The leaders of La Republique du Cameroun and their overseas supporters should know that to obey the Catholic Bishops that are servants of Jesus Christ in The British Southern Cameroons aka Ambazonia is to obey God, and that is joy and peace all of us pray for. If we do not fall into this category then we are desperadoes. Are we?
The relationship of The British Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroons in Western Africa has taken a dangerous twist. It is now a thorny relationship that must be severed willy-nilly, no matter how long it will take to be done, wherever and whenever. It should not be prolonged if irreparable harm is to be avoided. All peace-loving persons have to support the helpless citizens of the British Southern Cameroons, particularly Her Britannic Majesty's Government that laid the foundation of this state to revert to its former political independent status of 1961. When a supposed Christian head of state Mr. Paul Biya, a dictator for 35 years refuses to adhere to the pleas of Catholic Bishops of The British Southern Cameroons to withdraw his troops from that the Southern Cameroons that wants to revert to its former independent status of 1961, what are the explanations? When this president sends his army to shoot to kill, teargases and arrests and imprisons unarmed peaceful Southern Cameroons demonstrators what are the explanation in the 21st century? It is barbaric and unnecessary in the 21st century for a country aspiring to be developed in 2035.
Paul Biya's career took a different turn. Initially, Biya had wanted to become a Catholic priest before changing his mind to pursue jurisprudence. God just told him that to be 'fishers of men', one did not necessarily have to wear a long cassock and do theology in seminaries. One could be a lawyer and a pastor, a head of state and a pastor. We all saw the exemplary works of Mahatma Gandhi who did a law degree in England, and we all witness the Christian work of President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. These men did not become corrupt because they had been catapulted to be leaders. These men believed in sacrificing their lives for the welfare and peace in their countries. They used their heads and never ever encouraged the use of force. So were our Brother Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others. They won and their names are magnetic and do not repulsive as those of dictators as Paul Biya, Mubutu Sese Seko, Franco and many more. They never became hypocrites as Paul Biya.
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| Students at the Buea University are pulled out of their dormitories in the British Southern Cameroons, beaten and forced to lie down in raw sewage and mud by the armed forces of La Republique du Cameroun in November 2016. To them, any peaceful demonstration is a punishable transgression. |
Biya is now a hypocrite for he sends his soldiers to shoot peaceful demonstrators of The British Southern Cameroons, rape Southern Cameroons students, torture others and falsely tells the world that the British Southern Cameroons belongs to his country, La Republique du Cameroun. He and his country have no shred of evidence to prove this.
The soldiers he sends to shoot and rape children bear Christian names. They should not obey their commander-in-chief to commit unpardonable sins because they are in the army. If you are ordered to commit sins do you do it when you know that it is wrong because you want to obey a corrupt pagan leader? One better resigns from one's army that to shoot a civilian in the back for demonstrating. A demonstration is not transgression. Is it?
The soldiers should know that they have children too and that after Paul Biya, La Republique du Cameroun will coexist side by side with the British Southern Cameroons - Ambazonia. They are being fooled to fight to get Southern Cameroons resources and that is stealing. As Christians, they have to confess when they steal and kill their fellow human beings as they are against the Commandment of God. These are not entertained by any democratic government on earth or any sensible and free-thinking person on earth or in the universe. If your false leader sends you to commit heinous crimes to sustain his lavish lifestyle and you knowingly do that, you are a sinner. They who commit the heinous crimes of killing, raping and stealing for their earthly god cannot be forgiven unless they confess and return the stolen properties back to their rightful owners. Then should you commit crimes with your free will because you will confess? Has one ever lied to God? Should such sinners recite Our Lord's prayer?.
By the president of La Republique du Cameroun barefacedly committing of sins, he does not show his allegiance to the Catholic Church's faith. Could he the world that he is a Catholic Christian and defend his Catholic faith? Meet with the Holy Father in Rome and receive his blessing for imprisoning, killing, and torturing Southern Cameroonians (Ambazonians) for refusing to remain perpetually as slaves under his regime when they have their own country? In the old days, he should have been excommunicated. It could still be done today by Pope Francis. A president does not become intoxicated by his power to the extent of killing his neighbors and expect to be supported by the Bishop of Rome and Catholics around the world. Will the today's leaders of the church tell us that one should not be the judge of a sinner? Hmmm. We should not be a judge of a Nazi after killing innocent Jews? We should not be a judge of the Hutus going on the rampage and killing the Tutsis so as to be good citizens of the world? Should seal our mouths and not point our the evil of our leaders so as to be good citizens?
Biya was the first to rush to the high altar to receive the Holy Communion from the hands of St. John Paul II and Bishop Benedict IV when these Bishops of Rome visited La Republique du Cameroun. What a sacrilege! People got to know that God who created us is the genius of geniuses and you cannot fool Him by praying like Pharisees and expecting St. Peter to open the doors of Heaven for you. Unless I am reading the devil's bible, you cannot commit sins and bath in Jesus Christ's blood and expect to be forgiven for your transgressions.
