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

25. From Unitary State to Annexation

95 25 From Unitary State to Annexation Friday October 5, 2001 On the occasion of May 20 celebrations this year, the Englishlanguage tabloid newspaper, The Herald, conducted a man-in-the street random opinion sampling, which reflects the tenuous state of Cameroon’s unity and stability. One respondent had this to say: “In the real sense of unity, there should be no discrimination in the country. But this is not the case in Cameroon where Francophones lord it over their Anglophone counterparts. This is unacceptable.” Yet another respondent had this to say: “We realize the pompous slogan of unity is not translated in reality into our daily lives when you look at the two cultural divides; one [French Cameroun] dominates the other and this situation invariably lays bare any claims to unity. Why did they change the name of the country from United Republic to La République?” Barely 14 months after succeeding Ahidjo in November 1982, President Paul Biya convened an extraordinary session of parliament to rubber stamp constitutional amendments to change the appellation of the country to the Republic of Cameroon, the name French Cameroon assumed at independence in 1960. If Ahidjo had killed the federation in 1972, Biya merely nailed the coffin in June 1984, thus accomplishing French Cameroon’s agenda of annexation and assimilation, even though the legal implication of the act simply meant that one component, La République du Cameroun, having reverted to its political identity prior to unification had seceded from the union; this is the legal opinion of Barrister Gorgi Dinka Q.C (in exile for the past decade and half) who, in the face of Biya’s constitutional aberration, sounded the trumpet of battle 96 in 1985 for the restoration of Southern Cameroons’ sovereignty. And when he was arrested and incarcerated, the Free West Cameroon Movement took up the battle cry to reawaken the conscience of Southern Cameroons’ nationalism. Thereafter the Cameroon Anglophone Movement, CAM, later known as the Southern Cameroons Restoration Movement, joined the nationalist conscientisation movement, which cumulated with the formation of the umbrella organization, the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, in Buea in April 1993. Origin of Southern Cameroons Nationalism The seed of Southern Cameroons nationalism can be said to have been planted in 1916 when British troops, along with local conscripts ousted the Germans in the battle of Nsanakang (Mamfe) as part of World War I campaign to curb Germany’s expansionist onslaught. That seed germinated in 1939 with the formation of the Cameroon Welfare Union, CWU, whose Lagos branch began agitating within Nigeria’s political circles for a separate representation of the Southern Cameroons in the Lagos Legislative Council. The CWU evolved in 1954 to the Cameroon Youth League, and soon after to the Cameroon National Federation, which succeeded in raising political awareness amongst its members and obtaining a separate legislature for Southern Cameroons in 1954. From then until 1961, the Southern Cameroons was selfgoverning with a National Assembly separate from Nigeria, a Council of Ministers and a House of Chiefs. This state of affairs was quite consistent with the aspirations of the people of Southern Cameroons and its political formations namely; the Cameroon People’s National Convention, CPNC, led by EML Endeley, the Kamerun People’s Party, KKP, led by PM Kale and the Kamerun National Democratic Party, KNDP, led by J.N. Foncha. The primary objective was Southern Cameroons’ sovereignty. For anyone to think, let alone suggest, that 85 years of Southern 97 Cameroons’ political consciousness and 62 years of experience in political organization should simply be sacrificed on the Francophone altar of tyranny, is sheer denial of the facts and reality of Southern Cameroons’ right to pursue its course of self-determination, which was thwarted in 1961. The Francophone-led regime should now understand that the Southern Cameroons is no longer concerned with trivialities like the minimization of the English language in Cameroon, nor is it bothered about power sharing with French Cameroon. Southern Cameroonians now demand a halt to the economic plunder of their fatherland and the withdrawal of the forces of occupation, and the surrogates of the alien administration implanted by La République du Cameroun! Failure to resolve the Southern Cameroons Question peacefully can only give rise to undesirable but inevitable action to terminate the excessive plunder, subjugation and underdevelopment of the territory, whose patience and apparent docility are legendary but not inelastic. S-N F. 98 ...