Snapshots: An X-ray of Cameroon�s Democracy, Governance and Unification

65. Pharaoh, Let My People Go!

265 65 Pharaoh, Let My People Go! Saturday, 16 February 2008 It is never a good thing to rejoice over the misfortune of others, that is if one considers the failure of the Indomitable Lions to bring home the African Cup of Nations a misfortune, especially to those who were counting on making political capital out of an eventual victory. Last Sunday’s defeat of the Lions at the continental soccer competition in Ghana, does not diminish the heroic image the team has built for more than two decades, and only those who take delight in basking in the glory of others who have had the opportunity to excel would feel disappointed. The tendency to equate the successes of the Indomitable Lions with the deplorable socio-economic and political performance of Cameroon has been very misleading, deceitful and illogical. The tendency to misconstrue the image of an ad hoc football team as a symbol of national cohesion, unity and stability distorts the true sentiments on which genuine patriotism is founded. Selfless attachment to the fatherland is the real stuff of which patriotism is made and not the ephemeral excitement and pleasure derived from kicking or watching a team kick an inflated leather ball on a pitch. Patriotism is made of sterner stuff; sterner than the fluffy sentimentalism, fanfarism and fanaticism that have impacted on the Cameroonian psyche and elevated football on a religious pedestal. It is sheer coincidence that the defeat of the Indomitable Lions by the Pharaohs of Egypt came on the eve of celebrations to mark an event which is generally referred to as National Youth Day and whose true significance has been distorted and eroded since 1965.What passes for Youth Day today is the day on February 11, 1961, when the UN, in total disregard of its cardinal policy of 266 decolonisation, organised a plebiscite for (Anglophone) Southern Cameroons to decide whether to achieve independence by joining Nigeria or French Cameroun, both of whom had attained independence in1960. The UN has yet to explain and clarify the international community about its definition and understanding of the concept of an autonomous territory having to achieve independence by becoming an appendage of another entity, which itself had just been conferred the status of independence. It is very disheartening to note that even some educated middleaged Southern Cameroonians erroneously refer to February 11 as the day the territory decided to break away from Nigeria and join French Cameroon. That is inaccurate! The Southern Cameroons broke away from Nigeria and set up its House of Assembly in Buea in 1954 when it established its autonomy and looked forward with quiet confidence to attaining full independence. Its leaders had realised that Britain, which was administering the territory as a Trust on behalf of the UN, had no business managing the territory as an extension of its Nigeria colony. When they saw themselves becoming increasingly embroiled in Nigeria’s internal political wrangling, Southern Cameroonian MPs staged a definitive walkout from the Eastern Nigeria House of Representatives in Enugu and prevailed on Nigeria and the UN to sever the umbilical cord with Nigeria. That was a bold act of patriotism and attachment to the Southern Cameroons fatherland. Some have wondered aloud why February 11 was re-baptised Youth Day instead of maintaining its original significance. The answer is simple. When you subjugate and enslave a people, it is in your interest to distort and destroy their identity, history and personality. The process of obliterating the identity of the Southern Cameroons was skilfully implemented by President Ahmadou Ahidjo of La République du Cameroun who later became the President of the Federal Republic of Cameroon, the artificial political entity that emerged after the plebiscite. 267 He began by coercing Southern Cameroons political parties to join him in forming a single party in 1966. In May 1972, he coerced Southern Cameroons politicians to campaign for the dismantling of the federal system in favour of a unitary state styled the United Republic of Cameroon. According to Ndeh Ntumazah who led the One Kamerun Party in the early 1960s, the late Right Honourable J.N Foncha, Chief V.E Mukete and other top Southern Cameroonian political leaders were briefly arrested and bullied to comply or resist at their own peril. President Ahidjo’s successor, President Paul Biya, merely consummated the process of de-personalisation when he issued a decree in 1984 changing the name of...