Over the last eight months, Anglophones have clearly expressed their frustration with a political system that has poisoned their delight and made it hard for many of them to serve their country. Anglophone lawyers, teachers, engineers, political scientists and journalists have always complained about the system that has reduced them to second-class citizens in a country they hold is theirs too. Prior to 1993, Anglophone students could not cope in the country’s lone university. They were always cut out of professional schools as the competitive examination test papers were always in French, a language many of them never mastered. After many demonstrations in which many students were beaten and killed, the government finally thought it wise to set up an Anglo-Saxon university in Buea in 1993 to meet the educational needs of Cameroonians of English expression.

However, prior to the creation of the University of Buea in 1993, many Anglophone students had missed out on many opportunities in life just because they could not get the sound education they needed. The only salvation that was available was clearly designed for students from rich homes. The Cameroonian educational system had clearly rejected 20% of its population and going to America, Canada, the United Kingdom and Nigeria was the option that was out of reach for poor students. Poverty was robbing poor brilliant students of a bright future due to poor government educational policies. Many Anglophones have carried this pain in them for decades and the frustration has been unbearable. While many may not have had parents who could send them to rich countries for educational purposes, their courage and determination to reach those countries have enabled them to be there and that explains why there are two million Anglophone Cameroonians living abroad today and seeking to make their voices heard.

The Anglophone Diaspora is well educated, with many studying in some of the best American, Canadian and British universities and most of them have been working hard to help their siblings back home for them to study in the best possible conditions. The lack of good learning conditions in government schools was one of the many reasons why Anglophone teachers went on strike. Their objective has always been to impart knowledge to students in the best possible conditions. They want their junior brothers and children to have what they never had and this can only occur if the right conditions are in place. They deserve a pat on the back for this move that has caught the government’s attention. The international community is aware of the government’s failure to create those necessary conditions and the world is watching the government as it scrambles to prove its worth when it comes to making the Anglophone minority feel at home.

The failed 2016-2017 academic year should be considered by the government as a wake-up call. It must understand that if the disruption of the academic year by Anglophone activists has been successful, it is because it had abdicated its responsibilities vis-à-vis its citizens. While it gives the impression that education is highly subsidized in Cameroon, it has over the last decades failed to find out how parents actually finance their children’s education. Its creation of many government schools in Anglophone Cameroon is a laudable act, but most of these schools simply exist on paper with no real educational infrastructure. Many communities have worked hard to build shacks that can enable their children acquire knowledge and this has been very displeasing to so many Anglophones who clearly feel that their region is being neglected and marginalized.

With regard to the fees, members of the Diaspora have stepped in to help ensure their family members get the education that will give them the competitive edge in future. With two million Anglophones living out of the country, it is obvious that each one of them puts one or two children through school in Cameroon, be it in primary school or university. With their financial influence, the Diaspora easily holds sway over many children and parents in Cameroon and that explains why the Diaspora could easily disrupt the academic year. The government should understand that he who pays the piper calls the tune. Even when it was harassing mission schools for them to open their doors despite threats of destruction, the government simply did not understand that it was not the mission schools that were paying the fees, but members of the Diaspora who had clearly stated that there would be no school for a year in Cameroon. Private schools are for-profit institutions and when those who finance those schools declare that they will no longer pay the fees, those schools are bound to shut their doors and wait for the government to address its issues with the citizens who have clearly expressed their frustrations.

The whole notion of disrupting the academic year was thrown into the mix when pictures of Buea University students being molested by the police and militaryshowed up online and quickly went viral. This gave the Diaspora a huge propaganda tool and those pictures have come back to bite the government big time. The Diaspora which has been holding grudges against the government felt it was time to prove that it had the right muscles to challenge the government and it has indeed packed a punch. It threw the deadliest punches at the government, with many landing where it hurts the most. Students in schools across the Anglophone region were pulled out of school and made to understand that their future could not be guaranteed by a regime whose objective has always been to play to the gallery. Anglophone activists seized the moment to ensure a blank year would be declared in Cameroon. This has not been achieved, but their strategy of disrupting the academic has worked like a charm. Indeed, it has worked beyond expectation. The academic year has been totally messed up and the government of Cameroon has been portrayed around the world as an ineffective and corrupt dictatorship that passes off as a democracy.

The government has a crisis on its hands. No promotion exams have been written in Anglophone Cameroon since the crisis began and new students will be looking forward to joining the world of studies and formal learning in September. Nursery schools were also shut down during the demonstrations. With thousands of children looking forward to going to nursery school, it will be challenging for the government to handle this tricky situation, especially as there is no proper infrastructure to handle exceptional situations like the one that has given it a black eye.

While Anglophone activists have scored significant political goals, it is necessary to start looking at things differently after eight long months. An academic year has been lost. The government may say what it likes, but the world knows that all its actions only amount to a charade. However, Anglophones, especially the activists, must start doing an evaluation of their activities to ensure that today’s strengths do not become tomorrow’s weaknesses. Our children, sisters and brothers have paid a huge price. They have been at home since October 2016. This should be considered as their contribution to efforts at reshaping Cameroon, both politically and economically. It is now time to give them a chance for them to return to school.

While it could be argued that the government could only feel the pinch if students stayed out of school, it would also be necessary to understand that the school boycott could have a significant long-term adverse impact on the children whose life the struggle seeks to reshape. In the absence of school over the next academic year, many students may simply skip school forever and their destiny will be ruined by a struggle that was designed to help them have a better life. Two academic years could be a long time in a girl’s life. In the absence of school, our young sisters and daughters will surely become vulnerable and there will always be people around to exploit that vulnerability. Many of them might become prey to predators and this could spell danger to a region that is seeking to fix everything at the same time. Anglophones are right in their quest for political and economic redress, but the search for redress should not pushed them into shooting themselves in the foot. The students can still return to school while the activists continue to pile pressure on a government that is already collapsing under the weight of age and illnesses.

Anglophone activists are a bunch of intelligent people. They can come up with new and innovative ways to pin down the government until it agrees to give the people what they want. But keeping children at home is like spoiling the future Anglophones want to fix. The key to a bright future is an education. Education, no matter how bad it may be, is better than ignorance. Living in ignorance is like living in perpetual darkness and that is not what we want for future generations. It is time to keep children out of the struggle. They have paid their own price and it is time to let them walk freely and happily to school so that they can look forward to replacing us wherever we are. Without an education, especially for the girl child, our future as West Cameroonians will be bleak. We do not want to build a nation or a region of illiterates or people who will carry the spirit of war in them all the time just because they have been robbed of that promise that could have put them in the world of great opportunities. Let’s give them a chance. The struggle should continue and must continue, but our children should be left out of it. I know this not going to be music to many ears, but if we want a bright future for our region, the region we all love, then we must let our children go back to school. Sending children back to school will not be a weakness. Our activists have demonstrated that they are capable of rendering West Cameroon ungovernable. This message has gotten across and I think the government will strive as much as it can to ensure that such a sticky situation does not end up on its hands again.

