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In 1961,Ahidjo and John Ngu Foncha signed an agreement which rejected Cameroon's membership into the Commonwealth of Nations. Their reason(s) was not disclosed.
However in the 1980's, the situation changed because Anglophone Cameroonians increasingly demanded the admission of Cameroon into the the gentleman club- as the Commonwealth is fondly called.
The desire for the Anglophone Cameroonians to be admitted into the Club stem from the fact that Cameroon was already a member of Francophonie.
However, despite the pressure from Anglophones to be admitted into the Commonwealth, the Gentleman Club gave a number of conditions which were supposed to fall in line with the Harare Declaration of 1991.
Worthy to note is that the Harare Declaration was to promote and protect the following core values:
(1) Democracy and Democratic process and institutions which unanimously reflect the national interest.
(2) The rule of law and absolute independence of the judiciary from the other arms of Government.
(3)Honest and Just government
(4) Fundamental human rights, which includes equal rights and equal opportunities for all Citizens.
After accepting the above preconditions, Cameroon was admitted as the 52nd member of Commonwealth on November 1995 at Auckland, New Zealand.
The admission of Cameroon into the Commonwealth brought the number to Seven for countries who are both members of Commonwealth and Francophonie. These countries includes Seychelles, Mauritius, Dominica,St Lucia, Vanuatu, Canada and Cameroon.
The question now by many is 22 years after admitted into Commonwealth, is Cameroon meeting with the aspirations and preconditions of admission in the gentleman club ?Your answer is as good as others.
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- Besong Joseph
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The Commonwealth Secretary General is the lead scribe for the over 2.1 billion Anglo-Saxon individuals in the world! Anglo-Saxon Communities are committed to uphold: Democracy, Human rights, International Peace & Security, Tolerance, respect
and understanding, Freedom of expression, separation of powers, Rule of Law, Good Governance. The English language is the rallying factor and the Anglo-Saxon culture of integrity is the binding glue of this organization. Cameroon’s record in the
upholding of the commonwealth values is catastrophic:
1. Democracy- ELECAM far from being independent is composed of a majority of people appointed by the head of state who were high profile members of his political party. Biya’s surrogate once said “You cannot be the referee and Player and loose the match!” Hailing this powerless institution that cannot even declare election results is a crime! The People’s Clamor for Federalism was met by the dictator’s fist and declaration “the form of state is not up for debate!”; just at the time when we thought democracy was about “power to the people by the people”; not by the dictator! Will Patricia Scotland praise this perverse dictatorship or shun it?
2. Human rights- After the killing of over 1oo recorded unarmed citizens by life bullets, the continuing arbitrary arrests and torture of thousands of Anglophones, the open extortion by the Biya’s forces who ask for money to release people they illegally arrested and falsely accused; given the summary execution of local communities and villages by BIYA’s Forces, what will Patricia Scotland say?
3. International Peace & Security- With the exodus of over 7000 registered refugees to Nigeria, and tens of thousands more hiding in the bushes for fear of execution; many escaping for their lives from the violent and indiscriminate clam down on innocent & peaceful civilian communities by Biya’s forces (thus creating the International Insecurity and declaring a “merciless war” on his own people, now
become a resistance force of freedom fighters), How will the Rt Honorable Patricia
Scotland say to address Biya’s violation?
4. Tolerance- When Government takes away kitchen knives from entire communities, seizes all their farm tools, cutlasses and every metal instrument found and brandishes them as weapons ceased from terrorists to the international community, even though NOT ONE PERSON was killed by a knife or machete; how will these farming communities survive? How will Patricia Scotland respond?
5. Respect and understanding – With the UN, Francophonie, France, USA, Commonwealth, International Crises Group, Transparency International, Cameroon Civil Society, Political Parties, Secessionists, and virtually EVERY observer of the conflict having called on “Genuine and Inclusive Dialogue” as the way to solve this conflict and Biya in disregard and disrespect of all these opinions declares war on civilians after claiming he is committed to dialogue; When not one meeting is called by Biya for dialogue in 11 months, but soldiers are sent to kill civilians; How will the learned diplomat Patricia Scotland handle this?
