Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, on Friday, March 2, 2018, announced his “new cabinet” which many analysts said was long overdue given the political issues that have plagued the country for more than fifteen months.

The cabinet, which includes Anglophones such as Mr.Atanga Nji, Minister of Territorial Administration, and Ms. Nalova Lyonga, Minister of Secondary Education, is currently the subject of many discussions across the country and among the country’s Diaspora.

Speaking to ordinary Cameroonians, the Cameroon Concord News Group gathered that Mr. Biya’s cabinet reshuffle is actually change without change as he has simply reshuffled his card.

A Southern Cameroonian fighter who called the Cameroon Concord News Group’s global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, shortly after the “pseudo reshuffle” said that Mr. Biya’s false steps would continue to motivate them.

“We will continue to strike fear in the government’s mind until we are taken seriously. I have just listened to the cabinet reshuffle, but it makes no sense to me. Our goal is to restore our independence and we will achieve that some day. The government is trembling. Last week, we conducted a successful operation in Muyenge in the South West Region and after we had left, the government rolled out its old equipment to come and stop us from advancing. Our objective is to head to Buea to wreak havoc. We need to chase the noisy governor out of Buea. He has to return to his own part of the country. This cabinet reshuffle tells me that Anglophones do not count and will never count in Cameroon. If Atanga Nji and Nalova Lyonga are considered as the best among us, then we are doomed.”

According to a Southern Cameroonian living in North America, it is clear that Mr. Biya is not taking Southern Cameroonians seriously despite the crisis which is tearing the country apart.

The Southern Cameroonian, who elected anonymity, said that “the fighting must continue. Mr. Biya is taking us for a ride. We cannot be complaining about a system that has marginalized us for decades and he is appointing the same people who have been responsible for the Southern Cameroons crisis.”

“It is unbelievable that he will be rewarding Atanga Nji who has been rejected by his people in the North West Region. Atanga Nji, an ex-convict, will find it hard to operate in the North West. We have rejected him and he should not deceive himself that he is representing anybody. He is surely representing Mr. Biya and his bunch of old people who are out of touch with the political reality in Southern Cameroons,” the Washington-based Southern Cameroonian said.

“Mr. Biya does not seem to understand what is happening in Cameroon. The Southern Cameroonians appointed do not represent anybody. This decision will not go down well with many Cameroonians, especially Southern Cameroonians, who have rejected the current political class. More people will still have to die for Mr. Biya to understand that his choices are not the best for this country,” he regretted

“How can Nalova Lyonga who caused Buea University students to be beaten and made to drink raw sewage be rewarded with a ministerial position? Does it imply Mr. Biya only likes people who work against their own people? I am really disappointed and I think the current crisis tearing the country apart will continue for a very long time,” he lamented.

According to another Southern Cameroonian living in West Africa who spoke with the Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman, it is obvious that “our country is in for tough times,” the vocal Cameroonian who has been a close observer of the country’s political scene said, adding that “our government does not understand that it is dealing with very angry citizens. Cameroon is a ticking time bomb and Mr. Biya’s action are only helping that bomb to go off when the right moment comes.”

“Cameroonians must rise up against this government that is making a mockery of them. How can we be complaining about bad governance and Mr. Biya is still appointing people who have been around for decades and have never really posted any impressive results?” he asked, stressing that “using the same people to run the country for a long time only creates the right conditions for inaction and laziness.”

“I thought Mr. Biya will bring into the government some members of the Anglophone Diaspora in a bid to appease the angry Diaspora that is doing everything to destabilize the country. If Mr. Biya does not reconcile with the Southern Cameroons Diaspora, he will be having lots of sleepless nights. The Southern Cameroons Diaspora is hell-bent on making its influence felt and over the last fifteen months, it has gone the extra mile of financing the purchase and shipment of weapons to Cameroon and these weapons are sending many young soldiers to an early grave,” he said.

“The Diaspora is a huge source of financing for the country’s development projects if the government partners with it. But if Mr. Biya and his collaborators continue to disrespect and ignore the Diaspora, then they have accepted to leave a life of instability for a long time.

As we speak, there are shipments of weapons heading to Cameroon and these weapons have been purchased by the Southern Cameroons Diasporaand some members of the Francophone Diaspora are already joining the struggle and are willing to make huge financial contributions,” the highly intellectual Cameroonian said.

“We cannot continue to take Mr. Biya’s mess. He has ruined the country and if care is not taken, he might take the country with him to the grave. Mr. Biya needs to be called to order and only a huge people power revolution can make him understand that he has taken the country down the wrong path. Our country has deteriorated so badly. We do not have good roads and our hospitals are not the best places for anybody who is critically sick. What type of country is this? Where on earth will some people be in the political arena for more than 40 years. Cameroonians have to come together to stop this bunch of old people who are destroying our country.If something is not down now, our country will go down the drain and future generations will have to pay a huge price,” he stressed.

Other observers have indicated that despite Mr. Biya’s gimmick, many Southern Cameroonians are still arguing that Southern Cameroonians will never be given any strategic positions in Cameroon. The finance, communication, foreign affairs, economy and planning as well as the defense portfolios are still being held by Francophones. Atanga Nji may be at the ministry of territorial administration, but that ministry has been sapped of its powers as election organization is now in the hands of ELECAM and decentralization is anything but serious. The presidency will continue to dictate to stooges like Atanga Nji and he will be used as a rubber stamp.

From an interview with Cameroonians on the streets, the Cameroon Concord News Group noticed that there was a lot of frustration. Jean-Philip Mboule, a street vendor in Yaounde, said that to be a member of government in Cameroon, you must be called Paul. He cited a few names like Paul Biya, Elung Paul, Paul Atanga Nji, Paul Motaze and Paul Tasong who are all members of the current government. For women, they must be called Pauline. That’s why Nalova Lyonga Pauline Egbe has made it into the cabinet. He joked that before long, all Cameroonians will be rebaptized and their baptismal name will surely be Paul or Pauline.

