YAOUNDE, CAMEROON, AFRICA. NOVEMBER 2010 (NEWS.CAMEROON-TODAY.COM)  -  Cameroonians no longer trust the move for graft crackdown suspecting hidden political agendas in the same.

The anti graft activities which had occupied the centre stage in the current affairs of Cameroon is slowly losing its prominence among the residents of the country as people feel that the government is using this just as a ploy to boost their individual selfish political agendas.

Civil society activists who are against the whole move state that this is just a prelude to the elections for the presidential post scheduled to happen next year.

Yaounde, Cameroon – The Political Capital City of Cameroon Africa

The support of the citizens towards the move and their belief in the whole thing is slowly reducing as more and more people choose to believe the activists who state that the whole thing is just a façade aimed at taking certain powerful politicians down from power.

However the government is still vehemently stating that the statements of the activists are just false allegations and boldly choose to hold on to the stand that Operation Epervier (Sparrowhawk) is a very important step and a landmark in Cameroon as the battle will culminate only on a day when graft will be totally taken out of the country which has been touted by most of its counterparts as well as other countries of the world as one of the most corrupt countries ever.

The movement is isolating various top politicians and sending them arrest warrants after proof is being collected against them to ascertain allegations of corruption that have been leveled against them. The operation has seen the Government issue arrest warrants to numerous retired government ministers, politicians, senior civil servants and managers of state owned enterprises.

But activists, lawyers and media alleges that the operation is directed specifically towards listed individuals and that the government is selecting individuals they want to take off power and targeting them specifically and attacking them on pretext of cleansing the system when the root causes of corruption are just being ignored.

“We have put people in jail, but we have done absolutely nothing within the system to stop the next guy from doing the exact same thing,” said Kah Walla, pioneer of Cameroon Obosso, a civil society which works out of Douala.

CAMEROON\’S NATIONAL ASSEMBLY BUILDING IN YAOUNDE, CAMEROON

Walla said the anti graft move has not been able to prevent the excessive corruption that is prevalent all across the country because the local population assumes that it is connected to political turmoil inside the party of President Paul Biya, who has been ruling the country since the past28 years.

“It has not escaped our minds that the people who were put in jail are primarily those who were suspected of setting themselves up as successors to Paul Biya,” said Walla, who plans to run for president.

LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

Out of the 178 nations that came under the purview of Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index in 2010,Cameroon was ranked at 146 better than what has happened in 1998 and 1999 when it was at the number one position both years. Some officials are of the opinion that the latest moves from the government to manage corruption, including Sparrowhawk, have been working to this effect.

“Cameroonians complained about corruption and said nothing was being done about it; now people are being arrested, tried and sentenced and they say it is politically motivated. What do they want at the end of the day,” said a senior ministry of justice official who did not want to be named.

Some of the government’s bilateral partners also have indicated their acceptance towards the crucial move that is directed towards making the country free of corruption and state that the graft has given a huge boost and impetus to the country’s measures to get more investment into its businesses and the effects both positive and negative of the campaign will not last forever..