6. Freedom of expression- With an officially published ban by the Government since December 2016 on the discussion of this crises on the air, and the regular crackdown on journalist for showing images or giving an unbiased report as “adding oil to the crises”, the press has almost stopped reporting on the conflict, and a silent genocide is now going on unattended to – How does Patricia Scotland intervene to enhance freedom of expression?
7. Separation of powers- In a state where the Presidents of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament as well as all of the parliamentary bureau members are voted based on instructions of the Party President Mr. Biya, and where these two houses CANNOT debate on the “Anglophone Crises” for over a year because Mr. Biya has not authorized it; the Legislative is mortgaged and Mr Biya has 100% control over all what happens there. In a country where the head of state is the supreme head of the Judiciary, and is the only one to convoke and chair the National Judicial Council, that is supposed to be able to judge him and Parliamentarians; the Judiciary has no independence; justice is violated. Like in every country, the legitimate head of the Executive is also commander in chief of the armed forces, Cameroon is no exception! Interestingly, here, the Executive, the Military, the Judiciary, the Legislative, and the Media are ALL directly controlled by Mr. Biya, the 35 Year absolute dictator over Cameroon with absolute power over all institutions. What will Rt. Hon. Patricia Scotland, preserver and protector of the common wealth value of separation of powers do?
8. Rule of Law – The Cameroon Constitution carries an article on the declaration of property by public officials which neither Mr. Biya, nor any other public official respects. The constitution safeguarded the rights of the Southern Cameroonians when
they joint the union, but was out rightly violated in 1972 by the abridging of the federal state. Today it safeguards a decentralization that has never been put in place, 21 years after! The Presumption of innocence does not exist in Cameroon law
practice, on in law books. Suspects are detained without bail and others kept in jail for years without trial in violation of the laws of the state. On the other hand, white-collar men whose crimes are known and the evidence public, are kept in
positions of leadership with the right to abuse their authority as a tool to squash down on all attempts at protesting! Peaceful protesters carrying peace plants are killed with live bullets, while no soldiers is even wounded; but the protesters who
should have been protected by the forces of law and order are called “terrorists”! How will Patricia Scotland uphold Commonwealth value of human rights and rule of law?
9. Good Governance - This of course has for years been the main reproach and hindrance to all of Cameroon’s mighty and lofty projects with its great potential… Bad governance and corruption! The World Bank and all other economic and political
partners have put that in perspective. With less than 10% of school attendance rate in the NW & SW “Anglophone” Regions, the shut down of Private & confessional
schools, and unapologetic summary executions and wide scale extortion by forces of “Law and Order” of the Biya regime, who have terrorized citizens into seeking refuge in neighboring Nigeria; will Rt Honorable Patricia Scotland have the courage to speak up? Will she be wrapped into Biya’s neatly laid out diplomatic bribery scheme to blindfold her and soak her in the riches of the land, thus distracting her from her real mission OR will she take the gentleman’s position of integrity to stand up against injustice, and enforce the upholding of Commonwealth Values in Cameroon-a commonwealth state? EVERY ONE of these values which are directly and openly violated in this state? The English language is the rallying factor and the Anglo-Saxon culture of integrity and respect of values is the binding glue of this Common Wealth organization!
WILL RT. HONORABLE PATRICIA SCOTLAND SQ DELIVER IN CAMEROON?
The disaster of an Anglo-Saxon University, flooded by Francophone Teachers who teach in French and have no idea of the Anglo-Saxon culture was skillfully avoided by the old dictator with 35 years of political maneuvering to his account. Over the years, this ancestral regime has perfected the art of manipulation and diplomatic tricking as a means survival!
Having accepted that Patricia Scotland publish her schedule and tours on her page, and given her the assurances of the security forces protecting her to the “Anglophone Regions” which are now “stabilized and where all has returned to order, with schools going on, and the graduation of UB fully planned” the regime ridiculed the Rt Hon. Scotland in the usual most subtle but firm manner by
Torpedoing all of her plans and causing her to loose face in front of the Anglo-Saxon community without even knowing it:
Scotland is widely published as wining, dinning, Praising, and dressing in the with 35 year dictator’s in his impressively sumptuous gold plated palace! While the shameless 35 year old dictator convinces her IN FRENCH that the “Bilingualism committee” will solve all the problems of a crises in which innocent people were being killed daily and internet access selectively cut in two regions.
