The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is about protecting Southern Cameroons and improving the lives of its people. It is thanks to the careful management of the Consortium that we now have a beaming Head of State signing an empty decree to promote bilingualism. The leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium have been arrested for demanding a return to the 1961 two state federal structure.

Southern Cameroons covers a huge area on Cameroun’s west coast and billions of dollars of profit is being made from West Cameroon oil and agro-industrial plants but the people have been excluded from every economic benefit the nation can offer. Instead their well established economic institutions inherited from the British, the German and the Dutch which had sustained livelihoods have all been devastated by the Francophone political elites. The West Cameroon Shipping Company, the West Cameroon Ports Authority, the Tiko International Airport, the West Cameroon Power Authority, the West Cameroon Bank, the National Produce Marketing Board, the PAMOL Plantations, the CDC etc

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is simply calling for a more humane environment to live in and a measure of political autonomy for Anglophone Cameroonians to manage their own affairs. The 83 year-old Paul Biya and his Francophone army generals, Governors, SDOs and DOs are saying that asking for federalism is sacrilege.  To the Francophone political elites, giving West Cameroon a share of their own wealth means reducing the profits that goes into their private pockets.  Giving Southern Cameroons any form of federalism means questioning the exploitative colonial, political and economic structures bequeathed by the French. Such demands have to be brutally repressed.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has deeply crafted what we can now call the Southern Cameroons Bill of Rights to Resistance and it has captured the economic, cultural and political aspirations of every West Cameroonian. To be sure, the Consortium has put an end to the North West/South West divide and provided a road map for a Southern Cameroons nation where people will have the right to control their own resources and political life. The leaders of the Consortium believe firmly that Southern Cameroons and its resources belong to the Cameroonian people, not the Francophone political elites.

The Southern Cameroons resistance is not against Biya and his CPDM crime syndicate. It is not against the so-called Anglophone political elites in Yaoundé! It is a call to action to the people of West Cameroon to reject the French imposition of a colonial structure such as the appointments of Governors, SDOs, DOs and District Heads. It is a call for Southern Cameroonians to seek political autonomy and to be represented in all Cameroonian institutions as English Speaking Cameroonians rather than in two regions dominated by the Francophone political elites.

This bold demand is not a direct threat to ELF as the Francophone political elites want the French to understand. The call for self determination is only growing due to the delay and bad faith manifested by the regime in Yaoundé. The French government has the power to stop these arrest and extra judicial killings going on in Southern Cameroons. They can stop it at any time if they want to; the French have that kind of power in Yaounde. But from every indication, the French embassy in Yaoundé is basically encouraging state violence against the people of Southern Cameroons.

The Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC and numerous Anglophone groups fighting for the independence of British Southern Cameroons should know that history often raises certain people over others, but the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium have all been equal in this struggle and West Cameroonians have shown that they are a formidable force.

The repression in Southern Cameroons has not stop with the arrest of the leaders of the Consortium-the resistance too will not stop. The Francophone government has set up a fierce crack team of police officers and soldiers with the single duty of uprooting dissent. Military checkpoints have been erected all over Southern Cameroons and anyone suspected of being a member of the Consortium or SCNC is arrested and detained. Many of those arrested in 2016 have never been seen again. Women are being raped and properties looted.  Those who can find their way out of Southern Cameroons are going into exile.

Southern Cameroons is the most deprived region in Cameroon. Schools in Ndian, Akwaya, Menchum, Bui and Fontem areas look like they belong in the 18th century. The roads are bad and medical care almost non-existent. The general hospitals in the divisional capitals can hardly be called a hospital. To have a minor medical procedure in places like Mamfe, Wum, Bali, Kumbo, Ndop Kumba, Ekok, Akwaya, Eyumojock, Njakiri people must provide their own power generator.