There are no doubt as to how the government can be made to feel the pain, but this advocacy for our kids to return to school cannot be the right place to throw up new ways that can make the government understand that an entire region is mad at it. The Anglophone community has smart and intellectual activists who can come up with new and innovative ways that will force the government to the negotiating table. Let’s not sacrifice the future just because we want to achieve our common goal today. This request is also a call for Anglophone activists to come up with new ways to challenge government authority in West Cameroon. Let’s take our children’s education and future out of the equation. Let’s use the same means that were employed to keep them out of school for one academic year to send them back to school. Let those call centers that were set up in Toronto, Houston, Washington DC, to advise parents not to send their children to school be used today to advise parents to let their children go back to school come September. Sending our children to school is not synonymous with yielding to government pressure. It is just testimony to our ability to reassess our strategies and to reinvent ourselves so as to achieve the bigger goal – that of achieving federalism or an independent Southern Cameroons.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey
Contributing Editor
Cameroon Concord News Group

About the Author: The author of this piece is a keen observer of Cameroon’s political and economic landscape. He has published extensively on the country’s political and economic development, especially in the early 90s when the wind of change was blowing across the African continent. He has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

The lull in the Anglophone problem that has rocked Cameroon for more than eight months seems to give onlookers the impression that things are gradually returning to normal in Cameroon. This is not the true picture of things. The truth can only be found out if you scratch beyond the surface. The reality is that tempers are still flaring up among Anglophones as the government dilly dallies over the issue of federalism and the pseudo-trial of Anglophone leaders and others in courts considered by the English-speaking minority as Kangaroo courts. The struggle that has been driven by the Anglophone Diaspora is considered by many back home as the only opportunity for them to emerge from the second-class citizenship that the government has imposed on them for a very long time. This feeling of failure is striking fear in many minds in West Cameroon, as a total collapse of the struggle will spell doom for those arrested and jailed for daring a government that lacks the will and ability to pull its people out of the jaws of poverty.

For many Anglophones, the arrest of Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla, Dr. Fontem Neba, Retired Chief Justice Paul Ayah Abine and Mr. Mancho Bibixy will continue to generate tensions between Anglophones and the government which has never really proven the charges it has brought against these Anglophone leaders who are determined to change the status quo and even lay down their lives just to bring federalism to a country wherein disguised dictatorship has prevailed for more than fifty years. The continuous postponement of the sentencing of these Anglophone leaders has created a lot of tension in the country. Last week’s postponement of the sentencing has angered Anglophones, with SCNC extremists declaring that the government is skating on thin ice. They say they are running out of patience with the government regarding the continuous detention of innocent Anglophones. The government’s delaying tactics are poisoning its relationship with its English-speaking minority that has displayed a developed sense of purpose and unity over the last eight months.

From every indication, the government is yet to measure the impact of the impasse on the country. Its refusal to discuss the governance structure of the state is unfortunately radicalizing even the moderates and federalists. The current situation is giving secessionists a huge opportunity for them to take their gospel of Balkanizing the country to all the nooks and crannies of the world, especially where there are high concentrations of Anglophones. And they are quietly winning hearts and minds. This situation is generating new radicals, most of whom are swearing that the next academic year will not take off, if the government does not bring the various factions to the negotiating table. It should be recalled that the last academic year had been disrupted and while the government might have hastily organized GCE Advance and Ordinary Levels exams, the issue of class sizes will surely be a challenge, as students across the Anglophone region did not write any promotion examinations. It will be more challenging in the junior classes, as new pupils look forward to moving into the primary level from nursery schools.

The issue of security is also on many minds. Over the last month, the issue of security has been a nightmare that will not go away anytime soon. The demonstrations have pushed security officers from many cities in Anglophone Cameroon. This was responsible for many parents deciding that their children should stay at home. With the government unable to provide security across the country, many cloak-and-dagger organizations have emerged, and they are acting under the cover of darkness to destroy state property and assets owned by individuals who are not complying with calls for ghost towns in West Cameroon. Though the government has announced the recruitment of more army soldiers and police officers, Anglophone groups battling the government are not bothered about the government’s plans to expand its military force. They argue that the soldiers are not well trained and are not very patriotic, as they accuse those in power of corruption and nepotism.

In remote places like Eyumojock and Akwaya, the government is conspicuously absent. The rule of the people has replaced the semblance of law and order that had existed prior to the commencement of the Anglophone problem. In Akwaya, the people have simply taken the law into their own hands. While Anglophones have been victims of marginalization, the people of Akwaya have seen the worst form of marginalization. Lack of roads, hospitals, schools and other facilities have left the people with bitter feelings, but the unlawful arrest and detention of retired Chief Justice Paul Ayah Abine, a prominent son of Akwaya, is one bitter pill the people of Akwaya cannot swallow and this is radicalizing the entire sub-division.

The detention of Anglophones in Francophone Cameroon is generating lots of tension and it has created a stalemate that is taking a toll on the government and the country’s economy that has been on life support for a very long time. The recent International Monetary Fund loan of CFAF 366 billion to Cameroon is testimony to the fact that the country’s economy has taken a turn for the worse. While declining oil prices are mainly to blame for the economic catastrophe, the Anglophone problem that has been marked by a series of long ghost town operations and a disruption of government activities has also played a significant role in bringing the economy to its knees. The government is still reeling from the blow it took to the liver as a result of the Anglophone problem. It is faced with a Hobson’s choice, as the only other option is secession. It stands to gain if it goes to the negotiating table to find long-lasting and peaceful solutions.

The IMF loan is, for sure, a shot in the economy’s arm, but its effectiveness will be tested when the government starts investing the money. Many opponents of the government hold that the government’s financial performance has been,at best, dismal. Corruption and inefficiency have become the government’s hallmarks. Under Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge, Cameroon topped the global corruption chart for two years running, stealing the show from Nigeria. Prudent management, many Anglophones say, is a foreign concept to the government of Cameroon and the country’s authorities are not repentant about the economic mess they have created for their fellow compatriots. Unemployment and inflation are blighting the lives of ordinary Cameroonians and many young graduates, especially graduates of West Cameroon descent, do not see any hope in the future.

Over the last two months, the government has been dangling the carrot as a means to display its determination to make Anglophones feel at home in Cameroon.This, in the hope that tempers will calm down for it to return to its old ways. It has decided to grant more Anglophones access to ENAM, Francophone judges and administrators are being withdrawn from West Cameroon and there will soon be a common law bench at the Supreme Court. But Anglophones are not buying into this, as they consider government efforts as a hoax. Secessionists argue that the government is closing the barn after the horse has bolted. They say all these efforts are not really reducing tensions in the country. Anglophones are hell-bent on changing the country’s governance structure. They hold that the unitary system has been an ill wind to them, robbing them of their dignity and delight. They stress that a federal system will inspire hope, as the different regions will have to manage their own resources and undertake development projects that meet the people’s need.

But the government is still forging ahead with its plan, hoping that its strategy will buy it some time. Despite advice from the Holy See that the issues be addressed amicably and very fast, the government is still trying to play the old game that has embarrassed it across the globe. The stalemate seems to be serving its purpose as it leaves it with the impression that Anglophones are running out of steam. The unsettling stalemate appears to be good news to the government whose strategy all through has been to let time do some of its heavy lifting. It is true that time is always useful in certain circumstances, but the Anglophone problem is, for sure,a more challenging issue which will not go away anytime soon, more so because five million Anglophones are on the same page and their determination to destabilize the regime is unrelenting. They have suffered marginalization for more than five decades and the current unemployment and poverty that have reduced many Cameroonians into paupers is making things worse. Anglophones have decided to close ranks to face up to a government that has portrayed itself as a Frankenstein monster.

But despite this bitterness, the government is still pursuing its agenda. Last week, it organized its own version of the Diaspora forum with many Anglophones boycotting it, especially Anglophones in North America who have a huge war chest and the wherewithal to set up huge corporations that can help reduce the country’s unemployment significantly. The meaningful Anglophone Diaspora holds that it does not need government money. Unlike those who attended the government’s version of the Diaspora forum, the Anglophone Diaspora holds that it only needs good policies and a business-friendly environment. Many members of the Anglophone Diaspora say they want to come into the country to develop the country’s real estate sector which is clearly begging for investments. Cameroon needs millions of modern homes, but the government’s poor policies and mismanagement have gone a long way in transforming the country into an open air landfill. They hold that poor town planning has reduced the country’s cities to slums, adding that huge financial injections from the Diaspora could help turn things around. Members of the Anglophone Diaspora want to bring the North American mortgage system to the country; a system that has generated a lot of wealth for Anglophone Cameroonians living in the United States and Canada. They hold that they are capable of establishing strategic alliances with banks and developers, if the current system gets changed. They argue that the unitary system cannot spin a lot of opportunities and wealth for many people, stressing that the richest countries in the world are indeed federal systems.