Interestingly, after 35 years as head of state with over 50 years as a high profile civil servant in Cameroon, and since the inception of the Bilingualism Committee, Mr. Biya still cannot express himself in French and should be punished by the said committee by removal from power as that disqualifies him from public office; but he is still there, proving that the committee is a tool to deceive the international
community that the regime is trying to solve a problem. But of course Rt. Hon Scotland was already well stuffed in gifts and goes on to praise the government’s efforts to solve the crises.
Rt Hon Scotland is "bribed" amongst other things with the highest honors in the Cameroonian orders, amongst other discrete sumptuous gifts offered to soften her positions and blind her views. The Biya Regime's approach of a few gifts for your birthrights seemed to have worked wonders on the "Honorable" Lady! This is seen by the shocking one-sided nature that her trip finally takes! She is firmly prevented from carrying out her scheduled visits to English speaking Cameroon which is "at peace" and where "school are on and all is well" in the name of "security reasons" in the peace! She criticizes the parliamentarians who had been to the field and recorded over 122 deaths, 7000 refugees, and are calling for dialogue like her, while praising, dinning and winning with the men who for over one year have "Refused to discuss the crises in the senate and parliament" and who have sent a well trained army to kill peaceful protesters holding up peace plants! Mention about the refugee crises, the deaths of hundreds of innocent protesters, mass graves found, bunker prisoners, torture chambers, and whole villages razed by military helicopter were scares or none existent in her talk!
The ban on all medias houses from filming and showing images of torture in the militarized zones, the selective cut of internet imposed since September 28, 2017 in the two regions, the fact that promised dialogue has NOT even been initiated, but rather a civil war has been started as government systematically harasses, arrests and kills youths of arms-bearing ages did not make it to the pages of the "honorable" Lady's speech! The surprising fact that Rt Hon Scotland engaged Biya's game, completely isolating the Anglophone community in Cameroon, "supporting" the war to kill the innocent protesters, and their minority members of parliament, without so much as a courtesy visit, thus siding with a 35 year dictator showing that she had been completely compromised and has thus sacrificed Commonwealth values on the altar of personal gain. She has been wrapped around the fingers of the old fox – Biya, just like the few "Anglophone Elite" whom he will later sent to meet and talk to her about how well the nation is doing! Having been played, by the master hustler, Rt Hon Scotland has two options: praise the master hustler and accept having been ridiculed and compromised by the old fox, or take up her dignity and save face by in turn playing the master hustler at his game and upholding the commonwealth values which she incarnates.
The wonder on the minds of the 8 million Anglophone Cameroonian who were hoping that Rt Hon Scotland will make the difference and get to see the realities they have been suffering for 56 years and how they are currently being treated as slaves is, "If the commonwealth prelate can so easily be compromised by Mr. Biya's gifts and tricks, IS THERE ANY HOPE, other than an all out civil war?" Rt Hon Scotland the ball is in your court… uphold Commonwealth values, shun M. Biya and seek justice for the Anglophone Cameroonians who are the ONLY PEOPLE by whose Anglo-Saxon culture you came to Cameroon, or be responsible for the blood of the thousands who believed in your good offices! You were yourself marginalized, compromised and your mission cunningly deviated by M. Biya and his team, its not too late to sound the alarm for the sake of innocent
lives being destroyed under in Southern Cameroon! Mola Atang
Note: The master of obstruction of Justice, Bribery and corruption has done again. Is the commonwealth sacrificing the lives of eight million southern Cameroonians for few pieces of gold?
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- Rita Akana
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The most dramatic announcement was the tarring of the Mbouda -Bamenda stretch of the road. Due to the very devastating as well as the risky nature of the road, euphoria and great joy gripped the joyous population that their travelling worries as night mares were history.
