French Cameroun: Rebellion Boils as Biya Seeks to Extend Rule
While President Paul Biya appears to be a shoo-in to extend his 36-year rule in elections next month, he’s had no success in stifling a rebellion in Anglophone regions that’s threatening to split the mainly French-speaking central African nation.
“I’m not surprised this happened,” said Agnes, a 66-year-old former civil servant who fled her farm in the Southwest Region where she’d hoped to retire and now lives with her son in the capital, Yaounde. “When there’s a lot of repression, there’s going to be an explosion,” she said, asking not to be identified by her family name.
Like Agnes, many Cameroonians are afraid to speak publicly about the country’s worst crisis in decades, fearing both the secret service and reprisals from the secessionists.
In a bid to sabotage the start of the school year this month, separatists murdered the headmaster of a primary school and abducted six girls from a secondary school. On Saturday, gunmen seized an excavator and dug a trench in a highway to the Northwest’s regional capital, Bamenda. They forced buses to stop and killed two passengers. The government responded by imposing an indefinite nighttime curfew in the Northwest Region.
Escalation of Violence
“Nothing can justify the atrocities committed by criminals who lay claim to the secessionist movement with their only goal being the disruption of the 2018-19 school year,” government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary said on Twitter. “We must all condemn in the strongest possible terms this escalation of violence.”
Oil-dependent Cameroon is increasingly a key regional hub, with roads and ports that are vital for landlocked neighbors including Chad and Central African Republic.
The only country in Africa with both English and French as official languages, Cameroon was split after World War I into a French-run zone and a smaller British-controlled area. They were unified in 1961, but the English-speaking minority, about a fifth of the population, has complained of marginalization for decades. Only in recent years did the struggle become violent.
“It’s taken this magnitude because there was no anticipation and no early efforts to quickly resolve the crisis,” Manasse Aboya Endong, a political science lecturer at the University of Douala, said in an interview. “Now, the movement has been hijacked by radicals who want to split up the state and refuse all mediation.”
At the same time, advocacy groups such as New York-based Human Rights Watch have documented evidence of troops killing protesters, jailing hundreds of people and burning down villages — allegations the government denies.
Widespread Discontent
The rebellion has highlighted widespread discontent with Biya and his handling of the crisis. Biya rules mainly by decree and often spends weeks at a time at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva for “private visits.” Government spokesman Bakary has defended the trips, saying Biya works very hard while he’s in Europe.
Biya has convened only one cabinet meeting this year, the first since 2015, and hasn’t addressed the revolt apart from a brief statement in November. His decision to run again was announced on Twitter.
“Nobody knows what the guy is thinking,” Akere Muna, a 66-year-old opposition candidate whose late father Salomon was Cameroon’s first Anglophone prime minister, said in an interview. “We have tens of thousands of people who are internally displaced, thousands of kids who can’t go to school, and yet the president doesn’t speak. We are in a rudderless ship.”
For God and Country, Anyone But Biya: The AGBAW-EBAI Debate
It is not rocket science to recognize that as Biya advances in age, he is showing more wear and tear most visibly in the form of his wrinkled face; the deterioration in his husky voice; the declining swagger of his gait; the alleged diapers and uncontrollable flatulence and protracted anal blasts in public and private outings.
As it is, the ailing 85-year octogenarian cuts the image of a living corpse and walking dead; an isolated man; frail, distraught, withdrawn, and completely out of touch with the reality of the country.
Cameroonians must therefore view all pro-Biya campaigners as treasonable felons and enemies of the nation who are only actuated by the impulse to line their pockets. They will be held accountable…
South West CPDM Forum: Martin Nkemngu is running away from Chief Tabetando and Co
A statement by Martin A. NKEMNGU rapporteur of the sub committee of the Theme “POLITICAL CHOICES OF THE SOUTHWEST REGION” presented at the Southwest Forum which held in Buea on 25th August, 2018.
Martin A. Nkemngu was appointed rapporteur in one of the four Committees of the Southwest Forum.
Their committee was under the Theme “POLITICAL CHOICES OF THE SOUTHWEST REGION ” under the chairmanship of Hon Benjamin Itoe assisted by Hon Nfor Tabetando.
The Committee had over 100 participants who deliberated on their theme.
The Committee deliberated and insisted on their choices.
The Rapporteur was mandated to readout at the plenary session what was dictated to him by the experienced statesmen who dominated the deliberations.
As a professional journalist i do not usually take sides on matters of public interest.
IF WHAT I READ HAS OFFENDED ANYBODY IN ANYWAY, I WISH TO STATE THAT IT WAS NEVER MY THOUGHTS OR BELIEFS.
I wish to use this opportunity to make it abundantly clear that I never went to the forum for any personal gain.
I further state that I left the forum without any financial or material compensation of any kind.
Thanks.
Fru Ndi’s next-of-kin blames Biya for Anglophone crisis
The main opposition party candidate in Cameroon’s October scheduled elections on Monday said, President Paul Biya is ‘‘the only one responsible’‘ for the conflict in the English-speaking regions of the country.
Joshua Osih, is himself a native of the North and Southwest regions in Cameroon, which have been plagued by a political crisis since 2016.
By the end of 2017, the crisis degenerated into a conflict between armed forces and English-speaking separatists, killing dozens, including at least 80 soldiers and police. 200,000 people were also forced to flee their homes.
“We have a problem with the system and this system has meant that we do not have simple political solutions to simple problems. We have a president who does not understand what is happening in Cameroon, who spends most of his time abroad and who thinks that sending the army as he did in the 1960s with the UPC can solve this problem. He can’t, Osih said.
Anglophone effect on October election
The shadow of this conflict hangs over the organization of the October 7 presidential election in the English-speaking zone, in which Osih and seven other candidates will face 85-year old Paul Biya.
This is the first time he’s running on the ticket of the Social Democratic Front, the main opposition party that was previously represented by its historic leader, John Fru Ndi.
Unlike other candidates, Osih says he is “against” a probe into charges of alleged abuses committed by the army in English-speaking areas, saying he believes, “there is a political responsibility that is far superior to the responsibility of mere military “.
AFP
Southern Cameroons Crisis: All the times the Mayor of Mamfe has contradicted his own arguments
John Ayuk Takunchong, the CPDM mayor of the Mamfe municipality has called on Manyus to stand behind the one and indivisible Cameroon idea blaming the Southern Cameroons Diaspora for the war currently going in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.
The Chief Tabetando acolyte warned that any attempt to frustrate the union with French Cameroun or leave the Republic of Cameroon would be a “betrayal” of the role played by the Cameroon army in defending the Bakassi Peninsular.
However, what is not well known is that until he decided to join the CPDM crime syndicate, Takunchong took the polar opposite position against the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé. Far from being a committed hard one and indivisible Cameroon campaigner, the mayor of Mamfe actually had a long record as a popular Southern Cameroons footballer of arguing for Southern Cameroons to sever ties with French Cameroun.
Here are some of the times that the mayor of Mamfe has fundamentally contradicted his own arguments vis-à-vis Southern Cameroons relationship with French Cameroun.
“I was never given a chance with the Indomitable Lions because I do not speak French”
Takunchong today is saying that our union with French Cameroun remains the best thing that ever happened. However, this was very far from his position before the Southern Cameroons revolution.
“I would vote to move away from these Francophones. I’m in favour of the creation of a state for Anglophones. I want us to be able to build our own national football team where players are selected because of their skills and not because they live in Douala and Yaoundé and can speak French.”
“The army camp in Besongabang has done more harm than good to my people”
Takunchong today delivered his support for the Cameroon government army stating that many Francophone soldiers died defending the Bakassi Peninsular. However, this is a long way from Takunchong’s previous position on the Cameroon military.
“I am not by any means happy with these Francophone soldiers in Besongabang. They have killed many of our young people and there hasn’t been any strong condemnation from Minister Agbor Tabi or Hon. Rose Abunaw,” Takunchong told an audience in early 2000 when troops went on a rampage in his native Besongabang and killed many young men and women. Many Besongabang citizens fled to Nigeria and nothing has been heard of them till this day.
The most Anti French Cameroun mayor in Southern Cameroons
Takunchong today is claiming that Southern Cameroonians need to send their children to school and that the Biya Francophone regime has done all what it can to provide quality education for Southern Cameroons kids.
However, during the period when Takunchong could not study in the University of Yaoundé due to his lack of mastery of the French language, he toured the nooks and crannies of Bonamousadi and Cradat condemning the fathers of reunification.
