Politics
The programmes coordinator of the consortium,Mr Tassang Wilfred has released a new video in which he denounces the current tour being made by Cameoon's PM in the NW/SW regions.
He praises SC/Ambazonia Women, for the resounding boycott of Women's Day celebrations in Southern Cameroons.
He went further to to praise southern Cameroonian parents, on whose behalf the struggle being fought.
In his words,Mr Tassang wilfred says Yang Philemon has reduced himself to a Prime Minister of the North West Region.Watch this powerful Message
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- Rita Akana
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"One of the most important lessons I learnt in my life of struggle for freedom and peace is that in any conflict there comes a point when neither side can claim to be right and the other wrong, no matter how much that might have been the case at the start of the conflict.” Nelson Mandela
We all agree that Cameroon is presently facing an unprecedented Anglophone crisis. We also agree that there is need for dialogue. However what some are still to understand are those to be involved in the dialogue (people), what such a dialogue shall focus on (problem) and how the dialogue shall be carried out (process). In other words the key elements in dialogue are the people, problem, process, and to a great extent, the power relations of the conflicting parties before and after the dialogue.
The Anglophone crisis seems to have gone beyond conflict resolution because according to Sifiso Mbuyisa,
though conflict resolution aims to address the causes (single or multiple linear) of conflict, it does not necessarily change the relationship amongst the parties enjoined in conflict, nor the systems that are in place , and therefore is not addressing the factors underlying the conflict.
That leaves us with the concept of conflict transformation which according to Ronald Kraybill is an approach that ‘asserts the belief that conflict can be a catalyst for deep-rooted, enduring, positive change in individuals, relationships and the structures of the human community’.
Conflict persists when we insist on throwing stones at each other but it becomes transformed when those stones are used to build a new mansion (nation). Ours is a crisis that needs more of a citizen or stakeholder peace-making rather than inter-governmental diplomacy (African Union or United Nations), second-track peacemaking (using unofficial forums to strike peace deals) or retributive justice (using the judiciary). By proposing a citizen or stakeholder conflict transformation approach, I am aware that our country has substantial people (committed elite, traditional elders, the clergy, scholars in conflict, Independent personalities, government statespersons, etc.) who can claim a responsibility and an authority in relation to the conflicting parties; who can generate public pressure for the parties to listen to the people’s aspiration for peace; and who can formulate a long-term agenda for restorative justice, positive peace and sustainable co-existence in Cameroon.
In the light of the current crisis, I wish to suggest the following conflict transformation Actions that take cognisance of process, people, problem and power relations.
Action I: Stakeholders Meeting
The first scenario would require the Head of State to hold meetings in the South West (Buea) and North West (Bamenda) regions with identified stakeholders (not more than 20 in number) from the two regions to fully and frankly discuss the proximate (immediate) and root (underlying) causes of the Anglophone crisis. The second scenario would require the Head of state to grant audiences in Yaoundé or Mvomeka to identified stakeholders from the North West and South West regions, separately or collectively, for the same purpose. This is what Mwalimu Julius Nyerere calls the ‘Palaver tradition’.
The palaver tradition is the culture of talking and hearing things out, a kind of government by discussion where issues are agreed on while ‘sitting down under the tree’. The valid point about such an indigenous tradition of discussion is that talking things out was better than shooting them out. The time frame for this Action could be a week.
Action II: Stakeholders Meeting Outcome
This approach deals with outcomes that seek to normalise and encourage problem-solving. It is an action that deals with putting in place an enabling environment for broad-based discussions often with a national character. Therefore, some of the outcomes from Action I would in any order include:
- resumption and modification of the school calendar in the Anglophone regions;
- restoration of ‘media-regulated’ internet connections in the Anglophone regions;
- release (Amnesty) of all those involved in the current crisis;
- rehabilitation through community service and civic education of those involved in burning of state emblems and those guilty of gross human violations on armless citizens;
- rebranding Cameroon with a people’s constitution. Outcomes are not necessarily indicators of weakness or victory talk less of lack of state authority or hegemony control.
Outcomes are vital traits of open-mindedness, empathy, sensitivity and responsiveness or simply responses inherent in our indigenous value system like Professor Ali Mazrui’s epithet of ‘Africa’s short memory of hate’ (forgiveness and magnanimity); Paul Biya’s advocacy for ‘mbangsuma’ (duty of solidarity); Julius Nyerere’s vision of ‘ujamaa’ (family hood) and Southern Africans rally cry around ‘ubuntu’(society over individual interest). Indeed the Roman adage: salus populi suprema est lex (the salvation of the people must be the supreme law) summarises it all. The time frame for Action II can also be a week.
