The government should be under no illusion that the struggle is over because the resistance just began.

As distraught Anglophones continue to query and reject the very basis of the Cameroonian State;with a majority favouring independence, the leadership of the Anglophone struggle remains embattled on all fronts over its tepid response to the violent crackdown by security forces in the wake of the October 1 restoration of independence, in which hundreds of Anglophones were killed, hundreds more detained or missing, with thousands forced to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.From all indications, the independence restoration was a political misadventure, given the growing chasm within the fractious leadership,unvested with the history of liberation struggles and the taxing and quite complex challenges of navigating global power relations. Amid the apparent despair in the face of genocide, the government seems poised to run down the clock through the backdoor without genuine dialogue to resolve the crisis.The mistaken assumption is that differences between federalists and restorationists will divide and kill the struggle.This is a fatal mistake because Anglophones remain resolutely committed to the struggle. In the face of genocide, the message Anglophones have sent to the government is clear and unequivocal: give us freedom or death. The government should therefore be under no illusion that the struggle is over because, if anything, the resistance just began.

This is no time for public grandstanding; nor is it a moment political self-aggrandisement. The struggle is at crossroads and whether you support federalism or independence, the question every Anglophone must ask is this:Besides the token measures of appeasement, what has changed in the past 13 months? Has government through its actions and utterances of its spokespersons shown any interest in dialogue, let alone a desire to consider federalism? Without demagoguery,the truth is that nothing has changed.The government has shown no interest in dialogue and regime apologists have repeatedly foreclosed any debate on federalism.It is now clear that Anglophones will never get federalism unless the regime is pressured to realize that the two options to resolving the crisis is either federalism or independence. The catch-22 here is that only pressure for independence by restorationists will force Biya’s hand towards federalism. It therefore stands to reason that all Anglophones should raise their voices for independence until the rising crescendo becomes too loud to be ignored.

While not unmindful of the great trials and tribulations confronting our people; after our youths have been killed, maimed and dehumanised, it is mind-boggling to even contemplate sending our children to school. This will be more than just a betrayal of the struggle, and the sacrifices of Anglophone activists, including the larger than life Mancho BBC, who are still standing trial on bogus charges that carry the death penalty.Besides, giving up school boycott; the main leverage of the struggle has no redeeming strategic value, even to the federalists, as it amounts to an act of unilateral surrender.Our work is not done as long as the Anglophone is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of brutality by Francophone security forces who see us as a conquered and captured people.This is a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the high price our people have already paid, we must brace and bear ourselves to our responsibilities as a people fighting for their freedom.The real battle is about to begin.Upon this battle depends the survival of the Anglophone nation. Upon it depends our own future and that of our children and grandchildren.

The government knows it has to break the momentum of our struggle or lose the war. If we continue to be defiant in the face of torture; if we recognise that this struggle is not about us individually and focus on the big picture; if we keep faith with the sacred covenant signed with the blood of those who have paid the ultimate price, so that we Anglophones should be free; then, make your reckoning and realise that it were better to die 10,000 deaths than to act out of coward servility because it is folly to give way to evil counsels; to refuse to do what has to be done; to listen to the naysayers and advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that because we have sacrificed so much in blood and treasure, we as Anglophones will henceforth cease to be treated as second-class citizens in Cameroon; that, whatever happens, Anglophones will no longer suffer marginalisation and discrimination, even as Francophones see them as dogs, rats and slaves to be scourged and butchered with impunity.