By Eyong Johnson Agbor in Buea
French Cameroun Politics: ELECAM clears Biya, eight others for October 7 polls
Cameroon’s electoral body, ELECAM, on Tuesday cleared nine candidates to run for the presidential polls slated for October 7, 2018. Incumbent Paul Biya is seeking to extend his 36 years in power by a fresh seven-year mandate.
The nine include Biya who leads the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM). His main challengers will be Joshua Osih of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and lawyer Akere Muna – a former head of the country’s bar association.
The other candidates to be present on the ballot paper include: Serge Espoir Matomba, Cabral Libii, Njifor Franklin, Maurice Kamto, Garga Haman and Ndam Njoya.
Over twenty candidates filed their candidacy to contest for the highest political seat of the land. ELECAM disqualified all but the nine above whiles one candidate is said to have withdrawn his candidacy.
The October 7 vote is seen as a stern test for the incumbent who has often won elections with huge margins. A current security crisis in the country’s Anglophone regions have continually affected Biya’s popularity.
Pro-independence groups under the banner of so called Ambazonia Republic continue to wage guerilla-style attacks on members of the security forces across the South-West and North-West – Anglophone regions.
Political watchers are projecting that for the opposition to effectively tackle Biya, there would need to be an alliance to back a common candidate but it remains to be seen in the next two months if they can pull off such a move.
Source: Africa News
Anglophonizing the Anglophone Crisis: SW Provincialists &the Graffi Derangement Syndrome
In what unfortunately, has become the unedifying trademark of their favorite pastime, there is a surge of Graffi-bashing on social media platforms by self-elected guardians of the SW estate who are engaged in a well-orchestrated campaign to divide and break the Anglophones resolve and resistance in the face of the genocidal war of attrition being waged by the vampire regime of the 85-year-old president Biya, now tottering on the borders of senile decay.These self-aggrandising buccaneers and CPDM hacks masquerading as SW opinion leaders have been gas lighting the dead horse of NW/SW divide,with a revanchist, xenophobic narrative that Northwesterners are the straw man of the ongoing Anglophone crisis. They are shamelessly vilifying Northwesterners for Biya’s genocide, even as the carnage continues unabated as soldiers struggle to contain a crisis that has escalated from a low-intensity conflict to full-blown military insurgency. We have seen this movie before, hence no one is fooled. The vast majority of Southwesterners know the Graffi man is not their enemy: it is the successive Francophone-dominated regimes from Ahidjo to Biya that have pillaged the SW region of its natural resources to finance a gangster kleptocracy in Yaoundé, leaving Southwesterners in abject poverty and misery. One million hate speeches and xenophobic attacks on Northwesterners will not change this reality; it is a fact!
Whilst it is true that the inflammatory postings by these CPDM cheerleaders are irritating, despicable and dishonourable; and although it may be annoying that this demented cast of sycophants, wallowing in such demeaning drama of adulation, can even pretend to speak on behalf of Southwesterners, their actions reflect the abysmal level of ignorance, misguidedness and mischief being communicated to gullible Anglophones, who might be tempted to believe their hallucinations. This would be a sad mistake. If anything, these ranting SW Provincialists are sick are demented and need help to get out of their impertinent self-flagellation. They suffer from Graffi Derangement Syndrome (GDS): a personality disorder which manifests as obsessive, compulsive and visceral hatred for anything graffi. GDS symptoms include inferiority complex, self-defeatism, impulsivity and self-denial and prognosis range from acute, chronic to critical, where patients have to be confined to the ICU –intensive care unit of xenophobia.
GDS patients blame Northwesterners for everything that is wrong with the SW and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions and self-inflicted disasters. Just read or listen to their garrulous banter and rationalizations for their Graffi-phobia and you will notice the illogical absurdities in their apposite attacks on Northwesterners, is matched by a penchant for finger-pointing, actuated by a primitive vendetta of self-abnegation and a certain blind, narrow-minded hate, borne of an unseemly grievance prejudice against the Graffi man. For example, nihilistic soldiers have burnt down villages in the SW, raped, tortured, murdered and arrested thousands and forced thousands of other Southwesterners to flee their villages into the bushes. Anyone who claims to be a defender of SW interests would be calling the regime out for these crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations. But these sycophants want us to blame the Graffi man. If this is not the climax of hypocrisy that stinks to the high Heavens, one wonders what else is.