Action III: All-Stakeholder Dialogue Platform
This Action echoes the voices of many Cameroonians since the current Anglophone crisis became the epicentre of national and international media discussions.
We have heard ad nauseum, buzz phrases like ‘unitary decentralised state’, ‘one and indivisible country’ ‘united and peaceful living together’, ‘ten-state autonomy’, ‘immediate implementation of the 1996 constitution’, two-state federation’, ‘greater decentralisation and devolution of power’, ‘two by ten states system’ etc . All of these catch phrases point to one early action-the making or reviewing of the supreme law of the land. It is only within a stakeholder dialogue platform that decisions on whether the 1996 constitution should undergo a fast-forward implementation, whether the 1996 constitution needs further amendments to accommodate specific measures that would protect, guarantee and safeguard the Anglophone persona or whether we all need to go back to the drawing board to fashion a new law of the land that tailors our current crisis to the overarching vision of a binary rainbow nation.
Be it as it may, Obafemi Awolowo makes it clear that
the formulation of a constitution for a country is a solemn and grave undertaking. Those who are privileged to be charged with this solemn and grave responsibility need much more than mere emotional impulses (it is natural, in political discussions especially those relating to the discussion of a constitution during and after a crisis, that a good deal of emotion and sentiment should come to play) and unreflective patriotic sentiments as their equipment. They must as a matter of unavoidable necessity, see to it that objective reason takes the steering, in order that the safety of the country’s journey and of arrival at the desired destination may be fully and confidently guaranteed.
I wish to also add that the driving force in constitutional engineering is the knowledge that our country was not only given to us by our parents but it is also loaned to us by our children. Action III can be likened more or less to what the English call ‘Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission’, the Americans call a limited ‘Town hall meeting’, the Rwandans call ‘gacaca’,the South Africans call ‘Indaba’, and the Sotho people (from Lesotho) call ‘Lekgotla’. The common message embedded in all of these appellations is one of ‘a community parliament where matters of the nation are discussed collectively and wisdom is shared’. The time-frame for this Action could be a month.
Action IV: Stakeholder Transformative Dividend
The creation of commissions, the recognition of specific sector values (judiciary, bilingualism, education, etc.) and the fashioning of a constitution are lasting clues needed for horizontal harmony (power relations between citizens). But the implementation to the letter of every tenet of these institutions and the respect for these structures are everlasting glues needed for vertical harmony (power-relations between citizens and their country). Therefore the transformative dividend of any dialogue is the establishment of a social contract for physical and political reconstruction. It is the social compass for a new political order based on the lessons learnt from the crisis.
Although a transformative dividend does not exclude or preclude further crisis, it nonetheless includes mitigating mechanisms that can contain (conflict management) or nip the crisis in the bud (conflict prevention). A man’s strength is recognised not by how he fell but by how he got up. This is also true for a nation. Because this crisis is man-made it must be man-managed. Lest we forget, conflict or crisis is not all destructive or negative. Constructive or creative conflict tends to draw attention to problems that should be addressed to achieve a sustainable peace.
We have already spent valuable time, vibrant resources and volatile rhetoric on the path of paired contradictory metaphors like repression and resilience, expression and suppression, universal rights and group advocacy, rule of law and private justice, combative communication and pedestrian propaganda, praise and protest literature, human rights violation and affirmative action, state authority and people power, hate speech and hard talk, emotional arson and erratic arrests, diatribes and dogma, threats and resistance, hoax and honesty, facade and fact and finally psychological fear and physical exile. It was time we moved on.
Rather than being frightened by the human fear that this crisis can lead our country into the abyss of cataclysm, I am inspired by divine faith that a meticulous conflict transformation approach can relaunch the country to the pinnacle of creative governance. But timely Action is of the essence. For like the Somali people say ‘some of what has been lost in the fire can still be retrieved in the ashes’.
*Mwalimu George Ngwane is author of the book “Settling Disputes in Africa” (2001); Senior Chevening Fellow, Conflict Prevention and Resolution, University of York (UK) 2010; Rotary Peace Fellow, University of Chulalongkorn, Bangkok (Thailand) 2015; Commonwealth Professional Fellow, Minority Rights Group, London (UK) 2015; Bilingual Commission scholar, Cardiff, Wales 2015; United Nations Minority Rights Fellow, OHCHR, Geneva (Switzerland) 2016. He is the Executive Director of the civil society organisation in Cameroon called AFRICAphonie.
