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4, November 2017
Balla and the Consortium: No longer an item 0
In one of his great writings, Martin Luther King, Jr wrote ‘power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve a purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change.’ That makes it crystal clear that one should only seek power with the intension of executing the preceding proclamation.
The next task is therefore to represent the aspiration of the people. If at any point a leader can’t represent the dreams, hopes and aspirations of the people under him or her, that leader must consider their position.
The chronicles of history are littered with tales of leaders who have failed to represent their people after they have gotten to their mountaintops. The conclusions of such storylines have always been familiar.
Armed with charm and promises, the Anglophone lawyers of British Southern Cameroon elected Agbor Balla as their leader. The future looked bright for him and the British Southern Cameroons. Hopes of the people went up. In him, many in Southern Cameroons saw a political and social liberator.
But after his administrative incarceration and subsequent release by La Republique du Cameroun, his constituents have found his silence on matters of importance, actions and inactions questionable and incredibly worrying. This has led to a profound and understandable mistrust.
This headed yesterday with the great indignity of him being publicly sacked whilst on a disturbing and suspicious visit to London.
The big question from many all over the world is how can a man who was hailed as the Nelson Mandela of Southern Cameroons by some of his followers as recently as six months ago fall so spectacular from grace? His colleagues and employers at the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society in their letter firing him alleged that he has been compromised.
Did Agbor Balla actually seek power to glorify his ego or has he just joined the queue of leaders without conviction who have gone to the top with no vision and guts and therefore fallen at the first huddle.
Whatever happens from now hence, he surely will only have himself to blame for his humiliation and thoughtlessness.
By Chi Prudence Asong