In this situation, the SCNC is duty-bound to
herein below, scientifically explain the implications of these Resolutions for
the benefit of all Southern Cameroons citizens.
Generally speaking, the UN General Assembly
voted overwhelmingly to re-affirm its commitment to the principle of
self-determination as the Divine Right of all peoples.
This re-assertion indicates that the World
Body is fully aware and concerned about the different levels of human rights
abuses, and certainly will eventually resolve our annexation problem.
Specifically speaking, the list of the
remaining colonial territories comprising American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda,
British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guam, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Saint
Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands, still
in the possession of the United States, Britain, and France, does not include
the Southern Cameroons.
The meaning is that the Southern Cameroons was
already de-colonized.
Elsewhere the UN has published another list of 15
Territories, including the Southern Cameroons as former Trust Territories which
were decolonized by 1994. (See UN website sources URL:
The first essential message implied – by
having not included our territory among those to be decolonized – is that we were
already Independent as of 1st October 1961 even though most of our
intellectual elite continue to be unaware.
The second message is that our problem is annexation, which means the swallow-up
of our state by another state. And its de-annexation
requires an entirely different procedure.
This analysis is especially important to some
of our Nationalist Movements such as the UNO-State Group and the Southern
Cameroons Lawyers Association. They have wrongly continued to insist that we
need to be independent, whereas our quest at the present stage is for Sovereign
Recognition since we are already independent as of 1st October 1961.
It is also important to some of our
compatriots who unfortunately are calling for an armed struggle, being ignorant
that an Independent State does not articulate our annexation type of problem
through armed struggle. It would, like in war-torn Syria, destroy our country
before we return to the very peace table where we should have started.
How we achieved Full Independence.
By scientific analysis the SCNC has 72 proofs
of our Separate Independence from
that of the Francophone Republic of Cameroun. But suffice us to here-in below
present you just a half dozen of the most elementary of them.
1.
The Plebiscite “Yes”
vote was a decision to achieve Independence, and not to “join” whom ever for
two reasons.
The Independence issue was prioritized by
being given the first position in the Plebiscite Question of “Do You Wish to
Achieve Independence by Joining Nigeria?” Or “Do You Wish To Achieve Independence
By Joining the Republic of Cameroon?”
The issue of Independence was the antecedent
of the condition of “joining”, meaning that it was indispensable, whereas the “joining”, was merely secondary.
A simple analogy is that in a similar question
of “Do You Wish to Go to New York by Air or by Sea”, the most important point
is the decision to go to New York. It is not the means of transport.
Furthermore, the UN endorsement vote of 19th
April 1961 on the outcome of the Plebiscite was on our decision to achieve
independence, and NOT on any “Joining”.
If the endorsement vote was for the “joining”,
the United Nations would not have called for the Post-Plebiscite International
Conference whereat the conditions of “joining” were still to be discussed and
its “modalities” worked out.
The second reason is that throughout the
72-year history of the United Nations, the Organisation grants Independences.
That is why it designated 1st October 1961 as the Independence Day
of Southern Cameroons. Indeed, the World Body has never granted any “joining”
2.
The UN-required
post-Plebiscite international conference did not hold, so there was no occasion
to have established any “joining” between us and the Francophone Republic of
Cameroun through a Treaty which could only have resulted from an International
Conference.
It should be understood that the substituted
Foumban conference did not meet the standard of an International Conference, to
have worked out the required Treaty.
It follows that “The Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Cameroon”, ironically called by the county’s entire virgin name at
the suffix, as well as the multitude of other
subsequent constitutions therefrom, do not have the weight of a Treaty.
And being strictly the exclusive Fundamental
Law of the Francophone Republic, it has no binding force on the statehood of
Southern Cameroons.
Worse still neither Britain nor the UN – which
was to witness the occasion – informed the Southern Cameroons government that
they would not attend the conference. Obviously the Southern Cameroons
government would not have proceeded to the venue to be dominated by an
overwhelming number of the francophone delegation.
With this vacuum the Francophone Republic was
able, through a mere revision of their virgin constitution to impose their
name, flag, anthem, code of arms and national capital on the Southern Cameroons
till date, as the insignia of a Federation which was never constituted.
And the Southern Cameroons became a mere
appendix.
3.
It is further
noteworthy that in the aftermath of the failure to convene the International
Conference, the United Nations did not call-off, suspend, or cancel their grant
of independence to Southern Cameroons.
Similarly Britain, the Administering
Authority, did not deny delivering the independence, which would have happened
by continuing to maintain their Trusteeship presence in the Territory.
Furthermore, the Republic of Cameroun, on
their part, did not complain about the irregularity of federating with another
independent state without a prior Treaty.
As a result, the Southern Cameroons
majestically moved forward and consummated her full Independence on the
designated 1st October, 1961.
The term consummated means the populations
celebrated the event, which affixed their Permanent Seal on the Independence.
It follows that, there was no longer any
Independence “by joining” as such, meaning that we unconditionally achieved
Full Independence inadvertently.
