Ayah Paul, the Cameroun Supreme Court Advocate has weighed into the unfortunate Eseka incident. As Cameroonians debate and trying to figure out where to lay the blame, Justice Ayah Paul has reiterated that the Transport Minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o even if he gave instructions for the railway to increase wagons, the ultimate decision rest with the railway authorities. Below Ayah wrote:

“…Some “intellectual” recently referred to some of us as persons who attended bad schools. Peu import! What is of essence is that even those of us who attended bad schools do at times wonder how informed and intellectually alert those who went to good schools are. Truly curious!

Just imagine how people brashly react to a situation! The Yaounde-Douala road gets cut. Panic-stricken, the minister of transport recommends to the railway authorities to take steps to augment rail traffic to compensate somehow for a complete halt of road traffic. Unfortunately, things go wrong: immaterial whether naturally or otherwise. Instead of finding out or reflecting on probabilities, Camerounesenians diligently draw categorical conclusions – the minister of transport must take responsibility!

Those very Camerounesenians as I know them would have roundly condemned the minister if he had remained indifferent. They would have recited inertia a million-fold. Diligent as they say they are, they would even have transformed inertia into “initia”. So lightly indeed do they apportion blame: erratically, irrationally!

Now that the minister did recommend increase in traffic, he has lightly been convicted without a hearing – without finding out the content of the recommendation; without striking any distinction between the relevant and the irrelevant; the related causes and the remote.

And that appears to reflect the Camerounesenian sense of justice. We do mix up everything in any situation. As someone has succinctly put it, (and I paraphrase), we listen to judge and hardly to understand. This contradicts the old age principle of equitable justice that it is better to acquit 99 criminals than to convict one innocent person.

The thinking of those of us who went to bad schools is that, even if the minister of transport “instructed” that there should be an increase in the number of wagons, the ultimate duty rested with the railway authorities to delimit the safety range from their technical know-how. They were additionally burdened with the necessity to caution the driver to strictly observe speed limits, given the additional weight and length of the train. It would appear conclusive that it is good judgment to exculpate the minister if the railway authorities overloaded the train as images seem to show on the pretext that the minister had given instructions to augment traffic.
Camerounesenians may wish to endeavour to always situate things in their true perspectives so as to avoid wanton character assassinations, blanket targeting and the reckless swimming with the current. Such smooth sail is unwise! Unforeseeable cataracts can be fatal, you know!….” Ayah Paul Abine concluded

What do you think?