Externalizing the problems bedevilling the SW and trying to make Northwesterners as the bogeyman will, in no way alter the calculations on the ground where the guns are now doing the talking. Whatever moral equivalency these self-elected defenders of the SW estate try to establish, the fact remains that they do not speak for the majority of Southwesterners. Their bile and vitriol, ornamented with bellicose and provocative grandiloquence against Northwesterners, advertises in spectacular fashion, the fact that the so-called one, united and indivisible Cameroon is a hoax!These self-seeking opportunists, lack the intellectual capacity to understand the explosive danger and futility of divisive micro-nationalism. Else, how can Southwest CPDM elite and their Graffi-hating bigots be preaching national unity, while at the same time declaring Northwesterners as persona non grata in the SW; in violation of the Constitution which gives every Cameroonian the right to settle in any part of the country?
It is a pity that we must witness the circus of this pathetic skull duggery unfolding on social media.Indolent Southwesterners will always play the victim and pander to the regime for political crumbs by increasing their nuisance value to seek for public notice. Unfortunately, it is a waste of time trying to use facts, logic and reason to cure GDS. Now that we know these ranting SW Provincialists are afflicted by Graffi Derangement Syndrome; now that the flatulence of their fibs and their shameless attempt to distort and muffle our history has been exposed, we should not condemn them; rather we should pity them. Obviously, they are vexatious to the spirit, but our collective memory can filter whatever narrative they want to foist on us.They believe they are winning when other well-meaning Anglophones engage them on social media. We should therefore ignore them, and instead pray for the remission of their sins against Ambazonia.
Anglophones cannot afford to be distracted by people who speak the language of yesterday with such profound recklessness without any due consideration of the consequences of projecting such a narrow political agenda. That anyone not blinded by prejudice or self-interest would champion hypocrisy and double-speak as the war cry for SW nationalism is clearly beyond commonsense.How can anyone really believe that because he had an unsavory experience with one Northwesterner, all Northwesterners are bad people?How can anyone argue that a mistake made in 1961 was a life sentence that Anglophones cannot correct? Southwesterners must not allow themselves to be stampeded by an eccentric minority of Graffi-haters and detractors. The regime is desperate to break the momentum of the resistance because it cannot win the war on the battlefield.We must unite with our NW brothers and sisters because together we cannot fail. We must keep faith with the sacred covenant signed with the blood of those who have paid the ultimate price, so that we should be free.This struggle is no less our struggle;than it is that of the Ambazonia fighters on ground zero or the Anglophone Diaspora.
The challenge for Southwesterners is to rise above narrow ethno-tribal geo-political considerations that undermine our struggle for freedom.The fury of the enemy continues to be unleashed on our people, many of whom have been killed. Why should we give up now when nothing has changed? Think about those who have paid the ultimate price for this struggle. And then ask yourself: was it a Graffi man who burned my village? Was it a Graffi man who raped my daughter or sister? Was it a Graffi man who arrested, tortured and killed my father, mother and brother? Granted that the NW/SW relationship has many challenges, there is more that unites us than divides us. If we as one people remain resolute and defiant in the face of genocide; if we recognize that this struggle is not about us individually and focus on the big picture; then, Southwesterners should not continue in coward servility because it is folly to listen to the advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that if we castigate Northwesterners, Southwesterners will henceforth cease to be second-class citizens and the SW region will no longer suffer marginalization and discrimination.
On a personal note,I would ordinarily not join issues with these Graffi Derangement Syndrome victims,because they are mentally challenged and their arguments are neither grounded in historical facts nor logic, reason or commonsense; but on subjective personal emotions. But I feel constrained to speak out, particularly now, because there is a misdirected campaign by revisionist bigots to re-write Southern Cameroons history, while acting out the divide-and-conquer script written by the CPDM regime. It was Ayukogem Stephen Ojong; Publisher of The Median Newspaper who remarked in exasperation that Southwesterners held the Prime Minister’s job for 12 years and nothing substantial came out of it for the region. Achidi Achu held it for four years and created an expansive business and middle class in the NW region. And when push came to shove during the fundraising for Biya’s humanitarian genocide relief for Anglophones, just four Northwesterners – Baba Danpullo, Shey Jones Yembe, Eric Njong and Goddy Talla contributed about FCFA 100 million; more than the total amount raised by the entire Southwest region. Of course, the Graffi man is responsible for the inability of Southwesterners to rise up to the challenge of personal example, which is the hallmark of true leadership!
