12, October 2019

Burkina Faso: 16 die in attack on Grand Mosque ⁰

Gunmen have gone on a deadly shooting spree at a mosque in northern Burkina Faso. Over a dozen people have been killed.

The Grand Mosque in Salmossi witnessed the death of at least 16 people on Saturday, AFP reported.

Thirteen of the victims died on the spot and three others succumbed to their wounds later. Two more people were in a critical condition.

The act of terror drove locals from their homes.

Since 2015, several hundred people have lost their lives in terrorist attacks that have turned increasingly violent especially in the north and the east of the African country. The extremists are linked to either al-Qaeda or the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

Terrorists mostly use guerrilla hit-and-run tactics with road mines and bomb attacks.

The terror groups have not spared the capital Ouagadougou. The city has been the scene of deadly attacks three times. In March 2018, one such assault on the military headquarters killed eight people.

Some 300,000 people have fled their homes and nearly 3,000 schools have closed. The impact of the terrorist attacks on an overwhelmingly rural economy is rising, disrupting trade and markets.

Roughly 55 to 60 percent of Burkina Faso’s population is Muslim, with almost a quarter Christian. The two communities generally live in peace.

Source: Presstv

12, October 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Benue State in Nigeria relocates 6,000 Ambazonia refugees to new camp ⁰

The Benue State Government has relocated over 6,000 Cameroonian refugees camped and catered for in the state from Anyake Camp to Ikyogen Cattle Ranch in Kwande Local Government Area of the state.

The refugees who were displaced as a result of growing political upheaval in the country, were mostly indigenes of the state and were relocated amidst tight security made up of men of the Nigerian Army, Police, Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) among others.

The IDPs are to be relocated to the new place for better facilities such as shelter, education, water, sanitation and land for farming.

The Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency, (SEMA) in conjunction with United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and other top security apparatuses, commenced relocation of the refugees yesterday. SEMA Chairman, Mr. Emmanuel Shior, while handing over the first batch of the refugees conveyed in over 30 buses to the traditional ruler (Mue Ter) of Ichongu, Chief Simon Baver, who represented the paramount ruler of Kwande (Ter Kwande), Hillary Ikyima, appealed for cordial relationship between the community and the displaced persons. Shior commended Governor Samuel Ortom for providing the needed support for the refugees, saying that the security of both the refugees and relevant stakeholders working tirelessly for their welfare remained the governor’s top priority.

He reiterated the collaboration of SEMA with UNHCR and other relevant stakeholders in providing essential services to cushion the hardship the refugees were passing through such as in security, shortage of food items, lack of healthcare services and poor education among others.

Head of the UNHCR Sub-Office in Ogoja, from neighbouring Cross River State, Mulugeta Zewdie, commended the state government for providing security and assistance to refugees.

Source: Newtelegraphng.com

12, October 2019

French Cameroun gendarmerie arrests 20 suspected kidnappers ⁰

Cameroonian gendarmerie has captured 20 suspected kidnappers in Adamawa and North regions of the country since August, a security officer said on Friday.

The suspects are specialized in kidnapping for ransom and armed robbery in the regions, said Brigadier General Divine Eko Ngwese of the Cameroonian Gendarmerie.

“We must make sure that the rural and even the urban areas are secure for our people so that the economic activities are revamped to the maximum,” Ngwese told reporters.

He said some captives were freed during the operation that began in August, adding that the majority of the kidnappers were arrested on the Cameroon-Chad border thanks to the “commitment of the population.”

“We will intensify the arrest of more kidnappers. The population is collaborating more and more so that we serve them better,” Ngwese said.

Some 300 kidnappings and 5,000 cows stolen were reported in Adamawa over a period of three years and at least 2 billion CFA franc (about 3.6 million U.S. dollars) was estimated to have been paid as ransom, security officials said in February.

The situation prompted President Paul Biya to deploy 130 special forces to restore peace and order in a region notorious for highway robbery.

Source: Xinhuanet

12, October 2019

Kenya celebrates as Kipchoge makes them proud ⁰

Eliud Kipchoge’s historic marathon time on Saturday was greeted with joy and pride in his native Kenya.

“I am happy today because he has won in Kenya and in the world. I thank him so much for this, for me, for Kenya and the world,” said Kipchoge’s mother Janet Rotich who watched in her home village Kapsisiywa as her son became the first man to run the marathon distance in less than two hours.

Kipchoge’s run in Vienna was broadcast live on all Kenya’s television stations.

Even so, in Eldoret, the city 40 kilometres from Kapsisiywa where the 34-year-old runner, his wife and three children live, and in Nairobi, crowds gathered in the early morning to watch the run on giant screens.

In Eldoret, the fans watched in feverish excitement as their champion ticked off the kilometres and exulted when Kipchoge crossed the finish line with a clock displaying 1hr 59 min 40 sec, throwing hats and water bottles into the air.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta quickly issued his “hearty congratulations”.

“You’ve done it, you’ve made history and made Kenya proud while at it. Your win today, will inspire tens of future generations to dream big and to aspire for greatness. We celebrate you and wish you God’s blessings,” President Kenyatta continued.

Kenya’s vice-president William Ruto, who had made the trip to Vienna, sent out a series of tweets.

“A blistering 1.59.40! Congratulations @EliudKipchoge for the historic achievement in shattering the sub-two-hour barrier for the marathon; you are arguably the greatest runner of all time.”

Athletics, along with sevens rugby, is the most successful sport in bringing Kenyans together, regardless of their social or ethnic background.

In Kapsisiywa, Eliud’s older brother, Wilson Sugut, said the run showed what individuals could achieve.

“He told the world that no human being is limited and that he will overcome this two-hour barrier,” he recalled. “People couldn’t believe it, but now we can believe it.”

Source: AFP

12, October 2019

Bundes: Camfomedics celebrates 25th Anniversary in Essen ⁰

The Cameroon Forum for Medical and Paramedical Sciences, Camfomedics – was founded on May 7, 1994 in Tübingen by Cameroonian students of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The 4^th to 5^th October 2019 was reserved to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the organization and to make public a new plan of action engineered to move the association forward. An extra-ordinary event – The African Health Day was staged in the city of Essen, in which more than 20 medical professionals from Cameroon and Nigeria attended to the health needs of several African migrants residing in the North Rhine Westphalia province and even beyond.

Some Cameroonian medical experts from the UK, Canada, and USA were also there to offer some form of support service to the targeted population. Precious consultations, medical test, examinations and therapeutic advices were offered without charge to the hundreds of participants.

The climax of the outdoor event was the iMed Award 2019 that was honorably given to Dr Benice Ndofor. She was recognized for her precious engagement and for professionally instructing and guiding participants at the Camformedics Academy in Cameroon.

Camformedics success stories have all been registered under the supreme leadership of Dr. Ivo Azeh, who for over 10 years directed the body to extend its health services to benefit the underprivileged populace. The organization is now blessed with a new and dynamic leader in the person of Dr. Fonye Ki Nyui. Cameroon Concord News Tambe Ndip Arrah met with the Right Hon. Dr Ivo Azeh during the 20^th anniversary celebration. Below is his short and soul-searching conversation with the medical man.

Cameroon Concord News: Dr. Ivo Azeh thanks for accepting to talk to us! We learnt on this occasion of the 25^th anniversary and the African Health Day that Camfomedics offered free consultations to the German public. What was the motivation?

Dr. Ivo Azeh: Well, it was a German public event but it was really tailored to meet the needs of Africans who live in Germany and that´s why we call it the African Health Day. We realized that we have different access to health services and people of African origin have other determinants. Our program is a health outreach, a health promotion activity to reach out to many Africans to offer them our health services and also to let Africans understand how the German health care system functions. Moreover, to guide them on how they can get better access to the health care system, and most importantly to inform them of particularities that prevail amongst African immigrants. So really it was an outreach deemed to reach out to people of African origin.

Cameroon Concord News: Talking about free medical examination, test and consultation. As the leader, what bill of health can you give to this event? Was it successful and satisfactory and did you attain your goals?

Dr. Ivo Azeh: Well, it was the first of its kind and it was amazing!We hope to continue with such activity! We did it with the Nigerian medical association. More than 20 medics of different specialities were attending to participants. I have never had an outreach event with so many medical professionals. The essential medical equipment was available to meet the requirement of the event. The turnout was good and we hope it would be better in future if we use different channels to inform people. We hope to continue with such activities.

Cameroon Concord News: We understand that you are leaving the leadership of Camfomedics. We watched the videos played, with so much appreciation and as tribute to you. It appears to be like Dr. Ivo Azeh is synonymous to Camfomedics. Your thoughts?

