To handle this task with perfection,
the builders of this nation should avoid pillars of social inequality at which
citizens of the same Country are given different attentions – wealth, prestige,
or power. This nation (francophones and Anglophones) is characterized by some
degree of social inequality that is blowing some hot air into the nostrils of
the Anglophones causing the exposure of their bitterness, and a cry for
situations to be normalized in the interest of peace, unity and brotherhood. It
is just a natural phenomenon that no child disturbs the mother out of hatred,
but does that out of love and the desire to be given due care. Same it goes
that the Anglophone two Regions are not disturbing out of hatred for their
brothers the francophones, but out of love and the fundamental desire to be
given the care that they have missed since re-unifucation.
The
Social inequality between the eight francophone and the two Anglophone Regions
of Cameroon is quite with a big margin as the
Regions of francophone stand high in Social rankings and they control
more state resources, wield state power, receive and render better treatment in
offices due to the fact that francophones in all the offices (private and
public) over-ride the Anglophones. The consequences of this stratification are
evident in the unequal distribution of state resources that leave the
Anglophones dis-satisfied, frustrated, angry and have to dine with the demon of
secession. So many Anglophones have asked to my hearing, “what was the essence
of Ahidjo/Foncha marriage?”
This
question goes with the answer hanging in the wind because with the many years
of re-unification, Cameroon is not quite United in the true sense of social
equality from all to all. The Anglophones should not be blamed for disturbing ,
because no dis-satisfied, frustrated and angry person thinks positively. There
is an iota of madness in all persons suffering from dis-satisfaction,
frustration and anger. So, it goes with the Anglophones who are detained in
Yaounde and to be tried in a military Court. Looking at them from the point
that they are all suffering from an iota of madness and had to do what they did
the Head of State President Paul Biya should grant them State pardon. They are
mad people and they deserve the Head of State’s pardon.
Of
course, each Region ought to have a fair-share of state resources. This is
where there is a conflict over how these resources are being distributed, as
the two Anglophone regions remain weeping on the dry rocks of re-unification.
Those that the gods want to destroy, they first render them mad, like those
detained in Yaounde. Even though they did what they ought not to do, for the
fact that they are suffering from an iota of madness, the Head of state should
have mercy on them and use his prerogative powers to send them to a mental-care
hospital than allowing them to be imprisoned or condemned to death. Because
there is a lot of implication in the stratification of the nation, the need did
arise for the creation of a commission on Bilingualism and multiculturalism to
seek solutions to the Anglophone cry of being left on the dry rocks of
re-unification. At this point of matters, the Commission should direct her
attention to the needs of the various regions, for a fair distribution of state
resources to avoid people getting mad out of dis-satisfaction, frustration and
anger.
At
this point of matters still, the need might arise to let the regions have
regional governments, so that the people can have a choice on how to apply
their share of what ever equally comes from the central government in
Yaounde. With the centralization in
Yaounde, the government as what it is today, can not talk of balance distribution
of resources for development when there is stratification and resources for
development in the various regions, drop at the whims and caprices of the
powers that be. In this circumstance, the Anglophones find themselves greatly
cheated and therefore , their cry and disturbances cannot be doubted, hoping
that there can be a restructuring of relationship for a realistic united
Cameroon through negotiation. The term negotiation here refers to an attempt to
reach agreement with others concerning some objectives. Negotiation does not
involve coercion. It goes by bargaining, compromising, trading off, mediating,
exchanging, and collusion. Negotiation occurs in various ways. The negotiation
for the reconciliation of the present stale-mate in Cameroon, will require not
only social interactions which the commission on Bilingualism and
multiculturalism might easily handle, but goes further to seek some negotiation
orders that will require social structures that will derive their existence
from social interactions of the people,
through which all can define without doubts their characters.
This
is where the commission should avoid being seen or taken for a bell jingled to
cause angry Anglophones to laugh. The commission should immediately get the
bull by its horns and come up with guidelines for negotiation to start
effectively. This is because when the commission will go about its work, it
shall handle a lot of social orders involving Coercion, but might fail to
notice other interactions between Anglophones and francophones that require
negotiation orders. Let the Commission build a foundation that will carry a
realistic united Cameroon, as the destiny of posterity to which they shall all
be accountable at the end. Should the Commission fail to provide negotiation
orders to the Anglophone problem, it will be seen tomorrow as another giant
project of the government that like others, became laughing stocks to the
world, and the peace and unity of Cameroon will remain threatened to our
sorrow, as Anglophones remain on dry rocks and will want to seceed.
Negotiation
can bring about statuses liberation for any position in government and/or the
private sectors to be occupied buy any best applicant, no matter the tack of
Anglophone or francophne that he carries on the neck. When we look at status
here, we refer to the full range of socially defined positions, from the lowest
to the highest. In this sense, any Cameroonian can work towards achieving the
status of a leader and finally move to enjoying the assigned status of the
President without discrimination. Let the languages of our former colonial
masters be to ease our communication and not devices to determine relationship
and for one language to be seen inferior to the other. We should be united for
nation building to a point that none is seen to be dispensable because he
carries a tack of ascribed statuses-anglophone or francophone.
To keep Cameroon one and indivisible
is a task that we must all see it accomplished. With all hands on
deck-Anglophones and francophones alike, we must work together to build a
united and prosperous nation that our children can inherite as their destiny.
Our time is too short, we are doing too little and much is waiting to be done.
We should not take the precious time and national resources that would have
been used for our socio-economic and political development, to fight a
meaningless war like others have done. We have to beware of our brothers and
sisters who have the tendencies of secession. Out of greed, they want to
fragment the nation, with nothing thereafter to offer for the socio-economic
and political growth of the people.
Fellow Cameroonians, don’t say you
were not warned. We need to solve the Anglophone problem once and for all, by
working together –Anglophones and Francophones hand in glove. We need peace,
harmony and Unity now more than ever because the wild wind of ghost-towns that
is blowing about has unknown faces behind the mask with hiden stories to be
unveiled for a bleak future to all- Anglophones and Francophones. We shall all
regret the lost of loved ones, feel the pains of deep wounds and regret jumping
into the wild forest as refugees. We shall go begging for food, water and
shelter, that we have enough now and are proud to keep refugees from other
countries, that were not wise enough to solving problems through negotiation,
but took to war.
As the wind of ghost-towns and the
faces behind the mask keep blowing the cannon of war closer to a point of
explosion, we should all ask ourselves the questions, what is really wrong that
we cannot put it right by negotiating? Must we go to war rather than seeking
solutions to our problems? Has war ever been a solution to human problems in
the history of mankind?” Answers are blowing in the wind.
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