, one imagines that figures could even go up to millions. One can only fully conjure the full picture of the situation by revisiting some competitive examinations into some training institutions where it is on record that for, say, 200 available positions, as many as ten thousand register to sit the examination. In the present circumstances, it is even nightmarish to picture scenes of unending queues and multitudes of youths before administrative buildings trying to certify certificates or in search of other useful documents. Granted, the commission says postulants would not have to pay any registration fee. But there are fiscal stamps and other services, such as certification and verification of authenticity of documents which entail spending. That does not seem to be a difficulty these youth can fail to scale, given the numerous hardships they face on a daily basis. Moreover, that may not be a price too high to pay for a job.

The greatest fear, however, is in the capacity of the members of the commission to live up to expectation and honestly and faithfully vindicate the real intentions of the Head of State. Last Tuesday, Mr Ndongo was already calling on all members involved to be transparent in all transactions. This is no innocent tall order in the Cameroonian context where it is well known that corrupt practices prevail in public service recruitments. And in a situation where files have to go through scrutiny rather than through an examination, there is even greater room for apprehension. The other day on national radio, a lobby group was already making proposals to the commission. This is not the modus operandi of the commission. If the commission opens flanks, one can imagine a situation whereby money-bags and other men and women of influence will start trooping in with lists of pimps. This exercise should be a true test in ensuring that Cameroon is henceforth vindicated of its hitherto corruption-prone posture. Although the commission is neither working in a public square nor in a glass house, many are watching.

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