Banning the Consortium and the SCNC: A desperate kick of a dying horse ²

This so-called Ministerial order banning the SCNC and the Consortium of Southern Cameroons Civil Society Organizations is a desperate kick of a dying horse. This desperate move is not new. Southern Cameroonians have lived with this since the annexation and colonization of our territory in 1961. Southern Cameroonians have resisted colonial governance through dictatorial fiat and the ongoing popular revolt against colonial rule and bestiality are but an irrevocable step towards regaining our freedom. We have lived under a permanent state of emergency in our territory since 1961 and the so-called Ministerial Order in context tacitly affirms that.  But the egregious violations like abductions, assassinations and all forms of crimes against humanity did not drive us underground even under Babatoura Ahidjo and Forchive. On the contrary, the coercive methods they deployed against us convinced even those who were born into colonial rule and skeptics that life under colonial rule is simply unacceptable and impossible. The liberating spirit of freedom which our ancestors endured and which we inherited must not be frightened into submission.

A regime that invites the Consortium into purported negotiations and failing to bribe or intimidate them to betray the popular aspiration of the people they were mandated to represent is itself living on life-support. It is on life support because it no longer has the pleasure and benefit of time or the hitherto docility of its own emasculated citizens to realize its desperate goals. The  requests made by the Consortium that are cited in the so-called Ministerial Order banning the Consortium were made within the context of the supposed negotiation convened by the government of La Republique. What a responsible government would have done would have been to provide a reply to the requests made within the context of the purported negotiations. To ban and abduct a negotiating party on the basis of proposals made within that context of a negotiation in which it is party and indeed convened the meeting, and on the basis of legitimate actions taken within the context of the issues in contention is criminal and indeed an act of state terror.

The purporting banning of the Consortium is null and void ab initio and no legal consequences whatsoever. The purported baning and abductions must therefore be condemned worldwide and the abducted persons and all other Southern Cameroonians abducted prior to and during the ongoing resistance unconditionally released.

The supposed ban of the SCNC is laughable. The SCNC has litigated cases with La Republique du Cameroun internationally. At the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the SCNC, SCAPO and SCYL litigated the Southern Cameroons Case and La Republique du Cameroun accepted the outcome of the case and in writing, accepted to abide by the decision of African Leaders for a resort to dialogue under the supervision of the African Commission to discuss constitutional arrangements aimed at resolving the Southern Cameroons issue.

The fact that La Republique has so far not submitted itself to the decision of the AU long after the extension of time it sought does not invalidate its acceptance of the outcome of the case. The SCNC has an international status and has been recognized as such, including by La Republique du Cameroun. Curiously, the purported decision banning the SCNC does not refer to any specific legal instruments indicating that it had at any time sought legal status or legitimacy from a colonial contraption it has always rejected. The SCNC has and will always operate in the territory of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia and will never ever be driven underground at the threshold of success when previous attempts failed and failed woefully.

One act of panic on the part of the neo-colonial contraption aimed at frightening the Southern Cameroons to capitulate was the meeting  of CEMAC countries summoned on or about the 23 December 2016 at the heart of the resistance purportedly to discuss matters relating to the colonial currency, the Franc CFA. The real purpose of that meeting had nothing to do with the colonial currency but intended by the humiliating presence of two French colonial representatives to send warning signals to the Southern Cameroons not to mess up with the French colonial economy within our territory.

Again the banning of the Consortium and the SCNC and the abduction of the Chairman of the Consortium, distinguished President of Fako Lawyers Association and Vice President of the African Bar Association Barrister Agbor Nkongho and others only a few days after the anniversary of the assassination of Ernest Ouandie  whose assassination on 15 January, 1971 provided a pretext to impose a state of emergency under which the Yes /Oui fraudulent referendum was conducted on 20 May 1972 was intended again to frighten us and force us underground.

Again this is a miscalculation for this time around, fear has changed sides as HRM Fon Gorgi Dinka prophetically said many years ago. The ongoing resistance of the Southern Cameroons against colonial rule, oppression, injustice and bestiality will be determined by a number of factors all which are on our side: Justice, history, resilience, and time. The glorious days of colonial rule are in the past. Only the sovereign will of the people in the exercise of their right to self-determination will determine our fate and not force and the abusive use of force. The people have taken control of their destiny and there is no looking back under any cowardly use of force against armless and peaceful people.

 Chief Charles A. Taku