The government of La Republique and its French ally, ELF are thinking that if they killed the leaders of the Consortium and other Anglophone activists, the struggle would be over. It is not true as their blood will water the seeds of the revolution. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is teaching us to KNOW WHERE YOU STAND; how to take on the devil without losing your moral belief in the tools of nonviolence, the power of resistance and the power of people.

This is the plan of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium:

1. 1. We continue keeping our children home to ensure that no school resume.
2. 2. We continue observing Ghost towns on Mondays and Tuesdays
3. 3. We prepare for the final destruction of 11th February by ensuring that on that day, it is very ghostly

All these actions are meant to ensure that the school year becomes blank which will soon happen, then the dynamics will change. It will also frustrate Government to call for a genuine dialogue as well as releasing our leaders unconditionally. Additionally, the Diaspora continues its pressure in foreign embassies.

The consortium is also putting and gathering a diplomatic push to some quarters as well as investing in media relationship especially foreign. The twitter strategy is also getting more foreign media involve in our case. Let us continue ensuring that schools remain closed, Ghost towns continue respectively, tweeting and preparing for 11th February boycott while diplomatic push continues in the background.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

The non-respect of the bilingual, bijural and bicultural character of Cameroon presented by the Anglophone Consortium of Civil Society associations was one among a plethora proofs that a supposed union that was contemplated in 1961 between the Southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroun had failed.   The Consortium in taking this position was merely conveying the position of a majority of the people of the Southern Cameroons who alone voted in a plebiscite to attain independence by joining the Republic of Cameroun in Federal Union founded on the equality of the two states.

Whereas the non-violability of the federal character of the country was enshrined in article 47 of the supposed federal constitution, other provisions of the constitutions protected the bijural, bicultural and bilingual nature of the federation;  re-enforcing the sacrosanct character of this inviolability clause.   History will hold Babatoura Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya responsible for their treasonable conduct in destroying this fundamental basis on which this experiment was anchored.

Southern Cameroonians are justified in holding firmly that with the collapse of the purported federation, the bilingual, bijural and bicultural character of the country, and a return in 1984 of East Cameroon to its name and identity at independence on January 1960, the putative union was dead.  They were entitled as a matter of international law, to regain their own identity at independence on October 1, 1961.

The actions by Paul Biya in disbanding the Consortium, kidnapping its leaders and other significant Southern Cameroon leaders and charging them on spurious politically motivated charges before a Francophone court-martial for presenting the very grievances which he has trivialized by decreeing a so-called National Commission on Bilingualism are to say the least infantile and laughable.  Not only are the Consortium Leaders, Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho and Dr Neba Fontem along with Mancho Bibixy, Hon Justice Chief Paul Ayah, Mola Njoh Litumbe and hundreds of Southern Cameroonians still in detention, the perpetration of  widespread and systemic crimes against humanity and genocide of the Southern Cameroons is ongoing with impunity.

In this situation, the question may be asked, for what purpose is a so-called Commission on bilingualism wrapped in the blood of Southern Cameroonians when there is an internet blockade of the territory, egregious crimes and violations against armless civilians, the continuing detention and trial of its citizens?  Of what importance we may ask, is a supposed decree creating a consultative Commission on bilingualism when Mr. Paul Biya the supposed guarantor of the Constitution has over the past 34 years failed to enforce the Constitutional provision on bilingualism.  So therefore, in the estimation of Mr. Biya a right which the Constitution has failed to afford at the detriment of Southern Cameroonians will be obtained by a mere decree?

So for Mr. Paul Biya has come to the conclusion that Southern Cameroonians have become so malleable, gullible and dispensable to the extent that not satisfied with the crimes that have claimed the lives of many, the impunity with which these crimes are perpetrated, he, through this ridiculous commission intends to move a step further in dancing on the graves of the slaughtered and spitting in the mouths of the kidnapped and the detained?.

This decree is a belated admission of failure and a public confession of Mr. Paul Biya’s treasonable violation of his own Constitution over 34 years for which he should be arrested and prosecuted.