Those ranting SW provincialists and their paymasters must understand that Graffi-bashing as a national pastime and favored political sport by SW CPDM elite has had its day and must now end in the interest of the collective Anglophone struggle for freedom.The ridiculous assertion that the Graffi man is responsible for everything that is wrong with the Southwest is laughable and should attract no further comment. Let me assure our Northwest brothers and sisters that the silent majority of Southwesterners are not afflicted by Graffi Derangement Syndrome.
By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, Boston, USA
Open Letter to His Eminence, Christian Cardinal Tumi
Your Eminence, Christian Cardinal Tumi,
Allow me to use this opportunity to congratulate on your effort to seek a lasting solution to the ongoing crisis in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
Your Eminence, allow me to also express my gratitude to you for the positions you have always taken when there are issues facing our country, especially issues bordering on human rights violation and poverty which have a tendency to dehumanize our fellow human beings.
You have always spoken out against bad governance in Cameroon and your publications and interviews stand to attest to your love and respect for human dignity.
Regarding the All Anglophone Conference that you and your peers have decided to convene, I would like to express my total support to your effort. The conflict in Southern Cameroons has resulted in the killing of thousands of civilians and soldiers and this should not be any good news to any right-thinking person.
Human life is sacred and we all have the responsibility of protecting life. It is a shared responsibility and we all have to pull our fair share of the weight.
It is unfortunate that many have been killed in this conflict. However, I strongly believe that there is hope on the horizon. We cannot bring back those who have died, but we can work together to ensure that we do not lose more lives.
The conference you and your peers are proposing could be that trigger that might bring about a change in thinking among the warring factions. War has never solved any problem. At best, it has only made things worse. We all should ensure that human life should not be wasted and that conflicts should be resolved at the negotiating table.
During this challenging moment, voices like yours are needed to help calm down tempers. I hope you will use your privileged position to mobilize Southern Cameroonians, many of whom are longing for peace in their country.
Many Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora want to attend your conference. The idea is commendable and many hold that it could bring about some useful recommendations which, if well implemented, could spare the country the specter of war that is hanging over our heads.
However, they have a few concerns. Over the last two years, the government has been arresting and jailing Southern Cameroonians living abroad when they come back home to visit their loved ones. For those who hold foreign passports, they are usually denied entry into the country. This has been a source of frustration for many members of the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora.
These measures by the government have created a rift between the government and the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora; a rift that has made it hard for the government to use these efficient resources for the economic development of our country.
As a major convener of this conference, I hope you are taking the appropriate steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur at the airports and even when the conference participants are in the country.
I would like to underscore that the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is a major force and its weight and influence have been felt during this conflict. If members of this Diaspora are not brought to the table to share their perspective, the resolutions and recommendations of your conference may just be as good as a dead letter.
In this regard, I would like to hail your call for a general amnesty for all Southern Cameroonians living abroad and at home. Your call for the release of all those arrested within the framework of this conflict is also commendable. I know the government has not been very open to this idea. Are there any steps you and your peers are taking to ensure that the government pays heed to your call?
The Diaspora is looking forward to the resolution of these issues. Their resolution is necessary for your conference to attract some of the country’s best and brightest. Cameroon needs all its sons and daughters and a conference like the one you have convened will go a long way in bringing many factions together.
I look forward to having answers to the questions I have raised in this letter.
Sincerely,
Joachim Arrey
About the Author: The author of this letter has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator from the Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters (ASTI), Buea, and holds a Ph.D. He could be reached at: arreyjoachim@hotmail.com.
Southern Cameroons Crisis: “Five Adjustments To Make The Cardinal TUMI Mediation Work”
This Op-Ed serves to contribute to the recent initiative by some Church leaders in Cameroon to seek lasting solution to the Anglophone crisis that has recently taken the turn of an armed conflict. On July 25, 2018; leaders from the Catholic, Presbyterian and Muslim Church communities in the Anglophone regions announced a peace plan to resolve the on-going conflict in Cameroon. The plan involves as necessary first step, the holding of an “Anglophone General Conference” (AGC) convened for August 29-30, 2018 in Buea. The aim of the AGC is to seek consensus among Anglophones on the “issues to be examined at a yet-to-be convened national dialogue, as well as freely designate Anglophone representatives at that dialogue”. The conveners of the AGC designated Dr. Simon Munzu, an international luminary and renowned Cameroonian civil society leader, as their spokesperson and also outlined a number of initiatives that the Cameroon government should take to ensure a smooth conference participation by all Anglophone Cameroonians. These initiatives include notably, an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of all detainees, and a general amnesty.
