The conflict in Southern Cameroun following the declaration of the Republic of Ambazonia has created a humanitarian crisis with thousands of Southern Cameroonians fleeing into Nigeria. In this interview published by The New Telegraph, a lawyer and human rights activist, Abdul Oroh, examines the plight of the members of the Interim Government and other deportees including other issues. Excerpts…

What is your take on the influx of Cameroonian refugees into Nigeria?
The crisis in Cameroon has been there for a long time and many Cameroonians, especially the Anglophone Cameroonian in the South-West and North West provinces have been fleeing their country as a result of many years of oppression. In fact during our struggle for democracy in Nigeria, when we travelled abroad for conferences, seminars and other activities organised by the United Nations, we were always meeting people from Southern Cameroon. They were always at those fora to let people know about their situation. The problem dates back to the 1960s. The Southern Cameroonians constitute 20 per cent of the population of Cameroon as at the time they had independence in 1961.

After the defeat of Germany in the First World War, Cameroon was divided into two and a part of it was given to Britain under United Nations Trusteeship. The other part was given to France under the same UN Trusteeship. At that time, even what is now Adamawa and Taraba states in Nigeria were also part of the U.N. Trusteeship under the British and was governed together with Nigeria. So that was why in those days, we had a party called the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC). Later, South-Western Cameroon became part of the Eastern Region of Nigeria while the North Western Cameroon became part of Northern Region of Nigeria.

When Nigeria became independent in 1960, Francophone Cameroon also became independent. So what happened was that the Anglophone Cameroonians felt somewhat uncomfortable with Nigeria and the UN gave them the option to either remain in Nigeria or go with Cameroon.There was a plebiscite and the northern part opted to stay with Nigeria.

That is why we have the people of the then Adamawa Province in present day Adamawa and Taraba states.Those in Southern Cameroon voted to go with Cameroon. But before even the British packed and left completely, the Southern Cameroon had been self governing at the same time the Northern Region and Eastern Region of Nigeria were self governing.

Later, the Southern Cameroon which was part of Eastern Nigeria walked out of the Eastern House of Assembly to join their Kith and kin on the other side. But before they could do what they called the Act of the Union, which would have defined the terms of their relationship, the Francophone Cameroon had already taken over their territory. The Republique du Cameroon had already moved in troops and gendarmes with the encouragement of France.

If France, a democratic nation colonised Cameroon, why has Cameroon remained virtually under a dictatorship?
Initially, Ahmadou Ahidjo who was their first President was a benevolent dictator and he tried to make the people including those in Southern Cameroon feel at home. The first two Vice Presidents were elected from Southern Cameroon while he was President.

But in 1965, he introduced a single party system which was in vogue in many parts of Africa. Of course, during this period there were agitations for an Act of the Union because it was supposed to be a federal republic . Before independence, the Cameroonian flag had one star but after that plebiscite, it became two stars and the whole idea was to show that it was a federation of two groups. However, this federal system was not defined either in their constitution or as a law.

The Republique du Cameroon was driven by the French colonial policy of assimilation which meant that the language, culture, food and way of life would be French. Up till today, you can see that many of these Francophone countries in West and Central Africa are still using the CFA Franc which is tied now to the Euro.

Today all their foreign exchange are domiciled in the Central Bank of France. So there had been a tendency towards restoration and retaining the system they have found themselves. Some of the people want the restoration of the status quo ante, others say, let us see whether we can struggle through the system and get recognition and equal treatment. These two tendencies had been coexisting in Cameroon but none of them had ever accepted the situation in the country. When Ahidjo introduced the single party rule, he had to enforce it using military fiat but the people have been agitating against it for many years.

Why has the matter lingered till the present day?
Around the early 1970s, President Ahmadou Ahidjo had what he called a referendum. This referendum was designed to eliminate the whole possibility of having any opposition or desenting voice and he got over 90 percent endorsement. At that time, it was still the United Republic of Cameroon with the two stars on their national flag. He however eliminated the idea of having a Vice President, created the position of a Prime Minister and appointed Paul Biya to handle the portfolio. Before this appointment, Paul Biya had been the Chef du Cabinet which is the equivalent of our Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

Ahmadou Ahidjo was a loyal servant of France but after ruling Cameroon for 23 years, France forced him to step down though he was just 55 years old. They then appointed Paul Biya as the President. Immediately Biya came in, he enacted a decree changing the name of the country from United Republic of Cameroon to La Republique du Cameroon which was the original name of the country at independence in 1960 before its union with Southern Cameroon. He also removed one star on their national flag by fiat, leaving only one star on the important national symbol.

So as you can see, in Cameroon, a President can also govern by decrees without recourse to their National Assembly. The Southern Cameroonians are saying that by that act alone, Paul Biya had seceeded because he had broken the bond that united them. He has ruled for about 32 years; he has never tolerated opposition and he is not making any plans to step down. In fact they have elections this year, he’s 85 and he’s still running again to retain his seat. Right now, there are Cameroonian refugees not only in Nigeria but in Ghana, Congo, Angola, Mozambique, United States, South Africa etc. These are people who fled their country because of oppression

Does it mean there are no other political parties apart from the ruling party in Cameroon?
There are other political parties but they don’t have any significant impact on the politics of the country During the election in 1992, a Southerner and other progressives in Cameroon, formed a party called Social Democratic Front (SDF). The party won the election but the results were allegedly rigged by the French and Biya was returned.

They didn’t have any qualms about it; they simply changed the results just to keep him in power. As a result of these interferences from France you can see that almost all the Francophone countries in West and Central Africa, with the exception of Senegal, had been having political instability. Look at Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso and even Togo. It is only Senegal and even there was crisis in Benin Republic at some time.

What other factors could have been responsible for the instability?
You know that in the Anglophone countries, you have the common law system like the one we have here in Nigeria. It upholds the principle of presumption of innocence until you are proven guilty, you are entitled to representation by a lawyer and the due process is followed in prosecution.

These are all part of the common law tradition but it is not obtainable in Anglophone Cameroon. Their students were supposed to be taught in English Language. In fact they had always been taught in English but suddenly the Government of Cameroon had been discouraging that and they are now even bringing only Francophone lawyers to the courts in Southern Cameroon.

These are lawyers who speak only French and the Anglophone lawyers are now expected to speak French or cease to appear in courts in other parts of Cameroon.

Isn’t Cameroon a bi-lingual country?
The issue is not even bi-lingualism, the issue, according to them is discrimination. Those who speak English are considered inferior to others who speak French, in fact some ministers have referred to them as dogs. It is the oppression of a linguistic minority in Cameroon. Some of those people agitating for freedom can speak French because they were forced to learn the language but it is wrong to force people to speak a language. As a Yoruba, you must not be forced to learn Hausa or Igbo. As a Nigerian, you cannot be forced to speak French; that is the issue now.
Since October last year, all the schools in Southern Cameroon have been closed because the teachers were protesting. They arrested all their leaders. Instead of negotiating with these people, the government is using force; shooting on sight, burning villages, arresting people and assassinating some of them. Even members of the Bar were not spared and some members of the parliament from the region decided to leave the parliament They walked out of their parliament.
In the course of all these agitations and violence, some Southern Cameroonians met and declared the Republic of Ambazonia for their people.

Have they seceeded from Cameroon?
If you ask them, they will tell you that it is not a secession because they’ve always been two different countries and what bound them together have been removed. They will also argue that the Act of the Union which ought to had defined their relationship was never enacted by the parliament of the Republique du Cameroon. They will tell you that they have been in bondage all these years.

How come many Cameroonians are now refugees in Nigeria?
As a result of this latest crisis, about 40,000 Cameroonian refugees are in Nigeria and have been duly registered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Now, some of their leaders who engineered this breakaway are also in Nigeria. They are here because the closest land border to them is Nigeria through Cross River, Taraba and Adamawa states. Don’t forget that there is ethnic affinity between these people and the people of the three aforementioned states in Nigeria. So, they have been fleeing in droves into Nigeria. You need to visit the website of many Cameroonian newspapers to see what is happening.

At a stage, their government cut off services in that region. Since last year, there has been no internet access in Southern Cameroon.There is even a joke around it as some people now describe the situation as a conflict between the Internet and non-Internet Cameroon.