Sources
- Awolowo, Obafemi, 1966, Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution, Ibadan, Oxford University Press
- Biya, Paul, 1987, Communal Liberalism, London, MACMILLAN Publishers
- Kokole, Omari, 1996, Ethnic Conflicts versus Development in Africa, London, Macmillan Press
- Kraybill, Ronald; Robert A. Evans and Alice Frazer Evans 2005, Peace Skills manual for community mediators. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
- Mandela, Nelson, 2011, Nelson Mandela by himself, Johannesburg, Pan Macmillan publishers
- Mbuyisa Sifiso, 2013, public participation as participatory conflict resolution, Durban, African Journal on Conflict Resolution, ACCORD
- Ngwane, George, 2001, Settling Disputes in Africa, (reprint) Colorado Spring, America, International Academic Publishers
- Nyerere, Julius, 1968, Nyerere, Freedom and Socialism, Dar es Salaam, Oxford University Press
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- Mwalimu George Ngwane
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Despite the call made by the Prime Minster Philemon Yang in Bamenda on Monday 6th March 2017, classes are yet to resume in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon.
His call seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Reports say that yesterday 7th march 2017 the supposedly reopening day, teachers were present in schools but not a single student was seen around.
This scenario has again casted a dark cloud on the path of Philemon Yang considering that this is not his first attempt.
It should be noted that this is the third time since November last that he is embarking on the same mission to the North West. He yesterday 7th march 2017 continued on his mission to Bui and Menchum Divisions of North West Region.
The question that comes to mind is: will schools resume effectively in the two Anglophone regions any time soon?
Of course the answer lies in how well the problem is handled by both the Government and other education stakeholders.
But one thing is sure. The present Anglophone behaviour seems to suggest that two wrongs don’t make a right; taking away their internet, militarization of Bamenda, arresting and abducting activists, will only make things worse.
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- Tawe Gije nkfunji
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The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is calling on both National and International opinion to witness an ongoing practice in the North West and South West regions whereby scores of people are arrested daily for no just cause and then forced to pay sums ranging between 500,000 and 1000,000 F CFA in order not to be carted to Yaounde for detention at the Kondengui Prison.
The situation has gotten so bad to the point that militants of the ruling CPDM Party are exploiting the open terror to settle scores with people who do not share their ideologies. These militants under the guise of working for government call the police and denounce innocent people for arrest.
As if that were not enough, some regime barons of French expression are now sending out provocative messages to the two regions saying
"You people can cry and shout to the top of your voices, the UN, the British who offered you to us through France and the United States that has interests we are protecting will never come to your aid; but France will fight for us".
In the face of this escalating reign of terror, marked by a suspicious kind of silence from the International Community, the desperate people may soon be pushed by government's excessive terror, extortion and all other forms of provocation to defend themselves.
Right from its inception, the Consortium has preached and promoted non violent approaches to civil disobedience, believing strongly that peace has no price.
Our position has not changed, but circumstances on the ground may soon make our persistent calls for restraint hollow. We also hold this truth to be self evident, that the international community will not be in a position to claim ignorance on the ongoing genocide being perpetrated by Yaounde on anglophones in the Southern Cameroons.
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- Rita Akana
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BaretaNews reports that the meeting which held today at the Cathedral in Bamenda has come to an end. Southern Cameroons Parents who were invited by the Catholic Hierarchy to persuade them send their children to schools have VEHEMENTLY REFUSED.Parents say they will not send any kids to school unless ALL Southern Cameroonians abducted are released. As the Church hierarchy keeps begging, telling the parents that Baptist and PCC will do same, the parents in anger walked out of the hall and the meeting ended. Some of the parents could be heard shouting that it seems the Catholic hierarchy has been infiltrated- as reported by BaretaNews reporter in Bamenda.
BaretaNews went further to extend congratulations to the parents whose children are in Catholic Institution. La Republique must know that Southern Cameroonians mean business. Also, we send a sound of caution to the authorities of PCC, Baptist as well as parents of these institutions not to betray the struggle.
Let us do this for our children future. BaretaNews, therefore calls on all Southern Cameroonians reading us to intensify again their calls home. We must get Tuesday 7th March ghosted to frustrate any plans of La Republique to get schools going. Please call Principals of Catholic, PCC, Baptist institutions to stay the course.Meanwhile, Ghost towns today across Southern Cameroons is ongoing.
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- Rita Akana
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UNITED NATIONS, March 5 – While UN Security Council members visiting Niger, 188th out of 188 on the UN Development Index, is certainly welcome, it is noteworthy has is not being addressed or even mentioned on this trip.
Beyond the omission, which some called shameful, of the plight of Anglophones in Cameroon -- the Internet has been turned off in their regions -- the common denominator of France's historical power relations with, say, Chad and Niger was omitted even from reporting from inside the Council's bubble.
It was complained to the Free UN Coalition for Access that the UN didn't even inform the News Agency of Nigeria that it could go on the trip (but did inform, for example, Voice of America). Might NAN have been more critical of aspects of the trip? How will this omission be addressed?
