If you ask me if I want the Nations’ cup to be played in Cameroon next year, I’ll give you a straight no. If you ask me why, the first thing I will do will be to take you to my window and point at the dirt road running past it and then further down the road, at the teeming rubbish heap that has been growing bigger and bigger over the last weeks.
The truth is, that is not the main reason. It is just a microcosm, a hand-held mirror reflection if you will, of the numerous issues that make up the reason why I don’t want the Nations’ Cup. You, if you have an open and unbiased mind, know for a fact that we will not be ready. Stadiums alone do not make up the necessary infrastructure. There are hotels, roads, sanitation facilities, peace and stability etc, and just the good old ‘will to work’.
If President Ahmad had not spurred our hides with the stinging words when he said that we would not be ready in time, that good old will to work would have been unbothered and would have continued sleeping in the ministries.
I didn’t always think this way. Back in 2014, when it was announced that we would be hosting, I was happy. But over the course of time I have walked back on my euphoria and now, even if by some miracle we host the tournament, I would sit back home and do a satyagraha.
The truth is, Cameroon shot itself in the leg when it decided to host the new format of the Nations’ cup, going from 16 to 24 teams. This was not the original agreement. FECAFOOT and the ministry could have taken the matter up to the sports tribunal and everything would have been resolved quickly. At least I think so. But they did not. They forged on; for two reasons. The first of which is ego.
The problem with the Nations’ Cup today is that it has become a problem of ego. There is a stark denial on the part of the government that we would be ready even though signals are clearly pointing to the opposite. It has become an issue of « Nous sommes 5 fois Champions d’Afrique/ Ahmad veut destabiliser le Cameroun / Ahmad en veut à Issa Hayatou” etcetera etcetera. Each one of these arguments as stupid as the next.
It became a matter of proving the CAF president wrong and upholding that stupid expression of “Impossible n’est pas Camerounais” which is the source of most of our failures in many domains. A frenetic race against the clock started a few months ago and will likely fail.
The powers that be and a number of citizens who drink their kool-aid do not want to recognise their own inertia and incompetence as the main reason why today we stand a high risk of losing the hosting rights. They even, from what I hear, turned down the opportunity of hosting it in 2019.
The second reason is where the title of this article lies. If you are familiar with the works of Shakespeare and “The Tempest” in particular, you may have come across it. Today it is largely used in the world of politics and speaks to how far and whom politicians will ‘get in bed’ with to have votes or accomplish some other political chess move.
The Nations’ Cup has simply become a political tool wielded by the incumbent president, not only to get votes (by including that in his lists of pseudo-achievements) but also as a means by his army of minions to play the tune of sycophancy that we are so used to seeing and hearing.
I don’t know how many of you remember the posters that went up before the Female AFCON where the incumbent president was used as the backdrop of the images that went up on billboards promoting the tournament. How many remember that heaven-alone-knows-why military parade we had on the day of the finals?
Or how many remember just months ago during the first infamous visit by CAF inspectors, after president Ahmad had said we would not be ready for the event, the posters that went up with the incumbent holding a cup and the copy on the billboard saying he was the “recordman des CANs?”
This is not new. It is an old trick and has been in the dictator playbook for centuries. Think of ancient Rome and the gladiators or even more recently Adolf Hitler and the Munich Olympics. We may or not add Putin to that list depending on your views of the man. These events and tournaments are not just sports event, but a means to celebrate the glory of the image of whoever is ‘leading’ the people. It is a distraction technique used by bad rulers to distract people from real issues.
And what are some of the real issues for us?: That we are building a 60,000 seat stadium in Olembe at 163 Billion FCFA while a similar capacity Stadium (Ebimbe) in Cote D’Ivoire cost 60 Billion FCFA / That we are spending so much money for a tournament that will last one month when we don’t have running water in most houses / That our generation will pay the money borrowed from China for this / That huge maintenance costs will ensue.
I’m sure you can add more to that list.
I’ve always thought tournament hosting rights should come with a good governance clause. A nation’s admissibility to host a tournament should be tied to how well it treats its citizens, its human rights records, freedom of the press etc. Again you can add to that list. Just that alone will curb many countries in this Africa from hosting.
Football remains the most popular sports in Cameroon. Unfortunately, a lot of people have tied their national pride to it. I have too. It’s one of those things I can use when boasting about my country. Unfortunately, many ‘uneducated’ people today have taken that pride too far and have tied the incumbent’s image to that tournament and they think if he goes, so will the tournament. They don’t know that football itself neither (really) develops a country nor does it put food on their table. That is the sad world we live in.
The regime knows this and as they sink lower and lower into the quagmire of their own failures they will grasp and any straw; force of experience, des enemis tapient dans l’ombre and of course the AFCON. The two walk hand in hand today and they wield that political axe whenever they can.
Shakespeare was right; “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
Don't go to sleep, people. Elections are two days away. Make your vote count.
- Wandji Wilfred