It is rather unfortunate that even though these are our neighbours, many Nigerians including our leaders do not know the problems they have been facing in that country.
In Niger too, we have the Hausa and Fulani tribes; in Chad we also have these tribes who share language and cultural affinities with their kinsmen in Nigeria.

We have the people in Cameroon who share cultural affinity with the Efik, Ibibio, Ekoi and other tribes in Cross River State. There are also thousands of Nigerians living and working in Cameroon and most of them are in Southern Cameroon.

So, Nigeria ought to show greater understanding of what is happening in Cameroon and possibly intervene in such a way that there could be a peaceful resolution of some of these conflicts. Apart from the military cooperation at the level of tbe Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) in the fight against Boko Haram, there seems to be no real contact between Nigeria and Cameroon. However, some people have alleged that there seem to be a secret pact or an unholy alliance between the two countries to oppress or suppress the agitation of the Southern Cameroonians.

They said that even under the policy of “hot pursuit,” they cannot pursue their enemies from Cameroon all the way to Abuja. Maybe along the border something can happen without the knowledge of the Nigerian authorities but even that one is closely monitored and very rare.

We later found out that they were detained by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) on the directive of the National Security Adviser (NSA). So, we wrote to the NSA to grant us access to these people. Although he acknowledged receipt of the letter, he did not respond to our request. We then wrote to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice; the Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as the Minister of Defence on the same issue but response was not forthcoming
Later, another batch of Cameroonians were arrested in Gembu, Taraba State. These were refugees fleeing their country. They were fleeing because of the violence and oppression there. They are not part of the leadership of the movement in Southern Cameroon but were arrested by the police and handed over to the military.

They were subsequently flown to Abuja and detained in a secret location. The next day, both the refugees from Gembu and the leaders of the Southern Cameroon agitation were put in an aircraft and flown to Cameroon.
Before their deportation, we had filed an action in court to grant us access to them and for them to be released but they didn’t even allow us access to them. But on the 18th of January 2018, based on our petitions, the UNHCR at the intervention of Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, was granted access to those people.

Officials of the UNHCR saw them, profiled them while they were still in detention . By that time they had spent about two weeks in detention. Many of them who were not really refugees or who had not asked for asylum used the opportunity and asked to be granted asylum.

Were they granted asylum?
No! Once a refugee requests for asylum in Nigeria, what our government should do is to set up a committee between the Nigeria Commission for Refugees, Nigeria Immigration Service and the UNHCR to review the case of the refugee(s). If Nigeria feels that they cannot grant them refugee status to stay in Nigeria, the law says they should hand them over to the UNHCR which will now transfer them to a third party. Nigeria is not supposed to send them to a country where they don’t feel safe.

They are supposed to be treated with respect and dignity but these people were detained by the DIA in an underground cell which was a dehumanising and a cruel form of punishment.
Many of them are intellectuals; their President, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe is a lecturer with the America University of Nigeria, Yola.

The other one, Dr. Fidelis Nde Che is the Director of Academic Planning at the same university; Elias Eyambe is a lawyer; Blaise Berinyu is also a lawyer. These are members of their Bar association that fled the country. Dr. Nfor Ngala Nfor who is the oldest among them is 66-year-old has been a refugee in Nigeria for a long time. He is a recognised refugee. Some others like him had requested for asylum; some are already recognised and carry refugee documents.

The other man, Dr Cornelius Kwanga is a senior lecturer at the Umar Musa Yar Adua University, Katsina, while Dr Ogork Ntui is also a lecturer at the same university. One of those arrested is an Associate Professor at Bayero University Kano (BUK) and has been resident in Nigeria since 1993. He is even married to a Nigerian. Dr Henry Kimeng is an Associate Professor at the Ahmafu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and has been here since 1987, thirty one years ago. There is also Mrs Nalowa Bih, a single mother of two kids living in Abuja here. She is a lawyer and of dual citizenship, holding Nigerian and Cameroonian passports Dr Ojong Okonghu Enoh is a naturalised Nigerian. He has a Nigerian passport and is a businessman based in Calabar.

Do you also have the identities of those arrested in Gembu?
Of course, the ones from Gembu, the first three names, Wilfred Augustine, Thank God Genesis and Nasiru Uba are all Nigerians. One of them is 21 years, the oldest, Augustine is 52. They have Nigerian citizenship and hold Nigerian passports but were living in Cameroon before the crisis.

What do you want the Nigerian government to do about these people now that they’ve already deported them?
We want a open investigation to be conducted on the treatment these people got in the hands of government and security forces in Nigeria. We need to know how they were arrested, who gave the order for their arrest, why they were arrested and why they were deported to Cameroon to meet certain death. What happened to them violates both the UN Convention, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and even our own law on refugees.

I am also demanding that those who are Nigerians among them should be returned to Nigeria; those who are not Nigerians but have been deported, the Cameroonian authorities should be asked to hand them over to the UNHCR if Nigeria doesn’t want them back in this country. It is the UNHCR that can help find a third party country for them because they are not likely to get justice in Cameroon.

The Cameroonian Minister of Communications, Issa Tchiroma Bakari, has already declared that they were terrorists and that “they will face Cameroonian justice for their crimes.” These people have not even been interrogated and they’ve not been tried by any court of law.

Are you not hopeful they can get justice in Cameroon?
You remember that I told you earlier that the Cameroonian legal system which is operational in La Republique du Cameroon ( the Francophone part) is adversarial. But these people are not from La Republique du Cameroon, they are from Anglophone Cameroon and they are only exposed to the common law system which recognises presumption of innocence, the fact that you can be defended by a lawyer and you are not supposed to say anything to incriminate yourself.

Our grouse remains that they have not even granted us access to meet them and they have not granted access to their families to see them. Some of them have medical challenges such as high blood pressure, one has kidney problem and one of the women is pregnant .

So, right now, nobody knows the fate of all these people. We don’t also know the fate of even those who are Nigerians The Federal Government has not said a word about them. Even though some media reports quoted the Minister of Defence as saying something, he did not mention their names.

Is the deportation not justifiable?
It cannot be justified. Nigeria has no extradition treaty with Cameroon and even if there is a treaty secretly signed, unless it is ratified by the National Assembly of both countries, it cannot take effect. They must go through the due process of law. The committee which the Minister of Defence said had been set up must meet to review the status of these people before you take any action.

You may recall the Abdulrahman Shugaba case who was deported to Cameroon way back in the 1980s, he was deported based on the allegation that he was not a Nigerian and of course you know what the Supreme Court said about it. The law is clear on this matter because the courts had ruled on it in the past; there is already a precedence.

You are not supposed to deport, you are supposed to protect a refugee. Even if he is involved in armed combat, that is granted but not conceding that any of them was involved in acts of insurrection in their country, they are still entitled to be treated with dignity and should be made to face justice according to the due process of law.

Culled from The New Telegraph

The Communication Secretary of the Interim Government, the Right Honorable Chris Anu delivered a very important message to Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians a few days ago, which require a critical examination in some respects.  After critically examining the Chris Anu pronouncements, Cameroon Concord News Group strongly supports the cautionary statements made by the Hon Communication Secretary. Time has come for remedial action to be taken to put breaks to chaos and reckless conduct that is compromising strategic organization of our self-defense efforts. Some individuals had gone too far to attempt to personify the self-defense efforts in and out of our homeland. These reckless and unsubstantiated claims stifled efforts at strategic co-ordination of the self-defense efforts on the ground and the support for our self-defense war efforts. Prior to the well- conceived message delivered by the Interim Government Communication Secretary on this matter, Cameroon Intelligence Report conducted investigations and came out with the result that the conduct complained of, had effectively jeopardized self-defense combat operations in some combat zones putting the lives of our combatants and civilian population in harm’s way.  Cameroon Concord News Group investigations among our self-defense fighting forces, critical supporters of our war efforts in and out of our territory, veterans of liberations wars in other countries, and tactical war experts revealed that they all were alarmed by the frequency of the statements put out claiming responsibility for attacks in ongoing combats largely on guerrilla tactics.

