From: wsargeant@IGC.ORG (Winslow L. Sargeant)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS:Cameroon, prime minister appointed
Date: 12 Apr 92 21:38:15 GMT

/* Written  1:58 pm  Apr 12, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "CAMEROON: PRIME MINISTER APPOINTED" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: CAMEROON: PRIME MINISTER APPOINTED


yaounde, apr 9 (ips) -- after one month of waiting, cameroon at
last has a prime minister. he is simon achidi achu (63), a
former minister of justice in the government of former president
ahmadou ahidjo.

achidi achu takes over from sadou hayatou who has held the
office for one year and whom president paul biya accused of
siding with the leader of the opposition national union for
democracy and progress (undp), bello bouba maigari.

his appointment, in a presidential decree announced thursday,
comes more than a month after the mar. 1 legislative elections.

achidi achu is the first person from the minority english-
speaking cameroonians to hold the post since the country
became a united republic in 1972 and the post of prime minister
restored in 1975.

his appointment has not surprised many cameroonians, analysts
said thursday.

like his fellow members of parliament in the ruling cameroon
people's democratic movement (cpdm) from the north-west
province, he was returned to parliament by forfeiture due to the
high rate of voter abstention there. voter turn-out was hardly
above 15 percent.

given cameroon's delicate regional balance, most cameroonians
were convinced the new prime minister would come from the
north-west, especially after djibril cavaye (a french-skeaking
cameroonian) was elected speaker of the national assembly -- a
post traditionally held by an english-speaking cameroonian, the
analysts say.

however, the north-west was tipped over the other
english-speaking province of the south-west because it was the
only other province after president paul biya's hometown
province of the south that gave the cpdm a 100-percent vote in
the parliamentary elections.

since leaving government in 1972, achidi achu retired to his
village of santa, 22 kms from the north-west provincial capital
bamenda.

he has since taken up agriculture and is currently president
of the north-west cooperative association (nwca), a coffee
farmers marketing cooperative.

but he has also remained active in politics. he was for eight
years section president of the ruling party in his mezam
constituency. (more/ips)


cameroon: prime (2)

going by public opinion, his appointment may not much
influence the political situation in the country, analysts said.

the prime minister is an old hand and staunch supporter of
the biya and the cpdm regime which is held responsible for
cameroon's economic and socio-political problems.

under the present constitution, the prime minister does not
enjoy any real powers. it is the president who decides policy
and the prime minister executes it.

his fellow english-speaking cameroonians see the new prime
minister as a ''traitor''. in a recent interview with a
cameroonian newspaper, achidi achu spoke strongly against
federation.

the ''cameroon anglophone movement'' (cam), which enjoys
nationwide support from english-speaking cameroonians, thinks it
is only a return to the federal system that can save them from
their marginalisation by biya's government.

the federal system (which lasted until 1972) was the basis of
reunification of french and english speaking cameroon.

cameroon's opposition has always complained that biya is
surrounded by a large lobby of ''fellow tribesmen'', the
essingan clan, who have over the years gained privileges and
want to maintain them at all costs.

former presidential assistants outside the clan have often
said the clan has made it impossible for them to meet and
discuss national issues with the president.

infact, in a first interview ever granted to a private
national newspaper, the french language weekly ' challenge
herbo' last week, biya said it would be ''undemocratic for an
english-speaking cameroonian to be president''.

will achidi achu make a difference, the people ask.

many people here were agreed that it would be a ''poisoned
gift'' to whoever was going to hold the post. he has to ensure
a real transition from a one-party ''dictatorship'' to plural
democracy, which the opposition parties are demanding through a
national conference. (end/ips/tm/apc/ar/92)