Ever since the Ambazonia leader, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe reorganized the Southern Cameroons Interim Government and appointed Comrade Dabney Yerima as Vice President, the top political priority to some Southern Cameroonians in the USA has been to deny the legitimacy of the Interim Government. These individuals including the disgraced Dr Ikome Sako and the former Communications Secretary, Chris Anu are simply being short-sighted, myopic and petty.

Southern Cameroonians now know that all those refusing to join forces with the Interim Government and rally behind Vice President Dabney Yerima do not have a vision for Ambaland, or a policy position, or even a personal agenda. They simply are for Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s demise.

Clearly, the tables have turned and we now have a French Cameroun leadership that has successfully infiltrated a cream of Southern Cameroons front liners with a very different agenda and potentially dangerous ideas for the people of Ambazonia.

The all-out French Cameroun military onslaught and the deliberate silence observed by the international community has left Southern Cameroonians reeling, scrambling to protect their Interim Government, its policies and the leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe whom they hold dearly.

Progressive forces in the USA have joined Southern Cameroonians in Europe and South Africa in resisting the actions of failed leaders such as Ikome Sako and Chris Anu. These two men have been using unprecedented levels of energy against the Ambazonia leader, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. Their nasty actions against the Interim Government that brought them to the lime light of Southern Cameroons politics have not been working shockingly well so far. But we of the Cameroon Concord News Group fear that their activities which is not going to last, because it’s not enough to just be against a leader, will continue to delay our trip to Buea.

Sako and Chris are only fighting whatever President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Southern Cameroons Interim Government put on the table and this has greatly helped Vice President Yerima to settle down on the job and has allowed him to set the revolution agenda that badly needed a change.

Comrade Dabney Yerima is not playing games and he is not a man to mess around with! He has taken Southern Cameroonians back to the revolutionary principles and is slowly but surely crafting Ambazonia’s own new vision for what the Federal Republic of Ambazonia should be.

Frankly speaking, politics is a battle of ideas but NOT during a war of liberation. In spite of Paul Biya’s incoherent speeches, his disregard for historic facts on the Anglophone problem and his obvious personal flaws, Southern Cameroonians are miles away from Buea because some are still listening to empty talk from the disgruntled Sako and his Chris Anu gang.

It was very hard to pin Chris Anu to the job description assigned to him by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. As we write, Southern Cameroonians are still to comprehend whether Chris Anu was Communications Secretary or an ABC TV anchor man or better still a social media activist. He has never been clear about his ideas for Ambazonia, beyond attacking Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and picking up a regular cheap quarrel with the Secretary of Finance over unpaid ABC TV bills. Chris Anu’s slogans helped him recruit Barrister Fru into the anti Sisiku Ayuk Tabe wagon. But with the dust now settled, Barrister Fru has come to understand that slogans are not the same as a cohesive idea.

Sako, Boh Herbert, Chris Anu and Akwanga have never been more unified on any one topic than their dislike for the Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.  However, powerful men are almost always defined by what they are for, not what they are against.

Southern Cameroonians should know that the modus operandi of Sako, Boh, Chris and Akwanga has many perils and it is allowing the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime to set the agenda for the Ambazonia war of independence. As long as they are only holding meetings waiting for what President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe or Vice President Dabney Yerima would say to launch an attack. Not only will Ambazonians be always on the defensive, it is also limiting our imaginations to a reality within the boundaries of Biya’s French Cameroun world.

Southern Cameroons will lose. The chips are stacked in favour of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government under the stewardship of Vice President Dabney Yerima. Even with unprecedented levels of attacks, it’s unlikely those fighting the Interim Government will be able to effectively resist every move by Comrade Dabney Yerima. Consequently,  Ambazonia will remain a deeply divided country.

Correspondingly, if we are to take steps to mend the deep tears in the leadership of the struggle and the Southern Cameroons political fabric, Southern Cameroonians should not be defined by what they are opposed to.

Winning this war against La Republqiue du Cameroun does not require attacks on the Interim Government or an impeachment against Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. That has created its own problems. Winning this war against La Republique du Cameroun is not about seeing Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides bleed in Kondengui. Winning is far grander: channeling unprecedented levels of activism and financial resources into an idea for our beloved Ambazonia that not only combats the corrosive policies we’ve seen, but can lead to a permanently better future. That idea will create lasting good for future generations of Southern Cameroonians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

French Cameroun colonial occupation and brutal oppression of Ambazonia is now close to sixty long years. That country is daily plundering and looting the resources of Ambazonia, violently imposing on the people, humiliating them, and terrorizing them.

The die was cast three years ago. We took one giant step to end our shameful status of a colonised people. Like all slaves, we revolted. The colonial oppressor then demonstrated its determination to exterminate us and steal our Homeland. It unleashed an unjust war on us. Since then we have been in the throes of an existential armed threat.

We are fighting for survival as a people. We are literally fighting with bear hands, apparently with no expertise in the art of war. But against all odds, we continue to resist the mighty onslaught of a well-resourced French Cameroun army backed by mercenaries and well-known foreign governments.

But we remain defiant and undaunted. We shall fight on for 100 years, if need be. We shall fight on until our Homeland is totally liberated. We shall fight on until we are free. We shall fight on until we unfetter the shameful shackles around our necks and feet, like those of slaves of old. We shall fight on until we defeat the enemy. We do not doubt success and final victory.

Let the world know and bear witness that we are fighting for the decolonisation of Ambazonia. That territory is historically and legally our Homeland. It has been oursfrom time immemorial. It belongs to us and to none other. Sovereignty over it lies with us, the people of Ambazonia. No other people can possibly assert a superior title to that land.

It is our right and duty to institute a government on that territory, laying itsfoundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to us seems most likely to secure our national interest, our safety, our welfare, and our happiness.No one, no country and no organisation should presume to do so for us or to deflect us from doing so.

In the past:

• We allowed the UN to impose on us an unwarranted and choice-less plebiscite that took place on 11 February 1961;
• We attended a purposeless and agenda-less charade in Fumban in July 1961;
• We submitted to an annexationist document framed and adopted by French Cameroun on 1 September 1961 and dressed up as a so-called federal constitution whereas it was a mere framework for the cannibalisation of Ambazonia;
• We submitted on 30^th September 1961 to the British transfer of powers not to the Government of the Southern Cameroons as ought to have been the case but to a foreign country, namely, French Cameroun, resulting in the re-colonisation, rather than the decolonisation, of the Southern Cameroons;
• We submitted on 1 October 1961 to occupation by French Cameroun forces and to rule by a French Cameroun pro-consul deceptively known as  ‘federal inspector of administration’;
• We allowed in 1962 French Cameroun to extend to Ambazonia its torture outfits and its draconian Subversion Ordinance that sanctioned the trial of our people by military tribunals for a number of ill-defined crimes and, in effect, made every Ambazonian a prisoner in the closed society imposed on us by French Cameroun, practically converting our space of existence into an open prison system;
• We submitted in 1962 to French Cameroun imposition of its French colonial currency, its metric system, its system of driving on the right hand side of the road, and of the French language as the language of governance;
• We allowed in 1966 French Cameroun to impose on us its one-party despotic rule;
• We failed in 1972 to oppose the odious plot and historical swindle of a so-called referendum which purported to have given a veneer of suspect legality to the continuing cannibalisation of Ambazonia;
• We failed in February 1984 to confront Biya when he purported to have completed the cannibalisation of Ambazonia by resurrecting extinct la République du Cameroun as a legal, territorial and political expression, while at the same time asserting an unsubstantiated territorial aggrandisement claim to the territory of Ambazonia;
• We failed in 1990 and 1992 to reject the poisonous and conditioning fake ‘peace’ discourse of French Cameroun;
• We failed in 1994 at the tripartite to reject and denounce French Cameroun’s continuing perfidy and efforts to get us to accept its brutal colonial rule and oppression;
• We allowed ourselves in 2010 to be manipulated by French Cameroun’s deceptive and aggressive use of the term ‘reunification’ to think that the independence of French Cameroun involved us and that our Homeland is part of the territory of French Cameroun;
• We allowed ourselves to be hoodwinked in 2016 to agree to ‘dialogue’ with the devil, a ‘dialogue’ which ended with the kidnapping and incarceration of our then leadership.

All this nonsense is now over. Never again shall we give ear to and act on anything other than what we, as a sovereign people, have decided. French Cameroun, like an invalid, has used Ambazonia as footstool for decades. It hasgot free lunch fromAmbazonia for over five decades. It must now grow up, get rid of its mentality of an invalid, start living on its own, and begin to cater for itself.The era of Santa Claus is over.

On this auspicious occasion I pay tribute to the memory of our valorous soldiers who have gained honourable death in battle. I pay tribute to all those, including babies and the elderly, who have been cowardly murdered by enemy forces.  I commiserate with all those who have been raped or maimed.I salute all our valiant people, our brave refugees and internally displaced persons. I salute our gallant and resourceful freedom fighters. We stand together until the end.

I salute our friends who continue to stand by us in various ways in this our hour of great tribulation, the darkest hour of our history as a people. Our life of sorrow will not last long. May our enemy be put to eternal shame! May our merciful Lord hasten the advent of our redemption!

Darkness tarries only for a while before dawn. The dawn of national liberation, the dawn of a free people, is about to break.

Long live the invincible people of Ambazonia!  Long live Ambazonia!

By Prof Carlson Anyangwe

The recent sentencing of separatists is likely to fuel more anger and resentment among the Anglophone population and alienate them from the Francophone-dominated government, but the dialogue can reverse hard feelings.

