It is heart-rending to see Cameroon go down the path of chaos and conflict. Many African countries have walked this path and their experience has been anything but pleasant. Their different experiences indicate that it is not an honorable path that any responsible government should design for itself. Cameroon has been the oasis of peace in a desert of chaos for many decades, but things are gradually spiraling out of control as Anglophones are increasingly becoming restive in a union that has felt more like a prison to many of them than a smooth family relationship. Injustice, disrespect, discrimination and outright government-orchestrated marginalization have pushed the Anglophone minority over the edge. They now feel they are on a wire without a safety net. Their anger derives from many reasons and they hold that no matter how hard they try, they will never cohabit peacefully with Francophones whose perspective of life is diametrically different.

They point to injustice, arguing that the errors of the past have been intentional. They argue that no Anglophone has ever been appointed to head the ministries finance, defense, territorial administration, communication and foreign affairs and this cannot be considered an error after fifty-six years. They also argue that Francophone ministers such as Fame Ndongo, Laurent Esso and IssaTchiroma are clearly to blame for the escalation of the problem. Their public declarations have given Anglophones the feeling that they do not belong to Cameroon. They hold that Anglophone Cameroon accounts for more than 60% of the country’s wealth and the citizens of this region should be treated with respect like their Francophone counterparts. It should be recalled that Cameroon’s oil and gold fields are lodged in the country’s Anglophone region, precisely in Ndian division, where poverty – that which dehumanizes and robs people of their dignity – has taken root. But the most vexing issue is the fact that 95% of staff at the country’s lone oil refinery, SONARA, are Francophones who have the nasty habit of treating the locals with disdain and this has fueled the anger that is currently boiling over.

To many Anglophones, the time has come for a rethink of the union. It is time to come out of the 56-year jail term; a period during which the government has reduced them to second-class citizens. Years of complaints have never really resulted in any improvement as the Francophone-dominated government has always argued that there is no Anglophone problem and any Anglophoneswho talk of an Anglophone problem are immediatelyconsidered as a handful of trouble-makers who need to be taught a lesson, using outdated and intimidating laws. To them, Cameroon is one and indivisible, but the country’s indivisibility has been tested over the last year. Only the blind cannot see the cracks on the wall. Anglophones are honestly not part of that Cameroon that is one and indivisible and they have clearly demonstrated that over the last year.

Friday’s (September 22, 2017) demonstrations in almost every Anglophone city are confirming that the foundation on which that one and indivisible Cameroon is built is not solid. The demonstrations are unfortunately throwing up a grim reality that will be hard for the indolent Francophone-dominated government in Yaounde to handle. The government has clearly lost its authority over the English-speaking minority. Friday’s demonstrations have taken place in the presence of the police and gendarmes and the massive attendance clearly points to the fact that the wall of fear has collapsed. The people want to take charge of their own destiny, as the government has failed to deliver prosperity and opportunities to the ever growing and increasingly demanding youths of the Anglophone region.

The trend towards statehood appears to be irreversible. Southern Cameroons’ flag is all over the place though the government had proscribed its use. This is testimony to the fact that there is a limit to what a people can take. Anglophones are defying the government and they are ready for any consequences. Years of marginalization have not only sent two million of them out of the country, they have also emboldened those who have been taking the brunt. Anglophones are sick and tired of the government’s lies and manipulation. Thirty-five years of Mr. Biya’s ineffective rule and his presidence over a permanently ailing economy have left many young Anglophones desperate and hopeless. To many of them, the best option is for them to head out of the country, but in the absence of such a possibility, they are prepared to lay down their lives to make sure future generations do not have to walk down the same path of desperation, hopelessness and unemployment.

The writing is clearly on the wall, of course, in both English and French. Only the blind will not see how Cameroon is slowly, but surely heading to the brink after years of mismanagement and marginalization. The current crisis calls for a total overhaul of the system and a change in management style. The leaders who are supposed to be social engineers should start thinking of reengineering the country. The old model has failed. Continuing to pursue failed policies and tricks of the past will only go a long way in radicalizing Anglophones who are gradually coming to terms with the fact that their only option is independence. Though many are yet to agree to the name of their new country, that is, if it will ever see the light of day, there is a plethora of names being floated out there – Ambaland, Ambazonia, Southern Cameroons, West Cameroon and others that are still in the closet.

Despite the variance as to how their country will be called, they all agree that the union with East Cameroon has been anything but pleasant. They are gradually coming up with structures and symbols that will enable them to run their country whenever it comes to being. Their flag is floating all over the country and a governing council has been set up with its interim leader, Ayuk Julius Tabe, crisscrossing the globe to drum up support for an independent Southern Cameroons. In the minds of young Anglophones, their independence will be declared on October 1, 2017. This is certainly not an illusion. Friday’s demonstrations should inform the government that Anglophones abroad and at home are working hand in glove to achieve their goal.

After a year of demonstrations and a long battle of wills between the country’s president and Anglophones, things are on the decline, with independentists gradually winning the war on all fronts. The government’s indifference has given them a lot of time to persuade Anglophones who have been sitting on the fence. Today, they clearly hold sway over the population, especially as many members of the Diaspora are those who are running things in their families financially. While there are still a few diehard federalists among Anglophones, the government’s refusal to listen to advice and its inability to sincerely call for a national debate on the issue of reforms is pushing federalists onto the side of independentists.

The Anglophone crisis will surely not be addressed through any cosmetic reforms. The issues are real and the people are determined to change the status quo ante. It will be foolhardy and preposterous to think that sending a few self-seeking politicians to the region will help calm tempers. There is a disconnect between these self-seeking politicians and the people they claim they represent.

Anglophones have clearly rejected their so-called leaders. Peter Mafany Musonge, AtangaNji, Yang Philemon, AchidiAchu, Tabetando, Victor Mengot, Benjamin Itoe, Dion Ngute, Ako Edward and others hold no sway over the Anglophone population. Keeping themwithin the corridors of power will certainly not address any issues. They clearly belong to the past and it will be hard to resuscitate them politically. This also applies to people such as Shey Jones and Fai Yengo Francis who are being rumored to be part of a government that will soon be announced. These people have no constituency and it will not be in the interest of the country and the Anglophone population in particular, to bring back these people who have never displayed any sympathy with the people’s cause.

While Mr. Biya himself has over-stayed his welcome, it could be said that he had been voted and could be given the benefit of the doubt to finish his term. His failure to address key issues such as infrastructure development and unemployment will forever haunt him. He has reduced the country to an open air landfill wherein the ordinary Cameroonian has been reduced to a sorry spectator of events in his country. He should see the writing on the wall and should make the honorable decision – that of not running in 2018.

Cameroon has been pushed to the brink. The country has been caught in a downward spiral. To pull the country out of this quagmire will be a tough job. Using those who have driven this country to the brink to pull it out will be the wrong decision. If Cameroon has to stay one and indivisible, then there must be a change of mentality. The current unitary system has shown its limits. It has brought untold hardship to the people. Anglophones may be bitter but they will surely want to negotiate and they insist that such a negotiation should take place in the presence of a neutral, third party like the UN or the African Union. The writing is on the wall. The country’s authorities should make an effort to see it before it is too late.

The Editorial Desk

Cameroon Concord News Group

For some time now, Cameroon has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Over the last five years, Boko Haram militants have been sowing terror with their home-made bombs in the country’s northern region, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Many have been internally displaced and the cost of managing these refugees is spiraling out of control. Redeploying troops to the hotspot is taking a huge bite out of the government’s budget and many patriotic Cameroonian soldiers have unfortunately lost their lives in the process. To be fair to the government, it has been struggling to restore peace in this region, but all its efforts are not yielding the right results as the war is not conventional and the criminal group’s strategies and modus operandi are more of “shifting sands”. This has kept the government on its toes for more than five years and it appears there is no light at the end of the tunnel for a government that is already showing signs of fatigue.

But over the last year, it is the Anglophone crisis that has stolen the show from Boko Haram. A strike by lawyers in October 2016 was unfortunately allowed by the government to spread like a bad rash and this has left it with no choice but to scramble for solutions, most of which are inefficient and do not seem to reflect what English-speaking Cameroonians have been asking for. The Anglophone minority has been dealing with marginalization for more than five decades and it really wants this to stop. Its call for a federal structure to check some of the issues the unitary state was generating was met with ferocious brutality by the government while the region’s political elite looked the other way. The Anglophone region’s political elite is fraud with self-seeking politicians and attempts to draw the elite’s attention to this worrying situation have always met with tricks and intimidation.The elite has been very effective, using all means, including unfulfilled promises and, where necessary, threats of imprisonment or death for those who dare speak out about the pain and suffering marginalization is inflicting on the peace-loving people of West Cameroon.

But after fifty-six years of frustration, West Cameroonians feel it is time to break the chain of silence and face a monster that has been spreading death and destruction in a region that holds more than 60% of the country’s wealth. Cameroon’s oil and gold fields are lodged in the country’s Anglophone region, precisely in Ndian division, where poverty; that which dehumanizes and robs people of their dignity, has taken root. While the country’s refinery may be located in Limbe, Anglophone Cameroon’s coastal city, the oil fields are in the Rio Del Rey estuary in Ndian Division,while localities around Mbonge in the same division are home to large gold deposits. Manyu Division, which is also in the south-west region, is blessed with huge and dense equatorial forests that have been hiding some of the finest timber on the continent, but the people of this region have been reduced to sorry spectators of the destruction that is taking place in their forests, as this ageless timber is cut and shipped to East Cameroon.

Five decades after the UN-staged reunification, the frustration of the English-speaking minority has boiled over and Anglophones are seeking a way out of this relationship. The strikes that started in October 2016 were aimed at drawing the government’s attention to the angst that has been inhabiting the Anglophone mind. But faithful to its intimidation strategy, the government dispatched its armed forces – known today by Anglophones as “Harm Forces” due to their killing and maiming of innocent civilians – to quash the strikes and send home a strong message to all those who thought they could change the status quo. The military actions have succeeded, unfortunately, to radicalize the already frustrated Anglophones who are determined to put an end to the status quo ante. Anglophones hold that their call for federalism has been upgraded to the restoration of statehood and discussing federalism is like solving the wrong problem. Today, the country is divided along linguistic lines and the consequences of this conflict go well beyond what many observers had predicted. Anglophones are no longer in love with the country they called theirs for fifty-six years. Injustice and oppression are making it hard for them to live with their Francophone counterparts whose lack of courage is obliging them to take the mistreatment their leaders are serving to them in stride.

Things actually came to a head when the government arrested the leaders of the Consortium and jailed them for close to eight months when hastily organized discussions came down crashing in January 2017 like a pack of cards. The government’s tricks and threats had not yielded the results it wanted, so it had to resort to the law to break down the leaders so as to kill the demonstrations that had become region-wide, with Anglophones organizing ghost towns and keeping their children away from school. The ghost towns are really hurting the economy while the disruption of the school year is causing the government to lose sleep. Its reputation has been hurt so badly and it will take a long time for it to re-establish peace and stability in the North West and South West regions of the country.

Today the government seems to be at its wit’s end. Even its release of Barrister Felix Nkogho Agbor Balla, Justice Paul Ayah Abine and Dr. Fontem Neba does seem to deliver the outcome it was expecting. Schools have remained closed and many institutions of learning have been burnt by members of cloak-and-dagger organizations who are on the prowl for any institution that is violating their rule. They have decreed that the region will go through another blank year, that is, if the government does not engage Anglophones in frank and fruitful discussions. Anglophones had called for a federal system which the government had promptly turned down, but this request has since been upgraded to restoration and this has made the possibility of a real dialogue to be very remote. Both sides are frozen in their positions and it will take a lot of external pressure and forces to help both camps to narrow their differences if peace has to return to this once-upon-a-time oasis of peace in a desert of chaos.

In recent weeks, a few bombs have been going off in the two Anglophone regions. Many schools have been destroyed and many people now live in fear, as the potential for things to escalate is high. While the government still hopes that time will resolve this issue, it will be preposterous for it to keep on using a strategy that has clearly failed. Its silence over the deteriorating situation is more like paving the way for a full blown terrorism. What might seem like a joke might lead the country down a dangerous path. Silence could be golden, but it is not in this context. The country’s leaders must come out of their silence to reassure peace-loving citizens that they are capable of dealing with thorny issues with tact and efficiency. It should be recalled that the cost of conflict is always high and conflict does not benefit anybody.

The government has to play its part and it must start listening to its citizens. It must stop muzzling up its citizens so that new and innovative ideas can flourish in the country. No nation has ever attained its full development potential without its citizens being able to express their minds. If Cameroon has to check the cost of this conflict, government authorities must embrace new ways. They must acknowledge that old ways have failed.

Dialogue is an idea whose time has come and it is not a weakness to embrace it. The country’s leader must also understand that there cannot be a president without a people. The president must shed his cocoon of self-importance to talk with the people. Quitting his Ivory Tower will be a good thing to do at this moment when the country is at the cross-roads. A full blown conflict will not be in anybody’s interest.

The editorial desk.