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10. The Matter of Secession
- LANGAA RPCIG
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Chapter Ten The Matter of Secession Cameroun Republic repeatedly declares that the on-going selfdetermination struggle by the people of the Southern Cameroons is a secessionist bid. In its view international law and municipal law proscribe secession and sanction its suppression by force of arms. In reality, the secession rhetoric of Cameroun Republic is simply a piece of propaganda – a policy manoeuvre, a bogey, a scarecrow – conjured in an attempt to prevent righteous internal challenge and lawful external scrutiny of the colonisation of the Southern Cameroons by Cameroun Republic. Domestic law The Southern Cameroons and Cameroun Republic constitutionally contracted to federate and to remain in a federal union. Federalism was the condition sine qua non of the envisaged political association. The political rulership of Cameroun Republic breached this contractual engagement when it unilaterally dissolved the Federation and revived Cameroun Republic as a legal and political expression. That fundamental breach entitled the Southern Cameroons, as injured party, to consider the contract as terminated and to take the reciprocal action of reviving its statehood as well. No question arises of a continuing obligation of political association since the type of union agreed on had been decreed out of existence. Circumstances had substantially changed. The former rules, the former framework, and the former underpinnings relating to federalism became inapplicable. The obligation of political association lost its effect and ceased to be binding. The union was of course not condemned to endure until the end of time. No union is. It is the case that when one country unites with another, it is free subsequently to opt out of the union and restore its former status or try another union with some other country in exercise of the continuing right of self-determination. History affords many instances of this.1 The entitlement to pull out is based on sound theory. A right to contract in implies a right to contract out, a power of entry implies a power of exit, a power to opt in 148 Betrayal of Too Trusting a People implies a power to opt out. A party is even at liberty to rescind a contract unilaterally. However, the rescission amounts to a breach of contract redressible by appropriate remedy. As concerns municipal criminal law, insecure states – states whose foundations are weak – commonly criminalise what they consider as secessionist bids. In the case of the defunct Federal Republic of Cameroon, s.111 of the Federal Penal Code on “secession” punished ‘whoever undertakes in whatever manner to infringe the territorial integrity of the Republic.’ The crime was conceived as an offence against the territorial integrity of the ‘Republic’ and therefore as a species of the crime of treason which is based on breach of the duty of allegiance to the state. ‘Republic’ referred to the territories comprised in the State formed by the political association of the Southern Cameroons and Cameroun Republic on 1 October 1961 under the name and style of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. The protected territorial integrity under s.111 is thus that of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. In relation to the Southern Cameroons, s.111 lapsed with the forcible dissolution of the Federation in 1972. Additionally, the dissolution of the Federation and revival of Cameroun Republic as a legal and political expression ipso facto revoked Federal Republic citizenship and terminated the duty of Federal Republic allegiance. For the time being and because of the unfortunate circumstances in which they find themselves, citizens of the Southern Cameroons are forced to yield obedience to Cameroun Republic. That country’s forcible occupation of the Southern Cameroons and maintenance of an administration in the Southern Cameroons of paramount force compels obedience from citizens of the Southern Cameroons as a matter of necessity. In the absence of any true and genuine duty of allegiance owed by the people of the Southern Cameroons to Cameroun Republic, a citizen of the Southern Cameroons is incapable of committing treason against the State of Cameroun Republic. In sum, the crime of secession under s.111 of the Federal Penal Code was an offence against the Federal Republic, and Cameroun Republic is not that State. Further, the Southern Cameroons has never legally been part of Cameroun Republic notwithstanding the many fraudulent attempts by its rulers to so make the Southern [44.206.248.122] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 12:43 GMT) 149 The Matter of Secession Cameroons. The authorities of Cameroun Republic thus lack the necessary valid sovereign power in the Southern Cameroons to sustain a...