Alas this euphoria has sunk like sunken ship in the Sea of despair. The work that was announced to begin in November has not even begun.
Road construction as well as other promises of the Biya's regime are all political wishful thinking and baits for political manipulation.
The populace of Cameroon have received promises like Health for all by the year 2000. Alas it yearly was nearly death for all by 2000. Health care delivery in Cameroon remains unchanged and even manpower in these hospitals are lacking. The state hospitals don't even have hitech equipment that warrant better and proper diagnosis for patients.
The Universities that are supposed to be the thinking nursery of the nation is highly politicked and the promises to tgd youths that they are the future of the nation remains illusionary and unfulfilled.
If the universities had equipment aimed at transforming minds and building capacities,so that a veritable human capital base or bank is established.
Today the world's economy is propelled by manpower based organizations that produce utilities whose prices are always at a sellable range to all buyers based on the consumption abilities.
However our own Universities in the Cameroon's are created by Presidential decree without haven put in place the lecturers or necessary manpower or the infrastructure to enable its functionality.
Infant and mother health care is still life threatening despite the promises of the government to halt or reduce infant and mother mortality.
State or Public Schools were announced as free learning institutions on paper.
Unfortunately these schools aren't as free as were announced by the state.
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- Mbi James
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Chronicles of the Anglophone Problem: Cameroon has no Business being in the British Commonwealth; Is Patricia Scotland Going to be the Neville Chamberlain of Africa?
This week Commonwealth Secretary General, the Right Hon. Patricia Scotland, visits Cameroon to try to solve the so-called Anglophone problem that has gripped the country since November 2016. The opulent banquets in President Paul Biya’s sumptuous palace, and the diplomatic niceties mouthed by Biya and Scotland cannot hide the palpable but invisible specter in the banquet hall, the 10,000-pound gorilla named “FAILURE.”
Cameroon has FAILED to live up to the values and human rights ideals of the Commonwealth. Cameroon has no business being in the Commonwealth. Cameroon should be expelled forthwith from the Commonwealth. The Anglophones who “brought” Cameroon to the Commonwealth symbolically “voted” overwhelmingly on 1st October 2017 for Cameroon to be expelled from the Commonwealth.
The name “Cameroon” now stands for the colossal FAILURE of the experiment to unite the French and British administered UN Trust territories of Southern Cameroon and East Cameroon into a bilingual union of two equal states that would have been the envy of Africa.
Ahidjo’s FAILURE to nurture and strengthen a laudable African experiment which would have melded the centralized, top-down, French republican logic of the strong man’s rule by decree, where authoritarian law trumps the human rights of citizens, with the Anglo-American federalist republican tradition where, under the rule of law, the courts protect citizens from the arbitrariness and excesses of the authoritarian strong man.
The FAILURE of the reunification experiment has led to a virtual black-on-black colonization of Southern Cameroon by the over-centralized, authoritarian, Napoleonic, strong-man, top-down rule-by-decree La Republique due Cameroun of President Amadou Ahidjo and his successor, authoritarian successor, President Paul Biya.
The name “Cameroon” also represents FAILURE of the worst kind––lack of vision and lack of respect for human rights. When in November 2017, Anglophones whose parents and grandparents had voluntarily––and in hindsight naively– voted in 1961 to join their “brothers and sisters” on the other side of the Mungo river, used their human rights to complain about their marginalization, and ill-treatment as second-class citizens, Biya, in his intransigence, opted for repression. He chose a military solution to this essentially political problem. The results have been a catalogue of catastrophic crimes against humanity: Hundreds of poor unarmed Anglophone civilians killed, maimed, imprisoned, tortured and brazenly expelled from their homes by Biya’s colonial administrators simply because they had the temerity to call for change. As a result of this military violence and repression, thousands of Anglophone men women and children Cameroonians are now refugees in Nigeria. No other Commonwealth country has the bloody legacy of human rights violations that the 35 year-old regime of Paul Biya has left Anglophones.
