4, March 2017

Biya’s Presidential Executive Order to Philemon Yang: An Exhibit of Francophone injustice 5

After a sea of press releases from the so-called political elites of the North West and South West regions painting a picture that things have returned to normal in Southern Cameroons including the arrest of hundreds of Anglophone youths, tension is reportedly mounting in West Cameroon as the region is far from emerging from the crisis which has paralyzed economic and social activities for about five months.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has made Southern Cameroons ungovernable for the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé. The Consortium has successfully rocked the 2016/2017 school year and some experts now say that it would take a miracle to avoid a complete and total failure of the academic year.

The 84 year old dictator has decided to send Prime Minister Philemon Yang to the Bamenda province of Southern Cameroons on a special mission for the second time in the space of four months. Cameroon Concord News Group has learnt that Biya has instructed Yang Philemon to tour the seven administrative divisions of the North West.

A government statement announcing the return of the Head of Government to Southern Cameroons revealed that the visit will begin on Monday the 6th to Friday the 10th of March 2017. Philemon Yang will go to all the seven divisions of his home constituency. His Anglophone tour will begin in Mezam, followed by Menchum, Boyo, Momo, Ngo-Ketunjia, Donga-Mantung and will end with the Department of Bui.

Mission Impossible

The Yang Philemon trip will be another form of wasting tax payer’s money.  Philemon Yang is not known in Southern Cameroons and does not have friends there. The Prime Minister spent more than 20 years on a CPDM imposed exile as ambassador to Canada. Ever since his return to Cameroon, Yang has operated only in Yaoundé. Consequently, the reckless and tactless Atanga Nji Paul succeeded in creating too much political space for himself which led to the wrong decision of arresting the leaders of the Consortium.

At each stage of his mission to the North West, Yang will find himself struggling to make political friends than engaging with teachers’ unions, school leaders, parents, religious leaders, local authorities and other vital forces. Biya intends to deceive international public opinion that his Francophone Beti Ewondo government was in a new and broader form of dialogue.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is in charge of Southern Cameroons and like previous consultations held at the beginning of the year in Bamenda which did not produce the expected results, Philemon Yang will come back to Yaoundé with nothing.

An empty Yang

By accepting to travel to the North West, Philemon Yang has confirmed that he is indeed not a skillful politician and by extrapolation, not fit to govern. A Prime Minister and Head of Government should at least carry something to Southern Cameroons. For instance:

-We have released the leaders of the Consortium

-We have released more than half of the hundreds of youths arrested

-We have reinstated internet connections in Southern Cameroons

-We shall be meeting the Roman Catholic Bishops and the Moderator of the PCC

The Biya emissary is not going to West Cameroon with any of the listed items in his bag. Who is fooling who here?

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai