Eurozone’s third-largest economy may exit single currency
Italians are expected to vote in an upcoming constitutional referendum, the result of which could raise the possibility of the country’s exit from the euro single currency, a worrisome issue for the European Union already grappling with Brexit. The referendum will take place on Sunday on Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s proposed changes to the constitution that will reduce the role of the Senate and rein in the powers of regional governments.
He has argued that the reforms will increase political stability in the European country. However, opponents fear that the constitutional changes will lead to an excessive centralization of power. In a final appeal in the city of Florence on Friday, Renzi called on Italians to support his reforms, saying the country could become Europe’s strongest nation if the “Yes” vote wins.
Renzi has promised to resign if he loses the Sunday ballot, with the members of his Democratic Party vowing early elections in 2017 in that case. This is while all opinion polls over the past month suggested that the Italian premier is likely to lose the ballot. “Renzi’s risk of losing is fairly high,” said head of the Piepoli Institute, an Italian polling firm.
A No vote could further boost the country’s opposition parties, among them the eurosceptic Five Star Movement, all of which favor exiting the euro. Italy is the eurozone’s third-largest economy, but its stock market has been the worst performer in Europe this year due to problems in its banking system and concerns over political instability.
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It’s time to choose: Federal Republic of Cameroon or an Independent Southern Cameroon?
From a legal perspective the two choices are mutually exclusive. However, from a pragmatic panorama the former is but the precursor of the latter. We, the people of West Cameroon aka Anglophones, aka, Southern Cameroonians aka ‘Les Anglo’ have experienced both alternatives. Lest we forget, in the context of nationhood, the name ‘La Republique du Cameroun’ is anathema to the spirit of the union between Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun in Oct.1961. Why we should stand against the Cameroonian project.
- The present name of Cameroon totally negates and renders the Oct. 1961 plebiscite null and void. Thus, as it stands we the people of Southern Cameroons have been ‘assimilated’ under duress.
- The question of identity is central to any nation as it’s the bedrock of patriotism. Cameroon as a State lacks a solid identity. Football is no baseline of patriotism. It’s a mirage. Values and ideals shape, inform and instill patriotism.
- We of West Cameroon identify with ideals and values that are foreign to most sections of French Cameroun: The rule of Law, Common Law, and West Cameroon Education System rooted in English, respect for Institutions and elders, absolute equality before the law, healthy debates, fairness and probity.
- For a nation to flourish it needs to tap into the deep well of her heroes. Our heroes are different from those in French Cameroon. We Anglophones West of the Mungo see ourselves as sons and daughters of Endeley and Foncha- our towering statesmen. Ahidjo is alien to our consciousness.
- In order to be an indivisible nation, the people must FEEL that bond to each other, must instinctively know they belong. We Anglophones of West Cameroon don’t feel we ‘belong!! We feel foreign, insecure and apprehensive ironically in a land we call home. Cameroon ‘feels’ like two different States. We do not belong and we are often told point-blank we aren’t welcome; with names like ‘ Les Biafras’ ‘Les Bamendas’ ‘Les Anglos la’
- An inseparable nation must have a common National Anthem which inspires and channels patriotism. Cameroon got two versions of an anthem that says completely different things in French and English. No wonder most Anglophones west of the Mungo remember only the first and last stanzas of it. As a people we don’t connect with this anthem. We might connect with Dr. Fonlon’s second version not the first.
- Finally, Anglophones West of the Mungo are a people!! Had a parliament, a judiciary, a Prime Minister, and was a de facto State prior to Oct.1961. We know where we are coming from thus; we know where we are heading.
- La Republique du Cameroon was conceived in violence and oppression. Its thirst for violence, torture and oppression goes back to its birth- Remember the massacre of thousands of Bamileke-Bassa UPCists? Remember Ruben Um Nyobe, Ernest Ouandie, Felix Moumie?
As evidenced by their continuous brutality on peaceful citizens, the Forces of law and order in La Republique du Cameroun are still tied to their umbilical cord of violence and torture. The crimes they have committed in Buea and Bamenda will not be forgotten. Given the above, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that sooner or later Cameroon will be at a crossroads where we will have to make that seismic choice of Federation or secession.
As a people we have the inalienable right to self-determination guarantee under International law. When the time comes-and come it must; my vote, sweat or blood will be for secession. The political class East of the Mungo have proven themselves callous, duplicitous and incapable of positive change. Enough!
By Peter Azinui Suh
Revealed: How Biya and his CPDM gang benefit from blood diamonds in the Central African Republic
A report entitled “From conflict to illegality: Cartography of the diamond trade of the Central African Republic in Cameroon”, made public on Friday in Canada, accused the Biya regime of creating a hub in Cameroon for the Central African diamonds gotten through smuggling.
