The nation is currently mobilised in multifarious forms in the movement to attain emergent economy status by 2035. Huge sums of money are being garnered in this synchronised effort.

But in this drive, it is necessary to give the war against graft some new ammunition which could either be by way of enforcing a change of reprehensible attitudes or outright repression of documented cases.

Last week, there were startling revelations during the New Year wishes ceremony organised in the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Presenting a balance sheet for 2011, the Secretary General happily noted that the monthly telephone bill of government services was scaled down from the whopping figure of FCFA 18 Billion a year or FCFA 1.5 Billion a month. Consumption on the existing 9,862 government lines dropped by 14 percent, representing a monthly put-aside of some FCFA 200 million. 

Very good news indeed; meaning that the inter-ministerial committee set up by the Prime Minister in 2009 within the framework of the government’s roadmap, is already producing tangible results in the sector. Use of office telephones continues to be one of the channels through which government money is abusively and irresponsibly spent. In many government offices, family members, cronies and loved ones queue up to telephone for free, at the instance of the office holder. In some cases, it is a day-long activity, leaving the impression of an official telephone booth. This practice, of course, perturbs the normal functioning of the office as citizens in genuine need of services are frustrated, unable to obtain any service in this atmosphere.

The case of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication is just one stop in a litany of other forms of abuse of public office or corrupt practices manifested by bribery, cronyism, embezzlement, extortion, fraud, gifts, nepotism or trafficking. Other examples which many public officials often take for normal behaviour include using a workplace computer and work time to type and print out a dissertation for a relative. A senior official of the Ministry of Public works does not find anything unusual about using government earth-moving equipment to level a personal plot or that of a friend. Neither does a school principal find any fault in making available library facilities for family members on weekends or non-working days.

Of course, these examples exclude cases where such practices are legal. But the choice of these few examples is to illustrate the entrenched and banalised nature of corruption and other malpractices to prove that, in countless instances, people do not even have the feeling they are into wrongdoing. But the purport of this commentary is to argue that the negligence of moral uprightness is likely to stall all the noble initiatives being taken to improve the citizens’ standard of living through the provision of face-lifting infrastructure.

The story is told of a Dutchman who travelled to Cameroon a few days ago. On the Paris-Yaounde Air France flight, he sat next to a Cameroonian journalist. His enquiries to the journalist centred mostly on the nefarious image of Cameroon presented in all the documents he had read as he prepared for this first-ever visit. The journalist tried the best he could to present a positive image of the country, pointing to the several initiatives being taken to fight corruption. The journalist’s effort took a severe blow when the plane landed.

At the luggage claim, a trolley was not immediately handy; so the visitor was advised to get one out of the hall entrance. On his return, a policeman on duty in the area requested payment for “looking after” the luggage for the minute-or-so it took to go fetch the trolley. Initially, it was taken for a joke. Until things turned sour when the policemen followed the visitor right to the parking lot, a good 100 metres out of the airport building, noisily and brutally asking for his “guarding fee!”

The journalist’s attempt to paint a good image of the country had just collapsed like a pack of cards! The Dutchman’s first experience in Cameroon was living corruption live. He was coming to work for an NGO in the East Region. But it could also have been an investor coming to explore opportunities. The short story above is to illustrate the importance of morality in the gargantuan tasks involved in the President’s “Greater Accomplishments” programme.

The Head of State announced in late 2011 that the country was going to be transformed into a vast worksite from this January. But this physical worksite must be accompanied by a moral worksite. This demands a radical change of habits and a more forceful approach to fighting corruption and graft.