Already, some voices within the Cameroonian diaspora, which has been the brain behind the armed separatist movement, have raised a number of critical concerns regarding the form and modalities of holding such a conference in Cameroon at this time. Let me highlight just three of the main concerns of the separatists. First, separatists claim that the time for dialogue with the government of Cameroon has passed and now is the phase of mediation as the crisis has transitioned to an armed conflict. They also criticize the choice of Dr. Simon Munzu as spokesperson of the AGC, given his controversial vocal stance for a federal Cameroon. Federation is no longer an option for a solution to the conflict, according to the separatists. Lastly, the separatists fear that, even with an amnesty, the Cameroon government is capable of rounding them up while in Buea, attending the AGC. And there are legitimate reasons to distrust the government, notably at the start of the crisis, representatives of the then Cameroon Civil Society Consortium that met with the government to dialogue were arrested soon after the meetings. Separatists are thus suggesting a safe venue outside of Cameroon for the AGC and for a neutral spokesperson, instead of Dr. Simon Munzu.
Let me quickly comment on the initiative by the Church authorities and suggest ways of making this work, considering the concerns raised by the separatists.
The peace plan to gain consensus on the root cause of the Anglophone Problem, it’s solution as well as to designate representatives to a broader national dialogue; dovetails nicely with the biblical approach to resolving conflicts that I opined not long ago in a piece circulated on social media in early June 2018. In particular, it’s of prime essence to have genuine interlocutors of the Anglophone Problem. Although there are two clear parties to the on-going armed conflict in Cameroon, the interlocutors on the side of the separatists are highly divided ideologically and the risks of the conflict becoming intra (among the separatists themselves) is high. Thus, a conference with the stated objectives is highly welcomed as a necessary first step towards dialogue/mediation/negotiation to resolve the conflict.
Now to make the Anglophone General Conference work, there’s more to do and a few more conditions to be fulfilled than the conveners have proposed.
1. In a situation of an on-going armed conflict, there’s need not only for a ceasefire but also for supervision of the ceasefire, in order to limit any further casualties. This necessitates the intervention of the UN in Cameroon, through its peace-keeping arm. The presence of UN peace keepers will also reassure displaced populations about their safety thereby contributing to a smooth holding of the AGC.
2. Although understanding the urgency of the need for a lasting solution to the conflict, the holding of the AGC need not be hurried. The proposed date seems rather hasty and fears are that the conference might not contribute to healing and an atmosphere of detente, if some perceive it’s timing as corresponding to the electoral calendar in Cameroon. This crisis has been on-going for about two years and several peace building initiatives by the government need to take place for trust to build on both sides. That takes time but the timing of the conference a few months to the forthcoming presidential elections to hold in October 2018 sends mixed messages. I would suggest a date for the AGC further ahead, preferably after the presidential elections.
3. Given the fact that the leadership of the separatist movement mostly reside in the diaspora, to ensure their effective participation and representation at the AGC, there need to be a preparatory conference of Anglophone Cameroonians in the diaspora (preferably held in the US) where representatives of the diaspora community to the AGC would be designated.
4. Participants at the AGC should be allowed to elect their own spokesperson and Dr. Munzu (the conveners’ spokesperson’s) mandate should end on day one of the conference, unless he is elected at the meeting to continue.
5. Following the AGC, the next stage of dialogue/negotiation/mediation, should be between the belligerent parties (that is, between the Cameroon government and would-be representatives of the Anglophone community) and not a national dialogue per se, as the Church leaders propose. The resolution of a crisis/conflict, needs to be primarily between the belligerents, of course, inter-mediated by third parties. The role of the international community and friends of Cameroon would be to facilitate as mediators.
By Dr. Julius A. Agbor, Associate Professor at Vanguard University of Southern California (USA)
Author is a Political Economist, and Associate Professor at Vanguard University of Southern California, Formerly, a Research Fellow at the Africa Growth Initiative of the Brookings Institution in Washington DC
Also, a contributor to the NY Times.
Biya poised to become president for life
Cameroon’s President Paul Biya is poised to win a seventh term of office come October 7, which will see him extend his 36 years rule and become a life president.