Dr. Ivo Azeh: Certainly, I must say it was really a surprise and am really touched by the videos and I am still like thinking, which Ivo are they talking about. I don´t have words to describe it, when your colleagues have so much high acknowledgements for what you have done! That is what keeps on motivating me throughout these years because there are a lot of people, I have confidence in; who are always available to respond when their support is required. Behind me was an active network of people who were providing the services we needed. So it´s not only me but collaborative work. I did a lot; likewise I owe the organization a lot. I gathered a lot of skills on how to manage, deal with and prevail over challenges that emanated from such activities professionally. I think the organization offers the possibility for young people to learn leadership skills and that´s what we are out for and am happy that we have young charismatic persons who are stepping in, learning, gaining experience and developing.

Cameroon Concord News: Can you proudly say Camfomedics as an institution that has its feet strongly rooted on the ground with the necessary structures for continuity?

Dr. Ivo Azeh: Obviously am leaving the executive but I am still a member of Camfomedics and in that capacity, I will continue to make contributions and participate efficiently to share the experience we need and guide the new executive. I believe they will be successful especially as the new president Dr. Fonyuy Nyuyki has been in the executive board for four years and we have been working together. I believe in continuity and we have a huge team of 7 people, many young enthusiastic. Undoubtedly, they will be able to promote and translate the aspirations of Camfomedics.

12, October 2019

Cameroon garden opens in La Crosse ⁰

The Riverside International Friendship Gardens opened a new garden Thursday dedicated to the country of Cameroon. The garden is located inside Riverside Park in La Crosse, which is a sister city to Kumbo, Cameroon.

The international garden exists to honor cultures throughout the world. “We are all connected to one another,” said Chuck Hanson, president of the Riverside International Friendship Gardens. “We’re all part of this good earth and we all have a responsibility to ourselves and our posterity to keep the good earth viable and healthy for future generations.”

Kumbo is the latest sister city of La Crosse to be honored with a garden, others include ones dedicated to China, Germany, and Russia. The relationship between Cameroon and La Crosse started over 20 years ago when two sisters got together.

“How could they work together in a different way and one Franciscan sister turned to the other and said ‘that sounds pretty good, we should try that.’ One of them was Cameroonian and one of them was from Wisconsin,” said Sister Eileen Mckenzie, President of Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Since then the two cities have formed a good relationship with one another. Red, yellow, and green can be seen throughout the garden, which are the three colors of the Cameroon flag.

Organizers said they had to get creative to honor Cameroon with this garden being that the climate in Africa is a little different than here in La Crosse.

“We convey the culture through sculpture, as you can see before us in the fountain,” Hanson said. “This is the Mami Wata. She is a fictional, mythical character in Cameroon. The protector of the waters, making sure those children don’t stay in too long or go out too far.”

The park also features a raffia palm art installation, since the winter weather wouldn’t allow for the real thing. For some native Cameroon people living in America, the garden means a lot to them.

“Khiafan told us that ‘well we don’t need to take our children back to Cameroon now. We can take them to La Crosse, Wisconsin and learn about our culture,” Hanson said. Organizers say they have plans to add more sculptures to the garden in the future.

Source: weau.com

12, October 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: World Leaders Call on Yaounde to Free Abdulkarim Ali ⁰

The arrest and detention of Cameroon’s best-known Muslim scholar of the Bible, Abdulkarim Ali, has both outraged and united the world’s most important religious leaders. Pope Francis, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the Church of England Justin Welby, and Sheikh Abdullah Awad Al Juhany, one of the Imams of the Grand Mosque in Mecca (Saudi Arabia), united on Thursday in calling for the unconditional release of Abdulkarim Ali.

Last September 25, Abdulkarim Ali was seized by armed plain clothes men, reportedly Cameroonian gendarme officers. The abduction lasted a few minutes and eyewitnesses, including security guards manning the entrance to the Swiss embassy in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, say Ali was roughed up and bundled into a waiting car which immediately sped off.

Back from a recent trip to Switzerland, Ali had stopped by to brief Pietro Lazzeri, the Swiss Ambassador to Cameroon. Last June 27, Switzerland’s federal ministry of foreign affairs officially announced it was mediating between the Cameroon government and pro-independence movements campaigning for the breakaway Republic of Ambazonia in the country’s two English-speaking regions.

