This week, the Minister of Social Affairs issued a statement denouncing the rather obnoxious activities of a youngster going around in the name of a Junior MP. Junior MPs are in themselves, a novel and even innovative initiative taken by the government to associate the youth of the country in governance and, by so doing, ensure that they inculcate all the values that it takes to be a good citizen and an informed leader in public governance. No one could blame government for such a move, especially when taken from its pedagogic standpoint and the need to ensure continuity and a handy political leadership when the time for the changing of the guards, as it were, was ever to come.

The “junior MP” denounced by the minister, is said to be making rather consistent rounds in several government ministries and important power alleys in Yaounde, soliciting for all forms of favours which, as the minister indicated, range from influence peddling to the use of fake documents and outright falsehood in the exercise of his escapades. One thing is clear. He is not and has never been a member of the children’s parliament which produces Junior MPs and who, since a couple of years, have singled themselves out on each occasion of the celebration of the “day of the African Child” with media accompaniments in the National Assembly in Yaounde.

But how can such a lad, barely finishing his teen years, have taken the initiative to take the easier end to achievements without due regard to all what it takes to make it to the top, if he was not inspired by what society offers today as easy options to getting to the top without due effort? As a junior MP, he was obviously inspired by what he sees ordinary MPs do on a daily basis; that is, carrying themselves, brandishing their titles on the corridors of power in Yaounde either seeking for places in the public service for their siblings, loved ones in their constituencies or scouting for juicy government contracts for which there is no real control as to whether such contracts are executed or not; the only result being that same were meant to make their beneficiaries rich and rich enough to sit in public places and boast, not only of their riches but of their loyalty to the regime.

The young, or, rather “junior MP” doing the rounds in Yaounde, obviously knows what he is doing and seems to master the rules of the game rather well; otherwise if he was genuinely intent of a political future, he would have clung to an ordinary MP or any other politicians within his reach to study the functioning of the system and on how best to learn the rules of getting to the top and benefitting from accessible fruits each position will offer.

The situation created by the comportment of this purported “junior MP” is disturbing and even embarrassing for parents who are primary educators, for the educational system and even for society as a whole. This comportment questions the efficacy of the present moves to improve State governance and to improve the image of the State by removing the perceptions that the State is a milking cow from which all State agents feed fat. Also, the strategy to rid the State apparatus of predators and discourage graft may also be suffering from credibility by the existence of situations as those created by the activities of this “junior MP”; because, at the end of the day, his message is that with a recognized title, one can go from ministry to ministry obtaining favours and, in the process, shelf aside programmed government work. That this young man made such inroads before ever being discovered, is enough reason to raise an alarm cry; and that our nation is gliding into the danger zone of corruption.