Outgoing British High Commissioner to Cameroon, Bharat Suresh Joshi, in an exclusive interview with Cameroon Tribune, throws light on the growing dynamism in ties between his country and Cameroon.

He talks about the fight against corruption, British business interest and the business climate in Cameroon and so on.

Your Excellency, you have come to the end of your diplomatic mission to Cameroon during which you had a busy schedule getting involved in several activities. What was your motivation?

My motivation has been to build stronger partnership between the UK and Cameroon as I could possibly do in four years. And partnership means doing what is best for the United Kingdom and also for Cameroon. So, I have always been motivated by doing things which I think are good for Cameroon in the long term and not making decisions which were good for the UK now, but bad for Cameroon. Our interest is in seeing a prosperous and a stable Cameroon in the long term.

As you leave Cameroon, what would you say is the state of relations between Cameroon and the UK?
I would quote the Minister of External Relations,  [Prof. Pierre Mokoko Mbonjo] who said to me earlier this morning (Friday 23 August 2013); “We are about to enter a new phase of the relationship which is symbolised by the UK-Cameroon Joint Commission.” I think that is absolutely right because for the first time, there would be a formal vehicle to progress our relationship and establish where we can better work together bilaterally. So, I feel immense satisfaction that we have a strong partnership not based on what is good for the UK, but on what is right for our both countries. I think the relationship is in a very good position. My successor, I think inherits not only a fundamentally strong and positive relationship, but also a phenomenal team in the High Commission with which to take us to the next stage. So, I leave extremely proud and satisfied, though a little beat tired.

So you are leaving Cameroon a better person, a better diplomat than you came, to quote you during festivities marking the Queen’s 2013 birthday. Why do you think so?
It has been challenging covering five countries from here. So, that has tested me fully and tested my French as well. This has been my first job as head of mission and as head of mission, I define the relationship between my country and this country to a large extent. Recognizing and trying to make sure that I used that was doing what is fair for both sides. That is what has driven me, and it has worked in this country. I felt as if when I arrived, the relationship was not as strong as I would have liked or how close it should have been given our history. 
In trying to get it where I thought it should be, I worried it would be very difficult, but it wasn’t. We found open doors wherever we went; whether we were talking to ministers, the civil society, media, local leaders and rulers. That is what made it so easy. The warmth and the positive response that we get from these people motivate us to respond by doing as much as we can. That’s what has made me better, seeing the way in which, especially young Cameroonians work hard, are so educated, bilingual. That has been inspirational because for me that is where the future of Cameroon lies. The future prosperity, stability and security of this country lie in that generation. It gives you hope because they are clearly so capable of so much.        

One keeps wondering at your deep concern, especially with the business environment in Cameroon. Do you have some special reasons for taking so much interest in the business climate in Cameroon?
I have been a believer for a long, long time that the biggest threat to most of Africa was the demographics. You have such large young populations and you need to keep them motivated and engaged in the political process. But what you have in most of Africa is the generational gaps with too many young people who can afford to live in the country migrating elsewhere to make a living. So, finding a way to engage them in their own country to me, is fundamentally important because they are you richness, your biggest assets. And we saw that in the Arab Spring. I have been talking about this since 2006/2007. The Arab Spring just shows what happens when you have a young middle class that just does not feel that it is reaching its ambitions. My own view is that the biggest thing which we can do to help Cameroon, which in governance terms, I do not think is bad, is to help the country grow economically and to empower that generation to create prosperity and then politics would move. People would become less apathetic.  That has always been my focus: on the economy, on encouraging entrepreneurship, on encouraging the younger generation to engage and create that extra wealth which would bring people out of poverty. We know that business brings more people out of poverty than bilateral development assistance ever can.

You have been actively involved in encouraging British investors to come to Cameroon. The most recent example has been to invest in the hydro-electric dam in the River Katsina Ala. What is the project all about?

We have done a lot of work with UK businesses. Whenever I go to the UK, I end up talking to businesses about doing business here. And that has been quite successful since 2010 when the Prime Minister, [Philemon Yang] visited the United Kingdom and met with the Queen and William Hague [British Foreign Secretary]. It is important for me to have more UK companies working here. It matters to me because it is good for the British economy to have them making money here, but it is also good for the Cameroonian economy because British companies are not corrupt. They cannot behave corruptly because of our corruption laws, they employ Cameroonians. So they may have one or none expatriates. We use Cameroonian labour, they do the skills transfer, everything is bought locally, they play by the rules and pay their taxes, etc.
Joule Africa which you are talking about is the newest project we are dealing with. Joule Africa has since 2011 been looking at the River Katsina Ala and the potential for hydroelectric power. They have worked very closely and very quickly with government and they are half way more or less through with their bankable feasibilities study for the construction of the dam. By the end of next year, they would be at the point where they can almost start the construction of the dam. And there could be electricity online by say, 2018.           

