Politics

The UNDP, the UPC, the MP or the FSNC took advantage of the UNDP Congress to give their positions on the subject.

Several opposition parties attended the 6th Ordinary Congress of the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP) held on February 25, 2017 in Yaoundé.

The event was used as an opportunity for these political formations to respond to calls for a return to federalism which had earlier on been issued by some, following the crisis that is currently shaking  the English-speaking Regions of the country.

These positions are relayed in The New Expression (LNE) published on 27 February.

Federalism is out of question, the Union of Populations of Cameroon (UPC) insisted. Basile Louka, the Secretary General of the historic party of Cameroon, called on "all political formations whose roots are deep in the history of our country, we ask them to join hands so that Cameroon remains united, democratic , Decentralized, through dialogue ".

In the same vein, Henri Hogbe Nlend, chairman of the General Council of the same party, declared: "We have fought for Cameroon to be united and now we are fighting for it to be disunited," said the former  Minister. The position of the MP (Progressive Movement) is similar. According to its coordinator, Jean Jacques Ekindi, "the union of citizens is the only one capable of saving our country. What is happening in the south-west and north-west region, in the extreme north, in the east, goes beyond the simple convictions of political parties and fundamentally challenges of each other ".

The gathering i also witnessed the attendence of members of the Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon (FSNC). Issa Tchiroma, its president urged "the President of the Republic not to shrink from any difficulty for the search for solutions," said the Minister of Communication. At UNDP, it is also believed that federalism is not the solution to the problem.

"Everyone must participate and be aware that there is one thing that goes beyond all of us, it is first of all the foundation of the country.

Our country, whose sons and daughters, decided on reunification over 55 years ago must remain the one dreamed up by founding fathers, "Maigari Bello Bouba said. Opinions contrary to that of the SDF is is stronly advocating for a reurn to the fedral state of the country.

John Fru Ndi's SDF party reiterated the party's position: "In the SDF, we advocate federalism. To get out of this phase, we are calling for a constitutional conference, "Ibrahim Alhadji said.

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Rita Akana

01.Mar.2017

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Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) reminds of it's Consortium Anglophone Congress in Houston, Texas, USA, on 10 and 11 March 2017. Venue shall be disclosed next week according to the organizers. The organizers are further calling on all Southern Cameroonians in the area to turnout to the event.

Tapang Ivo, one of the organizers writes:We shall debate, share ideas, listen to each other, establish stronger friendship and unity, mend fences and hold our hands together for a United Southern Cameroons. Be there if you can. Hey, by the way, the Consortium will be supporting this Friday's protest at the UN in New York city, USA. Let us flank our weight behind unity and not behind division.

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Rita Akana

01.Mar.2017

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SDF is planning a federalism demonstration in Douala; Cameroon on 4th March 2017 in support of The Anglophone Problem. The delegation would be headed by Honorable Jean Mitchel Nintcheu.

The purpose of the demonstration is to call on the authorities to make it possible for Cameroon to go back to a federal state as was the case before 1972.

They believe Federation will return power to the people and bring development to Cameroon.

Meanwhile the Divisional Officer for Douala V sub-division, Tchakui Noundie Jean Marie, released a statement prohibiting the holding of the rally scheduled by the SDF on March 4.

In his statement he mentioned that the prohibition of the rally was in a bid to maintain public order in his area of jurisdiction.

He also instructed the Commissioner of the 7th district police station and the commander of the Gendarmerie brigade in Bepanda to make sure that his statement; prohibiting the rally is followed.

Honorable Jean Mitchel Nintcheu, the Littoral SDF Regional president, said going by the 1990 law on public gatherings, the D.O has no powers to ban such a rally. He said, they only declared the holding of the rally and were not applying for any authorization from the civil administrator. The outspoken Nintcheu was emphatic that the ban, to them, remains illegal.

He questioned why the D.O did not, in his decision, state clearly why he had to ban the rally. The opposition party called the ban baseless, Nintcheu told  Cameroon Concord's Douala base correspondent on phone that they are rather intensifying preparations ahead of the rally.

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Rita Akana

28.Feb.2017

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The New Judicial Year opened last February 22, 2017 during a solemn ceremony at the Supreme Court without a word being mentioned on the arrest and detention of super scale Magistrate, Ayah Paul Abine who is also Advocate General at the Supreme Court. His arrest and detention is highly criticized by legal professionals as haven been carried out in gross violation of the law. Incarcerated at the Secretariat of State for Defense, SED, Justice Ayah Paul Abine is yet to be judged as charges are also yet to be levied against him.
Another key point that the public hoped could be addressed at the solemn opening of the New Judicial Year in Cameroon was the grounding of court cases in the North West and South West Regions of the country since the outbreak of Common Law Lawyers strike last November 21, 2016 demanding the redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates to Civil Law zones and Common Law Magistrates to Common Law zones, the creation of a special department at the Supreme Court to hear cases in the Common law domain, the creation of Common Law department in the National School of Administration and Magistracy, ENAM etc.

