Maybe he was at home. Maybe he was at his favorite Swiss hotel.

It had been 35 days since anyone saw the president of Cameroon — or, at least, since anyone had revealed his whereabouts — and people in the central African country had questions.

“Sir, are you alive?” one man asked on Twitter.

The public absence of Paul Biya — who, at 87, is the oldest leader in Africa — during the coronavirus pandemic fueled outrage, concern and wild theories before the strongman turned up Thursday in a photo with the French ambassador to Cameroon.

“On the menu for our exchange this afternoon: managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Cameroon, France and around the world,” Biya tweeted.

“You have risen?” someone wrote in response.

“We don’t ask you to receive people,” another said. “We ask you to address the nation.”

The photo surfaced one day after Maurice Kamto, the president’s chief political rival, called on Cameroon’s legislature to declare a power vacancy and hold a new election.

The prominent politician, who challenged Biya in the 2018 race, cited the country’s constitution, which dictates that voting must begin within 40 days of a president’s death, resignation or “permanent incapacity.”

“Cameroonians are expecting him to address the nation, to tell them exactly what is going on, to share his vision,” Kamto told The Washington Post. “Whether that photo is real? Authentic? I don’t know.”

Christophe Guilhou, the French ambassador, retweeted the image, which showed the men sitting on separate cream couches.

Neither he nor Biya’s office responded to requests for comment.

Photoshop scandals involving the president have damaged trust in the past, said Doris Toyou, a Cameroonian lawyer in New York.

An obviously manipulated photo of Biya at a funeral for fallen soldiers appeared on the presidential website in 2015. (He was in Europe, not at the event.)

“The photo was illegally modified by someone who managed to hack into the site,” the communications minister told France 24 at the time.

People want more than evidence of a meeting with the French ambassador, Toyou said.

“The question remains the same,” she said. “Is he able and willing to perform presidential function?”

Citizens had been wondering: Is Biya’s hand really signing those presidential decrees? Who is actually behind his Facebook posts?

On social media, Cameroonians demanded to hear him speak about the growing outbreak on their soil. The nation has recorded 848 cases and 14 deaths. The airports are closed. Schools and places of worship have shuttered.

Biya’s ministers have done the talking since the first case emerged on March 6. The top health official tweets daily updates in English and French.

The silence is a stark contrast to other presidential approaches to covid-19.

The Senegalese leader has released a video of himself washing his hands. The Ugandan president posted footage of his indoor workout. The Guinean ruler gave a speech with face masks shielding his microphones.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent a week in intensive care with a severe case of the virus, allowed cameras to film him this month in a hospital bed.

“During this pandemic, every single country in the world needs to hear from their head of state,” said Kamto, the Cameroonian opposition leader.

The chances of Cameroon declaring a power vacancy are slim to none. The National Assembly and the Constitutional Council, which handle such matters, are crowded with members of Biya’s party.

They’ve defended him over the decades — Biya took office in 1982 — through allegations of military brutality, rigged elections and an extraordinary amount of time spent on private trips abroad — even as a separatist uprising and Boko Haram attacks have rocked the country.

Biya spent a third of his time overseas in 2006 and 2009, according to one widely shared report from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an international group of investigative journalists.

During some of his stays in Switzerland, Cameroonians in the country protested outside his preferred hotel: the InterContinental Geneva.

Has he been there lately?

“I do not have any information,” a receptionist told The Washington Post before hanging up.

Biya is known for taking long breaks away from the public eye, said Jeff Smith, the founding director of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy nonprofit organization.

“It’s not an uncommon refrain to hear Cameroonians lament the fact that they have a ‘ghost president,’ ” he said.

However, Smith added, “his absence is really quite shocking during a time in which Cameroon has experienced the most cases and deaths due to the coronavirus in all of Central Africa.”

Culled from The Washington Post

The Wedge in our Struggle

My people, there are a number of things the enemy has done to us through these fellows to systematically disrupt our struggle or restoration quest.

1. They killed trust in leadership by propping up dishonest guys in our midst. The act of smearing honest people and making them look untrustworthy is by far the deepest cut. Crooks have become our reference point. No wonder, we no longer trust anyone. Those who can drive this struggle have crumbled under the bullets of unverified calumny. So, when a good idea comes from them, we pull up the smear and use the stench to disqualify its proponent, then the bad guy continues to shout “Feeloo ambazoonians”. No plan on how to move forward except bannings and sowing division. Simple tactic!

2. Disunity among the leadership, so that no constructive action can be taken against LRC. They only agree when the action will not favour us. See the Swiss initiative. They were already exposing our fighters to the Swiss and pushing everyone into their luggage when the plan leaked and the trip by the LGA chairmen to Switzerland was aborted. That was a massive brainwashing scheme that would have brought our liberation struggle crashing. And they were just happy to go and see Switzerland, not knowing that it was a satanic plot.

4. Egotism and the love for money have driven a wedge between us and our goal. Why would someone remind anyone offering to mediate about money owed him by LRC at this time? Why would someone even place a financial precondition for holding talks? Why would someone lie that he has the largest force on the ground and use that to position himself as a power broker before the Swiss? Why would a group of people decide, against expert advice, to sign away to the Swiss their right to a multilateral mediation format? Why would SCian politicians accept Swiss money to go from UK, Canada to the US advertising the Swiss initiative to the exclusion of the European institute for peace (an EU funded organisation)? These questions beg for answers.

4. Disrupting fund raising projects is a major scheme to render the struggle bankrupt, apart from embezzlement. Every time a seemingly viable fundraising initiative is laid out, they too will do theirs and distract the public that is already weary of bickering.  They cause the public to transfer their stigma on it, and when the momentum dies down, they abandon theirs. See the bonds, the pins and other financial ideas.

5. Disinformation and Misinformation of the masses. Using their very loud megaphone, they distort every notion of good. Points 1-4 above have been achieved through the alphabet TV and paid social media activists. Some of them puts out their write-ups using the name of some of these activists in exchange for a fee. They deceive the people at home about non-existent diplomatic moves and breakthroughs and distort international relations concepts. It’s like a veil of darkness cast over our people’s heads.

5. The lure of power and the desire to exercise corrupt influence . Even some of the IG converts in the diaspora are easily brainwashed because of the temptation of corruption. Many of them see themselves as an emerging Bulu/Beti clan when we restore our independence. So, they use that to make their communities and families believe that as future ministers and LG chairmen in SC, they will have more benefits and influence than others – greed! Let them show us the blue print or the strategy that will take us to Buea.

6. Killing or disarming our own fighters cannot be excused on any grounds. Is it surprising that we have lost more of our elite soldiers to our own bullets than to LRC? After commissioning Nambere to eliminate some of his peers, it was time to do away with him so that all traces could be wiped. But he preferred to surrender to the enemy than to succumb to the bullets of his own people. He confided his ordeal to those who were ready to listen.  This is a familiar scenario which the RFs do not yet understand. Many who sensed danger have fled the resistance because they don’t know when the order for their execution will come. Others have been captured because their position was deliberately leaked to the enemy. Who does that? Does the mass execution of the Bui 23 tell us anything?

In all

I have travelled round this country and have met different people who have complained about the manner in which they were robbed in broad day light and lamented the general state of things. They told me how they were harangued into donating thousands of dollars for diplomatic trips which never happened. In others, Ngwa Irene personally went there and collected $12000 cash and when the community asked for a receipt it became a brawl. Some communities have not recovered from the financially induced coma caused by these buccaneers.

I challenge all those hiding in WhatsApp groups or FB, wearing aliases to come to a public debate to explain their plan for the restoration, if there is any, and stop using subterfuge to deceive our people. If you cannot diagnose a disease, then you cannot treat it.