Pinned against a conventional army that has over the past 56 years of its war of genocide defined the enemy as Southern Cameroons civilians, that method of communication is perilous and reckless.  The experts and combatants that Cameroon Concord News talked to in its enquiry, were alarmed that a supposed commander of a liberation self-defense troops visited them in Dadi with a strange lady in his command vehicle and soon thereafter, the video of that visit was published in the social media. Soon after the publication of that video on the social media, the criminal assault against the civilian population of Akwaya and Dadi was launched with devastating consequences and territory that was hitherto held by our liberation forces was lost. That reckless conduct led to the arrest of thirty-six Ambazonians refugees in Kogi state and then the abduction of our leaders in Abuja Nigeria and now that of 4 Ambazonians and then 8 others in Calabar, Nigeria. Cameroon Concord News Group can now reveal based on information posted by persons close to the same leader, that the Kogi and Calabar arrests are linked to his actions and the mysterious woman who was with him in Dadi in that misadventure.  Cameroon Concord News lauds the spotlight brought by the Communication Secretary of the IG on the activities of this strange woman who remains a mystery even to the troops the Ambazonian commander went to inspect in Dadi and to a majority of Southern Cameroonians/ Ambazonia.  Even if she was a commander in the liberation struggle, the tactical question that begs for answers, is why was she placed on tactical communication and coordination of the war efforts in a critical strategic territory required for the prosecution of a war of survival? Why send her to contact our refugee population and other Ambazonians within the proximity of our refugees’ population and to organize a meeting which could affect the protections afforded these vulnerable victims of a genocide and war of aggression in our homeland?

Cameroon Concord News Group came out of its investigations with the conclusion that the most effective tool in successful military campaigns is an effective military communication strategy. The social media and other communication tools used by the said commander is amateurish, and indeed helps the enemy more than our ground forces staking their lives for the freedom of our homeland and the protection of our civilian population undergoing a genocide.  This lack of an effective modern military communication strategy has done so much harm to the tactical and strategic planning of self-defense operations and the ability of our fighting forces to attack, defeat or even to effectively hold territory in areas where the enemy is not present. Some of our bloggers have even done so much harm by constantly publishing information that has led the enemy forces to deploy and commit crimes against our civilian population.

The lack of an effective modern military communication equipment and strategy both for the supposed commanders living abroad, his combat forces have make it possible for French Cameroun, France and Nigeria who are supporting its genocide war operations to use technical intelligence to intercept their communications and to take pre-emptive moves through abductions to frustrate all attempts to plan military operations.  The exposure of the Dadi strange woman in the Dadi amateurish video disaster, and  the social media outings by the Ambazonia commanders and his constant field communications with ground combatants about operations of a military nature, must have provided a wonder opportunity for the cooperating and coordinating countries in the genocide in Ambazonia like French Cameroun, France and Nigeria to deploy technical intelligence, including communications intercepts to monitor and derail our effective military efforts.

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly supports the decision taken by the Interim Government to unite all the self-defense forces in our territory and to unite our self-defense efforts for better co-ordination, tactical and strategic planning.   The nature of the war and genocide against us warrants a strong, well-coordinated and sophisticated planning regarding, tactics, strategy, recruitment, training, deployments, logistics, communication, technical and human intelligence; policy and diplomatic strategies, civilian and refugee protections.  We need tactical and strategic alliances far and near worldwide from state and none actors to win this war. A strong assessment of our available resources and capacity to defend our homeland in the short term based on the public image of our Ambazonia commander and his actions and those supporting his methods have left potential state and non -state supporters to hold back.  The personification of the peoples’ struggle around an individual rather than a strong all-embracing support base may be casting doubts on the minds of our potential supports base.

It was incumbent and timely for the Interim Government to make a strong statement to reassure our state and non-state actors international support base. The statement was also warranting to bring all our fighting unites in the ground together to provide them with means of subsistence, logistics, effective save communication network, ordnance for effective operations.  Cameroon Concord News agrees with the Interim Government policy statement that war without diplomacy will not be effective and diplomacy without war will not be effective either. Both must go together. Lest we forget, the forces allied against us are an alliance built by French Cameroun with France and Nigeria. We too need through diplomacy to build our strategic alliances with state and non-state actions in the sub-region and other parts of the world. These can only be attained through diplomacy. We need a strong military response to the genocide and the colonial war of aggression to force the enemy to release our President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government and thousands of our abductees.  We need a strong military response to take effective control of our territory, and protect our people, our resources and our hard-won independence on the precious blood of the martyrs of our revolution.  These imperatives warranted a strong call for discipline and a stop to actions that portray us and our revolution in bad light and an end to the chaotic infantile personification of the peoples’ revolution.  Cameroon Concord News Group calls on Ambazonians and friends of Ambazonia to cooperate and contribute massively to the Interim Government to move this revolution in a structured manner towards our stated objective of freeing and protecting our homeland Ambazonia from genocide, external colonial aggression and conspiratorial economic exploitation on our blood and sweat.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, on Friday, March 2, 2018, announced his “new cabinet” which many analysts said was long overdue given the political issues that have plagued the country for more than fifteen months.

The cabinet, which includes Anglophones such as Mr.Atanga Nji, Minister of Territorial Administration, and Ms. Nalova Lyonga, Minister of Secondary Education, is currently the subject of many discussions across the country and among the country’s Diaspora.

Speaking to ordinary Cameroonians, the Cameroon Concord News Group gathered that Mr. Biya’s cabinet reshuffle is actually change without change as he has simply reshuffled his card.

A Southern Cameroonian fighter who called the Cameroon Concord News Group’s global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, shortly after the “pseudo reshuffle” said that Mr. Biya’s false steps would continue to motivate them.

“We will continue to strike fear in the government’s mind until we are taken seriously. I have just listened to the cabinet reshuffle, but it makes no sense to me. Our goal is to restore our independence and we will achieve that some day. The government is trembling. Last week, we conducted a successful operation in Muyenge in the South West Region and after we had left, the government rolled out its old equipment to come and stop us from advancing. Our objective is to head to Buea to wreak havoc. We need to chase the noisy governor out of Buea. He has to return to his own part of the country. This cabinet reshuffle tells me that Anglophones do not count and will never count in Cameroon. If Atanga Nji and Nalova Lyonga are considered as the best among us, then we are doomed.”

According to a Southern Cameroonian living in North America, it is clear that Mr. Biya is not taking Southern Cameroonians seriously despite the crisis which is tearing the country apart.

The Southern Cameroonian, who elected anonymity, said that “the fighting must continue. Mr. Biya is taking us for a ride. We cannot be complaining about a system that has marginalized us for decades and he is appointing the same people who have been responsible for the Southern Cameroons crisis.”

“It is unbelievable that he will be rewarding Atanga Nji who has been rejected by his people in the North West Region. Atanga Nji, an ex-convict, will find it hard to operate in the North West. We have rejected him and he should not deceive himself that he is representing anybody. He is surely representing Mr. Biya and his bunch of old people who are out of touch with the political reality in Southern Cameroons,” the Washington-based Southern Cameroonian said.

“Mr. Biya does not seem to understand what is happening in Cameroon. The Southern Cameroonians appointed do not represent anybody. This decision will not go down well with many Cameroonians, especially Southern Cameroonians, who have rejected the current political class. More people will still have to die for Mr. Biya to understand that his choices are not the best for this country,” he regretted

“How can Nalova Lyonga who caused Buea University students to be beaten and made to drink raw sewage be rewarded with a ministerial position? Does it imply Mr. Biya only likes people who work against their own people? I am really disappointed and I think the current crisis tearing the country apart will continue for a very long time,” he lamented.

According to another Southern Cameroonian living in West Africa who spoke with the Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman, it is obvious that “our country is in for tough times,” the vocal Cameroonian who has been a close observer of the country’s political scene said, adding that “our government does not understand that it is dealing with very angry citizens. Cameroon is a ticking time bomb and Mr. Biya’s action are only helping that bomb to go off when the right moment comes.”

“Cameroonians must rise up against this government that is making a mockery of them. How can we be complaining about bad governance and Mr. Biya is still appointing people who have been around for decades and have never really posted any impressive results?” he asked, stressing that “using the same people to run the country for a long time only creates the right conditions for inaction and laziness.”