According to the report, Cameroon consistently allows diamonds from the Central African Republic to cross its borders and penetrate the legal supply chain. The report pointed out that the porosity of Cameroon’s border coupled with deliberate inefficient police controls, contraband smuggling and corruption, explained the presence in Cameroon of diamonds from other neighboring countries including the Central African Republic, CAR.
The survey carried out by Partnership Africa Canada, showed how conflict diamonds in the CAR branded as “blood diamonds” still have entry points to the international markets via Cameroon. “While the international outcry over the blood diamonds financing the war in the Central African Republic triggered an action to stop the trade, the same spotlight was not turned on the neighbors of the CAR,” said Joanne Lebert, Executive Director of Partnership Africa Canada.
Field interviews with miners, traders and exporters detailed the smuggling of diamond from the Central African Republic on the 900-km border with Cameroon, corruption between officials responsible for verifying the origin of diamonds and large deliveries of undeclared blocked conflict diamonds, the report said.
Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that exports of diamonds from the Central African Republic were the subject of an international embargo after a coup in 2013. However, when President Biya had his man, the late General Tumenta in Bangui, Diamonds sold on the international markets from the CAR were stamped “as originating from Cameroon and Kimberley Process Certificates were issued certifying their status as a country without conflict, allowing them to be exported to the international markets.
By Chi Prudence Asong
US: Trump files suit to stop vote recount in Michigan
US President-elect Donald Trump has lodged a lawsuit to prevent an election recount in Michigan scheduled to begin next week. The move on Friday comes after Republican Trump’s allies have begun to freeze recount efforts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the states where he narrowly beat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
The supporters of the business mogul seek to preserve the legitimacy of Trump’s win after Green Party nominee Jill Stein requested a recount in Wisconsin. Trump’s lawyers said in the lawsuit that Stein wanted the state to “expend tens of millions of dollars on a wild goose chase that even Stein cannot identify.” A pro-Trump super PAC in Wisconsin lodged a suit Friday, arguing that Stein’s recount push could “unjustifiably cast doubt upon the legitimacy of President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s victory.”
Recounting of Wisconsin’s about 3 million votes for president began on Thursday. Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes are not going to change the outcome of the election since Trump won 306 electoral votes in the Nov. 8 election, easily surpassing the 270 needed to clinch the presidency. Also in Michigan, Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a lawsuit Friday to stop the recount there. In Pennsylvania, a team of Trump attorneys filed a lawsuit Thursday requesting a dismissal of Stein’s recount effort, asserting that she lacks a valid claim.
Although Clinton’s popular vote lead has increased beyond 2.5 million, it is unlikely that Clinton could come out victorious after recounts in the three states. This comes as Trump tweeted last week that there were “serious voter fraud” issues in three US states — Virginia, New Hampshire and California — during the election, but the mainstream American media ignored it. He also claimed in a Twitter message that “millions of people” voted illegally and said he would have won the popular vote if those “illegal” votes were discounted.
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Anglophone teachers reject Philemon Yang’s overtures, refuse to end strike
Anglophone teachers have kicked against the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government’s recent move to end the lingering strike by the teachers, saying that no amount of coercion will make them return to work unless the contentious issue of the bi-cultural nature of the country’s education system is satisfactorily resolved.
Speaking on the so-called Prime Minister Yang Philemon’s proposal to end the strike, the teachers trade unions have issued a statement saying that the government was making moves to engage those they described as thugs to masquerade themselves as 1000 bilingual teachers in order to open schools in British Southern Cameroons.
Describing the move as an exercise in futility, the teacher’s trade unions have rejected the proposal from the Prime Minister because the proposal was not time structured and many issues were not specific. BBC’s Randy Joe who had a conversation with one of our intelligence officers in Yaoundé today opined that the Biya proposal did not offer anything to the Anglophones.
The Anglophone teacher’s communique observe with dismay, the CPDM government’s unwillingness to address the Anglophone problem but rather chose to indulge in blackmail, propaganda and looking for scapegoats. The press release stressed that the Anglophone teachers union’s stand still remains the same.
One of the teachers who spoke to CIR but sued for anonymity regretted the Biya regime’s constant refusal of the Anglophone problem. Contrary to announcement made over state radio and television, the Anglophone teachers have made it abundantly clear that their strike action continues unabated.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Nigeria: Court rules for the unconditional release of jailed Islamic Movement leader
A Nigerian court has ruled that Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, the jailed leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), should be released unconditionally. The Abuja division of the Federal High Court of Nigeria on Friday also ruled that Zakzaky’s wife, Zeenat, should be released. Justice Gabriel Kolawole said the court had come to the conclusion that the Shia cleric and his wife “have been kept against their desires, thereby resulting in the breach of their rights to liberty.” The judge also stated that he had ordered the “immediate release” of the two “because the family house in Zaria was destroyed between December 12 and December 14, 2015.”
