Below is the introductory statement of the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, during a press conference in Yaounde on December 22, 2014.

“The Secretary General of the Ministry of Communication,

The Inspector General,

Technical Advisers,

Inspectors,

The Heads of Division,

Distinguished Collaborators,

Distinguished Journalists,

Distinguished guests,

You have certainly read or gone through, over the past few days, the international weekly " Jeune Afrique " published in Paris, in its publication of 14 to 20 December 2014, an article titled "Cameroon, le péril jeune”, making reference to the problem of youths in our country. In that article, an alleged explosive situation in our country is forecast, owing to, first, the confiscation of all top ranked positions by personalities of an advanced age, and secondly, the setting aside and impoverishment trend of the youths of Cameroon by the regime of President Paul BIYA.

Looking at the almost offensive untruth contained in that article, and the clear incitation to insurgency by the youths, I considered it necessary to bring an appropriate response that would be commensurate to the level of danger such allegations could bring on the social climate in our country.

I have therefore invited you to share the reality of facts with you, which this newspaper, now used to constant slander and restlessness attacks against Cameroon, tries once again to distort, and so doing in the most ridiculous and shameless way.

Before getting into the core of the matter, allow me to wish you all a warm welcome in this hall and on this occasion.

Distinguished Journalists,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The weekly newspaper, « Jeune Afrique », is therefore of the opinion that Cameroon, our country, is sitting on an active volcano, whose eruption is more than ever eminent, as well as being on an over-heated powder ked whose explosion is ahead; owing to the age and longevity of our top leaders, starting with The President of the Republic himself, and the socio-economic management imposed by the authorities to marginalized, ostracized and hard-pressed youths.

In the absence of any credible statistic reference, pertinent indicator, or even a mere factual criterion, the author of this article only serving us with a kaleidoscope of approximations, all coarse and futile, based on some scattered opinions, collected on the basis on an unknown methodology.

Evidently, our prophets of doom and gloom are in the haste to witness Cameroonian youths engaging in popular insurgency and driving away the current country leaders, which almost all Cameroonian – including these youths themselves – have freely chosen to manage the institutional powers of their country.

From the point of view of these limited prosecutors, Cameroon would be subject to a military regime and the entire system padlocked by a denial of fundamental liberties and an hermetic locking of the social lift.

This other publication of the weekly newspaper, Jeune Afrique, targeted against the interests of Cameroon is no surprise, since the recurrent editorial hostility of this newspaper vis à vis our country did not start today.

Allow me to give you some selected excerpts.

On April 24, 2011, Jeune Afrique titled: « How is Cameroon doing? ».

On October 10, 2011, the weekly publication came back with force with a more provocative title: « Cameroon. Paul Biya, till when? »

Let us move on to 2012. This time it was against the first lady through the title: « Chantal Biya, an invisible woman » and in November 12, 2012 the Head of State was himself the prey of the jackal: « Cameroon: 1982-2012, from Biya to Biya »

The year that followed, on July 13, 2013, the Head of State was accused against the Northern regions under the headline ‘Cameroon: Biya against the North’.

Two months later, it was the turn of the military being attacked, under a self-expressive title Cameroon: “Cameroon, a worried army”. In this issue of 23 September 2013, Jeune Afrique caused itself to believe that the insecurity at borders was a translation of uncertainty about what would become of Cameroon after BIYA. Let me quote a translated extract of the subtitle: ‘with a downbeat mood and equipment, Cameroon’s army is undergoing a real crisis of identity. An exploration of the armed forces’, end of quote.

Early this year, the first son of the Head of State was also attacked under the title: “Franck Emmanuel Biya, a son of influence”. Once again, the subtitle was very self-expressive, and let me quote some parts of it. « Regularly presented as a possible successor to his father, the president, Franck Biya is very discrete. However, he is far from being inactive in the business world,’ end of quote.

Next on motion was the Guérandi Mbara series, under the title: “Guérandi Mbara: the ghost of Etoudi”.

Ladies and gentlemen,

This snapshot of defamatory statements that threaten the stability of our institutions is a sufficient testimony of the fact that we are facing a real conspiracy.

We are comforted in this certainty is as much as this time, Jeune Afrique has obviously decided to take a decisive step in its attacks against Cameroon. This time around, it has taken its manoeuvers one step further by calling on the youths, the dearest resource of every society, to an uprising, revolt, sedition, violence and destruction.

This cannot be tolerated, and the publishing desk of this once respected newspaper, must know that in other countries where the values of freedom are less promoted than in our country, Jeune Afrique would have already, and just for this reason, been suspended or even banned.

But I would just like to stick to fact. This will surely guarantee failure to this unjustified assault.

We are being accused of confiscating power as if accession to supreme magistracy in our country does not follow democratic and constitutional rules. whereas the process that leads to assuming representative functions at state level is governed by democratic rules that are known and accepted by an overwhelming majority of Cameroonians.

The President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul BIYA is at the helm of the State because Cameroonians have so decided.