As stipulated by section 33 of law No. 2006/16 of December 2006 to lay down the organization and function of the Supreme Court, the official opening of the judicial year was marked by two key speeches; that of the Chief Justice, Daniel Mekobe Sone and that of the Attorney General, Luc Ndjodo who earlier made submissions.

In his submission, the Attorney General of the Supreme Court, Luc Ndjodo presented considerations on issues of human rights notably the protection of freedoms by public authority. He stated both national and international legal instruments that protect freedoms of individuals in Cameroon adding that a commission has been created at the Supreme Court to rule on claims for compensation in case of reparation damages suffered by victims of unlawful loss of liberty.

On his part, Chief Justice Daniel Mekobe Sone delivered a speech on the theme "The resurgence of private justice and the rule of law in Cameroon.” Decrying that there has been a resurgence of many forms of private justice which threatens the essence of the rule of law, the Chief Justice stressed that such a situation cannot be tolerated in a democratic country governed by the rule of law as problems ought to be resolved within the ambit of the law.
The Supreme Court Head thus called on citizens to bring all actions before the courts rather than taking the laws in their hands through violence.

The official opening of the new judicial year was also attended by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon Cavaye Yiguié Djibril, Vice President of the Senate, Genevieve Tjoues representing the President of the Senate, Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang and a college of Cabinet Ministers, the President of the Economic and Social Council, Luc Ayang, CPDM Central Committee Secretary General, Jean Nkuete, CDU National President, Adamou Ndam Njoya, ELECAM Board Chairman, Samuel Fonkam Azu'u, Bar Council President, Ngnie Kamga and Bar General Assembly President Barrister Nico Halle.

The Sun

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Rita Akana

28.Feb.2017

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In recent days, a wave of hysterical abuse has been raining down on Cameroon’s minister of water and power, Basile Atangana Kouna, for the Beti-heavy list of candidates admitted for training in his ministry as solar power technicians and engineers. The outrage is bipartisan, coming in equal measure from the Beti elite, who are incensed that by publishing this list of Beti-only candidates, he has given more ammunition to the West Cameroon Resistance to attack a regime that’s already on the ropes. Mathias Eric Owona Nguini, a Beti university don, calls it a “list of shame that has shocked all the regions of the country, including the Beti regions.” The newspaper “L’Emergance “ angrily accused the minister of attempting to destabilize the regime.

The list has indeed shocked most Francophones, as it provides further irrefutable evidence to bolster the case West Cameroonians have been making for weeks. Namely, that the entire system has been rigged to favor the tribe in power and the Francophones have supinely accepted it.

The shock and outrage being expressed by the rest of the francophone regions shows that a light bulb has finally gone on in their brains. Biya and his gang realize this and are beginning to panic. Such lists are a common practice in government ministries, even those supposedly run by West Cameroonians who so fear losing their perches and perquisites that they dare not even include the names of their own siblings who might have performed better in the selection examinations.

In an interview with a local paper on Wednesday, Minister Kouna said these candidates were being recruited to work in their regions only (Center and South) and that recruitment in the other regions would follow that model to take account of language, availability and cultural practices.

If you believe him, then I have a bridge over the Menchum Falls to sell to you, cheap.
But what he intimated would make eminent sense if only it were true. It would mean that we should have had our own teacher training colleges (or ‘normal schools’ in English*), training local men and women to teach in their towns or villages of origin. You would get true commitment from these teachers and better results from their schools. The same would hold true for the other professions – police, nurses, doctors, etc. In the same vein, we would elect our own local governments (the chimera in the 20 year-old “Decentralization Law”) from governors to village councils. That is actually the old West Cameroon model.

But back to that light bulb that is stealing the sleep from the gilded rooms in Etoudi. There is a growing chorus of ordinary Francophones raising their voices in strident support of our cause. From call-in shows on French radio and television networks to online forums and street demonstrations, the Francophones are following the lead of West Cameroonians. There’s even a demonstration planned for Paris, France – France! – this week to support our cause.

Recent history shows us that it is nothing new for West Cameroonians to show the way in that benighted republic and many Francophones now readily concede that. I still remember back in the late 80s and early 90s when we had to fight with these people to get their children to wear uniforms to school. All their school children used to look like street urchins. They finally succumbed to our logic but resented us for it for years because we were right all along.