Cameroon has become the exemplar of the FAILURE of democratic governance and dialogue. In democratic societies, real leaders negotiate, visionary politicians dialogue to promote peace and tranquility. Not so in Cameroon. Paul Biya and his intellectual backers celebrate his unshakeable intransigence and absolute political inflexibility. Biya has never been a man of dialogue, he is not now a man of dialogue, and he will never be a man of dialogue. He would rather die than sit down with his political opponents.
The Commonwealth must not play nice with Cameroon. If all that Hon. Patricia Scotland succeeds to do about Cameroon is shake Biya’s bloody hand and mouth diplomatic niceties, she will go down in history as the Neville Chamberlain of Africa. Chamberlain, it will be recalled, was the British Prime Minister who was outwitted and out-foxed by Hitler, and left Germany proclaiming that he had secured peace and averted World War II. Subsequent events proved how delusional he was.
Hon. Patricia Scotland, through their symbolic declaration of independence on 1st October 2017 Anglophone Cameroonians voted to kick their oppressor, La République du Cameroon out of the Commonwealth. President Biya, who represents the FAILURE of dictatorship, has no business standing side-by-side with other Commonwealth heads of government. The voice of the people is the voice of God! Anglophones expect the Commonwealth to do the right thing.
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- Mola Eko
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No other territory in history has been so exploited and left to gnash its teeth in psychological and physical agony as Southern Cameroons following its recolonization by French Cameroun.
By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai*
From 1953, Southern Cameroons was, to all intents and purposes, a country of its own, with almost all the appurtenances of a nation state, including self-governance, its own police force, parliament, and a senate known as the House of Chiefs. Despite the one, united and indivisible Cameroon hoax, the fact is that French Cameroun was a different country which gained independence from France on January 1, 1960 (as Republic of Cameroun) with international borders that did not include Southern Cameroons; which gained independence after a UN referendum on February 11, 1961. Even after the independent Southern Cameroons state joined French Cameroun in a two-state federation to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon on October 1, 1961, no Union Treaty was registered with the UN General Assembly secretariat as mandated by Articles 102 and 103 of the UN Charter. Over the past 56 years, the international community has looked the other way while Southern Cameroonians have been denied their independence. Southern Cameroonians have been emasculated to concur in the despoliation of their land by their passive indifference and cold complicity in the face of reckless dissipation of their commonwealth by French Cameroun. For a people that already experienced such high level of self-government under colonial rule, this anomaly makes independence worse than colonialization.
The occupation, annexation and colonial rule of Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun violates Article 4(b) of the African Union Constitutive act. It also violates UN resolutions against colonialism and external domination of other people; and it contravenes Articles 19-24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right; and other principles of International Law. In short, it is recolonization, pure and simple. The unilateral abrogation of the two-state Federation by French Cameroun under the subterfuge of the May 20, 1972 referendum was a constitutional coup d’état, which violated Art 47 of the Federal Constitution. The plebiscite vote never made Cameroon one, united and indivisible; nor was it intended to. Even were Southern Cameroons to be an integral part of French Cameroun, any such referendum on abolishing the federation ought to have been an issue solely for the people of Southern Cameroons to decide, since they were the ones who voted to join French Cameroun, in the first instance.
The two Cameroons were never one, because post-German Kamerun, the two territories remained fundamentally different in terms of political evolution and governance. Southern Cameroons evolved a functional parliamentary democracy, whereas French Cameroun was administered as a French overseas territory, and remained tragically stuck as a French neo-colonial outpost even after independence in 1960. From 1953-1961, Southern Cameroons was a vibrant democracy with an electoral system based on direct adult universal suffrage with single-member constituencies. Elections into the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly featured only indigenous parties like KNC, KPP, CPNC and KNDP, which had broad appeal across the six divisions of Victoria, Kumba, Mamfe, Bamenda, Wum and Nkambe.