The prominent cleric and his wife were taken into custody on December 14, 2115, after deadly clashes between the supporters of the IMN movement and Nigerian troops. Nearly 350 members of the Shia movement were killed in the clashes. The sheikh was brutally injured and his house was reportedly destroyed by the army in the incident. Kolawole said he had given 45 days for authorities to provide new accommodation for the Zakzaky family. The accommodation is to be in the town of Zaria, Kaduna state, where the family were detained, or in other parts of the state or alternatively any other part of northern Nigeria.
The judge said the State Security Service would pay each of Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife $78,984 in compensation for the violation of their rights by being held in unlawful custody for nearly a year. Last month, nearly 100 IMN supporters were killed when Nigerian forces fired live rounds and tear gas at mourners during a peaceful march ahead of the Arba’een mourning rituals, which mark 40 days after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him), the third Shia imam. Authorities also destroyed a number of buildings belonging to the IMN. The Nigerian government has stepped up its crackdown on the IMN since the December 2015 deadly incident.
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2016 Women’s AFCON: Biya to preside over closing ceremony
Martin Belinga Eboutou, the Director of the Civil Cabinet at the presidency of the republic has made public President Biya’s decision to preside over the closing ceremony of the 10th edition of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations that has been marred by violent demonstrations in the Anglophone section of the country. The Lionesses of Cameroon will clash with the Falcons of Nigeria in the final game of the competition.
Kofi Annan on a fact-finding mission in Myanmar
Former UN chief Kofi Annan is on a fact-finding mission in Myanmar to probe a bloody army crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in the country. Annan and his team on Friday arrived in the volatile northwestern Rakhine State, where an army crackdown has killed at least 86 ethnic Rohingya Muslims, according to government figures. Independent groups say as many as 400 people have been killed. The team was greeted by a group of protesters, who carried signs that read “Ban the Kofi Annan commission” and chanted, “We don’t want the Kofi Annan commission,” referring to the task force appointed by Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to investigate the violence against the Rohingya.
Suu Kyi in August appointed Annan to lead the nine-member commission, which includes nine independent members, including six national and three international experts. Maung Khin, a farmer at the Friday protest said “The Rakhine issue is an internal affair. We cannot accept interference from outsiders.” “We don’t need foreigners for our internal affairs. This shows how the government mishandles the case,” he said. Suu Kyi, promoted in the West as a “democracy icon,” has been widely blamed for failing to protect Rohingya Muslims from what rights groups say is a systematic campaign of abuse by the army. She has remained silent despite mounting evidence of army abuse in Rakhine, including UN acknowledgement of “ethnic cleansing” of the Muslim minority.
The appointment of the commission came only after massive international criticism. During his visit to Myanmar, Annan will spend a day in the state capital, Sittwe, before heading to other areas in Rakhine. The state has been under military lockdown since an attack on the country’s border guards left nine police officers dead on October 9. The government blamed the Rohingyas for the assault. There have been numerous accounts by eyewitnesses of summary executions, rapes and arson attacks against the Rohingya by security forces ever since. The military has also banned journalists and aid workers from entering the zone.
At least 30,000 Rohingya have been internally displaced in Rakhine, while 10,000 others have tried to reach Bangladesh over the last month to seek refuge among the Rohingya refugee population that already lives there. Bangladesh has also started to crack down on the incoming refugees by either preventing them at border transit points or confining them to refugee camps.
The latest wave of violence poses the biggest challenge to Suu Kyi’s eight-month government and has renewed international outcry that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has done too little to help the Rohingya minority, who, even before the ongoing crackdown in Rakhine, were denied citizenship and access to basic services. Rakhine, home to around 1.1 million members of the minority Rohingya Muslim community, has been the scene of violence against the ethnic Muslims since 2012.
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France: Hollande not to stand for re-election
French President Francoise Hollande has announced that he will not stand for re-election in the upcoming presidential poll amid low popularity ratings and a fairly high unemployment rate in the Western European country.
“Today I am aware of the risks that going down a route that would not gather sufficient support would entail, so I have decided not to be a candidate in the presidential election,” Hollande said in a live televised address broadcast on national television from the Élysée Palace on Thursday night.
He said his only concern was “the superior interest of this country” and that he could not stand for “the break-up of the left,” adding that his time in power had taught him “humility”. The unprecedented decision comes as Hollande is the first incumbent French president since the Second World War not to attempt to run for second term in office.
The 62-year-old Socialist president’s satisfaction rating recently dropped to as low as four percent, the lowest for a French president since the war, prompting many of his aides to publicly warn against his certain defeat if he chose to run in the presidential race. The Socialists now have to find a leading contender against Francois Fillon, of the center-right Republican party, and Marine Le Pen, of the far-right Front National.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls is thought to have higher success chances than others for a Socialist primary race in January. He has been praised by analysts and citizens as a tough law-and-order voice and pro-business reformist. Pundits maintain that Hollande lacks the kind of toughness that Valls shows, and such personality trait could help the premier compete in the general election next spring.
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