From every indication, Cameroon is moving toward more serious andtougher times. The change that a cabinet reshuffle is supposed to bring does not exist in Mr. Biya’s cabinet reshuffle that has offended instead of appeasing Cameroonians.

With Boko Haram maiming people in the North, Central African rebels kidnapping innocent people for ransom and Southern Cameroonians making the country ungovernable, Cameroon is sliding down a slippery slope. Mr. Biya has missed another opportunity to hold the country together. If he is alive and healthy, then he should know he has created a storm that might sweep him out of power sooner rather than later.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Nowhere in the world has there been a man whose first job on earth was a ministerial position. But never has there been a man that has failed so spectacularly as the Cameroonian Head of State, Paul Biya. Successive opposition parties in the Francophone dominated country including one created in Southern Cameroons have attempted to force the Biya regime out of power but have failed to free the enslaved people. In the thirty- five years since President Biya took office, the people of Cameroon have discovered that their own ruler can be just as brutal and corrupt like Mobutu of Zaire and the Ugandan thug, Idi Amin Dada.

Since last year, Francophone soldiers and the nation’s gendarmerie loyal to President Paul Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate have jeopardized the unity and peace that was miraculously put in place by the late president Ahmadou Ahidjo by reigniting conflict in Southern Cameroons which is home to the Anglophone communities.

Thousands of Southern Cameroons civilians have been forced to flee into neighboring Nigeria or take shelter in French Cameroun.  Hundreds of Southern Cameroonian citizens have been killed. The UN and its corrupt Secretary General, Antonio Guterres look on, as they have done on numerous occasions in Africa, unable to prevent the massacre of innocent civilians.

This is foremost a successful failure of President Biya’s leadership.  The many foreign architects of the reunification process in 1961 that led to independence also share part of the blame. It was only with consistent, top-level engagement from Paris, that the French Cameroun political elites headed by Biya were persuaded to make public the decree that paved the way for the annulment of the Federal Republic of Cameroun. The same France that helped to end the UPC uprising in French Cameroun has pushed Mr. Biya with naive paternalism and complacency into his last journey of many dangers.  Now that it has all gone wrong, the French appearing guilty of looking the other way have dragged the Federal Republic of Nigeria into the Ambazonia crisis.

The French and its multilateral donors, on whom the Biya regime’s foundation depended, are paralyzed by a dilemma of their own making and they are astonishingly shock with Biya’s low sense of judgment. Far beyond an elaborate patronage system run by grasping Beti Ewondo army generals and an ill-prepared gendarmerie, and a national dependency on French and European Union aid and sometimes Greek gifts from the US, the French and the EU donors have little to show for the billions of Euros they have thrown into propping up and sustaining Biya since 1982.

The French and the EU are reluctant to continue with the policy of throwing good money after bad. So, troops deployed to Southern Cameroons by President Biya are looting and stealing even from poor Southern Cameroonians.  Yet, without French support, there is little chance that Biya can keep French Cameroun forces in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia for another one year. French Cameroun is bankrupt. Much of the oil production has been sold forward to French companies anyway, and what is left in revenues the Biya regime must share with the army generals and CPDM acolytes.

The uncomfortable truth is that unity and peace may have to be bought with federalism as pointed out by Chief V.E.Mukete. The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, which has the greatest interests in the struggle, can also help. Some of the French Cameroun actors in this conflict including President Biya, the governors of the North West and South West regions, the SDO of Manyu, the Minister of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo are guilty of crimes against humanity. They should be subject to sanctions, and should know that they will ultimately be held to account. An arms embargo, long overdue at the UN Security Council, should be put in place immediately.

Correspondingly, ECOWAS which is hosting more than 40,000 Southern Cameroons refugees can take the lead in sending troops to protect Southern Cameroons civilians. The AU should deploy its standby forces created for this kind of crisis to Ambazonia.  Without a far more robust and high level international engagement, there are few grounds to be optimistic that the Southern Cameroons crisis will come to an end soon.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group condemns the abduction of the 110 innocent school girls in the town of Dapchi in Yobe state, North East Nigeria by Boko Haram. Cameroon Concord News stands firmly in solidarity with the families of the abductees in asking for an urgent search and rescue of the abductees.  Like the yet unresolved abduction of the Chibok school girls and the leaders of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, this latest abduction, blamed yet again on Boko Haram is an assault on the soul of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the conscience of humanity.

Coming at a time the government of President Buhari has still not found and freed all the Chibok school girls who were abducted over four years ago, this abduction is a humiliating defeat for the government of President Buhari who promised to defeat Boko Haram within the first hundred days of ascending to power. It is now obvious that only the gullible believed in his ability to deliver his many failed electoral promises considering the cobweb of political entanglements that tied him to the criminal cartels he promised to combat, let alone defeat in his first hundred days in power.

The anger arising from the inability of former President Good Luck Jonathan to find and rescue the Chibok girls was politically exploited by President Buhari along with what was depicted as a weak response to the war against Boko Haram. These factors helped Buhari to rise to power. Shortly after he attained power, the so-called “bring back our girls” political scam that masqueraded as humanitarian action to raise universal awareness for the search and secure the girls fizzled out to its political base.  Nothing has been heard about them ever since.

The abduction of the innocent Dapchi school girls is occurring shortly after the abduction of HE President Julius Ayuk Tabe the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and members of his interim government who were legally within the territory of Nigeria under the protection of international law. The government of President Buhari that carried out the abduction has since not shown proof of their existence or of their whereabouts.    Cameroon Concord News warned after the abduction by Nigeria intelligence units on the instructions of President of Buhari and his deputy President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, that the abduction could embolden criminal elements in Nigeria to escalate the abductions of persons protected by law for political, religious or pecuniary purposes.  Cameroon Concord News cautioned that the abductions that were master-minded by Babagana Mohammed Monganu, a national security adviser to President Buhari bypassing constitutionally empowered law enforcement agencies violated the rule of law, constitutional governance and Nigeria’s international multilateral treaty obligations.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees condemned the abductions. The violation of Nigeria’s international treaty obligations was condemned by significant human rights organizations such as amnesty international.  The criminal act is an indelible stain on the image of Nigeria.

