Anglophone Problem: Dr Christopher Fomunyoh says Biya’s government does not listen ¹

Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh, Africa Regional Director of the National Democratic Institute, the US-based Think Tank has said that it is difficult under the current Biya pattern of governance to know who to make concrete proposals on how to resolve the Anglophone problem.

Christopher Fomunyoh added that the situation is becoming more intractable because hardliners in the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime keep refusing the existence of the problem. The renowned Anglophone personality also noted that President Biya cannot implement any acceptable solution to the prevailing situation in British Southern Cameroons.

He told Le Jour newspaper that “some speak of federalism as a solution, but there is no assurance that if adopted, federalism would not remain a dead letter, as the current regime has done with the decentralization adopted in 1996.”  Dr. Fomunyoh hinted that for 20 years, the constitutional provisions to decentralization have not been applied.  “It must be recognized that those who have governed our country for decades have mastered only one approach of Jacobin centralization of power “.

On the management of these social tensions by the CPDM government, Christopher Fomunyoh stated: “As I said last week in Kumba in the South West region, no Head of State or political leader chooses the crises that arise during his mandate, but it is on the management of these different crises that they are judged. I welcome the fact that Prime Minister Philemon Yang traveled to Bamenda to meet lawyers ‘and teachers’ leaders, and that the Governor of the North-West Region increased his citizen contacts at the height of the crisis to calm the spirits heated by the brutality of certain elements of the forces of order and by the false and untimely statements of certain policians. That said, you will recall that in a statement of 23rd November I asked that President Paul Biya address the nation to appease and reassure everyone. I remain convinced that such an approach initiated from the beginning would have allowed better management of the crisis “.

By Chi Prudence Asong