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| President Paul Biya who is responsible for the killing of Southern Cameroons because he and his foreign entourage are after their oil, gold, iron and other natural resources. When you love some one you do not kill him or her to take over his oil. |
Today Biya has sent maddened men to shoot unarmed civilians of The British Southern Cameroons demonstrating fro their right to their political independence. His army has flooded the streets of Bamenda, Buea, Kumbo, Victoria, Kumba, Wum, Mamfe and other towns in British Southern Cameroons to ensure that there are no more demonstrations and the people remain under his draconian rule. Sadly the arms President Barack Obama of the USA gave to Biya to fight Boko Haram are now turned against the citizens of Southern Cameroons. Could President Donald Trump and his able entourage address this and give Paul Biya an ultimatum to withdraw his troops from The Southern Cameroons. Biya's ministers call Ambazonians enemies. How do you explain this? Southern Cameroonians (Ambazonians) do not rape and kill Camerounians, nor do they steal from them and cannot be vilified as enemies. Instead, Biya and his entourage are enemies of the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia). They have invaded The Southern Cameroons, committed and still commit all sorts of heinous atrocities.
A Christian does not kill his brother or sister or wife; a Christian does not put his neighbors in harm's way. A Christian does not steal from his neighbor. A Christians do not send his body guards to rape daughters of his neighbors and rush to receive consecrated Holy Communion and receive God's blessings. A Christian does not loot from his neighboring country with impunity to sustain his epicurean lifestyle and when being denied this callous acts, he turns to kill them and cry wolf. A Christian president will not impoverish another country so as to make it depend on him for basic necessities when it is producing oil, gold, green gold, and agricultural produce. A person who does these is not a Christian or believer but a devil incarnate. Having said these, God is ever forgiving. Biya and his senseless supporters could be forgiven if they repent and return the stolen properties to the British Southern Cameroons and get out o f there immediately. It is not part of La Republique du Cameroun and does not aspire to be now or in the near the future. Those are the right things to be done for peace in the region now and in the future.
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| President Paul Biya of La Republique du Cameroun has been ruling the country single-handed for the last 35 years. Compare this with the image above. "There is no art to find a man's construction on his face," William Shakespeare. How a good-looking man turns to be a tyrant in the dawn of his life is puzzling beyond words! Biya some 40 years ago. |
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| The price people pay for demonstrating peacefully and for asking for aliens to leave them and their country the Southern Cameroons / Ambazonia alone. In a crowded prison not even fit for slaves. Many are dying here. Temperatures go above 100 Fahrenheit. Where are the French who are the friends of this president? |
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| The Southern Cameroons is located to the East of Nigeria, north of the Equatorial Guinea Republic and west of La Republic du Cameroun. His Excellency Antonio Gutteres, Secretary General of the UNO, would you sit complaisantly and watch Portuguese citizens maltreated as in these pictures yet call yourself a leader simply because they want their political independence back? |
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| He is shot with others for demonstrating to have his country's independence back. There is no ambulance to take his shattered body to the mortuary. President Paul Biya responsible for this still receives Holy Communion in the Catholic Church and meets the Holy Fathers at Rome. This is his love for his brother and sister according to his book of the devil. Yet this president wants to bribe blacklegs of the Southern Cameroons to support him. Look at the fear in the eyes of these helpless students, they feel the same pains like you. They are all of God's image like you. |
The world is now seeing the meaning of dictatorship from a man who would have been a Catholic priest. Dictatorship is the worst sort of government that is crippling industrial and economic developments in most third world countries and La Republique du Cameroun and the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) are some of them. It would be seen that all the mayhem in the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa above all stem from dictatorial governments, often sadly supported by some development countries. When streams of refugees are oozing out to Europe and America before they turn their eyes to look. It should not be so. The evil that generates this calamity could be halted when leaders of these countries turn to be autocratic. Where there is genuine democracy, no one person rules ad infinitum. Where there is a democracy no one man kills his neighbors, journalists, the oppositions so as to remain in power forever. No one person is allowed to be head of state for 35 years as this man on the assumption that he is a divine head of state. No matter how good his befuddled citizens believe in him, things are bound to go wrong that cannot be corrected. They are further prostituted by some developed nations that benefit enormously from the folly of the people and their glorified heads of state. We are witnesses to Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Angola, and what was called Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo under Mobutu. No one learns but is ready to gamble after having seen what happened to his predecessors. Why?
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| Demonstrators at the impoverished City of Bamenda, The British Southern Cameroons aka Ambazonia his trooped had been occupying since 1964. |
Read for yourself what we have appended for the world to read. Tell your governments wherever your domicile in the world to personally tell Paul Biya, the head of state of the Cameroun Republic in West Africa to withdraw his troops from The British Southern Cameroons aka Ambazonia that shares border with his country. They should release the Southern Cameroons leaders of the Consortium and those arrested because they were demonstrating, journalists, and elites languishing in their appalling prisons. The plea to the UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION is to send in their troops to a transitional government of the Southern Cameroons towards their restoration of their political independence. The UNO should be reminded that their Resolution 1608 (para. 5) was never ever implemented and the misadventure inversion of the Cameroon Republic in the Southern Cameroons to loot its natural resources is in international law illegal.
The thorny relationship must be severed today and not tomorrow, hither and not thither. He should know that to obey the Bishops of God is to obey God and it is joy and peace all of us pray for. He should be reminded when he meets the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis that heaven is not on earth and that the voice of the people is the voice of God. Withdrawing his troops is the right thing to do now and not tomorrow. Let this gesture, we are certain France, the country that stands by this awful man will endorse, be that new year wish to The British Southern Cameroons and not defiance. President Biya, of what good is the whole world to one when one loses one's, soul? You must know that the cry of people of The British Southern Cameroons aka Ambazonia is the plea from God.