Unlike Southern Cameroons, the democratic framework in French Cameroun was aligned to France. French men contested elections in French Cameroun and French Cameroun politicians contested elections into the French National Assembly (Assemble de l’Union Francaise (AUF), and the Conseil de la Republique, the French Senate. British parties never contested elections in Southern Cameroons. The opposite was true in French Cameroun where, French political parties like Rassemblement de Gauches, Mouvement Républicain Populaire (MRP), and Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière, (SFIO) dominated electoral contests into the French Cameroun parliament – the Assemblée Representative du Cameroun (ARCAM), later transformed to Assemble Territoriale du Cameroun (ATCAM) in 1952.
Until the UPC was created, political parties in French Cameroun like Jeunesse Camerounaise Francaise (JEUCAFRA), Union des Camerounaise Francaise (UNICAFRA) and Association des Colons du Cameroun (ASOCAM) were administrative parties created to defend French interests and all espoused attachment to “Mother France.” When the UPC led by Mayi Matip was banned in 1955, the parties that contested the December 1956 elections in French Cameroun like Ahidjo’s Union Camerounaise (UC), Andre-Marie Mbida’s Partie de Democrates Camerounaise (DC) and Betote Akwa’s Action Nationale (MANC) were more or less satellite tribal groups. In Southern Cameroons, political parties were tribe neutral, but in French Cameroun, every ethnic group had a party. There was even one to defend the interests of Mollatoes; cross-breeds of Franco-Cameroun heritage led by an elected MP, Frenchman, Léon Foulétier.
In matters of electoral politics, Southern Cameroons was a showroom of political pluralism in its day. Right from the first elections to the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly (SCHA) on October 26, 1953; Simon Enow Ncha, blazed the trail to run as an independent candidate, in Mamfe Division, defeating the two main political party candidates - Martin Forju (KPP) and Chief SA Arrey (KNC). SE Ncha inspired other independent candidates like Solomon Anyeghamoti Ndefru (SAN) Angwafor, now Fon Angwafor III, who defeated DA Nangah (KNDP) and Maximus Chibikom (OK) in the 1961 elections in Upper Ngemba. Ncha also inspired Bernard Tajoh Beja (BTB) Foretia, who ran as an independent and lost the 1961 elections in Mamfe East to the formidable KNDP baron PM Kemcha, whom he eventually replaced in the 1968 Muna government. In Southern Cameroons, nomination of candidates was by two voters in the candidate’s electoral district; people who knew the candidates at the grassroots. Fon Angwafor III was nominated by GP Tuma, a mechanic and David Che, a teacher.
Against this background could be appreciated the fact that in French Cameroun, French men contested elections into French Cameroun Assembly within a dual electoral college system, comprising a French college and a College of indigenes. In the March 1952 elections into ATCAM, the French College elected Emile Victor Albert, Henri Chamaulte, André Duret, PM Chalot, André-Albert Gerberon, André Duru, Antoine Giard, Arthur-Louise Gouelle, Jean Grassard, Joseph Guyard, Henri Paul Journiac, Marcel Lagarde, Pierre Laouilheau, Alfred Mandon, Brieuc Penanhot, Jean-Marie Poileux, Mohamed Koudjali and Pierre Rocaglea. Form the College of indigenes came: Louis-Paul Aujoulat, Ninine Jules, Ahmadou Ahidjo, Jean Akassou, Charles Assale, Abega Martin Atangana, André-Marie Mbida, Paul Soppo Priso, Gaston Medou, André Fouda Omgba, Jean Ekwabi Ewane, Mathias Djoumessi, Dissake Hans, Babale Oumarou, Njine Michel, Arouna Njoya, Seidou Njimoulouh Njoya, Abbe Joseph Antoine Melone, Paul Francois Martin, Jean-Baptiste Mabaya, Etonde Guillaume, Charles Mbakop, Rene Blaise Mindjo, Lara Zoua, Youssouf Marouf, Ahmadou Mahonde, Marcel Marigoh Mboua, Kotouo Pierre, Ousmanou Hamidou, Iyawa Adamou, Chedjou Joseph and Alphonse Woungly-Massaga.