The so-called Commission established by decree is a nullity and of no legal value whatsoever because it cannot and will never attain the results which the failed Constitution failed to attain.  If anything, considered within the backdrop of the resistance of the Southern Cameroons against annexation and colonial rule, this decree along with the consistent pattern of crimes, systemic violations and the bastardization of our cultural values, this decree is one among many actions taken by Paul Biya to give effect to the end of the putative union as we know it.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

After forty five years of enslavement, second-class citizenship and forceful administrative integration of Southern Cameroons with Nigeria, the General Assembly of the United Nations came face to face with the reality that the people of Southern Cameroons were capable of terminating their marriage with Nigeria – against the wish of the mighty British Empire.

In May 1953, there was a serious leadership crisis within the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), resulting from the limitations of the Macpherson Constitution. The Constitution gave Legislative Supremacy to the Central Government of Nigeria and made Regional Assemblies powerless.

During the height of the crisis, 13 Southern Cameroons Members of Parliament elected into the Eastern House of Assembly on the NCNC ticket understandably adopted a neutral position on the grounds that they were not Nigerians. The dismissal of Southern Cameroons Government Minister Hon Solomon T. Muna, by Prime Minister Michael Okpara, who rejected all calls to have Muna reinstated aggravated matters.

Dr. Emmanuel Mbela Lifafa Endeley, the leader of the Southern Cameroons Parliamentary Group in the Eastern House came to the conclusion that separation from Nigeria was the only appropriate answer to the crisis. Angered by discrimination and the domineering behavior of Nigerian politicians, the Southern Cameroons representatives, declared “benevolent neutrality” and withdrew from the Assembly.

Southern Cameroons’ withdrawal from the Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly in Enugu generated a new spirit of nationalism amongst Southern Cameroonians – who resisted all forms of Nigerian intimidation and committed themselves to the achievement of self-government for Southern Cameroons.

In May 1953, Dr. Endeley convened a broad based meeting of all native authorities and political organizations in Southern Cameroons in Mamfe. During the meeting, Southern Cameroons leaders decided to bury their differences and fight for a separate region for the Southern Cameroons. In June 1953, Kamerun National Congress (KNC) – the first indigenous political party in Southern Cameroons was created with Endeley as President.

Following the bold, courageous and daring actions of Southern Cameroonians leaders, Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttleton agreed that the Nigerian Constitution be redrawn to provide for greater Regional Autonomy. He summoned a constitutional review conference of all Nigeria parties in London. Dr. Endeley led the Southern Cameroons delegation to the London Constitutional Conference from 30, July to 22 August 1953. The Lyttleton Constitution which emerged from the Lancaster Conference had one significant difference from the Macpherson Constitution that it replaced.

Residual powers were transferred from the Central Government to the Regions, areas of exclusive and concurrent legislative competence defined, and Regions endowed with a Premier and a Cabinet. On his return from London, Dr. Endeley received a warrior’s welcome. He went on to win the 1953 General Elections, become Leader of Government Business, and negotiated for the creation of the autonomous Region (Statehood) of Southern Cameroons in 1954.

Following Southern Cameroons’ reunification with La Republique du Cameroun, their leaders Prime Minister John Ngu Foncha and President Amadou Ahidjo respectively agreed in Foumban that the Federal Constitution of 1961 would preserve the statehood of Southern Cameroons which became West Cameroon and La Republique du Cameroun which became East Cameroon within the Federal structure.

That was the spirit of Article 47 of the Federal Constitution. President Ahidjo however used Article 2 of the Federal Constitution to super cede Article 47 and call for the 1972 referendum. The violation of Article 47 dismantled the Federal Structure of West Cameroon and East Cameroon. The autonomy of West Cameroon under a Prime Minister was reduced from Statehood to a Minority-hood referred as provinces (North West and South West). Today, the provinces are referred as regions. This is the root cause of the Anglophone Problem which has led to the submergence of the Anglophone Educational, Legal, Economic and Socio Cultural Systems (not exclusively).