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| Citizens of the British Southern Cameroons arrested for demonstration at Wum County. The Southern Cameroons is perhaps the only country in the world where peaceful demonstrations are interpreted as transgressions. Second class citizens are treated like slaves in the 21st century. |
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| At home and in the diaspora, Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) citizens demonstrate. They want their political independence back. They want the Republic of Cameroun out of their country. They want freedom like you. |
BAMENDA PROVINCIAL EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE [BAPEC]
THE SECRETARIAT
ARCHBISHOP’S HOUSE
P.O. BOX 82, BAMENDA
NORTH WEST REGION
C A M E R O O N
BAPEC/PRES/2016/30 22 December 2016
[Read the grievances too]
MEMORANDUM PRESENTED TO THE HEAD OF STATE, HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT PAUL BIYA, BY THE BISHOPS OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PROVINCE OF BAMENDA ON THE CURRENT SITUATION OF UNREST IN THE NORTHWEST AND SOUTHWEST REGIONS OF CAMEROON
Your Excellency,
For almost one month now there has been a series of unrests and violence in some towns of the Northwest and Southwest Regions(1) of Cameroon occasioned by the strike of the Anglophone Lawyers and of the Teachers’ Trade Unions of the English Sub-system of Education. These have led to the loss of human life andto the destruction of property of some of our citizens. There have been flagrant abuses of human rights, as demonstrated by credible eyewitness accounts and by pictures on local television channels and social media. This has led to a premature end to the first term of the school year and paralysed the court system in these regions to the detriment of school children, students, parents and the administration of justice. At the moment, it seems that the government and the striking groups have reached an impasse and it is not likely that the schools are going to open even when the second term begins for the rest of the country. These unrests are symptomatic of a deeper unease among the inhabitants of this geographical circumscription of our nation.
We, the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, which is coterminous with the Northwest and Southwest Regions, where we hold responsibility as Shepherds, cannot remain indifferent to this situation. The Church,in this season, celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. She has as mandate to proclaim the message of peace (Luke 10:5; Matthew 5:9), and has always stood for justice and peace, and worked for the attainment of the common good of society.Because of her role and competence, the Church is not identified in any way with the political community nor bound to any political system(2). This places her in a uniquely privileged position to provide a balanced perspective on the current problem between the government of Cameroon and the population of significant segments of the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon. It is for this reason that we have presumed to seize the moment and to make the following submission, with a view to assisting the government to seek a lasting solution to this problem and enable its citizens to live in peace and harmony.
Historical Background of the Problem
Most of the territory known today as the Republic of Cameroon was a German protectorate from 1884. However, German Kamerun also included British Northern Cameroons, which elected to become part of Nigeria in the plebiscite of 1961. This protectorate was divided into British and French Cameroons in 1916 and confirmed, with some slight modifications, by the Milner-Simon Agreement of 10 July 1919. British Cameroons, which was comprised of Northern and Southern Cameroons, was one fifth and French Cameroun was four-fifths of the entire territory. They were Class B Mandated Territories of the League of Nationsuntil 1946 when they became United Nations Trust Territories.
British Cameroons and French Cameroun were separate legal and political entities and historians have postulated that although this partition was said to be temporary Britain and France instituted two different administrative styles and systems which were to impact on any subsequent movement towards eradicating the provisional nature of the partition and facilitating reunification.(3) After the Second World War, the United Nations (Article 76, b) explicitly called on the British and French to administer their respective spheres of Cameroon towards self-government. It called on the Administering Authorities to “promote the political, economic, social and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the Trust Territories, and theirprogressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples…”
Before the London Constitutional Conferences of 1957 and 1958, three political options had emerged in British Southern Cameroons, namely independence as a separate political entity, independence in association with Nigeria, and independence by reuniting with French Cameroun. The Mamfe Conference of August 1959, which was called to hammer out consensus among Southern Cameroonians on one of the options, did not succeed to arrive at a consensus. The three political options persisted, with the most popular being independence as a separate political entity, the next being association with Nigeria and the least popular being reunification with French Cameroun.
Paradoxically, the UN General Assembly Resolution 1352 (xiv) on the British Cameroons’ Plebiscite of 1961, clearly ruled out the separate independence of Southern Cameroons(4), the most popular of the three options. This was thanks to the British who tactfully blocked every chance of the Southern Cameroonians voting for independence as a separate entity, convincing the United Nations that Southern Cameroon was not economically viable and could only survive by leaning on Nigeria or the Republic of Cameroon, and recklessly steering the Mamfe All Party Conference of August 1959 to ensure that the parties did not achieve consensus(5). In fact, the British wanted Southern Cameroons to gain independence in association with Nigeria. Consequently, the two questions adopted for the plebiscite were:
1. Do you wish to achieve independence by joining the independent Federation of Nigeria?
OR
2. Do you wish to achieve independence by joining the independent Republic of Cameroun?
Southern Cameroonians were apprehensive of this move and put pressure on John Ngu Foncha to lead a delegation to London in November 1960 to include the option of independence as a separate political entity. The request was rejected. Nevertheless, according to United Nations Resolution 1541(XV) Principles VII and VIII, Southern Cameroons was qualified to achieve independence either through association or integration which “should be on the basis of complete equality between the peoples of the erstwhile Non-Self-Governing Territory and those of the independent country with which it is integrated. The peoples of both territories should have equal status and rights”. It was with this understanding that on the 11th of February 1961 British Southern Cameroons voted to join French Cameroun while British Northern Cameroons voted to join the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Foumban Conference of 17th- 21st July 1961 agreed broadly what the “marriage” between the two Cameroons was going to look like. The Yaoundé Tripartite Conference of 2nd-7th August 1961 put this agreement in legal form. Worthy of note here is the fact that the draft 1961 Constitution was never presented to the Southern Cameroons House of Chiefs (SCHC) and the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly(SCHA) for deliberation and approval as should have been the case. Further, it was signed by President Ahidjo on the 1stof September 1961 as President of the Republic of Cameroon when the Federal Republic of Cameroon had not yet come into existence. Be it as it may, the two territories came together in this union as a Federation of East Cameroon and West Cameroon (1961 Constitution, Article 1-1).(6)
In September 1966, all the political parties went into dissolution to form one party in the Federal Republic of Cameroon (the Cameroon National Union), giving birth to one party rule. In 1968, Honourable Solomon Tandeng Muna was appointed to replace Honourable Augustine Ngom Jua without the required Parliamentary endorsement and in contravention of the law which did not permit Muna to handle the posts of Federal Vice President and Prime Minister of the State of West Cameroon concomitantly. Southern Cameroonians saw these moves as dictatorial and undemocratic. They had come from a multi-party democratic society where free debate, alliances, consensus, and respect for the Constitution were the accepted modus operandi.
Referendum of 20th May 1972
While West Cameroonians were still bracing themselves for life in a political dispensation which they regarded as imposed on them by circumstances beyond their control and struggling to cope with the manoeuvres of President Ahmadou Ahidjo, he proposed a Constitution that would make the Federal Republic a unitary state, the United Republic of Cameroon. As we all know, in those days it was politically unwise and even unsafe to hold and express views different from those of the President on any issue, and so there was no public debate on the constitution. This constitution was voted on in a national referendum organized and conducted by the Cameroon National Union (CNU), by now the sole political party in the Republic. The results show that the overwhelming majority of the electors in East and West Cameroon voted in favour of a unitary state. Looking back at what happened, many Anglophone Cameroonians now believe that this was the high-water mark of Ahidjo’s deceit and manipulation of West Cameroonians, and some have linked the birth of separatist movements in Anglophone Cameroon to this referendum.
Subsequent Constitutional Amendments
Three years later, the Constitution was amended to include the post of Prime Minister, appointed by the President. Following another amendment in 1979 the Prime Minister would be the constitutional successor of the President of the Republic.In 1984, a constitutional amendment changed the country’s name from the United Republic of Cameroon to the Republic of Cameroon. In the eyes of West Cameroonians, Law No 84-1 of 4 February 1984, was incontrovertible evidence that the original intentions of our Francophone brothers and sisters were to absorb Southern Cameroon and not to treat with it as equals. After thirty-threeyears of union, we had all ended up as citizens of the Republic of Cameroon or East Cameroon.
The Anglophone Problem
It should be clear, from the brief historical sketch presented above, what the crux of the so-called Anglophone Problem is. No matter what some self-appointed elite and spokespersons for Anglophone Cameroonians as well as government Ministers say in public, the participation of various strata of the population and the growing popularity of separatist movements among young and older members of the Anglophone community demonstrates that there is an Anglophone Problem. There is a consciousness among Anglophone Cameroonians that all is not well and something needs to be done about their plight.
What it is
The Anglophone Problem is:
i. The failure of successive governments of Cameroon, since 1961, to respect and implement the articles of the Constitution that uphold and safeguard what British Southern Cameroons brought along to the Union in 1961.
ii. The flagrant disregard for the Constitution, demonstrated by the dissolution of political parties and the formation of one political party in 1966, the sacking of Jua and the appointment of Muna in 1968 as the Prime Minister of West Cameroon, and other such acts judged by West Cameroonians to be unconstitutional and undemocratic
iii. The cavalier management of the 1972 Referendum which took out the foundational element (Federalism) of the 1961 Constitution.
iv. The 1984 Law amending the Constitution, which gave the country the original East Cameroon name (The Republic of Cameroon) and thereby erased the identity of the West Cameroonians from the original union. West Cameroon, which had entered the union as an equal partner, effectively ceased to exist.
v. The deliberate and systematic erosion of the West Cameroon cultural identity which the 1961 Constitution sought to preserve and protect by providing for a bi-cultural federation.
The Management of the Anglophone Problem
It is our conviction that the Anglophone Problem would have been solved, or at least mitigated, if it had been well managed by those concerned. A lack of proper management seems to be what has aggravated the problem.
The Government and Government Ministers
It is unfortunate to note that the government of Cameroon seems to have made every attempt to downplay or even deny the existence of an Anglophone Problem. Government Ministers (even those of former West Cameroon extraction) have denied the existence of any such problem in the media and in public speeches. Furthermore, it is widely believed in Anglophone Cameroon that government has consciously created divisions among the English-speaking elite, remunerating some allies with prestigious positions in the state apparatus previously reserved for Francophones only, and repressing all actions designed to improve on the status of Anglophone Cameroonians in the union. This seems to have been proven true in the recent unrests by the utterances of government Ministers in the Press Conference on CRTV, in the dispatch of an Anglophone Elite delegation to the Northwest Region, and in the brutal suppression of protests by certain professional groups and sections of the Northwest and Southwest Regions.