Denying these facts is denying, like LRC, that our people don’t have any problem. “Any man who does not know, and knows that he does not know is willing to learn; teach him. Any man who does not know, and knows not that he does not know is a fool; shun him”. We should now understand why for two years we have been spinning in the same spot and claiming that we are on course. Having run out if arguments, they claim that it is because some people don’t use the name “Ambazonia” and so it affects the struggle. 😫 Lame excuse! With all what is going on, ask yourselves again, are these people truly taking us to Buea or to Golgotha?

Yours in the struggle

Fontem Neba

Scholar & Freedom Fighter

Like elsewhere, Cameroonians at home and abroad are very worried over the novel coronavirus which has been rapidly spreading across the country.

By the close of April 7, Cameroon had registered 685 cases of Covid-19, with nine deaths, overtaking other countries to become the second hardest hit in Sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa. Cameroon now has over 15 times as many confirmed cases as any other country in the central African sub-region and one of the highest numbers of daily new cases on the continent. Like many other African countries, Cameroon is not well-equipped to handle a major outbreak of the disease.

But as Cameroonians grapple with the spread of Covid-19, they are also preoccupied with the absence of their leader. President Paul Biya, 87, who in 2018 secured another mandate to extend his 36-year rule to 2025, has not publicly addressed his compatriots since the country registered its first case on March 6. His next-door peer, Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, with just 30 confirmed cases, has addressed his people on at least three occasions, despite still recuperating from a stroke.

Biya was last seen in public on Mar. 11, when he received the US ambassador to Cameroon at the Unity Palace in Yaoundé. No official mention has been made of his whereabouts thereafter. Even pressure from activists and opposition leaders has not forced the African strongman out in public.

Two weeks ago, Cameroon’s main opposition leader, Maurice Kamto issued an initial seven-day ultimatum, calling on president Biya to personally address the nation. On April 3, Kamto called on the population of coronavirus-affected regions to stay at home—a move the runner-up of the 2018 presidential election said he took because “the Head of State has refused to assume his functions in the fight against the coronavirus.”

The Popular Action Party on its part expressed concerns over the inaction of President Biya and accused Yaounde authorities of playing “a hide-and-seek game.” The party promised to seize the country’s constitutional council to make a declaratory statement on the vacancy or not of the presidency.

Despite his country exhibiting multiple layers of vulnerability to Covid-19, Biya has stuck with his reticence for public speaking. He however instructed the prime minister to put in place a 13-point response strategy and has through social media called on Cameroonians to respect the measures put in place. From wherever he is, the president has also signed several decrees, including one instituting a national solidarity fund to fight COVID-19 and another appointing officials to lead the reconstruction of the conflict-ravaged English-speaking regions in the country’s southwest.

It isn’t unprecedented for Biya to be unseen or silent during critical moments in the life of the country. Even recent widespread rumors of his demise on social media have not forced his hand. His aides and supporters have described this phenomenon as “presidential silence” and have often argued that “his attitude is a sign of maturity and wisdom.”

Biya’s “private visits” to his usual retreat at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva has often been a source of political controversy and quiet embarrassment. One estimate is that he’s spent 15% of his time in power, abroad.

Over the last decade, Biya has made the top floor suites of the five-star luxury hotel into his home away from home spending months at a time even as his country has slowly descended into conflict from Boko Haram Islamic terrorists in the north and an Anglophone-led insurgency in north- and southwest of the country.

Culled from Quartz Africa

Cameroon’s ruling party has swept all 13 seats in parliamentary by-elections held late last month in the conflict-wracked anglophone west of the country, the constitutional council announced Tuesday.

Long-ruling President Paul Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) won all 13 seats at stake in 11 constituencies in the North-West and South-West regions of the central African country.

The CPDM “ran the table” in 10 North-West districts and one in the South-West, state broadcaster CRTV reported.

The wins reinforced the party’s massive majority in the 180-member parliament to 152 seats.

The two anglophone regions have been rocked by deadly violence as armed separatists campaign for independence from the rest of Cameroon, which is majority French-speaking.

The conflict has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced nearly 700,000 in less than three years, according to humanitarian organisations.

Separatist fighters had called on people in the two regions to boycott nationwide municipal and legislative elections on February 9, issuing threats to anyone who planned to vote.

Several NGOs including Amnesty International reported multiple clashes between the separatists and the army ahead of the polling, though only one incident — in the North-West region — was reported on election day itself.

The constitutional council said on February 25 that the vote would have to be rerun in several parts of the two anglophone regions.

The opposition Social Democratic Front, dominated by anglophones, contested the results of the by-elections, but the constitutional court rejected their demand for another re-run.

Source: AFP

The coronavirus pandemic could narrow one gaping inequality in Africa, where some heads of state and other elite jet off to Europe or Asia for health care unavailable in their nations. As countries including their own impose dramatic travel restrictions, they might have to take their chances at home.

For years, leaders from Benin to Zimbabwe have received medical care abroad while their own poorly funded health systems limp from crisis to crisis. Several presidents, including ones from Nigeria, Malawi and Zambia, have died overseas.

The practice is so notorious that a South African health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, a few years ago scolded, “We are the only continent that has its leaders seeking medical services outside the continent, outside our territory. We must be ashamed.”

Now a wave of global travel restrictions threatens to block that option for a cadre of aging African leaders. More than 30 of Africa’s 57 international airports have closed or severely limited flights, the U.S. State Department says. At times, flight trackers have shown the continent’s skies nearly empty.

Perhaps “COVID-19 is an opportunity for our leaders to reexamine their priorities,” said Livingstone Sewanyana of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, which has long urged African countries to increase health care spending.

But that plea has not led to action, even as the continent wrestles with major crises including deadly outbreaks of Ebola and the scourges of malaria and HIV.

Spending on health care in Africa is roughly 5% of gross domestic product, about half the global average. That’s despite a pledge by African Union members in 2001 to spend much more. Money is sometimes diverted to security or simply pilfered, and shortages are common.

Ethiopia had just three hospital beds per 10,000 people in 2015, according to World Health Organization data, compared to two dozen or more in the U.S. and Europe. Central African Republic has just three ventilators in the entire country. In Zimbabwe, doctors have reported doing bare-handed surgeries for lack of gloves.

Health experts warn that many countries will be overwhelmed if the coronavirus spreads, and it is already uncomfortably close. Several ministers in Burkina Faso have been infected, as has a top aide to Nigeria’s president. An aide to Congo’s leader died. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms.

“If you test positive in a country, you should seek care in that country,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. John Nkengasong, told reporters Thursday. “It’s not a death sentence.”

In Nigeria, some worried their president might be among the victims. Long skittish about President Muhammadu Buhari’s absences from public view, including weeks in London for treatment for unspecified health problems, they took to Twitter to ask why he hadn’t addressed the nation as virus cases rose.

Buhari’s office dismissed speculation about his whereabouts as unfounded rumor. When he did emerge Sunday night, he announced that all private jet flights were suspended. International airports were already closed.

An even more frequent overseas traveler, Cameroon’s 87-year-old leader, President Paul Biya, faces rising criticism over his public absence since the virus spread to his country. Cases in Cameroon leapt Friday to over 500, the second most in the sub-Saharan region after South Africa.

While travel restrictions have grounded the merely wealthy, political analyst Alex Rusero said a determined African leader probably could still find a way to go abroad for care.

“They are scared of death so much they will do everything within their disposal, even if it’s a private jet to a private hospital in a foreign land,” said Rusero, who is based in Zimbabwe, whose late President Robert Mugabe often sought treatment in Asia.

Perhaps nowhere is the situation bleaker than in Zimbabwe, where the health system has collapsed. Even before the pandemic, patients’ families were often asked to provide essentials like gloves and clean water. Doctors reported using bread bags to collect patients’ urine.

Zimbabwe’s vice president, Constantino Chiwenga, departed last month for unrelated medical treatment in China, as the outbreak eased in that country. Zimbabwe closed its borders days later after its first virus death.

