“LOOKING AHEAD AND BUILDING A FUTURE AS THE DESTINY OF THE CAMEROONIAN YET TO BE BORN, IS WHAT WE SHOULD ALL HUNGER FOR” By: Tamukong Roland A.

To handle this task with perfection, the builders of this nation should avoid pillars of social inequality at which citizens of the same Country are given different attentions – wealth, prestige, or power. This nation (francophones and Anglophones) is characterized by some degree of social inequality that is blowing some hot air into the nostrils of the Anglophones causing the exposure of their bitterness, and a cry for situations to be normalized in the interest of peace, unity and brotherhood. It is just a natural phenomenon that no child disturbs the mother out of hatred, but does that out of love and the desire to be given due care. Same it goes that the Anglophone two Regions are not disturbing out of hatred for their brothers the francophones, but out of love and the fundamental desire to be given the care that they have missed since re-unifucation.

            The Social inequality between the eight francophone and the two Anglophone Regions of Cameroon is quite with a big margin as the   Regions of francophone stand high in Social rankings and they control more state resources, wield state power, receive and render better treatment in offices due to the fact that francophones in all the offices (private and public) over-ride the Anglophones. The consequences of this stratification are evident in the unequal distribution of state resources that leave the Anglophones dis-satisfied, frustrated, angry and have to dine with the demon of secession. So many Anglophones have asked to my hearing, “what was the essence of Ahidjo/Foncha marriage?”

            This question goes with the answer hanging in the wind because with the many years of re-unification, Cameroon is not quite United in the true sense of social equality from all to all. The Anglophones should not be blamed for disturbing , because no dis-satisfied, frustrated and angry person thinks positively. There is an iota of madness in all persons suffering from dis-satisfaction, frustration and anger. So, it goes with the Anglophones who are detained in Yaounde and to be tried in a military Court. Looking at them from the point that they are all suffering from an iota of madness and had to do what they did the Head of State President Paul Biya should grant them State pardon. They are mad people and they deserve the Head of State’s pardon.

            Of course, each Region ought to have a fair-share of state resources. This is where there is a conflict over how these resources are being distributed, as the two Anglophone regions remain weeping on the dry rocks of re-unification. Those that the gods want to destroy, they first render them mad, like those detained in Yaounde. Even though they did what they ought not to do, for the fact that they are suffering from an iota of madness, the Head of state should have mercy on them and use his prerogative powers to send them to a mental-care hospital than allowing them to be imprisoned or condemned to death. Because there is a lot of implication in the stratification of the nation, the need did arise for the creation of a commission on Bilingualism and multiculturalism to seek solutions to the Anglophone cry of being left on the dry rocks of re-unification. At this point of matters, the Commission should direct her attention to the needs of the various regions, for a fair distribution of state resources to avoid people getting mad out of dis-satisfaction, frustration and anger.

            At this point of matters still, the need might arise to let the regions have regional governments, so that the people can have a choice on how to apply their share of what ever equally comes from the central government in Yaounde.  With the centralization in Yaounde, the government as what it is today, can not talk of balance distribution of resources for development when there is stratification and resources for development in the various regions, drop at the whims and caprices of the powers that be. In this circumstance, the Anglophones find themselves greatly cheated and therefore , their cry and disturbances cannot be doubted, hoping that there can be a restructuring of relationship for a realistic united Cameroon through negotiation. The term negotiation here refers to an attempt to reach agreement with others concerning some objectives. Negotiation does not involve coercion. It goes by bargaining, compromising, trading off, mediating, exchanging, and collusion. Negotiation occurs in various ways. The negotiation for the reconciliation of the present stale-mate in Cameroon, will require not only social interactions which the commission on Bilingualism and multiculturalism might easily handle, but goes further to seek some negotiation orders that will require social structures that will derive their existence from social  interactions of the people, through which all can define without doubts their characters.

            This is where the commission should avoid being seen or taken for a bell jingled to cause angry Anglophones to laugh. The commission should immediately get the bull by its horns and come up with guidelines for negotiation to start effectively. This is because when the commission will go about its work, it shall handle a lot of social orders involving Coercion, but might fail to notice other interactions between Anglophones and francophones that require negotiation orders. Let the Commission build a foundation that will carry a realistic united Cameroon, as the destiny of posterity to which they shall all be accountable at the end. Should the Commission fail to provide negotiation orders to the Anglophone problem, it will be seen tomorrow as another giant project of the government that like others, became laughing stocks to the world, and the peace and unity of Cameroon will remain threatened to our sorrow, as Anglophones remain on dry rocks and will want to seceed.

            Negotiation can bring about statuses liberation for any position in government and/or the private sectors to be occupied buy any best applicant, no matter the tack of Anglophone or francophne that he carries on the neck. When we look at status here, we refer to the full range of socially defined positions, from the lowest to the highest. In this sense, any Cameroonian can work towards achieving the status of a leader and finally move to enjoying the assigned status of the President without discrimination. Let the languages of our former colonial masters be to ease our communication and not devices to determine relationship and for one language to be seen inferior to the other. We should be united for nation building to a point that none is seen to be dispensable because he carries a tack of ascribed statuses-anglophone or francophone.

            To keep Cameroon one and indivisible is a task that we must all see it accomplished. With all hands on deck-Anglophones and francophones alike, we must work together to build a united and prosperous nation that our children can inherite as their destiny. Our time is too short, we are doing too little and much is waiting to be done. We should not take the precious time and national resources that would have been used for our socio-economic and political development, to fight a meaningless war like others have done. We have to beware of our brothers and sisters who have the tendencies of secession. Out of greed, they want to fragment the nation, with nothing thereafter to offer for the socio-economic and political growth of the people.

            Fellow Cameroonians, don’t say you were not warned. We need to solve the Anglophone problem once and for all, by working together –Anglophones and Francophones hand in glove. We need peace, harmony and Unity now more than ever because the wild wind of ghost-towns that is blowing about has unknown faces behind the mask with hiden stories to be unveiled for a bleak future to all- Anglophones and Francophones. We shall all regret the lost of loved ones, feel the pains of deep wounds and regret jumping into the wild forest as refugees. We shall go begging for food, water and shelter, that we have enough now and are proud to keep refugees from other countries, that were not wise enough to solving problems through negotiation, but took to war.

            As the wind of ghost-towns and the faces behind the mask keep blowing the cannon of war closer to a point of explosion, we should all ask ourselves the questions, what is really wrong that we cannot put it right by negotiating? Must we go to war rather than seeking solutions to our problems? Has war ever been a solution to human problems in the history of mankind?” Answers are blowing in the wind.