Marafa’s 1st , 2nd, 3rd, 4th And 5th Letters:

Here Is What Is Making The Regime To Tremble

Marafa

The national and international media and by extrapolation public opinion is now gripped by what is referred to as the ‘Marafa Affair’. The media in Cameroon is upbeat about the Marafa letters that are making headline news, but most importantly is the fact that the regime is equally bent on stifling the publishing of the letters or discrediting the information therein as mere farce. This wish by the regime and the zeal expressed by the public to continuously savour state secrets being put in the market place of ideas by a former state functionary is sending jitters and hot sweat down the spines of many government barons. It is not the letters per se that makes news but what is hidden behind those letters and what may come next. Actually, in journalism like in public writing, the writer is supposed to be able to draw a line between what the public wants to know and what the public needs to know. This is so because the public is always anxious to know much or everything including the functioning of the state, something which is often considered a preserve of a few. And all along, it has been so until Marafa Hamidou Yaya ripped open the Pandora Box and state secrets are in the open.

Marafa Hamidou Yaya, former Secretary General at the Presidency, former Minister of State, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization who belonged to the chosen few that were privy to state secrets has decided to become the latest prolific writer in prison, dishing out calculated dozes of state secrets to the admiration of the public and the chagrin of government. When Marafa Hamidou Yaya who was arrested along side former Prime Minister, Chief Ephraim Inoni fired his first salvo by writing an open letter to the Head of State in which he made incriminating revelations about his dealings with the Head of State and the functioning of the state, many ministers started trembling. This was so because many of them who equally had some dealings with Marafa when he was in government did not know how far he could go in his letters. AS Secretary General at the Presidency and former Minister of State, Minister of Territorial Administration, Marafa had a lot of influence and connections with a network that the regime does not clearly master.  Many of those serving in government and in many duty posts in the administration are Marafa’s men. What they have in store nobody knows reason the regime is trembling because if they are still loyal to Marafa, they can destabilize the state.  And while the regime was yet to digest the first letter and look for means to counter it, Marafa pumped another letter that was considered very disastrous to the regime as it picked holes in the promulgated electoral code. This is where Marafa has drawn sympathy from the opposition political parties that boycotted the voting of the promulgated electoral code. Equally, this can compromise funding of the electoral process by foreign donors not to talk of the international recognition of any election emanating from such an electoral code. These are issues the regime does not like and Marafa knows that, reason he is only targeting issues the government has never wanted to be in the open.

Here Is What Is Making The Regime To Tremble

People are always afraid of the unknown because they do not know, which direction change can take. Marafa Hamidou Yaya is well known by the regime and its members, yet he remains greatly unknown an unpredictable given his recent activities and gesticulations since the day he was arrested. The issue that is making the regime to tremble is the fact that Marafa was so closed to power for long and has the secret documents and all protocol agreements between Cameroon and other nation states. He can decide to make public this secret dealings and this will greatly discredit the present regime. Like in his first letter, Marafa clearly indicated his closeness with the Head of State, giving away the idea that he was the person managing Cameroon while the Head of State was just a bureaucrat. This does not augur well for the regime. Another issue is that Marafa had longed prepared himself to succeed Biya as per the revelations in his letters. And any person who has such ambitions must have contacted, contracted and confirmed national and foreign assistance. The regime is trembling because it does not know the expanse of Marafa’s influence. That is who is supporting him where, how and to what extend? Members of the regime are trembling because Marafa is alleged to have serious international support which he can rely on to topple the present regime. This thesis is supported by the fact that prior to the 2011 Presidential elections Marafa was cited as a candidate of some foreign countries. The regime actually believed so as per his first letter where he said the Head of State asked the Director of Civil Cabinet to inquire whether he,  Marafa was to stand against him the Head of State in the October 2011 Presidential election.

Added to this are the revelations Marafa is making. The regime is trembling because Marafa is not only exposing the corrupt nature of the regime in place but is pointing accusing fingers on some government ministers that are still serving, for being responsible for most of the mishaps of Cameroon. This is why some ministers are quick to chastise Marafa in a bid to dissuade him from publishing more state secrets. They are afraid that he might call their names as those who were planning with him the after-Biya succession. Unfortunately, those who are against Marafa’s letters are not providing alternatives to the population that is anxious to know how Cameroon is governed. Equally, the regime is dodging away from the issues raised by Marafa in his letters, thus creating more suspicion in the minds of the public and attracting sympathy for him.

For instance the management of petroleum revenue in Cameroon has always remained a state secret. And the regime is afraid that Marafa who was Board chair of the National Hydrocarbon Company, SNH can spill the beans and attract a public disapproval of the underhand methods of the regime and its barons on the management of petroleum revenue.  How are people recruited in SNH, how much does petrol contribute to the national budget are questions on the lips of most  Cameroonians and Marafa may provide the answers, a thing the regime is afraid of.

 As regards the Albatross, Marafa has cited the names of the people who are supposed to be held responsible for embezzling the tax payers money meant for the purchase of the presidential aircraft. It is not only the revelation citing the names of those involved, including that of the Head of State that is disturbing but the fact that Marafa Hamidou Yaya can block the trial of the Albatross affair by refusing to cooperate with justice as he has started doing. This will be very embarrassing to the regime as many of the accused would have been unjustly detained.

In his fourth letter to the Head of State Marafa has indicated how money meant for the compensation of victims of the 1995 Boeing plane crash in Douala has been embezzled by members of government. This fourth letter has attracted some sympathy especially as Marafa has portrayed the pathetic life style of some victims of that plane crash. He has promised to publish in the days ahead money that was squandered to put CRTV on the satellite.

If the regime is panicky it is because they do not know exactly how far Marafa can go with his letters and the effect such letters will have on public opinion. And while the regime is trembling to the point of transferring Marafa to SED where it is expected he will no longer be able to publish other letters, Marafa’s supporters are enjoying the game, as Marafa is putting a regime he serve to task. When will members of the regime stop playing the Ostrich?