“I thought Mr. Biya will bring into the government some members of the Anglophone Diaspora in a bid to appease the angry Diaspora that is doing everything to destabilize the country. If Mr. Biya does not reconcile with the Southern Cameroons Diaspora, he will be having lots of sleepless nights. The Southern Cameroons Diaspora is hell-bent on making its influence felt and over the last fifteen months, it has gone the extra mile of financing the purchase and shipment of weapons to Cameroon and these weapons are sending many young soldiers to an early grave,” he said.

“The Diaspora is a huge source of financing for the country’s development projects if the government partners with it. But if Mr. Biya and his collaborators continue to disrespect and ignore the Diaspora, then they have accepted to leave a life of instability for a long time.

As we speak, there are shipments of weapons heading to Cameroon and these weapons have been purchased by the Southern Cameroons Diasporaand some members of the Francophone Diaspora are already joining the struggle and are willing to make huge financial contributions,” the highly intellectual Cameroonian said.

“We cannot continue to take Mr. Biya’s mess. He has ruined the country and if care is not taken, he might take the country with him to the grave. Mr. Biya needs to be called to order and only a huge people power revolution can make him understand that he has taken the country down the wrong path. Our country has deteriorated so badly. We do not have good roads and our hospitals are not the best places for anybody who is critically sick. What type of country is this? Where on earth will some people be in the political arena for more than 40 years. Cameroonians have to come together to stop this bunch of old people who are destroying our country.If something is not down now, our country will go down the drain and future generations will have to pay a huge price,” he stressed.

Other observers have indicated that despite Mr. Biya’s gimmick, many Southern Cameroonians are still arguing that Southern Cameroonians will never be given any strategic positions in Cameroon. The finance, communication, foreign affairs, economy and planning as well as the defense portfolios are still being held by Francophones. Atanga Nji may be at the ministry of territorial administration, but that ministry has been sapped of its powers as election organization is now in the hands of ELECAM and decentralization is anything but serious. The presidency will continue to dictate to stooges like Atanga Nji and he will be used as a rubber stamp.

From an interview with Cameroonians on the streets, the Cameroon Concord News Group noticed that there was a lot of frustration. Jean-Philip Mboule, a street vendor in Yaounde, said that to be a member of government in Cameroon, you must be called Paul. He cited a few names like Paul Biya, Elung Paul, Paul Atanga Nji, Paul Motaze and Paul Tasong who are all members of the current government. For women, they must be called Pauline. That’s why Nalova Lyonga Pauline Egbe has made it into the cabinet. He joked that before long, all Cameroonians will be rebaptized and their baptismal name will surely be Paul or Pauline.

From every indication, Cameroon is moving toward more serious andtougher times. The change that a cabinet reshuffle is supposed to bring does not exist in Mr. Biya’s cabinet reshuffle that has offended instead of appeasing Cameroonians.

With Boko Haram maiming people in the North, Central African rebels kidnapping innocent people for ransom and Southern Cameroonians making the country ungovernable, Cameroon is sliding down a slippery slope. Mr. Biya has missed another opportunity to hold the country together. If he is alive and healthy, then he should know he has created a storm that might sweep him out of power sooner rather than later.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Nowhere in the world has there been a man whose first job on earth was a ministerial position. But never has there been a man that has failed so spectacularly as the Cameroonian Head of State, Paul Biya. Successive opposition parties in the Francophone dominated country including one created in Southern Cameroons have attempted to force the Biya regime out of power but have failed to free the enslaved people. In the thirty- five years since President Biya took office, the people of Cameroon have discovered that their own ruler can be just as brutal and corrupt like Mobutu of Zaire and the Ugandan thug, Idi Amin Dada.

Since last year, Francophone soldiers and the nation’s gendarmerie loyal to President Paul Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate have jeopardized the unity and peace that was miraculously put in place by the late president Ahmadou Ahidjo by reigniting conflict in Southern Cameroons which is home to the Anglophone communities.

Thousands of Southern Cameroons civilians have been forced to flee into neighboring Nigeria or take shelter in French Cameroun.  Hundreds of Southern Cameroonian citizens have been killed. The UN and its corrupt Secretary General, Antonio Guterres look on, as they have done on numerous occasions in Africa, unable to prevent the massacre of innocent civilians.

This is foremost a successful failure of President Biya’s leadership.  The many foreign architects of the reunification process in 1961 that led to independence also share part of the blame. It was only with consistent, top-level engagement from Paris, that the French Cameroun political elites headed by Biya were persuaded to make public the decree that paved the way for the annulment of the Federal Republic of Cameroun. The same France that helped to end the UPC uprising in French Cameroun has pushed Mr. Biya with naive paternalism and complacency into his last journey of many dangers.  Now that it has all gone wrong, the French appearing guilty of looking the other way have dragged the Federal Republic of Nigeria into the Ambazonia crisis.

The French and its multilateral donors, on whom the Biya regime’s foundation depended, are paralyzed by a dilemma of their own making and they are astonishingly shock with Biya’s low sense of judgment. Far beyond an elaborate patronage system run by grasping Beti Ewondo army generals and an ill-prepared gendarmerie, and a national dependency on French and European Union aid and sometimes Greek gifts from the US, the French and the EU donors have little to show for the billions of Euros they have thrown into propping up and sustaining Biya since 1982.

The French and the EU are reluctant to continue with the policy of throwing good money after bad. So, troops deployed to Southern Cameroons by President Biya are looting and stealing even from poor Southern Cameroonians.  Yet, without French support, there is little chance that Biya can keep French Cameroun forces in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia for another one year. French Cameroun is bankrupt. Much of the oil production has been sold forward to French companies anyway, and what is left in revenues the Biya regime must share with the army generals and CPDM acolytes.

The uncomfortable truth is that unity and peace may have to be bought with federalism as pointed out by Chief V.E.Mukete. The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, which has the greatest interests in the struggle, can also help. Some of the French Cameroun actors in this conflict including President Biya, the governors of the North West and South West regions, the SDO of Manyu, the Minister of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo are guilty of crimes against humanity. They should be subject to sanctions, and should know that they will ultimately be held to account. An arms embargo, long overdue at the UN Security Council, should be put in place immediately.

Correspondingly, ECOWAS which is hosting more than 40,000 Southern Cameroons refugees can take the lead in sending troops to protect Southern Cameroons civilians. The AU should deploy its standby forces created for this kind of crisis to Ambazonia.  Without a far more robust and high level international engagement, there are few grounds to be optimistic that the Southern Cameroons crisis will come to an end soon.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group condemns the abduction of the 110 innocent school girls in the town of Dapchi in Yobe state, North East Nigeria by Boko Haram. Cameroon Concord News stands firmly in solidarity with the families of the abductees in asking for an urgent search and rescue of the abductees.  Like the yet unresolved abduction of the Chibok school girls and the leaders of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, this latest abduction, blamed yet again on Boko Haram is an assault on the soul of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the conscience of humanity.

Coming at a time the government of President Buhari has still not found and freed all the Chibok school girls who were abducted over four years ago, this abduction is a humiliating defeat for the government of President Buhari who promised to defeat Boko Haram within the first hundred days of ascending to power. It is now obvious that only the gullible believed in his ability to deliver his many failed electoral promises considering the cobweb of political entanglements that tied him to the criminal cartels he promised to combat, let alone defeat in his first hundred days in power.

The anger arising from the inability of former President Good Luck Jonathan to find and rescue the Chibok girls was politically exploited by President Buhari along with what was depicted as a weak response to the war against Boko Haram. These factors helped Buhari to rise to power. Shortly after he attained power, the so-called “bring back our girls” political scam that masqueraded as humanitarian action to raise universal awareness for the search and secure the girls fizzled out to its political base.  Nothing has been heard about them ever since.

The abduction of the innocent Dapchi school girls is occurring shortly after the abduction of HE President Julius Ayuk Tabe the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and members of his interim government who were legally within the territory of Nigeria under the protection of international law. The government of President Buhari that carried out the abduction has since not shown proof of their existence or of their whereabouts.    Cameroon Concord News warned after the abduction by Nigeria intelligence units on the instructions of President of Buhari and his deputy President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, that the abduction could embolden criminal elements in Nigeria to escalate the abductions of persons protected by law for political, religious or pecuniary purposes.  Cameroon Concord News cautioned that the abductions that were master-minded by Babagana Mohammed Monganu, a national security adviser to President Buhari bypassing constitutionally empowered law enforcement agencies violated the rule of law, constitutional governance and Nigeria’s international multilateral treaty obligations.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees condemned the abductions. The violation of Nigeria’s international treaty obligations was condemned by significant human rights organizations such as amnesty international.  The criminal act is an indelible stain on the image of Nigeria.