The wide condemnations have not caused Nigeria to produce and release the Ambazonia abductees to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or to their families. Cameroon Concord News believes that the disregard of the rule of law by the Government of Nigeria which opted for impunity, tyranny, and arrogance of criminal abuse of power is the criminal tonic that has emboldened Boko Haram to escalate the abduction of innocent school girls whom President Buhari on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigerian has admitted failed to provide protection against abduction in time of need.   Cameroon Concord News believes that had Babagana Mohammed Monganu  advised the President to deployed the intelligence resources at his disposal to combat the crime of abduction and provided protection and security  to Nigerians and persons legally within the territory of Nigeria rather than deployed them to committing this same crime which President Buhari pledged to combat on his ascension to power, the very painful abduction of these innocent school girls would not have occurred on his watch and that of the President.  The security failures by the Buhari administration amongst countless others that include the invasion of the territorial integrity of Nigeria by French Cameroun Gendarmes and Armed forces is humiliating and portrays Nigeria to the world as a supposed giant with feet of clay, incapable of providing protection to its people and its territorial integrity.

The persistent pattern of conduct in the abduction of the Chibok girls, the abduction of Ambazonia leaders and the Dapchi school girls is troubling.  The widely condemned abduction of Ambazonia leaders deprives President Buhari the moral authority to condemn abductions in Nigeria generally and specifically that of the Dapchi school girls. The abduction of the Ambazonia leaders make a mockery of President Buhari’s condemnation of the abduction of Dapchi school girls that has occurred slightly a month after that of the Ambazonia leaders by the Buhari administration.  In effect it calls into questions Buhari’s moral authority to condemn this despicable abduction.   It portrays his government’s failure to protect the girls as intended since his government legitimized abduction by conducting one itself from the seat of power in Abuja, the capital of the Federation.

Cameroon Concord News regrets that the moral compass pins President Buhari’s admitted responsibility of his government due to its failure to protect the school girls to be more direct than he has admitted.  President Buhari needs to explain why he risked the image of Nigeria, its constitutional governance, the rule of law and its international treaty obligations to legitimize abductions for political and pecuniary motives by abducting Ambazonia leaders who were legally within the territory of Nigeria. In so doing, President Buhari provided a fig leaf of criminality to Boko Haram and other criminal gangs to consider armless civilians as legitimate targets of war for political, pecuniary, religious and other criminal motives. Cameroon Concord News strongly believes that until President Buhari produces and releases or cause to be released Ambazonia leaders, his condemnation of the abduction of armless civilians within the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will be hypocritical, disdainful and contemptuous.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

<strong>To extricate himself from this debacle of denial, Biya must face the painful truth about the nation in crisis and be under no illusion that military force can defeat the Anglophone resistance. And if the president sincerely thinks youths should assume the mantle of leadership, why, at 85 and after 35 years in power is he contesting the 2018 presidential election?</strong>

Across the world, it is the practice of leaders to address their fellow citizens by means of national broadcast, wherein they take stock and make visionary statements about the future direction of the country. President Paul Biya’s traditional youth-day address was disappointing for failing to accurately capture the state of the nation. It was obvious the president wanted to paint a rosy picture over an otherwise gloomy state of affairs, and ended up wasting a golden opportunity to honestly engage with Cameroonian youths, whose future is being mortgaged on the altar of empty grand-standing.“In the decades ahead, you will be our country’s leaders, hence the need for you to be up to the task, by acquiring the necessary skills and experience. However, first, you must understand that the “new world” which is unfolding before our very own eyes could be tougher and more unstable than the old one,” Biya noted. No one is impressed by the hackneyed mantra that youths are tomorrow’s leaders, or that they hold the nation’s future. This is trite and sounds like a broken record. The more serious questions to ask are: what quality of youth? Which future? Biya’s claims were so hollow; his diagnosis of the problems facing youths was pedestrian; his proposed solutions were empty platitudes; indicative of leadership dysfunction and apathetic indifference by the man Cameroonians elected as their president. Little surprise the speech was roundly dismissed as empty rhetoric.

It is obvious, Biya doesn’t care about youths and his promises have lost credibility with each youth day address. How can youths who have been excluded from any meaningful participation in the running of public affairs by the greed and primordial interests of the president’s generation, be ready to face the challenges in this overly complicated, globalized world? Since this generation of youths are ill-prepared to be tomorrow’s leaders, on which generation should Cameroonians now depend for their political destiny? Is it the generation that succeeds two failed generations? Is it this generation that has been demoralized, abused, instrumentalised; onto whom has not been bequeathed any values and patriotic sense of duty to the fatherland?

Few will argue that Cameroon is a gerontocracy, where a group of tired old men tottering on the borders of senile decay have taken the country hostage. The four most important personalities of the nation, together, combine for 317 years – Biya (85); Senate President, Niat Njifenji (83); House Speaker, Cavayé Djibril (78); PM Philemon Yang (71). At age 76, Laurent Esso’o has been Minister of Justice, Public Health, Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Secretary General at the presidency and is back as Justice Minister. The cabinet is full of octogenarians and septuagenarians who continue to be recycled into different portfolios. Even if their age is no problem, what about the age of their ideas? In the legislature and judiciary, the median age of the top brass is above the official retirement age of 55 years. Tired old men like Nfon Mukete, Achidi Achu, Enow Tanjong, Mafany Musonge, Philemon Yang and others in their generation, ought to have long quit the stage to become elder statesmen who, in tricky times like these, would be consulted for their wisdom and experience. Recently, Biya recycled another bunch of spent forces, all facing creeping senility; to the Constitutional Council. When will these old people retire?

