Yang’s strictness leads to divorce with home region

Written by Eugene N. Nforngwa

Wednesday, 25 August 2010 12:51

Yang_Philemon YAOUNDE--When Philemon Yang became prime minister last year, the people of the North West region found a cause to celebrate. After waiting 13 years, they finally had one of theirs sitting in the most important office reserved for Anglophones in the country’s seat of power.

But time and events have since wedged a gap between the people of the North West and their prime minister son. Yang’s austere and strict conduct means many are not getting expected favours from the Star Building.

The result has been a quick cooling off of the excitement with which Yang’s appointment was received. In the worst scenarios, some elite wish the appointment, which is now being viewed as an opportunity in fallow, never happened.

One year on, the Philemon Yang premiership has stood up as the most radical against a culture of “wasteful” spending. Yang has turned down a huge up-keep “budget” meant for his office and abolished many conference and outstation bonuses for civil servants, according to aides and state audit sources.

As the country battles deep-seated corruption, the devout Baptist has demonised the acceptance of “fuel money” from government contractors and the prime minister’s guests no longer leave the Star Building with fat envelops as had become the norm.

Yang’s reforming of the Star Building and the conduct of public business has been somewhat a solo initiative, more of an issue of personal beliefs than any government-backed policy. But its effects have been far-reaching, felt by distant administrations and private corporate institutions.

In a move that’s stunned even his personal staff, the PM devolved the attribution and management of juicy public contracts from his cabinet to the secretariat general shortly after taking office.

The new order has been praised, particularly outside the government, because it puts the common good above personal interest. It is bold and unlike the system.

But it is leaving members of the North West elite, Yang’s brothers and sisters, who had looked up to the prime minister for gifts and special favours very frustrated, we have gathered.

Indeed, when Yang was appointed in June 2009, many of them saw his coming as “our turn”, a publicly stated posture that was widely interpreted to mean the North West now had the bag of goodies.

Local politicians believed they deserved some kind of compensation, because somehow they think they worked for the premiership’s coming to the North West by winning by far the largest number of CPDM parliamentary seats in the regions since 1990.

But Yang has been rather a disappointment, we gather from several conversations with members of the North West political and business elite. “His premiership is a wasting opportunity,” said one politician.

In November, the freshly appointed head of government introduced himself at a homecoming event in Bamenda as the prime minister of Cameroon and not a son of the North West, though the implication is only beginning to emerge.

He is increasingly viewed across the region as distant and unwilling to put the interest of the North West above the interest of the rest of the country. “He’s helping the entire country and hurting the [NW] region,” said one senior member of the governing CPDM. “There could be political costs.”

Complaints about Yang’s idea of public service are mostly discreetly expressed and the cooling off of his relations with the elite of the region has been largely approached with forethought. Angry voices have, nevertheless, popped up in unbelievable places.

During meetings to prepare President Paul Biya’s coming visit to the region, some local politicians have been speaking up against the PM’s “stinginess” and the very few opportunities coming their way.

Yang has been compared with Ephraim Inoni, the former prime minister, and found wanting when it comes to display of largesse, said one member of government of North West origin.

“Most North West elite are the first to make the comparison, and in the worst scenarios, some say they hope Inoni was still prime minister. The North West yearns for a PM like Inoni.”

Inoni walked the steps of previous prime ministers, allegedly lotting out goodly gifts and fixing up friends, relatives and protégés with lucrative contracts. Some of those went to North West politicians and businesspeople.

Yang’s aides, some of whom have worked under the past two prime ministers, admit there’s been a great change in the way the Star Building does business. However, they argue that Yang’s style ought to been seen as virtuous rather than unprofitable as his critics put it.

Presently, the PM is committed to the tarring of the Ring Road and could have facilitated the bringing of a bus assembly plant to Bamenda, said one aide.

“The difference between this prime minister and others is the fact that he is not interested in pleasing individual people or small groups,” said the aide.

But it is a difference that has very few cheering in his home region.