In many parts of the world, especially in developing countries, the Diaspora has been recognized as a key factor in efforts at attaining sustainable levels of development. In countries such as Tunisia, Zambia, Morocco and Cape Verde, the Diaspora is helping to turn things around in these countries. In today’s global economy, marked by reducing development aid, many developing countries like Cameroon have very few options to spur growth and sustain long-term socioeconomic development. Poor policies, declining foreign aid, and decreasing opportunities in the global economy have sharply reduced Cameroon’s options for growth and competitiveness. Its best option will be harnessing the Diaspora as a viable option to spur growth. But the country’s current government has been considering the Diaspora, especially the Anglophone Diaspora, as a destabilizing force. Unlike many other African governments, the government of Cameroon is still playing hard ball when it comes to dealing with the Diaspora. It is yet to approve dual nationality and the idea of letting the Diaspora vote in future elections is still a distant tomorrow affair. This is creating a lot of frustration among members of the country’s Diaspora and these hard working Cameroonians living out of their country are determined to rob the country of the peace it needs if their pleas are not heeded.

The government of Cameroon needs peace, but it hardly practices justice and this explains why the country is gradually falling apart. The government needs to understand that Cameroon’s Diaspora has come of age. The Anglophone Diaspora, in particular, has many men and women of significant financial power and they want to play a key role in their country’s political and economic space. The Anglophone Diaspora has, over the last eight months, proven that it is a force to reckon with when it comes to determining the course of politics in Cameroon. The Anglophone problem has clearly demonstrated that working with the Diaspora is an idea whose time has come, especially the Anglophone Diaspora which has shown a clear sense of purpose and unity. The Diaspora has run the struggle and it has been very effective. Its punches to the government have hit their targets, with many of them landing where it hurts the most. The government stands to gain if it starts negotiating with the Diaspora to ensure that last year’s chaos that brought about the closure of schools and courts does not rear its ugly head. While the stalemate could be sending out false signals of demonstration fatigue, the government must make sure that all the stakeholders in this dispute that has given the country a bad name are brought to the negotiating table. Without such an action, the government should be rest assured that it is skating on thin ice and with September fast approaching; Cameroon will be back in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons if the issue of federalism is not laid to rest.

By Joachim Arrey, Ph.D
Contributing Editor
Cameroon Concord News Group

About the Author: The author of this piece is a keen observer of Cameroon’s political and economic landscape. He has published extensively on the country’s political and economic development, especially in the early 90s when the wind of change was blowing across the African continent. He has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

The Anglophone problem that has played out for more than seven months in Cameroon seems to be fizzling out, especially as the government is quietly yielding to demands made by Anglophones. Last week, the government finally yielded that the country’s Diaspora is a key element in the country’s efforts to overcome unemployment and poverty. After many years of pressure from Cameroonians living abroad, the government has finally yielded by creating a Department of Diaspora Affairs in the Ministry of External Relations. The department will seek to address issues facing Cameroonians living abroad and will enable them invest back home if they so wish. In the same vein, the Minister of External Relations will host a Diaspora forum in Yaounde from 28-30 June 2017 and prominent on the agenda will be possibilities of acquiring property back home while living abroad and how to invest in Cameroon.This is an acknowledgement of the role the country’s Diaspora can play in its development efforts.

From every indication, Cameroon’s Anglophone minority is gradually changing things in the country. What started as a street demonstration organized by lawyers and teachers is transforming the country in a way nobody could have imagined. Today, the country is slowly being reformed and bilingualism that has existed on paper for many decades is gradually becoming a reality. Francophone ministers who saw English as a foreign language are gradually learning and expressing themselves in English. It was a pleasure to see the Minister of External Relations, Lejeune MbellaMbella, deliver an entire speech in English during a press briefing on Friday, June 23, on the upcoming Diaspora forum. It was indeed amazing to see him deliver that in perfect English. This may not be music to the ears of Anglophone extremists, but they must also understand that it is also a mark of humility and objectivity to acknowledge efforts the government is making to defuse the tension. If any meaningful dialogue has to take place, Anglophones must learn to acknowledge that some steps have been taken to make life better for them, although real issues still linger.

The issue of dual nationality that many members of the Cameroon Diaspora are looking forward to, might not feature on the agenda of the upcoming Diaspora forum and this is pushing many members of the country’s Diaspora to question the rationale behind such a forum when a key issue is being intentionally left out of the agenda. It should be mentioned that the creation of the Diaspora Affairs Department is the latest in a series of measures the Yaounde government has taken to appease Anglophones who are threatening to walk away from their Francophone counterparts if the government does not address the issues they have put on the table for discussion, and in the event of such an unfortunate situation, they will be walking away with more than 40% of the country’s wealth, especially oil and gold as the South West Region of the country is endowed with many mineral resources.

The government has been seeking to placate Anglophones since its intimidation strategy flopped. It has created a special section at the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM), the school that trains magistrates and administrators, and some eighty Anglophones will soon be admitted and trained in this school to be transferred to different locations in the Anglophone region. Similarly, only Magistrates and judges with sound common law knowledge will be transferred to Anglophone Cameroon as a confidence building measure.

In the same vein, a common law bench has been established at the country’s Supreme Court and it will be headed by an Anglophone. There are also plans to withdraw Francophone teachers from schools in Anglophone Cameroon, especially in technical colleges where many Francophones teachers have been plying their trade to the dismay of Anglophone students who hold that their Francophone teachers have only rudimentary knowledge of English.
While many moderates and government supporters are hailing these confidence building measures, many Anglophones are still skeptical about the government’s intentions, claiming that the Francophone dominated government cannot be trusted as its dishonesty is legendary. They argue that the government is used to speaking from both sides of its mouth and its promises are not worth the paper on which they are written. They claim that the confidence-building measures may be designed to win hearts and minds in the Anglophone region given that there are elections in the offing. It should be recalled that due to the Anglophone problem, the ruling party has died a natural death in the Anglophone region as most Anglophones do not want to have anything to do with a political party that has helped to enslave them for decades.

The Anglophone Diaspora, for its part, is still calling on Anglophones to keep an eye on the ball. They argue that what appears to be the light at the end of the tunnel may not necessarily be the natural light desired by Anglophones, but the light of an on-coming train that may crush them. They warn that it is too early to celebrate or embrace the government as their leaders and some one hundred Anglophones are still languishing in jails in Francophone Cameroon where they are being held and tried in courts considered by the Anglophone minority as Kangaroo courts.

The Anglophone Diaspora also argues that the main issues remain unaddressed. Federalism which was among the grievances remains a sticking point as government surrogates and the country’s president had earlier declared that the form of the state was non-negotiable and was not up for discussion. Anglophones hold that the unitary system has been an ill-wind to them. It has robbed them of their dignity and made life unbearable for many who could neither speak nor write French. Members of the Anglophone Diaspora argue that with the backing of the French government, the government of Cameroon has marginalized Anglophones for more than five decades. They hold that the government’s marginalization policy is responsible for them leaving their country for distant lands where destructive loneliness and biting cold are blighting their lives.

In their view, this is their opportunity to get all their grievances addressed. For federalists, they are looking forward to the day they will be able to manage their own affairs without the Francophone government in Yaounde imposing a lot of things on them. They hold that a federal system that grants the regions greater autonomy and the right to elect their own governors and mayors will be ideal for them. They say they are sick and tired of government appointees who disrespect and impoverish the population just because they owe their positions to the head of state. They argue that anything short of that will only go a long way in prolonging the stalemate that is crippling the country’s economy and giving the government a black eye.