After fifty five years of union with La Republique du Cameroun, the current political crisis in Cameroon is reminiscent of events that prompted Southern Cameroons to end its forty five years of marriage with Nigeria.

By Emmanuel Nebafuh.

Permanent Representative

African Parliamentary Alliance for UN Reforms – Geneva

This so-called Ministerial order banning the SCNC and the Consortium of Southern Cameroons Civil Society Organizations is a desperate kick of a dying horse. This desperate move is not new. Southern Cameroonians have lived with this since the annexation and colonization of our territory in 1961. Southern Cameroonians have resisted colonial governance through dictatorial fiat and the ongoing popular revolt against colonial rule and bestiality are but an irrevocable step towards regaining our freedom. We have lived under a permanent state of emergency in our territory since 1961 and the so-called Ministerial Order in context tacitly affirms that.  But the egregious violations like abductions, assassinations and all forms of crimes against humanity did not drive us underground even under Babatoura Ahidjo and Forchive. On the contrary, the coercive methods they deployed against us convinced even those who were born into colonial rule and skeptics that life under colonial rule is simply unacceptable and impossible. The liberating spirit of freedom which our ancestors endured and which we inherited must not be frightened into submission.

A regime that invites the Consortium into purported negotiations and failing to bribe or intimidate them to betray the popular aspiration of the people they were mandated to represent is itself living on life-support. It is on life support because it no longer has the pleasure and benefit of time or the hitherto docility of its own emasculated citizens to realize its desperate goals. The  requests made by the Consortium that are cited in the so-called Ministerial Order banning the Consortium were made within the context of the supposed negotiation convened by the government of La Republique. What a responsible government would have done would have been to provide a reply to the requests made within the context of the purported negotiations. To ban and abduct a negotiating party on the basis of proposals made within that context of a negotiation in which it is party and indeed convened the meeting, and on the basis of legitimate actions taken within the context of the issues in contention is criminal and indeed an act of state terror.

The purporting banning of the Consortium is null and void ab initio and no legal consequences whatsoever. The purported baning and abductions must therefore be condemned worldwide and the abducted persons and all other Southern Cameroonians abducted prior to and during the ongoing resistance unconditionally released.

The supposed ban of the SCNC is laughable. The SCNC has litigated cases with La Republique du Cameroun internationally. At the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the SCNC, SCAPO and SCYL litigated the Southern Cameroons Case and La Republique du Cameroun accepted the outcome of the case and in writing, accepted to abide by the decision of African Leaders for a resort to dialogue under the supervision of the African Commission to discuss constitutional arrangements aimed at resolving the Southern Cameroons issue.

The fact that La Republique has so far not submitted itself to the decision of the AU long after the extension of time it sought does not invalidate its acceptance of the outcome of the case. The SCNC has an international status and has been recognized as such, including by La Republique du Cameroun. Curiously, the purported decision banning the SCNC does not refer to any specific legal instruments indicating that it had at any time sought legal status or legitimacy from a colonial contraption it has always rejected. The SCNC has and will always operate in the territory of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia and will never ever be driven underground at the threshold of success when previous attempts failed and failed woefully.

One act of panic on the part of the neo-colonial contraption aimed at frightening the Southern Cameroons to capitulate was the meeting  of CEMAC countries summoned on or about the 23 December 2016 at the heart of the resistance purportedly to discuss matters relating to the colonial currency, the Franc CFA. The real purpose of that meeting had nothing to do with the colonial currency but intended by the humiliating presence of two French colonial representatives to send warning signals to the Southern Cameroons not to mess up with the French colonial economy within our territory.

Again the banning of the Consortium and the SCNC and the abduction of the Chairman of the Consortium, distinguished President of Fako Lawyers Association and Vice President of the African Bar Association Barrister Agbor Nkongho and others only a few days after the anniversary of the assassination of Ernest Ouandie  whose assassination on 15 January, 1971 provided a pretext to impose a state of emergency under which the Yes /Oui fraudulent referendum was conducted on 20 May 1972 was intended again to frighten us and force us underground.

Again this is a miscalculation for this time around, fear has changed sides as HRM Fon Gorgi Dinka prophetically said many years ago. The ongoing resistance of the Southern Cameroons against colonial rule, oppression, injustice and bestiality will be determined by a number of factors all which are on our side: Justice, history, resilience, and time. The glorious days of colonial rule are in the past. Only the sovereign will of the people in the exercise of their right to self-determination will determine our fate and not force and the abusive use of force. The people have taken control of their destiny and there is no looking back under any cowardly use of force against armless and peaceful people.

 Chief Charles A. Taku

The arrest of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and the shutting down of internet services in West Cameroon by the Biya Francophone regime has served as a major boost to Southern Cameroonians advocating for an independent West Cameroon state. Cameroon Concord News does not want any Anglophone to feel left behind of the happenings that matter in Southern Cameroons. Our contributing editor Barrister Shufai Blaise Sevidzem Berinyuy in this soul-searching article says the liberation of Southern Cameroons is highly regarded and facts remain the vital tool in achieving victory:

The problem with the Cameroons to my mind is falsehood and spiritual wickedness in high places. The government of La Republique du Cameroun tells a lot of lies and seems to truly believe its lies. The country can never stand because it is built on lies and maintained by a desperate and very costly attempt to sustain the falsehood at all costs.

The history of the country has been thoroughly falsified. Everybody seems to overlook the impact of the falsehood and it will never triumph over truth.  This history has been erroneous to the extent that even legal minds tend to believe that there was a valid and subsisting federation in the Cameroons between 1961 -1972 whereas what obtained was a gigantic fraud orchestrated by the government of President Ahmadou Ahidjo against the gullible and unsuspecting leaders of the Southern Cameroons under Premier John Ngu Foncha in 1961. Ahidjo and La Republique du Cameroun carefully put in place an undeclared hidden agenda to systematically annex and assimilate The Southern Cameroons over time. This is what happened;

When the Second World War ended, the United Nations Organization (UNO) was created to take over the role hitherto played by the League of Nations to safeguard world peace and stability in the comity of nations. The Mandates System of the League of Nations under which former German colonies were administered by members of the League of Nations came to an end in October 1947 when the United Nations Trusteeship Council was created as an organ of the UNO to oversee the various European powers administer and prepare the said former colonies for independence. As part of the said Trusteeship System, France was given The United Nations Trust Territory of French Cameroons whilst Britain was Given the UN Trust Territory of British Cameroons.

The British Cameroons was divided for administrative convenience into two territories (British Northern Cameroons which was administered from Kaduna as part of the Northern Region of Nigeria and British Southern Cameroons which was administered from Enugu as part of the Eastern Region of Nigeria).

In 1954, there was a crisis in the Eastern House of Assembly at Enugu that caused the representatives of the Southern Cameroons in the said Eastern House of Assembly to withdraw from there and come home to Buea where they set up the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly. Britain, the administrative authority quickly gave its blessings to their plight and a parliamentary system of government with a bi-camera assembly akin to what obtained in Great Britain was put in place with an elected Prime Minister who was Head of Government´s business and a cabinet of ministers appointed from the House of Representatives by the Queen of England who handled issues of sovereignty like Foreign Affairs, Defense, Police and currency. There was a Constitution for the territory known as The Southern Cameroons Constitution Orders in Council. Sovereignty was then still vested with the Queen (administrative authority). Dr EML Endeley was the first Prime Minister from 1954 – 1958 when he was defeated in a free and fair elections by John Ngu Foncha to whom he handed power gracefully and sat in House of Assembly as leader of the opposition.