Ali’s apparent crime – he has not yet been charged – is the fact that he participated in meetings organized by the Swiss to help Ambazonian leaders prepare for the negotiations. Victim of Religious Persecution The arrest and detention has infuriated the Vatican and the Church of England. Both have said they are gravely concerned by reports that Ali was beaten at the time of his arrest, has been tortured in detention and is being starved.

Reportedly ill at the time of his arrest, Ali has been denied access to a doctor. Access to his lawyers and members of his family has also been restricted. Sheikh Abdullah Award Al Junaby slammed the abuse Ali has suffered in detention, including efforts by gendarmes to prevent him from praying. “This is unacceptable”, he told Al-Arab News Channel. Staff at the Grand Mosque in Mecca say they have been flooded by complaints from Muslims in Cameroon, notably from Bamenda, the provincial town where Ali occasionally serves as a preacher/teacher.

Cameroonian gendarmes have allegedly also tried to force Ali to eat food not prepared in keeping with Muslim standards.

Is it Genocide?

This is “outrageous, shocking, and unacceptable”, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has said of the abuse. Relations between Cameroon and the pair of Archbishop Welby and ex-Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo have deteriorated considerably since last August. Without the courtesy of advance warning, Cameroonian officials cancelled a trip the two were about to take to visit the country.

Both Obasanjo and Archbishop Welby were visiting to show support for the mediation process initiated by the Swiss and supported by, among others, the USA, UK, UN, EU, Canada, the African Union and Commonwealth. Obasanjo earlier this year reportedly used the word genocide in describing the violence unfolding in Ambazonia. Yaounde did not take kindly to Obasanjo using the G-word.

President Paul Bya, 86, in power since 1982, has dismissed the charges of genocide, describing them as “ridiculous”. Biya’s supporters agree with him. A one-time campaigner for a return to federalism in Cameroon, Barrister Agbor Balla, who runs a human rights organization, says it cannot be genocide. On a recent television interview, Agbor Balla said if it were genocide, the victims (Ambazonians) would not run for shelter in French-speaking Cameroon (home of the “genocidaires”).

Botched Decolonization to Blame

The breakaway Republic of Ambazonia is presented as the successor of the United Nations British Trusteeship Territory of Southern Cameroons which gained independence on 1st October 1961. Nineteen months earlier, the Republic of Cameroon had won independence from France on 1st October 1960 within international boundaries that did not include Southern Cameroons.

The two Cameroons were supposed to form a union of two states, equal in status. Things did not turn out as anticipated.. In violation of the then constitution, the predominantly French-speaking administration rolled back autonomy for Southern Cameroons notably after it abolished the two-state federation in 1972. In 1984, as Biya probably now sees, he went one step too far, when he simply reverted (by presidential decree) to the name of the French-speaking part before independence.

Ambazonians argue that the move constituted secession from any union by the French-speaking part. It left them with no choice, they argue, than to restore the independence and sovereignty of Southern Cameroons. However, when they issued a unilateral Declaration of Independence Restored on 1st October 2017, Biya responded with shocking violence followed by a declaration of war on 30th November 2017.

The erstwhile peaceful movements hastily formed armed wings which have been battling government forces in hit-and-run guerrilla warfare for nearly two years. No fewer than 4,000 people have been killed. Implementation of a scorched earth policy has seen over 300 villages burnt to the ground by Cameroonian forces. Nearly 2..5 million have been impacted with about 600,000 of them internally displaced in a conflict which the United Nations describes as “Africa’s biggest mass displacement conflict”.

Ali Left Starving, Dehydrated

Ali’s kidnapping or abduction style arrest outside the Swiss embassy is a frequent occurrence. Over 5,000 suspected Ambazonian supporters have been picked up in similar style in Ambazonia or in neighboring Nigeria and deported to prisons in the French-speaking part of the country. In the jails, dungeons and prisons, including private prisons where those arrested are held, torture is rampant.

Eyewitnesses say gendarmes withheld water from Ali in the hope of breaking his will. A palette of water brought to him by his lawyers was held up from reaching him by gendarmes, according to several accounts including one by the Bonn-based Cameroonian journalist Mimi Mefo. “Since you are willing to die, why do you want to drink water?” gendarmes reportedly mocked Ali when he pleaded for water at the height of exhaustion and dehydration earlier this week.

