PAUL BIYA the Grand Masters' Speech that Never Met the Expectations of the Most Expectant Anglophone Cameroonians who Longed for a Federation or Complete Independence...POINT..
Mr. Biya shows no remorse opts for dialogue condemns acts of Vandalism and observes that Liberals Rights has limits. Saying the rule of law will take control, "Government will take its responsibility, Cameroon must and remains an indivisible nation. All liberal right actions must fall within the ambit of the Law and all demands must be backed by the constitution of the Republic"...
Part of the speech read:
" I would, therefore, like, before anything else, to tell you solemnly tonight that Cameroon is a country more than ever before. A ONE and INDIVISIBLE country, proud of its cultural diversity and jealous of its freedom. A country rich in talented and enterprising men. A country with significant resources. A country looking forward with confidence and determination resolved to meet the challenges to ensure social progress and prosperity for all.
My dear compatriots,
I would now like to dwell on the latest developments in the northwest and southwest regions. These events challenge us deeply in our flesh and spirit. By a group of extremist, manipulated and instrumentalized demonstrators, Cameroonians lost their lives; Public and private buildings have been destroyed; The most sacred bonds of our nation have been profaned; The economic activities were temporarily paralyzed.
All this, you will agree with me that Biya has shown prove of being truly a philosopher king and a no nonsense Grand Master who has power over his cosmic circumference and will use his inalienable Seven folks of power to manipulate a multitude. This he clearly expressed in the way he played over the crisis that has rocked the Anglophone part of Cameroon for the past 4 weeks.
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Friday, December 30, 2016
Bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province writes to Biya Concerning the ongoing Strike in Anglophone Cameroon and Marginalization Problem Through a Strongly Worded Memo
*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
*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, 133
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
*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, 133
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Breaking News: Anglophone Cameroon Teachers Trade Unions Refute Claim of Haven't Had a Two Days Working Meeting with Danpullo at Ndawa
#SOUTHERN_CAMEROONS PROBLEMS
ALL ANGLOPHONE TEACHER TRADE UNIONS
PRESS RELEASE, 13/12/2016
ALL ANGLOPHONE TEACHER TRADE UNIONS
PRESS RELEASE, 13/12/2016
Meeting this 13th day of December, 2016, we , leaders of the teacher trade unions and initiators of the Anglophone education strike of 21/11/2016, noted with indignation that the press outing of H.E the Minister, Director of Civil Cabinet was a manifest display of bad faith aimed at vilifying us and painting us as intransigent, vacillating and instrumentalised. We saw the urgent need to decry this and came up with the following observations in guise of reaction.
1. That verily, we had asked for the creation of a new broad-based institutional framework with a neutral chairperson, which committee had been created and the chairperson appointed.
2. That for sure we had requested and had been granted the concession that this committee be allowed to work in Bamenda and prepare an implementation framework for the grievances within the shortest possible time-frame.
3. Furthermore, that we had actually said when at least one other issue was implemented in good faith on or before 30/11/2016, the strike would be suspended, to be revoked in due course in case of any breach.
Suffice is to observe that our mention of “any other issue” was tacitly understood to mean “any other core issue” in this identity struggle, and the issue of subvention did not qualify as a core issue, since it was a measure for private schools all over the republic. And if there was any need to respect a gentleman’s agreement because of the subvention palliative, that reason was vitiated by the corollary core issue, which stressed the recruitment of “bilingual science and technical teachers”, a clear indication that the government was pretending to resolve the contentious issues while at the same time recycling the very causes of the contention.
We equally dismissed as spurious the Minister Director’s claim that we had raised other extraneous issues, especially of political note, because we did not do any such thing. We challenge him to show any document that we tabled, to prove the veracity of his claim. We begin to doubt how neutral he will be as a chairperson when he draws conclusions and makes official assertions on the basis of rumour.
We are stupefied that the chairperson thinks we should suspend before committee work begins, another sign of BAD FAITH that might force the CONCLUSION without fear of contradiction that government is still up to its OLD BAG OF TRICKS. Our stupefaction is under-propped by the fact that our situation can be likened to the plight of a wailing child who has a nail lodged in the sole of his leg and his father chooses to pressurize him to stop crying instead of taking him to the hospital for the malaise to be handled with dispatch!
We take the opportunity to address two other TOPICAL ISSUES:
A. That we decry the attempt by Chairman Ayah Paul to include some of us into an Anglophone Leadership team he has arrogated to himself the right to create. We assert that we were neither consulted nor did we give our consent to such posturing and observe that while we are interested in helping to solve political problems, we are not necessarily interested in making personal gains from the outcomes.
B. That we are not aware that a team of persons visited Ndawara Ranch to discuss our educational options, amongst a complex of other issues, as social media messages gone viral insinuate. As far as we know, we have not ceded to anyone our right of control over the strike that we initiated.
Done in Bamenda, Tuesday, 13thDecember, in the year of Our Lord 2016.
SIGNATORIES
CATTU: Tassang Wilfred F
PEATTU
BATTUC: Ayeah Emmanuel
TAC: VALENTINE NFON
CEWOTU: K. Michael
ALL ANGLOPHONE TEACHER TRADE UNIONS
PRESS RELEASE, 13/12/2016
ALL ANGLOPHONE TEACHER TRADE UNIONS
PRESS RELEASE, 13/12/2016
Meeting this 13th day of December, 2016, we , leaders of the teacher trade unions and initiators of the Anglophone education strike of 21/11/2016, noted with indignation that the press outing of H.E the Minister, Director of Civil Cabinet was a manifest display of bad faith aimed at vilifying us and painting us as intransigent, vacillating and instrumentalised. We saw the urgent need to decry this and came up with the following observations in guise of reaction.