Are there any democratic norms other than the liberty of sovereignty of a people to choose its own leaders by itself?

Has the age of a leader become a factor of political inability even when constitutional provisions approved by all citizens have not made it an exclusion criterion?

The answer being evident, what is Cameroon therefore being accused of, and what would Cameroonians be guilty of?

In an attempt to justify such evil plans, some select leaders occupying top ranking positions are being pointed out, while deliberately failing to present the situation in its entirety, certainly in order to avoid having facts contradicting the theses they are trying to defend.

We are equally being told that Cameroonian youths are abandoned to misery, debauchery and delinquency, due to the misrule and recklessness of leaders.

I suggest, in matters of employment especially, – given that this area is being trumpeted by our detractors in order to see their desire to turn our country upside down come true and call on our youths to rise up – to explore a few leading actions carried out by the Government in favour of youths.

I assure you that the information I am about to share with you on this matter are the sole and only genuine information, since they derive from clean sources.

Allow me to seize this opportunity to express my gratitude to my colleagues in the Government, particularly the Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, the Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform, the Minister of Small and Medium size enterprises, social economy and handicraft, the Minister of Employment and vocational training and the Minister of Agriculture, who kindly accepted to put at my disposal, reliable and pertinent information and data to be shared with you on this precise aspect of the address.

Let’s consider employment, which has become a fertile ground for our detractors. As far as youth employment is concerned, I would like to inform them that among the 240 thousand civil servants working in the administration, 150 thousand were recruited in just ten years, that is, between 2004 and 2014. This represents 62% of the total number of civil servants in Cameroon.

Among the 150 thousand I just mentioned, the year 2011 alone witnessed the absorption of 25 thousand graduates into the public service, an unprecedented fact in human history worldwide.

It is not unnecessary reminding you that this massive recruitment was followed by the contractualisation of 11 thousand ex-temporary workers and the recruitment of 38 thousand part-time teachers.

For the year 2015, the recruitment of about four thousand youths into the same public service is scheduled.

It should be noted that such professional insertion moves are accompanied by a substantial densification of training offers, at both technical and general secondary school levels, as well as higher education level, where the focus is henceforth on relations between State universities and the business world to better ensure consistency between training and the job market.

It should be noted that State public service in Cameroon is the mould where leading elites of the nation are shaped. It is concerned about the sociological representation of the various components of our country. It is also through the public service that the social reproduction of elites is realised, and therefore, it is the human bedrock of most of our political class.

However, the State public service is not the sole employer in Cameroon. The importance of the private sector is being mentioned as if Cameroon was an exclusive example among economies that have a comparable development level.

An there again, if our preachers of catastrophe and prophets of doom were willing to carry out investigations on the issue of youth employment in Cameroon, they would have realised the importance of measures that are being implemented by the Government, under the esteemed leadership of His Excellency the President of the Republic, in order to boost the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises handicraft, social economy in our country.

To illustrate this, let me cite a few measures that have been put in place by the Government and which have undergone continuous improvement in order to make this sector a leading incubator of youth self-employment.

As far as small and medium-sized enterprises are concerned, measures include:

The setting up of a subcontracting scholarship aiming to build the capacities of Small and Medium size Enterprises subcontracting capacities, in a context of strong growth of structuring projects;

The promotion of incubation of medium size enterprises, through a support to entrepreneurship incubators within state universities;

The building of a leading greenhouse in Edea, to benefit to young enterprises and to facilitate their physical installation when starting-up their activities;

The setting up of the support programme for the creation and development of small size enterprises to transform and conserve local products daily consumed;

The creation of authorized management centres, to accompany Small size enterprises in their management of their taxes;

The support to the creation of business clusters through the programme to support the private sector;

The finalization works for the setting up of a small size enterprises special appropriation account;

The creation and commissioning of an agency to build small-sized enterprises, whose main managers have just been appointed by the Head of State.

Regarding the handicraft sector, the Government has launched, for some time now, a large programme to register craftsmen in the 360 municipalities present in our country, to favour the migration from the informal to the formal sector.

With regard to social economy, its valorisation, impelled by the Government, lies on the fight to alleviate poverty with, to date, results like the grant of institutional support to the benefit of 95 cooperatives, for the financing of agro-pastoral projects, as well as the grant of agricultural equipment to associations and organizations operating in that sector. 

In other respects, the creation by the Head of State, in 2007, of the National Civic Service Agency for Participation in Development, provides us today, on the one hand, with an institutional and operational framework, to favour the mobilization of energies among youths, for an optimum response to the imperative for the social and economic development of our country, and on the other hand, to promote in all citizens and particularly among youths, a strong sense of national belonging, as well as a civic spirit and a culture of peace necessary for the construction of a citizenship identity.

In the line of this task, the National Civic Service Agency for Participation in Development has trained, in 2012, 6 000 youths, who received financial support from the State up to an amount of 770 million FCFA.

11 000 other youths are currently being trained for the year 2014. They will equally receive, upon completion of their training, financial support for their installation.

