Politics

Prime Minister Philemon Yang is presiding over an extraordinary meeting of the National Decentralisation Board in Yaounde.

The announcement was made on Monday in a release from the Prime Minister’s Office.

The council brings together ministers, parliamentarians, magistrates and other high profile persons in the country.

The so-called extraordinary meeting is coming at a time when the political atmosphere in Cameroon is growing tenser and tenser.

In the wake of the unrest in West Cameroon, there have been persistent calls for the reinstatement of the federal system of government “unduly” wiped out by the former Ahidjo regime in 1972.

There have also been more radical voices demanding a restoration of statehood for Southern Cameroons aka Ambazonia.  

But the central machinery in Yaounde is “unshakable” in the face of the calls. Instead, it is looking up desperately to increasing the decentralization of the nation, which it has always considered “ultra-decentralised”.

The machinery in Yaounde is very notorious for evading facts and hitting the nail on wrong heads.

What form of decentralization can be more important than federalism in a country with such diverse backgrounds?

Cameroon is one and indivisible, they say. Is Cameroon more “united” than the USA, the UK or Germany? Certainly, there is something the regime is trying to conceal.

What else is PM Yang going to tell Cameroonians on Tuesday?

Cameroon has always been a “decentralized” State. Yet everything is in Yaounde.

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inoni

23.May.2017

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Forty months after former Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni and former Secretary General at the Presidency Jean Marie Atangana Mebara were each slammed 20 years by the Special Criminal Court for misdeeds in the Camair affair, the two ex regime barons are due to appear this time at the Supreme Court.

The counsels for the two personalities received the information which placed June 13 is the date their respective clients will appear in court for what might be a push to revoke the sentence. They were accused of embezzling 1.7billion francs CFA and sentenced in October 2013.

Though the laws governing the Special Criminal Court gives 6 months for an appeal to be made after a pronouncement, it has taken close to 4 years for the Supreme Court to finally revive the case. We gathered from close sources that some officials at the court had provocatively delayed the file but the reason for this turnaround is still a mystery, though commentators suspect the Head of state might on the verge of granting a possible clemency to his former PM as a move towards appeasing angry Anglophones. We however cannot confirm this .

Inoni and Mebara who are incarcerated have on many occasions denied all the charges insisting that they are being held for other motives than stealing from the state purse.

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Rita Akana

23.May.2017

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According to information published by the Cameroon daily, Mutations in its May 22 edition, two SDF Mayors from Bamenda, played Judas Iscariot to their Chairman’s call to boycott the National reunification celebration.

On the day of the celebration, the two were seen sitting at the tribune together with other humble servants of La Republic, watching and cheering those who were marching, mostly comprised of the military, social groups and citizens suspected to have been hired, as only few schools partook in the activities.

The names of the two Mayors were gotten as, Fidelis Balick Awa of the Bamenda II municipality and Cletus Fongu of the Bamenda III council.

It irks the SDF party militants to note that despite the fact that the party did not take part in the 20^th May feast in Bamenda if not the nation as a whole, some two individuals chose to dissuade themselves from honouring the National Chairman’s call.

This is a call which Ni John Fru Ndi reiterated in a communiqué which he signed on the 7^th May 2017. It was made clear that the locked up southern Cameroonians must be released, federalism looked into, and a forum for genuine dialogue set, for discussions about the revisions that need to made in the constitution, before they could consider participating in the 20^th May celebration.

It is believed that the message touched every nook and cranny of the National triangle, so there is no tangible reason, the two perverts of the SDF can give to justify their disobedience.

Notwithstanding, a worker of the Bamenda II council in trying to justify the mayors’ involvement in the activities, explained that, “a mayor is part and parcel of everything that has to do with their community. He is an authority. That’s why you saw them in civilian wears and not party uniforms”.

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Rita Akana

22.May.2017

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The Gendarmerie Brigade of Banga Bakundu a village along the Kumba road has been burnt down to ashes. The people of Banga Bakundu in the South west region precisely in the Meme Division on witnessed a raging fire in the early hours of Saturday morning. Anglophone protesters have described it as a ghost visit.

An inhabitant of this village whose name we got just as Samuel said “what we are witnessing is strange to this village because nobody was seen around here at the time the fire started and with the present situation in the country, fingers are pointing to the inhabitants which is exactly what our people have been trying to avoid”.

Upon receiving news of the incident, the Divisional Officer for Mbonge took off to expect the incident but did not reach destination for he was involved in an automobile accident on the way and was taken to the hospital somewhere in the South West Region. He is in a stable condition and is fast responding to treatment.

Until moment, the cause for the fire is still unknown and the forces that be are working on it to know what actually provoked the raging flames that caused so much damage.

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Rita Akana

22.May.2017

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Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle has appealed to President Biya to use his office to free all Anglophones arrested in the wake of the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest Regions.

“Since January, I have been on my knees praying, appealing and actually begging that the detained Anglophones be released,” Ntumfor Halle told The Post when he was approached on the plight of the detainees.

Asked in what capacities was he making the appeal, he answered: “I have been doing this as a national and international peace crusader.”

Ntumfor Halle, who is the President of the General Assembly of the Cameroon Bar, added: “I am doing this impartially, objectively and I don’t have any interest in it. I am doing this using peace, dialogue and the Bible. I am not saying that I am perfect, but I will continue doing this, despite my human shortcomings. I will not rest. I will continue begging and praying that peace returns.” 