For the secessionists, they think that the government is guilty as charged and its efforts to appease Anglophones constitute an admission of guilt. They argue that having a clean break with Francophone Cameroon will be the ultimate solution as the past decades have clearly pointed out that no Francophone government in Cameroon can be trusted. The secessionists, led by SCNC, have taken their gospel to all the nooks and crannies of the world and they are winning many hearts and minds, as the government delays to make a decision on the form of the state. They assert that Anglophones and Francophones have ways of life that are clearly at variance. Anglophones are participatory in their approach while Francophones are very centralizing and they consider the president as a demi-god. They claim that a divorce from Francophone Cameroon will be the ideal solution, an idea many Francophones are really averse to.

To bridge the gap in thinking, the government has recently established a bilingualism commission chaired by Mr. Peter MafanyMusonge, a former prime minister who is being criticized by Anglophones forspreading hate speech against people from the North West region of a Cameroon as a strategy to split the Anglophone minority and kill the Anglophone struggle. Mr. Musonge who had not measured the anger of the Anglophone minority, had thought old ways would help bring about peace in the marginalized Anglophone region. But he later learned that Anglophones had learned the lessons of the past and would not yield to the government’s divide-and-rule tactics.

However Anglophones are more focused on the big picture. They argue that addressing the injustice that has been theirs over the last five decades does not start and end with setting up an emasculated commission on bilingualism. Theyargue that the system is an Augean stable and it is time to cleanse it. They point to the appointment of senior police officers and the military brass. Cameroon has more than thirty army generals, but Anglophones do not have more than three generals even though they account for 20% of the population. They also point to the running of state-owned corporations as testimony to the marginalization that has become normal in a country that is supposed to theirs too. It should be pointed out that an Anglophone has never been the managing director of the country’s oil refinery, SONARA, even when the refinery and oil fields are located in Anglophone Cameroon. 95% of SONARA staff are Francophones and these employees have been treating Anglophones with contempt.

It should be recalled that Anglophones have some of the finest petroleum engineers Cameroon can boast of. Many of them have been trained in some of the best American, Canadian and British universities, but because of government marginalization and injustice, many of these world-class engineers are plying their trade in distant lands such as Canada and the United States. Canada’s Alberta oil sands bear the hallmarks of Anglophone Cameroonian petroleum engineers. Houston, the United States petroleum headquarters, is home to some of the finest Anglophone Cameroonian petroleum experts, many of whom are occupying senior positions, but cannot go back home to serve their country because of flagrant injustice against Anglophones.

While the government is working hard to appease Anglophones, many political experts are advising the country’s minority to keep its eye on the ball. The end goal is not yet attained. Anglophones are sick and tired of a unitary system that has caused a lot of pain and suffering in the country. It is a system that is predicated on cronyism; a system wherein a party stalwart can hold more than three top positions while the poor keep on dying in heart-breaking circumstances. While federalism is not a panacea, federalists hold that it will surely go a long way in reducing the corruption that has become the current system’s hallmark. They hold that it will give Cameroonians the ability and opportunity to determine their own fate and destiny.

But fans of the unitary state, many of whom are Francophones, hold that it is an ideal system. For decades, a few who have had the opportunity to be part of the cabal have played God and they have been working very hard to sustain the status quo. The Anglophone minority has succeeded to sell its story of federalism to many Francophones and many are also looking forward to the creation of that federal structure that will reduce their pain and suffering. If anybody had doubts that a few can change a system, Anglophones in Cameroon have the answer. But while rejoicing, they must still keep their eye on the ball. The light at the end of the tunnel may not be genuine. Though the cloud is still dark, it is possible to see the first signs of the silver lining on that thick, dark cloud. Cameroon is changing and will surely be changing for the better. The government may be dragging its feet on the issue of federalism, but the only other option is secession. The government of Cameroon has never given anything to Anglophones on a platter of gold. For those who have a good memory, they can attest to the fact that the GCE Board was established after many Anglophones had been arrested and brutalized. The University of Buea, an Anglo-Saxon university, was established in the early nineties after the frustration of Anglophone students had boiled over. A few lives were lost, but the university was granted. It is therefore normal for the government to drag its feet on the issue of federalism, but it will finally yield, especially as Anglophone activists have demonstrated that they have the capacity to make the Anglophone region ungovernable.

By Joachim Arrey, Ph.D
Contributing Editor
Cameroon Concord News Group

About the Author: The author of this piece is a keen observer of Cameroon’s political and economic landscape. He has published extensively on the country’s political and economic development, especially in the early 90s when the wind of change was blowing across the African continent. He has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

For over seven months, Anglophone Cameroonians have been staging a rebellion that has shaken the country’s government to the core. One would have thought that after such a long period, Anglophones would be tired of the strikes that have disrupted an entire academic year and put courts out of business. Many businesses have collapsed and Silicon Mountain, a software development hub in the South-West regional capital of Buea, is struggling to find its feet after months of government shut down of the Internet and rigorous ghost town operations called by the now outlawed Consortium. Faced with a huge challenge, the government has been helpless. Instead of coming up with effective and reliable policy measures, the government has opted to count on time as a key ally in its bid to make mincemeat of the Anglophone struggle.

The government has miscalculated on many scores. From the beginning, it did not understand that Anglophones were unanimous in their decision to challenge a government whose political decisions have brought a lot of hardship onto many Anglophones. Anglophones have a developed sense of purpose and their sense of unity has established a strong and unbreakable bond among them. Tough times have transformed them into tough people. This resilient people have remained united and steadfast to their principle and their demands have continued to expand over time. Though their initial demands for a federal system of government had been met with ferocious brutality by the government, their will to right the wrongs of the past remains very strong. And this is giving secessionists a field day. Many of them are working hard to win hearts and minds among moderate Anglophones who, right from the beginning, stood for a federal system that will give the regions greater autonomy and authority over their lives.

Secessionists are winning bigly.  The brutality of the military as well as the arrest and detention of many Anglophones and their leaders have made Anglophone Cameroonians to think that an independent Southern Cameroons will be the appropriate answer to their problem. Over the last couple of months, the drums for a federal system of government have become silent while the call for a return to statehood has gained a lot of traction. The radicals, for their part, are calling for outright secession, as they think that the Yaounde government will never be as good as its words, although it has promised to undertake reforms that will address some of the issues that have been raised by the country’s English-speaking minority.

Though not many Anglophones will agree that the government has done a lot to appease Anglophones, it is fair to point out that the government has, over the last months, taken many steps to manifest its genuine intention to address some of the issues that caused the political crisis that has cast it in very bad light. The government’s mismanagement of the crisis has given it a bad name. The ferocious brutality that followed the protests has placed the government on the same stratum as Hitler’s Germany. The arrest and detention of journalists, as well as the media censorship that followed the protests for a federal system have left the government with a blood-shot eye. The government has a lot to do to regain its lost reputation.From the beginning, Cameroonian authorities got it all wrong. The decisions they took to fight Anglophones only turned out to be counter-productive. Their actions have proven that they are frozen in time. They failed to understand that ICTs had connected the world and a little action in one part of the world could be seen in less than no time in other parts of the globe. The Internet has simply revealed that Cameroon is still that bastion of brutality that many people around the world did not know about prior to the neatly planned Anglophone rebellion. Cameroon was only famous for its football and phony peace. But this has now changed. The government is today among the greatest abusers of human rights. Many human rights reports have called the country’s human rights records into question.

On the democratic front, the government has been erroneously priding itself on its bogus democratic credentials, while ordinary citizens continue to deal with abuses. Anglophones have been complaining about marginalization in many spheres of life and the government has recently gone into a charm offensive and it is today bending over backwards to prove that Anglophones are key members of the country. A special section has been created for English-speaking Cameroonians at the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM), the school that trains magistrates and administrators. The entrance examination into the school has been launched and the government is doing all it can to prove that the errors of the past could be addressed and that the country could be one and indivisible. Similarly, some Francophone Senior Divisional Officers have been withdrawn from the English-speaking part of the country and they have been replaced by Anglophones who understand the culture and thinking of the country’s English-speaking minority. There is a special section for the practice of the Common Law in the country’s the Supreme Court. These steps, though few, are still laudable.

