Pan Africanist proposes referendum for Anglophone Cameroonians to decide their faith

Mwalimu George Ngwane, renowned writer and notorious Pan Africanist who is equally a Chevening, common wealth, Rotary and United Nations minority rights fellow in Geneva, Switzerland has in an interview granted to Cameroon Concord proposed that the best solution to the ongoing crisis in Anglophone Cameroon is to conduct a referendum.

The scholar who was recently called up as a member of the adhoc committee headed by Paul Gohgomo opined that while some Anglophones are for independence others are for the institution of a federal government and in a bid to ensure that every one is given the chance to choose among the two, a referendum like that conducted in 1961 when West Cameron became a state should be carried out in Camerroon.

Speaking to Cameroon Concord just before he was called up to the adhoc committee, George Ngwane who is executive director of the Pan African Association, AFRICAphonie and author of over seven books including “The Cameroon condition”, “The Mungo Bridge” and “Settling Dispute in Africa” among others explained that in the near future a referendum could just be the best way as it will help Cameroonians of the English Speaking expression who for over two months now have been on strike to decide their faith.

His words “…now the question is, would most Anglophones prefer a federalist structure or go for an outright independence? But I think the way to either of them can only through a referendum and now it is incumbent of the powers that be or the policy makers to understand that there is a possibility of creating a referendum like it was done in 1961 and 1972 when West Cameroon state was destroyed. Therefore there is a possibility of also doing a referendum in the years ahead for Anglophones to equally decide their future within or without Cameroon”

Commenting on the aching silence of the Etundi resident, which has been on everyone’s lips lately, George Ngwane who aside publishing his own newspaper equally writes and acts as an editor for numerous international magazines and newspapers was categorical that “anyone who is used to President Paul Biya will not be surprised that he is silent but that does not speak well because the more you keep silent the more the issues escalate and I would say that his silent has further radicalized the position of those who were moderate.”

“When I return from the United Nation some weeks ago, one of the items I wrote in one of the papers that its time Biya makes a public statement about the Anglophone problem, something he has never ever done since he became head of state. It is time to address the Anglophone problem as a separate problem that beset Cameroonians”

To him, the consequences of the strike action are deeper that the government thinks and not only will it take Anglophones a long time to bounce back especially as all sectors of the economy is affected but he fears that is nothing is done urgently more havoc will plague the two English speaking regions of Cameroon.