Scandal of 3.2 million children in extreme poverty in Cameroon

Cameroon government has been urged to draw up an emergency plan to help poverty-stricken children.

Figures revealing that 3.2 million youngsters live in severe poverty.

 In some areas 1 in 3 were described as a < national scandal> by one of the leading agency, Save the Children.

The charity found that the Far North and the North and some areas in the West region have the highest proportion with over 65%. One of the researcher said that children are going to sleep at night in home in rural areas with no proper bedding, without eating a simple proper meal and without even having a proper school uniforms to put on.

No child should be born without a chance. Sos enfants in Cameroon approved the same conclusion and is trying to push the government to adopt new strategies to alleviate poverty amount children.

And after 28 years of Biya regime there are still million of children in some suburban area in Yaounde and Douala, where they have no access to clean water and even free food to eat and take home while authorities live in luxury and waste taxpayers monies buying 4x4 vehicles and enjoying life without taking action to relieve that extreme poverty.

It is clear that Biya regime has completely lost the ability to fight back against its critics, especially when it comes to fight against corruption and poverty.

The current social policy is scandalously flawed and in desperate need of radical reform. There is a very strong case for tearing up the whole social policy system to make it fairer, more efficient, simpler and to ensure children are the priority.

1 in 4 cameroonian doesn`t have enough to eat after 28 years of Biya`s rule

Paul Biya has decided to bring back alive an old policy idea in order to attract more and more voters for the next presidential election. He wants Cameroon to become an agricultural bounty for the Central African countries and for the whole Africa and even for the rest of the world.

Last week in Ebolowa, Southern capital city of Cameroon, in front of some happy farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs and most of them members of his political party,

he said that a food secure and prosperous Cameroon will not only provide new opportunities for its people, but for the rest of the region, the Central Africa region..He met with with selected farmers and their product.

He took his courage to look back over the past double decade. He saw what has worked for the farmers and his own agricultural policy and also the failure of that policy and what has not worked and has decided with his entire government to work on a plan of action for the coming 5 years. One thing is clear, the government budget bill has allocated more billion francs cfa to the ministry of defence rather than to the agricultural one...

For this year bill, CFA 2571 billion  adopted by the Parliament, the government has allocated  CFA 230.378 billion for the defense and policing and only CFA 71.424 billion  for the development of the agriculture.

That is less than 2.72% for the entire budget and and the army has 8.96% of the budget. The agriculture budget represent only 32% of the defense budget. This is a sign that in Cameroon, Biya is doing everything to keep grip on the power and hand more financial power to the army.

The good news is that he can still make the real change and bring back the agriculture in the heart of his political reforms and agenda.

The bad news is, that there is no money available for that at the moment and even for the next coming 5 years as he will have to find that money to inject in the agricultural sector and improve the quality of his own agricultural reforms.

As every ambitious politician, he said and recognised that there are tools to make things work in that sector, because he came to power under the agricultural reform and benefits but all that benefit has been used for other purpose other than the agricultural and farmers are still suffering for that policy failure of the government.

Biya forgot about the fast spread of new agricultural technologies by giving away machetes to young farmers and advising and encouraging them to go back to the farm while in the other world it is a modernism and fast growing technology,

 with mechanism and industrialization of the agriculture.  Farmers in Cameroon have the know- how and just lack of resources to tackle the real and big problem.

To accelerate progress in the agricultural sector, the government need to redirect, funding and subventions and even create a global strategy for the agriculture.

Now the global picture on numbers of those who are hungry in Cameroon it is unknown and statistically speaking, it could be around 1 in 4 people in Cameroon who don`t have enough to eat according to the latest United Nations Development Programme report on Cameroon, about population undernourished, and that number is on the rise and nothing in reality is being done to alleviate that..