With schools shut down, leaving students to an uncertain fate,puerile arguments about mortgaging our children’s future have been accompanied by claims that Anglophones were deceived that UNESCO will declare 2017 a blank school year. Such baseless claims are a wilful misunderstanding of the functioning of the UNESCO Recognition and Validation of Certificates Commission; the UNESCO Education Quality Accreditation Commission and the UNESCO Policy on Accreditation and Global Education.No one needs telling that UNESCO has strict guidelines and education harmonisation standards which signatory members must adhere to, in order for an authenticated certificate from that country to be given the same recognition in another signatory country. One such guideline is duration of the academic year.If a signatory country does not meet the minimum requirements in a section or the whole country, certificates issued that year in the whole country are declared null and void. The jury is not yet out on the fate of the “political GCE” that was written in 2017, as the crisis continues, but it is anyone’s guess that UNESCO will have the last laugh on those 2017 GCE certificates.

Besides, of what use is an education that turn our institutions into degree mills that produce certificated graduates who are so half-baked educationally that they are neither useful to themselves nor to society? Those complicit school resumption advocates must be reminded that school boycott was not invented by Anglophone freedom fighters. It has been the weapon of choice for liberation movements dating back over 1000 years. After the Roman conquest of Britain, the British refused to send their children to school to protest the emasculating education the Romans were imparting on the children. Despite the threats, intimidation and heavy-handed tactics of then Roman Governor of Britain,Gnaeus Julius Agricola (AD77- 84), British children boycotted school for five (5) years. When Britain later colonized Ireland and instituted an educational system designed to keep the Irish stupid,the Irish held their children from going to school for two years. The famous Irish Revolutionary,Padraic Pearse eloquently captured the mood of the Irish resistance: “The educational system the English have instituted in Ireland is a murder machine; the schools are soulless and instead of teaching they destroy; they cannot make men but they can break them. We will keep the children home instead of sending them to the murder machine called schools.”

Apologists of school resumption deliberately refuse to look at the unacceptable face of a monumental national scandal wherein the government pays lip service to education; but treats students as liabilities and teachers like beggars.A situation where degree holders end up as bike riders and call box agents will not change by merely cajoling or threatening parents to send their children back to school.The school boycott, sad though it is, is a cruel reminder that freedom has a price and the price of freedom is very high because freedom is not given. It is pointless sending our children to school where dormitories are burnt under the watchful eyes of soldiers. The fury of the enemy has already been unleashed on our people and our brothers and sisters are already in their graves! Why should we give up now when nothing has changed in the past 13 months?Think about those who have paid the supreme price so that we may live in freedom. And then ask yourself: is my own life so precious, as to be purchased at the price of second-class citizenship?

Therefore, arise oh Ambazonians, for as Thomas Paine said, these are the times that try men’s souls.This struggle is our struggle; it is our struggle no less than it is that of the Anglophone leadership or the Anglophone Diaspora. We must have faith; we must not be stampeded by rumors or fear by detractors and naysayers. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in fighting for our freedom. Let us unite in banishing fear. Together we cannot fail.And if we must die as Claude McKay told Black Americans during their fight for freedom and equality; “let us nobly die, so that our precious blood may not be shed in vain; then even the monsters we defy shall be constrained to honor us though dead! If we must die, let us face our murderous cowards like men with their backs against the wall; dying, but fighting back.” Let the conscience of every Anglophone hold a conversation with his/her soul; then take this solemn vow: I am fighting for my freedom; I know not what course others may take; but as for me, the choice is simple – give me freedom or give me death!

By Valerian Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

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

Shey Jones was appointed on Tuesday the 31st October 2017 during the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of States of the Economic Community of Central African States, CEMAC that held in the Chadian capital, Djamena.

His appointment like those of every other ruling CPDM baron adds to his position as Board Chair of the Douala Port Authority.  State radio and television reported that Shey Jones has held several posts of responsibilities including Board Chair of the National Civil Engineering Laboratory; LABOGENIE,  CEO of MAG LLC Construction Company, Secretary of State in four ministerial departments and Secretary of State at the Ministry of Town Planning and Housing.

