11 Feb. Fabric Palaver: Mounouna Foutsou burns his fingers

The Youth Affairs minister should not miss the point: he has burnt his fingers almost to the point of losing them.

If he used to stand tall in the eyes of President Paul Biya, his boss, there is no question that this issue of a Youth Day fabric has reduced him to a midget, and is very likely to be his nemesis.

Perhaps no issue has caused as much controversy within public service circles in Cameroon in recent times as that of having a fabric for the Youth Day celebration. The minister of Youth Affairs, Mounouna Foutsou, would shout it to whoever wants to listen that it was a decision of the National Youth Council. And to attempt to make it digestible, the idea of ‘golden jubilee’ was tied to it. Just like the golden jubilee celebration of the armed forces, of Independence or of Reunification.

Hogwash! Absolute nonsense indeed! Inside sources have told this newspaper that the idea of a Youth Day fabric was hatched and mooted by no one else than the minster himself. Mounouna Foutsou and his acolytes are believed to have seen it as a rare occasion for them to make some quick money for themselves, and so sold the idea to the National Youth Council most of whose members bought it without a second thought, in the joyful hope of having a cut in the deal. But when other stakeholders were brought in to give their views on it, they did not fail to see its meaninglessness and to deprecate it with all their energy.

This view cannot be discarded because other sources hold that although the minister was promoted in the 2 November 2015 cabinet reshuffle (from secretary of state in the ministry of Secondary Education to minister of Youth Affairs) he is weeping inwardly for having been removed from a sea of abundance to a land of death.

For, compared to the ‘juicy’ ministry of Basic Education, the ministry of Youth Affairs is considered by those who see ministerial positions as opportunities to make gain rather than serve the nation, as a dry land where no one would like to go to if their opinion were sought.

The mentality of a goat eating within the confines of its tether is thus what actuated Mounouna Foutsou to come up with this overly unpopular decision. But the minister should not take the leniency of Cameroonians for cowardice. He should not think that his fellow countrymen are sheer receptacles down whose collective throat anything can be rammed. At a time when the purchasing power of Cameroonians is very low, when the end-of-year festivities have made many holes in their pockets, he should not inflict more pecuniary pain on them.

Rather than cause the minister to appear smart and reasonable in the public eye, the 11 February fabric issue has rendered him more bovine or sheepish. When his decision met with tough resistance even from those he thought would not ‘betray’ him, he resorted to yet another unpopular decision: that of letting the wearing of the fabric on 11 February not be compulsory. That was another way of him thrusting his tail between his hind legs.

But does this really sound well in Foutsou’s ears? How would celebrants look like on Youth Day if some appear in the controversial fabric and others do not? Doesn’t he think he should simply have laid the issue to rest by cancelling the idea of wearing a fabric on that day?

The Youth Affairs minister should not miss the point: he has burnt his fingers almost to the point of losing them. If he used to stand tall in the eyes of President Paul Biya, his boss, there is no question that this issue of a Youth Day fabric has reduced him to a midget, and so is very likely to be his nemesis.

Pundits say the President will not be long to form a new government. If that be the case, then Minister Foutsou should bear in mind that his stay as a full-fledged minister will be short-lived. For, throughout President Biya’s 33-year stay in power, no government minister has committed a gaffe of this magnitude and survived the very next cabinet reshuffle.

So Cameroonians might soon be ending their prayers about Mounouna Foutsou thus: “May his ministerial position soul rest in perfect peace. Amen!”