The other fundamental point about the president’s address is the claim that “the situation in the South-West and North-West Regions is stabilizing.” This is a big, fat lie that fosters apprehension in public consciousness, and raises questions about Biya’s sincerity to address the crisis, beyond mere lip-service. Despite the militarization of Anglophone regions, at least five soldiers were killed in sporadic attacks, a day after Biya spoke – an indication the Anglophone resistance is not about to end just yet. Biya should stop putting a bold face on an appalling situation that has all but passed crisis point. There is no better way to work one’s name into the book of infamy.

Predictably, Biya blamed falling oil prices for the parlous state of the economy. The truth is that the economic trajectory created by low oil prices was compounded by the absence of fiscal buffers. Instead of saving for the proverbial rainy day when oil prices were high, Cameroon actually increased its debt portfolio to finance conspicuous consumption. The national debt has more than tripled since debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in 2006.Besides, huge contracted, undisbursed external loans of FCFA 3.7 trillion (21% of GDP) have become a drainpipe on the treasury. These loan obligations were signed in 2013 but government’s failure to meet the conditionalities stalled disbursement. Over FCFA 12 billion is wasted annually to pay interest on loans that are idle in foreign banks. According to the IMF, China holds the largest share of Cameroon’s undisbursed loans (36%).

These undisbursed loans hang over the heads of the largely overrated but underachieving economic management team like an albatross. The country is being denied the benefits of counter-cyclical fiscal policy tools of budget and capital spending, needed to reflate the economy; further stifling productivity in real sectors of the economy, like manufacturing. With over 60% of the populace under age 25, and with poverty stagnated at 40%; according to the World Bank, Cameroon is sitting on a power keg, given that the ILO puts youth unemployment at a whopping 75%.The government must diversify the economy and create the enabling environment for the private sector -the engine of economic growth – to attract capital and foreign direct investments and create jobs. The over dependence on dwindling oil revenues and external borrowing that has bloated the national debt is unsustainable. Instead of measures taken to boost job creation, Biya said: “As at 31 December 2017, 473,303 jobs had been identified for youths, exceeding our set target of 400,000.” Whether he was speaking in metaphor, the ludicrous assumption that identifying jobs somehow translates into actual job creation provokes a certain queasiness that betrays Biya and his speech writers as incapable of creative thinking.

With gallant effrontery, Biya parodied US President John Kennedy by admonishing the youths to: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Hear Biya: “rather than yielding to the tempting mirage of illegal emigration and undertaking a hazardous and often doomed trip, I invite you to play an active part in our great vision to achieve emergence by 2035. I believe I can safely say that the State has done much in recent years to prepare you for this lofty task.” Such glib talk is a mea culpa expression of incapacitation, and a very grave self-indictment that underlines Biya’s defeatist resignation to the fact that Cameroonian youths will continue to vote with their feet, braving the odds to seek greener pastures abroad because they see no future in a country, captured and taken hostage, by a rapacious, vampire elite that have stolen and amassed enough wealth even for their unborn generations of children.

It does not require special intelligence to recognize Cameroon is ailing. The problem is inextricably tied to poor leadership, linked to a poor recruitment process. No country, after all, can rise above the level of its workforce, especially at the leadership level. In consolidating his personal power, Biya relies on patronage networks of cronies, loyalists and tribesmen. Many youths without connections to these patronage and ethnic-clientelism networks in the system, must bribe their way into professional schools like ENAM, which opens avenues for corruption and rent-seeking. A majority end up frustrated, bitter and disillusioned. The angst and anomie driving the Anglophone resistance are deeply embedded in the generational question. The consequences of excluding youths from the commanding heights of authority in public affairs, is so bad that the best Cameroonian youths are outside the country or outside government. This tragedy is a vicious cycle: tired old men who at one time or the other, contributed to the nation’s downturn continues to be recycled in office giving them the opportunity to continue perpetuating their failure in the affairs of the nation. More often than not, they are clueless, inept and ill-equipped for the enormous responsibility of nation-building. For example, aside his nuisance and entertainment value, what technocratic capacity has Issa Tchiroma in a communication landscape driven by information technology and social media? The nation undoubtedly gets a raw deal when the wrong people get into offices. The result is widespread ineptitude. Little wonder Cameroon’s fortunes have continued to plummet just as she diminishes in stature and integrity.

In a genuine democracy or even any context, there is something absurd in one man ruling a country for 35 years and counting. It just cannot be that there are no other capable hands to continue wherever he stops! As has been apparent in the course of history, with each passing generation, the state of leadership deteriorates in double proportion. Whilst a systemic failure to sacrifice for the nation’s greatness signposts the leadership quotient of Biya and his generation, it should now be obvious that, Biya’s inability to harness the talents and qualities of Cameroonian youths, to help lift his administration to a commanding height of moral regeneration and socio-economic progress, is a regrettable personal failure. This failure has made Ambazonia very appealing to Anglophones, as a great country waiting to happen. Not even an Anglophone president under the present dispensation will alter this dynamic!

<strong>By Ekinneh Valerian Agbaw-Ebai</strong>

<strong>*Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai is a Public Intellectual and graduate of Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy. A former Research Analyst for Freedom House, he is a Consultant and lives in Boston, USA.

Members of Cameroon’s leading opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), are in Bamenda, the North West regional headquarters, where they are expected to attend their party’s annual congress.

The congress will be taking place amid high tension as unknown armed groups in the region are threatening to disrupt the event following criticisms by the SDF Chairperson, John Fru Ndi, of the Southern Cameroons struggle for independence. It is alleged that Mr. Fru Ndi called the President of the Republic of Ambazonia, Julius Ayuk Tabe, and his government arrested in Nigeria on January 5, 2018, and extradited to Cameroon in late January terrorists.