In October 1959 the UNO General Assembly passed Resolution 1541 setting a deadline for immediate independence of all colonial territories under trusteeship in 1960. The British ironically complained that the British Southern Cameroons was not ready for independence having been administered from Nigeria with most of the Civil Service, Police and other staff coming from Nigeria and so with their mafia, the UN Resolution got modified and the notion of independence by joining either Nigeria or former French Cameroons that had just obtained independence on 1^st January 1960 was crafted.  Meanwhile, French Cameroons got its independence on 1^st January 1960 and was admitted into the UNO as member on in 1960 with its territory clearly mapped out, frozen and her flag, Coat of Arms and articles of state which did not include the territory of Southern Cameroons which though quasi autonomous with bi-camera parliament and government under an elected Prime Minister, was still a trust territory of the UNO under Britain.

Meantime campaigns raged in British Cameroons as to independence by joining either independent Nigeria or La Republique du Cameroun. The third option spearheaded by PM Kale with the support of scholars like Fr Paul Verdzekov (then Curate in Catholic Mission Bota) who had just returned from studies in Ireland and Soborne in France was unpopular and muzzled out. Hence the plebiscite was organized on the 11^th February 1961 under the auspices of the UNO with the publication of the pamphlet entitled The Two Alternatives which clearly spelt out the terms of either eventual union. Voting was done separately in Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons and as was secretly planned by the British, Northern Cameroons voted to join Nigeria while Southern Cameroons voted for union with La Republique du Cameroun.

To give meaning to and settle the issues of the plebiscite results, the UNO General Assembly passed Resolution 1608 of 21^st April 1961 which further clarified the conditions under which the respective federations would be constituted on the basis of equality. Thereafter Northern Cameroons pursuant to the same Resolution got independence by joining Nigeria on 22^nd June 1961 while the Southern Cameroons was to have its own independence from Britain on 1^st October 1961. It must be underlined here that the Northern Cameroons that went to Nigeria got partitioned into two regions within the Nigerian federation and never acceded to Self government with an elected Premier and House of Assembly like the Southern Cameroons from 1954 when they rioted and left the Eastern House of Assembly at Enugu and consequently has undergone a peculiar political evolution and development as part of Nigeria.

As soon as the territory was thus partitioned by the UNO that created the trusteeship system, President Ahmadou  Ahidjo of La Republique conceived his fraudulent,  grand plan to systematically annex and assimilate the British Southern Cameroons which he announced at the UNC (CNU) Party Congress in Ebolowa in 1961 how part of their territory which was estranged had come back to the motherland.

June 22^nd 1961 – British Northern Cameroons obtains independence and becomes part of independent Federal Republic of Nigeria while British Southern Cameroons is still under UN Trusteeship waiting for midnight 30^th September when trusteeship would end so she becomes independent and joins La Republique du Cameroun in a UN sponsored federation “…equal in status” as per UNGA Resolution 1608 of 21/04/1961.

July 1961 –   La Republique du Cameroun conceives draft Bill to change name of country to “Republique Federale du Cameroun” and allegedly smuggles bill to John Ngu Foncha who does not reveal same to Southern Cameroons House of Representatives nor government that he headed.

July 1961 – Ahidjo organizes Foumban Constitutional Conference where the draft Bill for federal constitution was to be debated but unfortunately the conference ends in disarray without any Resolution.

August 24^th-25^th, 1961 – the Draft Bill for Federal Republic of Cameroun is debated and adopted in the parliament of La Republique du Cameroun only. Neither House of Representatives, House of Chiefs nor Government of The Southern Cameroons who had voted to join them were consulted.

1^st September 1961 – President Ahmadou Ahidjo by virtue of powers granted him by the constitution of La Republique du Cameroun promulgates the adopted draft Bill into Law No L/F/01 of 01/09/1961 on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Cameroun which immediately goes operational in his country whilst the Southern Cameroons is still under UN Trusteeship with The Southern Cameroons Constitution Orders in Council as our own governing law under the British Crown and Union Jack.