Inner City Press in the past was informed of such trips, and went on some, for example to Chad where then French Ambassador Jean Maurice Ripert dissembled about President Deby's non-appearance, then confronted Inner City Press about its reporting, in the airport in Kigali, Rwanda. Now, following a retaliatory eviction and continuing restriction at the UN by Department of Public Information chief Cristina Gallach and spokesman Stephane Dujarric for seeking to cover the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe UN bribery case in the UN Press Briefing Room on January 29, 2016, Inner City Press is no longer informed or invited. DPI under Gallach churns out assemblages of canned quotes and tweets as "stories," as from within the bubble. We'll have more on this.
On a previous Security Council trip that included Sudan, Council members spoke to the Press about standing up to the Sudanese government about abuses. So what happened in Cameroon?
As Security Council members portrayed themselves meeting with Cameroon's Paul Biya, apparently without a word about the protests by and incarceration of Anglophones in the country, Inner City Press asked the UN about the problem, video here, UN Transcript here:
Inner City Press: yesterday, I'd asked you about this letter from the former Senate President of Nigeria. The press in Nigeria picked up on your answer and said that no letter has been received at all. So, you said you hadn't seen it. Does that just mean that you personally hadn't seen it, or have you checked to see whether the letter…?
Spokesman: We have not… I have the not received any confirmation that a letter has been received. I can't speak to whether or not a letter was sent since we were, apparently, if this letter exists, the recipients. As far as the recipients, as of today, nothing has been received.
Inner City Press: Since the Security Council is in Cameroon, I wanted to know whether DPA [the Department of Political Affairs] has taken any notice of this protest in the Anglophone areas of Cameroon? Many people have been arrested. Eight journalists have been detained in Cameroon. It seems like the Security Council's focus is entirely on the Boko Haram aspect, but is anyone in the UN system concerned and trying to get some answers?
Spokesman: We're obviously following it, and I'll see if I can get you something further.
Eight hours later, nothing. Nothing at all. The UN's reflexive evasion of Press question reverberated on the Council's next stop.
Nigeria's former Senate President Ameh Ebute wrote to the UN to urge sanctions against Cameroon and Chad. Inner City Press at the March 2 UN noon briefing asked the UN's holdover spokeman Stephane Dujarric to comment on Ebute's letter. Dujarric said he hadn't seen it.
Now The Guardian in Nigeria picks up on Dujarric's knee-jerk denial to Inner City Press: "Mr Stephane Dujarric, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, denied knowledge of the letter... 'I have not seen the letter.'"
For eight billion U.S. dollars a year, you'd think they could at least read their mail. Watch this site.
During the Paris stopover, Council members met with France's replacement for Herve Ladsous atop UN Peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre Lacroix. Will Lacroix addressed the disparities in protection for European and African peacekeepers serving ostensibly together in the UN's Mali mission?
And in Cameroon, will the dispute between the French and English speaking communities, and harsh prison conditions for the latter, be noted by the Council? Watch this site.
The day after UK Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said while the UK supports Martin Kobler as long as he is UN envoy in Libya, if he's to be replaced it should be quickly given momentum, Inner City Press asked Dujarric to describe the UN process and timelines. No details were provided. Again, typical.
"UN Envoy Response to Southern Cameroons" as posted by Mark from the anglophone consortium.
That is diplomacy. Now, the battle lies with us. The ability to get UN fully involve depends on us. We know what to do therefore we must do it. For now, we must continue keeping schools, courts closed while observing designated ghost towns. Let other groups do what they do best. Intensify your text and calls home. We must get this week non-school resumption right. La Republique must not succeed.
Mark Bareta.
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- Rita Akana
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Subcategories
Biya Article Count: 73
# Paul Biya and his regime
Explore the political landscape of Cameroon under the rule of Paul Biya, the longest-serving president in Africa who has been in power since 1982. Our Paul Biya and his regime section examines the policies, actions, and controversies of his government, as well as the opposition movements, civil society groups, and international actors that challenge or support his leadership. You'll also find profiles, interviews, and opinions on the key figures and events that shape the political dynamics of Cameroon.
Southern Cameroons Article Count: 549
.# Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia
Learn more about the history, culture, and politics of Ambazonia, the Anglophone regions of Cameroon that have been seeking self-determination and independence from the Francophone-dominated central government. Our Southern Cameroons section covers the ongoing conflict, the humanitarian crisis, the human rights violations, and the peace efforts in the region. You'll also find stories that highlight the rich and diverse heritage, traditions, and aspirations of the Southern Cameroonian people.
Editorial Article Count: 885
# Opinion
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