This Sovereign Class of Independence is the
very type that most African countries achieved, which our people were
clamouring for as a “third option”, but the British brushed aside.
4.
There have been
external confirmations to our independence. Aside from the UN excluding us from
being either a colony or a Trust Territory, the Republic of Cameroun has itself
repeatedly recognised our separate Independence.
For instance, they placed the representative
star of Southern Cameroons on their flag from 1961 to 1972 which symbolises
that we were separately independent to have qualified for a star.
5.
Another piece of
evidence is that the Republic of Cameroun inserted the word “United” and the
name of the country at some point became United Republic of Cameroon. Whenever
the term “United” appears in the name of a country it shows that the states
that formed the supposed federation were independent states.
An example is the use of the terminology
“United” to describe the 52 states of the USA which shows that the states were
independent countries that came together as equals.
The same applies to “United” in the name
United Kingdom, which is also emphasising that Wales, Scotland, Northern
Ireland and England were independent kingdoms that united as equal partners.
6.
Finally, on the 20th
of February 2014 during a fake re-unification celebration in Buea (fake because
re-unification does not exist where there was no prior unification in terms of
a joint independence), Mr. Biya himself declared that the Southern Cameroons is
an independent state. The population was clapping without understanding the
message.
In the speech a copy of which we have, for
whoever may wish to verify, he said “history cannot forget that Buea was once
the Headquarters of West Cameroon”, and “history cannot also forget that Buea
was once the Capital of Southern Cameroons”
The meaning is that when our country was an
un-independent territory Buea, the seat of government was a mere headquarters.
But when we achieved independence, the very Buea transformed into a Capital.
Conclussion
Having proved that the Southern Cameroons is a
fully independent State from whatever angle of analysis, the implied United
Nations message to us through its recent Resolutions is not that we pursue our
de-annexation by armed struggle.
Rather, it is for us to proceed through pure
democratic means, using established UN Institutions. The ideal procedure is for
us to begin from litigation, the outcome of which would enable us rouse the
international community to act. This is the way (path) the smaller Republic of
Cameroun went (took) before redeeming the Bakassi Peninsular from the almighty
Nigeria. Not even the Security Council can veto the decision of a court.
This is the vision that, after 11 years of
research and analysis, guided the SCNC to first sue the Republic of Cameroon in
the local high Court in Bamenda, Southern Cameroons in September 2011.
The dismissal verdict six months later coupled
with two related arrests of Thomas NWACHAN, the primary researcher and filer of
the case, helped open the door for the case to enter the Geneva-based UN Human
Rights Committee.
Our 72-page petition by reason of 400 synoptic
arguments, jointly and severally indicting the Francophone Republic, Britain
and the UN, was received by the court on April 9, 2014.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are in regular
contact with the court to which we have submitted further evidence on demand.
But you know the court takes its time between three to five years to render its
verdict.
However, we are confident of a victorious
outcome, considering the positive results of the previous personal cases of two
of our citizens, Gorgi Dinka and Albert Mukong, against the Republic of Cameroun
by this very court.
It follows that we must watch out against
repeating the errors of the past. As an Independent State we can no longer
concede to the deceptive proposals of another referendum, constitutional
reform, re-federation, and Vice-Presidency when there is no prior Treaty to
anchor any of these reforms.
This
does not suggest that there is now room for a Treaty either. Not only is it
impossible to reconvene the UN-prescribed post-Plebiscite International
Conference, the parties to the Treaty no longer exist for the following
reasons, as well.
The Trusteeship Authority expired on 30th
September 1961, with the downing of the British flag. So neither the UN nor
Britain can return to the Southern Cameroons to work out the Treaty, on the
basis of the Trusteeship Agreement. In addition, as an independent State only
the Southern Cameroons can work out a Treaty between herself and whomever.
Furthermore, the Republic of Cameroun tore
away the democratically elected government of Southern Cameroons in 1972, so
there is no legitimate government representing the Southern Cameroons with whom
to work out any such Treaty today.
Thus the Francophone Republic will finally be
left alone to be licking its wounds. Since, in light of the foregoing
arguments, the Southern Cameroons is bound to be restored its deserved
sovereignty.
Long Live the SCNC
Long live the UN Right to Self Determination
Long Live the Would-Be State of Southern Cameroons
Signed:
THOMAS N. NWACHAN
B.A. Hist., M.A Pol. Sc., M.A Mgt.
1969 combined winner of Fulbright
of US Congress, and
The Lawrence Wien International
Scholarships
Through Brandeis University,
Mass, USA.
World Echoes Newspaper Group Inc.
International Graphics Designer (Dash Graphics) Releases her 2016 Invitation
Letter format for the 2016 Press Innovation Award to Sustainable Development
Actors in Cameroon. Promoting the Values of the Private Sector Economy, Nation
Building and National Security. Have a Fulfilled Aesthetic Glance as we Look
Forward Hosting You on that Blessed Historic 9th Day of July at the CamCCUL
Building, Commercial Avenue, Bamenda, Cameroon,
West Africa 12.Noon.