1. That verily, we had asked for the creation of a new broad-based institutional framework with a neutral chairperson, which committee had been created and the chairperson appointed.
2. That for sure we had requested and had been granted the concession that this committee be allowed to work in Bamenda and prepare an implementation framework for the grievances within the shortest possible time-frame.
3. Furthermore, that we had actually said when at least one other issue was implemented in good faith on or before 30/11/2016, the strike would be suspended, to be revoked in due course in case of any breach.
Suffice is to observe that our mention of “any other issue” was tacitly understood to mean “any other core issue” in this identity struggle, and the issue of subvention did not qualify as a core issue, since it was a measure for private schools all over the republic. And if there was any need to respect a gentleman’s agreement because of the subvention palliative, that reason was vitiated by the corollary core issue, which stressed the recruitment of “bilingual science and technical teachers”, a clear indication that the government was pretending to resolve the contentious issues while at the same time recycling the very causes of the contention.
We equally dismissed as spurious the Minister Director’s claim that we had raised other extraneous issues, especially of political note, because we did not do any such thing. We challenge him to show any document that we tabled, to prove the veracity of his claim. We begin to doubt how neutral he will be as a chairperson when he draws conclusions and makes official assertions on the basis of rumour.
We are stupefied that the chairperson thinks we should suspend before committee work begins, another sign of BAD FAITH that might force the CONCLUSION without fear of contradiction that government is still up to its OLD BAG OF TRICKS. Our stupefaction is under-propped by the fact that our situation can be likened to the plight of a wailing child who has a nail lodged in the sole of his leg and his father chooses to pressurize him to stop crying instead of taking him to the hospital for the malaise to be handled with dispatch!
We take the opportunity to address two other TOPICAL ISSUES:
A. That we decry the attempt by Chairman Ayah Paul to include some of us into an Anglophone Leadership team he has arrogated to himself the right to create. We assert that we were neither consulted nor did we give our consent to such posturing and observe that while we are interested in helping to solve political problems, we are not necessarily interested in making personal gains from the outcomes.
B. That we are not aware that a team of persons visited Ndawara Ranch to discuss our educational options, amongst a complex of other issues, as social media messages gone viral insinuate. As far as we know, we have not ceded to anyone our right of control over the strike that we initiated.
Done in Bamenda, Tuesday, 13thDecember, in the year of Our Lord 2016.
SIGNATORIES
CATTU: Tassang Wilfred F
PEATTU
BATTUC: Ayeah Emmanuel
TAC: VALENTINE NFON
CEWOTU: K. Michael
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Baba Danpullo Fails to Reconcile Lawyers & the Biya Regime after three weeks strike in Anglophone Cameroon
Breaking News: "Take the Federation off the table" President Biya tells Lawyers and Teachers" Baba Danpullo
According to unimpeachable sources, a high level delegation of Lawyers and Teachers, headed by Barrister Harmony Bobga convened in Ndawara, Boyo Division, at the legendary home of business mogul and Biya protege, Alhadji Baba.
Our concurring sources said the meeting was at the behest of President Biya who reached out to his friend Alhadji Baba. According to my sources, Alhadji Baba said that President Biya was not getting the truth from the men around him and had reached out to him so he could get to the bottom of the problems. But first, the President indicated that talk of federation had to be "off the table".
Accompanied by France 24 because some participants "were in fear of not coming out of that fortress" alive, the lawyers and teachers maintained their demands, viz:
1) Common Law Bar;
2) Common Law Chamber at the Supreme Court;
3) Common Law School to train lawyers as well as Common Law Judges
4) Separate Education Council to take care of Southern Cameroons education from kindergarten through University;
5) Return control of entry into professional schools back to the Universities and away from the corrupt Ministry of Higher Education;
6) Return to two State Federation.
The 12 hour long session started Sunday afternoon and ended in wee hours of Monday at 2:00am, the time at which lawyers finished drafting the document that was immediately dispatched to the Presidency for translation and then forwarded to the President. The Lawyers, Teachers and Civil Society present hope to hear from the President soon.
But they made it clear, sources say, that if there is no reasonable action by the Head of State, things will move into phase three. In the meantime, talk was rife about an impending cabinet change in the wake of the monumental failure by PM Yang and the poor handling of the situation by Fame Ndongo of Education, as well as his colleagues at the Ministry of Justice and Paul Atanga.
End.
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Breaking News: Teachers' Trade Unions Distance Selves from all Acts of Vandalism & Xenophobic Practices in Anglophone Cameroon, Firmly commit to Open up for Meaningful Dialogue with Government, Caution Gov't not to Dare Suspended Salaries as it will only Aggravate Things
NEW :Teachers Trade Unions Pipe Down after Sensing Danger
Meeting Friday, 09/12/2016, in the wake of intended demonstrations and counter demonstrations with untold tragic consequences, we, leaders of the confederation of Anglophone teacher trade unions and initiators of the strike of 21/11/2016, saw the need to make a few pointed remarks.
We indicate that the street demonstrations that erupted on the day our strike began was from every indication due to the desperate attempts that were being made by the administration to puncture the sit-in call and that it ended up being a route through which other legitimate grievances were tabled. We note with indignation that certain government officials are intent on labelling our noble Anglophone subsystem of education crusade as a xenophobic campaign against our francophone compatriots. This is false! We have said and shall continue to say that we are campaigning for the best Anglo-Saxon practices to be introduced into the English subsystem, like the best French practices are being introduced into the francophone subsystem of education, so that Cameroonian children of any provenance who choose either subsystem should find that subsystem worthy of their aspirations.
We regret the uncalled for losses, especially of life but also the unnecessary material damage to public and private property, and recall that the strike we initiated was a sit-in. We also deplore the provocation that the ill-timed CPDM march constituted, in line with the fears of many administrators and elite whom we are reliably informed had gauged the rising tides of passion and had sought in vain to dissuade determined militants of that idea.
We use this medium to appeal to leaders of the various groups that demonstrated their support for our advocacy for the Anglophone educational subsystem that they should do all in their power to talk to their members and appeal to them for calm. We add our voices to theirs to appeal that the calm that is already returning should be maintained and sustained.
We assert that we are not intransigent as we have been labelled, because we have not closed avenues for dialogue with the government. We refused to suspend the strike when the contentious core issue of the recruitment of “1000 bilingual teachers” was not being straightened out. We nevertheless indicated our willingness to start work in the ad hoc committee, in the hope of having something concrete in hand to enable the suspension of the strike. Then in a twist, the unfortunate incidents of Thursday led to the closure of especially lay private and confessional institutions. This leaves us with no option but to suggest that work should begin so that the committee has ample time to examine all contentious issues to be able to put in place reasoned, viable solutions in respect of the 1998 Orientation Law and an acceptable implementation time frame, which will go a long way to enhance a smooth re-opening for the second term.
We express our indignation at the fact that after this unfortunate closure of private institutions, administrators are rather employing high-handed methods to arm-twist teachers of public institutions to go back to school. We warn that any salary suspensions at this moment when all stakeholders of good will are making reasoned calls for bona fide dialogue with attendant sustainable results will only go to further complicate the dialogue.
We conclude by suggesting advisedly that government should equally take advantage of this unfortunate holiday to also engage in useful dialogue with the Anglophone lawyers, whose legitimate grievances are equally shared by the Anglophone community. This should enable Cameroon to enter the New Year, 2017, in a spirit of reconciliation and togetherness.
Done in Bamenda, this 10th day of December, 2016
Signatories
CATTU TAC
PEATTU CEWOTU
BATTUC SYNES UB CHAPTER
SYNES UBa CHAPTER
Meeting Friday, 09/12/2016, in the wake of intended demonstrations and counter demonstrations with untold tragic consequences, we, leaders of the confederation of Anglophone teacher trade unions and initiators of the strike of 21/11/2016, saw the need to make a few pointed remarks.
We indicate that the street demonstrations that erupted on the day our strike began was from every indication due to the desperate attempts that were being made by the administration to puncture the sit-in call and that it ended up being a route through which other legitimate grievances were tabled. We note with indignation that certain government officials are intent on labelling our noble Anglophone subsystem of education crusade as a xenophobic campaign against our francophone compatriots. This is false! We have said and shall continue to say that we are campaigning for the best Anglo-Saxon practices to be introduced into the English subsystem, like the best French practices are being introduced into the francophone subsystem of education, so that Cameroonian children of any provenance who choose either subsystem should find that subsystem worthy of their aspirations.
We regret the uncalled for losses, especially of life but also the unnecessary material damage to public and private property, and recall that the strike we initiated was a sit-in. We also deplore the provocation that the ill-timed CPDM march constituted, in line with the fears of many administrators and elite whom we are reliably informed had gauged the rising tides of passion and had sought in vain to dissuade determined militants of that idea.
We use this medium to appeal to leaders of the various groups that demonstrated their support for our advocacy for the Anglophone educational subsystem that they should do all in their power to talk to their members and appeal to them for calm. We add our voices to theirs to appeal that the calm that is already returning should be maintained and sustained.
We assert that we are not intransigent as we have been labelled, because we have not closed avenues for dialogue with the government. We refused to suspend the strike when the contentious core issue of the recruitment of “1000 bilingual teachers” was not being straightened out. We nevertheless indicated our willingness to start work in the ad hoc committee, in the hope of having something concrete in hand to enable the suspension of the strike. Then in a twist, the unfortunate incidents of Thursday led to the closure of especially lay private and confessional institutions. This leaves us with no option but to suggest that work should begin so that the committee has ample time to examine all contentious issues to be able to put in place reasoned, viable solutions in respect of the 1998 Orientation Law and an acceptable implementation time frame, which will go a long way to enhance a smooth re-opening for the second term.
We express our indignation at the fact that after this unfortunate closure of private institutions, administrators are rather employing high-handed methods to arm-twist teachers of public institutions to go back to school. We warn that any salary suspensions at this moment when all stakeholders of good will are making reasoned calls for bona fide dialogue with attendant sustainable results will only go to further complicate the dialogue.
We conclude by suggesting advisedly that government should equally take advantage of this unfortunate holiday to also engage in useful dialogue with the Anglophone lawyers, whose legitimate grievances are equally shared by the Anglophone community. This should enable Cameroon to enter the New Year, 2017, in a spirit of reconciliation and togetherness.