Like in 2011, the 85-year-old president said his decision to run again was a nod to overwhelming calls for him to do so. His supporters already see victory for the incumbent.
Higher Education minister and the communication secretary for the governing Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM), Prof Jacques Fame Ndongo, said the incumbent will “win the election in all transparency”. Prof Ndongo reckons that President Biya remains the best choice for Cameroon because he respects republican institutions.
Arrested and detained
To the CPDM members, many of who hold hold key government positions, President Biya is indispensable and his succession is considered a taboo topic within government and the political party circles.
In April 2016, some opposition party militants, including the 2011 presidential candidate, Ms Edith Kah Walla, were arrested and detained in Yaoundé for protesting against Biya’s long stay in power and persistent brutality against voices opposed to his attempt to be “president for life”.
Yet, there is seemingly no reason to think President Biya will not win again.
A group of 20 opposition political party leaders have thrown their weight behind the candidature of incumbent. The “Group of 20 or G20” among who are four who were in the race to unseat Biya in 2011, said they had decided to give their “total and unconditional support” to the veteran because he “possesses the qualities and wherewithal necessary for the maintenance of peace, stability, national unity, economic progress and the respect of Cameroon in the international community.”
The challenges
A member of the G20, Barrister Jean de Dieu Momo of the Democrat Patriots for the Development of Cameroon (PADDEC), who was eighth with a 0.49 per cent score in the 2011 poll, said the opposition cannot win a presidential election by presenting multiple candidates. To him, President Biya had “already won” the upcoming election with a 70 per cent score.
In his tweet that announced he would be in the run, the president said he was “aware of the challenges we must take up together to ensure a more united, stable & prosperous Cameroon”.
Tongues have been wagging that President Biya was too old to run, but the constitution does not make any provision for that. His supporters, on their part, are argue that at his age, and with his experience, he had exceptional mettle and values, which give him a considerable head-start vis-à-vis other contenders, to handle the challenges the Cameroon was facing.
Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Africa’s longest-serving leader, in power for more than 38 years. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Should he win another mandate, President Biya will be 92 by the time the tenure ends in 2025.
President Biya, who grudgingly accepted the introduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s, repealed the term limits in 2008. He has ranked near the top in almost every list of the “World’s Worst Dictators” that has been published since 2005.
Political pundits say Cameroon had made more political losses than gains under the 36-year leadership of President Biya. The leader inherited a stable, united and prosperous Cameroon in 1982, but the country dropped from a middle income to a low income economy today.
Cameroon has a one-round presidential election system where a candidate only has to garner the most number of votes to be declared winner. No percentage threshold exists.
In most African countries that practice the one-round electoral system, incumbents have always emerged victorious. Such a systems, some Cameroonians claim, had contributed to President Biya’s over three decades stay at the helm.
Five million
Though President Biya has always been elected, critics say he was an illegitimate leader. Their arguments were a legion and one of them was that a president elected by less than five million people in a country with over 20 million inhabitants was not legitimate.
In 2011 for example, President Biya won the election with just 3,772,527 votes .
The 2018 presidential election comes at a time Cameroon was faced with several challenges including a separatist movement in its two English speaking Northwest and Southwest regions. Anglophone separatist activists who have been clamouring for secession and the creation of the Republic of Ambazonia, have warned that they would not allow any election organised by the Yaoundé regime to take place in “their country”.
But Mr Abdoul Karimou, the deputy Director General of Elections at the Cameroon poll agency, ELECAM said they would organise the vote in the regions “but ensuring security is the responsibility of the state”.
Regional bloc
A political scientist and member of the governing party, Prof Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, said the vote would take place in the strife-hit regions and Cameroonians who would not feel like going to vote “have the right not to vote”.
While awaiting the final list to be published by ELECAM, latest August 8, President Biya has to face 27 opposition parties which have submitted their candidacy files. Scores of them are new comers, considered as light weight without enough experience to challenge the 36 years old system.
President Biya is Africa’s second longest-serving head of state. Only Equatorial Guinea counterpart Teodoro Obiang’ Nguema Mbasogo is ahead of him, by three years. In Congo Brazzaville, another regional bloc CEMAC state, Denis Sassou Nguesso has now served 34 years in two different stints, from 1979 to 1992 and then again since 1997.
Source: The East African