Chiwenga has since returned — to lead the country’s coronavirus task force.

But some in a new generation of African leaders have been eager to show sensitivity to virus-prevention measures.

The president of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, initially defied his country’s restrictions on travel by government employees to visit neighboring Namibia for its leader’s inauguration. But he entered self-quarantine and now reminds others to stay home, calling it “literally a matter of life and death.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he had tested negative, just ahead of a three-week lockdown in Africa’s most developed country. Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has as well.

Other leaders, including Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, have tweeted images of themselves working via videoconference as countries encourage people to keep their distance.

While African leaders are more tied to home than ever, their access to medical care is still far better than most of their citizens’.

In Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, medical student Franck Bienvenu Zida was self-isolating and worried after having contact with someone who tested positive.

The 26-year-old feared infecting people where he lives, but his efforts to get tested were going nowhere. In three days of calling an emergency number to request a test, he could not get through.

Source: AFP

Today, the world is faced with another global menace similar to the Spanish Flu of 1918 which killed almost 50 million people the world over between 1918 and 1919. This is the CoronaVirus or Covid-19 which originated in the Wuhan District of China in December 2019.

In a media briefing on March 11th, 2020, World Health Organization Director General, Dr Tedros A.G said the agency had characterized the Covid-19 as a pandemic. A pandemic, according to Britannica is an outbreak of infectious disease that occurs over a wide geographical area that affects a significant proportion of the world’s population, usually over the course of several months or years.

The new Corona Virus (Covid-19)is affecting 199 countries and territories around the world. It has so far infected more than 721,412 people across the world, killing 33,965 (March 30th, 2020 statistics from cnn.com). The geometrical patterns in the growth of Covid-19 is alarming as it has left so many health experts and scientists confused as to the way forward. It is a collective fight that needs every hand on deck. The number of infected cases and deaths around the world is expected to rise during the first quarter of April 2020 as speculated by health experts in the United Kingdom.

On March 6th, 2020, the Cameroun’s Minister of Public Health, Dr Manaouda, announced the first case of Covid-19 in Yaoundé. The measures taken by the government of Cameroun to contain the virus from spreading further were not stringent enough as the airports were left open for many people from infected Countries abroad to fly in undetected. The numbers of infected cases are now on a steady rise. In a recent tweet on March 29th, 2020, the Public Health Minister made known the number of Covid-19 infected cases in Cameroun; 139 and counting.

The same conditions and fears described by Human Rights Activist Jennifer Gonnerman in the article “Chesa Boudin on His Incarcerated Father and the Threat of the Coronavirus in Prisons” are very visible in the jails in Cameroun where more than 1000 Southern Cameroons Prisoners of Conscience have been held following the Southern Cameroons Conflict where President Paul Biya declared war on November 30th,2017.These prisons which span from Yaoundé, Douala, Buea, Baffoussam, Yoko etc are a breeding ground for the Covid-19 owing to it’s poor sanitation, lack of portable water, scanty or no medical aid,no testing device, prison warders from the outside world who mingle freely with the detainees  and most important of all are the overcrowded nature of the prisons leaving thousands of detainees touching and mingling with each other at very close range.

It’s for these reasons that Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Human Rights Commission have picked on the situation of detainees in Cameroun and the world over respectively. Michelle Bachelet,in a statement at the Geneva UNHRC head office described in a few words the situation that these prisoners of conscience face as the global Covid-19 pandemic surges on.

“In many countries, detention facilities are overcrowded, in some cases dangerously so. People are often held in unhygienic conditions and health services are inadequate or even non-existent. Physical distancing and self-isolation in such conditions are practically impossible”

Prisons and jails are amplifiers of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, because the conditions that can keep diseases from spreading – such as social distancing – are nearly impossible to achieve in correctional facilities. The Yaoundé Central Prison where I’m currently serving a 12 year sentence on trumped up charges and politically motivated reasons fit squarely in this category.

The Prison built in 1968 to host 1000 inmates is home to about 5000 detainees (that’s five times the number) amongst who are more than 200 Southern Cameroons Prisoners of Conscience. This overcrowding influences the appropriation of space and the power structures within the prison, in a context where the prisoners are unevenly divided between the 14 quarters of the Kondengui Maximum Prison. These more than 5000 detainees share less than 20 filthy latrines doted in the various quarters from 1 to 14. In the event of the virus spreading inside the prison, no medical care will be possible and the death rate will be alarming. The prisoners are piled on top of each other; it’s impossible to keep any safe distance. The Yaoundé Central Prison is a volcano ready to explode if just a rumour of one positive case of Covid-19 is left to circulate within the prison walls.

Human rights organizations like the National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR), Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), The Central African Human Rights Defenders Network (REDHAC) and a host of others who know the situations of these prisons very well should be pressing on for an amnesty to be given to these detainees before one of the detainee is infected with the Covid-19. It is their responsibility to do more before these overcrowded prisons are suddenly transformed into a mortuary.

The government of Cameroun recently took measures to curb the spread of the virus, including shutting down schools, closing borders, banning mass gatherings, and encouraging people to follow hygiene rules but these measures are not stringent enough to combat this global threat.

The Cameroun’s prisons, which are notably overcrowded, keeping social distance, practicing self-isolation, and taking basic measures such as hand washing are just not possible with hundreds of detainees crammed in the same small cell. The Prison administration under the leadership of Hamadou Madi recently took measures such as limiting the number of visitors into the inner court yard of the prison, obliging visitors to put on face masks and disinfecting the entire prison but these measures too are not enough to guarantee the safety of the detainees who still come in contact with the Prison Warders from the outside world on a minute by minute basis. The idea of social distancing or self isolation is farfetched in these prisons especially those in the town of Yaoundé which according to statistics from the Country’s Ministry of Public Health is the most infected town.

This fight against the Covid-19 is the fight of our lives and every hand is needed to stop it before it ravages humanity as we all know. The UN Human Rights Commissioner beckoned on state authorities to examine ways to release those particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, among them older detainees and those who are sick, as well as low-risk offenders because the detention facilities in many countries are severely overcrowded, making detainees and staff particularly vulnerable to catching the deadly new coronavirus. Amid fears that the coronavirus will carve a deadly path through prisons and jails, some countries are heeding to the Michelle Bachelet’s clarion call by releasing thousands of inmates. Ethiopia’s president, last week released over 4,000 prisoners in an effort to prevent overcrowding in prisons and contain the spread of the coronavirus.

By Penn Terence Khan

Yaounde Central Prison

As regional and international partners focus on countering Boko Haram in West Africa’s Lake Chad Region, another crisis is playing out in southern Cameroon, where the armed conflict between the government and separatists has killed more than 3,000 and displaced close to 600,000. After nearly two years of violence, the two sides are at a stalemate, even with sustained Swiss-led efforts to broker peace. Despite stalled progress, there are further steps that regional governments, France, and the United States can take now to facilitate a peaceful transition and post-conflict recovery.

To maximize the probability of success, however, these disparate actions must be guided by a political strategy for stabilizing southern Cameroon. The United States can play a lead role in defining this strategy and supporting the lead actors to implement it.

Three core pillars, in particular, should comprise the strategy in order to resolve the crisis: conflict prevention and mitigation to protect civilians, investigate extra-judicial killings, and help stabilize conflict-affected areas; preparation for potential dialogue between the government and separatists; and, pending those talks, a framework for an inclusive political transition that respects core tenets of democracy and governance.

Central to all of these must be a focus on democracy and governance to address the democratic deficits underlying the broader crisis. The U.S. government should make strategic short-term investments to increase citizen participation in local governance, while supporting long-term stabilization and redress of political and security grievances. Below, we outline these democratic deficits and ways to address them.