Told that international bodies have pleaded for same release but nothing has happened, he reacted: “Didn’t the international bodies know that these problems exist? They know the chequered history of Cameroon in 55 years. It is the accumulation of frustrations for over 55 years. I am not against the international bodies coming, but they are coming for their interests. They are merely echoing what I have been saying.”

He intimated: “However, I congratulate the British High Commissioner, Brian Olley, who said that the solution this problem lies with Cameroonians – that the problem can be solved by Cameroonians.”

On the measures taken by the Government, he said: They are salutary; restoration of the internet of the internet is salutary.  Without it, businesses were crumbling. But for any genuine, sustainable dialogue to happen, I have prescribed general amnesty to be granted to all the Anglophones; those detained, those who have gone underground and those in exile. It is enshrined in the Constitution. I am suggesting that either Parliament should ask the Head of State to take the measures to free them or the Head of State can do it otherwise, by exercising State authority of pardon. There can be no State authority without peace. Liberating these people is part of his job. The Head of State should be the happiest person to know that peace has returned to his country. Another way is by nolle prosequi. This does not mean the Head of State is intervening in judicial matters. It is because peace is even compromised. We will not know peace until this problem is resolved. You will agree with me that peace can never exist without justice and equity. . Because, when peace is threatened, there can be no meaningful development of the people. Peace is the most precious asset for each nation, people, society and community.”

Talking about the new projects in the Anglophone sector, he asserted: “You can tar the whole of Northwest and Southwest - without solving this problem, there will continue to be crisis.”

He lamented that: “Some people are making political and financial capital out of the situation. Politicians should not exploit this crisis for personal aggrandisement and benefit. I belong to no party, I am a neutral Cameroonian who has no political platform, but I have been serving my nation. I will continue to pray that peace returns to the Northwest, Southwest and, of course, to the Far North Region that has not known peace for long due to the Boko Haram.”

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Abeh Valery

22.May.2017

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This article is translated from the original that was published in The ‘Le Messager’ of Friday, May 22, 2015. It more than gives a chilling blow-by-blow historical account of how the Late President Ahmadou Ahidjo, with the manipulation of French interests, practically killed off the Southern Cameroons.

It is intriguing, the more so as it is researched and written by a Francophone Cameroonian of Mr. Biya’s ethnic background.

Introduction

Since 1973, Cameroonians have been celebrating ‘the 20th May Event’ year in year out, in tune with Government’s public addresses. During this event, round-table discussions are held, interviews carried out and programmes broadcasted, with the aim of explaining to the masses the relevance of these celebrations in the recent history of Cameroon, as the military, the police, gendarmes, firefighters and of course political parties, Government and private secondary school students, as well as those already in higher institution are involved in parades across the country.

In the meantime few are those Cameroonians who really ponder on the origin, most importantly the scope and relevance of this event, which became a national one, following Ahmadou Ahidjo’s Presidential decision, given that its coming put an end both to the Celebrations held in Commemoration of the 1st January 1960 Independence and of the 1st October 1961 Reunification.

I- The Origin of the 20th May Day

The 20th May Day – which is a commemoration of a Referendum organized on that day in 1972 can be traced back to two pre-existing factors; one of French origin and the other genuinely from Ahidjo.

The French Origin of May 20, 1972

Until 1971, President Ahmadou Ahidjo and the then Cameroon Government were extolling the ‘exemplary success of Cameroonian-made federalism’. They were even praised for it. Cameroon Radio equally took part in the game. The speech that was broadcasted that day read as follows: ‘We, Cameroonians, have achieved in the whole world something only the Canadians and the Swiss were able to accomplish before us’. Meanwhile, in doing so, two issues were kept in silence:

1) We had lost the Northern Part of our country which joined Nigeria on June 1st, 1961. This territory was snatched off Cameroon’s hands through the rigged Referendum of February 11 and 12, 1961.

2) We should not simply be contented with Cameroon’s Reunification. We had the opportunity to extend our territorial boundaries by integrating Equatorial Guinea.

At the time of her independence, Ondu Edu, the Leader of that Nation sought help from Cameroon, unfortunately to the complete lack of interest from authorities in Yaoundé. Regardless, federalism was not only thriving in Cameroon but there was also no apparent reason to end it.

It was even a Government model to emulate not only in neighbouring Nigeria, but in Africa as a whole. However, in the beginning of 1972, the Algerian Government back then, nationalized all French assets found within the oil sector of their country. The Government of Paris was under threat as this source of energy was about to be cut off.

What then was the next course of action? The Paris Government then recalled that since 1954, they had reserved an oil well discovered in Logbaba, in the Douala suburbs, Cameroon and on which Ahmadou Ahidjo had given them exclusive right on December 31, 1958, through the first Cooperation Agreements signed with the French Prime Minister, Michèle Debré.

Better still, the Paris Government also recalls that, from the time of the Reunification, large oil reserves by far incomparable in quantity to the oil wells in Douala had been discovered in Western Cameroon. From that moment, they took the decision to drill oil in Cameroon, adding to other sources of supply across the world in a bid to meet their crude oil needs. However, there was a huge problem with the oil found in Western Cameroon. Across Western Cameroon borders.

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Enoh Meyomesse

22.May.2017

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