“A country is ultimately shaped by the values, choices, habits, and actions of its citizens. That is why nation building cannot be left to governments alone.”
By Collins Ncho
Cameroon stands at an important moment in its history.
Our country is blessed with natural resources, fertile land, a young population, and enormous human potential. Yet the distance between Cameroon’s potential and the daily reality of many citizens remains significant. Economic opportunity is uneven, public services remain inadequate in many communities, poverty reduction has stagnated, and insecurity and conflict continue to affect families and communities. The World Bank notes that Cameroon’s average economic growth between 2021 and 2024 was 3.4%, well below the 6.6% target established under the National Development Strategy.
These realities understandably lead citizens to look toward government for solutions. And government does have an essential responsibility. But government is only one part of a nation. A country is ultimately shaped by the values, choices, habits, and actions of its citizens. That is why nation building cannot be left to governments alone.
Beyond the Government-Centered Mindset
For too long, we have often approached national development as something government must do for citizens.
We wait for government to build roads, create jobs, clean the neighborhood, improve schools, fix hospitals, punish corruption, or solve every community problem. When these fail to happen, we conclude that nothing can change. Nation building requires a different mindset. A government can build a school, but citizens must protect it. Government can construct a road, but citizens must respect and maintain public infrastructure. Government can establish laws against corruption, but citizens must refuse to normalize bribery. Government can create economic policies, but citizens must develop the skills, businesses, farms, technologies, and enterprises that turn opportunity into economic value. The question, therefore, is not only: “What is government doing for us?” We must also ask: “What are we doing for Cameroon?”
The Ordinary Citizen Is Not Powerless
Nation building is often associated with presidents, ministers, parliamentarians, mayors, and business leaders. But strong societies are built through millions of ordinary decisions. The teacher who refuses to sell examination results is building the nation. The civil servant who serves without demanding a bribe is building the nation. The farmer who increases productivity builds the nation. The entrepreneur who creates jobs builds the nation. The professional who does excellent work even when nobody is watching is building the nation. The parent who teaches honesty, discipline, responsibility, and respect is building the nation. The young person who learns a skill, starts a business, develops an idea, or creates an opportunity rather than waiting indefinitely for government employment is building the nation. The citizen who respects traffic laws, protects public property, pays legitimate taxes, keeps the community clean, and refuses to spread misinformation is building the nation. These actions may never make the news. Yet collectively, they determine the character and capacity of a country.
Citizenship Is More Than Voting
Elections are important, but citizenship cannot begin and end at the ballot box. Citizens must participate in public life between elections, asking questions, demanding transparency, monitoring public projects, supporting community initiatives, and contributing constructively to national debate. We must learn to disagree without becoming enemies. We must be able to criticize government without hating our country and support political leaders without treating them as infallible. Political parties have legitimate roles in democratic society. But Cameroon must always be greater than any political party, individual politician, region, language, or generation. Our national identity cannot depend entirely on who is in power. A mature citizenry should be capable of holding any government accountable while remaining committed to the nation itself.
Accountability Must Begin With Us
We cannot demand accountability from leaders while refusing to practice it ourselves. We cannot condemn corruption in government while tolerating dishonesty in our businesses. We cannot demand respect for the law while looking for ways around it. We cannot complain about poor public services while vandalizing public property. The transformation Cameroon needs therefore requires more than new laws. It requires a change in social expectations.
What a society consistently tolerates eventually becomes part of its culture. If citizens reject bribery, dishonesty, favoritism, and abuse of public resources, institutions will become stronger. If these practices are normalized, even good laws will struggle to transform society. But accountability must work in both directions. Citizens must be responsible. Government must be accountable. Cameroon’s own National Development Strategy recognizes that governance, the rule of law, public-service quality, economic governance, decentralization, and citizen participation are fundamental to national transformation. This means responsible citizenship should never become an excuse for poor governance. Rather, responsible citizens should create a social foundation for responsible government.
This responsibility is particularly important for Cameroon’s younger generation. Young people are not merely the future of Cameroon. They are already Cameroon. They are workers, entrepreneurs, students, professionals, parents, voters, innovators, and community leaders. Their economic challenges are real. But the answer cannot simply be to wait for government to provide jobs. Young Cameroonians must become producers, entrepreneurs, professionals, farmers, engineers, teachers, researchers, technologists, and community builders. Social media provides an extraordinary platform. It can become a tool for misinformation and endless political arguments, or a platform for education, entrepreneurship, innovation, organization, and constructive civic engagement. We should not raise a generation that knows only how to complain about problems. We should raise one that knows how to solve them.
Nation building begins much closer to home than many of us imagine. It begins in the family. A child learns honesty before becoming a civil servant. A child learns responsibility before becoming a politician. A child learns respect before becoming a business leader. If we want honest leaders, we must raise honest children. If we want accountable institutions, we must teach accountability. If we want national unity, we must teach young people to respect people from other regions, communities, cultures, and backgrounds. Nation building is therefore not merely an economic or political project. It is a moral and cultural project.
The Cameroon we want cannot simply be announced in a government document. It must be built in our homes, schools, farms, businesses, offices, neighborhoods, and communities. It is built by the parent who chooses integrity, the student who chooses learning over shortcuts, the entrepreneur who creates opportunity, the public official who chooses service over personal gain, and the citizen who chooses dialogue over hatred.
Cameroon needs better institutions, effective leadership, stronger accountability, improved infrastructure, better public services, economic opportunity, and lasting peace. But institutions are operated by people. Cameroon’s transformation cannot wait for a perfect government. It must begin with the citizens we choose to be today. Still, this responsibility must not be misunderstood: citizens cannot build lasting prosperity around ineffective institutions. At some point, the quality of government becomes decisive.
That is the conversation we must have next—The Next Generation Challenge. Stop waiting to become the Cameroon we want to see. Start building it. Government has a role. Political leaders have a role. Institutions have a role. The private sector, diaspora, traditional and religious leaders all have roles. But so does the ordinary citizen. Nation building is not somebody else’s responsibility. It is ours. Because when citizens change, communities change. When communities change, institutions change. And when institutions change, nations change. But the relationship does not stop there. Responsible citizens need responsible government.
The next article on the column will therefore ask a difficult but necessary question: What kind of government does Cameroon need to turn the responsibility of its citizens into national progress? Because the Cameroon of tomorrow will not be built by citizens alone, or by government alone. It will be built when responsible citizens and responsible government finally recognize that they need each other.
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Collins Ncho currently resides in Houston, TX. A husband and a father of three children. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in nonprofit management from the University of Houston. Collins has over a decade of combined experience in SEC auditing, financial management, and philanthropic initiatives in Cameroon. He is the founder and president of NEXTGEN Institute of Texas & Cameroon, which focuses on civic consciousness, leadership, and community development. He is also involved in several business and social-impact initiatives in Cameroon.
