In a bid to defuse tension in the country and ensure that schools effectively resume on Monday, September 4, 2017, in the country’s Anglophone region, Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, on Wednesday, August 30, 2017, ordered that legal proceedings against those arrested within the context of the Anglophone crisis be discontinued, thereby paving the way for their release. In a typical Biya approach, the decision was crafted to make the 85-year old ruler to appear as a magnanimous leader who has his country’s best interest at heart.

As Anglophone leaders and activists continue to analyze the release decree signed by the secretary-general of the country’s presidency, many regime surrogates and praise-singers are working very hard to portray the senile leader as an astute politician whose love for his fatherland is second to none. Many of these surrogates and spin doctors argue that with the release of those wrongfully arrested in the country’s English-speaking region, students in the region will therefore have an opportunity to return to school. The issue of school resumption has been a millstone around the government’s neck for a very long time and it is expected to enable the country’s leaders, especially the ministers in charge of education (Cameroon has several ministers of education), to have a good night’s sleep after more than nine months of political chaos. The decision comes after several futile attempts by the government to find probable cause to deliver long jail sentences to Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho Balla, Dr. Fontem Neba, Lord Justice Paul Ayah Abine and Mr. Mancho Bibixy whose release is still pending due to the court’s outdated processes that were never designed to serve the country’s citizens.

Despite the government’s heavy deployment of troops across the Anglophone region to provide much-needed security to students, parents who had also joined the strike last year, have not been courageous enough to let their children to return to school, as members of cloak-and-dagger organisations have been threatening to burn down schools that dare to open their doors during this moment considered as the appropriate time to right the wrongs of the past. And they have actually delivered on their promise on many occasions. Many schools have had to face their wrath and their hit-and-run tactics have remained a puzzle to the ill-equipped and poorly paid Cameroon Defense Forces.

It should be recalled that schools and courts in Anglophone Cameroon have not been operating for ten months following a strike by Anglophone lawyers and teachers, calling for better working conditions, quality education for children of English expression, withdrawal of Francophone judges and magistrates from jurisdictions wherein common law is practised, among others. But it was the government’s ferocious and Kafkaesque brutality that ensued that made a bad situation worse. Students and members of other socio-professional groups promptly joined the strike as a protest against what they considered to be an oppressive move against the Anglophone minority and this unfortunate situation has put the country and its government in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

But can the release of these wrongfully imprisoned Anglophones douse the fire? While Anglophones across the globe hail the release of their leaders and fellow compatriots, many have been quick at giving the government the rough edge of their tongue. Social media has been awash with disparaging remarks indicating that the government is once more up to its old antics. The regime, many critics argue, is noted for having a reputation for distracting the population with decrees and activities that are not related to the main issues facing the country.

Anglophones hold that the release of their fellow compatriots has brought some relief, but it has not addressed the issues that had triggered the crisis pitting them against the country’s government. More than 95% of Anglophones hold that they have been victims of government marginalization and they want this to be addressed forthwith. While some see extensive federalism as the ideal solution that will grant the regions greater power to address their development issues, others feel that it is time to walk away from the pseudo-union that Foncha and his team entered into with “La Republique”. Proponents of restoration think that it will be hard to bring Francophones and their leaders to reason, as they erroneously think that the English-speaking minority does not deserve to hold any strategic positions in the country’s government. It should be recalled that Anglophones have never held portfolios such as defense, communication, internal security, territorial administration and finance since Southern Cameroons and East Cameroon agreed to merge to constitute a single political entity in 1972. To many Anglophones, this implies that Francophones do not consider them as citizens in their own right.

But the Biya regime is not buying into any of the governance ideas being sold by the various Anglophone groups. Despite his declining health and the impact of age, the country’s president is not backing down and is prepared to take the heat that Anglophones are turning on him. He is hell-bent on pursuing his unpopular decentralisation program that has stalled for twenty-one years. For Anglophones, they are no longer interested in the decentralisation program that is enshrined in the country’s 1996 constitution. They hold that the program is an ill-wind and it will not address any of the issues they have put forth to the government.

