Centralized Power, Broken Systems: Why Cameroon’s Governance Crisis Persists — and the Ambazonian Question

Cameroon’s crisis is therefore not simply political—it is structural. Without procurement transparency, independent oversight institutions, and genuine decentralization of decision-making, governance failures will persist regardless of who occupies key offices.

By Mankah Rosa Parks, The Independentistnews

As Cameroon continues to struggle under economic hardship, rising public frustration, and declining institutional credibility, debates about responsibility frequently focus on individuals within the presidency. Yet the deeper problem lies not in personalities alone, but in a governance structure that concentrates excessive authority at the center of power and undermines institutional accountability.

A clear illustration is the management of public contracts. The Ministry of Public Contracts, instead of functioning as an independent regulatory authority, is attached directly to the Presidency of the Republic, with its minister serving as a delegate under presidential control. In theory, this arrangement promises efficiency and coordination but In practice, it has produced the opposite.

When procurement authority is centralized at the presidency, transparency weakens. Competitive bidding procedures become vulnerable to political influence. Exceptional procedures such as private treaty contracts (gré à gré) become normalized rather than exceptional. Oversight mechanisms lose effectiveness when the same authority controls both approval and supervision.

The consequences are visible. Public projects become more expensive and slower to deliver. Infrastructure quality declines. State finances suffer. Public trust erodes. Economic opportunities shrink while perceptions of favoritism and elite patronage deepen.

The debate surrounding powerful figures within the presidency must therefore be understood within this broader institutional reality. Whether or not individual officials are responsible for specific decisions, the system itself enables concentration of power without sufficient checks and balances. In such an environment, governance becomes driven less by rules and procedures than by networks of proximity to power.

This is why repeated corruption scandals, procurement controversies, and governance failures continue to surface regardless of personnel changes. The machinery remains intact.

The Ambazonian Perspective

From the Ambazonian standpoint, this governance crisis is not new but structural and historical. Many Southern Cameroonians argue that the current dysfunction reflects decades of centralized governance imposed after the dissolution of the federal arrangement that once guaranteed regional autonomy.

Supporters of the Ambazonian cause contend that the erosion of federalism, coupled with excessive concentration of power in Yaoundé, dismantled safeguards that once allowed local institutions to manage their own economic and administrative affairs. The present procurement controversies and governance failures are therefore seen as symptoms of a long-standing system that marginalized regional voices while consolidating authority at the center.

Within this context, Ambazonian leadership figures such as Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako and others frame the conflict not merely as a political dispute but as a struggle over governance models: centralized control versus self-administration and institutional autonomy. Their argument is that meaningful reform has repeatedly been promised but rarely implemented, leaving separation or restoration of autonomy, in their view, as the only viable path to accountability and development.

Critics, however, argue that fragmentation risks deepening economic hardship and regional instability. Yet what remains undeniable is that the governance crisis in Cameroon has fed the sense of alienation felt by many in the Anglophone regions and strengthened calls for alternative political arrangements.

A Structural Crisis, Not a Temporary One

Cameroon’s crisis is therefore not simply political—it is structural. Without procurement transparency, independent oversight institutions, and genuine decentralization of decision-making, governance failures will persist regardless of who occupies key offices.

The urgent question facing the country is no longer about personalities at the palace. It is whether Cameroon can finally build institutions that serve the nation rather than networks of power—and whether meaningful decentralization or new political arrangements can address long-standing grievances.

Until that question is answered, economic decline, public frustration, and political instability will remain recurring features of national life. And citizens—across all regions—will continue paying the price.

Mankah Rosa Parks,