Anglophone Crisis Cameroon: How government has failed in all spheres

Since November 2016 Cameroon has been bathed in a tragic drama that sometimes turns fascinating to watch from the other end of things. This probably was a unique opportunity for Yaounde to prove to the people of West Cameroon in particular that there is no other might before them after Heaven. But unfortunately, the strike in West Cameroon has hit the Achilles Heals of La Republic with such dexterity and expertise that what is left of the hope is the debris of a broken plan.

When Common Law lawyers took to the street at the very beginning of the strike, the central machinery in Yaoundé ordered its forces to spray tear gas on the highly revered professional s.

Whether that is a move of intimidation or an attempt to prove superiority or a call of duty, we cannot tell. All we know is that it was irrational to treat peaceful protesters as such.

That might have been a way of stifling the outcry in order to give the false impression that there was no problem at all, as later confirmed by a certain Atanga Nji Paul.

As a “son of the soil”, Atanga Nji Paul had deluded himself that a claim as such was going to earn him the prize of preaching the gospel of Christ in Yaounde. Yes, it might have been so in Yaounde. But that claim almost cost him his precious life in Bamenda.

Mr Atanga Nji’s assertion came after several other claims by high profile government officials that there was never any such thing as Anglophone Problem.

However, when the issues became too conspicuous to be hidden, Yaoundé jumped into creating commissions and committees head-on like a cat on hot bricks.

In a twinkle of an eye, an ad hoc committee was created an put under the control of a “son of the soil”. Whether the commission succeeded in its mission or not is not our concern for now.

We might not know how much money changed hands or was used to quench the fire. All we can recall and say with confidence is that Yaounde tendered a huge sum of CFA 2billion to lay private schools. Well, that was a step forward, not backward. But how far it took us is still not important here.

When students and pupils maintained their stay away from classes, the central machinery in Yaounde used all sorts of strategies to mask reality and unveil falsehood.

It became a routine on the state broadcaster Crtv that “classes had resumed timidly in West Cameroon”. Till lately, the message was always the same “classes had resumed timidly in West Cameroon.” Why would classes resume and not continue? Everyday resumption and not continuation! That is certainly no skin of our nose.

Later on it was the turn of the General Certificate of Education Board to make a mockery of itself, closing and opening the doors of registration consistently.

And most importantly, everybody is allowed to sit the 2017 GCE examinations: even the unregistered candidates or better still students. Great idea. Why? Because somebody has got caught in their own snare.

 So why not forsake unwillingness and provide “simple solutions to pertinent problems posed by respectful trade-unions and associations” as Fru Ndi recommends in his boycott letter to his followers on 7^th May 2017?