Southern Cameroons: Ahidjo’s Forceful Takeover

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.