The wide condemnations have not caused Nigeria to produce and release the Ambazonia abductees to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or to their families. Cameroon Concord News believes that the disregard of the rule of law by the Government of Nigeria which opted for impunity, tyranny, and arrogance of criminal abuse of power is the criminal tonic that has emboldened Boko Haram to escalate the abduction of innocent school girls whom President Buhari on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigerian has admitted failed to provide protection against abduction in time of need.   Cameroon Concord News believes that had Babagana Mohammed Monganu  advised the President to deployed the intelligence resources at his disposal to combat the crime of abduction and provided protection and security  to Nigerians and persons legally within the territory of Nigeria rather than deployed them to committing this same crime which President Buhari pledged to combat on his ascension to power, the very painful abduction of these innocent school girls would not have occurred on his watch and that of the President.  The security failures by the Buhari administration amongst countless others that include the invasion of the territorial integrity of Nigeria by French Cameroun Gendarmes and Armed forces is humiliating and portrays Nigeria to the world as a supposed giant with feet of clay, incapable of providing protection to its people and its territorial integrity.

The persistent pattern of conduct in the abduction of the Chibok girls, the abduction of Ambazonia leaders and the Dapchi school girls is troubling.  The widely condemned abduction of Ambazonia leaders deprives President Buhari the moral authority to condemn abductions in Nigeria generally and specifically that of the Dapchi school girls. The abduction of the Ambazonia leaders make a mockery of President Buhari’s condemnation of the abduction of Dapchi school girls that has occurred slightly a month after that of the Ambazonia leaders by the Buhari administration.  In effect it calls into questions Buhari’s moral authority to condemn this despicable abduction.   It portrays his government’s failure to protect the girls as intended since his government legitimized abduction by conducting one itself from the seat of power in Abuja, the capital of the Federation.

Cameroon Concord News regrets that the moral compass pins President Buhari’s admitted responsibility of his government due to its failure to protect the school girls to be more direct than he has admitted.  President Buhari needs to explain why he risked the image of Nigeria, its constitutional governance, the rule of law and its international treaty obligations to legitimize abductions for political and pecuniary motives by abducting Ambazonia leaders who were legally within the territory of Nigeria. In so doing, President Buhari provided a fig leaf of criminality to Boko Haram and other criminal gangs to consider armless civilians as legitimate targets of war for political, pecuniary, religious and other criminal motives. Cameroon Concord News strongly believes that until President Buhari produces and releases or cause to be released Ambazonia leaders, his condemnation of the abduction of armless civilians within the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will be hypocritical, disdainful and contemptuous.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

<strong>To extricate himself from this debacle of denial, Biya must face the painful truth about the nation in crisis and be under no illusion that military force can defeat the Anglophone resistance. And if the president sincerely thinks youths should assume the mantle of leadership, why, at 85 and after 35 years in power is he contesting the 2018 presidential election?</strong>

Across the world, it is the practice of leaders to address their fellow citizens by means of national broadcast, wherein they take stock and make visionary statements about the future direction of the country. President Paul Biya’s traditional youth-day address was disappointing for failing to accurately capture the state of the nation. It was obvious the president wanted to paint a rosy picture over an otherwise gloomy state of affairs, and ended up wasting a golden opportunity to honestly engage with Cameroonian youths, whose future is being mortgaged on the altar of empty grand-standing.“In the decades ahead, you will be our country’s leaders, hence the need for you to be up to the task, by acquiring the necessary skills and experience. However, first, you must understand that the “new world” which is unfolding before our very own eyes could be tougher and more unstable than the old one,” Biya noted. No one is impressed by the hackneyed mantra that youths are tomorrow’s leaders, or that they hold the nation’s future. This is trite and sounds like a broken record. The more serious questions to ask are: what quality of youth? Which future? Biya’s claims were so hollow; his diagnosis of the problems facing youths was pedestrian; his proposed solutions were empty platitudes; indicative of leadership dysfunction and apathetic indifference by the man Cameroonians elected as their president. Little surprise the speech was roundly dismissed as empty rhetoric.

It is obvious, Biya doesn’t care about youths and his promises have lost credibility with each youth day address. How can youths who have been excluded from any meaningful participation in the running of public affairs by the greed and primordial interests of the president’s generation, be ready to face the challenges in this overly complicated, globalized world? Since this generation of youths are ill-prepared to be tomorrow’s leaders, on which generation should Cameroonians now depend for their political destiny? Is it the generation that succeeds two failed generations? Is it this generation that has been demoralized, abused, instrumentalised; onto whom has not been bequeathed any values and patriotic sense of duty to the fatherland?

Few will argue that Cameroon is a gerontocracy, where a group of tired old men tottering on the borders of senile decay have taken the country hostage. The four most important personalities of the nation, together, combine for 317 years – Biya (85); Senate President, Niat Njifenji (83); House Speaker, Cavayé Djibril (78); PM Philemon Yang (71). At age 76, Laurent Esso’o has been Minister of Justice, Public Health, Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Secretary General at the presidency and is back as Justice Minister. The cabinet is full of octogenarians and septuagenarians who continue to be recycled into different portfolios. Even if their age is no problem, what about the age of their ideas? In the legislature and judiciary, the median age of the top brass is above the official retirement age of 55 years. Tired old men like Nfon Mukete, Achidi Achu, Enow Tanjong, Mafany Musonge, Philemon Yang and others in their generation, ought to have long quit the stage to become elder statesmen who, in tricky times like these, would be consulted for their wisdom and experience. Recently, Biya recycled another bunch of spent forces, all facing creeping senility; to the Constitutional Council. When will these old people retire?

The other fundamental point about the president’s address is the claim that “the situation in the South-West and North-West Regions is stabilizing.” This is a big, fat lie that fosters apprehension in public consciousness, and raises questions about Biya’s sincerity to address the crisis, beyond mere lip-service. Despite the militarization of Anglophone regions, at least five soldiers were killed in sporadic attacks, a day after Biya spoke – an indication the Anglophone resistance is not about to end just yet. Biya should stop putting a bold face on an appalling situation that has all but passed crisis point. There is no better way to work one’s name into the book of infamy.

Predictably, Biya blamed falling oil prices for the parlous state of the economy. The truth is that the economic trajectory created by low oil prices was compounded by the absence of fiscal buffers. Instead of saving for the proverbial rainy day when oil prices were high, Cameroon actually increased its debt portfolio to finance conspicuous consumption. The national debt has more than tripled since debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in 2006.Besides, huge contracted, undisbursed external loans of FCFA 3.7 trillion (21% of GDP) have become a drainpipe on the treasury. These loan obligations were signed in 2013 but government’s failure to meet the conditionalities stalled disbursement. Over FCFA 12 billion is wasted annually to pay interest on loans that are idle in foreign banks. According to the IMF, China holds the largest share of Cameroon’s undisbursed loans (36%).

These undisbursed loans hang over the heads of the largely overrated but underachieving economic management team like an albatross. The country is being denied the benefits of counter-cyclical fiscal policy tools of budget and capital spending, needed to reflate the economy; further stifling productivity in real sectors of the economy, like manufacturing. With over 60% of the populace under age 25, and with poverty stagnated at 40%; according to the World Bank, Cameroon is sitting on a power keg, given that the ILO puts youth unemployment at a whopping 75%.The government must diversify the economy and create the enabling environment for the private sector -the engine of economic growth – to attract capital and foreign direct investments and create jobs. The over dependence on dwindling oil revenues and external borrowing that has bloated the national debt is unsustainable. Instead of measures taken to boost job creation, Biya said: “As at 31 December 2017, 473,303 jobs had been identified for youths, exceeding our set target of 400,000.” Whether he was speaking in metaphor, the ludicrous assumption that identifying jobs somehow translates into actual job creation provokes a certain queasiness that betrays Biya and his speech writers as incapable of creative thinking.