While the moderates are still calling for a federal system, the independentists are gradually winning hearts and minds, as many moderates are gradually thinking that it is hard to live in the same country with Francophones whose vision of life compels them to take their hardship and suffering in stride. They hold that their philosophies of life are, unfortunately, at variance and fifty-six years of a tumultuous cohabitation have not helped them to narrow their differences. The separatists point to the militarization of the Anglophone zone that has been characterized by the raping of women and molestation of innocent citizens by the country’s defense forces as testimony to the fact that the government is not repentant and regretful of its errors of the past.

With the government and Anglophones still locked in their different positions, it is clear that finding a common ground will be a distant tomorrow affair. The government’s intransigence is not helping matters and the refusal of many Anglophones to meet the government half-way is unfortunately complicating things for the students whose future looks very bleak. Schools will surely not resume on September 4 and this is bad news for many students who have been looking forward to going back to school after ten months at home. While Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho Balla and Dr. Fontem have been released, their refusal to hold a press conference in Yaounde on Thursday, August 31, 2017 to announce that schools will resume on Monday, September 4, 2017 is robbing government officials of the victory they thought they would score following the president’s decree to release Anglophones arrested within the context of the Anglophone crisis.

Barrister Agbor Balla holds that it is not incumbent upon him and his fellow leaders to announce the end of the school boycott, especially as the government has not yet implemented any of the measures it had taken to appease Anglophones. In his view, some of those measures are too cosmetic and Anglophones will not settle for such a ruse which has brought untold hardship to them. Messrs. Balla and Fontem hold that the wishes and aspirations of the people must be met and it is up to Anglophones to determine if the government has met its obligations vis-à-vis them. This explains why their trip to Buea was delayed, though they finally left Yaounde at 11 pm on Thursday. But the failure to release Mancho Bibixy and others will be a bitter pill for many Anglophones, especially North Westerners, who are noted for their mercurial temperament. This is surely going to further diminish confidence in a government whose credibility has been called into question on many occasions.

If the government wants to defuse the current tension, it must be prepared to bend over backwards to appease Anglophones. It must understand that its job is not to oppress its people or win arguments, but to serve and protect the people by listening to them and implementing mutually agreed decisions. It must understand that there cannot be a government if there are no people. As the government keeps on dilly-dallying, it should understand that the gospel of restoration is quietly gaining grounds and before long, all Anglophones will be looking forward to living in a country that will only be a neighbour to “La Republique”.

By the editorial desk

A Cameroon Intelligence Report Production

Wednesday’s announcement of the release of Anglophone leaders by the Cameroon government has been hailed by many as a major step in the right direction and many observers think that such a measure by the country’s head of state could pave the way for genuine and sincere dialogue about the country’s political future. Cameroon is central Africa’s major economic power, but over the last ten months, the country has been caught in a dangerous political storm following complaints by Anglophones about their marginalisation for close to sixty years. Many government praise-singers are already marketing the country’s leader as a visionary and a man of peace. Some hold that he is a leader who has the interest of his country at heart and will stop at nothing to promote peace and unity.

But critics have been fast at pointing out that for a man who has the country’s interest at heart, such a major decision could have been taken long before to spare the country the pain and pressure it has gone through following the arrest of innocent and responsible Anglophone leaders such as Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho Balla, Dr. Fontem Neba, Lord Justice Paul Ayah Abine and Mr. Mancho Bibixy. They argue that the threat to disrupt school resumption has been hanging over the government like the Sword of Damocles and this threat will continue to be on the table for as long as the government continues to treat Anglophones as second-class citizens. These critics, some of whom are legal experts, contend that the government of Cameroon should be dragged to court for illegally arresting and detaining its own citizens. They argue that the Anglophone struggle will continue to be a nightmare that will not go away anytime soon as long as the ruling elites continue to live on their Ivory Tower.

