With a flurry of elections hitting Africa this year, Cameroon is one of the many countries where things could get lively, may be too lively.
From the new Failed States Index, three African states -- Somalia, Chad, and Sudan -- once again top this year's Failed States Index, the annual ranking prepared by the Fund for Peace and published by FOREIGN POLICY of the world's most vulnerable countries.
Cameroon from that report scored 94.6 compare to last year and occupied the 24 rank from 26th. That means that the country is doing less effort to improve democracy and accountability and the country is listed on the danger zone.
But there are young political leaders and activists who think that, there is another way of bringing the change to all this. Jean Blaise Gwet former CEO and businessman now running for the presidency. Talking on the phone he said that he will renegotiate all the previous cooperation agreement that the government has signed with former imperialists.
Jean Blaise said that there is a fundamental need of change and also of reviewing all the agreements that the country signed long time ago with foreign donors so that the country could be able to benefit from this and no to continue to act as a beggar and not a donors as well.
Gwet believes that the country has the potential to change and to improve governance and also move into the world market with new faces and real motivation rather than to stay stuck or stagnant. He also call those who are in exile to come back and join to fight for a real change and help the country to become the real " Indomitable Lions" on economic and growth in Africa.
The new edition of the index draws on some 130,000 publicly available sources to analyze 177 countries and rate them on 12 indicators of pressure on the state during the year 2010 -- from refugee flows to poverty, public services to security threats.
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Taken together, a country's performance on this battery of indicators tells us how stable -- or unstable -- it is.
And the latest results show how much the 2008 economic crisis and its ripple effects everywhere, from collapsing trade to soaring food prices to stagnant investment, are still haunting the world.
Kenya moved out of the top 15, showing that the country continues to recover from its bloody post-election ethnic warfare of recent years. Liberia and East Timor, wards of the United Nations, largely stayed out of trouble.
But Haiti, already a portrait of misery, moved up six places on the index, battered and struggling to cope with the aftermath of January 2010's tragic earthquake, which left more than 300,000 dead. Another former French colony, Ivory Coast, rejoined the top 10, grimly foreshadowing its devastating post-election crisis this year, while fragile Niger leap four spots amid a devastating famine.
It's the year of the African election, with 27 countries scheduled to hold presidential, legislative, or local polls throughout 2011. And as much as elections can contribute to democratic progress, in the immediate term they can often be a flash point for conflict.
Recent examples abound: The Ivory Coast was thrown into a four-month crisis when its outgoing president, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to accept the victory of his opponent, President Alassane Ouattara. Uganda's incumbent President Yoweri Museveni won reelection in February, but the opposition has cried foul and his inauguration was marred by violent protests.
In regional giant Nigeria, post-election violence killed as many as 800 people. Sudan's closely watched referendum in January on an independent southern state was surprisingly free of bloodshed, but the country continues to hover on the brink of new violence.
Cameroon is on a critical constant watch by US, France, UK, China, Canada, Japan. UAE and many more countries...and there is a huge accumulated frustration among many section of the Cameroonian public over the slow pace of reform since the last election in 2004. There has been particular anger over the perceived lack of accountability for the old regime.
From the new Failed States Index, three African states -- Somalia, Chad, and Sudan -- once again top this year's Failed States Index, the annual ranking prepared by the Fund for Peace and published by FOREIGN POLICY of the world's most vulnerable countries.
Cameroon from that report scored 94.6 compare to last year and occupied the 24 rank from 26th. That means that the country is doing less effort to improve democracy and accountability and the country is listed on the danger zone.
But there are young political leaders and activists who think that, there is another way of bringing the change to all this. Jean Blaise Gwet former CEO and businessman now running for the presidency. Talking on the phone he said that he will renegotiate all the previous cooperation agreement that the government has signed with former imperialists.
Jean Blaise said that there is a fundamental need of change and also of reviewing all the agreements that the country signed long time ago with foreign donors so that the country could be able to benefit from this and no to continue to act as a beggar and not a donors as well.
Gwet believes that the country has the potential to change and to improve governance and also move into the world market with new faces and real motivation rather than to stay stuck or stagnant. He also call those who are in exile to come back and join to fight for a real change and help the country to become the real " Indomitable Lions" on economic and growth in Africa.
The new edition of the index draws on some 130,000 publicly available sources to analyze 177 countries and rate them on 12 indicators of pressure on the state during the year 2010 -- from refugee flows to poverty, public services to security threats.
And the latest results show how much the 2008 economic crisis and its ripple effects everywhere, from collapsing trade to soaring food prices to stagnant investment, are still haunting the world.
Kenya moved out of the top 15, showing that the country continues to recover from its bloody post-election ethnic warfare of recent years. Liberia and East Timor, wards of the United Nations, largely stayed out of trouble.
But Haiti, already a portrait of misery, moved up six places on the index, battered and struggling to cope with the aftermath of January 2010's tragic earthquake, which left more than 300,000 dead. Another former French colony, Ivory Coast, rejoined the top 10, grimly foreshadowing its devastating post-election crisis this year, while fragile Niger leap four spots amid a devastating famine.
It's the year of the African election, with 27 countries scheduled to hold presidential, legislative, or local polls throughout 2011. And as much as elections can contribute to democratic progress, in the immediate term they can often be a flash point for conflict.
Recent examples abound: The Ivory Coast was thrown into a four-month crisis when its outgoing president, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to accept the victory of his opponent, President Alassane Ouattara. Uganda's incumbent President Yoweri Museveni won reelection in February, but the opposition has cried foul and his inauguration was marred by violent protests.
In regional giant Nigeria, post-election violence killed as many as 800 people. Sudan's closely watched referendum in January on an independent southern state was surprisingly free of bloodshed, but the country continues to hover on the brink of new violence.
Cameroon is on a critical constant watch by US, France, UK, China, Canada, Japan. UAE and many more countries...and there is a huge accumulated frustration among many section of the Cameroonian public over the slow pace of reform since the last election in 2004. There has been particular anger over the perceived lack of accountability for the old regime.
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