But for many Anglophones, there is no love lost between the people of former Southern Cameroons and the Yaounde government that had signed an unholy alliance with the French to rob Anglophone Cameroonians of their dignity and culture. Many Anglophones hold that the government is unfortunately shutting the barn after the horse has bolted. Years of marginalization have left their mark on the Anglophone psyche, with almost two million Anglophones fleeing the country and residing in countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, Canada, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. From the look of things, it will take a lot of negotiations and appeasement for Anglophones to forgive and forget. Many have lost their loved ones due to government brutality and marginalization. Their country has neglected them for more than five decades. Anglophones hold that the government has been more interested in their region’s wealth than in the people who inhabit that region of the country.

It should be recalled that Cameroon’s oil fields are located in the South-West region of the country and this region alone accounts for more than 30% of the country’s wealth. The entire Anglophone region is blessed with many resources, including oil, gas, diamond and timber. Its rich sub-soil has brought lots of economic benefits to the country. For almost 50 years, the Rio Del Rey estuary has been the source of more than 90% and at times 100% of all the country’s hydrocarbons, specifically oil.In 2014, Cameroon exported US$5.88 billion worth of products, of which US$2.65 billion, about CFAF 1,650 billion, was from crude oil. Though global oil prices have, in recent times, taken a nosedive, Cameroon still makes a significant amount of money from oil sales, as production has increased over the last years. The government stands to gain if it heads to the negotiating table with Anglophone leaders, many of whom are either in jail or in exile. And the more Anglophones you have out of the country, the more chaos they can create for the country. Many are mad at the government for not granting them a chance to also serve their own country. Over the last thirty years, not many Anglophones have occupied ministerial positions in Cameroon and certain strategic ministries are out of reach to Anglophones. For more than five decades, no Anglophone has ever headed the ministry of defense. The ministry of finance is a preserve of Francophones, while the ministry of foreign affairs is a no-go-area for Anglophones. This is the kind of injustice and marginalization that have transformed Cameroon into a land of chaos.

Today, schools in the Anglophone region are in total chaos. While the government is giving the impression that all is well, the people in the English-speaking region know that things have really fallen apart. Many Anglophone children are not writing end-of-course exams. After more than six months at home, it will be preposterous for any reasonable person to take such exams. However, there is still a glimmer of hope. The government has till August to address some of those issues that have antagonized the English-speaking minority. If the right policy decisions are taken, the next academic year could take off without hitches. But if the government is still leaving everything to time and luck, then the country will go through a long period of political turbulence, as the next academic years will face the same challenges that have made it hard for young Anglophones to go to school this year.

While anger may have increased the love for statehood among Anglophones, there is still room for Cameroon to become that oasis of peace. The people of West Cameroon may be having a huge appetite for statehood, but there are many Anglophones who think that if granted a federal structure, they could live in harmony with their Francophone brothers in a united and indivisible Cameroon. But the content of such federalism will constitute the next bone of contention. Will the government be prepared to yield much ground just to make Anglophones feel at home in their country? Will the president give up some of his powers just to restore peace and unity in this country that is already going the way of other African countries? What is known, for sure, is that Anglophones will not settle for a system wherein the president will be appointing governors and government delegates. Anglophones are more participatory in their approach to governance, while Francophones have strong faith in centralization. This has been the apple of discord for many years. Anglophones will not settle for a system that will be determined by one individual. They want a system that will have very strong checks and balances. A system wherein the judiciary, the executive and the legislative branch of government are independent of each other. A system that will enable them have full control of their lives and culture.

The government needs to be proactive. It needs to take prompt actions to avert a situation where chaos will replace peace. The longer the crisis lasts, the greater the chances for it to escalate. As the situation in neighboring Nigeria gets worse by the day, the chances are that Cameroon could implode. Biafra is also seeking to secede from Nigeria and this does not augur well for Cameroon. Biafrans have the experience of fighting their government and they know how to get weapons into their part of the country. The government of Cameroon needs to take a look at the situation in Nigeria to fully understand the risk it runs by being indifferent and reactive when it comes the Anglophone problem. If it lets Anglophone secessionists to weave an alliance with Biafrans, then Cameroon will become a boiling pot for a long time. Many Anglophones have been beating the drums of war. What they have not been successful at has been the importation of arms into the country. But with Biafra seeking to walk away from Nigeria, Anglophone secessionists may find good allies in Biafrans and this could spell disaster to Cameroon that has always cut the image of a peaceful country in a rough neighborhood.

To avert such a disaster, the government should make more concessions. It should release all Anglophones held in Francophone jails in Yaounde. With such a gesture, it will be a lot easier to have people with whom to discuss the country’s future. Anglophones have chosen their leaders. They are the people who must negotiate the country’s political future for them. The government should understand that for as long as Dr. Agbor Felix Nkongho, Dr. Neba Fontem, Justice Paul Ayah and Mr. Mancho Bibixy are still in jail, there will be no meaningful discussions on the country’s future. Dialogue is an idea whose time has come. It will be a smart decision to use the negotiating table to achieve peace in Cameroon. Time is of the essence. Letting things drag on is dangerous for everybody. With neighboring Nigeria currently boiling, Cameroonian authorities could be shooting themselves in the foot by displaying such inexplicable indifference and arrogance. It is time to talk and it is only by talking that Cameroon will emerge as a winner in this conflict that has changed the country forever. Cameroon can only be one and indivisible if dialogue replaces dictatorship.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey

Contributing Editor

Cameroon Concord News Group

About the Author: The author of this piece is a keen observer of Cameroon’s political and economic landscape. He has published extensively on the country’s political and economic development, especially in the early 90s when the wind of change was blowing across the African continent. He has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

Over the last seven months, the world has been watching Cameroon as it sinks into the abyss of despair as the country’s leaders dilly-dally over the issue of federalism which was among the grievances tabled by Anglophone lawyers. As the rebellion started spreading from the epicenters – Buea and Bamenda –to the other cities, government ministers argued that there was no Anglophone problem and the country’s president hastily declared that the form of the state was unalterable and could not be discussed.Such statements did not help matters. They only made it possible for the issue to escalate, as Anglophones poured into the streets of Cameroon. The Diaspora, for its part, thought it was time for it to cut the country’s authorities to normal human proportions. Fame Ndongo, Issa Tchiroma, Paul Atanga Nji and Peter Mafany Musonge became targets because of their unflinching support for a system that has enslaved its own people for more than half a century.

Today, the country’s president has to deal with a huge humble pie as Anglophones threaten to walk away from the country with huge oil and gold deposits. Currently, the government is bending over backwards to address some of the issues raised by Cameroon’s English-speaking minority. Anglophone Senior Divisional Officials have recently been posted to West Cameroon as a confidence building measure. A special entrance examination to the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM) has just been launched for the admission of Cameroonians of English expression. These are some baby steps in the right direction. But the sticking point is the discussion of the form of the state; an idea the government is staunchly against and this is causing the conflict to drag on and even escalate in certain circumstances. Schools, police stations and government offices are being burnt down by unknown groups in West Cameroon which are calling for the total liberation of Southern Cameroons. This does not augur well for Cameroon; a country that has always been touted as an oasis of peace in a tough neighborhood. The government’s indifference to some of this violence has created the type of calm that looks like the calm before the storm. Many people across the globe are worried about such unsettling calm as it could spell danger for a country that is surrounded by many fragile states.