With gallant effrontery, Biya parodied US President John Kennedy by admonishing the youths to: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Hear Biya: “rather than yielding to the tempting mirage of illegal emigration and undertaking a hazardous and often doomed trip, I invite you to play an active part in our great vision to achieve emergence by 2035. I believe I can safely say that the State has done much in recent years to prepare you for this lofty task.” Such glib talk is a mea culpa expression of incapacitation, and a very grave self-indictment that underlines Biya’s defeatist resignation to the fact that Cameroonian youths will continue to vote with their feet, braving the odds to seek greener pastures abroad because they see no future in a country, captured and taken hostage, by a rapacious, vampire elite that have stolen and amassed enough wealth even for their unborn generations of children.

It does not require special intelligence to recognize Cameroon is ailing. The problem is inextricably tied to poor leadership, linked to a poor recruitment process. No country, after all, can rise above the level of its workforce, especially at the leadership level. In consolidating his personal power, Biya relies on patronage networks of cronies, loyalists and tribesmen. Many youths without connections to these patronage and ethnic-clientelism networks in the system, must bribe their way into professional schools like ENAM, which opens avenues for corruption and rent-seeking. A majority end up frustrated, bitter and disillusioned. The angst and anomie driving the Anglophone resistance are deeply embedded in the generational question. The consequences of excluding youths from the commanding heights of authority in public affairs, is so bad that the best Cameroonian youths are outside the country or outside government. This tragedy is a vicious cycle: tired old men who at one time or the other, contributed to the nation’s downturn continues to be recycled in office giving them the opportunity to continue perpetuating their failure in the affairs of the nation. More often than not, they are clueless, inept and ill-equipped for the enormous responsibility of nation-building. For example, aside his nuisance and entertainment value, what technocratic capacity has Issa Tchiroma in a communication landscape driven by information technology and social media? The nation undoubtedly gets a raw deal when the wrong people get into offices. The result is widespread ineptitude. Little wonder Cameroon’s fortunes have continued to plummet just as she diminishes in stature and integrity.

In a genuine democracy or even any context, there is something absurd in one man ruling a country for 35 years and counting. It just cannot be that there are no other capable hands to continue wherever he stops! As has been apparent in the course of history, with each passing generation, the state of leadership deteriorates in double proportion. Whilst a systemic failure to sacrifice for the nation’s greatness signposts the leadership quotient of Biya and his generation, it should now be obvious that, Biya’s inability to harness the talents and qualities of Cameroonian youths, to help lift his administration to a commanding height of moral regeneration and socio-economic progress, is a regrettable personal failure. This failure has made Ambazonia very appealing to Anglophones, as a great country waiting to happen. Not even an Anglophone president under the present dispensation will alter this dynamic!

<strong>By Ekinneh Valerian Agbaw-Ebai</strong>

<strong>*Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai is a Public Intellectual and graduate of Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy. A former Research Analyst for Freedom House, he is a Consultant and lives in Boston, USA.

Members of Cameroon’s leading opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), are in Bamenda, the North West regional headquarters, where they are expected to attend their party’s annual congress.

The congress will be taking place amid high tension as unknown armed groups in the region are threatening to disrupt the event following criticisms by the SDF Chairperson, John Fru Ndi, of the Southern Cameroons struggle for independence. It is alleged that Mr. Fru Ndi called the President of the Republic of Ambazonia, Julius Ayuk Tabe, and his government arrested in Nigeria on January 5, 2018, and extradited to Cameroon in late January terrorists.

The armed groups, which have been killing and maiming soldiers, as well as kidnapping senior administrative officers in the region, hold that they must punish Mr. Fru Ndi who they accuse of having political intercourse with the Yaoundé government.

To ensure that the congress takes place as scheduled, the Yaounde government is providing top security to Mr. Fru Ndi, a situation that has further fueled rumor he is playing ball with Mr. Biya. Even the location of the event is heavily guarded, as the armed groups are determined to wreak havoc.

It should be recalled that the Biya government that is providing security for the SDF today, was the same government that maimed and killed many young SDF supporters in 1990 when the political party was launched because the Biya regime felt threatened that multiparty politics could sweep it out of power. It therefore declared the party launch illegal, thus creating a chaotic situation that resulted in the arrest and detention of many SDF supporters.

Similarly, due to threats, the SDF congress location has been changed as the owners of the previous location were scared that their property could be burnt down or destroyed. The SDF which has been seeking to bring the Southern Cameroons crisis to the floor of the National Assembly will finally hold its congress at the Congress Hall in Bamenda which many Cameroonians erroneously hold that it is the ruling party’s property.

The armed groups are serious. Their threat should be taken seriously. It should be recalled that last week, the Batibo Divisional Officer was kidnapped and taken into a thick forest and attempts by government officials to locate him have been futile. Not even his body has been located even when rumor had swirled that he had been killed. For now, it is believed that he is being held by Anglophone separatists who are seeking to restore their independence from the Republic of Cameroon.

It is worth mentioning that the SDF is known to be in favor of a federal system in Cameroon and the party chairman as well as other officials have always chided the government for mismanaging a problem that has metamorphosed into a crisis that has already consumed more than 500 lives, including both civilians and soldiers.

Despite the increasing tension, many political analysts hold that the SDF congress is necessary as it will enable the party chooses its candidate for this year’s presidential election. Many Cameroonians – both Francophones and Anglophones – hold that a new political class must emerge, as the old one has been a huge disappointment to the people.

For now, there are two candidates who are seeking the party’s top job. Joshua Osih and Barrister Mbah Ndam. But the congress will surely be a coronation for the young Osih who is very much respected in the country.

Mr. Joshua Osih is smart, bilingual, and patriotic, and he understands the people’s plight. After serving for long as his party’s vice-president and parliamentarian, Mr. Osih believes that this is the right time to help pull the country out of the political mess created by the Biya government.

His candidacy in the upcoming party election comes as a relief to many young Cameroonians who clearly hold that it is time to walk away from the ineffective and inefficient gerontocracy that has brought pain and death to many Cameroonians. Many young Cameroonians hold that the country needs younger hands to transform the country’s economic and political landscape and Joshua Osih has a safe pair of hands.

It is also widely believed that his understanding of both Francophone and Anglophone cultures makes him the ideal candidate for the post of president in a country that might implode if the right person does not step in. His moderate stance on many issues has earned him the respect of the entire nation.

Joshua Osih’s time has come. He is being considered as the comprise candidate even by Anglophones who have clearly demonstrated their frustration with the Yaounde government. Cameroon needs to heal and only someone with Joshau Osih’s temperament and charisma will be able to help the country walk away from its ugly past.

Meanwhile, the country’s political situation is fast deteriorating, especially as it is rumored that the country’s president, Paul Biya, is bed-ridden, having been struck down by prostate cancer and a failing heart. The ruling party is already falling apart with some of its senior officials taking a swipe at the ailing president. One would think only the young, ambitious and hungry members of the party would throw stones at the ailing president.

But things are slowly turning out differently.  Chief Victor Mukete of Kumba, the Paramount chief of the Bafaw, has been taking parting shots at Mr. Biya whom he accuses of being inaccessible, ineffective and responsible for the political mess that is tearing the country apart.

The 99-year-old Mukete knows he is on his way out of politics and he is at death’s door. His senatorial appointment will no longer be renewed due to age and he thinks this is the right time for him to tell it all, at least in the interest of current and future generations.

Speaking to Jeune Afrique, the continent’s most popular French language political magazine, Nfon Mukete did not spare any punches. He pulled some of his deadliest punches against Mr. Biya who himself has been out of the public eye for months now.

Chief Mukete also castigated the Biya government for appointing less than 10 Anglophones to senior positions in the country. He decried the marginalization of Anglophones, adding that none of the Anglophones who had been prime minister under Biya had been courageous or honest enough to sound the alarm.

He regretted the chaos playing out in Southern Cameroons, stressing that the issue could have been addressed long before it got out of hand. He clearly said that he would like Cameroon to be a ten-state federation, pointing out that the current extreme centralization was an error. He pointed out that federalism would enable the people to be in charge of their destiny.