Ambazonians in the United States, Canada, Switzerland and Germany have started petitions calling for action on the part of the leaders of these countries and their parliaments. Across Europe, one effort is gathering signatures for a protest to be delivered to the European Union Parliament and Ueli Maurer, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year. Reporters at the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung, who have seen a draft, said the petition is very critical of the fact that Switzerland has not openly and aggressively called for Ali’s release.

Another petition started by a Bonn-based Ali family member is being finalized for the attention of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German Parliament. Several members of the U.S. Congress have already been bombarded by thousands of online petitions and phone calls asking Washington to call for Ali’s release.

Water on a Duck’s Back

The Swiss embassy in Yaounde has called, albeit quietly, for his release during several meetings with Cameroonian officials. The Swiss ambassador has notably raised the issue with Cameroon’s Prime Minister Dion Ngute and the Secretary General at the Presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh. If Yaounde is moving on anything, it must be too sluggishly to be even visible. It took until Wednesday night for Ali’s spouse to be finally allowed to briefly visit with him. She traveled over 350 miles to bring him his first home-cooked meal at a detention facility where most political dissidents, out of fear of being poisoned, regularly skip official meals.

Growing Anger

Anger is growing over the abduction and continued detention. United Nations officials in Yaounde have protested the detention and called for his immediate release on behalf of Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “People are free to hold opinions that are different from those of their government, to mobilize other people for legitimate purposes and to protest against political decisions,” said UN Human Rights in a tweet on Thursday. “These are neither crimes nor terrorism. They are basic Human Rights,” the rights body added.

The Biya government has charged a majority of those arrested in connection with the campaign for independence with terrorism, secession and rebellion; charges which carry life in prison terms. The International Committee of the Red Cross in Yaounde has expressed frustration at not being allowed to see Ali. In the Old Town neighborhood of Bamenda (Ambazonia) where Ali serves part-time as an imam/teacher, anti-government leaflets have been disseminated. They call for nationwide protests by Muslims on a date yet to be determined

Many fear that members of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram based in neighboring Nigeria could use the detention as a pretext to ignite a new wave of suicide attacks, notably in the northern parts of the country. Ambazonian self-defense groups are threatening to take the war across the border to into the French-speaking part unless Ali is released. It is unclear if Biya, who is traveling this week in Lyons, France, has been briefed on the arrest and ongoing detention. Many supporters of Ali were disappointed when a decree ending criminal proceedings against 333 detainees before the Yaounde Military Tribunal did not include Ali’s name.

Critics of the Swiss mediation have seized on the arrest and detention to claim that Switzerland lacks the leverage to enforce an outcome. Speculation is rife across some Ambazonian circles that the special unit that arrested Ali intended to treat him the same way Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist of the Washington Post, was assassinated at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. Yaounde spent last week giving diplomats calling for Ali’s release the run around. Biya officials put off any discussions of Ali’s release on claims that they were too busy with the Major National Dialogue held in the capital last week. That excuse may not work well anymore as Abdulkarim Ali enters a third week of arbitrary arrest and detention without charge..

Reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, Al Jazeera and Vatican Radio

12, October 2019

US: Acting Homeland Security Secretary McAleenan resigns ⁰

US acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan is resigning and a new acting chief of the agency would be named next week, President Donald Trump says.

McAleenan, the fourth person to serve in the post since the Trump presidency began, submitted his resignation to the White House on Friday, the president announced on Twitter.

Trump said McAleenan, 48, who has served since April, “wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector.”

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

Kevin McAleenan has done an outstanding job as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. We have worked well together with Border Crossings being way down. Kevin now, after many years in Government, wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector..

McAleenan also on Twitter addressed his departure in a statement, saying “we have made tremendous progress mitigating the border security.”

Acting Sec. Kevin McAleenan✔@DHSMcAleenan

I want to thank the President for the opportunity to serve alongside the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security. With his support, over the last 6 months, we have made tremendous progress mitigating the border security and humanitarian crisis we faced this year…

This comes a few days after McAleenan was forced to abandon a debate stage in the US capital after protesters drowned him out, condemning the crackdown on migrants and asylum seekers.

On Monday, just as McAleenan wanted to begin speaking at the event at Georgetown University in Washington, several demonstrators were standing and holding banners that read, “Stand with Immigrants.”