However, Anglophones are not worried by the government’s calm. They understand it is wont to sinking into such inexplicable indifference. The government, in their view, lacks the killer punches that can derail the English-speaking minority off its course. This was experienced during the initial phase of the revolution. Despite the government’s intimidation during the initial phase of the conflict, Anglophones haveproven that they are a political force to reckon with. Their will and determination to get what they want remains intact despite the government’s attempts and tricks at puncturing their strategy so as to upset their apple cart. Not even the government’s ferocious brutality in the early days of the revolution was strong enough to strike fear in this people who have put up with marginalization and injustice for more than five decades. They have clearly told the government that they will not be deterred by state terror even as their fellow citizens get kidnapped and ferried to Yaounde where they are being tortured and abused by Francophone torture squads that are inimical to the idea of a federation that will erode the central government’s power and reduce the financial power that government officials wield.

The Anglophone problem has bred a new political philosophy in Anglophones. They have understood that unity is strength. With the experience of the past seven months, they have developed a new political creed – one for all and all for one – and this, in their view, is going to be the new way of doing things in a country that has always considered them as second class citizens. They have understood that the government, through its system of so-called elites, has been using divide-and-rule tactics to keep the majority in abject poverty and ignorance, while an incompetent and visionless minority implements its policy of self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement with impunity. Anglophones are determined to put an end to such outdated thinking and they are not going to yield to any form of pressure or fake promises. They hold that if the government wants to talk to them, it must do so through their own chosen leaders and, in the current context, those leaders are Justice Paul Ayah Abine, Dr. Agbor Balla, Dr. Fontem Neba and many others currently living in exile. Anybody who dares to represent them,without their permission, will be doing so at his own risk.

Cameroon has changed and it will be impossible to return to the status quo ante. The country’s authorities have to be aware of these changes and they should take steps that will help the country heal. Resisting change only gives the country a bad name and reduces the country’s potential to attract foreign investments. The Anglophone minority has proven that the ability of a few to change a system should never be underestimated. With the unwavering support of the Anglophone Diaspora, home-based Anglophones are silently redesigning the political map of a country that was once thought to be unchangeable. The Anglophone Diaspora has transformed itself into a formidable political force that cannot be ignored.Its ability to destabilize Cameroon has been proven. If the government needs peace, it must reach out to this Diaspora that has a huge war chest and an encyclopedic mind that can help development efforts in the country. The Anglophone Diaspora still has a huge stomach for a fight and with a lot of gasoline in its tank; it can help home-based Anglophones to stay the course of this revolution that is threatening to spread to East Cameroon. If the government is counting on time as a partner who can wear out the determination of the Anglophone minority, then it has to think again. Anglophones are a resilient people. They have borne five decades of political and economic marginalization with philosophical calm and they have taken the government’s injustice in stride for half a century. But today, they are sick and tired and are taking on the government with Herculean determination.

Anglophones know that they have to make common cause in order to achieve their goals and driven by their new political creed, they are fully behind those who are in jail. The Anglophones currently languishing in jail are aware that the people of West Cameroon are with them and their morale is up. Justice Paul Ayah Abine, Dr. Agbor Nkongho Balla, Dr. Fontem Neba and Mr. Mancho Bibixy are confident that the odds are in their favour. No military in the world has ever defeated its people when they are united. The government of Cameroon should look into the mirror of history to understand this. The cases of Poland, Tunisia and Egypt are recent situations that should be ringing a bell and should enable the government and the country’s president to revisit their stance on the issue of federalism.

Anglophones are aware of this and those in jail clearly understand that all government actions will come to nought as West Cameroonians are determined to break the chains of bondage and marginalization. Ghost town operations are still in effect as decreed by the now outlawed consortium and the entire academic year has been disrupted. These two actions speak to the Anglophone minority’s ability to throw deadly punches at a government that is trying to flex muscles it does not have. This is causing the government to lose sleep, although the leaders are trying to put up a brave face. Anglophones will never return to the status quo ante, no matter what. They are sick and tired of vain promises. They need concrete actions and, more importantly, they do not trust the government’s so-called elites. They want all of them to be cut out of the cabinet, as they do not represent them. They have done a great job at feathering their own nests and helping their children and family members at the expense of those they are supposed to be representing. Anglophones argue that political change must take place for real peace to return to Cameroon. The old guard has been wasteful and ineffective at holding the country together.  Since the president had declared federalism anathema, Anglophones have upgraded their demand to statehood and this is gradually pushing many moderate Anglophones into the hands of hardcore secessionists who are traveling the world to sell their gospel of secession and they are gradually winning lots of hearts and minds; something that will surely complicate things when time comes for a broad-based national debate on the country’s future.

Breaking the stalemate will require tough negotiations. The economic and political situation in the two Anglophone regions is deteriorating on a daily basis. The situation is compounded by the continuous postponement of the sentencing of Anglophone leaders who have been in jail in Yaounde for more than four months just for complaining about a political dispensation that has been spreading pain and suffering in the country. Anglophones, especially those whose relatives have been killed or arrested are hell-bent on sowing chaos until their loved ones are released or accounted for. They need closure.  The chaos in West Cameroon is reminiscent of what has played out in other African countries that are, today, dealing with many extremist groups that are making life hard for ordinary citizens. While the world may think that the Anglophone problem is confined to the country’s English-speaking region, what it does not understand is that the situation has the potential to spread across the entire country, as Cameroonians across the political spectrum are sick and tired of a system that has brought untold hardship to its own people. While Anglophones have problems that are specific to them, Cameroonians in general have unemployment, poor governance and corruption to deal with. These phenomena have become nightmares that will not go away anytime soon if the current crop of politicians remains in power. These problems constitute a deadly mix which, if not well addressed,might cause the country to implode, especially as the current government is suffering from senile decay and acute indifference to the plight of the suffering masses.

Cameroon needs help. For seven months, the country has been caught in a downward political spiral and this unfortunate situation is gradually tearing the country apart. Cameroonians have to go to the negotiating table to redesign their political system. The old one has been fraught with weaknesses which are hurting the country’s English-speaking minority. These issues can be addressed easily through dialogue. Dialogue is an idea whose time has come. Ignoring it will continue to hurt the country. Anglophones have real issues. The unitary state has not served their interest. The form of the state should be discussed for all to agree on the way forward. Refusing to revisit the form of the state will only inflame and radicalize Anglophones. Cameroon is Central Africa’s engine. If the engine is facing issues, then the entire sub-region is very likely to go through a rough patch. Cameroonians have to talk. Silence is not the answer. On the contrary, silence could be easily misconstrued as indifference and disrespect. This could cause both factions to engage in actions that will stand in the way of negotiations. Silence is not always golden. It could be seen as the calm before the storm that has the potential to shatter any chances for peaceful negotiations. The ball is in the government’s court. It must be proactive. It should reach out to the various stakeholders so that the peace process can begin. Cameroon has all what it takes to emerge from its own ashes as the proverbial phoenix, but it needs a selfless government with a modern mind and great conflict management skills. If these elements are missing, then the country will be stuck in the quagmire of conflict for a very long time. And this is very unsettling to the international community and investors who look forward to participating in the country’s development efforts.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey

Contributing Editor

Cameroon Concord News Group

 About the Author: The author of this piece is a keen observer of Cameroon’s political and economic landscape. He has published extensively on the country’s political and economic development, especially in the early 90s when the wind of change was blowing across the African continent. He has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

The Military Tribunal of La Republique du Cameroun May 24, 2017, adjourned the case against Southern Cameroons Consortium leaders and twenty-five Southern Cameroons hostages among hundreds or thousands held in Detention and Concentration Camps in unspecified militarized locations in La Republique du Cameroun to June 7, 2017. The reason provided for the adjournment is to enable the Court-martial to deliver a decision on the motions for bail submitted by the defense.