In an online video doing the rounds these days, francophone lawyer Jean de Dieu Momo is giving his East Cameroon brethren a tutorial in the leadership West Cameroonians have exhibited since independence. He points out that the ‘office de baccalaureat’ came about thanks to our fight for an independent GCE board (which we have partly lost back thanks to Anglophone government stooges). Momo reminds everyone that the multiparty system, many of whose numerous well-fed leaders now shout about ‘national unity,’ was only achieved when John Fru Ndi and a band of intrepid young West Cameroonians marched from Ntarikon to City Chemist Roundabout and were fired on by francophone gendarmes, killing six of them.

This is the kind of history Biya does not want Francophones to be reminded of, for fear that it could be contagious.

There are signs that the regime has become practically paralyzed by fear, given the very unorthodox methods of the West Cameroonian peaceful resistance movement. That the ruling CPDM party has been effectively banned from Bamenda by popular fiat; that the usually reliable tactic of diving our two provinces has failed abjectly this time, with Musonge and his jingoistic elite being booed out of Buea; that Philemon Yang and Paul Atanga Nji are basically persona non gratae anywhere in West Cameroon now, was already troubling enough.

But what must be giving the regime true nightmares was the shocking spectacle in Bamenda on Wednesday, February 22. That was when a company of soldiers in military trucks from Yaounde paraded the streets of the city with the newly won African Cup of Nations and basically no one came out to see them. And if you want further proof that CRTV has sunk to the depths of journalistic depravity, you would notice that the newscasts of that Wednesday evening didn’t mention the Cup visit to Bamenda. Because of this alone, you can ignore the photo shopped pictures now making the rounds of the internet, showing adoring crowds welcoming the cup in Bamenda as the fakes they really are.
This is the stuff of waking nightmares for the regime. As we say at home, football is Biya’s ‘final joker,’ the magic bullet, the stuff he has used the most to perpetuate his rule over the years. He uses it as the prime drug, the ‘opium of the people,’ dispensed to the country in large doses during periods of extreme crisis, to keep the population subdued. It has always worked. So to see it fail so spectacularly is stomach churning for the regime.
If they were any wiser they should have seen this coming after Victoria turned its back on the Women’s Cup matches. But they never learn.

They still cannot come to terms with a defiant population that ignores presidential decrees, government edicts, ministerial decisions and governors’ orders. They probably thought they could outwait us or find a balm to salve the wounds of a West Cameroon tired of strikes, ghost towns and unschooled children. The Nations’ Cup, they thought, would begin to break down the resistance. They thought wrong. Maybe now they begin to understand what we mean. We are fed up and we won’t take it anymore. And the people are just, for the most part, peacefully staying in their homes.

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Rita Akana

26.Feb.2017

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The government through its propaganda media house, CRTV has just disputed claims that 2017 has been declared a blank  year in Cameroon,in the midst of the socio-political crisis in the anglophone regions of the country.

In a statement released last Friday, Youssouf Hadidja Alim,Cameroon's  Minister of  Basic Education of Base, and president of the National Commission of Cameroon for Unesco, indicated that the anglophone crisis can not cause a blank year in Cameroon.

According to the Minister, examinations will take place as scheduled in all anglophone and francophone subsystems.

The Minister went ahead to denounce claims circulating on social media that the school year has been declared blank as "malicious".

According to UNESCO rules , when certain hours of the school year are not covered, the school year could be declared Blank.
Schools have been closed for months now in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon.

Meanwhile the Anglophone consortium says the school year has already been declared blank.The consortium writes:

1. There would be no GCE in Southern Cameroons and eventually no one in La Republique will take the exams.
2. The school year is blank already. La Republique is keeping this from its people. All those few Francophones running to have classes in UBa, UB etc, you are wasting a big time because certificates this academic year from the Cameroons would not be recognised.
3. The government continued push for schools to resume is a way to keep french cameroun from rising and down playing the unity of the country that Southern Cameroonians have punctured. The government has been in a series of lies telling.
What do we do now? As advised by our UN contacts we must continue the pressure so that the UN fact finding mission comes in. We must make sure Ghost towns on Mondays and Tuesdays are effective till the end of the month when it shall be reviewed and all schools must remain closed plus other actions such as taxes boycott.
Our parents should occupy the kids home to learn other skills, do some community work.
This is a struggle that needs patience and sacrifice thus let's all communicate back home to our families. Special caution to the Francophones who are currently sabotaging this struggle.
This is a winning struggle and our current action hurts La Republique.

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Rita Akana

26.Feb.2017

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