Secessionist Groups
In the face of this denial of the existence of an Anglophone Problem by government and the consequent deafening silence from the government to the cries and protests of Anglophone Cameroonians, certain groups have emerged in Anglophone Cameroon that call for the secession of Anglophone from Francophone Cameroon. The Southern Cameroons Youth League, the Southern Cameroons National Council, and the Ambazonia Movement are some of the most strident of these groups and are currently members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) in The Hague.
Federalists
There are different forms of federalism, and federalists in Anglophone Cameroon will differ as to the specific nature of the federal state they would want. However, they are all agreed that they do require a federation which recognises and preserves the region’s peculiarity, as did the 1961 Federal Constitution.
Unitarists
Successive amendments to the Constitution up to and including the Amendments of 1996 insist on the fact that Cameroon is one and indivisible (Article 1-2, 1996). Cameroon is described as a decentralised unitary state. Unitarists believe that everything must be done to avoid federalism or secession. However, even the decentralisation announced by the 1996 Constitution has not been implemented, and government and administration have been highly centralised.
Symptoms of Discontent
What some people mistake for the Anglophone Problem are just symptoms pointing to the fact that an overwhelming majority of Anglophone Cameroonians are not happy in the union which they entered with East Cameroon in 1961. They have complained against widespread and systematic marginalisation in various areas of public life which point to the existence of a huge problem. Some of these symptoms include the following:
Marginalisation in Human Resource Development and Deployment
i. Anglophone Cameroonians have complained about the fact that National Entrance Examinations into Schools that develop the human resources of this country are set per the French Subsystem of Education which makes it very difficult for Anglophones and Francophones to compete on a level playing field. Majority of the membership of these Examination Boards are Francophone so that the interests of Anglophone candidates are hardly, if ever, protected.
ii. Out of the five Ministries concerned with Education, which is the means of the transmission of culture, none of the Minsters is Anglophone and none even qualifies to be a deputy or Secretary of State. This gives the impression of a calculated attempt to kill Anglophone culture.
iii. In human resource deployment, there is a gaping inequality in the distribution of posts of responsibility between Anglophones and Francophones. Of the 36 Ministers who defended the budgets for the Ministries last month, only one was Anglophone. In addition, there seem to be key ministries that have been reserved for Francophone Ministers only and Anglophones do not even qualify to be Secretaries of State under them. These include, but are not limited to, Defence, Finance, Territorial Administration, and Economy.
iv. In the 1961 Constitution, the Vice President was the second most important personality in state protocol. Today, the Prime Minister (appointed Anglophone) is the fourth most important person in State Protocol, after the President of the Senate and the President of the National Assembly. Even so, Anglophone Cameroonians believe that he wields no real authority and, like was the case with J.N. Foncha as First National Vice President of the CPDM, finds it “impossible to use [his] exalted position to help in any way shape or influence the policies of the party and nation.”(7) There are clearly Francophone ministers who wield more power than he does. This seems to have been proven true in the last Teachers’ strike. When the Prime Minister was in Bamenda negotiating with the Teachers’ Union Leaders, a group of Francophone Ministers were giving a Press Conference in Yaoundé on the same issue, giving the impression that the negotiations of the PM in Bamenda were of no consequence.
The Treatment of the English Language
There have been widespread protests about the way the English Language has been treated in the public life of the nation.
i. State institutions produce documents and public notices in French, with no English translation, and expect English speaking Cameroonians to read and understand them.
ii. National Entrance Examinations into some professional schools are set in French only and Anglophone candidates are expected to answer them. Sometimes this happens even in the English-speaking regions.
iii. Visitors and clients to government offices are expected to express themselves in French, even in the English-speaking regions, since most of the bosses in the offices speak French and make no effort to speak English.
iv. Most Senior Administrators and members of the Forces of Law and Order in the Northwest and Southwest Regions are French-speaking and make no effort to understand the cultures and customs of the people they are appointed to govern.
v. Members of Inspection Teams, Missions and Facilitators for Seminars sent from the Ministries in Yaoundé to the English-speaking Regions are generally predominantly French speaking, and expect to be understood by audiences which are predominantly English speaking.
vi. The Military Tribunals in the Northwest and Southwest Regions are basically French courts.
vii. Basic Finance documents which businesses and other institutions are expected to work with are all in French. Examples include the COBAC Code, the CIMA Code and the OHADA Code.
The Flooding of Anglophone Cameroon with Francophone Administrators and Workers
Apart from the fact that Ministers, Directors General, Heads of Parastatals, Senior Divisional Officers, Heads of Law Enforcement Institutions, etc. are disproportionately Francophone, there seems to have been a conscious effort made to flood the Northwest and Southwest Regions with Francophone Heads of Service.
i. The Magistrates in these Regions are disproportionately Francophone. So are the Senior Divisional Officers, the Divisional Officers, Commissioners, and Commandants. In the educational sectors, there are increasingly Francophone principals posted to Anglophone schools. Personnel in Hospitals, Banks and Mobile Telephone Companies (even those which originate from Anglophone countries), are predominantly Francophone. And this extends to even non-expert workers in petrol stations.
ii. The situation is aggravated by the fact that these Francophone administrators are often overbearing, very arrogant and treat people as if they were second-class citizens, and have no iota of respect for the dignity of the human person.