Done in Bamenda, this 10th day of December, 2016
Signatories
CATTU TAC
PEATTU CEWOTU
BATTUC SYNES UB CHAPTER
SYNES UBa CHAPTER
Monday, December 5, 2016
N.West/S.West Elite for Zero Secession, Call for School Resumption in Anglophone Cameroon in a Joint Communique Signed on the 4th of December 2016
Communiqué by NW Elite, Senators and Members of the National
Assembly calling for Peace and Resumption of Schools in the NW Region
Mindful of government resolve to give commensurate attention to
teachers’ and lawyers’ grievances through constructive dialogue as testified by
the Head of State, sending the Prime Minister, Head of Government to dialogue
with Teachers, Lawyers, and Civil Society in Bamenda on 25th and 26th
November 2016,
Mindful of the first meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee presided
over by the Minister of Higher Education to look into teachers’ grievances at
the end of which a comprehensive recommendation arrived at was submitted for
consideration by Government,
Mindful of the special meeting chaired by the Minister of State, Minister
of Justice and Keeper of the Seals to examine and dialogue with Members of the
Bar Council that was held on Tuesday, 22nd November 2016 to seek solutions to
Anglophone Lawyers’ grievances,
As concerns Anglophone Lawyers’ grievances;
1. Considering the formal handing over to Cameroon Government of the
English text of the OHADA Uniform Act which was subsequently handed
over to the Bar Council President in both hard and electronic versions, and
posted on the websites of the Ministry of Justice and Bar Council,
2. Considering the imminent holding of the Stakeholders Meeting (Etat
Generaux) of the Justice sector as requested by the Head of State, a forum in
which the other grievances of Anglophone lawyers will be detailly examined
by an Ad hoc Committee and resolutions thereof submitted for consideration
by the Head of State, guarantor of our judicial system,
3. Considering the opening of judicial investigations by the Attorney Generals
in NW and SW regions on allegations of molestation, brutality, seizure of
wigs and other acts against lawyers in Bamenda and Buea which will permit
the appropriate sanctioning of authorities guilty of acts of violence in
consonance with the laws in force.
As concerns Teachers’ grievances;
1. Considering the creation, organisation and functioning of the ad hoc inter-
ministerial committee tasked with examining and proposing solutions to the concerns raised by Anglophones teachers’ trade unions in the format
requested by the leaders themselves in their 8-point resolution submitted to
the Prime Minister, Head of Government following the meeting of 26th
November 2016 in Bamenda. And trusting that the resolutions accruing from
the deliberations of the committee shall be submitted directly to the Prime
Minister, Head of Government and all pertinent recommendations shall be
examined by Government to improve the Anglophone subsystem of
education,
2. Conscious of the allocation of a sum of 2 billion (2,000,000,000) Francs
CFA by the Head of State as special subsidy to lay private and
denominational schools which will help alleviate the burden of cost in
running these schools.
3. Cognisant of the special recruitment of 1000 bilingual technical school
teachers to address the problem of shortage of teachers especially in
Anglophone Technical schools and colleges,
4. Considering that on the instruction of the Head of State, formal judicial
enquiry has been opened by the Attorney Generals in the Southwest and
Northwest Regions on alleged violence on students in Bamenda and Buea
and trusting that at the end of the on-going investigations appropriate
measures shall be taken in accordance with the laws in force,
5. Considering that the boycott of schools and classes by teachers is penalising
our children some of whom have to sit for official national and international
examinations with other children and pupils who are regularly going to
school unperturbed thereby jeopardizing the future of our children,
6. Convinced that the eventual resolution of all pertinent grievances by
government cannot bring back the immense consequences on the children
and universities due to the time lost,
7. Trusting that government has in the past listened to problems of the
Anglophone subsystem of education as testified by the creation and
management of the GCE Board, sole agency managing official exams at
secondary school level; And that Government will continue to do so,
We the North West Elite, Senators and Members of the National
Assembly hereby:
1. Appeal to all teachers, lawyers, school proprietors, the civil society,
politicians, traders, bayam selams, parents, economic operators, taxi men, motor bike riders, students, pupils and all citizens of good will, to see reason and trust
the government’s good faith for dialogue and peaceful resolution of all the
pertinent grievances presented by teachers and lawyers;
2. Appeal particularly to teachers, pupils and parents for normal resumption of
schools to avoid jeopardising the future of our children;