The armed groups, which have been killing and maiming soldiers, as well as kidnapping senior administrative officers in the region, hold that they must punish Mr. Fru Ndi who they accuse of having political intercourse with the Yaoundé government.

To ensure that the congress takes place as scheduled, the Yaounde government is providing top security to Mr. Fru Ndi, a situation that has further fueled rumor he is playing ball with Mr. Biya. Even the location of the event is heavily guarded, as the armed groups are determined to wreak havoc.

It should be recalled that the Biya government that is providing security for the SDF today, was the same government that maimed and killed many young SDF supporters in 1990 when the political party was launched because the Biya regime felt threatened that multiparty politics could sweep it out of power. It therefore declared the party launch illegal, thus creating a chaotic situation that resulted in the arrest and detention of many SDF supporters.

Similarly, due to threats, the SDF congress location has been changed as the owners of the previous location were scared that their property could be burnt down or destroyed. The SDF which has been seeking to bring the Southern Cameroons crisis to the floor of the National Assembly will finally hold its congress at the Congress Hall in Bamenda which many Cameroonians erroneously hold that it is the ruling party’s property.

The armed groups are serious. Their threat should be taken seriously. It should be recalled that last week, the Batibo Divisional Officer was kidnapped and taken into a thick forest and attempts by government officials to locate him have been futile. Not even his body has been located even when rumor had swirled that he had been killed. For now, it is believed that he is being held by Anglophone separatists who are seeking to restore their independence from the Republic of Cameroon.

It is worth mentioning that the SDF is known to be in favor of a federal system in Cameroon and the party chairman as well as other officials have always chided the government for mismanaging a problem that has metamorphosed into a crisis that has already consumed more than 500 lives, including both civilians and soldiers.

Despite the increasing tension, many political analysts hold that the SDF congress is necessary as it will enable the party chooses its candidate for this year’s presidential election. Many Cameroonians – both Francophones and Anglophones – hold that a new political class must emerge, as the old one has been a huge disappointment to the people.

For now, there are two candidates who are seeking the party’s top job. Joshua Osih and Barrister Mbah Ndam. But the congress will surely be a coronation for the young Osih who is very much respected in the country.

Mr. Joshua Osih is smart, bilingual, and patriotic, and he understands the people’s plight. After serving for long as his party’s vice-president and parliamentarian, Mr. Osih believes that this is the right time to help pull the country out of the political mess created by the Biya government.

His candidacy in the upcoming party election comes as a relief to many young Cameroonians who clearly hold that it is time to walk away from the ineffective and inefficient gerontocracy that has brought pain and death to many Cameroonians. Many young Cameroonians hold that the country needs younger hands to transform the country’s economic and political landscape and Joshua Osih has a safe pair of hands.

It is also widely believed that his understanding of both Francophone and Anglophone cultures makes him the ideal candidate for the post of president in a country that might implode if the right person does not step in. His moderate stance on many issues has earned him the respect of the entire nation.

Joshua Osih’s time has come. He is being considered as the comprise candidate even by Anglophones who have clearly demonstrated their frustration with the Yaounde government. Cameroon needs to heal and only someone with Joshau Osih’s temperament and charisma will be able to help the country walk away from its ugly past.

Meanwhile, the country’s political situation is fast deteriorating, especially as it is rumored that the country’s president, Paul Biya, is bed-ridden, having been struck down by prostate cancer and a failing heart. The ruling party is already falling apart with some of its senior officials taking a swipe at the ailing president. One would think only the young, ambitious and hungry members of the party would throw stones at the ailing president.

But things are slowly turning out differently.  Chief Victor Mukete of Kumba, the Paramount chief of the Bafaw, has been taking parting shots at Mr. Biya whom he accuses of being inaccessible, ineffective and responsible for the political mess that is tearing the country apart.

The 99-year-old Mukete knows he is on his way out of politics and he is at death’s door. His senatorial appointment will no longer be renewed due to age and he thinks this is the right time for him to tell it all, at least in the interest of current and future generations.

Speaking to Jeune Afrique, the continent’s most popular French language political magazine, Nfon Mukete did not spare any punches. He pulled some of his deadliest punches against Mr. Biya who himself has been out of the public eye for months now.

Chief Mukete also castigated the Biya government for appointing less than 10 Anglophones to senior positions in the country. He decried the marginalization of Anglophones, adding that none of the Anglophones who had been prime minister under Biya had been courageous or honest enough to sound the alarm.

He regretted the chaos playing out in Southern Cameroons, stressing that the issue could have been addressed long before it got out of hand. He clearly said that he would like Cameroon to be a ten-state federation, pointing out that the current extreme centralization was an error. He pointed out that federalism would enable the people to be in charge of their destiny.

He underscored that the president would be open to such an idea, adding that he had heard people within the corridors of power saying that the president was considering it as a way out of the current political crisis.

Asked why he had not written to the president about the situation, Chief Mukete said that he was not sure the letter would ever reach him, adding that Ahidjo was more accessible than Biya and that the people around Mr. Biya had created a ring of fire around him.

By Fosuh Tamajung in Bamenda, with contributions from Kingsley Betek and Rita Akana in Yaounde.

Cameroon Concord News Group accurately characterized the so-called reboot conference that held on the 11 of February 2018 in Washington DC the stillborn consortium by another name. The conduct of the reboot principals after the said conference has proved Cameroon Concord News right.

Cameroon Concord News Group can now authoritatively state that the underlying motivation for convening the so-called reboot conference was not in the best interests of Ambazonia.  In coming to this conclusion, one needs only to study the policy positions adopted by some of the participating members that predate the lawyers and teachers’ revolution. This included the period ending up to the Interim Government that finally achieved the unity of purpose towards the reactivation of the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. One of the reboot principals, Edwin Ngang in a write up, called Southern Cameroons’ youths who have laid down their lives to defend our homeland ignorant, greedy and naïve.  Prior to forming his own Ambazonia, he was a representative of the Government of Ambazonia under Fon Dinka. 