HISTORIC ROOTS OF A DEMOCRATIC CRISIS

The ongoing crisis began in 2017 when Anglophone teachers and lawyers in the northwest and southwest regions mobilized protests in opposition to perceived discrimination by the Francophone government in Yaoundé. The government crackdown on protesters, and exacerbation of long-standing grievances, led aggrieved communities to create a separatist movement and declare independence for “Ambazonia.” Parliamentary and municipal elections were held February 9 amid an opposition boycott, low voter turnout fueled by apathy and separatist intimidation, and the prospect of violence from Boko Haram. President Paul Biya’s ruling party won in a landslide. The contests did little to quell grievances in conflict-affected areas, which are rooted in long-standing historical divides.

Anglophone Cameroonians often articulate their grievances through the lens of World War I. The 1919 partition of the former German colony Kamerun into British and French Cameroons created two separate polities with distinct political hierarchies and governance systems. Independence in 1961 brought British Southern Cameroonians a narrow choice through a plebiscite: assimilation into either French Cameroon or neighboring Nigeria, but not independence in their own right. Despite widespread discontentment during the vote, Southern Cameroonians chose to join French Cameroon as part of a federation between the two states.

After independence, Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, employed an assimilation policy to administratively and linguistically merge the Southern Cameroons with Francophone Cameroon in order to maintain access to its natural resources. President Ahidjo completed the assimilation process in 1972 with a unilateral referendum that replaced the federal state with a unitary state and increased executive power. Southern Cameroons lost its autonomous status and became the Northwest Region and the Southwest Region of the Republic of Cameroon. The democratic closing in the early 1990s further exacerbated Anglophone Cameroon’s political marginalization: The resulting electoral constraints combined with President Paul Biya’s increasingly autocratic leadership created an uneven playing field for Anglophone politicians to compete in national elections.

WHY DEMOCRACY, RIGHTS, AND GOVERNANCE ARE CENTRAL TO A STABLE AND INCLUSIVE TRANSITION

Grievances thus persist because the deep roots of the Anglophone crisis lie in Cameroon’s outstanding democratic deficits. Any political strategy to stabilize the country’s conflict-affected regions must account for these deficits and include tactics to address them.

First, Anglophone Cameroonians remember the disenfranchisement of two separate referenda, with people perceiving the results to have inaccurately represented popular political preferences. This legacy casts immediate suspicion on any deal forged between Anglophone leaders, separatists, and the Cameroonian government in Yaoundé. Ahead of any peace negotiations, domestic and international stakeholders must adopt a citizen-centric approach to drafting a settlement to end the crisis. Community consultations with Anglophone citizens living in and outside the country remain essential for establishing citizen buy-in and restoring the region’s trust in the political process. Any future national dialogue processes or peace negotiations should involve groups of Anglophone citizens displaced internally and internationally by the crisis as advisory bodies to the negotiations.

The second democratic deficit is Cameroon’s persistent centralization of power. While Cameroon decentralized through a 1996 amendment to the constitution and a 2004 Orientation of Decentralization Law, administrative bottlenecks and political interference prevent the country’s 360 municipal councils from carrying out their responsibility to lead development in areas such as healthcare, education, and social welfare. Just five years ago, Cameroon’s ministries devolved operations to the municipal level, but ministers regularly impose conditions on the use of funds. Persistent blockages to creating an autonomous, functional infrastructure for subnational governance continue to exacerbate present grievances and hinder progress toward a government structure that maintains Cameroon’s territorial integrity while vastly increasing its responsiveness to citizen needs.

The international community needs to make targeted investments to improve the collaboration between local elected officials and civil society organizations. Technical support from other constitutionally devolved African nations like Kenya can help Cameroon creatively troubleshoot political and bureaucratic blockages in the decentralization process. This approach needs to be grounded in improving and expanding the existing efforts of committed nonpartisan civil society organizations to hold municipal councils accountable. In the long run, the international community needs to support Cameroonian political leaders, civil society members, and citizens develop and execute a plan for the country’s federalization that is embedded in a negotiated settlement.

The third democratic deficit is the closed space in which civil society operates. Under President Biya, Cameroon has been a closed space for civil society and political activists challenging the government’s authority. Rights-based organizations in Cameroon are routinely persecuted for exercising their oversight role and exposing human rights violations committed by the government. The government, however, allows civil society organizations to work on issues that are not considered a threat to its control, such as women’s and children’s rights and service delivery. Though, due to the closed political space, many organizations in Cameroon, especially those located outside of the main city centers, cannot readily access technical assistance or resources that would strengthen their engagement with the government and contribute to policy reforms on low-risk issues.

In the midst of the crisis, local civil society organizations — particularly those led by women — and community leaders like religious authorities and traditional chiefs are filling service delivery vacuums left by ineffective governance. Not only do these civil society leaders provide socioeconomic relief to Anglophones in the form of locally-sourced humanitarian assistance and psychosocial support to bereaved citizens, but they also act as back-channel negotiators to incentivize separatist family and friends to consider non-violent approaches to address their grievances. The international community should continue to voice support for civil society leaders on the front lines of the crisis and apply public pressure to the Cameroonian government should they continue to repress these actors. Since the Cameroonian government applies less pressure to apolitical social welfare organizations, international partners should also increase assistance activities to civil society leaders working directly with internally-displaced Cameroonians to increase their service coverage and build their legitimacy as neutral humanitarian actors.

THE WAY AHEAD

Cameroon’s long-term stabilization starts now. While a negotiated settlement between the Cameroonian government and the armed Anglophone groups is the only pathway for sustainable peace, the country’s local governance infrastructure — particularly its municipal councils — requires immediate technical and financial support to capably carry out its decentralized functions and serve the needs of a population in crisis. Social welfare-focused civil society organizations and community leaders are crucial neutral actors whose contributions to humanitarian assistance and peace efforts will only increase once negotiations progress. In the aftermath of a deal, these local governments structures and civil society leaders will provide crucial support for the resettlement of displaced populations, the reintegration of former combatants, and the settlement of wartime grievances. The international community should support decentralized local government structures and civil society leaders now to provide immediate stabilization assistance and to increase the chances of societal recovery after the parties reach an agreement.

Culled from Brookings.edu

French Cameroun’s war on Southern Cameroons is the murkiest stain on Biya’s hard-earned, blood-spattered and blemished reputation. For sure, he will go down in history as a man who inherited a peaceful and progressive nation but conspired to leave it in disarray and divided. It’s impossible for the people of French Cameroun not to feel disillusioned about his leadership. They are facing the worst political and public health emergency to hit them in generations, but are led by a calamity of a leader. Combing through the history of the great continent of Africa, it’s hard to find a political failure that rivals Paul Biya.

If there is a sluggish leader at the head of any organisation, it spells problems but Paul Biya of French Cameroun is a calamity. In the midst of a global pandemic, all heads of states are busy setting structures, policy and building makeshift hospitals to keep their populations safe, the butcher of Mvomeka is in political reclusiveness. Reclusiveness is his natural political habitat and somehow his nation has learned to accept it. There was a remarkable video last night of the Nigerian government building a makeshift hospital in Lagos with hundreds of beds in anticipation of the peak of the coronavirus pandemic over the next few weeks. In French Cameroun, no such preparation is being made. Cameroon Concord News Group understands that the country’s understaffed, ill-equipped and under-resourced health sector has already collapsed after ninety-one people tested positive for the coronavirus. We, of this media outlet consider it criminal that a government could be so negligent about the lives of its citizens. 

The political ineptitude from Yaoundé is loud and obvious with a Prime Minster who is woefully out of his depth leading the government’s lackadaisical efforts. The messages from the government are mixed, confusing and inadequate. The streets of French Cameroun are filled with bike-taxis and hawkers with little or no public health messages. There are little or no state resources available to fight the pandemic as the embezzlement epidemic has crippled the economy. Cameroon Concord News Group considers last week’s decision to shut all borders and ground flights without proper consultations, preparation and professional advice as an attempt by the government to take its begging bowl to the WHO and IMF. Unfortunately, these organisations have wised up to the old man’s tricks.