With political support from Prime Minister Simon Achidi Achu he served as  Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.  He was Director at the Grand Travaux Yaounde. The chartered member of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate was a student at the National Polytechnic School Yaounde. He migrated to the Federal Republic of Germany  where he studied at the University of Essen. Shey Jones hails from the Donga Mantung State in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Source: CRTV

Incumbent Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared the winner of the east African country’s election re-run, amid fears of further violence in flashpoint opposition strongholds.

Kenya’s electoral commission announced on Monday that Kenyatta had garnered 98.2 percent of the vote in the October 26 repeat presidential election, in which the voter turnout was almost 39 percent of the 19.6 million registered voters.

Wafula Chebukati, chairman of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), said the incumbent president had received 7,483,895 votes from a total of 7,616,217 cast ballots.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who had boycotted the Thursday protest-hit election, collected 73,228 votes, less than one percent of the ballots cast.

Odinga accused the IEBC of not implementing reforms to prevent widespread procedural irregularities and mismanagement that had culminated in the annulment of the initial vote in August. The opposition leader won 44.7 percent of the vote after Kenyatta in the previous round that saw a turnout of nearly 80 percent.

In his victory speech on Monday, Kenyatta once again that his triumph in the original August 8 election was legitimate and that dialogue over political peace and stability in the future would have to wait if the opposition was going to file lawsuits again.

“My victory today is just part of a process that is likely to once again be subjected to a constitutional test through our courts … I will submit to this constitutional path regardless of the outcome,” Kenyatta said.

“Those who are going to ask me: ‘Are you going to engage in dialogue?’ … Let them (the opposition) first and foremost exhaust all their constitutional options,” he noted.

The incumbent president also reiterated that his victory was a “revalidation” of the people’s will after a vote that had already been branded by Odinga’s supporters as a farce.

Prior to the announcement of the election results, Kenyan police stepped up security in flashpoint areas in the country’s west, including the capital Nairobi’s slum of Mathare and the coastal city of Mombasa.

Shortly after the announcement, demonstrators began burning tires in the western city of Kisumu as well as in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, according to reports.

At least nine people have been killed by gunshot wounds and beatings by police in the post-election violence since Thursday, taking the death toll since the first presidential election in August to 49.

The turmoil over the election has been polarizing the nation and hampering growth in East Africa’s most vibrant economy. Kenya is also considered a major regional trade hub and a key security ally for Western countries.

The European Union has called on Kenyan security forces to provide protection to all citizens and avoid the excessive use of force. A decade ago, some 1,200 Kenyans were killed in violence after another disputed poll.

Source: Presstv

Kenya’s election board has indefinitely delayed the country’s re-run presidential poll in four opposition-dominated areas due to “risk of violence.”

The board’s Friday decision came two days after polling in the rest of the country, in an attempt to stem the violence in Homa Hay, Kisumu, Migori and Siaya — all in the opposition stronghold of western Kenya.

In the wake of the re-run vote, residents of the opposition’s stronghold areas blocked roads and clashed with police.

Police officials have stressed that their response to the turmoil is proportionate.

So far, incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta has won over 97 percent of votes counted with turnout estimated below 35 percent.

The re-run election was held after the Kenyan Supreme Court annulled the previous election in August over procedural irregularities. Key opposition leader Raila Odinga pulled out of the contest, saying the contest against Kenyatta was not going to be fair.

Odinga won 44.7 percent of the vote in the previous round that saw a turnout of nearly 80 percent. In Thursday’s election, Kenyatta contested six minor candidates, none of whom won over 1 percent in August.

At least five people have been killed by gunshot wounds and beatings by police in the post-election violence since Thursday.

According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, at least 45 people died during a police crackdown on opposition supporters after the August vote.

The turmoil over the election has been polarizing the nation and hampering growth in East Africa’s most vibrant economy. Kenya is also considered a major regional trade hub and a key security ally for Western countries.

The European Union has called on Kenyan security forces to provide protection to all citizens and avoid the excessive use of force. A decade ago, some 1,200 Kenyans were killed in violence after another disputed poll.

Source: Presstv