It was a long court session. 

A military tribunal in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon, had convened some hours after noon on August 19 to pass verdicts on a case involving a group of ‘Ambazonia’ separatist leaders. But the sitting did not end until around 5:30am local time the next day.

The charges against them were, like the proceedings, long: secession, complicity in acts of terrorism, insurrection, hostility against the state, financing acts of terrorism, and spreading fake news, among others.

In its final verdict, the tribunal sentenced the 10 separatist leaders to life in prison and asked them to pay a civil award of 250 billion CFA francs ($419 million USD) to the government and civil claimants. If they fail to pay the fine as and when due, they will have to pay an additional cost of 12 billion francs ($20 million USD).

Among the leaders convicted was Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the self-declared president of the breakaway ‘Federal Republic of Ambazonia’. The state was declared in October 2017 to spite the government’s heavy-handedness in response to peaceful demonstrations across the English-speaking South-West and North-West regions.

Cameroon, a central African country, is made up of 10, semi-autonomous regions. Eight are Francophone and two Anglophone. 

The French-dominated government in Yaoundé is led by 86-year-old Paul Biya, the current head of state who has been in office since 1982.

Frustrations over lack of equal representation have roiled the Anglophones since the 1990s, sometimes culminating in demands for a referendum or a return to a federation.

Similar worries forced lawyers and teachers to organise strikes over the use of French in their courts and the dominance of French language in their schools in late 2016.

The government’s response, including transferring French-speaking teachers, establishing Common Law Sections at the Supreme Court and the National  School of Administration and Magistracy, as well as creating a national Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and  Multiculturalism did little to address the grievances.

Gradually the anger spread across the South-West and North-West regions. Residents organised peaceful demonstrations over the perceived marginalisation of the Anglophone minority, which makes up 20 percent of Cameroon’s 24 million people. 

But the government responded with extreme force, arresting demonstrators, firing live rounds at protestors and jailing a few people. In response, an alphabet soup of separatist groups sprang up to fight for the independence of Ambazonia.

“We feel like second-class citizens because Biya’s government has never for once accepted that there is a problem in the Anglophone regions,” a Cameroonian refugee in Nigeria told TRT World.

“Our complaints about a failed system have only brought us imprisonment, destruction, death, displacement and difficulties.” 

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused government forces of indiscriminate killings, arrests, torture and destruction of villages during operations. 

Armed groups, the watchdogs say, have also burnt down schools, attacked students and teachers and killed security officers.

The simmering conflict has displaced some 530,806 Cameroonians within the country and forced about 42,887 to cross the border to Nigeria, according to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. Some 1,850 have been killed so far.

In January 2018, some 47 Anglophone separatists, including Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, were arrested in Nigeria by security agents. They were detained and later deported to Cameroon that same month. Most of them had filed asylum claims. A Nigerian court sitting in the capital Abuja in March ruled that the extradition of 12 asylum claimants was “illegal” and awarded them compensation. 

Upon his extradition, Ayuk Tabe was, alongside his fellow comrades, incarcerated in a well-secured facility in Yaoundé and later charged with “terrorism” in December last year at a military court.

It was this same court that would, after an all-night sitting on August 20, give him a life sentence.

In the immediate aftermath of the ruling, angry separatist fighters announced a three-week lockdown in the Anglophone regions, forcing thousands of residents to leave their homes to avoid the curfew and any follow-on confrontations. 

Local media reported that shops, offices, markets, and bus stations closed following the order.

This is a usual tactic for the fighters who have periodically enforced curfews — or “ghost towns”.  This often happens on a Monday.

Ayuk Tabe and some of his fellow leaders are seen to be more open to dialogue. The recent sentencing, analysts argue, would only exacerbate the ongoing conflict.

“Some of the approaches adopted by the Cameroonian government has more or less tended towards inflaming tensions,” Dr Emeka Okereke, an expert in African affairs, remarked.

In May, local newspaper Journal du Cameroun reported that 54-year-old Ayuk Tabe had written a five-page letter presenting conditions for dialogue, including releasing prisoners arrested during the crisis, removing government security forces from the Anglophone regions, holding peace talks outside the country and involving foreign observers in the process. 

“The arrests and sentencing indicate an attempt on the part of the Biya government to take a harder line and apply the principle of striking the shepherd in order to disperse the sheep,” said Cheta Nwanze, Head of Research at SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based political and economic consultancy.

With this approach, Nwanze argued: “[The government is] probably making the fundamental mistake of removing those who have something to lose and are, as a result, more open to negotiations.

“They may thus be left with more hardliners who will make things more difficult for them.”

Amid tensions resulting from the lockdown imposed by separatists, the presidency announced that Biya would address the nation on September 10. This is a shift from the traditional times the head of state addresses the nation: on New Year and the National Youth Day on February 11.