30^th September 1961 – at the Tiko international Airport in the afternoon, while Southern Cameroons was still under UN Trusteeship that was to expire at midnight for the territory to achieve independence and join La Republique du Cameroon, Ahidjo comes for official visit, the Union Jack is lowered and the Two Stars Flag of La Republique du Cameroun is hoisted, Ahidjo inspects Guard of Honour mounted by the remaining British soldiers and Ikeja trained Police, Ahidjo is thus handed The Southern Cameroons illegally and prematurely by J O Fields (last Commissioner)who waves Good Bye, enters the plane and goes off to England.

1^st October 1961 – Ahmadou Ahidjo, Head of State of the Federal Republic of Cameroon and Commander in Chief of Armed Forces

–          Had already sent his troops to occupy Buea and Bamenda

–          appoints John Ngu Foncha an elected Prime Minister as Vice President of the Federal Republic with office and fabulous salary/allowances in Yaounde.

–          appoints J C Ngoh as Federal Inspector of Administration answerable to the president and with more powers than the elected Prime Minister of West Cameroon.

–          Signs Decree in 1962 extending Terrorism Law of La Republique du Cameroun to West Cameroon to give legal cover to arrest and incarcerate political opponents like Nde Tumazah, Albert Mukong, Peter Banfegha etc of the UPC and One Kamerun party stock who were still enjoying liberties in West Cameroon.

–          1966 – One party system is rammed down throats of Southern Cameroonians who had managed a vibrant multiparty system with multiple free and fair elections since 1954.

–          1968 –  Augustine Ngom Jua another elected Prime Minister of West Cameroon (never appointed Vice President of Federation) is sacked ignominiously whilst addressing parliament in Buea and replaced with S.T Muna

–          1970 –  S.T Muna  is appointed Federal Vice President whilst J.N Foncha is appointed Grand chancellor of National Orders (whatever that means).

–          20^th May 1972 – hoax of Referendum is organized to create United  Republic of Cameroon, sovereignty is vested with the President who creates 7 Provinces dividing West Cameroon into South West and North West Provinces respectively making sure that seeds of division are sowed, watered and nurtured between them and sponsoring VIKUMA (Victoria, Kumba, Mamfe alliance against the NW).

–          1^st February 1984 – Paul Biya signs decree resurrecting the erstwhile Republique du Cameroun which had only gone into abeyance with the illegal imposition of the Federal Constitution on the UN Trust Territory of the Southern Cameroons.

–           1992 – High Court of Bamenda in Judgment No HCB/28/92 per Justice FOMBE Richard,  between The State of Southern Cameroons alias Ambazonia & 2 Ors Vs La Republique Du Cameroun & 1Or declared the administration of La Republique du Cameroun illegal over the Southern Cameroons territory … (judge is subsequently killed and Case File has disappeared).

–          May 2009 – Notwithstanding the existing illegality, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) in Communication 266/2003 dated 27/05/2009 between Kevin Ngwang Gumne, SCNC & SCAPO Vs Cameroon wherein the special tribunal of the African Union held that Southern Cameroonians are a distinct people different from citizens of La Republique du Cameroun and recommended Constructive Dialogue between La Republique du Cameroun and the peoples of the Southern Cameroons. In fact when the leader of the Cameroon delegation (Dr Dione Ngute) raised the issue of them being tried in the military tribunal because they were terrorists, the court asked him whether terrorists go to court and he was dumbfounded. In fact this same recognition was made by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in Communication 1134/2002 dated 17/03/2005 between Fon Fongum Gorji Dinka Vs Cameroon as well as in the very recent Communication 1813/2003 dated December 2014 between Ebenezer Derek Mbongo Akwanga Vs Cameroon wherein the UNHRC went ahead to award damages in the sum of US$3.445.904 against the Defendants.