3. Pray the lawyers to end their boycott of the courts which have a negative
effect on their clients and call on them to instead hold meaningful consultations
in view of tabling pertinent and exhaustive grievances during the imminent
upcoming Stakeholders of the Justice system meeting in their quest to preserve
the bi-jurial nature of our justice system;
4. Pledge our total support for peace, stability and tranquillity in our Region;
5. Affirm our unflinching support for a one, united and indivisible fatherland,
Cameroon;
6. Strongly condemn the exploitation by unscrupulous politicians, Southern
Cameroon’s National Congress (SCNC) infiltrators of teachers’ and lawyers’
grievances to call for ghost towns and secession of the Anglophone part of
Cameroon;
7. Fervently condemn all forms of violence and social tension that jeopardize
the peace and security of our beloved fatherland irrespective of the source;
8. Pledge our unflinching support to His Excellency, President Paul BIYA and
the government with the continuous open door policy as they find lasting
solution to the pertinent grievances put forward by Anglophone teachers, and
lawyers and eventually others;
Done in Yaounde, on Sunday, 4th December 2016
Signed:
MBAH ACHA ROSE F., FUH CALISTUS GENTRY, DOH JEROME
PENBAGA, ATANGA NJI PAUL , SOLOMON AZOH-MBI, FONYE
FRANCIS, FOHTUNG SAMUEL T., SIMON ACHIDI ACHU, FON TECHE
NJEI II, WANLO CHAMOA JOHN , AWANGA ZACHARIAS, FON
GANYOGAH, EMMA ENO LAFON, WALLANG DAVID, DINGHA
IGNATIUS, NJINGUM MUSA, KWEI ANDREW, MBUMSECK GENESIS,
BANMI EMMANUEL, WALLANG RICHARD, ENWE FRANCIS, ABETY
PETER; KIBUH HENRY, SHEY JONES YEMBE, NJI FIDELIS, MELO
UPHIE CHINJE, LANTUM DANIEL, FONGOD EDWIN, MOH SYLVESTER, SAMMY CHUMBOW, Fon. CHAFAH ISAAC, FRU
ANGWAFOR, MBAYU FELIX,TAN PAUL, NWANA SAMA BERNARD,
GABSA WILFRED, AGWARA MOISE, KILO ASHERI, SHEY PETER
MABU, CHIMANGHA LINUS, CHI ASAFOR, SAMA JUMA, FRU
JONATHAN, SIMON TAMFU, AKWA PATRICK, BUNGO JEAN PAUL,
OKIE JOHNSON, GABSA WILFRED, DOH ANDERSON, NDZO
CELESTIN, ADAMU MUSA, NUHU SALI, GABCHE VINCENT GABCHE,
CHIANGEH GRACE, TAMANJONG MOSES, FORYANG GODFRED
FUMBI, DIMLA LAMBERT, NGORAN AUSTIN, KAAH ERNEST MBUH,
ISA ADAMU, ABBAS MOHAMADOU, NYING DIVINE
Assembly calling for Peace and Resumption of Schools in the NW Region
Mindful of government resolve to give commensurate attention to
teachers’ and lawyers’ grievances through constructive dialogue as testified by
the Head of State, sending the Prime Minister, Head of Government to dialogue
with Teachers, Lawyers, and Civil Society in Bamenda on 25th and 26th
November 2016,
Mindful of the first meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee presided
over by the Minister of Higher Education to look into teachers’ grievances at
the end of which a comprehensive recommendation arrived at was submitted for
consideration by Government,
Mindful of the special meeting chaired by the Minister of State, Minister
of Justice and Keeper of the Seals to examine and dialogue with Members of the
Bar Council that was held on Tuesday, 22nd November 2016 to seek solutions to
Anglophone Lawyers’ grievances,
As concerns Anglophone Lawyers’ grievances;
1. Considering the formal handing over to Cameroon Government of the
English text of the OHADA Uniform Act which was subsequently handed
over to the Bar Council President in both hard and electronic versions, and
posted on the websites of the Ministry of Justice and Bar Council,
2. Considering the imminent holding of the Stakeholders Meeting (Etat
Generaux) of the Justice sector as requested by the Head of State, a forum in
which the other grievances of Anglophone lawyers will be detailly examined
by an Ad hoc Committee and resolutions thereof submitted for consideration
by the Head of State, guarantor of our judicial system,
3. Considering the opening of judicial investigations by the Attorney Generals
in NW and SW regions on allegations of molestation, brutality, seizure of
wigs and other acts against lawyers in Bamenda and Buea which will permit
the appropriate sanctioning of authorities guilty of acts of violence in
consonance with the laws in force.
As concerns Teachers’ grievances;
1. Considering the creation, organisation and functioning of the ad hoc inter-
ministerial committee tasked with examining and proposing solutions to the concerns raised by Anglophones teachers’ trade unions in the format
requested by the leaders themselves in their 8-point resolution submitted to
the Prime Minister, Head of Government following the meeting of 26th
November 2016 in Bamenda. And trusting that the resolutions accruing from
the deliberations of the committee shall be submitted directly to the Prime
Minister, Head of Government and all pertinent recommendations shall be
examined by Government to improve the Anglophone subsystem of
education,
2. Conscious of the allocation of a sum of 2 billion (2,000,000,000) Francs
CFA by the Head of State as special subsidy to lay private and
denominational schools which will help alleviate the burden of cost in
running these schools.
