Cameroon’s government vowed Wednesday that next month’s presidential election will be peaceful and voting will take place nationwide, despite mounting bloodshed in the central African country’s restive anglophone regions.

“The October 7 presidential election will be held in a calm and serene environment throughout our country,” minister of territorial administration Paul Atanga Nji said on state radio, citing reports by regional governors.

Cameroon’s two minority English-speaking regions — the North-West and South-West — have been hit by almost daily acts of violence that have left more than a hundred people dead and about 200,000 displaced since late 2016.

The anglophone separatists have said that voting will not take place in the two regions next month.

“The head of state has instructed the governors to take the necessary measures to ensure that the election goes ahead in all of Cameroon’s 360 districts,” Atanga Nji said after meeting with the governors of the country’s 10 regions on Monday and Tuesday.

He added that President Paul Biya had instructed the governors to “ensure the protection of all the candidates”.

Years of resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of Cameroon’s majority French speakers led to anglophone militants making a symbolic declaration of independence last October 1, which led to a government crackdown.

Since the start of the crisis, a total of 109 members of the police and security forces have been killed, according to government figures.

Even the start of the school year was marred by violence earlier this month, with the separatists calling for a boycott. Several teachers and students were abducted and one teacher was killed in Bamali in the North-West.

In the October poll, eight candidates will run against the 85-year-old incumbent Biya, who has ruled the country for 35 years and is seeking a seventh straight term in office.

(AFP)

The lawyer and chairman of the International Anti-Corruption Conference council says it is time for a change of government and that there must be a zero tolerance policy towards corruption.

A statement by Martin A. NKEMNGU rapporteur of the sub committee of the Theme “POLITICAL CHOICES OF THE SOUTHWEST REGION” presented at the Southwest Forum which held in Buea on 25th August, 2018.

Martin A. Nkemngu was appointed rapporteur in one of the four Committees of the Southwest Forum.

Their committee was under the Theme “POLITICAL CHOICES OF THE SOUTHWEST REGION ” under the chairmanship of Hon Benjamin Itoe assisted by Hon Nfor Tabetando.

The Committee had over 100 participants who deliberated on their theme.

The Committee deliberated and insisted on their choices.

The Rapporteur was mandated to readout at the plenary session what was dictated to him by the experienced statesmen who dominated the deliberations.

As a professional journalist i do not usually take sides on matters of public interest.

IF WHAT I READ HAS OFFENDED ANYBODY IN ANYWAY, I WISH TO STATE THAT IT WAS NEVER MY THOUGHTS OR BELIEFS.

I wish to use this opportunity to make it abundantly clear that I never went to the forum for any personal gain.

I further state that I left the forum without any financial or material compensation of any kind.

Thanks.

Finding a single candidate to run against President Paul Biya in the October 7 presidential elections is a puzzle Cameroon’s opposition is working hard to solve. Negotiations are under way among parties for a possible coalition. There’s no success so far.

Joshua Osih, the candidate of the Social Democratic Front, the main opposition party, is measured about the idea of an opposition coalition for a single candidacy.

“We sincerely believe that joining forces of the opposition is a very good thing in an election but we do not believe it is an ultimate road to victory”, Osih said.

Another candidate, Akere Muna believes in a possible opposition merger against Paul Biya, in power since 1982. He says he’s ready to quit the race for a candidate chosen by the parties.

The presidential election in Cameroon will take place on 7 October. Eight candidates are running, including 85 year old President Paul Biya.

Culled from Africa News

The main opposition party candidate in Cameroon’s October scheduled elections on Monday said, President Paul Biya is ‘‘the only one responsible’‘ for the conflict in the English-speaking regions of the country.

Joshua Osih, is himself a native of the North and Southwest regions in Cameroon, which have been plagued by a political crisis since 2016.

By the end of 2017, the crisis degenerated into a conflict between armed forces and English-speaking separatists, killing dozens, including at least 80 soldiers and police. 200,000 people were also forced to flee their homes.

“We have a problem with the system and this system has meant that we do not have simple political solutions to simple problems. We have a president who does not understand what is happening in Cameroon, who spends most of his time abroad and who thinks that sending the army as he did in the 1960s with the UPC can solve this problem. He can’t, Osih said.

Anglophone effect on October election

The shadow of this conflict hangs over the organization of the October 7 presidential election in the English-speaking zone, in which Osih and seven other candidates will face 85-year old Paul Biya.

This is the first time he’s running on the ticket of the Social Democratic Front, the main opposition party that was previously represented by its historic leader, John Fru Ndi.

