Some French Cameroun traditional rulers are now calling for constitutional reform and consultation among opinion leaders that will herald a smooth political transition in Yaoundé.

Constitutional reform, political transition, the war in Southern Cameroons, the revision of the electoral code, and inclusive dialogue among Cameroonian opinion leaders including the diaspora are among the topics of discussion that preoccupied traditional leaders in the western region of French Cameroun this week.

The chiefs of the Bamileke constituencies whose subjects secretly financed the genocide campaign currently going on in Southern Cameroons unanimously opined that they want to help the CPDM crime syndicate in seeking solutions to the numerous political crises facing the two Cameroons.

In a statement made public recently, the Bamileke chiefs observed that “The so-called NoSo war is sinking into an unbearable barbarity with the main victims being civilians and even children who just wanted to get an education. Assassinations, beheadings, summary executions, kidnappings and humiliations of all kinds are multiplying and becoming commonplace, thus seriously undermining human rights and dignity in our country,”

Regarding the political transition in Yaounde, the Bamileke traditional leaders, suggested a constitutional reform that will ensure stability and get a new figure to run government business in Yaoundé.

Some French Cameroun political commentators have expressed scepticism about getting a political transition in Cameroon before the end of President Biya’s term.

With age openly telling on the president, Paul Biya, 87 years old, has been in power for 38 years. The dictator claimed he was re-elected to a seventh term of 7 years at the end of the election of October 7, 2018.

The declaration of the traditional chiefs of the West comes at a time when many see no solution in sight following the acceptance by the collapsing regime to stage first regional elections on December 6.

Cameroon Concord News understands that at the end of these elections, 900 regional councillors will be elected. There will be 90 councillors in each region, including 70 representatives from government departments and 20 from various chiefdoms.  The elections are being boycotted by two of the largest opposition parties, the MRC and the SDF.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

The announcement of the elections and the implementation measures comes as Cameroon is embroiled by a conflict in which separatist fighters in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions seek to create an independent state called Ambazonia. This conflict stems from the systematic marginalization of Anglophones, who comprise nearly 20 percent of the country’s population, but was sparked by the repression of demonstrations of teachers and lawyers in the fall of 2016 who demanded linguistic autonomy within their respective institutions.

Now, four years after these demonstrations and in the midst of a war of secession that has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands, Biya’s government—which has consistently been ranked as one of the most corrupt and authoritarian in Africa—is seeking to enact decentralization measures. While enacting such reforms at the outset of the crisis may have addressed some of the demands of the demonstrators, doing so now is simply another effort of the Cameroonian government to present the image that it is responding to the crisis and grievances of the Anglophone population without engaging in any meaningful dialogue or negotiations with civil society or separatist leaders.

The regional elections, which are slated to occur on Dec. 6, will elect a total of 90 councilors to each of the regional bodies—70 divisional delegates and 20 traditional rulers. The traditional leaders will be selected by regional chieftaincy bodies, the majority of which are dominated by supporters of Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) and have backed the party in previous elections.

The Regional Councils have their origins in a 1996 law that amended Cameroon’s 1972 constitution. This constitution was Cameroon’s second following the abolition of a federal form of government by the country’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo. Federalism had existed since the former British colony of Southern Cameroons merged with the former French colony of Cameroon in 1961. The constitutional reform of 1996 was announced with the intent of quelling dissent from ethnic and linguistic groups that had been excluded during the first decade of Biya’s government as well as that of his predecessor. The groups that suffered from such marginalization included those from the West and Far North regions, although the predominant group was the Anglophone minority of the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Many years ago, the Cameroonian government agreed to constitutional reforms that had the potential to lead to a devolution of governance to the regional level but refused to implement them.

The discontent that the Anglophone minority felt was compounded by the first multiparty elections held in 1992, during which John Fru Ndi of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) came in second with 36 percent of the vote while Biya won 40 percent. Allegations of electoral irregularities led to a prolonged period of unrest and a deep sense of marginalization within the Anglophone population.

In response, leaders from Anglophone Cameroon convened the All Anglophone Conference in 1993 that resulted in the Buea Declaration, which called for a return to the federated government that existed prior to 1971. In 1994, the second All Anglophone Conference convened and issued the Bamenda Declaration, stating that if Cameroon did not return to a federal form of government, the Anglophone regions of Cameroon would demand independence.