“When our immigrants are under attack what do we do? Stand up fight back,” the protesters chanted for several minutes.

Caravans of migrants from Central American countries have been traveling for months through various routes ending up in Mexico to reach the country’s border with the US, where they seek to apply for asylum and settle down.

However, the Trump administration has been blocking them at the border with Mexico. The Trump administration has even separated migrant children from their parents or deported those who have successfully crossed back to their home countries, where they face violence or economic difficulties

Source: Presstv

11, October 2019

UK: Unregistered EU citizens may be deported after Brexit ⁰

The UK Government has reneged on a promise to EU citizens, as a minister threatens EU citizens with deportation if they do not apply for settled status after Brexit.

The UK Security Minister, Brandon Lewis, announced that EU citizens who do not apply for settled status by the end of 2020 may be removed from the UK.

“If EU citizens have not registered by then without an adequate justification, the immigration rules will apply,” Lewis said.

Critics said the minister’s comments suggested that the government was planning to renege on a promise to EU citizens.

If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, EU citizens need to apply to the settlement scheme if they wish to continue living in the UK after 30 June 2021.

About one million of the estimated three million EU citizens in the UK have yet to apply for settled status, Home Office figures showed.

The3million, a group representing EU citizens living in Britain, said many EU citizens in the UK were unaware of the requirement or were simply refusing to register for settled status, as a protest against Brexit.

There is concern that there could be tens of thousands of EU nationals in the UK who will fail to apply in time, and that older and more vulnerable EU residents may not be aware of the need to secure their rights.

Moreover, the Home Office has been accused of misleading the public over how successful its EU Settlement Scheme has been.

The Government stated that only two applications to stay in the UK after Brexit have been refused and insists that the system is working well. However, new analysis suggests more than 7,600 applicants have not been granted permanent permission to live and work in the country – settled status – or temporary leave to remain – pre-settled status.

Britons now understand that the economic and political freedoms they had hoped for during the 2016 Brexit vote have morphed into a future of uncertainty under Mr. Johnson’s push for a no-deal.

Source: Presstv

11, October 2019

Hatred for Igbos made Southern Cameroons to secede from Nigeria in 1961 ⁰

The so-called Igbo “scare” in the British Cameroons between 1945 and 1961 allegedly led the southern part of the British mandate to opt to leave the federation of Nigeria on the 11th of February 1961.

The fear of Igbo domination in all the sectors of social and political life in the former German and British territory was given as a major factor. Kumba, Mamfe, Bamenda, Tiko and Victoria had a large number of NdiIgbo who dominated the economy. This led to local resentments, which politicians like Dr E.M.L.Endeley, Chief Manga Williams and J.N.Foncha exploited for selfish interests.

Stereotyping the Igbo did not change the natural disposition of the latter to hard work, aggressiveness, showiness and ethnic pride—all of which may be interpreted as the Igbo hubris, which in literary parlance is a tragic flaw.

Yet local resentment did not stop Igbo migration to Cameroons. The Igbo helped to build the Nigerian-Cameroonian Highway.

They became petty and full time traders, engaged in farming, sometimes dispossessing original land owners of their lands through legitimate purchases, and held sway in the plantations.

Because of their education, Ndigbo became dominant in government services and commerce, especially with the departure of the Germans in 1939. Menial jobs were the reserve of the less educated Cameroonians.

There were monopolies like the United African Company and John Holt, all owned by the British. Yet the Igbo, not the British, were accused of marginalizing the Cameroonians.

The Igbo, they cried out, controlled the local administration and made it impossible for locals to occupy high government posts. They had a point but the Igbo did not ask them to be laid back and not to go to school.

A British Resident administrative officer in Cameroon also accused the Igbo of injustice and, in his own words, as behaving as” if they were a law unto themselves and not wont to recognize ‘local authority”(See Resident, Cameroon Province, Buea, to Secretary, Eastern Provinces, Enugu, 29 June, 1948).

Such reports did not reduce tension; rather the emerging Cameroonian business and political elite fuelled it to advance their political agitations and encouraged many other unproven allegations against the Igbo.

Unsubstantiated Igbo misdemeanor, too numerous to bother the reader with here, occupied the social and political space in the late 1940 Southern Cameroons.

