Escape of athletes in Glasgow: A reflection of a country in decay

What devastating blow to the Biya regime at the international stage again! Eight Cameroonian athletes, reports the government-owned Cameroon Tribune, “vanished into thin air and their whereabouts cannot be determined” while at the Commonwealth games just ended in Glasgow. That adds injuries to the wounds inflicted on the national psyche by the Cameroon soccer team before their departure for, and during the World Cup in Brazil.

The Glasgow ignominy was just a repeat performance of that of the 2002 Olympics Games in London where Cameroon dominated world headlines because six of her athletes deserted the camp. All that in their yearning to migrate to Europe by all means. Their country, like in many other poverty-ridden and corrupt African countries, has failed them. They have no hope in their mother land and are ready to take perilous adventure to go abroad or as they usually call it “fall bush” and get rich quick.

They are not using only sporting events. Take the case of a 25-year old mason from Douala who narrated his ordeal after arriving in Spain. He and others trekked from Nigeria to Morocco where: “We were loaded in a lorry, about 25 to 30 of us. The driver took a number of detours to avoid checkpoints, then he dropped us in the desert and another truck came to pick us up, and so on and so on, several times.

Once we were all deep in the desert, a driver just left us...We walked for a full week in the direction of the town of Tamanrasset. One girl just fell down, her eyes wide open. She wasn't moving any more. We spent three hours trying to revive her. She started to stink, given the heat. We dug in the sand with our hands in order to bury her. Two days later, one of the boys also gave out…’’ Exhausted, the survivors reached Tamanrasset,” and then to Spain where they realised their conditions were worst than in Cameroon. There is also a shocking case of two Guinean youths who at the Conakry airport, sneaked into the tarmac and stowed away in the undercarriage of a Sabena airbus that was Brussels bound. Their stiff bodies were only discovered when the plane landed in Belgium the next day.

Why are Cameroonians and some of their African fellows taking such fatal misadventures to get to Europe? Aren’t they risking their lives so much and disgracing their countries? Are Cameroonians who have been using sports to migrate illegally really sports men and women or they bribe officials to put them in official delegations so as to facilitate their “disappearance” in Europe? After the 2002 scandal at the Olympics, what precaution did the Cameroon authorities take to ensure that the athletes do not defect again? Are those who deserted the camp in Glasgow; even without taking part in the any sporting event authentic athletes? More importantly, why do Cameroonian youths want to migrate at any cost, using any cause?

The questions could be answered in one sentence. It is a reflection of a society in decay made so through corruption, unemployment, embezzlement, impunity, tribalism and greed .When you have a government with tired and retired people still being given two years extension to work, what do you expect the youths to do? When people are allowed to hold more than two government jobs, what do the authorities want the vast majority of the youths to live on? Why does the government allow civil servants to tender for contracts and have advantages over their compatriots whose only source of income is government contracts?

If the government had provided a conducive atmosphere brighten up with justice, transparency and equity, would illegal migration be so attractive despite the mortal risks to the point athletes in official delegations are repeatedly disserting? There were countries with fewer resources than Cameroon participating in the Commonwealth Games but why is it that only Cameroonians vamoosed?

If the consciences of the Yaounde authorities are gnawed by such misadventure, they would have been able to prevent another shame at the last Olympic Games. Cameroonian youths in their crave to “fall bush” must be aware that the enormous majority of those who succeed to get to Europe later find out that they have just jumped from the frying pan into the fire. The so-called developed countries are not gold mines for illegal immigrants.

Those who are confronted with the realities abroad suffer in silence and can’t even afford a trip back home to visit their family members. Many resort to crime, menial jobs and prostitution to live from hand to mouth. Their misadventures make it difficult for Cameroonians who want to travel abroad genuinely to visit relations, do business or just for leisure. The “bush fallers” live in hiding and as Robert Calderisi says in: “The Trouble with Africa,” become a thorn in the flesh of Western immigration officials hunting for them to be deported.

In as much as The Guardian Post sympathises with Cameroonian youths mired in unemployment and penury due to the inability of the regime to harness the rich resources for the benefit of all, “bush falling” is not the solution. The developed countries were made so principally by their own patriotic citizens and only Cameroonians can develop their country. We are reminded by the famous quote of John Kennedy to “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”.

To do that however, the Biya regime must provide an enabling environment for youths to show case their abilities, creativities and innovations in a society free of tribalism, corruption and bribery. That would discourage young people from taking deadly adventure to migrate abroad by all means, hook or crook as witnessed at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.