French Cameroonians are paying the price for their lack of vision and courage which has kept Biya in power for thirty-eight years. Many of his citizens believed erroneously that his lack of compassion was only extended to the Southern Cameroons. They thought his capacity to be unmoved by the loss of others was only confined to Ambazonians but they are about to find out that they were sadly mistaken. They are about to experience this silent killer which will ravage and kill many innocent souls as their government does nothing to prevent or contain its spread. They are at the mercy of this invincible and potent killer due to a lack of preparedness, a culture of underinvestment in public services and a philosophy of exaggerated theft of public funds under the leadership of Paul Biya. All this is about to happen with an absentee head of state, who himself at 87 years of age is petrified of this invincible killer.

Cameroon Concord News Group believes that Mr Biya’s government isn’t taking the threat of this coronavirus seriously and the responsibility lies at the helm. Mr Biya has demonstrated over the years that he is ruthless when dealing with political opponents but the time has come when his compatriots need him to show this trait in dealing with this pandemic. His legacy as a political failure is unblemished but he could at least do it some good if he enacts any policy that saves some lives in his desperate and anxious nation.

Isong Asu, London Bureau Chief, Cameroon Concord News Group

In 2017…people from the grassroots decided to stick together to say “enough is enough”. They are asking for their freedom from this modern day slavery in the grip of the government of the Republic of Cameroon. This was triggered by the Teachers’ and Lawyers’ strikes at the close of 2016… As this stalemate continues, popular opinion on the streets of Southern Cameroons is tilting in favour of outright separation.

…A day of joy for one and a moment of pain and regret for the other.

I.

A King and his Queen had a quarrel on their 56th wedding anniversary, on the 11th of February. Below is an excerpt of what ensued:

King: Happy anniversary.

Queen: What is happy about this anniversary?

King: Dress-up, let’s go and celebrate our wedding anniversary.

Queen: You rejoice today because it is day that you discovered milk and honey in your neighbour’s land, got it for free, claimed it and made it yours. This day reminds me all of our biggest error. Henceforth on every 11th February, starting from today, Saturday 11th February 2017, I will join my children, we will dress in black, we will start the day in prayer, we will pray until noon, have lunch and get back to prayer from 2:00pm until 6:00pm. My people and I have declared this “the day of indoor mourning and prayer”. We mourn the death of a romance which never was and we pray to God to get us out of this marriage. I want a divorce. I have already filed for this divorce. Today, my people and I will remain indoors because we do not want to get out of our houses and be beaten, raped, tortured and killed.

King: Shall we go and join the celebrations?

Queen: What is there to celebrate?

King: Why are you dressed in black and holding a prayer book?

Queen: I am dressed in black because I am mourning.

King: Why are you mourning?

Queen: Because you are killing my people. You are raping our girls, maiming and torturing us. Why are you committing these atrocities on our people?

King: The people that are being tortured, killed, raped and maimed are not my people; they are your people. Don’t you see how determined they are to force the school year 2016/2017 to be cancelled by UNESCO? I cannot let that happen under my watch.

Queen: Is that why you got your CRTV to announce over the weekend that schools will reopen on Monday? Look at how you are embarrassing yourself and those of my people that you appointed. Most of them have not done anything for their people for years. They watched your ill-treatment of their brothers and sisters but they accepted it because you have transformed them into house-slaves. God is watching. He will lead us out like He did the people of Israel out of Egypt.

King: But they asked to be treated as such. I wonder why these young ones now refuse to be cajoled to my side. They are resisting every attempt to bribe them, so that they can bring this strike to an end. I need schools to resume. I cannot have an academic year cancelled in this country, especially after winning AFCON 2017.

Queen: Why don’t you release all the students who were arrested in Buea and Bamenda so that the Consortium will come back to the negotiating table? By the way, why did you outlaw the Consortium, days after failed negotiations with them? You turned around and arrested its members, to the point where some are now hiding in a Western embassy in Yaoundé? Do you think that anyone would believe your sincerity when you call for negotiations again?

King: I cannot release all the students because I do not have all of them to release.

Queen: What do you mean by that? Where are my peoples’ children?

King: Some have died.

Queen: We hear that you approved of their murders and that they be buried in mass graves.

King: I did not kill your people. It was done by the police, gendarmes, and soldiers, especially those called BIR. These my forces of repression have been ordered to ensure that schools reopen and that the courts restart, at all cost. I guess some of them would go beyond the call of duty to satisfy me.

Queen: Why have you cut off the Internet to the people living in my land since the 17th of January 2017?

King: So that anything I do there will not be seen by the rest of the world. I will not have these Google-generation children dictate how I run my country.

Queen: If I knew then what I know today, I surely will not have gone into this marriage.

King: Why would you not have gone into this marriage?

Queen: Because over the years, you have changed the marriage from a “monogamy with separate properties” into a “polygamy with all properties belonging to the King”.

King: Well, this is to show that we are all one and indivisible and you have never complained about anything.

Queen: When I complain, you pretend not to hear. When my people ask loudly, you term them extremists. For years I have tried to make this work, pretending that these things are not happening. However, the more I try to make it work, the more you take advantage of me.

King: But why are you complaining now after 56 years?

Queen: Whenever I try to tell you that you are unfair, you come down on me and my people with force. You have taken away our education system, you have imposed the French civil law on my people, replacing our British common law. You have brought your people to rule over my people in our land, and in your language. You now treat us as second class citizens and increasingly we see ourselves as your slaves.

King: When did you notice this?

Queen: Over the years. Each time I watched as you gradually but surely eroded all signs of my peoples’ identity from the face of the earth. You have even placed road signs in our land in your language. The police, gendarme and army speak your language when they are sent to work in my land.

King: Is that why you are grumbling? I have created a commission of bilingualism and multi-culturalism to take care of that.

Queen: You decreed decentralisation in 1996 and not much has happened on that front since.

King: I signed that to please your people and some of my people. I really did not intend to implement it.

Queen: I have been sad and sickened all these 56 years.

King: But you have never complained.

Queen: Whenever my people do, your forces of repression kill our children, rape our girls, torture our people and declare some of them wanted. They have become slaves in their own land. This is killing me but to you it is all a game. You are playing with the future of my people and to you it is only a game. Let’s look at this sector-by-sector:

II.

On Resources

Queen: About 90 percent of the oil of this nation comes from my land but all its revenue are paid into your land. Almost all the workers at the refinery, from those at the gate to the Managing Director, are people from your land. The refinery is on my land but the depots are on your land.

King: This is the life-wire of the nation’s economy, so I have to personally keep an eye on it.

Queen: What about the gold, bauxite, iron ore, coal and granites in my land?

King: I am yet to access these and other resources of the land. When I do, I will naturally manage them as I manage SONARA.

Queen: What about the timber, as you are deforesting our land?

King: The same thing, I am not answerable to anyone in this country.

Queen: What about the agricultural produce that are mostly from my land?

King: Are you seriously asking me to explain this?

Queen: Why have you abandoned the natural waterfall in my land that can produce electric power for the entire West Africa?

King: Because I want you to remain in this marriage. That is also why I carried all the thermal generators away from your region, so that I can decide to switch you off.

Queen: Is that why you have switched off Internet from my region?

King: I do not want the world to see what atrocities I am doing to your people. If your people do not get back subserviently into this union, I will charge them with treason, judge them in a military tribunal and sentence them to death or life imprisonment.

Queen: I want a divorce.

King: You cannot have a divorce. We are one and indivisible and this marriage will remain for ever.

Queen: What is happening to CDC and PAMOL?

King: I am planning to move their HQs to my land.

III.

