Cameroon has set the stage for war - Bernard Muna

In an interview with the daily Le Jour on Monday, January 25, 2016, Bernard Muna, former president of the Alliance of Progressive Forces (AFP), said that Cameroon had waited too long before taking precautions to face the nebula Boko Haram.

"When Boko Haram was rampant in Nigeria, we did not think that sharing the same border with that country means Boko Haram was closer to home," said the politician.

For Bernard Muna, the invasion of Boko Haram, which in recent months has opted for suicide attacks, should not be separated from politics.

"Many people also speak of this war by saying that they are Cameroonians who are part of this terrorist movement. But I can tell you one thing; these are people who have the Cameroonian national identity card.

They got such identity cards because we had to cheat during elections. In this border area, there are some authorities in our country who search for people in Nigeria to vote to their advantage," said the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and former candidate for Cameroon presidential election of 2011.

"Today, as these people are poor and Boko Haram gives them FCFA 1000, they are forced to go and fight alongside them. We can all blame Boko Haram but the ground has been prepared for us," he continued, adding that the President of the Republic must involve all opposition parties in the fight against this war because this is a matter that concerns us all."

The former president of the Alliance of Progressive Forces has also spoken about recent calls from some senators and high officials of the Republic who have urged Paul Biya to be a candidate for president come 2018. For him, as long as Paul Biya is alive, he has the right to run for another term in 2018 because the Constitution gives him that right.

"I think the problems our country faces are not related to the person of Biya, but the CPDM, usually because several activists appointed to certain positions of responsibility are taking advantage of their position to embezzle public funds.

Some are already in prison. But it is important that if Paul Biya wins in 2018, he should look for other people to whom he should entrust the responsibilities in the government of Cameroon for the exchange rate policy. The people he leads cannot bring him back," said Bernard Muna.