Southern Cameroons

As the ghost town declared by the Anglophone Cameroon Civil Society Consortium enters day two today, rubrics of yesterday’s operation is still pretty fresh in the minds of denizens of the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon who are ready to give up just anything for a brighter future for their children.

While at the time of this report, the ghost town operation is recording a resounding success in the North West and South West and taking place with a lot of calm and serenity, that of yesterday did produce a lot of fireworks in some major towns of the Anglophone region. Not only did it go violent but dozens were arrested and the angry youths took to the streets.

Revisiting Ghost Town Operation Day one

In the North West Region regional capital of Bamenda which has been championing this fight from day one, business activities where all grounded as the ghost town recorded a resounding success. All the markets, banks, fueling stations, commercial centers, travel agencies among others remained closed while the streets completely deserted with very few people and private cars rushing to their various destinations.
In Ndop, angry youths who were aggrieved by the fact that some business premises were opened, decided to match shutting down business premises and government offices but they were later disperse by arm to the teeth riot police officers whose brutality cannot be over emphasized.

The Divisional Officer for Fundong, this reporter gathered was blocked by irate youths from going to work. They questioned if he was not current with the political atmosphere in the country to know that there was a ghost town.

Cruising West of the Mungo to the South West Regions, which until yesterday exercise relatively calm was the epitome of unrest as the ghost town took a different dimension in the sea-side city of Limbe formerly called Victoria.

Even though the consortium had earlier called for no violence during the ghost town, Limbe, which harbors the lone oil refinery in Cameroon took everyone by surprise. Not only were roads within the town barricaded by angry youths, but equally any commercial bike rider or taxi driver caught working had to face the angry youths.
 
Matters reach climax when hundreds of angry Limbe youths stormed French schools in Limbe which had classes going on unperturbed. Hundreds of Francophone students and pupils were forced out of their various school premises by angry youths as police fired tear gas and gun shots in an attempt to disperse the ramping crowd.

While it is reported that over twenty were arrested ,a resident of Limbe who spoke to Cameroon Concord narrated that they had to go out to ensure that the ghost town was respected by all especially those French schools who have since the strike remained indifferent.

Today’s Ghost Town Operation

Today January 17, 2017 is the second and last day of the tow day ghost town operation as declared by the consortium headed by barrister Agbor Felix Balla, who spent a greater part of his career working as a legal adviser to the United Nation.
 
At the time of this report, day two of the ghost town is relatively effective and no violent has been reported as at now. From Buea, Limbe, Mutengene and Kumba in the South West Region to Bamenda, Nkwen, Nitop, Commercial Avenue, Small Mankon et al in the North West, one can conclude that the ghost town operation is 100% effective. Now the question this reporter could not answer is what happens after the ghost town?

While we all wait on the Consortium leaders on what next, time is fast running out as this academic year risk being declared as null by UNESCO. Affair a suvire…

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17.Jan.2017

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Washington, 14 January 2017 – The charismatic Member of Parliament (MP) for Bui-South, Hon. Joseph Wirba, crossed yet another line in the sand Saturday when he royally ignored a ban by the colonial administrators of Bui Division to preside a heavily-attended rally at Squares, Kumbo.

His convoy, preceded by over-excited, self-assigned Okada escorts, arrived Squares to chants of “Papa ehleee! Yaya-Yooo!” and “Dem Go Kill We Tire”.

“This is what I can do,” Hon. Wirba said from the podium, referring to the huge turnout at the rally. His statement mocks Cameroon’s Higher Education Minister, Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo, who had tried to let the MP know that there is nothing Southern Cameroonians can do about their domination by Yaounde. After flagging discontent to the Minister, the MP says Fame Ndongo mockingly replied: “Vous allez faire quoi?” (What will you do?)

From Squares on Saturday, the MP spoke of verbal threats on his life, including reportedly from official quarters. This descendant from a long line of Nso warriors challenged his to-be assassins to proceed if such is their desire, pledging that more Wirbas will be born through his killing.

“A strong person does not threaten,” Hon. Wirba told the crowd, letting it be known that he considers the Biya regime to be just talking, instead of acting when confronted with game.

His use of the analogy of a hunter got rally attendees dizzy with laughter. “No hunter sees an antelope and, instead of shooting, starts threatening ‘I will kill you’”.

Spotting jeans and a brown velvet traveling jacket over a blood red T-shirt bearing the inscriptions “I Am ‘Wirba’. The 55 Years the Sugar Has Refused to Melt”, the MP reminded the regime that the uprising in Southern Cameroons is the fault of the colonial government refusing to pay heed to the alarm bells she rang while in Yaounde.

He reiterated an earlier statement that the army of the annexationist government of La Republique is already so overwhelmed they would be better served right now calling up the French army in backup role.

“Call wuna (your) big papa for Europe, because your army will not stop us,” said the MP, adding that even grandmothers across Southern Cameroons have now signed up to the cause.