On Education

Queen: What have you done with the report from the Cameroon Education Forum (CEF) of January 2016? It contained 17 recommendations to address the Anglophone education sub-system.

King: I have kept in where I always keep recommendations that challenge my thinking, like the memorandum presented by the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda in December 2016 – in the trash.

Queen: Why are you sending your people to my land to teach children history, geography, chemistry, physics, etc. in your language?

King: Because you and your people accept it and because your people are not admitted into the teachers’ training schools, so they are not qualified.

Queen: Why don’t you admit them into those schools. My people are about eight million of this country’s 28 million, yet you admit two students out of 132 into the School of Sports, even though the school is situated in my land. Less than 30 of the 250 students in the School of Engineering in my land are my people.

King: Because you and your people accept it.

Queen: Why do the Vice Chancellors of Buea and Bamenda allow forces of repression to enter their universities, rape girls, torture students and even kill some?

King: I appointed them to follow in the footsteps of Dorothy because when a woman decides to be mean, she forgets that every child is born of a woman like her. The forces of repression were invited into each school by the individual VC. In this case, they have to take their responsibility. You should ask them and not even my minister of higher education, talk less of me.

Queen: We hear that your people are bribing newly self-appointed leaders of the teachers’ trade union to call of the strike. Do you realise that it is not working?

King: I now realise that the people are bent on waiting for the leaders of the Consortium before they can listen to anyone, even to me. I tried to appease them with the commission of bilingualism and multi-culturalism but no one seems to be swayed by it. Your people are still bent on their strike and the ghost towns. These ghost towns are making me sick.

IV.

On Law

Queen: Why do you place Magistrates and State Councils trained in the Civil Law in courts in my land to judge my people. Our lawyers and people follow the Common Law system. You should know that the Civil Law is diametrically different from the Common Law in principle.

King: Because the two legal systems are diametrically opposed, I have decided that the entire country will apply the civil law system in all courts.

Queen: So you see nothing wrong in the demands of the lawyers?

King: The OHADA law code has been translated into your language.

Queen: Why did your forces of repression arrest Justice Ayah Paul, a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, from his home without a warrant of arrest?

King: Because he is stubborn and I want him and all of you to know that I dictate the law in this country. I am the law in this land.

Queen: Is that why they are taking Barrister Nkongho Bala, Dr. Fontem Neba, Mancho Bibixy and all our freedom fighters to your military tribunal?

King: In this country, I decide which court tries whoever, regardless of what the international human rights laws say.

Queen: Is it true that you allowed the arrest of 90 year old Mola Njoh Litumbe?

King: I am yet to confirm where that old man is, at the moment, but he was trying to reveal the truth of what happened in the beginning.

Queen: And what is wrong in what he did or incorrect in what he said?

King: Now woman! it is either my way or the high way to death.

V.

On Governance

Queen: This our marriage is actually “njomba marriage”. Are you taking advantage of us because this our “come we stay marriage” in which the King refused or neglected to do traditional, civil status or even church blessing is something that was always going to fail?

King: I have always prepared myself for the worst in this relationship.

Queen: When we started you agreed that both our peoples will always be represented in the first two positions in this nation. Today my person is the fourth authority in this country.

King: I understand this lame point of yours but you see, when I took the position of prime minister from the North and gave your people, I had to compensate them with the speaker of the Assembly. By the time I approved the Senate, the Bamelikis were becoming restive and I decided to offer them that one. Things just happened that way!

Queen: While we are in parliament, where is Hon. Wirba Joseph? Rumour has it that you have arrested him. Is it because of the speech that he made at the House of Assembly last year? Are you saying that even with his parliamentary immunity you still arrested him?

King: He is at large. We will arrest him on sight. Do you know that he stubbornly organised a rally in his place on Saturday January 14, 2017?

Queen: When will you ever appoint an ambassador form my land to represent us at the United Nations?

King: Never. Your people will go and dig out our marriage files, if they exist, and expose us.

Queen: What about sending any of my people to represent us in the USA?

King: Never, that country is too big and important.

Queen: To France?

King: I will not. On second thought, I might because when such a person gets to France, s/he will know who my mentor is.

Queen: To Nigeria?

King: Never, too near and could let your people back in, then I might lose Bakassi.

Queen: Since you mentioned it, what have you done to the people of Bakassi, since they joined us from Nigeria?

King: The treatment that is being given to you is the same which we are dishing out to them: Bring them in, get authority over their oil and abandon them.

Queen: Is that fair?

King: The world is not fair. If you want something, you have to fight for it.

Queen: When will you appoint a person from my land as minister of Finance?

King: Never. I give you the director of customs and impose high targets so that he can collect the money, which the minister then makes available to me.

Queen: What about the armed forces?

King: Never. Even the few of your people who I appoint as Generals, in return for some huge service rendered, I am now watching very closely. If any of them is sympathetic with this your peoples’ silly cry, I will lock him up.

Queen: What happened to the Two State Federation that we agreed upon?

King: I am now considering a Ten State Federation, just to please your people because even I acknowledge that there is a problem in this country. Contrary to some of my over-ambitious people, some from your land, I now agree that there is an Anglophone problem.

Queen: What is going to be different now compared to all the other times that you have signed your degrees? Ten State Federation is worse than the situation we found ourselves in 1961. That is why I am now filing for divorce.

VI.

On Transportation and Tourism

Queen: What happened to the Tiko and Bamenda international airports, in my land? What about our airstrips in Besongabang, Bali, Wum, Kumbo and Nkambe?

King: I abandoned them so you won’t fly away.

Queen: What happened to the railways from Kumba to Muyuka to Buea to Tiko to Victoria?

King: The same as above – abandoned.

Queen: What happened to the river ports in Ekondo Titi, Mamfe and Abongshe?

King: Same as above – abandoned.

Queen: Why have you abandoned the natural deep sea port in my land and we are paying millions to dredge a man-made seaport in your land?

King: Because I do not want to develop your region. I am the King. Enough! forget about these complains and let’s celebrate our wedding anniversary on the 11th of February.

Queen: I told you before. Let me say it again, you rejoice today because it is day that you discovered milk and honey in your neighbour’s land, got it for free, claimed it and made it yours. This day reminds me of all of our biggest error. Henceforth on every 11th day of February, starting from today, Saturday February 2017, I will join my children, we will dress in black, we will start the day in prayer, we will pray until noon, have lunch and get back to prayer until 6:00pm. I have declared this “the day of indoor mourning and prayer”. We mourn the death of a romance which never was and we pray to God to get us out of this marriage. I want a divorce. I have already filed for this divorce. Today, me and my people will remain indoors because we do not want to get out of our houses and be beaten, raped, tortured and killed.

VII.

The foregoing speaks to the story of the wealthy region known as Southern Cameroons, sandwiched between Nigeria to the west and the Republic of Cameroun to the east. After World War I, this nation was given to Britain. During the years of independence, it was considered too small and unsustainable to be an independent country, in spite of its institutions that had already been setup (the legislative, executive and judiciary) as early as 1954. On February 11, 1961, in a well choreographed referendum, in which only two options were presented to her people (be independent by joining Nigeria or by joining the Republic of Cameroon), 60 percent of her people voted to join the Republic of Cameroun.

In the last fifty-six years, the people of Southern Cameroons have watched in dismay, shock and horror how their value systems have been eroded, their culture assimilated and their way of life abused. In 2017, their people from the grassroots decided to stick together to say “enough is enough”. They are asking for their freedom from this modern day slavery in the grip of the government of the Republic of Cameroon. This was triggered by the Teachers’ and Lawyers’ strikes at the close of 2016. Negotiations by the striking workers and government failed on Friday January 13th. On Tuesday January 17th, the Consortium through which the government was negotiating was banned and the arrests of its leaders started. On the same day, Internet access was suspended throughout that region of the country and the stalemate persists till this day. As this stalemate continues, popular opinion on the streets of Southern Cameroons is tilting in favour of outright separation. The more arrests and torture of their people, the stronger their resolve to go all the way to achieve what they want. They are vowing to keep up resisting until the government truly realises their plight, releases their leaders and all those arrested in the course of this struggle so far. They are reminded and fortified by the fact that blacks in America boycotted public buses in Montgomery for 381 days to end segregation in public transport. Ironically the road on which the American Embassy is built in the Republic of Cameroon is named “Avenue Rosa Parks”.

