Southern Cameroons

Younde: Cameroon’s Minister of Communication who equally doubles as government’s spoke person, Issa Tchiroma Bakary has admitted that there exist an Anglophone problem in Cameroon.

Even though the Minister who is also the chairman of his National Salvation Front, an opposition political party whose agenda rotates behind securing votes for President Paul Biya’s CPDM party did not equivocally agree to the fact that Anglophones have been grossly marginalized in Cameroon, he timidly admitted the existence of an Anglophone problem.

Speaking recently in a press conference organized in the nation’s political capital, Yaounde, Issa Tchiroma who first served the regime as Minister of Transport before Biya sent him to the Kodengui maximum security prison apologized for earlier stating that “there isn’t an Anglophone Problem” in Cameroon.

Minister Tchiroma who hails from the Northern region of Cameroon together with some Ministers of the Biya government had earlier commented that the problems and claims of marginalization raised by Cameroonians of the South West and North West Regions is not real, stating that the rest of Cameroon’s eight regions all face the same problems.

While admitting that worries by Anglophones about the non-respect of English as one of the official languages in Cameroon remains genuine, he dismissed claims that English speaking Cameroonians have suffered marginalization since joining La Republic du Cameroon in a UN organized plebiscite.

“Allow me to let you know one thing; there is a problem of language especially when it comes to translating because we have many documents which are written in one language while the constitution makes it mandatory to have all official documents published in both languages.” He said adding that “Allow me to say that I am sorry I might have been wrong in my assessment of the situation.”

He said responding to question to pressmen of the broadcast and print media who bothered to attend the press conference.

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25.Jan.2017

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55 years after West Cameroon decided to gain independence by reuniting with the already independent republic du Cameroun, Biya thinks it’s now time to promote the Bilingual and Bi-cultural values of the nation. But the big question Cameroon Concord could not get an answer to is why now? Why wait for 55 years before you decide to put into effect a commission to promote the values that bind Cameroon together?

While others have been quick to embrace the head of states decision to create the commission which will be placed under his supervision and have a total of 15 members, political pundits have simply described the move as a desperate attempt by the president to put an end to the current political atmosphere in the English speaking regions of Cameroon. The announcement that was first aired over the state broadcaster states that the members of the committee will equally be charged with examining complains tabled to them by citizens who are victims to violators of the bi-lingual and bi-cultural nature of the state.

However, President Paul Biya who has being in power since 1982 either deliberately or unknowingly left out the bi-jurial nature of the country which opinion leaders say should have been included in the commission. As if to say the legal department was completely void of any problems it will be good to remind the head of state that the current strike action that has since last year grounded activities in the North West and South West Regions started first with the lawyers strike. It should be noted that this is not the first commission the head of state is creating since the commencement of the Anglophone strike.

The first was an adhoc committee headed by Paul Gogohmo charged with finding a solution to the teacher’s problems. After holding several unfruitful meetings with teacher’s representatives and trade union, Paul Gogohmo dissolved the committee and forwarded an “empty and unsigned” report to through the Prime Minister to the Head of State.

Equally, Garga Harman, national president of Alliance for Democracy and Development, ADD, one of Cameroon’s numerous opposition political parties was charged by the head of state to hold talks with aggrieved Anglophone. But as a newspaper in Cameroon reports, “he went to the dialogue hall empty handed and came back empty handed.”

While it is the hope of many that this commission will not fail like many other that have been put in place by the government, all eyes are now focused to Yaounde where the headquarters of the commission will be based on their first plan of action. Afaire a suivre…

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25.Jan.2017

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Ever since Government banned the Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and the Southern Cameroons National conference, SCNC on Tuesday, January 17  2017, the forces of law and order have been combing every nook and cranny of the Northwest and Southwest Regions in search of “trouble makers”.

The heavy deployment of troops that evokes terror and the fear of the bullet on citizens, lays credence to observers’ claims that the Government has tacitly declared a State of emergency in the two Regions.

In the banning order, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, empowers administrative officials with excessive powers to order for the arrest and detention of anybody who sympathises with the two “illegal” groups.

To the Minister, the SCNC and the CACSC activities are not only contrary to the Constitution, but also liable to jeopardise the security of the State.

He said such activities are an affront to the territorial integrity, national unity and national integration.

“All activities, meetings and demonstrations initiated or promoted by the Southern Cameroon National Council, SCNC, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC, any other related groups with similar objectives or by any partisan to these groups, are hereby prohibited all over the national territory”, partly reads the banning order.

The order further warns that defaulters shall be liable to legal proceedings in conformity with the law and regulation in force.