Hon. Wirba’s speech was the main course at the rally and it closed with an announcement urging the towns of Kumbo and Kumba, Buea and Bamenda to assume the role of Soweto in South Africa during the liberation of blacks in that country. He pledged to hold rallies in the three other towns over the coming days/weeks.

The appetizer for the rally had been served in the form of speeches from, among others, the Right Rev. Dora and the initiator of the Coffin Revolution, Mancho Bibixy. Calling himself air, and tnerefore impossible to be stopped by the Biya security forces that tried but failed to prevent him from attending the rally, Mancho worked the crowd up with roars of “No” in response to several questions about whether they want to remain a part of colonial Cameroun.

REFERENDUM CALLS GROW; SO, TOO, THE MOCKERY

Speakers made reference to recent calls for a return to federalism - but it, almost inevitably, turned out to dismiss federalism as a joke, along with the call for the organization of a referendum in Southern Cameroons to determine the form of government.

“No slave who organizes an uprising returns to beg from the castle of the slave master,” said one rally attendee on WhatsApp.

Once dearly loved, federalism is in bad taste on social media platforms. On Saturday, the Chicago-based journalist, blogger and member of MoRISC, Innocent Chia, splashed rotten eggs all over it by naming it the “F Option”. He went after Common Law Lawyers to explain “the inherent discrepancy and conflict” between two points in a communique in which the lawyers called for a referendum, but - putting the cart before the horse – also set up a federal constitutional drafting committee, as if the outcome of the referendum was a given.

“If Anglophones succumb to federalism, they will live with the murders, tortures, rapes, lootings, wanton arrests and molestations, arsons, exclusion and name it, from generation to generation. Who knows when the French will allow Francophones to become something different from French slaves?” questioned Prof. Tatah Mentan.

Social media was full of praise Saturday for former Bar Council Chair, Barrister Bernard Muna, after excerpts of an interview he granted a local television station were aired in a news report.

“Ni Ben has done the ‘Muna Political Brand’ an immense good,” said one WhatsApp post.

The excerpts showed Barrister Muna urging Southern Cameroonian youths to fight for the freedoms they deserve; admitting that the older generation may be too old to get the job done before they go to their graves; and encouraging students to consent the sacrifice imposed by even a full year or two of missed studies in order to obtain a better education in the future.

END

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Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert (Yindo Toh)

16.Jan.2017

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Mwalimu George Ngwane, renowned writer and notorious Pan Africanist who is equally a Chevening, common wealth, Rotary and United Nations minority rights fellow in Geneva, Switzerland has in an interview granted to Cameroon Concord proposed that the best solution to the ongoing crisis in Anglophone Cameroon is to conduct a referendum.

The scholar who was recently called up as a member of the adhoc committee headed by Paul Gohgomo opined that while some Anglophones are for independence others are for the institution of a federal government and in a bid to ensure that every one is given the chance to choose among the two, a referendum like that conducted in 1961 when West Cameron became a state should be carried out in Camerroon.

Speaking to Cameroon Concord just before he was called up to the adhoc committee, George Ngwane who is executive director of the Pan African Association, AFRICAphonie and author of over seven books including “The Cameroon condition”, “The Mungo Bridge” and “Settling Dispute in Africa” among others explained that in the near future a referendum could just be the best way as it will help Cameroonians of the English Speaking expression who for over two months now have been on strike to decide their faith.

His words “…now the question is, would most Anglophones prefer a federalist structure or go for an outright independence? But I think the way to either of them can only through a referendum and now it is incumbent of the powers that be or the policy makers to understand that there is a possibility of creating a referendum like it was done in 1961 and 1972 when West Cameroon state was destroyed. Therefore there is a possibility of also doing a referendum in the years ahead for Anglophones to equally decide their future within or without Cameroon”

Commenting on the aching silence of the Etundi resident, which has been on everyone’s lips lately, George Ngwane who aside publishing his own newspaper equally writes and acts as an editor for numerous international magazines and newspapers was categorical that “anyone who is used to President Paul Biya will not be surprised that he is silent but that does not speak well because the more you keep silent the more the issues escalate and I would say that his silent has further radicalized the position of those who were moderate.”

“When I return from the United Nation some weeks ago, one of the items I wrote in one of the papers that its time Biya makes a public statement about the Anglophone problem, something he has never ever done since he became head of state. It is time to address the Anglophone problem as a separate problem that beset Cameroonians”

To him, the consequences of the strike action are deeper that the government thinks and not only will it take Anglophones a long time to bounce back especially as all sectors of the economy is affected but he fears that is nothing is done urgently more havoc will plague the two English speaking regions of Cameroon.

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Amos Fofung in Buea

16.Jan.2017

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Half Mile, the main commercial hub of the city of Victoria in West Cameroon is in chaos this morning over the partial respect of ghost town declared by the Consortium.

As other towns in West Cameroon brought activities to zero, Monday, some shops in Victoria were open while some bike riders were going about their activities disrespecting the call for a ghost town.

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Peter Nsoesie

16.Jan.2017

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