I want to tell you of the overflowing joy that is in my heart. Because God wanted me to keep a promise I made that I would come back here with the first vice-president of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), Mr. Mamadou Yacouba Mota. So I brought it back to you; He’s there. I would have liked this ceremony to take place sooner, but despite our best efforts he was still kept in prison for 20 months.
We were able to save four months thanks to the hard work of the lawyers. He was to spend 24 months; thanks to this work and the blessing of heaven he finally spent 20 months. But these 20 months are too many, because they are 20 months of injustice. We do not deprive a father of his family unfairly for 20 months; you don’t deprive a worker, I don’t want to praise his diplomas here; he is an agricultural engineer who was responsible for various projects in the region. And that is why we are standing and we will continue to fight until justice reigns in our country. They will fly; they stole the last election, they asked for the proofs, we produced them at the constitutional council, but that was not enough.
And as he said (Mota, Editor’s note), if we have to go back to prison – it’s been 20 months, I had done 9 before – so that your will is respected, so that you can choose the leaders you want for your country then we will go back to jail. It is not a possibility, it is not an option among others, it is the only option that there is today to build a just, prosperous Cameroon; with a prosperity shared by all. The project that the MRC has for young people is to empower them tomorrow to be able to earn an honest living. And that every Cameroonian, whether he went to school or not, learn a trade.
We cannot condemn a whole youth to having the benskin for only horizon. Many young people today cannot think of getting married because they do not have the means; they cannot build a life. The meaning of our struggle is that justice prevails, that we give every young Cameroonian a chance. Mamadou Mota has paid a heavy price in his flesh, his head has been pierced, his arm and his ribs have been broken, but he is standing there in front of you, he has not cried. He is a solid man of conviction.