It was largely in response to these growing demands from Cameroon’s Anglophone community that the National Assembly of Cameroon adopted constitutional reform measures to create a more decentralized state. At the time, the National Assembly was dominated by the ruling CPDM party, and the reform measures were backed by Biya and the government. The amendment stated that regions would be given jurisdiction over land management, budgeting, education, and other areas of governance. It also promised that the main organ responsible for overseeing the decentralized form of governance would be the Regional Councils that were established in the amendment. In addition to regional decentralization, the amendment also made the Cameroonian legislature bicameral by creating the Senate, which comprises 100 members; 30 of the senators are appointed directly by the president with the other 70 being selected by municipal councils across Cameroon.

Despite the fact that the constitutional reforms were approved by the National Assembly, the power to convene elections for both the Senate and Regional Councils that the amendment created was given solely to the president. And although nationwide elections occurred for both the presidency and Parliament the year after the amendment was enacted, Biya did not call elections for the Regional Councils or the Senate, meaning that the new bodies were never created.

Culled from Foreign Policy

The Global Leadership of the Young African Women Congress (YAWC) Network has held an extraordinary virtual leadership summit to discuss the ongoing Anglophone crisis in Cameroon.

This followed a request by the leadership of the Cameroon Chapter to the YAWC Network Council to intervene in the crisis following recent killings of school children, believed to be related to a long-standing misunderstanding between the Anglophone regions.

The meeting which was held on 4th November 2020 saw the participation of the YAWC Network Council Chair, who also chaired the meeting, the Executive Secretary, the Global President and Vice President of the Network, Executives of the various National Chapters (Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Cameroon, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda). The meeting also received insight from experts in the area of law, international relations, conflict resolution, peace and security.

Top on the agenda were strategies to help to encourage genuine dialogue among the various factions while ensuring the safety and wellbeing of women and children by providing relief services to victims.

To set the tone for discussions, the President of the Cameroon Chapter of the YAWC Network, Ms Rosaline Akweba Obah gave a vivid picture of the situation in the country, siting serious acts of abuse and atrocities committed by various factions in the midst of the crises. She said, “The ongoing crisis in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon has left thousands dead, millions rendered homeless as their property and livestock have been destroyed through burning”.

She, together with her executives, responded to questions with regards to her narrative to inform suggestions and resolutions towards the specific requests made to the YAWC Network Council.

Discussing the matter and paying heed to facts and the legalities of the cases, the YAWC Network Leadership resolved that, it would launch a campaign, both virtual (that is involving the use of electronic posters and videos) and physical if deemed safe, to express concern about the crises. Leaders of the National Chapters were therefore admonished to engage their members to engage in the massive campaign that will follow the meeting until the government’s attention is drawn to the intensity of the crises in the country.

In effect, a special appeal would be made to the government of Cameroon to engage the separatists involved in the crises in any approach found tenable. And much of these dialogues should involve women who bear the biggest brunt of such crises. If possible, measures should be put in place as a matter of urgency to ensure that women and children and the vulnerable are protected in the midst of the misunderstandings.

While efforts are being made to restore peace and tranquillity, the summit recognised the fact that many people had been displaced through the crises. The summit therefore resolved to work in tandem with the leadership of the Cameroon Chapter to mobilise resources from all the other nations where YAWC Network is represented to mitigate the current loss victims may be suffering. Resources that would be gathered in this effort will be only non-perishable goods. Leaders were therefore tasked to inform their members to contribute their quota as far as their efforts would enable them to help their brothers and sisters in Cameroon.

In the same vein, the Cameroon Chapter Executives had identified ten (10) girls whose education could be in jeopardy if help was not found since they lost their parents through the crises. The summit resolved to open a unified account and designated to the Cameroon Chapter. The account will be a pool where all members of the YAWC Network could contribute their monies to help fund the education of these girls.

The YAWC Network remains committed to enforcing these resolutions and look forward to partnering other major stakeholders to bringing lasting peace to Cameroon. And more especially, in a way that would safeguard the sanctity of women and the future of the children in the country.

We call on all well-meaning African women to register and be part of the YAWC Network from whichever country they find themselves and be a part of a global movement that speaks and acts for women in true pan-African way.

Source: Modern Ghana