Cameroon and the Corruption Conundrum: Highlighting the Need for Political Will in Combatting Corruption in Cameroon
| Date | 01 February 2019 |
| Pages | 50-75 |
| DOI | 10.3366/ajicl.2019.0259 |
| Published date | 01 February 2019 |
In the twenty-first century, the craving for good governance can accurately be described as almost universal: it has become a prerequisite to sustainable development. Even though the phrase good governance seems elusive in socio-legal and political discourse, one can easily assess or determine its existence based on the presence or absence of specific factors.
Like most African countries, Cameroon is heavily infested with corruption at all levels. According to the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, Cameroon is among the countries with a very high corruption index (meaning the incidence of corruption is very high).
In the past decades, some efforts were marshalled by the government to change this disdainful image by combatting and ending all forms of corruption. These efforts include the enactment of numerous national instruments that seek to tighten some administrative cracks, reform the public service, introduce new accountability standards and hold perpetrators accountable.
Unfortunately, and until as recently as 2011, these national instruments and institutional mechanisms were meaningless due to the fact that they were never accompanied by the requisite political will needed to develop a corruption-free Cameroon. As political will was lacking, these national laws and institutional mechanisms became ineffective and unsustainable as they had very little or no effect on the fight against corruption. The government's determination to combat corruption found expression through, and was very limited to, political speeches discharged on public podiums. Anti-corruption efforts became more like political sloganeering as these speeches were hardly followed by any concrete accountability or systemic changes aimed at bringing the desired result. The fight against corruption became a national cliché that aroused no fear in the ordinary citizens.
The absence of a strong political will to combat corruption, especially when perpetrated by political actors who occupy top cabinet and management positions in public enterprises, rendered most, if not, all, of the legislative enactments and institutional mechanisms exercises in futility. If anything was ever needed to complement and follow these legislative and institutional mechanisms, that would be the political will that would not only overhaul a decadent, indifferent and ineffective legal system, but also create a national mood for the fight against all forms of corruption in all spheres of public service.
This article examines corruption within Cameroon's legal system. It argues that the cornucopia of national instruments and institutional mechanisms aimed at combatting and preventing corruption have proved to be absolutely inadequate, hopelessly ineffective and completely unsustainable due to the absence of a political will to clothe these instruments and institutions so that they fulfil their legislative mandates. With endemic and deep-seated corruption in Cameroon, it is argued that any genuine effort to combat and prevent corruption in all spheres of national life will require a political will that boosts and propels the enforcement of these laws, motivates the institutional mechanisms to fulfil their mandates, overhauls the entire corrupt system by reforming and repealing bad laws, removing bad men and replacing them with good ones, and setting the national mood that is needed to combat and defeat this invisible enemy amongst the Cameroonian people. Political will, it is believed, brings everyone into a common purpose rather than putting them at cross-purposes, and positions corruption as the common national enemy that requires a united national effort directed towards combatting and preventing it.
This article commences with a delineation of the concept of corruption and a synoptic statement on the negative impact it has. It then proceeds to the different forms of corruption criminalised in Cameroon's penal system and the other national instruments and institutions in place to combat corruption. Lastly, it discusses what political will is, and why it is critical in any and every effort that is made in fighting and preventing corruption. The article examines the manifestation of political will through the establishment of the Special Criminal Court (SCC) with jurisdiction to try persons who misappropriate public funds over the sum of 50,000,000 Francs CFA.
Corruption as a concept poses a problem to any scholar given the fact that different disciplines, especially social sciences, look at it from different angles. Its manifestation in different forms as well as the varied perceptions accorded to it by different cultures and communities all militate against the formulation and postulation of any concise definition of what corruption is. As will be seen below, it is much easier to describe than define the concept of corruption.
The word ‘corruption’ when viewed from the different ways and levels in which it is committed becomes elusive of a watertight definition that captures all of them. However, when examined more carefully and closely, corruption is seen as involving a wide spectrum of practices that vary in forms, significance and impact. It may take the form of outright theft, embezzlement of funds, misappropriation of state property, nepotism, the granting of favours to personal acquaintances, the rigging of elections, and the abuse of public authority and position to demand or exact payments and privileges.
behaviour which deviates from the formal duties of a public role because of private-regarding … pecuniary or status gains; or violates rules against the exercise of certain types of private-regarding influence.
a form of antisocial behaviour by an individual or social group which confers unjust or fraudulent benefits on its perpetrators, is inconsistent with the established legal norms and prevailing moral ethos of the land and is likely to subvert or diminish the capacity of the legitimate authorities to provide fully for the material and spiritual well-being of all members of society in a just and equitable manner.
To establish as criminal offences, when committed intentionally:
The promise, offering or giving to a public official, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage, for the official himself or herself or another person or entity, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her official duties;
The solicitation or acceptance by a public official, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage, for the official himself or herself or another person or entity, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her official duties.
Another international instrument is the...
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