Panic Grips the Judiciary as Anglophone Lawyers Unite to Fight the French System *Through a Common Law Conference under the theme “Securing a Better Future for the Common Law in Cameroon”

“A Common Enemy” learning from the bitter past experience, working in dispersed ranks to fight the Francophone system and the prejudice exercised in their function as appointed officials at the level of the Judiciary with no major outcome in the past, have decided to be more united, strong and vibrant as the saying goes that united we stand divided we fall.

That is why the all Anglophone Lawyers meeting was convened in Bamenda to chart new ways forward in order to deal with their French brothers who were and are bent at all cost to assimilate the whole system and why not swallow the Anglophone system, call it the common Law which they now go about calling it a “sub system”.

The meeting far from the exceptional intension to come up with a common law bar, as interpreted by their frightened francophone brothers to challenge the Cameroon Bar or the French system which is gradually and steadily being introduced out rightly, comes up at a time where Anglophones have been subjected to serious marginalization from their francophone brothers both at the level of the exercise of function and the respect of court decorum giving no room for court liberal rights.

The importance of the meeting could only be best assessed by the number of lawyers of Anglophone extraction who showed up in their numbers over one thousand putting together the full flesh and pupil lawyers in the Republic. All in flaring tempers saying, some sanity and order must be brought into the profession, hear them “the francophones will not keep dictating the pace at which the judiciary must function. They attempted the notary issue it failed woefully because we protested, they now resorted to appointing only francophone to Anglophone court or regions forcing us to be assimilated and do submissions only in French, which cannot work, an action we have decried severally and they think that we are joking. A good number of them recounted as the bad encounters faced in the exercise of their functions defending their clients.

The meeting is eventful and goes down the annals of history as a bold step and a major action at this point in time in history to strongly defend the course of Anglophone lawyers and their system in the face of the fast encroaching force of the French system which is out at all cost to erase the English law system call it the common law practice most especially in a situation where the Cameroon Bar is headed by a francophone Ni Kamga Jackson whose hands are tied and have tried to no avail to arrest certain misgivings orchestrated by fellow brothers in the exercise of powers given to them in the face of flaring Anglophone lawyers who do not want their rights tampered with at any level.

In the meeting playing host at Bamenda, on the 9^th of May 2015, a number of related issues apart from the marginalization subject, like raising the dignity of a lawyer, putting in of some sanity and ethics in the exercise of function and above all the need for maximum cooperation and collaborations to fight any stumbling block to a smooth practice of law in Cameroon without favor were handled.

Not to make emphasises, all the big names you can imagine under the law in Cameroon and lawyers of reputable standing were there without mentioning names because the roll will be too long.