Ebenezar Akwanga another reboot principal used derogatory language not worth repeating for the sake of decency, against the Interim Government, our President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government who were abducted, Mark Barata, citizens of Ambazonia who disagree with him and a wide range of Ambazonians. Boh Hebert a key principal of the reboot conference has called for contributions and the subscription of shareholding towards acquiring a radio and television which he will manage supposedly on behalf of Ambazonians. Jacob Mbah, is a representative of Fon Dinka.  He has since neither said nothing nor Fon Dinka whom he represents in the USA.

It is on record, that apart from Akwanga and Cho Ayaba his former secretary-general of the SCYL who broke way to form Ambazonia Governing Council who support self-defense, Boh Hebert, Edwin Ngang and Jacob Mbah for Fon Dinka are vigorously oppose to the self defense option that the Interim Government has endorsed for the defense of our homeland, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  It is also on record that one of the signatories of the MoU that was signed at the reboot conference Jacob Mbah at no moment attended the different conclaves in Nigeria, has never attended any conference or meeting called to strategize on the freedom of the homeland; so also, Fon Dinka whom he represents.  So therefore, what brought these individuals with diametrically opposed positions on how to defend our people and free our country together in the so-called reboot conference?  Did some participating members write to Nigerian intelligence services independently urging them to disrupt the activities of the Interim Government within the territory of Nigeria? And did these entreaties play into the ploy of Nigeria and French Cameroon emboldening them to abduct and possibly execute the President and members of the Interim Government so as to blame the crime on these overzealous power mongers?  This may explain why Akwanga was confident enough to boast about the impending abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government prior to their first announced reboot conference, embarrassing his acolytes who preferred to feign ignorance of the crime. However, the fact that he made this revelation in the context of the reboot conference and has repeated it in the context of the said conference without any participating member protesting or condemning his statements is quite revealing indeed.   Cameroon Concord News Group has insistently revealed without in any way prejudicing the investigations which the Interim Government has ordered, that the alarm raised by Milan Atam and the very energetic, courageous and combative actions of the Communication Secretary of the Interim Government Hon. Chris Anu on getting the information on the abductions, both in the USA and in Nigeria might have prevented the extra judicial execution from occurring.

It is regrettable that the concerted actions of individuals to discredit and delegitimize the Interim Government through petitions, false reports and even entrapment to the Nigerian intelligence services might have aided and emboldened the enemy and Nigeria to perpetrate a serious crime with profound consequences to the liberation struggle of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, its international image, its treaty obligations and the international rule of law. The thirty-nine boys arrested in Taraba State about a week before the abduction of our leaders, were in no way connected to the Interim Government.  The Police Spokesman in Jalingo stated that they were not armed and were not committing an unlawful activity at the time of their arrest. There are no doubts that they were asylum seekers. But their arrest has been factored into the evil ploy to harm the Interim Government.  Did the petitions sent by these detractors serve as a base to justify the illegal actions of the Nigerian Police, the Intelligence Unit and special operations unit of French Cameroun deployed by the National Security Adviser to President Buhari to abduct our leaders, while the intention of power seekers was merely to facilitate a ban of their activities in the territory of Nigeria?  Cameroon Concord News Group investigators in Nigeria are following all credible leads to bring details of this information to its readers when and if they are available.

Cameroon Concord News Group has consistently disclosed that the purpose and intents of the reboot conference which was consistently disclosed by Akwanga, Boh Hebert and Cho Ayaba was first to form a Government since by the time of the reboot conference, the President would have disappeared, and the Government collapsed.  The abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government did not signal the end of the Interim Government as they expected. President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe stated that the struggle for the freedom and independence of Ambazonia was greater than everyone, starting with himself. That premonition guided the Ambazonia revolutionary train, to co-opt an acting President H.E Dr Sako Ikome to immediately endorse the much anticipated self-defense of our people and our fatherland from foreign aggression.  The policy statement of the Interim Government on self-defense, the banning of all elections organized by French Cameroun in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, to find and rescue of our President and members of the Interim Government and the call for unity of all the fighting forces and liberation movements was made pursuant to an overwhelming popular demand by Ambazonians at ground zero and abroad.

The people have in their overwhelming majority rejected the so-called reboot conference and its outcome. It was conceived with an evil agenda which was manipulated by Nigeria and French Cameroun to attack the heartbeat of our liberation struggle.  Cameroon Concord News Group calls on the Interim Government to intensify its efforts to find and rescue the President His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.  Cameroon Concord Group does not minimize the contributions of any leader or any Ambazonian to our liberation struggle. However, the battle for freedom is a relay in which every Ambazonian is called upon to get involved.  Over the past fifty-six years, there are persons who have been fighting this battle. They have done so at great personal risk and sacrifices.  They should take pride of the fact that children who were not born when they joined the struggle have grown up in the struggle and have taken it many steps ahead.  They have taken up the challenge of self-defense and with no weapons, no ordnance, no food supplies, and no logistics, are confronting and keeping the rapacious enemy at bay. They are doing so with only their determination and duty to our Ambazonia fatherland as their weapons of war. They are making the supreme sacrifices hoping that Ambazonians worldwide will eschew all differences and join the Interim Government so that together, the war of aggression and genocide against our people and fatherland can be prosecuted to victory.  For this reason, Cameroon Concord  News Group calls on the reboot participating members to limit the harmful impact of the harm some of the participating partners have caused to our struggle by uniting with the Interim Government to fight our common enemy.

To this I put my name

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Cameroon Concord News Group applauds the policy statement of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia on the Interim Government endorsement of the legitimate right of Ambazonians to self defense. Cameroon Concord News also applauds the commitment made by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to pursue the search and rescue with reinvigorated intensity, of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government who were abducted in Abuja Nigeria on 5^th January 2018.