Unlike other candidates, Osih says he is “against” a probe into charges of alleged abuses committed by the army in English-speaking areas, saying he believes, “there is a political responsibility that is far superior to the responsibility of mere military “.

AFP

John Ayuk Takunchong, the CPDM mayor of the Mamfe municipality has called on Manyus to stand behind the one and indivisible Cameroon idea blaming the Southern Cameroons Diaspora for the war currently going in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The Chief Tabetando acolyte warned that any attempt to frustrate the union with French Cameroun or leave the Republic of Cameroon would be a “betrayal” of the role played by the Cameroon army in defending the Bakassi Peninsular.

However, what is not well known is that until he decided to join the CPDM crime syndicate, Takunchong took the polar opposite position against the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé. Far from being a committed hard one and indivisible Cameroon campaigner, the mayor of Mamfe actually had a long record as a popular Southern Cameroons footballer of arguing for Southern Cameroons to sever ties with French Cameroun.

Here are some of the times that the mayor of Mamfe has fundamentally contradicted his own arguments vis-à-vis Southern Cameroons relationship with French Cameroun.

“I was never given a chance with the Indomitable Lions because I do not speak French”

Takunchong today is saying that our union with French Cameroun remains the best thing that ever happened. However, this was very far from his position before the Southern Cameroons revolution.

“I would vote to move away from these Francophones. I’m in favour of the creation of a state for Anglophones. I want us to be able to build our own national football team where players are selected because of their skills and not because they live in Douala and Yaoundé and can speak French.”

“The army camp in Besongabang has done more harm than good to my people”

Takunchong today delivered his support for the Cameroon government army stating that many Francophone soldiers died defending the Bakassi Peninsular.  However, this is a long way from Takunchong’s previous position on the Cameroon military.

“I am not by any means happy with these Francophone soldiers in Besongabang. They have killed many of our young people and there hasn’t been any strong condemnation from Minister Agbor Tabi or Hon. Rose Abunaw,” Takunchong told an audience in early 2000 when troops went on a rampage in his native Besongabang and killed many young men and women. Many Besongabang citizens fled to Nigeria and nothing has been heard of them till this day.

The most Anti French Cameroun mayor in Southern Cameroons

Takunchong today is claiming that Southern Cameroonians need to send their children to school and that the Biya Francophone regime has done all what it can to provide quality education for Southern Cameroons kids.

However, during the period when Takunchong could not study in the University of Yaoundé due to his lack of mastery of the French language, he toured the nooks and crannies of Bonamousadi and Cradat condemning the fathers of reunification.

By Eyong Johnson Agbor in Buea

Elections in Cameroon, scheduled for October 7, will be held against a backdrop of uncertainty in the English-speaking regions and amid accusations that the government is planning to rig the polls.

In exactly two months, Cameroonians will be going to the polls to elect their president. Twenty-eight candidates are in the running, including 86-year-old incumbent Paul Biya, who has been in power for 36 years. He is Africa’s second longest serving leader after his neighbour Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.

But there are doubts inside and outside Cameroon that this election will be free and fair, especially in the Anglophone regions in the west, bordering Nigeria, which have been in turmoil for the past two years, when residents started to press their claims for more autonomy or even independence. According to the United Nations, 200 000 people have been internally displaced and 40 000 have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Polls amid the mayhem

Among those who fled violence is 8-year-old Kum Vitalis who cried when media asked him about his life now: “They didn’t pay my father and there was no money for school fees or food in the house. That is why they brought us to safety here. When it gets better, they will take us back. They have been shooting people inside their houses and they are just dying like that.”

The government denies having any role in the atrocities taking place in the region. But both the UN and non-governmental organisations such as Human Rights Watch have filed reports on crimes against humanity by armed rebels and government troops. Fifty-four-year-old teacher Ngum Julius, who fled the English-speaking town of Njinikom, believes elections cannot be held there.

“All businesses are shut down. All government services are shut down, except the military. Many people have gone away. Too many people are dying, too many people are being displaced. We need to sit at the same table as Cameroonians and talk it out and find a solution,” Julius said.

Cameroon is also dealing with attacks by Boko Haram militants in the north, and a spillover of violence from the Central African Republic.

Voter apathy

Scepticism about the elections is not limited to the Anglophone regions in the country. In Bonamoussadi, a student residential area of the capital Yaounde, young people say that they should be discussing football instead of wasting time with elections, because the process is not working anyway. Tatah Hans is one of them. “I am a Cameroonian. It is normal to vote. I have to vote. But I am facing so many difficulties because very soon they will start voting and I don’t have a voter’s card. I don’t know what to do,” he told media.