Mismanagement of ‘West Cameroon’ Patrimony
Apart from neglect of infrastructure in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon and the mismanagement and ruin of buoyant companies like Cameroon Bank, West Cameroon Marketing Board, WADA in Wum, West Cameroon Cooperative Movement, etc., oil revenues are alleged to be used by those in power to feed ‘the bellies’ of their allies, and to stimulate the economy in other regions. In addition, there is also great anxiety in Anglophone Cameroon that its major agro-industrial enterprises, especially the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) and Plantations Pamol du Cameroun Ltd (Pamol), are sold or their headquarters moved elsewhere.
The ‘Francophonisation’ of the English Educational Subsystem and the Common-Law System
The flooding of state Anglophone educational and legal institutions with French-trained and French speaking Cameroonians who understand neither our educational subsystem nor the English Common Law undermines Anglophone education and legal heritage and subverts the original intentions of the founders of the nation to build a bi-cultural nation, respecting the specificity of each region. This is the cause of the current strikes by common law lawyers and teachers.
Admissions into State Professional Schools
The exclusion of qualified Anglophones in admissions into state professional schools (especially Schools of Administration, Medicine and Medical Sciences and Higher Teacher Training) even in the Anglophone Regions is a glaring example of marginalisation which the Teachers Unions cited.
These, and many others, have led to the unease and discomfort of the people of the Northwest and Southwest Regions. They perceived this marginalisation as institutionalised as they have been labelled “Biafrans”, “enemies in the house” and “traitors” by highly placed government officials and ministers who were never reprimanded for doing so.
Gradual Erosion of Anglophone Identity
There has been a misleading argument from some quarters where some have argued that an Anglophone is anyone who can speak English, as a way of countering Anglophone Cameroonians who protest the issues we have enumerated above. It might be helpful, for the purposes of our presentation and future discourse, to note here that ‘Anglophonism’ goes beyond the mere ability to speak or understand the English language. It speaks to a core of values, beliefs, customs, and ways of relating to the other inherited from the British who ruled this region from 1916 to 1961. ‘Anglophonism’ is a culture, a way of being which cannot be transmitted by merely learning a language. In fact, as Dr. Anthony Ndi intimates, Southern Cameroonians had “a distinctive outlook and way of life that went further than the mere fact that the educated ones among them spoke the English Language or a version of it. So, therefore, language could not even be the qualifying factor”.(8) This Anglophone identity is the reason most Southern Cameroonians who voted to join the Republic of Cameroon in 1961 did so. It was to preserve their cultural identity as a distinct people.
Anglophone Cameroonians are slowly being asphyxiated as every element of their culture is systematically targeted and absorbed into the Francophone Cameroon culture and way of doing things. These include the language, the educational system, the system of administration and governance (where appointed leaders are sent to lord it over people who cherish elected leaders), the legal system, and a transparent democratic process where elected leaders are answerable to the electorate who put them there in the first place.
Anglophone Cameroonians have seen through this and are raising their voices in protest. The two All Anglophone Conferences (AAC I and II) of the early 1990s, the rise and popularity of the SCNC and other secessionist voices are born of the frustration of Anglophone Cameroonians of being ignored and ridiculed for asking for what they deem to be theirs by right, namely the preservation of their culture. You would remember that, in his resignation letter from the post of first Vice President of the CPDM on the 9th of June 1990, J.N. Foncha cited in point 9 of the letter, as a reason for resigning, the fact that the constitution was “in many respects being ignored and manipulated”.
A Natural Reaction
The reaction of Anglophone Cameroonians to preserve their culture can only be described as ‘natural’. Is it any surprise that the first Opposition party that forced the door open for multi-partyism in Cameroon, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), came from Anglophone Cameroon? Following the formation of the party, the architect who brought Southern Cameroonians into the union with the Republic of Cameroon, John Ngu Foncha, resigned in disillusionment as the First Vice-President of the CPDM. He explained:
The Anglophone Cameroonians whom I brought into the union have been ridiculed and referred to as ‘les Biafrians’, ‘les ennemies dans la maison’, ‘les traitres’ etc., and the constitutional provisions which protected this Anglophone minority have been suppressed, their voice drowned while the rule of the gun replaced the dialogue which the Anglophones cherish very much.(9)
This is not to say that we do not see the other side of the argument. In any polity formed bytwo or more ethnic, cultural, religious, or linguistic groups, there is bound to be a majority versus minority problem. In any such situation, the wise thing to do would be to make constitutional provisions which would protect and safeguard the existence and rights of the minority, rather than trample on them. The Church teaches that “not even the majority of a social body may violate these rights, by going against the minority, by isolating, oppressing, or exploiting it, or by attempting to annihilate it.”(10) Cameroon prides itself as a state of law. In this area, she is at one with the Church which teaches that society should be organised on the principle of the “rule of law”. This is the principle “in which the law is sovereign, and not the arbitrary will of individuals”(11) So, apart from the plethora of issues which enhance Anglophone disaffection with the union, there is the additional problem that they are a minority in that union.