Cameroun published some information on how this terrorist operation was executed. This was a special joint terrorist operation ordered and superintended by the Special Security Adviser to President Buhari, Babagana Mohammed Munagano.  Mohammed Babagana Mungano provided the participating members of the Special Operations Unit of the Presidency of French Cameroun deployed for the mission by Martin Belinga Eboutou, the Director of the Civil Cabinet of French Cameroun with Nigeria army uniforms. Martin Belinga Eboutou is the defacto President of French Cameroun due to the agony which the prostate cancer incapacitated and demented incumbent is undergoing.  The dictator whose death has been speculated in recent times, can no longer provide effective leadership on any significant matter.

Cameroon Concord News Group brought to the attention of the world that the intention of providing the participating members of French Cameroun’s special operations unit Nigerian Army uniforms was to conceal the presence and criminal activities of a foreign army in the territory of Nigeria, particularly in Abuja, the capital of the Federation of Nigeria.  The entire operation was mired in corruption of unprecedented proportions, bankrolled on behalf of French Cameroun by Martin Belinga Eboutou. The proceeds of the corrupt terrorist operation benefitted President Buhari, his Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, Mohammed Babagana Mungano, the National Security Adviser and a coterie of persons within the corrupt cartel of ethnic clansmen in the Buhari administration.

Babagana Mohammed Mungano in his outing failed to provide critical information to Nigerians about the secretive criminal corrupt operation.  Where were the Ambazonia leaders abducted? By who? Where are they? In Nigeria or in French Cameroun?  What was the legal basis for their abduction? Without confirming or denying the public statements by his ethnic Fulani brethren and Boko Haram collaborationist Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the spokesman for the French Cameroun Government that the abductees were in their custody, Mohammed Babagana Mungano, justified his criminal conduct on behalf of the Federal Government as an attempt to deny Nigeria being used to destabilize French Cameroun.  The hypocrisy in this attempt to justify the violations of international law is evident in the double standards evident in Buhari’s approach to opposing supposed attempts to destabilize French Cameroun from Nigeria.  The abduction in violation of the Nigeria’s constitution through the impermissible criminal conduct contradicts the support and sanctuary that Buhari in his first administration provided to his Fulani ethnic co-conspirators Bello Bouba Maigari and others wanted then in French Cameroun for staging a failed coup d’etat that claimed thousands of lives.  The motivation for the abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia was therefore purely actuated by corruption and a desire to enrich a political cabal formed around President Buhari to ensure his political survival in the next elections in 2019.

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly urges the Interim Government to deploy every means possible including securing the support of partners worldwide to locate and free our leaders whether held in Nigeria as some leads suggest or in French Cameroun.  Cameroun Concord News strongly denounces the legitimization of terrorism by Nigeria and French Cameroun through the abduction of Ambazonia leaders who were legally in Nigeria under the protection of international law and Nigeria international treaty obligations.   If nothing is done and this abduction left unsanctioned, it may legitimize the crime terror, threatening peace and security in the sub-region.

Cameroon Concord News Group is concerned that the message by the United Nations High Commission for the Refugees condemning this violation of international law has not been followed by a strong resolve urging Nigeria to produce the abductees and return them to the custody of the UNHCR.  The abduction is not a mere state violation of its treaty obligation; it is an interstate parties’ criminal conduct that sets a dangerous precedent in a volatile sub-region where international peace and security concerns are constantly making the international community nervous.  Is the United Nations by its timid reaction tacitly suggesting that Ambazonia left to itself, should seriously consider resorting to a tit for tat reprisal using the same methods to discourage the abduction of its citizens and leader by Nigeria and French Cameroun? How different are the pecuniary, or even political motivation for the abduction of the Ambazonia leaders different from the abduction for ransom crimes that French Cameroun Government officials have arranged with Boko Haram in the past by abducting foreign nationals for ransom? If left without a strong response and sanctions, will this abduction not legitimize the many ransom for freedom abductions against prominent politicians, their families and businessmen?

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly supports the decision of the Interim Government banning all elections in Ambazonia organized by French Cameroun. In view of the declaration of war made by Paul Biya against Ambazonia, the said elections are intended to support the war efforts of this foreign government, against Ambazonia.  There can be no credible election when the electorate is being pursued and massacred by enemy forces and many are in refugee camps in Nigeria and others are in the forests. Cameroon Concord News Group agrees that any Ambazonian or anyone residing in the territory of Ambazonia or deployed to the territory of Ambazonia taking part in the same elections must be considered a war enemy ally.

Cameroon Concord News Group holds the opinion that the long-awaited policy statement on self defense is most welcome. In this regard, Cameroon Concord News Group once more calls for the unity of all Ambazonians to support the realization of the self-defense efforts of the Interim Government. Cameroon Concord News Group encourages Ambazonians at home and abroad to contribute to the Interim Government generously towards the defense of our fatherland.  Cameroon Concord News urges all freedom loving people in the world to strongly support the Ambazonia self-defense efforts.

Cameroon Concord News Group applauds the efforts made by neighbouring communities in Nigeria, the Governors of these neighbouring states, individuals and communities within Nigeria, politicians, businessmen, churches, men and women of goodwill in Nigeria and worldwide who through prayers, financial and material contributions or other means are helping our refugees and supporting our cause.  Your understanding of our plight and predicament, despite the outrageous conduct of some elements within the Federal Government, highlights the grandeur of the human spirit and the rule of law character of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  Your support for our refugees and seeking the release of our abducted leaders and the justice of our quest for freedom are greatest appreciated. Cameroon Concord News Group is optimistic that victory belongs to the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly advocates the formation of “The 5th of January Movement” in Nigeria to condemn the abduction, that day, of of Ambazonia leaders in Abuja, Nigeria. The consequences of not holding the perpetrator of the crimes accountable for their conduct will be that, their criminal conduct will embolden criminal gangs in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa to legitimize terrorism warfare as a legitimate means of settling problems of an economic and political nature. Abduction for ransom is already a critical law problem in Nigeria and French Cameroun. Although formally outlawed in Nigeria, it is official government policy in French Cameroun. Over a period of fifty-six years, French Cameroun gendarmes and other security operatives ransom Southern Cameroonians for huge bribes to regain their Freedom. The majority poor without money perish in concentration camps and inhuman dungeons at the pleasure of colonial administrators of French Cameroun. The war against Boko Haram provided French Cameroun Government officials the opportunity to arrange the abduction of foreigners with their supposed Boko Haram partners in exchange for huge ransom money which they partition among themselves. The success of this business inspired the abduction of Southern Cameroons leaders for money.