Voter apathy is evident; only seven million of a total of 13 million voters have actually registered to cast their ballot. But supporters of Paul Biya, like Jacques Fame Ndongo, say elections will go ahead despite the rebels’ attempts. “We know that their mad dream is to stop the organization of the presidential election in those two regions, but that mad dream will never come to fruition because the population of the Northwest and the Southwest regions is determined to express its total support to the head of state and his party, the CPDM (Cameroon’s People Democratic Movement),” he said.

Fighting fraud

Meanwhile, the main opposition political party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), cautions the government against fraud. Denise Nkemlemo, the SDF’s communication secretary, says the election management body has already started to break the law, for instance by setting up voting stations where they shouldn’t: “We are not supposed to have voting stations inside the presidency; military camps are also out of the question,” she said. According to Nkemlemo, at polling stations in those places in previous elections, CPDM’s votes outnumbered those for the SDF by a wide margin. “When our representatives wanted to raise questions, the military came with guns and told them “we don’t make noise here.” The SDF will not tolerate the lack of respect of the electoral law,” she added.

These claims are rejected by Enow Abrams Egbe, the electoral body’s board chair, who says critics have ulterior motives. “It is normal that detractors play their game, but we are playing our role with serenity and everything is moving on smoothly,” he said.

Source: DW

Cameroon’s electoral body, ELECAM, on Tuesday cleared nine candidates to run for the presidential polls slated for October 7, 2018. Incumbent Paul Biya is seeking to extend his 36 years in power by a fresh seven-year mandate.

The nine include Biya who leads the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM). His main challengers will be Joshua Osih of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and lawyer Akere Muna – a former head of the country’s bar association.

The other candidates to be present on the ballot paper include: Serge Espoir Matomba, Cabral Libii, Njifor Franklin, Maurice Kamto, Garga Haman and Ndam Njoya.

Over twenty candidates filed their candidacy to contest for the highest political seat of the land. ELECAM disqualified all but the nine above whiles one candidate is said to have withdrawn his candidacy.

The October 7 vote is seen as a stern test for the incumbent who has often won elections with huge margins. A current security crisis in the country’s Anglophone regions have continually affected Biya’s popularity.

Pro-independence groups under the banner of so called Ambazonia Republic continue to wage guerilla-style attacks on members of the security forces across the South-West and North-West – Anglophone regions.

Political watchers are projecting that for the opposition to effectively tackle Biya, there would need to be an alliance to back a common candidate but it remains to be seen in the next two months if they can pull off such a move.

Source: Africa News

In what unfortunately, has become the unedifying trademark of their favorite pastime, there is a surge of Graffi-bashing on social media platforms by self-elected guardians of the SW estate who are engaged in a well-orchestrated campaign to divide and break the Anglophones resolve and resistance in the face of the genocidal war of attrition being waged by the vampire regime of the 85-year-old president Biya, now tottering on the borders of senile decay.These self-aggrandising buccaneers and CPDM hacks masquerading as SW opinion leaders have been gas lighting the dead horse of NW/SW divide,with a revanchist, xenophobic narrative that Northwesterners are the straw man of the ongoing Anglophone crisis. They are shamelessly vilifying Northwesterners for Biya’s genocide, even as the carnage continues unabated as soldiers struggle to contain a crisis that has escalated from a low-intensity conflict to full-blown military insurgency. We have seen this movie before, hence no one is fooled. The vast majority of Southwesterners know the Graffi man is not their enemy: it is the successive Francophone-dominated regimes from Ahidjo to Biya that have pillaged the SW region of its natural resources to finance a gangster kleptocracy in Yaoundé, leaving Southwesterners in abject poverty and misery. One million hate speeches and xenophobic attacks on Northwesterners will not change this reality; it is a fact!

Whilst it is true that the inflammatory postings by these CPDM cheerleaders are irritating, despicable and dishonourable; and although it may be annoying that this demented cast of sycophants, wallowing in such demeaning drama of adulation, can even pretend to speak on behalf of Southwesterners, their actions reflect the abysmal level of ignorance, misguidedness and mischief being communicated to gullible Anglophones, who might be tempted to believe their hallucinations. This would be a sad mistake. If anything, these ranting SW Provincialists are sick are demented and need help to get out of their impertinent self-flagellation. They suffer from Graffi Derangement Syndrome (GDS): a personality disorder which manifests as obsessive, compulsive and visceral hatred for anything graffi. GDS symptoms include inferiority complex, self-defeatism, impulsivity and self-denial and prognosis range from acute, chronic to critical, where patients have to be confined to the ICU –intensive care unit of xenophobia.