The Buea Native Authority demanded the expulsion of the Igbo in 1948 accusing them of dominating the plantations, especially. Earlier, the Bakweri Native Authority had specifically issued the following orders:

1. Nobody is allowed to sell his or her house to an Ibo; neither must anybody give his or her house for rentage to an Ibo.
2. No farmland must be sold to an Ibo or rented to an Ibo
3. Nobody must allow an Ibo to enter any native farm or forest for purpose of finding sticks for building or for any other purpose.
4. House or farm already sold to any Ibo man shall be purchased by native Authority who will afterwards resell same to some suitable person.
5. Nobody shall trade with Ibos for anything of value or not.
6. All landlords must ask their Igbo tenants to quit before 15 March 1948.
7. No Cameroon woman is allowed to communicate with the Igbos in any form
8. Anybody disobeying those rules shall be liable to a fine of £5 or five months imprisonment.
9. Any Ibo native disobeying Rule (3) above will be liable to prosecuting in the Native Court.
10. All Ibo Government officials are exempted from Rule (5) above.
(Cf: Bakweri, N.A. Buea to Senior D.O, Victoria, 21 Feb.1948.).

It is believed that Chief Manga Williams and Dr Endeley, two parliamentarians in the Eastern House of Assembly, were behind these anti Igbo laws.

We have seen similar sentiments directed against the Igbo in Nigeria, in colonial and postcolonial times, since NdiIgbo began their endless adventure outside Igbo hearth and heartland.

It is also to say that quit notices against Ndibanyi did not start today. Hate speech and hate literature did not start with Nigerians.

As we write English speaking Southern Cameroon is directing its angst against Yaoundé and the minders of power in their capital city. The same Cameroonians are also terrorizing Bakasians.

They were in hearty collaboration with Nigerians during the civil war and were rewarded with a good chunk of Biafra land and its mineral deposits.

The aggravations Ndibanyi receive from our neighbours and hosts require a different and more robust approach than what is available now.

It requires a vision with a homeland ideology, to show we have a home that is prosperous and could be second to none in the world. Is history a farce? Is the Cameroonian narrative a matter of marrying two husbands and knowing which is better?

After demonizing the Igbo and seceding from Nigeria to join their supposed kit and kin in French ruled Cameroons, in 1960, the battle cry has changed.

South Cameroons is clamouring for another secession. A case of the other perceived as the evil? The Devil now is not the Igbo, but Biya and his fellow Fulani.
Of course there are many possible readings of this story plot.

Contextually, it is all about the quest for self-apprehension. I am however, interested as a social historian, in what our people can learn from our sublime encounters with history whose outcome need not be quixotic or Sisyphean.

A laundry list of anti Igbo prescriptions such as the above should provoke deep reflection on our part, especially in the context of our recent experiences from our country men in the northern and western parts of the country which reveal a deep rooted resentment against Ndibanyi.

Certainly, there is an Igbo complex just as there is the Igbo Question in Nigeria. Both need resolution. Said the Hon Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1949 while addressing NdiIgbo in Aba:

It would appear that God has specifically created the Igbo people to suffer persecution and bear victimization because of their resolve to live. Since suffering is the label of our tribe we can afford to be sacrificed for the ultimate redemption of the children of Africa”.

Is Zik’s position anachronistic or is it messianic? Can we deny our Igboness? Does being cosmopolitan mean abandoning our homeland? There is a man in the Igbo, which must be saved for the sake of humanism.

Causal factors have been important in determining Igbo journey in the pluriverse and that journey has been dramatic.

Can we, NdiIgbo, control the natural instincts and impulses, which drive our relationship with our environments and social political spaces? Should there be a change in our foundational approaches and rethink strategies in our efforts at self and group fulfillment, a rethink of our approaches to constitutive freedoms?

I am calling for a consequential reasoning and re-examination or even prioritization of our freedom rights, especially when our libertarian rights seem and are violated?

I am also calling on Attorney Chris Aniedobe and Dr Okenwa Nwosu to do a distillation of all the currents of ideas through our contributions on this forum and publish it timeously—a humongous task indeed— but not an impossible one.

It would be a worthy and ageless contribution to Igbo phenomenology and scholarship, subjects of our direct experiences—one from which future generations will gain a lot—a tribute to all who believe in the relevance of communal enquiry, valent episteme and solid good ideas. I am just thinking aloud.

Source: The News Nigeria