It is significant to recall that the cases brought by La Republique du Cameroun through its proxies against Southern Cameroons Christian Church leaders in Bamenda and Buea were adjourned June 5, 2017. Similarly, the Higher Judicial Council called ostensibly to provide cosmetic palliatives to the grievances presented by Southern Cameroons lawyers will be held on June 7, 2017.

 Maxwell Oben a Southern Cameroonian SCNC activists has remained in jail for over two years above the maximum allowed by the Penal Code was he tried and found guilty for the offence he was charged. Four other Southern Cameroonians, Mr Numnvi, Mr Kongso, Mr Clovis and one other were invited to appear before another Court-martial in Bamenda on June 5, 2017 to answer alleged charges of terrorism.

The cases against the clergy and the main Christian Churches is pending before the Courts of First Instance in Bamenda and Buea. They were adjourned to the June 5, 2017 the same date as the Bamenda Court-martial.  The dates to which these cases were adjourned or fixed for hearing in June 2017 provide evidence of a pre-co-ordination rather than co-incidental scheduling by supposed independent judicial actors.  The June 7, 2017 date of adjournment at the Yaoundé Court-martial intended to deliver a bail application decision and the Higher Judicial Council meeting scheduled for the same date are not independent decisions taken without prior co-ordination.  It is now obvious that none of the cases will be heard on the merit on the adjournment dates. This confirms our opinion that the cases are nothing more but political swords of Damocles held over Southern Cameroons to harass, intimidate and complement other high handed acts of terror, torture and criminality relied upon by La Republique du Cameroun to subdue and control the Southern Cameroons.

The co-coordinating authorities of La Republique through the close scheduling of these matters in different jurisdictions intend to disorient Southern Cameroonians, deprive them an opportunity to mobilize to protest judicial terror against Southern Cameroons civilians, civilian leaders and religious leaders.  The adjournment of the bail decision to June 7, the very day the Judicial Council is meeting is scheduled is intended to serve calculated political and propaganda goals. La Republique knows that the Court-martial may play a balancing act by granting bail under very stringent conditions to the Consortium leaders while keeping Mancho Bibixy and the more than 25 Southern civilians in their dungeon. Similarly, its prized hostage Hon Chief Paul Ayah will remain detained under inhuman military and paramilitary detention although his uncertain professional fate will be determined on June 7, 2017 Higher Judicial Council meeting.

Mr Kongso and others who are in military detention in Bamenda are without lawyers, their lawyers Barrister Bobga and Shufai Blaise Berenyuy haven been forced into exile.  Mr Maxwell Oben remains in Buea Prison haven been charged at the Military Tribunal, then charged again at the Magistrate Court in Buea since Paul Biya’s supposed anniversary celebration of the occupation of the Southern Cameroon more than four years ago.  Several thousands of other Southern Cameroonians are in unspecified concentration Camps in La Republique du Cameroun.

The scheduling of some of these cases in proximate or the same dates in June 2017, will provide its genocide apologist-in-chief Isa Tchiroma the ammunition to tell the world that the judicial system in La Republique works after all. Together with the potential Judicial Council decision lightening the pressure of La Republique’s Francophone judicial imperialism through posting some of their judges back to their territory, it is hoped that La Republique will attempt to persuade the free world that at long last, it had embarked on a mission to resolve some of the grievances underpinning the revolt of Ambazonia.

La Republique hopes that this smokescreen will provide a fig leaf of manipulation for gullible traditional rulers, CPDM gas bags, corrupt journalists Iscariots and academic merchants to send motions of support thanking President Paul Biya for taking critical steps towards resolving the Southern Cameroons problem and then calling for a resumption of schools and courts in the Southern Cameroons.  This reaction will be inimical to the overwhelming interest of Southern Cameroonians.

The fear and pain in the eyes of raped and violated University of Buea female students in military trucks and the lifeless bodies of young Southern Cameroonians cut short by arms procured with money from the rape of the natural resources in their ancestral lands, are good reasons for all Southern Cameroons traditional rulers, political leaders, all and sundry to rally to the battle cry against La Republique’s vampire predators.   The crimes perpetrated by La Republique in the Southern Cameroons have violated the permitted limits of the sacred bonds of spiritual and temporal powers of our Kings and guarantors of our culture and traditions.

Any traditional ruler, political leader or community leader whose conscience did not revolt against the bestiality inflicted on the Southern Cameroons’ civilian population, the militarization of the territory and the collective punishment inflicted on women, men and children in the privacy of their homes and in public places and has instead chosen to side with the criminal occupier has chosen a date with the culture of shame and humiliation. These victims could indeed have been their own children. Indeed, as custodians of our traditions, these victims are their children.  If sending motions supporting the oppression of their own people, is what makes them truly great, then the timeless God of Justice will grant them their wish of eternally sending motions of support until the ends of time, even when the tyrant god they are worshiping and supporting will no longer be there to feed them with the blood of innocent victims.

The plans and plots of the oppressor, La Republique du Cameroun described above will not dampen the liberating spirit of the freedom seeking Southern Cameroonians. That spirit of freedom is loosed and unstoppable. The events of June and thence on, will escalate and not dampen this spirit of freedom.  The free world and Southern Cameroonians know so well that since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons conflict, La Republique has been using outdated models to confront a problem that is no longer entirely within its control, that of the victims of political military justice and that of any single Southern Cameroons leader no matter whosoever. The suffering peoples of the   Southern Cameroons under colonial occupation have finally rediscovered their power and their destiny.  They have finally realized that no weapon, no matter how lethal can kill a liberation ideology. They are indeed unstoppable in their resolve to reclaim their freedom.  Nothing, not even political military justice will stifle the will of the people to be free.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

The Anglophone problem that started in October 2016 is still playing out in earnest and the consequences are mounting on a daily basis. Students have already lost a whole year and courts have been out of service for months. While the government has been flexing its atrophied muscles to strike fear into the minds of determined West Cameroonians, many from the marginalized regions have opted to take the bull by the horn. They hold that the aging government is gradually falling apart and with a little determination, they can attain their objectives. Many groups have emerged and they are sowing terror in the region. West Cameroon, a region noted for peace and tranquility, is gradually metamorphosing into a land of violence as the government watches helplessly and sinks further into the indifference that gave birth to this unfortunate situation. It should be recalled that this situation began with a peaceful demonstration by West Cameroonian lawyers and teachers who were simply calling for better working conditions and an end to the marginalization English-speaking Cameroonians have faced for more than five decades.

The chaos in West Cameroon is reminiscent of what has been playing out in other African countries that are today dealing many extremist groups that are making life hard for ordinary citizens. While the international community may think that the Anglophone problem is confined to the country’s English-speaking region, what it does understand is that the situation has the potential to spread across the entire country as Cameroonians – both Anglophones and Francophones – are sick and tired of a system that has brought untold hardship onto its own people. While Anglophones have problems that are specific to them, Cameroonians in general have unemployment, bad governance and corruption to deal with. These phenomena have become nightmares that will not go away anytime soon if the current crop of politicians remains in power.

The government is really at its wit’s end and over the last thirty years, Cameroonians seem to have been put on a diet by their own government. Cameroonians are losing weight at a very fast pace and many more are losing sleep as they watch their lives go down the drain. The lack of jobs has robbed many young Cameroonians of their dreams and confidence and they blame all of this on policy failure. The government, they say, has simply not lived up to their expectations and they simply do not know how to rid themselves of this system that is unrepentant and determined to push the country to the brink.

But Anglophones have stated very clearly that they are no longer going to be on that diet that is pushing them to their graves. Their initial call for federalism has been upgraded to the restoration of statehood and recent incidents in many parts of the Anglophone region serve as testament to the people’s determination to stand up to the Yaounde government. Anglophones no longer respect national days and events, and this is causing the frustrated government to lose sleep. The Youth Day, a political creation of the government, was a catastrophe, although the government brought in some prisoners and unemployed Francophones to march in Buea and Bamenda just to prove to the international community that things were returning to normal. But the international community is aware of those old tricks and they are simply not producing the desired results. For now, the focus is on 20 May, which in the minds of Francophones, is the national day. But Anglophones are clearly indicating that they are not part of it and are calling for a total boycott of the event.