In the rare national address broadcast on TV and radio at 8pm local time, Biya admitted that there was, indeed, a “crisis” with “far-reaching consequences” for the entire country. 

He recalled that he had ordered the release of 289 persons arrested in connection with the crisis and outlined other measures taken to address grievances. 

To address the conflict, the government would convene a national dialogue, he announced. Parties would include government officials, opinion leaders, leaders of government security forces, armed groups and victims, he added. 

A delegation would be sent to the diaspora to allow Cameroonians there to make their input.

“How can there be dialogue when some of the key actors you are supposed to dialogue with have just been sentenced to life in prison?” asked Okereke, who argues that granting amnesty to all political prisoners should be part of the solution. 

Nwanze, of SMB Intelligence, also thinks the proposed national dialogue is not a solution.

“Biya was offering more of a stick than carrot, and like many autocrats before him, seemed not to understand, nor care, about the complaints of those who have stood against him,” he explained.

As the impasse drags on, students continue to be kept out of their classrooms.

Around 80 percent of schools in the North-West and South-West region have been closed due to the crisis, UN Children’s Fund, Unicef, reported in June. This has affected more than 600,000 children and left at least 74 schools in ruins, Unicef said.

When schools tried to re-open on September 2 this year, suspected separatist fighters opened gunfire to scare students and teachers away, local media reported.

Businesses and livelihoods, too, have been jeopardised due to the ongoing crisis.

For instance, the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDD), the state-owned agro-industrial company in the South-West region, had to shut down most of its factories, estates and oil mills.

The country’s second largest employer after the government, the CDD, has a workforce of about 22,000 employees and has operations in banana, palm oil, semi-finished rubber, and palm kernel oil. Thousands of workers have lost their jobs, as the company’s financial struggles linger.

Nwaze calls for better representation.

“Give the Anglophones a sense of belonging by ensuring that their communities are run in English, and creating a path to top positions within the government for people from the area,” he said.

Okereke believes the government alone cannot singlehandedly address the problem.

“There needs to be a frank, all-inclusive dialogue that requires granting amnesty to political prisoners, active international participation, and the parties to the conflict putting aside their political interests to find a common ground.”

Source: TRT World

Paul Biya has entrusted prime minister Joseph Dion Ngute with the task of leading the crucial national dialogue from 30 September to 4 October. The talks are supposed to lead to a resolution to the crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions. It is a mission of trust but also a dangerous one.

1. Rooted

He comes from an family of high-ranking officials in the English-speaking South-West, where he was born sixty-five years ago. A traditional chief attached to his Sawa roots, he maintains a very strong link with his region, while pursuing a career – administrative and political – in the capital.

2. Teacher

Educated in Yaoundé and London, with a PhD from the University of Warwick (Great Britain), this expert on business law was a professor at Université Yaoundé II in the 1980s.

3. Prestige

In 1991, he became director general of the École Nationale d’Administration et de Magistrature, a highly respected institution in Yaoundé.

4. Loyal

Between December 1997 and March 2018, he was minister delegate to the foreign affairs ministry with responsibility for the Commonwealth. He was then appointed minister in charge of the presidency. Loyal to Paul Biya, he is a member of the central committee of the ruling Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais party.

5. Diplomat

He represented Cameroon at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, Gambia. He also led the Cameroonian delegation to the negotiations that led to the creation of the African Union and was his country’s main representative on the Gulf of Guinea Commission.

6. Bakassi

As a member of the Cameroon-Nigeria Joint Commission under the aegis of the United States, he participated in the negotiations that led to the implementation of the decision of the International Court of Justice in The Hague concerning the Bakassi border dispute.

7. Problem solver

Last May, he spent nearly a week travelling through North-West and South-West provinces, meeting with local authorities, politicians, religious leaders and representatives of civil society. Each time, he explained that he was carrying an offer of dialogue from President Biya.

8. Rolling up his sleeves

This very discreet insider will be the mastermind of the national dialogue at the Palais des Congrès in Yaoundé. On the agenda: bilingualism, decentralisation, the return of displaced people, demobilisation and the reintegration of former combatants.

9. Diaspora

To resolve the Anglophone crisis, he was mandated to conduct broad consultations to gather the opinions and complaints of all Cameroonians. In the coming days, delegations will be sent to meet the diaspora.

10. Taking a risk

Leading the national dialogue is both a privilege and a risk. If these talks fail, there is no doubt that President Biya, who has chosen to remain in the background, would hold him responsible.

Source: The Africa Report

Jacques Chirac, who died on Thursday, infuriated Washington by refusing to join the US-led coalition in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a landmark decision which badly hurt Paris-Washington relations.

Chief UN inspector Hans Blix had submitted a report on Iraq’s attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction and suggested that more inspections were needed.

But then US secretary of state Colin Powell argued that Saddam Hussein was preventing inspectors from uncovering the full extent of his arms programme.

Chirac was convinced a war would destabilise the region, and sent his then foreign minister Dominique de Villepin to do diplomatic battle at the United Nations.

De Villepin’s address to an emotionally charged Security Council on February 14 was a vibrant challenge to the logic of war, and elicited rare applause from his audience.

“In this temple of United Nations, we are the guardians of an ideal, we are guardians of a conscience. The heavy responsibility and great honour that is ours must lead us to give priority to peaceful disarmament,” de Villepin said.

“This message comes to you today from an old country, France, from an old continent like mine, Europe, that has known wars, occupation, and barbarity.”

– Tensions with Washington –

On March 18, 2003, Chirac raised the stakes, declaring: “Iraq does not represent an immediate threat that would justify an immediate war. France appeals to the responsibility of all to respect international law.

“Acting without the UN’s legitimacy, putting power before law, means taking on a heavy responsibility,” he warned.

The position was backed by three-quarters of the French population.

Chirac’s stance strained France’s relations with the United States for several years.

But as Iraq slipped into chaos in the aftermath of the invasion, many observers saw his opposition to the conflict as one of the crowning achievements of his political career.

Source: AFP

The French Cameroun dictator has reportedly been using the enormous influence his regime wields within Europe and the United States including Canada to get away with the crimes Cameroon government army soldiers are perpetrating against the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group believe and fervently too that it basically makes Europe and the US a cosponsor of French Cameroun terrorism against a people Yaoundé had once described as its own citizens.

Never in the history of the African continent has a regime been allowed to go scot-free after trampling on the legitimate rights of a people. More than 4000 Ambazonians have been killed, thousands of Southern Cameroonians have been relegated to a lower class in French Cameroun detention centers, thousands are living in the bushes and thousands are now refugees in neighboring Nigeria. By some strange happenstance, certain European countries are complicit in Biya’s crimes against Southern Cameroons.

The truth is that the Biya Francophone regime has been able to get away with these crimes against humanity not only by the political influence in Europe guaranteed by the French government and support from lobby groups in the US but by given bribes to UN and Commonwealth diplomats.

Biya is slowly but surely criminalizing any political speech or disagreement from Southern Cameroons over the political future of the so-called one and indivisible nation. In Yaoundé and in some areas in Douala, Southern Cameroonians can disagree about any Cameroonian political figure or any French Cameroun government official on any issue except separation or federation including who will be Cameroon’s next head of state.

The Francophone Beti Ewondo political elites have twisted Cameroon’s penal code laws..to say that any agitation for better living standard by Southern Cameroonians is only motivated by hate for fatherland and therefore, anybody Ambazonian that protest is exposed to terrorism charges.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The consortium of CPDM crime syndicates headed by the 86 year old President Paul Biya is in the final stages of its life, and the youthful Beti Ewondo political and military leaders are expediting the regime’s demise through their policies against the people of Southern Cameroons.

The Biya administration is old, unbearable, intolerable, unacceptable and at best primitive and is definitely in the final stages of its life because of natural reasons like its cruel measures over the past 37 years, the systematic corruption in the regime, suppression of the Cameroonian people, and totalitarianism of its rules.

The performance of incumbent Beti Ewondo French Cameroun political elites such as Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and Joseph Beti Assomo – which is in sharp contradiction to that of their French Cameroun predecessors such as the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo – will expedite the collapse of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime.

Biya and French Cameroun’s war on Southern Cameroons, the crimes committed by the regime’s army soldiers and Biya’s polarization of every aspect of the Cameroonian society has seriously affected the future unity of the so-called one and indivisible state.

We are currently seeing for the first time French Cameroun taxation officers intimidating business owners and collecting money to pay the army and civil servants and we are also seeing major Cameroonian partners such as the USA and Germany withdrawing support they had provided the Cameroonian people for decades.

An ex-convict Paul Atanga Nji was appointed Minister of Territorial Administration while a mentally deranged person is deputy minister for justice. Deranged means insane!

Biya started his hostile policies toward Southern Cameroons after the declaration of independence by the Ambazonia leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the establishment of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Biya’s rare address to the nation recently in which he accepted for the first time that there was indeed a serious crisis in Southern Cameroons and the silence of CPDM hardliners over the issue showed the regime’s ultimate humiliation and indicates that pressure is mounting.

French business tycoon, Bollore and the Chinese are taking over whatever is left of Cameroon in exchange for the political support that Biya receives from Paris and Beijing. French and US lobby groups are forcing Biya to pay more for political service offered in the West.

United Nations diplomats including Secretary General Gutteres are happy to keep Biya and his ruling CPDM elites as close partners because of Yaoundé’s extravagant payments in gold constantly being made to them!  To be more accurate, Biya and his CPDM regime have nothing but cash that they dish out to lobby groups in Paris, Washington, Geneva and New York.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ever since Cameroon’s long-serving president, Paul Biya, announced his national dialogue in lieu of the inclusive dialogue called for by the international community, many hypocrites have sprung into action.

Some are still speaking the old and provocative language that brought about the crisis in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Many claim federalism is not good for the country, adding that it is too expensive. Many of them fail to understand that excessive centralization is hyper-expensive, as it creates the conditions for corruption and the abuse of power.

Corruption is expensive. The number of government officials in jail today and the amounts of money they are being accused of embezzling speak to the fact that corruption is more expensive than federalism.

The current form of the state is to blame for most of the country’s woes and suggesting that it cannot be changed simply implies the chaos of the past three years should continue.

If the form of the state cannot be discussed and changed, then the so-called national dialogue does not need to take place. Mr. Biya’s government has had multiple opportunities to make Cameroon great, but he has misused every single opportunity available to him.

The Tripartite Talks and the 1996 Constitutional talks were huge opportunities for him to endear himself to Cameroonians. He unfortunately missed all the targets.

If Mr. Biya and his CPDM government do not walk away from their old ways, then they want more bloodshed in Cameroon. The country has already lost a lot of blood and it is time to turn off the unpleasant streams of blood that have turned our country into an abattoir.

The government must always bear in mind that the dynamics have changed. The Internet has come and it has come to stay and Cameroonians will use it to expose the corruption and the dishonesty of Cameroon government officials.

Besides, if Southern Cameroonians are not satisfied with the outcome of the so-called dialogue, they will ensure that more guns head to Cameroon for action and this will be bad news for the suffering masses. We must avoid this.

Today, it is not only the government that can purchase weapons. The equation has changed. Government officials must always know that they cannot always lead Cameroonians by their noses.

As Cameroonians, we must work hard to ensure that old demons do not rear their ugly heads again in our country. We must prevent bloodshed in our country by having a frank and fruitful discussion on the Southern Cameroons issue and other problems that have pitted ordinary citizens against their own government.

Francophones should understand that they must never speak for Southern Cameroonians. They do not understand the issues and they are easily corruptible and contented with whatever crumbs Mr. Biya has for them.

Southern Cameroonians know they deserve more. They also know how to be patient. But after five decades of patience, they feel it is time to do things differently and that was why they stood up as one man to challenge the Yaounde authoritarian regime.

And they will never be apologetic about it. Cameroon belongs to all of those who have been born in the country and it will be preposterous to let a few people exploit others. It is always great to live for a day as a lion than to live for a century as a sheep. Southern Cameroonians have proven that.

They have also proven that they still have a stomach for a fight if the government still wants to continue with its manipulation and tricks.

The financial resources are there and there is a huge pool of willing fighters prepared and ready to muddy the waters.

The irony is that it is the government itself that has created the huge pool of fighters. Its inability to create jobs for young graduates has only made it possible for the government’s enemies to create work for the idle hands and minds that are available across the country.

Second, the government’s arrogance has also made things easy for Cameroonians to hate it. An efficient and arrogant government can only incur the people’s wrath. The government’s refusal to heed the people’s call for changes in the manner in which the country is being run has only made the country ungovernable.

The form of the state must change for peace to prevail. If Francophones are happy with Mr. Biya’s disastrous decentralization, let them know that Southern Cameroonians will never accept that.

Like most Cameroonians, I don’t want any more bloodshed. I want to see honesty and determination during the so-called talks which are gradually turning into a carnival of press releases and motions of support for Paul Biya.

This is bad news for some of us who hold that the dialogue could bring about peace. The guns, that have spoken for three years should be silenced for us to make giant strides.

However, the government must understand that Southern Cameroonians will always keep their gun option on the table if the government does not change its ways. The chaos of the past will always be a reminder to the government whenever it wants to play its pranks.

The fund-raising events will surely continue until the right solutions are found if the government does not display a lot of good faith.

Cameroon is bigger than Paul Biya. It is bigger than the ruling CPDM. The chaos of the last three years should always serve as a reminder each time a major decision has to be taken.

The government should also seek to repair its relation with the country’s Diaspora. The Diaspora has the resources to destabilize the country for a long time.

Having a good relationship with it, implies that those resources could be converted into investment funds.

Dr Joachim Arrey

President Buhari shares paternity with Paul Biya of Cameroon in leadership style. Both men are joined by the umbilicus of repression and abrasion.

In 2010, Bertrand Teyou, an author, was sentenced to two years imprisonment for insulting the wife of Biya, Chantal. The Cameroonian Government filed charges against him for this spectacular reason.

Under Biya, Southern Cameroon has become the scene of a volcanic crisis – killings, illegal detentions and arrests. Specifically, the government is zeroing in on dissenting voices in effecting these violations.

I think, the situation is much more execrable in Nigeria than in Cameroon.

Amnesty International encapsulates it in these words: ‘’The human rights situation in Nigeria is marked by serious human rights violations such as extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, violence against women and girls, restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, mass forced evictions, environmental pollution and lack of accountability for human rights violations and abuses.’’

As a matter of fact, the Buhari government has racked up egregious human rights records more than any other administration before it. In 2017, the United States Department of State released a convicting exposition on this villainy.

“Impunity remained widespread at all levels of government.

“The government did not adequately investigate or prosecute most of the major outstanding allegations of human rights violations by the security forces or the majority of cases of police or military extortion or other abuse of power.

“Authorities generally did not hold police, military, or other security force personnel accountable for the use of excessive or deadly force or for the deaths of persons in custody.

“State and federal panels of inquiry investigating suspicious deaths generally did not make their findings public,” it said.

I have studied the charges levelled against Omoyele Sowore, publisher of SaharaReporters, and they ossify my position that the gentleman is being put through a mill of thistles and thorns for being a relentless critic of the administration.

He is charged with ‘’insulting’’ the President, and for transferring money from New York to Nigeria? What a phenomenal charge? Obviously, Sowore’s only crime is that he has a roaring voice which puts the foundations of Aso Rock to fright.

And does it mean words cannot change the General, but they get to him?

Really, the cyberstalking law, by which Sowore is charged, was fashioned under President Jonathan. This was, perhaps, the former President’s response to social media criticism at the time. But the law, being defective, was never applied under him.

Jonathan was vilified, abused and defamed but not one Nigerian was incarcerated or charged with ‘’treason’’. In fact, in the North, coffins with photos and semblances of Jonathan were coursed through the streets by dissenters but not a single protester was detained. And he was even stoned in Yola on his way to Taraba.

These were clearly grievous offences that are punishable by the law. But a democrat will see beyond an act and ask, ‘’why is this happening? Why are citizens angry?’’

Although Jonathan was not without freckles, he exercised his own brutish aspect with the clampdown on media organisations.

Really, only a non-performing government will be afraid of citizens’ protests or interpret civil actions as subversion. Only a failing administration will be extremely irritated by criticisms and divergent opinions.

In the case of Sowore, he has exercised himself in the discipline of civil opposition. He has only used his voice as a protected child of the Nigerian constitution.

Section 39(1) of the 1999 constitution establishes that “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information without interference.”

This is the grundnorm to which all laws submit. This is the pillar on which our democracy is built.

The charges cannot stand. But why do dictators rise in AFRICA? It is because of the people, who do nothing; who enable them and who only pray for an end to their suffering.

Culled from Sahara Reporters

Cameroon is going through the toughest moment of its life and the future looks bleak as the Central African country deals with multiple crises. The country’s economy is facing tough times and the level of employment is very high. But it is the Anglophone crisis that is the government’s toughest challenge. The country’s president, Paul Biya, recently addressed the nation and called for a national dialogue that should help the country heal. After the address, staff lady Chi Prudence Asong spoke with Dr. Joachim Arrey, a writer, who has continued writing on how the government could proceed to end the crisis that has resulted in the deaths of many people and he had this to say.

Cameroon Concord News: What is your impression about the president’s address to the nation?

Dr Arrey Jaochim: I think it was an opportunity to reassure Cameroonians. The address comes a bit too late, but better late than never. The president should have done this a lot earlier to spare the country and the international community the horror movie that has been playing out in the country’s two English-speaking regions for almost three years. The country’s economy has been hurt, many people have been displaced and thousands have lost their lives in a conflict that could have been prevented. However, I think we should be forward-looking. Many mistakes have been made, but I think the call for dialogue is an opportunity for Cameroonians to take a long and hard look at their country’s past to figure out how to address those issues that have brought untold hardship on the people. It is also an opportunity to address the Southern Cameroonian issue once and for all.

Cameroon Concord News: The dialogue has already begun as the Prime Minister has been receiving many delegations to obtain their views. It has been announced that the main event will start on 30 September. What do you think about the government’s approach?

Dr Arrey Joachim: I think the government is doing something, but the population is simply not happy with what it is doing. It is a good idea to receive opinions from political parties and traditional leaders, but it should be pointed out that Southern Cameroonians who have triggered this dialogue do no longer trust their politicians and traditional leaders, most of whom have escaped to East Cameroon as a result of the conflict. This conflict is born out of frustration and marginalization and the government should understand that certain measures need to be taken now to instil confidence in the English-speaking minority if it wants its dialogue not to end up as a deadlock.  The truth is that those who have financed this revolution are living abroad and the best the government can do is to head to those countries and try to negotiate. The government itself has lost credibility and those living abroad will never take it seriously. The government needs to seek a mediator who must be impartial and objective to ensure that the country does not end up with a deadlock on its hand. That is why many people around the round still express fear and doubts as to the government’s sincerity in organizing a dialogue. The government seems to be playing the role of a judge and jury at the same time.  I would advise that the United Nations be given a chance to play an important role so that Southern Cameroonians can feel that there is a neutral third party involved. If Mr. Biya really wants peace to return to Cameroon, then he must yield a lot of ground and must yield to calls for an international mediator.

Cameroon Concord News: But the president did also say that there was nobody to discuss with and that has been the issue facing the government for all these years.

Dr Arrey Joachim: I think Mr. Biya is frozen in time. He is of the opinion that he knows it all and the other Cameroonians are not smart enough to generate any good idea. If he had listened to many people just when the crisis started, we would not be where we are today. If he had addressed the nation using the right words at the beginning of the crisis, more than 2,000 lives would have been spared. Saying that he cannot find someone to dialogue with only makes him sound ridiculous. He seems to be looking for a solution that is already in his bedroom. As far as Southern Cameroonians are concerned, Julius Ayuk Tabe is their president and a poster boy of the rebellion. Besides Julius Ayuk Tabe, there are many other leaders in jail. If ?r: Biya were serious about this dialogue which I am considering as a deadlock, he would grant general amnesty to all those arrested during the crisis as well as people living abroad who have been directly or indirectly linked to the crisis. This will not only be a goodwill gesture, but a clear signal that he wants things to return to normal. History is littered with stories of people who have negotiated for their groups while in jail. Nelson Mandela did it for South Africans and Julius Ayuk Tabe can also do it for Southern Cameroonians.

Cameroon Concord News: But it is held that Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe and Co. are terrorists because of their role in the rebellion.

Dr Arrey Joachim: I think it is time to change the rhetoric. If the government continues to use the anti-terrorism law to eliminate its opponents, nobody will ever have confidence in it. Julius Ayuk Tabe and others arrested in the context of this conflict are not terrorists. They are freedom fighters who truly hold that the Yaounde system needs to change. They hold that Southern Cameroonians have been marginalized for too long and despite all the peaceful means used over the last four decades to draw the attention of the government to the sorry plight of the people of Southern Cameroons, the Yaounde government has continued to argue that there is no marginalization in Cameroon. The best any reasonable person can do is to listen to those who are complaining. Killing and jailing them will not cause the problem to go away.  The anti-terrorism law should not be used by the government to push the country into conflicts that are sapping its economy of its vitality. For real development to take place in Cameroon, there must be peace. The government of Cameroon must live up to the expectations of its people. It must sow the seeds of peace and must understand that a government is not chosen for it to oppress its people, but to create the right conditions for its citizens to prosper and live life in a peaceful environment.

Cameroon Concord News: Will you attend the national dialogue in Yaounde?

Dr Arrey Joachim: Personally, I do not need to be physically present in Yaounde for me to contribute my ideas. I have been writing for decades to let the government know that something is broken and needs to be fixed. My role as a writer is to inform and admonish, where necessary. It is also up to the government to accept what I say or write. But it now knows that failure to listen could lead to the type of disaster the country has witnessed over the last three years. As far as I am concerned, the government should ensure that the Diaspora is properly represented. However, I don’t know how that will happen as Mr. Biya and his government are still threatening the Diaspora with arrests. The Yaounde government needs to fix its relationship with the Diaspora. The Diaspora has the resources to destabilize Cameroon for a long time. If the government really wants to succeed, then it must send delegations to London, Washington and Toronto to meet with those who can help Cameroon return to the path of peace. I know you will be surprised that I have mentioned Toronto and not Ottawa, but I would be quick to add that Toronto is where the money has been coming from. If you need to address the right crowd, then the Greater Toronto Area is where you should be, as many successful Cameroonians have settled in places like Brampton, Mississauga and Ajax which constitute the Greater Toronto Area and most of them are in the private sector and have the resources to keep Yaounde politicians awake all night.

Cameroon Concord News: Which other group of people would you recommend for the national dialogue?

Dr Arrey Joachim: I would recommend religious leaders and activists. These groups of people can make or mar the national dialogue. Religious leaders are much respected in Southern Cameroons. Their views should be taken seriously. Activists also have a huge following.  If the government wants them to change their perspective and their rhetoric, then it must stretch a hand of friendship to journalists and activists. When you need peace, you must bend over backwards to have it.

Cameroon Concord News: Will you be willing to work for the government so that you can share your views with the authorities?

Dr Arrey Joachim: I will continue to use all the platforms available to me to share my perspective. I do not need to work for the government for my views to be known. I have been writing and will continue to do so for a long time. As a writer, my role is to inform and not to be a bureaucrat. There are other Cameroonians who can deliver more than me. I prefer to be on the sidelines to draw the government’s attention to mistakes that may cause our country to implode, but I will always do so in all objectivity and honesty.  That is my role and I love to play it.

Cameroon Concord News: Thank you Dr. Joachim Arrey for sharing your thoughts with us.