–          The recommendations for constructive dialogue between the two peoples of La Republique du Cameroun and the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) by both the African Union and the UNO Secretary General Koffi A. Annan has been roundly frustrated with impunity and utmost disdain by Paul Biya’s La Republique du Cameroun and everybody seems so helpless!!

–          It must also be underlined here that while it was legal and legitimate for the Draft Bill for the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Cameroun to be debated only in the parliament of La Republique du Cameroun  and then promulgated into law by their president Ahmadou Ahidjo and implemented in their territory, it remains a gigantic fraud and illegality for that Federal Constitution and ALL OTHER SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION and practice deriving from it to be implemented in the territory of the Southern Cameroons(Ambazonia). A law that was adopted and promulgated without our consent should not be implemented on us. This happens to be one of the principal causes of the American War of Independence, the principle of NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. How can a law adopted for example, in parliament of Nigeria  be implemented on Cameroon!!!!

–          By the same argument should Southern Cameroons continue to pay taxes and sponsor a government that rather than build roads, schools and hospitals sends armed police and gendarmes to torture, maim, rape and even kill innocent armless school children? Do we suffer with children like this only for them to get to the University and be tortured, maimed, raped and killed by armed troops of La Republique du Cameroun? Why the carnage as if we were conquered in War?

–          Etc …

PUZZLES:

Help me find answers to following puzzles;

Ø  Was it correct by any stretch of imagination for President Ahmadou Ahidjo of La Republique du Cameroun after adopting a federal constitution in his country, promulgating same into law and applying same in his country from 1^st September 1961 to unilaterally impose same constitution on the British Southern Cameroons as from 1^st October 1961?

Ø  Was there any legal basis for the alleged Federal Republic of Cameroon that included the territory of former British Southern Cameroons?

Ø  Considering the United Nations Charter, was it legal or legitimate for La Republique du Cameroun a member state since 1960 to simply extend its territory to include the territory of the UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons even after the Plebiscite without a priori depositing a signed Treaty of Union with such a territory in the Secretariat of the UNO as mandatorily required by Art 102(1) of the UNO Charter?

Ø  Is there any legal basis for the governance of the British Southern Cameroons territory by respective Governments of Presidents Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya since 1961 till today?

Ø  Was the imposition of the Constitution of La Republique du Cameroun on the peace loving people of the Southern Cameroons from 1^st October 1961 not an Act of Annexation pure and simple that is roundly condemned at international law?

Ø  Is there any difference between what La Republique du Cameroun did in October 1961 and the Invasion of Kuwait by Iraq?

Ø  Is it not crystal clear that there was an illegal mafia arrangement or conspiracy, in fact a slave deal involving Britain our administering authority and the UNO on the one hand and France and La  Republique du Cameroun on the other hand wherein instead of granting independence to the Southern Cameroons trust territory in conformity with mandatory provisions of Art. 176 (b) of UN Charter on 1^st October 1961 before the joining they handed us illegally and prematurely to Ahmadou Ahidjo at the Tiko international Airport (since closed down) on 30^th September 1961?

Ø  Can this problem be resolved peacefully without the UNO and the British coming back to complete and rectify (in conformity with international legality) the decolonization of Southern Cameroons that they thwarted?

Ø  In the alternative since liberty and justice is priceless, must The Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia as many citizens want it to be called) engage in an avoidable War of independence against La Republique du Cameroun before the the UNO, Britain and the international community can give value to the UNO Charter and the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights?

Ø  So preventive diplomacy becomes an empty slogan when it comes to basic truth as in the case of the Southern Cameroons?

You will definitely bear with me that everything that has happened in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) since 1^st October 1961 remains an absolute illegality until the independence and sovereignty of the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) shall have been resurrected. The fight for legality, truth and justice is a just cause for which every sacrifice is worth it and shall find justification. WE SHALL OVERCOME!!!

By Barrister Shufai Blaise Sevidzem Berinyuy

Taku Chambers Buea