3. Cognisant of the special recruitment of 1000 bilingual technical school
teachers to address the problem of shortage of teachers especially in
Anglophone Technical schools and colleges,
4. Considering that on the instruction of the Head of State, formal judicial
enquiry has been opened by the Attorney Generals in the Southwest and
Northwest Regions on alleged violence on students in Bamenda and Buea
and trusting that at the end of the on-going investigations appropriate
measures shall be taken in accordance with the laws in force,
5. Considering that the boycott of schools and classes by teachers is penalising
our children some of whom have to sit for official national and international
examinations with other children and pupils who are regularly going to
school unperturbed thereby jeopardizing the future of our children,
6. Convinced that the eventual resolution of all pertinent grievances by
government cannot bring back the immense consequences on the children
and universities due to the time lost,
7. Trusting that government has in the past listened to problems of the
Anglophone subsystem of education as testified by the creation and
management of the GCE Board, sole agency managing official exams at
secondary school level; And that Government will continue to do so,
We the North West Elite, Senators and Members of the National
Assembly hereby:
1. Appeal to all teachers, lawyers, school proprietors, the civil society,
politicians, traders, bayam selams, parents, economic operators, taxi men, motor bike riders, students, pupils and all citizens of good will, to see reason and trust
the government’s good faith for dialogue and peaceful resolution of all the
pertinent grievances presented by teachers and lawyers;
2. Appeal particularly to teachers, pupils and parents for normal resumption of
schools to avoid jeopardising the future of our children;
3. Pray the lawyers to end their boycott of the courts which have a negative
effect on their clients and call on them to instead hold meaningful consultations
in view of tabling pertinent and exhaustive grievances during the imminent
upcoming Stakeholders of the Justice system meeting in their quest to preserve
the bi-jurial nature of our justice system;
4. Pledge our total support for peace, stability and tranquillity in our Region;
5. Affirm our unflinching support for a one, united and indivisible fatherland,
Cameroon;
6. Strongly condemn the exploitation by unscrupulous politicians, Southern
Cameroon’s National Congress (SCNC) infiltrators of teachers’ and lawyers’
grievances to call for ghost towns and secession of the Anglophone part of
Cameroon;
7. Fervently condemn all forms of violence and social tension that jeopardize
the peace and security of our beloved fatherland irrespective of the source;
8. Pledge our unflinching support to His Excellency, President Paul BIYA and
the government with the continuous open door policy as they find lasting
solution to the pertinent grievances put forward by Anglophone teachers, and
lawyers and eventually others;
Done in Yaounde, on Sunday, 4th December 2016
Signed:
MBAH ACHA ROSE F., FUH CALISTUS GENTRY, DOH JEROME
PENBAGA, ATANGA NJI PAUL , SOLOMON AZOH-MBI, FONYE
FRANCIS, FOHTUNG SAMUEL T., SIMON ACHIDI ACHU, FON TECHE
NJEI II, WANLO CHAMOA JOHN , AWANGA ZACHARIAS, FON
GANYOGAH, EMMA ENO LAFON, WALLANG DAVID, DINGHA
IGNATIUS, NJINGUM MUSA, KWEI ANDREW, MBUMSECK GENESIS,
BANMI EMMANUEL, WALLANG RICHARD, ENWE FRANCIS, ABETY
PETER; KIBUH HENRY, SHEY JONES YEMBE, NJI FIDELIS, MELO
UPHIE CHINJE, LANTUM DANIEL, FONGOD EDWIN, MOH SYLVESTER, SAMMY CHUMBOW, Fon. CHAFAH ISAAC, FRU
ANGWAFOR, MBAYU FELIX,TAN PAUL, NWANA SAMA BERNARD,
GABSA WILFRED, AGWARA MOISE, KILO ASHERI, SHEY PETER
MABU, CHIMANGHA LINUS, CHI ASAFOR, SAMA JUMA, FRU
JONATHAN, SIMON TAMFU, AKWA PATRICK, BUNGO JEAN PAUL,
OKIE JOHNSON, GABSA WILFRED, DOH ANDERSON, NDZO
CELESTIN, ADAMU MUSA, NUHU SALI, GABCHE VINCENT GABCHE,
CHIANGEH GRACE, TAMANJONG MOSES, FORYANG GODFRED
FUMBI, DIMLA LAMBERT, NGORAN AUSTIN, KAAH ERNEST MBUH,
ISA ADAMU, ABBAS MOHAMADOU, NYING DIVINE
Saturday, December 3, 2016
"Strike Continues" Says CATTU's NSG Tassang, "The Regime is Playing Tricks on Anglophones"
From All Anglophone Teacher Trade Unions
To
All Anglophone Cameroon Parents &Guardians
Dear all,
We have once more noted that the authorities in Yaoundé care very little about native NW/SW children.
While we are crying and denouncing the destruction of our children for close to fifty years, Yaoundé is scheming and hatching plots and plans to complete the destruction.
What does the Head of State mean by bilingual science and technical teachers?
Where and when were they trained?
Where did they do secondary education?
Our people, this is not the sign we asked government to show us as evidence of its commitment to solve the education issues we tabled. We see this as a wicked attempt at piercing an ulcer.
A man does not solve a problem that he does not recognise. Yaoundé has failed to acknowledge the problem.
The unions and teachers who suffer the most when our learners are turned into slaves have unanimously rejected Yaoundé's bilingual teachers offer.
We have requested that the 2billions should cease from being an announcement to a solution and that recruitment of bilingual teachers be corrected to read "recruitment of indigenes of NW/SW regions to be trained in the higher teacher training colleges of Bambili and Kumba".
Note that 1000 is an insignificant number.
How many of them will be French teachers to enable our colleges to have just 1 per school?
Ndian division has only 07 French teachers for 25 colleges.
How many will be physics teachers etc?
Dear people, we have come this far.
If we retreat now without government's commitment to solve the problem, then we have auctioned our children.
Mine are not for sale.
Am sure yours are not.
I love my children.
Am sure you love yours too and perhaps even more.
Together therefore, let us stand up for them.
The teachers and students strike enters week three on Monday Dec 5th.
Let us make it work.
We are very close to the solution.
God bless and prosper the our children.
Bamenda, Dec 3rd 2016.
For the unions,
Tassang Wilfred,
NESG CATTU.
To
All Anglophone Cameroon Parents &Guardians
Dear all,
We have once more noted that the authorities in Yaoundé care very little about native NW/SW children.
While we are crying and denouncing the destruction of our children for close to fifty years, Yaoundé is scheming and hatching plots and plans to complete the destruction.
What does the Head of State mean by bilingual science and technical teachers?
Where and when were they trained?
Where did they do secondary education?