Proposed Way Forward
It is not for us to dictate to the Cameroonian people what form the government of this countryshould take or what solutions should be provided for the problems we have highlighted. The Church respects the legitimate autonomy of the democratic order and is not entitled to express preferences for this or that institutional or constitutional solution. Her contribution to the political order is precisely her vision of the dignity of the person revealed in all its fullness in the mystery of the Incarnate Word(12). That notwithstanding, we feel obliged in conscience as the religious and moral leaders in this part of the country, who exercise care over a people who are hurting, to propose the following lines of action which, hopefully, should lead to peace and harmony among our people.
Honesty in the face of the Anglophone Problem
One of the most disingenuous things any enlightened Cameroonian, talk less of educated Cameroonian of Anglophone upbringing, can do is to deny that there is an Anglophone Problem. If former French President, Jacques Chirac, the Commonwealth, the European Union, and many others have recognised that there is an Anglophone Problem and advised that the government of Cameroon and the discontented Anglophones engage in dialogue, how can Cameroonians deny that there is a problem? To play the ostrich and bury our heads in the sand is to sow disaster for the future of the nation we all love. It is to give way to extremist tendencies in the Anglophone community born of frustration at not being listened to or understood. Is it possible that the government has not heard the cries of distress of the All Anglophone Conferences which represented a broad base of Anglophone Cameroonians? Is it possible that the government has not heard the Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA), the Common-Law Lawyers, the Teachers’ Trade Unions, Students, and others who are not only uncomfortable but are choking under the present dispensation?
Is it possible for us to look this beast in the eye, confront it together and overcome it for the sake of peace and unity in our country? The government’s continued denial of any Anglophone Problem, and its determination to defend the unitary state by all available means, including repression, could lead to an escalation of Anglophone demands past a point of no return, and this is not something any responsible citizen would wish for their country.
The All Anglophone Conferences (AAC) of 1993 and 1994
In May1993, the 65-member Anglophone Standing Committee established by the AAC submitted a draft constitution which would provide for major political, financial, and fiscal autonomy for the two federated states, for the provinces inside both, and for the communities inside each province. Theyproposed the usual separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judiciary, and a senate and national assembly for each federated state, as well as a rotating presidency for the Federal Republic, whereby after at most two consecutive mandates of five years an Anglophone would succeed a Francophone (or vice versa). This proposal was even reiterated for each of the federated states to ensure alternation between the provinces. This would be for us a lasting solution to the irksome Anglophone Problem, and would be acceptable to the majority of Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians.
The Implementation of the 1996 Constitution
We know there is never a perfect constitution and that is the reason why constitutions are amended to make them responsive to changes in time and situation. The 1996 Constitution, even though some have had issues with sections of it, is good enough as an immediate remedy for the ‘woes’ Anglophones are listing and which make life together in this nation burdensome to them. As the second-best option, we recommend an urgent and immediate implementation of the 1996 Constitution. We recommend that all the institutions created by that constitution be put in place, and that those put in place be empowered with persons charged with rendering them functional. This would include the Regions, the Senate and, by extension, the constitutional council, administrative courts, the minor courts of accounting/auditing. It is important for Cameroonians, especially those who seek protection under the ‘rule of law’ and of the Constitution, to know that the constitution has really been deployed as a means of regulating the political process in Cameroon. It is our firm belief that if this is done immediately, it would satisfy the majority of Anglophone Cameroonians and silence the calls for secession which have characterized this period of unrest.
Constructive Dialogue and the Establishment of a Roadmap
In the short term and, because the Lawyers and Teachers Strikes have paralysed our legal and school systems, it is imperative for the government to dialogue with the Lawyers and Teachers as soon as possible and agree a possible roadmap regarding their legitimate and genuine demands. We cannot solve a problem if we are unwilling to talk to each other. In the spirit of the African family, we would expect the father of the family to find out from a hurting (even if errant) child what the problem is and what they can do to alleviate their pain and suffering. There are a good number of the problems raised by our lawyers and teachers which can be solved now and there are others which can be solved later, but we need to agree a roadmap and respect it. This will enable the Teachers’ Unions to call off the strike and permit our children, who have already lost four weeks of schooling, to return to school. Indeed, openness to dialogue and to cooperation is required of all people of good will, and in particular of individuals and groups with specific responsibilities in the areas of politics, economics and social life, at both the national and international levels(13).
Respect for Human Rights
While it is the duty of administrative and law enforcement officers to maintain peace and order in their areas of jurisdiction, many of them have been unnecessarily overbearing and arrogant. Issuing orders and threats for teachers to return to school, for instance, is not the way to solve their problem. Further, the current unrests have shown up a very ugly and embarrassing side of our administrators and the forces of law and order. Without any provocation from the lawyers or students at the University of Buea (who carried placards saying ‘No to Violence’ and raised their hands in the air), the forces of law and order brutalized some of them so badly and so inhumanely that seeing the pictures one would have thought they came from the Stone Age. It was shameful to see law enforcement officers drag female students in the mud, spray students’ rooms with tear-gas and contaminated water, and then lock some up for days just for exercising a basic human right to make their voices heard in a peaceful manner.
The Church teaches that
“A just society can become a reality only when it is based on the respect of the transcendent dignity of the human person... Every political, economic, social, scientific, and cultural programme must be inspired by the awareness of the primacy of each human being over society... For this reason, neither his life nor the development of his thought, nor his good, nor those who are part of his personal and social activities can be subjected to unjust restrictions in the exercise of their rights and freedom.”(14)
Our administrators and the forces of law and order need to be called to order. In the exercise of their duties for the common good of all citizens, they must never trample on the rights of those citizens and deal out subhuman treatment to them. Such behaviour contravenes the law and provides a seedbed for deep resentment which later manifests itself in very ugly ways.