VIII.

A Brief History of Southern Cameroons

Southern Cameroons has always had international legal status:

• It had a British Mandate under the League of Nations in 1922;

• It became British Trust Territory under UNO in October 1947;

• It attained self government with an Assembly and a Premier in September 1954;

• The UNO Plebiscite on February 11, 1961 voted 60 percent to 40 percent to gain independence by joining La Republique du Cameroun;

• It gained independence through the United Nations Organisation General Assembly Resolution 1608 (21/04/1961) on the independence and union with La Republique du Cameroun;

• Annexed by Republique du Cameroun on the September 30, 1961;

• The Referendum of 1972 dismantled the Federal character of the form of the state in violation of art 47(1) of the Federal constitution, to the United Republic of Cameroun;

• In 1984, through Law No. 84/01, the United Republic reverted to Republique du Cameroun;

• In 1993, the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) was formed. There are other groups such as the Southern Cameroons Peoples Organisation (SCAPO) that have been seeking the separation of the Southern Cameroons from the Republique du Cameroun;

• Since it is not yet a member of the United Nations, Southern Cameroons cannot report a case for deliberation in the floor of the UN General Assembly. Therefore, they could pass through a third country. SCAPO has sued at the Abuja High Court. The court ruled in favour of the Southern Cameroons;

• In 2003, SCAPO sued La Republique du Cameroun to the African Commission on Peoples and Human Rights at Banjul. The court ruled in favour of the Southern Cameroons and called them “a people with right of self-determination different from the people of La Republique). The ruling recommended dialogue.

Sisiku AyukTabe is the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia

“The struggle in Cameroon by the people of Southern Cameroons is not only because the other side is not recognising her system and abiding by the cohabitation principles laid out in 1961, but is also due to the fact that the Republic of Cameroun is completely annexing the British Southern Cameroons, wiping away all signs of its heritage and forcing its people to become the people of the Republic of Cameroun”.

I was going to title this article “What Do Anglophone Cameroonians Want?” To avoid any confusion of identity with those who simplify being Anglophone in Cameroon as being able to speak English, I want to be clear that the claims in Cameroon centre around a people who originate from a specific geographical region known as British Southern Cameroons. In this article, any further mention of Anglophone should be related to people from the then British Southern Cameroons or from West Cameroon, as opposed to anyone from the Republic of Cameroon who can express himself or herself in English. The identity issue is foremost in this struggle. Identity is far more than language. With Identity comes language, values, governance, culture and a way of life. In these aspects, the two peoples in today’s Republic of Cameroon (British Southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroun) have fundamental differences. The struggle in Cameroon by the people of Southern Cameroons is not only because the other side is not recognising her system and abiding by the cohabitation principles laid out in 1961, but is also due to the fact that the Republic of Cameroun is completely annexing the British Southern Cameroons, wiping away all signs of its heritage and forcing its people to become the people of the Republic of Cameroun.

2017 offers us a ray of hope, beckoning in the horizon. Our people now have another golden opportunity to decide on divorce from the Republic of Cameroun or to stay in this marriage of convenience and keep complaining. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. If we do today what our leaders did in 1961 and 1972, then our children, grand children and great-grand children will most likely get in 2083 and 2100 what we have now. The opportunity of this critical juncture cannot be missed!

The world is silent as the time-bomb in Cameroon is ticking to the point of explosion. Even people in neighbouring Nigeria do not seem to know what is happening next door. Hardly does one turn on the TV or the pages of Nigerian newspapers and hear or read anything about Cameroon, in spite of the over 1500 kilometres land border that the two countries share. Nigeria has an embassy and two Consular Offices in Cameroon (Yaoundé, Douala and Buea). Similarly, Cameroon has an embassy in Abuja, a consular office in Lagos and another in Calabar. Estimates put the number of Nigerians living in Cameroon at around two million. What happens in Nigeria has a direct or indirect impact in Cameroon and vice versa. The case of Boko Haram is glaring for all to see. For many people in the world, Cameroon is a country in peace. We should note that peace is not the absence of war. Behind the seeming peace in Cameroon is a growing Anglophone problem; discrimination, marginalisation and almost outright enslavement. This is happening while the world watches in silence. Unfortunately, such problems only come to the limelight when there are strikes, riots and killings.

Recently, the situation in the English speaking part of Cameroon (British Southern Cameroons) could only be described as having been totally dead. The entire Anglophone Cameroon was like a ghost-town. Reports that reached us said that from Ekok and Otu at the southern border with Nigeria, to Afab, Ewelle, Kembong, Mamfe, Batchuo, Bakebe, Tinto, Sumbe, Kumba, Ekondo-titi, Mundemba, Muyuka, Buea, Limbe (Victoria), Tiko, Bamenda, Bali, Wum, Ndop, Kumbo, Nkambe and Menchum, everything was at a standstill. There were no movements, either of people, bikes or vehicles. This was in complete obedience to a sit-in strike called by the Teachers’ Trade Union and the Common-Law Lawyers, following an impasse at the close of last year. The response was even more significant considering the fact that the government of Cameroon deployed ministers and senior administrators to the region, to meet with chiefs and other stakeholders to lobby for the strike not to be adhered to.

In their “quiet” action, the Anglophones had spoken clearly and loudly to the authorities in Yaoundé. There is an Anglophone problem in Cameroon. It should be looked into very carefully and profound solutions sought to it or the people would be left with no alternative than to go their own way. If a marriage cannot work, then divorce becomes the only solution.

Today in Cameroon, we have a situation where teachers of French origin and expression are transferred to the English-speaking part of the country to teach subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Geography, History and Physics. When I was a kid, the only French teachers we had taught us French as a language, which we reluctantly learned. Today, students who study technical education in secondary schools are taught a curriculum that is fundamentally French in nature. As if this is not bad enough, when they complete their studies and have to write the final exams, they write exams set in French. After complaining for many years, the government decided to translate the exams into English and we have ended up now with a situation where a student of Mechanics could see a question set in French as “Quel est le rôle de la bougie dans une voiture?” translated as “what is the role of a candle in a car?” While this translation is correct in verbatim, it is nonsensical in context because of the wrong use of the word “candle” as a translation of “bougie”. The correct translation would have had “spark-plug” instead of “candle”. Little wonder then that Anglophone students are failing exams even before they leave the hall because the right questions were never asked.

The French Law system (Civil Law) is fundamentally different from the British one (Common Law). The educational system in Cameroon today is such that students who go to university to study Law can either end up with a degree in Civil Law or in Common Law. However, there is only one school in Cameroon that trains magistrates and the curriculum of that school is based on the French Civil Law system. What this means is that all the magistrates in Cameroon have been prepared through the French Civil Law system and are expected to go to the English-speaking parts of the nation and adjudicate cases based on the British Common Law order.

There is no Anglophone in any key position in the Supreme Court of the nation. Of the 38 ministers with portfolios in Cameroon, only one (1) is Anglophone. Today, there is no airport in Anglophone Cameroon, but there were three airstrips in this region in 1982. The natural deep-sea port in Cameroon is in Victoria, in the Anglophone region. It has literally been abandoned in preference for the one in Douala, in the Francophone part, which has to be dredged continuously. The only oil refinery in Cameroon is located in the Anglophone part but its taxes are paid to a region in the Francophone part. Over 90 percent of the workers at the oil refinery, from the guards at the gate to the General Manager are Francophones. After a lot of pressure from the Anglophones, the government has been reluctantly creating tertiary education centres in the Anglophone region, but fills them with students of Francophone origin. The latest instance was the admissions into the School of Sports of the University of Bamenda, in the Anglophone part, to which less than five percent of the students are Anglophones. In a class of about 250 students in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Buea, less than 50 are Anglophones. The situation in the Faculty of Health Sciences at this university is even worse.