Our people, this is not the sign we asked government to show us as evidence of its commitment to solve the education issues we tabled. We see this as a wicked attempt at piercing an ulcer.
A man does not solve a problem that he does not recognise. Yaoundé has failed to acknowledge the problem.
The unions and teachers who suffer the most when our learners are turned into slaves have unanimously rejected Yaoundé's bilingual teachers offer.
We have requested that the 2billions should cease from being an announcement to a solution and that recruitment of bilingual teachers be corrected to read "recruitment of indigenes of NW/SW regions to be trained in the higher teacher training colleges of Bambili and Kumba".
Note that 1000 is an insignificant number.
How many of them will be French teachers to enable our colleges to have just 1 per school?
Ndian division has only 07 French teachers for 25 colleges.
How many will be physics teachers etc?
Dear people, we have come this far.
If we retreat now without government's commitment to solve the problem, then we have auctioned our children.
Mine are not for sale.
Am sure yours are not.
I love my children.
Am sure you love yours too and perhaps even more.
Together therefore, let us stand up for them.
The teachers and students strike enters week three on Monday Dec 5th.
Let us make it work.
We are very close to the solution.
God bless and prosper the our children.
Bamenda, Dec 3rd 2016.
For the unions,
Tassang Wilfred,
NESG CATTU.
Cameroon government ask for submission of Francophone Teachers & Magistrates in Anglophone Cameroon
BREAKING : Yaounde instructs regional delegates to sort out the names of all francophones teaching In Anglophone schools prior to immediate transfers to francophone schools. This is same with the justice department.
However, our course continues. 1) The VC and governor of the SWR must go
2) We must be granted a federal system or outright independence
3) Others as per the wishes of southern Cameroonians
Please don't be deceived.
Circulate this to all your networks.
It is important we inform you of any calculated attempt by the BIYA regime. United we stand.
However, our course continues. 1) The VC and governor of the SWR must go
2) We must be granted a federal system or outright independence
3) Others as per the wishes of southern Cameroonians
Please don't be deceived.
Circulate this to all your networks.
It is important we inform you of any calculated attempt by the BIYA regime. United we stand.
Friday, December 2, 2016
How Stunch & Blunt Southern Cameroonians See PM's Decision of 1st December 2016 Subsidizing Lay Private Institutions with 2 Billions & 1000 Recruitment of Teachers
Biya thinks Southern Cameroonians Are Fools: We must be resolute
So the government today signs a decree ordering recruitment of 1000 bilingual teachers, then offers 2 billion subvention to lay private schools, creates an ad-hoc committee packed with government ministers. The government still does not get it. They always use money to divide the people. Now the government is hoping lay private schools will be fighting for 2 billion now rather than continuing the strike. How does the recruitment of 1000 Bilingual teachers solve the problem? Where are even the 1000 bilingual teachers? Is it not one of the questions the teachers were raising where Francophones are said to be packed in ENS Bambili and ENSET Kumba as such teachers are lacking to cover up in Anglophone schools etc? Do we have bilingual training schools in Cameroon where teachers are trained? This move is only geared at calming the situation. Teachers must not be fooled.
This government has shown no sincerity in solving the issues. They have not condemned the brutality on students and lawyers. Yet, they are fast in providing cosmetic solutions so that teachers will be back to class. Teachers and Lawyers must not fall to this cheap call of the signed decree. As it stands, the government just signed anything that could stop the strike. We know this government and how they do not keep promises. We know the history of creating committees. Teachers must shine their eyes.
Teachers should be aware not to betray the people, nor the lawyers. The only sustainable solution is FEDERATION OR INDEPENDENCE. Teachers and Lawyers and the Southern Cameroons people should rally under one platform. The people are into this. We need a unified platform that will champion the call, organize rallies etc. The Southern Cameroons people are ready to fund this.
I have been singing this again and again. Once the government succeeds in fooling teachers and lawyers with cosmetic solutions, they will come heavily at the teachers and lawyers union. They will destroy it and target the leaders.
Teachers and Lawyers should use this opportunity now that Southern Cameroonians are behind them to reach out to all that will meet the expectations of Anglophone Cameroonians.
So the government today signs a decree ordering recruitment of 1000 bilingual teachers, then offers 2 billion subvention to lay private schools, creates an ad-hoc committee packed with government ministers. The government still does not get it. They always use money to divide the people. Now the government is hoping lay private schools will be fighting for 2 billion now rather than continuing the strike. How does the recruitment of 1000 Bilingual teachers solve the problem? Where are even the 1000 bilingual teachers? Is it not one of the questions the teachers were raising where Francophones are said to be packed in ENS Bambili and ENSET Kumba as such teachers are lacking to cover up in Anglophone schools etc? Do we have bilingual training schools in Cameroon where teachers are trained? This move is only geared at calming the situation. Teachers must not be fooled.
This government has shown no sincerity in solving the issues. They have not condemned the brutality on students and lawyers. Yet, they are fast in providing cosmetic solutions so that teachers will be back to class. Teachers and Lawyers must not fall to this cheap call of the signed decree. As it stands, the government just signed anything that could stop the strike. We know this government and how they do not keep promises. We know the history of creating committees. Teachers must shine their eyes.
Teachers should be aware not to betray the people, nor the lawyers. The only sustainable solution is FEDERATION OR INDEPENDENCE. Teachers and Lawyers and the Southern Cameroons people should rally under one platform. The people are into this. We need a unified platform that will champion the call, organize rallies etc. The Southern Cameroons people are ready to fund this.