It is interesting to note that French citizens like Louis-Paul Aujoulat contested elections in the college of indigenes. In the view of the average Southern Cameroonian, the presence of Frenchmen in the French Cameroun parliament was a political monstrosity that advertised to the whole world a certain definition of democracy that diminishes the ideal and mocks the primacy of the indigenous people in the process. This anomaly raises fundamental questions about the average Francophone’s definition and perception of public office and explains why they are so lacking in the vital attributes of democratic engagement. In Southern Cameroons, expatriate involvement in the political process was limited to logistics. For example, EL Cox and AJ Cordy served as Chief Electoral Officers in the 1957 and 1959 elections, while AB Westmacott, Resident for Special Duties in Bamenda demarcated the constituencies. In French Cameroun, the colonial administrators picked winners and losers and elections were run by the Interior Minister designated by France. The standing view is that, he who controls the electoral machinery (pays organisateur) determines the outcome. It is a sad commentary on the character of French Cameroun politics and politicians that rigging and other electoral malpractices are deeply embedded in their political culture.
It is a matter for regret, indeed shame that Francophones continue to hee-haw the one, united and indivisible Cameroon fallacy, even as the bonds that bind the two Cameroons appear tenuous, if not snapping. A review of UN General Assembly resolutions and other international legal principles regarding the right to self-determination shows incontrovertibly that Southern Cameroons became independent in 1961, but has since been recolonized and occupied by French Cameroun. The ongoing struggle to restore Southern Cameroons independence is therefore consistent with International Law, including the right to self-determination. The right to separate from French Cameroun is also laid out under Principles VII and VIII of UN General Assembly Resolution 1541 of December 15, 1960. Besides, the obligation imposed by the UN that Southern Cameroons should obtain “independence by joining” either Nigeria or Cameroon violated Article 76(b) of the UN Charter, and UNGA Resolution 1541; both of which reaffirm independence as the inherent and inalienable right of all colonies and Trust Territories.
It all stands to reason that Cameroon was never one, united and indivisible. French Cameroun, in violation of international law, has supplanted the 1961 federation of two equal nations with annexation of Southern Cameroons. The declaration of war on Anglophones removes any pretence that Biya views Southern Cameroons as a conquered and captured people. It is indeed a pity yet again that Biya misread public opinion and chose to stand on the wrong side of history. It is evident the president still doesn’t realize that force has never triumphed over ideology in all of history. A situation where the president declares war against a section of the country, and calls them terrorists, cannot be in the interest of national unity. Such executive lawlessness is a sad manifestation of the rule of force over the rule of law. The audacity of this impunity was a reminder to Southern Cameroonians, if any was needed, that the music has changed to a war song; all Anglophone terrorists must now sing and dance the new song.
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- Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai
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Camerounese have done and are doing everything to fuel Anglophone consciousness. In spite of numerous calls from moderate Anglophone leaders for the “two Camerouns” to sit at the table to introspect and chart the way forward, there has been the mistaken belief by some fascist Camerounese that brute violence would do the trick. Till date, some are still under the illusion that sadism and killings are the unique option. SORRY!
One should have liked to see the oneness and indivisibility of Cameroun pragmatically. But truth be told, we see the opposite on a daily basis. What is all the worse, even official rhetoric has not been any helpful.
And so do we hear about “froidement assassinés” these days. When war was declared against Boko Haram, soldiers were either “tués” or “égorgés”. In the case of a war against Anglophones, Camerounese are unanimous that soldiers killing Anglophones are assassinated on the battlefield pursuant to a war they declared.
No-one needs to teach even a first degree imbecile that war means killing; and that there are inevitably casualties on both sides in every war. Under those circumstances, the term assassination is inappropriate generally; much less can it apply to any one side. An elementary notion of warfare is that you kill or you are killed: “kill or be killed” is the military jargon.
Those irrational attitudes only do drive moderate Anglophones into radicalism. And the situation gets more and more exacerbated by the apparent tacit official approval of private unhelpful utterances; and all the worse by official echoing.
It is regrettable that God gave us a land flowing with milk and honey; but we have, through greed and linguistic divide, transformed it into a land flowing with blood and beer. Yet in the hopeless expectation of escaping God’s wrath! Where “Thou shall not kill” has been repealed by a constitutional amendment!
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- Ayah Paul Abine
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