The elimination of Cameroon from Africa Cup of Nations on Monday was more than a lesson in football – the lack of strategy and foresight always leads to dismal performance. Cameroon went into the game without any real idea about how they hoped to perform well. Coach Paul Le Guen opted for a four-day training session. For a team full of so many new and young players, hoping to put on a good show with that kind of preparation was being overly ambitious. The results have been catastrophic. Cameroon scraped through the group stages in which they suffered at the hands of small Gabon and expectedly lost 3-1 to Egypt. The play style was hollow and the Lions were at the origin of nearly all goals against them. The old and new alike failed.
Next year, Cameroon will hold a presidential election. We fear that we are also going into that election, with no real idea about how to make it credible and acceptable to all parties. It is only now that ELECAM is really taking over the electoral process from ENAM. A full year has been spent getting the organ off the ground. By the close of this year, electoral registration is expected to begin. It is going to be a tough process. The roll is in such bad shape that it would make sense for ELECAM to simply keep aside and start off on a clean slate. But at the moment, there appears to be no real urgency to get Cameroonians out and interested in national politics. The current lack of trust in ELECAM, correctly or falsely, makes confidence-building, the most important task ahead of ELECAM – even before registration.
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