He underscored that the president would be open to such an idea, adding that he had heard people within the corridors of power saying that the president was considering it as a way out of the current political crisis.

Asked why he had not written to the president about the situation, Chief Mukete said that he was not sure the letter would ever reach him, adding that Ahidjo was more accessible than Biya and that the people around Mr. Biya had created a ring of fire around him.

By Fosuh Tamajung in Bamenda, with contributions from Kingsley Betek and Rita Akana in Yaounde.

Cameroon Concord News Group accurately characterized the so-called reboot conference that held on the 11 of February 2018 in Washington DC the stillborn consortium by another name. The conduct of the reboot principals after the said conference has proved Cameroon Concord News right.

Cameroon Concord News Group can now authoritatively state that the underlying motivation for convening the so-called reboot conference was not in the best interests of Ambazonia.  In coming to this conclusion, one needs only to study the policy positions adopted by some of the participating members that predate the lawyers and teachers’ revolution. This included the period ending up to the Interim Government that finally achieved the unity of purpose towards the reactivation of the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. One of the reboot principals, Edwin Ngang in a write up, called Southern Cameroons’ youths who have laid down their lives to defend our homeland ignorant, greedy and naïve.  Prior to forming his own Ambazonia, he was a representative of the Government of Ambazonia under Fon Dinka. 

Ebenezar Akwanga another reboot principal used derogatory language not worth repeating for the sake of decency, against the Interim Government, our President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government who were abducted, Mark Barata, citizens of Ambazonia who disagree with him and a wide range of Ambazonians. Boh Hebert a key principal of the reboot conference has called for contributions and the subscription of shareholding towards acquiring a radio and television which he will manage supposedly on behalf of Ambazonians. Jacob Mbah, is a representative of Fon Dinka.  He has since neither said nothing nor Fon Dinka whom he represents in the USA.

It is on record, that apart from Akwanga and Cho Ayaba his former secretary-general of the SCYL who broke way to form Ambazonia Governing Council who support self-defense, Boh Hebert, Edwin Ngang and Jacob Mbah for Fon Dinka are vigorously oppose to the self defense option that the Interim Government has endorsed for the defense of our homeland, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  It is also on record that one of the signatories of the MoU that was signed at the reboot conference Jacob Mbah at no moment attended the different conclaves in Nigeria, has never attended any conference or meeting called to strategize on the freedom of the homeland; so also, Fon Dinka whom he represents.  So therefore, what brought these individuals with diametrically opposed positions on how to defend our people and free our country together in the so-called reboot conference?  Did some participating members write to Nigerian intelligence services independently urging them to disrupt the activities of the Interim Government within the territory of Nigeria? And did these entreaties play into the ploy of Nigeria and French Cameroon emboldening them to abduct and possibly execute the President and members of the Interim Government so as to blame the crime on these overzealous power mongers?  This may explain why Akwanga was confident enough to boast about the impending abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government prior to their first announced reboot conference, embarrassing his acolytes who preferred to feign ignorance of the crime. However, the fact that he made this revelation in the context of the reboot conference and has repeated it in the context of the said conference without any participating member protesting or condemning his statements is quite revealing indeed.   Cameroon Concord News Group has insistently revealed without in any way prejudicing the investigations which the Interim Government has ordered, that the alarm raised by Milan Atam and the very energetic, courageous and combative actions of the Communication Secretary of the Interim Government Hon. Chris Anu on getting the information on the abductions, both in the USA and in Nigeria might have prevented the extra judicial execution from occurring.

It is regrettable that the concerted actions of individuals to discredit and delegitimize the Interim Government through petitions, false reports and even entrapment to the Nigerian intelligence services might have aided and emboldened the enemy and Nigeria to perpetrate a serious crime with profound consequences to the liberation struggle of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, its international image, its treaty obligations and the international rule of law. The thirty-nine boys arrested in Taraba State about a week before the abduction of our leaders, were in no way connected to the Interim Government.  The Police Spokesman in Jalingo stated that they were not armed and were not committing an unlawful activity at the time of their arrest. There are no doubts that they were asylum seekers. But their arrest has been factored into the evil ploy to harm the Interim Government.  Did the petitions sent by these detractors serve as a base to justify the illegal actions of the Nigerian Police, the Intelligence Unit and special operations unit of French Cameroun deployed by the National Security Adviser to President Buhari to abduct our leaders, while the intention of power seekers was merely to facilitate a ban of their activities in the territory of Nigeria?  Cameroon Concord News Group investigators in Nigeria are following all credible leads to bring details of this information to its readers when and if they are available.

Cameroon Concord News Group has consistently disclosed that the purpose and intents of the reboot conference which was consistently disclosed by Akwanga, Boh Hebert and Cho Ayaba was first to form a Government since by the time of the reboot conference, the President would have disappeared, and the Government collapsed.  The abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government did not signal the end of the Interim Government as they expected. President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe stated that the struggle for the freedom and independence of Ambazonia was greater than everyone, starting with himself. That premonition guided the Ambazonia revolutionary train, to co-opt an acting President H.E Dr Sako Ikome to immediately endorse the much anticipated self-defense of our people and our fatherland from foreign aggression.  The policy statement of the Interim Government on self-defense, the banning of all elections organized by French Cameroun in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, to find and rescue of our President and members of the Interim Government and the call for unity of all the fighting forces and liberation movements was made pursuant to an overwhelming popular demand by Ambazonians at ground zero and abroad.

The people have in their overwhelming majority rejected the so-called reboot conference and its outcome. It was conceived with an evil agenda which was manipulated by Nigeria and French Cameroun to attack the heartbeat of our liberation struggle.  Cameroon Concord News Group calls on the Interim Government to intensify its efforts to find and rescue the President His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.  Cameroon Concord Group does not minimize the contributions of any leader or any Ambazonian to our liberation struggle. However, the battle for freedom is a relay in which every Ambazonian is called upon to get involved.  Over the past fifty-six years, there are persons who have been fighting this battle. They have done so at great personal risk and sacrifices.  They should take pride of the fact that children who were not born when they joined the struggle have grown up in the struggle and have taken it many steps ahead.  They have taken up the challenge of self-defense and with no weapons, no ordnance, no food supplies, and no logistics, are confronting and keeping the rapacious enemy at bay. They are doing so with only their determination and duty to our Ambazonia fatherland as their weapons of war. They are making the supreme sacrifices hoping that Ambazonians worldwide will eschew all differences and join the Interim Government so that together, the war of aggression and genocide against our people and fatherland can be prosecuted to victory.  For this reason, Cameroon Concord  News Group calls on the reboot participating members to limit the harmful impact of the harm some of the participating partners have caused to our struggle by uniting with the Interim Government to fight our common enemy.

To this I put my name

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Cameroon Concord News Group applauds the policy statement of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia on the Interim Government endorsement of the legitimate right of Ambazonians to self defense. Cameroon Concord News also applauds the commitment made by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to pursue the search and rescue with reinvigorated intensity, of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government who were abducted in Abuja Nigeria on 5^th January 2018.

Cameroun published some information on how this terrorist operation was executed. This was a special joint terrorist operation ordered and superintended by the Special Security Adviser to President Buhari, Babagana Mohammed Munagano.  Mohammed Babagana Mungano provided the participating members of the Special Operations Unit of the Presidency of French Cameroun deployed for the mission by Martin Belinga Eboutou, the Director of the Civil Cabinet of French Cameroun with Nigeria army uniforms. Martin Belinga Eboutou is the defacto President of French Cameroun due to the agony which the prostate cancer incapacitated and demented incumbent is undergoing.  The dictator whose death has been speculated in recent times, can no longer provide effective leadership on any significant matter.

Cameroon Concord News Group brought to the attention of the world that the intention of providing the participating members of French Cameroun’s special operations unit Nigerian Army uniforms was to conceal the presence and criminal activities of a foreign army in the territory of Nigeria, particularly in Abuja, the capital of the Federation of Nigeria.  The entire operation was mired in corruption of unprecedented proportions, bankrolled on behalf of French Cameroun by Martin Belinga Eboutou. The proceeds of the corrupt terrorist operation benefitted President Buhari, his Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, Mohammed Babagana Mungano, the National Security Adviser and a coterie of persons within the corrupt cartel of ethnic clansmen in the Buhari administration.