GDS patients blame Northwesterners for everything that is wrong with the SW and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions and self-inflicted disasters. Just read or listen to their garrulous banter and rationalizations for their Graffi-phobia and you will notice the illogical absurdities in their apposite attacks on Northwesterners, is matched by a penchant for finger-pointing, actuated by a primitive vendetta of self-abnegation and a certain blind, narrow-minded hate, borne of an unseemly grievance prejudice against the Graffi man. For example, nihilistic soldiers have burnt down villages in the SW, raped, tortured, murdered and arrested thousands and forced thousands of other Southwesterners to flee their villages into the bushes. Anyone who claims to be a defender of SW interests would be calling the regime out for these crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations. But these sycophants want us to blame the Graffi man. If this is not the climax of hypocrisy that stinks to the high Heavens, one wonders what else is.

Externalizing the problems bedevilling the SW and trying to make Northwesterners as the bogeyman will, in no way alter the calculations on the ground where the guns are now doing the talking. Whatever moral equivalency these self-elected defenders of the SW estate try to establish, the fact remains that they do not speak for the majority of Southwesterners. Their bile and vitriol, ornamented with bellicose and provocative grandiloquence against Northwesterners, advertises in spectacular fashion, the fact that the so-called one, united and indivisible Cameroon is a hoax!These self-seeking opportunists, lack the intellectual capacity to understand the explosive danger and futility of divisive micro-nationalism. Else, how can Southwest CPDM elite and their Graffi-hating bigots be preaching national unity, while at the same time declaring Northwesterners as persona non grata in the SW; in violation of the Constitution which gives every Cameroonian the right to settle in any part of the country?

It is a pity that we must witness the circus of this pathetic skull duggery unfolding on social media.Indolent Southwesterners will always play the victim and pander to the regime for political crumbs by increasing their nuisance value to seek for public notice. Unfortunately, it is a waste of time trying to use facts, logic and reason to cure GDS. Now that we know these ranting SW Provincialists are afflicted by Graffi Derangement Syndrome; now that the flatulence of their fibs and their shameless attempt to distort and muffle our history has been exposed, we should not condemn them; rather we should pity them. Obviously, they are vexatious to the spirit, but our collective memory can filter whatever narrative they want to foist on us.They believe they are winning when other well-meaning Anglophones engage them on social media. We should therefore ignore them, and instead pray for the remission of their sins against Ambazonia.

Anglophones cannot afford to be distracted by people who speak the language of yesterday with such profound recklessness without any due consideration of the consequences of projecting such a narrow political agenda. That anyone not blinded by prejudice or self-interest would champion hypocrisy and double-speak as the war cry for SW nationalism is clearly beyond commonsense.How can anyone really believe that because he had an unsavory experience with one Northwesterner, all Northwesterners are bad people?How can anyone argue that a mistake made in 1961 was a life sentence that Anglophones cannot correct? Southwesterners must not allow themselves to be stampeded by an eccentric minority of Graffi-haters and detractors. The regime is desperate to break the momentum of the resistance because it cannot win the war on the battlefield.We must unite with our NW brothers and sisters because together we cannot fail. We must keep faith with the sacred covenant signed with the blood of those who have paid the ultimate price, so that we should be free.This struggle is no less our struggle;than it is that of the Ambazonia fighters on ground zero or the Anglophone Diaspora.

The challenge for Southwesterners is to rise above narrow ethno-tribal geo-political considerations that undermine our struggle for freedom.The fury of the enemy continues to be unleashed on our people, many of whom have been killed. Why should we give up now when nothing has changed? Think about those who have paid the ultimate price for this struggle. And then ask yourself: was it a Graffi man who burned my village? Was it a Graffi man who raped my daughter or sister? Was it a Graffi man who arrested, tortured and killed my father, mother and brother? Granted that the NW/SW relationship has many challenges, there is more that unites us than divides us. If we as one people remain resolute and defiant in the face of genocide; if we recognize that this struggle is not about us individually and focus on the big picture; then, Southwesterners should not continue in coward servility because it is folly to listen to the advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that if we castigate Northwesterners, Southwesterners will henceforth cease to be second-class citizens and the SW region will no longer suffer marginalization and discrimination.