You have witnessed the political evolution of Cameroon at some crucial moments during your four-year stay in the country like the last presidential election. What assessment do you make of the system?
There always seems to be some expectation of people thinking that I would criticise the system here, but I do not actually feel like that. Cameroon has a stable political system which has worked for a long, long time. I have been really astonished over the last four years by the progression that we have seen within ELECAM, which I think is on a phenomenal job. Its first election was the presidential election. So, when you think of the baptism of fire, there couldn’t be a better description.  But they have done so well I think, managing the election, managing the process, bringing in biometric identification.  My sense is that we have seen an evolution in the democratic process.
Recently, there has been a lot of coverage of the disagreement within ELECAM, disagreements with the government, with political parties and I have been very welcoming of that. It is exactly the kind of robust political debate which shows that democracy is here. I have remained very positive. I think we’ve seen an evolution in the democratic process. Of course, we would like to see that move faster. I would like to see ELECAM take more responsibility over election. Take away some of the responsibility from government to cover election timetable, accreditation of observers and the press. We are also hoping to see the best municipal and legislative elections in September.    

How would you qualify the political class in Cameroon, mature or still in need of much education?
I think you have a very sophisticated political class. It is a sophisticated country across the board and a sophisticated government. There is a sense, more than anything else that government believes all power rests with government. That it has to do everything. I think the biggest lesson for every government is to learn that it needs to let go of authority, let go of power. It is very difficult to have strong institutions if government retains all of the control. In order to have strong institutions, you need to empower them, trust them and let them develop. And I think that is probably the next challenge for the government, knowing how to give up some of its own control.

That, may be, is a global picture, but let us look specifically at the opposition? Do you think they are up to the task?
We have so many of them. So it is difficult. I can’t remember how many opposition parties are there in Cameroon, but I heard that about 150 are actually active. It is very difficult to meet them all and not many of them have the financial or national coverage. I think there is a big role to be played by the opposition in terms of encouraging a genuine debate. Every government can be criticised, no matter how good that government is. I am always very surprised that there isn’t enough coverage of economic issues, development issues, fighting poverty. I’ll like to see more of that. I think the opposition needs to try and fill that space. The opposition needs to show that they are capable of governing.   

Would you also like to comment on the several audiences you have had with the Head of State, President Paul Biya? What could be your take home-message from the audiences?
Generally, a lot of the things we talk together are confidential between us, but I can say that in general, there is an absolute sense that our bilateral relationship is in very strong shape. That we are in a much better place than we were, the relationship is continuing to move forward and that on the 2-4 September 2013, we will have the first UK-Cameroon Joint Commission taking place in London, really demonstrates how important the relationship is to both sides.
We have talked a lot about business. I think the first time he was surprised by how engaged British businesses were in Cameroon, because we are very heavily involved. I sometimes think that our businesses are quite discrete, but in terms of what we bring here, it is huge. I am very proud of that. We have talked about some of the bilateral issues that we can work on - some of the global issues - and that has been very positive. So I leave here, I hope, with the good relationship with the Head of State and the government of Cameroon intact.

Looking at the efforts that President Biya has been putting in place to combat corruption which you have also been very involved in, do you think Cameroon is on track?
I think there have been real steps in tackling corruption. For example, the creation of CONAC and the work that CONAC has been doing in the last two years is quite extraordinary. I remember a sense of surprise when CONAC published its report. I do not think anyone would have expected that CONAC would publish that report which named ministers and specific instances of corruption. That report was published because the President allowed it to be published. I think we have seen some really important steps. Again, I worry that corruption is like cancer. It is invisible, but it eats away the body from the inside and it weakens the body. That is exactly what has happened in Cameroon.
You see that institutions have become weaker and public confidence in institutions like the police is damaged and authority is damaged and undermined. Economic growth is reduced because companies lose the money and they just charge more to the customer and the individual consumers are the ones who lose and so the economy contracts. Tackling that for me is fundamentally important and that means moving faster. That is what we are trying to do, work with the government to add impetus. We have a private sector initiative; Coalition Against Corruption, which is led by the Business Council for Africa. It includes companies like Guinness, Standard Chartered Bank and a group of 20 other companies fighting corruption head on. That for me is really a new initiative not being done anywhere else in the world where companies are saying no to participating in corruption. I hope that government would help us persuade all national companies to comply.                 

Now, looking at relations between Cameroon and the UK, both countries share a common heritage as members of the Commonwealth. Naturally you would say it is a good thing?
Yes, I think only Cameroon and Canada are members of both the Commonwealth and the Francophonie. So, we are very proud to have Cameroon as member of the Commonwealth. Cameroon is a relatively new member, but in the last two years, Cameroon has been incredibly influential in the new Commonwealth Charter that was approved. There is a lot of satisfaction in London that Cameroon has carried the message of the Commonwealth across the country and I applaud the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government for what they have done on that. So we value that relationship, but actually it is just one of many axes. The fact is, we agree with the governments of the Commonwealth about much more than we disagree.  We are allies in a range of bodies and we support Cameroon across them.

But most Cameroonians looking at that relationship keep wondering why the Commonwealth has no major diplomatic service in the Cameroon like the country has done by creating the position of a Minister Delegate in charge of the Commonwealth?
It’s definitely a decision between Cameroon and the Commonwealth. It is true that the Commonwealth Secretariat has funding issues and so it cannot create offices everywhere. I do think that there is scope for much greater cooperation between the Commonwealth and Cameroon, a relationship which delivers value. But the Commonwealth has been hugely influential here, not least in the establishment of organisations like ELECAM. It has also been involved in the justice sector. My hope is we have great expectations from the Commonwealth.