They posit that Anglophones could be a minority in Cameroon, but they constitute a nightmare to the government which has the nasty habit of not listening to the people they govern. Some elements of the Anglophone Diaspora hold that the release of their leaders is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. In their view, it is a major victory in a battle that will be for fought for many years, but they are sure they have the right stomach for a fight. They point out that the government has succeeded in doing one thing – unite Anglophones – and this unity will be leveraged to bring justice and equity to the people of West Cameroon.

They argue that releasing their leaders is a good decision, but it is too early for any sensible Anglophone to cry victory, adding that the arrest of their leaders was not the cause of the crisis, but rather an offshoot of a crisis that has been in the making for more than fifty years. The illegal arrest and detention of Anglophones was what caused the crisis to escalate and the government’s decision to do the right thing is just a step towards de-escalating the tensions, but the battle must continue until the government and Anglophones come to a conclusion that will be satisfactory to both parties.

They also contend that they must continue to mount pressure and keep a careful eye on the government. The government, they say, is like a leopard. It is not going to lose its stripes anytime soon as its bag of tricks is still full, adding that manipulation is its stock in trade, but Anglophones, especially those in the Diaspora, will not be buying into any illusion the government may want to sell. They insist that since violence is the only language the government understands, they will continue to disrupt government activities both abroad and in Cameroon. They point to the successful disruption of recent government missions in South Africa, Canada, England and Belgium, adding that the law is for everyone and if the custodian of the law – the government – is always quick at violating the law, they too will continue to deliver chaos to the government until a clear and definitive solution to the Anglophone problem is found.

Meanwhile, following yesterday’s announcement, Anglophone leaders and activists have been meeting to find an appropriate response to the decision. Meetings in Brussels, Washington DC and London which went into the early hours of Thursday have not yet produced the right response. Federalists and independentists have been disagreeing over the way forward. Differences on how to respond are still being settled behind the scenes and different factions are seeking to promote their perspectives. Proponents of total independence, who have been characterizing federalists as eternal optimists who think that they are capable of reforming eternal sinners, are simply not buying into the noise that is being made by the Yaounde government. To them, their objective is clear. They have had enough of a country that has marginalized its own people for close to six decades. They argue that the government is used to speaking from both sides of its mouth, adding that the government of “La Repulique”, a country they consider as their neighbour, will never act without ulterior motives. The interim leader of Southern Cameroons,  Sesekou Ayuk Julius Tabe, who is on a world tour to promote the recognition of his country, is gradually winning hearts and minds, and is being quoted as being indifferent to the Biya-staged dramain Yaounde, as his focus is to drum up support for Southern Cameroons which, in his view, will soon be the continent’s newest country.

For federalists, this could be an opportunity for the form of the state to be discussed. The government, they say, comes out of this situation bruised and fragile, adding that a little pressure will bring the reluctant and ageing government officials to the negotiating table where they will table their constitution for a federal system of government in Cameroon. While others hold that the children have already paid a huge price and should be allowed to go back to school, hardliners are still pushing for a boycott of schools so as to bring the struggling government to the negotiating table. They point to the dictatorial tendencies of the government, arguing that the country’s government is noted for its bad faith and can never be trusted. The decree to release the leaders, in their view, could be a distraction and they are simply not going to fall into this “honey trap” that the government is setting for the Diaspora.

However, there is hope in the future. Many Anglophones still think that something good can come out of yesterday’s decision to release Anglophone leaders. They are calling on the government to build on yesterday’s decision to bring different factions to the negotiating table. They argue that though lots of mistakes have been made, the country can still pull together to make the crisis a thing of the past. They, however, hold that the government should recognize errors of the past and should seek ways and means to calm flaring Anglophone tempers. They also want the government to ensure that future generations do not go through the pressure and chaos that have been playing out in the country for a long time. They think a good constitution as well as goodwill will go a long way in restoring peace in Cameroon. In their view, they are still watching the government very closely and are waiting to see what measures will follow yesterday’s decision.

The Editorial Desk

Cameroon Concord News Group