Government surrogates are in the Anglophone region trying to see how they can out-maneuver the striking West Cameroonians. These surrogates are seeking ways to bring in non-Anglophones to march on that day, but threats proffered by unknown Anglophones groups against anybody caught marching on that day are deterring so many Francophones who just want to receive the little money the government is promising. Life is hard in Cameroon and many Francophones are contemplating putting their lives on the line just to earn the stipend the government will reward them with after the event. They must, however, understand that what they are hearing is not necessarily what they will get. The government is wont to speaking from both sides of its mouth. It hardly fulfills its promises. Those who have doubts should check with the young recruits of the Mutengene Police School. It had been reported that those young men had been promised FCFA 25,000 each if they marched on 11 February, but after the event, they only had FCFA 2,500. That was a huge risk for a small reward.

Also, some of the prisoners who had been used on that day, used the occasion to skip town, with many holding that the real prisoners are the politicians who are robbing the country blind. They argue that they are just victims of a system whose corruption has baffled all economic policies and analyses. The prisoners who are still at large contend that the government is obsessed with the idea of proving that it is winning this fight against Anglophones and this bee in its bonnet is tearing its reputation apart. You never win a war against your own people. You listen to your people and come up with solutions that will restore peace and make the country one and indivisible in the true sense of the expression. The country’s leaders are stuck in an old mentality and this mentality is destroying a country that was once touted across the world as Africa in miniature.

The old thinking that brute force and intimidation will tranquilize a people clearly belongs to the past. The Anglophone issue has clearly proven that. Attempts to intimidate Anglophones in 2016 have only radicalized an entire people. Anglophones are willing to go to jail. They are no longer scared. To them, the wall of fear has come down and the government needs to understand this. It needs to see the negotiating table as that place where long-term solutions to the issues can be found. Deploying troops in two cities will not bring back the lost peace to West Cameroon. The government has deployed troops in West Cameroon’s major cities of Bamenda and Buea, but the other cities are still being used by the striking West Cameroonians and even criminals as their playground. The remoteness of these areas implies that the government cannot really deploy many troops there, and even those deployed there, do not know the region very well. This has been compounded by the fact that the entire population is against anything Francophone and it is doing all it can to make life hard for those they consider as an “army of occupation.”

One would think that after almost seven months of unrest, the government would be all over the place trying to restore its authority and peace in the English-speaking part of the country. From the look of things, the situation is deteriorating on a daily basis with radicals and loose cannons burning schools and police stations in many parts of West Cameroon. Despite all these unfortunate situations, the Yaounde government seems to be frozen in its position. Things are spiraling out of control. Schools have not yet resumed and end-of-year exams, scheduled for May, are gradually hitting roadblocks, as irate West Cameroonians are working day and night to maintain the pressure on a government that is apparently suffering from senile decay and amnesia. Its indifference is legendary and this is costing the country its peace and reputation. The Anglophone educational system has been called into question, and today, the United Nations is investigating to see if certificates that will be hastily issued to students will be good enough for UNESCO to recognize. Even the economy is hemorrhaging jobs and business opportunities, as investors seek safe havens where they can hastily relocate their businesses.

While things are currently looking south in Cameroon, there are still avenues and opportunities for the government to work for lasting peace in Cameroon. Cameroon needs peace. It is a fractured country and the government’s legendary indifference is not helping things. Instead of locking itself up in an old mentality, the government should come down its ivory tower and engage Anglophones in genuine and meaningful discussions. The country is going down the drain and if care is not taken, chaos, that which is tearing apart many countries, could take hold and this will be more challenging to address. Times have changed and intimidation and dictates belong to the past.

Cameroonians are not very dependent on the government economically and financially as they used to some thirty years ago. The crisis that led to the devaluation of the CFA Franc and the reduction of civil service salaries that followed informed Anglophones that if they had to survive, then they had to come up with new and innovative ways of living.  Due to marginalization, many families have sent their children abroad and those children are those who are calling the shots today. After more than thirty years in exile, those children do believe they too must have a say in the running of the country. They are those helping their parents, as the government has simply abdicated its social responsibilities. The social contract between the people and their government has simply been shredded by the government. Today, the guiding principle in Cameroon is “everybody for himself and God for us all”, and this has caused public servants to engage in the looting of state funds. The poor and weak have no place in a country that is gradually becoming a jungle.

Cameroon does not have universal health coverage and this health sector failure is rushing many Cameroonians to their graves. Education,just like health,is still expensive for many Cameroonians. It is the Diaspora that is helping to play the role the government has abandoned due to corruption and mismanagement. If the Anglophone Diaspora has been paying the piper, it also sincerely thinks it should be calling the tune. The government must understand this and it should consider making the Anglophone Diaspora a key partner in its development effort and political decisions. If it fails to incorporate the Anglophone Diaspora into its future plans, then it has planned to fail, as the Diaspora will continue to destabilize the country as it has done over the last seven months. It is time to sit up and accept that times have changed. Sinking into indifference will not take the country out of its predicament. Indifference comes with a huge price tag and Cameroonians are already paying the price for such appalling indifference.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey

Contributing Editor

Cameroon Concord News Group

About the Author: The author of this piece is a keen observer of Cameroon’s political and economic landscape. He has published extensively on the country’s political and economic development, especially in the early 90s when the wind of change was blowing across the African continent. He has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator and holds a Ph.D.

Writing about the collapse of the democratic republic in answer to the challenges and perceived injustices of globalisation that gave rise to Fascism, Nazism, Communism and Tyranny, Professor Timothy Snyder in his book ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY” The Bodley Head London 2017 asserts that “history does not repeat itself, it instructs”.

The relevant lessons I have chosen from the 21 lessons that the twentieth century must instruct and inspire our resolve to confront the tyranny that has held our people under bondage and state of slavery for the past fifty-six years are:

1) Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead of what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do. The learned author states that anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. History records that anticipatory obedience produced Adolf Hitler. Anticipatory obedience produced both Babatoura Ahidjo and Paul Biya. Lately some traditional rulers and political gamblers are known for providing the anticipatory obedience which have encouraged President Biya to pursue the policy of systemic repression and criminality that has been ongoing in the Southern Cameroons for the past fifty-six years.

2) The defence of institutions. Do not speak of our institutions unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after another unless each is defended from the beginning. “Some German Jews voted as the Nazi leaders wanted them in the hope that the gesture of loyalty will bind the new system to them. That was a vain hope”. Are some of our people different from this category of German Jews who supported and sustained their own genocide?

3) Beware the one-party state. The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents.

4) Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the Swastika and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

5) Remember Professional ethics. When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camps directors and businessmen interested in cheap labour.

6) Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come. When a purported government opponent and former political prisoner becomes the mouth piece for genocide apology against Southern Cameroonians, and this includes open appeals for the formation of purported vigilantes that have preceded cases of arson, disappearances and other forms of criminality on the watch of marauding police and army, there is need for profound worry.

7) Be reflective if you are armed. But say no to orders to shoot and kill people you swore to protect. The tyrant may already have deployed you to rape, maim and kill. Be sure that doing so has consequences.

8) Believe in the truth: To abandon facts is to abandon freedom.

9) Contribute to good causes: Be active in organizations, political or not that express your own view of life.

10) Learn from peers in other countries.

11) Be calm when the unthinkable arrives: Modern tyranny is terror management. When a terrorist attack occurs, the tyrant exploits it to consolidate power. At times the tyrant organizes the terrorist attack to justify violence and criminality.

12) Be as courageous as you. You must conquer fear and know that victory belongs to the just.

By Chief Charles A. Taku