Cameroon Should Bar EU Citizens From Entering Its Territory, Opposition Politician Advises Government

Following the decision by the European Union (EU) to close its borders against nationals of all African countries as from Wednesday except Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Rwanda, to avoid a new spiral of the coronavirus in Europe, the First National Vice-President of Cameroon’s leading opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), has called on the Cameroonian government to also bar Europeans from entering Cameroon.

“As a parliamentarian of the nation, I call on the president of the Republic to face up to his responsibilities by taking action or causing action to be taken according to the sacrosanct diplomatic principle of reciprocity vis-à-vis the Shengen countries,” Hon. Joshua Osih, Member of Parliament and the SDF candidate in the 2018 presidential election, declared on Monday, June 29, 2020.

“We cannot be victims of a virus from Shengen countries yet pay the price. More serious is the fact that these countries arrogate to themselves the role of lesson givers whereas they should have humbly placed themselves in synergy with our different local actors to best manage the COVID-19 in order to save lives within the Shengen countries and Cameroon. This is unacceptable,” he declared.

Osih, whose mother is Swiss, however, conceded that it was the absolute right of the EU countries to isolate or discriminate against nationals of other countries from entering their territories even if they were holders of valid visas.

However, if past reactions by African countries to discriminatory and slave treatment are anything to go by, the Cameroon government would surely do nothing to redress the EU’s rather abusive decision.

“Hon. Osih himself knows that his call is just like throwing water on a duck’s back. It will just fall on deaf ears and life would continue as if nothing happened, though the EU decision will have very negative effects on especially Cameroonian business people whose businesses would be adversely affected,” a distraught business operator in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala, told HumAngle on Monday evening.

“Africa holds the ace in the future of business but African leaders, most of whom were helped by European nations to rig their way into power, seem not ready to detach themselves from the yoke of colonialism and European imperialism.

“It is time now for African leaders to assert the preponderance of African nationalism in the conduct of international affairs.

“We have the natural resources, without which European industries cannot operate. Why don’t we use this edge to impose our interests on Europe and the world?

“Why must we always act and be taken for the underdogs?” asked Eric Kombey, a sociologist at the Yaounde Central Hospital.