To better understand what the Anglophone Cameroonians want, let us take a walk down memory lane and see where they are coming from, why they are here, and where they are going to. The unfortunate situation of Cameroon started in 1919 at the end of World War 1. Before 1919, Kamerun, as it was known, was a German territory. After the war in which the French, British and Belgian forces defeated the Germans, the spoils of war were shared between France and Britain. This was ratified in the Treaty of Versailles. In that agreement, Eastern Cameroon was given to France and Western Cameroon was given to Britain, as Trust Territories. The British government took their part, known as the British Cameroons, and added it to the Republic of Nigeria. Before being attached to Nigeria, Western Cameroon was further divided for administrative convenience into two; Northern British Cameroons and Southern British Cameroons. The Northern British Cameroons was administered as part of Northern Nigeria and the Southern British Cameroons as part of Southern Nigeria.

In 1954, Southern British Cameroons became a self-governing territory, following her declaration of benevolent neutrality in the Nigerian Eastern House of Assembly. It had a governance structure with a legislature, judiciary, House of Chiefs and an executive branch headed by a prime minister. They built a prime minster’s lodge which still stands tall to this day in Buea. They set up democratic institutions in the region and the people there participated actively in a democratic political system. In 1959, multiparty elections were held in the Southern British Cameroons and the opposition party candidate, John Ngu Foncha won and became prime minister, replacing Dr. EML Endeley. A peaceful democratic transfer of power happened in Africa in 1959. Where did we go wrong?

The Unasked Options That Led To a Very Unhealthy Marriage

On January 1, 1960, French Cameroun got its independence from France and named itself the Republic of Cameroun. On October 1, 1960, ten months after the Republic of Cameroun, Nigeria got its independence from Britain and became the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In February 1961, a plebiscite was organised in which the people of British Cameroons (both South and North) were asked to choose whether they wanted to achieve independence by joining the already independent Republic of Cameroun or join the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The people of Northern British Cameroons (part of North-East Nigeria today) voted overwhelmingly to remain as part of Nigeria, while the majority of the people of Southern British Cameroons (today’s Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon) voted to join the Republic of Cameroun in a loose confederation. The unasked option was “whether any of the British Cameroons wanted to be an independent nation”. This option would have been in order, considering that the British Southern Cameroons had a land size of about 43,000 km², slightly larger that the 41,543 km² of the Netherlands, with a population of about eight million, more than that of Paraguay.

From July 17 to 21, 1961, the first president of the Republic of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo, organised a conference in Foumban to draw up a charter for a Two-State system within a federal political arrangement. After the Foumban conference, on September 30, 1961, President Ahidjo proclaimed into being the Federal Republic of Cameroon, and the two states celebrated unification on October 1, 1961. From thence, Southern Cameroons was named West Cameroon and the Republic of Cameroun named East Cameroun. On May 20, 1972, in another master stroke, President Ahidjo outmanoeuvred the people of Southern Cameroons in a stage-managed referendum and created the United Republic of Cameroon. In doing so, he changed the organisation of the Southern Cameroons organisation was earlier divided into six regions (Mamfe, Kumba, Victoria, Bamenda, Wum and Nkambe) into two Provinces of his United Republic; the “South West” and the “North West” Provinces. He divided East Cameroon into five provinces (Northern, Western, Littoral, Central South and Eastern).

How Long? Too Long!

President Ahidjo ruled the United Republic of Cameroon until November 1982, when it is believed that his French doctor tricked him about his health, making him resign and hand over power to his long-time associate and prime minister, Paul Biya. He remained as the president of the only political party at the time, the Cameroun National Union (CNU). It is also widely believed that in 1983, the two powerful men had a feud that led to the former president going into exile in France. In an earlier twist, in June 1983, there was a coup attempt that was foiled. Ahidjo went into exile in July, and in August he announced that he was no longer the head of the CNU. In February 1984, Ahidjo was sentenced to death in absentia for his alleged participation in the failed coup. In April 1984, another violent coup was foiled and many believed that the former president had his hands in it. Ahidjo denied any involvement in the coup. The death sentence on President Ahidjo was later commuted to life-imprisonment by President Biya. Later on Ahidjo moved to Senegal where, on the November 30, 1989, he died of a heart attack in Dakar. In one of my trips to Senegal, I felt truly sorry on visiting and standing beside the tombstone of the man who always coughed before his radio addresses, with every Cameroonian standing still. I read the inscription on his tomb, which translates to “here lies the remains of Ahmadou Ahidjo, the former President of Cameroon”. How and where the mighty fall!

President Paul Biya has been ruling Cameroon since November 1982. Yes, 18 years before the 21st century, 17 years since, and still counting. In 1984, he changed the name of the country from the “United Republic of Cameroon” back to the “Republic of Cameroon”. In the same stroke, he fractured the Northern province into three (Adamawa, North, and Far North). He met a single party in the country and reluctantly accepted multiparty democracy in the early ‘90s, in which he won elections by just over 52 percent. In the last election in 2011, he won by 78 percent. When he took over power, the presidential term of office was without limit. He changed it to two terms of five years each, not counting all the years he had ruled before that date. He changed it again to two terms of seven years, and in 2008 in another constitutional amendment, he eliminated the term limits altogether, making himself practically president for life.

Over the years, most of the people that the presidents of the Republic of Cameroon have placed in key positions in the world’s greatest organisations are Francophones. These include those appointed to the United Nations and key countries, as Ambassadors and High Commissioners. Until 2008, all the Cameroonian Ambassadors to the UN, USA, UK, Nigeria, France and Germany were Francophones. Till date only one Ambassador to these countries, the Cameroon High Commissioner to the UK, is Anglophone.

Cameroon Ambassadors/ High Commissioners to Nigeria (All French-Speaking Cameroonians):

• M. Haman Dicko – 1960 – 1966

• Hamadou Alim – 1966 – 1975

• Mohaman Yerime Lamine – 1975 – 1984

• Souaibou Hayatou – 1984 – 1988

• Samuel Libock – 1988 – 1994

• Salaheddine Abbas Ibrahima – 2008 to date

Cameroon Ambassadors to the United Nations (All French-Speaking Cameroonians):

• Ferdinand Oyono — 1974 to 1982

• Martin Belinga Eboutou — 1998

• Anatole Marie Nkou — 2007

• Michel Tommo Monthé — 2008

Cameroon Ambassadors to the United States of America (All French-Speaking Cameroonians):

• Jacques Kuoh-Moukouri

• Joseph Owono — from 1970s

• Paul Pondi — from 1982 to 1993

• Joseph Bienvenu Charles Foe-Atangana

• H.E. Étoundi Essomba — the current ambassador

Cameroon High Commissioners to the United Kingdom:

• Paul Pondi — 1977

• Dr. Gibering Bol-alima

*Libock Samuel

• Nkwelle Ekaney – 2008 (A English-Speaking Cameroonian)

Cameroon Ambassadors to France (All French-Speaking Cameroonians):

• Ferdinand Oyono — from 1965 to 1968

• Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh — from 1983

• Lejeune Mbella Mbella — over twenty years

• Samuel Mvondo Ayolo — from October 2015

Cameroon Ambassadors to Germany (All French-Speaking Cameroonians):

• Jean-Baptiste Beleoken — 1970’s

• HE Holger Mahnicke

The Anglophone Cameroon problem is real and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia