The important thing is about seeing to it that Cameroonians enjoy socio-economic progress. Yes, they do, so why all the fuss about leadership style?

Up to these past few days, the build up to the September 30, D-Day indeed, seemed to have been going on rather well with all the principal actors seemingly respecting the rules of the game, least of which was not the necessity to wait for the formal launching of the campaigns in the next few days to see friends or foes of yesterday at each other’s necks in the search of votes.

The rule stands firmly for political parties, but some of our media colleagues have rather taken the Trojan horse route to start the campaigns much earlier by nailing the President of the Republic, who is not even a key player in these elections. Granted, Paul Biya is leader of the main party, in terms of national spread, in the coming elections but he is not playing a frontline role because of the nature of the election and any attempt to rope him into inter-party quarrels can only be considered as a blow below the belt and, consequently unjustified and mischievous.

But who is hiding in the Trojan horse? Our guess is that they are the same people who will be up in the next few days, expecting a civilized campaign and sparing no effort to blow whistles over what they will perceive as wrongdoing or disregard for laws and procedure. So do we want a clean campaign or that in which any imaginable strategy is used to elbow out the opponent?

The commonality of Cameroonians would like to see even a semblance of the respect of the laws generally accepted as the basis of political consensus underlying elections. The media has a recognized watchdog role; that is why we, as a mainstream medium, are under the obligation to question the wisdom of a newspaper to insidiously launch the campaign even when it was not the rightful time to do so.

The choice of President Paul Biya’s name is no accident. The name sells; and very hotly too, depending on the issue at stake. In the write-up by a noted Douala-based tabloid, he was presented as an absentee leader out of touch with the realities and the suffering of his people. Many observers within and even out of the press milieu consider this assertion as overly stated; a strange tool of sorts thrown into the works of the current works of a consensus building that has resulted in the holding of elections. Moreover, it can only be the work and end result of embedded journalism, the type that the National Communication Council and, even serious peers would like to extirpate from the journalistic milieu.

And even the talk about the purported personal style of President Paul Biya begs for some observations. There is no constitutional prescription for the way and manner a President of the Republic is expected to carry out his functions. His oath simply obligates him to ensure that the welfare of the nation is guaranteed. The question about his style does not arise. Rather, Cameroonians ought to be concerned about whether their desire for social and economic progress is being fulfilled.

The answer is yes. As a matter of fact, the legendary Chinese political leader and statesman Deng Xiaoping (1904 – 1997) in a 1961 answer to critics who thought he was deviating into a capitalist and free market orientation, exclaimed: “No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat.” This statement amply teaches us that as long as President Paul Biya is delivering on the urgent developmental needs of the country, all the rest about style and the like can only be accessory. To every leader, his style!