I have been singing this again and again. Once the government succeeds in fooling teachers and lawyers with cosmetic solutions, they will come heavily at the teachers and lawyers union. They will destroy it and target the leaders.
Teachers and Lawyers should use this opportunity now that Southern Cameroonians are behind them to reach out to all that will meet the expectations of Anglophone Cameroonians.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Uproar in Buea University Circle; As Government Cracks Down on students Rioting
✓Ngwa Afanwi Neba and many other Buea
University Students Found missing, dead, raped injured.
Missing just as many other students
who were whisked and are held captive at the Buea and Douala maximum security
Prison facilities and cells, simply because they are decrying bad management of
school administration, the non-respect of English as the sole language of
instruction, for the lack of disbursement of presidential grants and out right
penalties imposed on students to extort money on late registration.
This phenomenon of abusive University
management amongst a plethora of grievances accumulated to provoke the students
to rise up against University administration.
In response the Nalova Lyonga
University government of late has resorted to brutal and repressive measures.
Bringing into campus and all over Buea armed military men who have since taken
the town hostage with the firing of live ammunitions, tear gassing on harmless
students etc.
As we report, serial arrests are
still ongoing, most especially as the government and the Buea University
administration are trying to do all in their possible best to contain and stop
the infiltration of lawyers and teachers into the matter, given that they are
on an indefinite strike since October 6th.
These strike actions have since
engulfed all the Anglophone speaking part of Cameroon and is growing in
momentum daily. Demanding a clear status for Anglophone lawyers and democratic
cum social rights of teachers.
These dual scenes of late is turning
Buea up side down and causing many to flee for their dear lives as insecurity
challenge heightens.
Reaching our press room at press time
two students are reported dead, while others are being raped, injured and many
missing including one Ngwa Afanwi Neba who is one of the protest leaders as
hinted by his classmates to our reporter. What must be noted is that the sad
situation at stake is growing in momentum and demands urgent human rights
intervention or the worst is yet to come.
Biya Breaks the silence: Appeases Teachers & Puts up a Committee to Find Resolute Solutions after portracted Strikes in Anglophone Cameroon
Schools Likely to Resume Effectively in Anglophone Cameroon by Monday 5th December 2016
Paul biya gives the following to calm teachers
1.Donation of 2 Billions to all private,lay private and religious schools
2.Special recruitement of 1000 teachers for science subjects and they will be posted in schools /regions of high priority
.PM establishes task force to look into the grievances of English-speaking teachers. Task force is headed by PM's chief of staff, Ghoghomu Mingo and task force shall meet in Bamenda
Paul biya gives the following to calm teachers
1.Donation of 2 Billions to all private,lay private and religious schools
2.Special recruitement of 1000 teachers for science subjects and they will be posted in schools /regions of high priority
.PM establishes task force to look into the grievances of English-speaking teachers. Task force is headed by PM's chief of staff, Ghoghomu Mingo and task force shall meet in Bamenda
Friday, November 4, 2016
Confederation of Cameroon Anglophone Journalists for a United and Stable Cameroon (CCAJ-USCam) States Stand on Present State of Affairs in Cameroon as Tension Rise
In a
Press Briefing to hold today 4th November 2016 by 11 am The
Confederation shall be advancing their views on burning issues affecting the
life of the Cameroon Nation at the Nkwen Fon’s Palace. The Confederation as to
her Promoters Headed by Tamukong Roland Angong President Genral and Dotta
Ezikiel as Sectary General Shall be working under the modus operandi The Media
United for a Better Cameroon.
The
Mission of the Association or better still the Cameroon Anglophone Journalists
Movement to “safe Cameroon” in the phase of mounting crisis and tensions comes
at the foothills of flaring tempers and misunderstanding that is characterizing
this 21st century and needs the timely intervention of the Press
which is the fourth arm of the State and should be the first agent of peace
building. In the midst of these multiple challenges to a great nation of ours
which is undergoing the litmus test of decentralization it is but normal that
she is supposed to be subjected to the force of evolution at all levels which
irreversible, hence the advent of different shades of opinions which to our
reason or opinion should not be at the detriment of the growth of our economy or
provoke civil unrest. We each owe a duty and responsibility to this country
which is to be patriotic and guard over its integrity. If we are assembled here
today, it is for the purpose of our responsibility not to allow some gullible
Cameroonians cause, excite or exploit ignorant minds to stir civil disobedience
that will ground or plunge our economy into great crisis. Posterity shall judge
each and every one of us if in one way or the other we contributed positively
or negatively to the greatness of this nation. It is easy to say lets strike or
let’s go to war? But is it easy to quench the Fire? Another big question is
must we strike to be heard? Where is the role of dialogue? Should private
interest overshadow collective welfare in any advancement? In unity much still
has to be done? Are we sure after separation, we shall be able to survive? Take
a look at those championing the course? We are all quite aware of their selfish
and egoistic plans. It is in answer to all these questions that we conscious
and awakened journalist took up the initiative to STAND UP FOR OUR NATION WITH
TOMBS UP FOR A PEACEFUL NATION, A UNITED AND INDIVISIBLE CAMEROON WHERE SONS
AND DAUGHTERS WILL LIVE IN Love and harmony for EVER. As we look forward having all true Anglophone
Cameroonians swing into positive actions that will salvage the actions of any
machination orchestrated by some of these unpatriotic hired mercenaries.
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