It is in light of this that we propose that the government should immediately withdraw the forces of law and order from the streets of the Anglophone towns to which they have been deployed, open proper investigations into any abuses of human rights by the forces of law and order, and release or charge those who have been locked up as a result of the recent unrests. In this way, we would have a better climate for the negotiations which have been proposed between the government and the teachers and lawyers.
Justice for All
Every Anglophone group that has raised its voice in protest has chronicled a number of perceived injustices which either the group or the Anglophone community in general suffers. Again, if the government gives them a listening ear, it would become clear to all whether these perceived injustices are founded or just imaginary. As long as these people, rightly or wrongly, continue to feel that they are the victims of injustice, we cannot build ‘the Island of Peace’ in Central and West Africa we have been proclaiming that we are, and we cannot develop our country without this peace either. We do not believe, in conscience, that locking up people who speak up against injustice (real or imagined) will kill dissent and bring peace. Maybe some examples will help clarify the point we are making.
On the 14th of December 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. made a statement outside a California prison where Vietnam war protesters were being held. He said: There can be no justice without peace and there can be no peace without justice.On the World Day for Peace, 1st January 1972, Pope Paul VI had as theme for his Message: if you want peace, work for justice. These great crusaders for social justice teach us that without justice, peace will be an elusive goal.
Of course, you would remember the Apostolic Visit of Pope St. John Paul II to Cameroon in August 1985. In his Address to the President, Constituted Bodies, and the Members of the Diplomatic Corps, he said:
« Devant les conflits qui demeurent ou renaissent, tout le monde doit se poser honnêtement la question de leurs causes. Les injustices commises par certains régimes, concernant les droits de l’homme en général ou les revendications légitimes d’une partie de la population qui se voit refuser la participation aux responsabilités communes, déclenchent des soulèvements d’une violence regrettable, mais qui ne pourront être apaisés qu’avec le rétablissement de la justice. »
These examples show that we need to examine, in a dispassionate manner, the root causes of the unease and unrest in the Anglophone Region of Cameroon and, if these causes are connected to injustice in any form, do all we can to root out those injustices.
Conclusion
Your Excellency,
We stated at the beginning of this Memorandum that it is our bounden duty as Shepherds of the people in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon where there are unrests and dissatisfaction, to make a contribution to the solution of the problems that have been posed. We hope that you will find our contribution helpful as you try to navigate this very sensitive and delicate period in our nation’s history. We are aware of the gravity of your responsibility before the people of Cameroon and before History, and that is why we tried to do all we could to help. In addition, we commend you and the people of Cameroon to God in prayer, in the belief that He will give you the wisdom you need to carry out this task. We can only add that in this case, time is of the essence as some of our children have already missed school for a month.
A certain religious leader is credited to have said: There really can be no peace without justice. There can be no justice without truth. And there can be no truth, unless someone rises up to tell you the truth.What we have set forth here is what we believe to be the truth, told as part of our prophetic mission, in the hope that it will bring justice, peace, and harmony to this country which we all hold dear to our hearts.
May Mary, Queen of Peace, and Patroness of Cameroon, intercede for us and for our country.
+George Nkuo
Bishop of Kumbo and President of BAPEC
+Cornelius Fontem Esua
Archbishop of Bamenda
+Immanuel Bushu
Bishop of Buea
+Andrew Nkea
Bishop of Mamfe
+Agapitus Nfon
Bishop of Kumba
_________
ENDNOTES
1. The territory which covers the Northwest and Southwest Regions has been called various names in the History of Cameroon: British Southern Cameroons, West Cameroon, Anglophone (English-speaking) Cameroon. These names will be used in this document as appropriate to the historical period in question.
2. Gaudium et Spes, No. 76
3. Ngoh, J. V., (2011:4), The Untold Story of Cameroon Reunification: 1955-1961, Limbe, Presprint Plc.
4. Mukete, V. E., 2013:419, My Odyssey: The Story of Cameroon Reunification With Authentic Letters of Key Players, Yaounde, Sopecam.
5. Ndi, A., (2013:6) Southern West Cameroon Revisited (1950-1972): Unveiling Inescapable Traps, Volume 1, Bamenda, Paul’s Press.
6. Constitution reproduced in: Ndi, A. (2013), Southern West Cameroon Revisited (1950-1972): Unveiling Inescapable Traps, Volume 1, Bamenda, Paul’s Press. See Appendix IV
7. J.N. Foncha, 9th June 1990: Letter of Resignation from the CPDM
8. Ndi, A., (2005:249-50), Mill Hill Missionaries in Southern West Cameroon (1922-1972): Prime Partners in Nation Building, Paulines Publications Africa, Nairobi.
9. J.N. Foncha, 9th June 1990: Letter of Resignation from the CPDM
10. John Paul II, Centissimus Annus, No. 45.
11. John Paul II, Centissimus Annus, No. 44.
12. John Paul II, Centissimus Annus, No. 47.
13. John Paul II, Centissimus Annus, No. 60
14. Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Teaching of the Church, Nos 128, 13
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