On a personal note,I would ordinarily not join issues with these Graffi Derangement Syndrome victims,because they are mentally challenged and their arguments are neither grounded in historical facts nor logic, reason or commonsense; but on subjective personal emotions. But I feel constrained to speak out, particularly now, because there is a misdirected campaign by revisionist bigots to re-write Southern Cameroons history, while acting out the divide-and-conquer script written by the CPDM regime. It was Ayukogem Stephen Ojong; Publisher of The Median Newspaper who remarked in exasperation that Southwesterners held the Prime Minister’s job for 12 years and nothing substantial came out of it for the region. Achidi Achu held it for four years and created an expansive business and middle class in the NW region. And when push came to shove during the fundraising for Biya’s humanitarian genocide relief for Anglophones, just four Northwesterners – Baba Danpullo, Shey Jones Yembe, Eric Njong and Goddy Talla contributed about FCFA 100 million; more than the total amount raised by the entire Southwest region. Of course, the Graffi man is responsible for the inability of Southwesterners to rise up to the challenge of personal example, which is the hallmark of true leadership!

Those ranting SW provincialists and their paymasters must understand that Graffi-bashing as a national pastime and favored political sport by SW CPDM elite has had its day and must now end in the interest of the collective Anglophone struggle for freedom.The ridiculous assertion that the Graffi man is responsible for everything that is wrong with the Southwest is laughable and should attract no further comment. Let me assure our Northwest brothers and sisters that the silent majority of Southwesterners are not afflicted by Graffi Derangement Syndrome.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, Boston, USA

Your Eminence, Christian Cardinal Tumi,

Allow me to use this opportunity to congratulate on your effort to seek a lasting solution to the ongoing crisis in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

Your Eminence, allow me to also express my gratitude to you for the positions you have always taken when there are issues facing our country, especially issues bordering on human rights violation and poverty which have a tendency to dehumanize our fellow human beings.

You have always spoken out against bad governance in Cameroon and your publications and interviews stand to attest to your love and respect for human dignity.

Regarding the All Anglophone Conference that you and your peers have decided to convene, I would like to express my total support to your effort. The conflict in Southern Cameroons has resulted in the killing of thousands of civilians and soldiers and this should not be any good news to any right-thinking person.

Human life is sacred and we all have the responsibility of protecting life. It is a shared responsibility and we all have to pull our fair share of the weight.

It is unfortunate that many have been killed in this conflict. However, I strongly believe that there is hope on the horizon. We cannot bring back those who have died, but we can work together to ensure that we do not lose more lives.

The conference you and your peers are proposing could be that trigger that might bring about a change in thinking among the warring factions. War has never solved any problem. At best, it has only made things worse.  We all should ensure that human life should not be wasted and that conflicts should be resolved at the negotiating table.

During this challenging moment, voices like yours are needed to help calm down tempers. I hope you will use your privileged position to mobilize Southern Cameroonians, many of whom are longing for peace in their country.

Many Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora want to attend your conference. The idea is commendable and many hold that it could bring about some useful recommendations which, if well implemented, could spare the country the specter of war that is hanging over our heads.

However, they have a few concerns.  Over the last two years, the government has been arresting and jailing Southern Cameroonians living abroad when they come back home to visit their loved ones. For those who hold foreign passports, they are usually denied entry into the country. This has been a source of frustration for many members of the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora.

These measures by the government have created a rift between the government and the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora; a rift that has made it hard for the government to use these efficient resources for the economic development of our country.

As a major convener of this conference, I hope you are taking the appropriate steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur at the airports and even when the conference participants are in the country.

I would like to underscore that the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is a major force and its weight and influence have been felt during this conflict. If members of this Diaspora are not brought to the table to share their perspective, the resolutions and recommendations of your conference may just be as good as a dead letter.

In this regard, I would like to hail your call for a general amnesty for all Southern Cameroonians living abroad and at home. Your call for the release of all those arrested within the framework of this conflict is also commendable. I know the government has not been very open to this idea. Are there any steps you and your peers are taking to ensure that the government pays heed to your call?

The Diaspora is looking forward to the resolution of these issues. Their resolution is necessary for your conference to attract some of the country’s best and brightest. Cameroon needs all its sons and daughters and a conference like the one you have convened will go a long way in bringing many factions together.

I look forward to having answers to the questions I have raised in this letter.

 Sincerely,

 Joachim Arrey

About the Author: The author of this letter 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 from the Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters (ASTI), Buea, and holds a Ph.D. He could be reached at: arreyjoachim@hotmail.com.