By virtue of that same order, Regional Governors, Senior Divisional Officers and Divisional Officers have been empowered to execute the decision.

It has given full powers to the administrators, some critics hold, to institute a reign of terror by arbitrarily arresting and detaining citizens.

This means that anybody who sympathises with the marginalisation of Anglophones is in danger.

Thus, advocates for a return to a Federal System of Government must hide in the woods to be able to express their opinions because they are now at the mercy of the police and gendarmerie elements.

Talks between the Anglophone Teachers’ Trade Unions and the Government collapsed last week when the former insisted that the latter should make a concrete statement on the possibility of a return to a Federal System of Government.

The consortium also insisted that they could only call off the strike if the detainees who were arrested in the Northwest and Southwest Regions were released.

The teachers further argued that only a Federal system can guarantee the protection and preservation of the Anglo-Saxon legal and educational system.

Government refused to entertain any talks on the last two points.

The Chair of the Inter-ministerial Adhoc Committee, Prof. Paul Ghogomu Mingo, said the Consortium had a hidden agenda because Federation and the release of the detainees have nothing to do with education.

Both parties, The Post learnt, agreed to continue talks on Wednesday, January 18. But before that day, the Chair of the Committee announced that the talks had ended.

The acerbic tone of Prof. Ghogomu’s communiqué on January 16 was the harbinger of the ban that Government slammed on the Consortium and the SCNC the next day.

“The State will effectively ensure the security of all young school-goers and university students in Cameroon, as it does to all Cameroonians and foreigners living in the country,” partly reads the press release.

This statement was the herald of the ministerial banning order and the consequent arrest of the President and Secretary General of the Anglophone Consortium, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla and Dr. Fontem Neba on Tuesday evening.

The very people that Government was negotiating with to end the ongoing teachers and lawyers’ strike that started in November last year, are now being treated as “terrorists”.

Their main crime is that they presented the release of detainees and Federation as the last conditions for lifting the strike.

In a press conference in Yaounde, shortly before the banning order was announced, the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, said Government will never accept a return to the Federal System.

Hear him: “the Head of State has affirmed without any ambiguity that the Unitary form of the State is intangible and Cameroon is one and indivisible and shall so remain.

There will therefore be neither Federalism nor secession”.

Tchiroma said: “These protesters are now revealing their hidden agenda, which consists of nothing else but questioning the institutions, destroying the bedrock of the nation, its unity, its solidarity and its territorial integrity.

Such people, who are at odds with the values of the nation leave those with whom the people have conferred the legitimacy of the exercise of their sovereignty, with no other choice than restore republican order”.

The Minister claimed that by rejecting calls for a return to Federation, Government was maintaining the path of the founding fathers of reunification who bequeathed a united nation to them.

He said the President of the Republic will not heed any proposal that has to do with changing the form of the State.

To him, President Biya is the guarantor of the aspirations of the Cameroonian people as enshrined in the Constitution.

Before slamming the ban on the Anglophone Consortium and the SCNC, Government had earlier briefed diplomats in Yaounde on the decision.

It was the substance of a meeting the Minister of External Relations, Lejeune Mbella Mbella had with members of the diplomatic community in Yaounde.

During the meeting, the Regional Representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, said the right to strike should not impede the right to attend school.

Contrary to earlier claims, Felix Loiteohin Ye said it is only the Government of a country that can declare a blank year and not UNESCO. Government used the occasion to attract the sympathy of the diplomats through a video projection that showed the magnitude of the violence in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. 

In its advocacy campaign for banning SCNC and the Consortium, the Government selected video projectors that showed them how angry youths were chasing away students in the Francophone school in Limbe.

Besides banning the two outfits, the Government also cut internet lines in the Northwest and Southwest to stop youths from interpersonal communication and information sharing on social media.

Thus, these two Regions are cut off from the rest of the country internet-wise. From the look of things, Government is now on the war path. The economic impact of the repressive act is enormous.

Banks and other business enterprises that use the internet to operate are all grounded as they are unable to serve their customers.

Some mobile telephone companies sent messages to their customers saying they are unable to provide internet services due to reasons beyond their control.

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Rita Akana

25.Jan.2017

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Anglophone consortium warns that every West Cameroonian who joins this dubious MTN Whatsapp group is doing so at his or her own maximum security risk. It is allegedly a ploy by the gangster regime to further spy on English-speaking citizens, hack into their phones, and tap their calls.

There is a message going round from MTN asking their clients to add them on whatsapp. At this stage we can't trust MTN or any other mobile operators. These are ways to spy on you. We can't just trust them. Please don't add and stay clear.

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Rita Akana

24.Jan.2017

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