For the year 2015, the Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education has inscribed in his budget, the training of 15 000 youths to the National Civic Service Agency for Participation in Development.

At the end of its first effective functioning year from 2012 to 2015, the National Civic Service Agency for Participation in Development would have then trained almost 32 000 youths in various domains, and created material and financial conditions for their empowerment.

Parallel to the action of the National Civic Agency to participate in the development, other programmes continue to be implemented in favour of youths, for the financial support of their initiatives.

I would cite, for instance, the Support Programme to Rural and Urban Youths (in French PAJER-U) and the Socio-economic insertion Programme of Youths through the creation of micro enterprises to produce sports equipment (in French PIFMAS), whose main objective is to favour the promotion of the socio-economic insertion of young Cameroonians (aged between 15 and 35 years) who are either out-of-school or have been dropped out of school.

Within the framework of these two programmes, and up to date, 20 035 youths have been trained, and the projects of 5000 youths financed to the tune of 4 billion 370 million FCFA.

Conscious of the necessity to integrate the aspirations and needs of the youths in the elaboration and implementation of development policies, and grant it a leading place in the strategic decisions-making of the country, the Head of State created in 2009, a National Youth Council, whose role is to favour a structured dialogue between the youths on the one hand, and between the youths and the public powers, the civil society and international organizations on the other hand.

The Cameroonian youth is therefore not set aside from the decision-making process and management of public affairs in our country. On the contrary, it occupies a key place through various statutory instances which are not limited to the National Youth Council.

In the political domain for example, all political parties have youth organisations, which play an active role in the expression of the said parties.

Back to the operational actions carried out by the Government in favour of youths, I would also like to mention the agro-pastoral economy sector within which several youth monitoring programmes have been put in place.

These include:

The Programme on the Promotion of Youth Agro-pastoral Partnership due to start in 2015. This programme which has been prepared by MINADER and MINEPIA with the support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for amount of 11 billion 250 million CFA Francs, aims to promote agro-pastoral enterprises set up by youths and employment generating.

The Support Programme for the setting up of agricultural business by youths implemented since 2007, with the aim to contribute to the rejuvenation and modernisation of farms. To date, this programme has benefited from funding worth 6.5 billion CFA Francs and contributed to the setting up of business by nearly four thousand young farmers.

The Support programme for the renovation and development of professional training in the sectors of agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery, whose aim is to improve the quality of agricultural teaching and enhance its professional dimension. Within the framework of this Programme, 4868 learners were trained and 191 projects were validated and financed.

In matters of training and professional insertion, the Ministry of Employment and Vocational training (MINEFOP) is heading targeted programmes on youths, with the aim to promote self-employment and favour the transformation of informal economic activities into formal economic activities.

It is the case with the Support Programme for Actors of the Informal Sector, known by its French acronym PIASI, which works to improve youth employment, the Programme for the insertion of higher education graduates, or the Support Programme for the return of Cameroonians from abroad.

With regard to training oriented towards the professional insertion of youths, the Government each year grants at least 300 bursaries to youths in key areas such as industry, agriculture or information technologies.

Since the start of this year, MINEFOP has put in place a wide ten-year vocational training programme which runs until 2023, worth 217 billion CFA Francs.

All in all, and thanks to this common action carried out by MINEFOP, nearly 700 thousand jobs were created between 2012 and 2014.

Fellow Journalists,

As we can see, those who think they can use our young compatriots to bring down our nation, set on fire and the sword, and destroy what the Cameroonian people have built with determination and commitment in terms of core values and legitimate aspiration to build a modern and prosperous nation – those people, as I was saying – are gruesomely mistaken.

The implicit comparisons with some situations that recently prevailed in some countries are self-contradictory, due to an overt lack of similitude between the context in those countries and ours.

Admittedly, Cameroon cannot pretend to be an El dorado, a quiet and calm river on which one would just need to lie and sleep to enjoy the natural movement of waves, towards a natural and spontaneous well-being. To the best of my knowledge, there is no such country in the world.

Do we know of any single country in the world where youth employment and the future of youths are not a hard nut to crack for their leaders?

Cameroon is a young country which just celebrated its fiftieth year of existence as a State. It is therefore building up, thanks to its dearest values: peace, unity, solidarity, concord and the desire of its populations to live together.

Attempting to trample down the values around which we have, for a long time now, built a strong consensus, cannot leave the Cameroonian people, especially its youth, indifferent.

Therefore, I once again call on the Cameroonian people, and on behalf of the President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul BIYA, to watch out for such manipulation and instrumentalisation enterprises directed against them.

To you, media women and men at the service of the nation, I urge you to bring the most appropriate responses to these perfidious and ill-fated attempts, through an objective commitment of your editorial stances, at the service of truth as your noble profession requires.

This is a duty of social and citizen responsibility.

That was, Ladies and gentlemen, Dear Journalists, Distinguished guests, the substance of communication I had to deliver to you on this day.

Thank you for your kind attention”