The Rational Way to Genuine Emergence

From every indication, Cameroon is already in the final lap of its bid to attain emergence. This is the interpretation one can make from President Paul Biya's end-of-year's address to the nation, 31 December, 2018 . How better can one understand this? "In the face of adversity, we designed a three-phase development strategy: greater achievements, major accomplishments and great opportunities. We hope that this last phase will steer us to the threshold of emergence", he said. We are talking here about the last phase; in fact, a decisive phase for Cameroon to reach the doorsteps of an emerging country or what experts refer to as emerging economy. Even though the whole issue is no longer understanding what an emerging economy is, the Head of State in order to buttress his point came back on the definition of what he sees as emergence. "Generally, the term refers to an improvement in a situation. As commonly understood, it means the transition from an underdeveloped to a developed country. This is our meaning of the term and that is why I instructed that it should be considered as a “national cause”. In the same vein, experts talk of emerging economies when referring to nations in the process of rapid growth and development with lower per capita incomes and less mature capital markets than developed countries.

All that it takes to attain emergence seem to have conceptually been put in place within the framework of programmes and projects. If stakeholders involved in the implementation of these concepts are true to themselves, they must accept that the whole blockage has been their inability to translate these lofty ideas on the ground. That, in effect, is where the shoe pinches; and President Biya has pointed at this on several occasions. We are talking here of inertia, corruption, abandoned projects, poorly executed projects and many other vices. All these, in addition to "unforeseen difficulties"  have pulled back the strings of development as we move toward the final lap. This is why the Head of State describes it as "decisive." The question then is, what extra thing do we need to do to overcome the hurdles of this final lap. This is not a question to be taken lightly. According to President Biya, there are three major tasks awaiting all those involved in the whole process; "restore security, enhance  economic growth and significantly improve the living conditions of Cameroonians." Surely, the list is far from being exhaustive but can cover a greater part of the challenge.

How then will this happen should naturally be the question on every lip and not whether or not this will succeed. President ...