Babagana Mohammed Mungano in his outing failed to provide critical information to Nigerians about the secretive criminal corrupt operation.  Where were the Ambazonia leaders abducted? By who? Where are they? In Nigeria or in French Cameroun?  What was the legal basis for their abduction? Without confirming or denying the public statements by his ethnic Fulani brethren and Boko Haram collaborationist Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the spokesman for the French Cameroun Government that the abductees were in their custody, Mohammed Babagana Mungano, justified his criminal conduct on behalf of the Federal Government as an attempt to deny Nigeria being used to destabilize French Cameroun.  The hypocrisy in this attempt to justify the violations of international law is evident in the double standards evident in Buhari’s approach to opposing supposed attempts to destabilize French Cameroun from Nigeria.  The abduction in violation of the Nigeria’s constitution through the impermissible criminal conduct contradicts the support and sanctuary that Buhari in his first administration provided to his Fulani ethnic co-conspirators Bello Bouba Maigari and others wanted then in French Cameroun for staging a failed coup d’etat that claimed thousands of lives.  The motivation for the abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia was therefore purely actuated by corruption and a desire to enrich a political cabal formed around President Buhari to ensure his political survival in the next elections in 2019.

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly urges the Interim Government to deploy every means possible including securing the support of partners worldwide to locate and free our leaders whether held in Nigeria as some leads suggest or in French Cameroun.  Cameroun Concord News strongly denounces the legitimization of terrorism by Nigeria and French Cameroun through the abduction of Ambazonia leaders who were legally in Nigeria under the protection of international law and Nigeria international treaty obligations.   If nothing is done and this abduction left unsanctioned, it may legitimize the crime terror, threatening peace and security in the sub-region.

Cameroon Concord News Group is concerned that the message by the United Nations High Commission for the Refugees condemning this violation of international law has not been followed by a strong resolve urging Nigeria to produce the abductees and return them to the custody of the UNHCR.  The abduction is not a mere state violation of its treaty obligation; it is an interstate parties’ criminal conduct that sets a dangerous precedent in a volatile sub-region where international peace and security concerns are constantly making the international community nervous.  Is the United Nations by its timid reaction tacitly suggesting that Ambazonia left to itself, should seriously consider resorting to a tit for tat reprisal using the same methods to discourage the abduction of its citizens and leader by Nigeria and French Cameroun? How different are the pecuniary, or even political motivation for the abduction of the Ambazonia leaders different from the abduction for ransom crimes that French Cameroun Government officials have arranged with Boko Haram in the past by abducting foreign nationals for ransom? If left without a strong response and sanctions, will this abduction not legitimize the many ransom for freedom abductions against prominent politicians, their families and businessmen?

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly supports the decision of the Interim Government banning all elections in Ambazonia organized by French Cameroun. In view of the declaration of war made by Paul Biya against Ambazonia, the said elections are intended to support the war efforts of this foreign government, against Ambazonia.  There can be no credible election when the electorate is being pursued and massacred by enemy forces and many are in refugee camps in Nigeria and others are in the forests. Cameroon Concord News Group agrees that any Ambazonian or anyone residing in the territory of Ambazonia or deployed to the territory of Ambazonia taking part in the same elections must be considered a war enemy ally.

Cameroon Concord News Group holds the opinion that the long-awaited policy statement on self defense is most welcome. In this regard, Cameroon Concord News Group once more calls for the unity of all Ambazonians to support the realization of the self-defense efforts of the Interim Government. Cameroon Concord News Group encourages Ambazonians at home and abroad to contribute to the Interim Government generously towards the defense of our fatherland.  Cameroon Concord News urges all freedom loving people in the world to strongly support the Ambazonia self-defense efforts.

Cameroon Concord News Group applauds the efforts made by neighbouring communities in Nigeria, the Governors of these neighbouring states, individuals and communities within Nigeria, politicians, businessmen, churches, men and women of goodwill in Nigeria and worldwide who through prayers, financial and material contributions or other means are helping our refugees and supporting our cause.  Your understanding of our plight and predicament, despite the outrageous conduct of some elements within the Federal Government, highlights the grandeur of the human spirit and the rule of law character of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  Your support for our refugees and seeking the release of our abducted leaders and the justice of our quest for freedom are greatest appreciated. Cameroon Concord News Group is optimistic that victory belongs to the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly advocates the formation of “The 5th of January Movement” in Nigeria to condemn the abduction, that day, of of Ambazonia leaders in Abuja, Nigeria. The consequences of not holding the perpetrator of the crimes accountable for their conduct will be that, their criminal conduct will embolden criminal gangs in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa to legitimize terrorism warfare as a legitimate means of settling problems of an economic and political nature. Abduction for ransom is already a critical law problem in Nigeria and French Cameroun. Although formally outlawed in Nigeria, it is official government policy in French Cameroun. Over a period of fifty-six years, French Cameroun gendarmes and other security operatives ransom Southern Cameroonians for huge bribes to regain their Freedom. The majority poor without money perish in concentration camps and inhuman dungeons at the pleasure of colonial administrators of French Cameroun. The war against Boko Haram provided French Cameroun Government officials the opportunity to arrange the abduction of foreigners with their supposed Boko Haram partners in exchange for huge ransom money which they partition among themselves. The success of this business inspired the abduction of Southern Cameroons leaders for money.

History will retain that on the 5^th of January 2018, Nigeria formally endorsed terrorism warfare by abducting the President of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia and members of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia who were legally in Nigeria under the protection of International Law. Nigeria has been widely condemned for resorting to this criminal conduct in abducting the Ambazonia leaders. They were wards of international law. By relying on terrorist means to abduct and disappear them, Nigeria committed crimes against the international rule law, and the international peace and security value system which is jealously guarded and protected by the collective conscience of humanity. These values are protected by the international multilateral treaty regime and Rome Statute which Nigeria subscribed to and become a state party to.

By becoming an associate of the regime of terror in French Cameroun that has terrorized, disappeared and massacred hundreds of thousands of colonized Southern Cameroonians over a period of fifty-six years, Nigeria has willfully transformed its national territory and the Gulf of Guinea into a terrorist paradise at the service of criminal bands holding on to political power through corruption and other criminal means in both countries.  This new strategy of terrorism warfare aimed at abducting, killing and disappearing civilian leaders for political and economic benefits will surely be emulated and applied with great efficiency within the sub region and beyond.  The pecuniary motivations for the abductions, the use of terrorism warfare to carry out the operation in attempts to evade the scrutiny of legitimate government security and intelligence operatives, points to the existence of parallel command structures outside the constitutional structures of supposed civilian democratic governance.

The abduction of Southern Cameroons leaders in Abuja on the 5^th of January 2018 must therefore elicit an appropriate response from rule of law activists worldwide.  A 5th January Movement will mobilize Nigerians and people of good will worldwide to mount a sustained campaign against the new criminal system of terrorism warfare that was launched by Nigeria and French Cameroun in Abuja through the abduction and disappearance of Ambazonia leaders. This is not just an Ambazonia problem. It is a problem of humanity at large. If nothing is done then a few months from now, several civilian leaders in all walks of life, in commerce and industry, in politics, religion, civil administration etc will become legitimate targets of abductions for all manner of political and pecuniary interest.  Nigeria must therefore be forced to produce and release Ambazonia leaders forthwith.

Ambazonia has far in the exercise of its legitimate right of self defense not targeted civilians or persons not taking part in the international armed conflict between it and its neighbouring country French Cameroun.  If Nigeria is not pressurized to release Ambazonia leaders and French Cameroun forced by the International Community to release and Ambazonians held it captivity, then Ambazonia may be forced to employ a tit for tat war policy against hundreds of French Cameroun’s proconsuls within its national territory.  Ambazonia has already ordered them to leave the Federal Republic of Ambazonia immediately. Neither French Cameroun nor Nigeria gave Ambazonia leaders this option; they cowardly abducted them in a criminal corruption scheme unprecedented in Nigerian history.  History of human power has a life span. For this reason, Babagana Mohammed Mungano a key actor in this criminal scheme will sooner or later provide a public account of what transpired while the Ambazonia train of freedom will continue to race towards its final destination un hampered even by this criminal act.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group