History will retain that on the 5^th of January 2018, Nigeria formally endorsed terrorism warfare by abducting the President of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia and members of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia who were legally in Nigeria under the protection of International Law. Nigeria has been widely condemned for resorting to this criminal conduct in abducting the Ambazonia leaders. They were wards of international law. By relying on terrorist means to abduct and disappear them, Nigeria committed crimes against the international rule law, and the international peace and security value system which is jealously guarded and protected by the collective conscience of humanity. These values are protected by the international multilateral treaty regime and Rome Statute which Nigeria subscribed to and become a state party to.

By becoming an associate of the regime of terror in French Cameroun that has terrorized, disappeared and massacred hundreds of thousands of colonized Southern Cameroonians over a period of fifty-six years, Nigeria has willfully transformed its national territory and the Gulf of Guinea into a terrorist paradise at the service of criminal bands holding on to political power through corruption and other criminal means in both countries.  This new strategy of terrorism warfare aimed at abducting, killing and disappearing civilian leaders for political and economic benefits will surely be emulated and applied with great efficiency within the sub region and beyond.  The pecuniary motivations for the abductions, the use of terrorism warfare to carry out the operation in attempts to evade the scrutiny of legitimate government security and intelligence operatives, points to the existence of parallel command structures outside the constitutional structures of supposed civilian democratic governance.

The abduction of Southern Cameroons leaders in Abuja on the 5^th of January 2018 must therefore elicit an appropriate response from rule of law activists worldwide.  A 5th January Movement will mobilize Nigerians and people of good will worldwide to mount a sustained campaign against the new criminal system of terrorism warfare that was launched by Nigeria and French Cameroun in Abuja through the abduction and disappearance of Ambazonia leaders. This is not just an Ambazonia problem. It is a problem of humanity at large. If nothing is done then a few months from now, several civilian leaders in all walks of life, in commerce and industry, in politics, religion, civil administration etc will become legitimate targets of abductions for all manner of political and pecuniary interest.  Nigeria must therefore be forced to produce and release Ambazonia leaders forthwith.

Ambazonia has far in the exercise of its legitimate right of self defense not targeted civilians or persons not taking part in the international armed conflict between it and its neighbouring country French Cameroun.  If Nigeria is not pressurized to release Ambazonia leaders and French Cameroun forced by the International Community to release and Ambazonians held it captivity, then Ambazonia may be forced to employ a tit for tat war policy against hundreds of French Cameroun’s proconsuls within its national territory.  Ambazonia has already ordered them to leave the Federal Republic of Ambazonia immediately. Neither French Cameroun nor Nigeria gave Ambazonia leaders this option; they cowardly abducted them in a criminal corruption scheme unprecedented in Nigerian history.  History of human power has a life span. For this reason, Babagana Mohammed Mungano a key actor in this criminal scheme will sooner or later provide a public account of what transpired while the Ambazonia train of freedom will continue to race towards its final destination un hampered even by this criminal act.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Cameroon Concord News Group accurately predicted that the ploy by power seeking individuals to delegitimize the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and to derail the Southern Cameroons revolution in a retreat held at Catholic University of America pompously called the reboot conference was bound to fail miserably and it did. The timid and incoherent final communique and a “memorandum of understanding” signed by Cho Ayaba, Edwin Ngang, Boh Hebert, Jacob Mbah, Ebenezar Akwnga, and one Frida Mambo creating an amorphous structure called Ambazonia Recognition Collaborative Council (ARCC) attests to this fact. John Mbah Akuro a key organizer did not attend and did not sign the memorandum of understanding.

Apart from replicating past statements made by Southern Cameroonians/ Ambazonians individually and collectively over the past fifty-seven years directed at the UN and the international community; the final communique provided an opportunity for some members of the constituent collaborative council who were probably complicit and rejoiced at the abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government to shed crocodile tears through the amorphous outfit.  The outfit failed to read the public mode calling for unity of Ambazonians strongly articulated by the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr Samuel Ikome Sako in his maiden address. They failed to acknowledge that call for unity, therefore ignored the wishes and aspirations of an overwhelming majority of Ambazonians  On an anniversary of the public humiliation of Ambazonia so-called “youth day” the reboot conference played the ostrich by hiding behind sentimental statements aimed at an unspecified future while the ongoing genocide requires a strong response by a united one and indivisible Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The constituent movements in the so-called collaborative council some with no recognizable following within the territory of Ambazonia and even in the Diaspora, came out clearly stating that the Ambazonia quest for freedom can only be attained through a “political solution”.  This position which was made by the Consortium and the Interim Government was strenuously rejected by French Cameroun. The policy statement is at variance with statements made by Cho Ayaba during the same reboot conference claiming responsibility for the daring attacks in Batibo against the symbol of colonial power in Ambazonia.  He did not do that under or within the collaborative structure he with others just created, nor did the structure issue a statement of support of the actions of a constituent member organization. This underscores problems for the functioning of this structure.  All the remaining members of the collaborative council except Akwanga do not endorse the armed option, even when deployed in self defense. What justifies the membership of Ayaba and probably Akwanga in this structure?  

Cameroon Concord News for emphasis  reminds Cho Ayaba and the Ambazonia Collaborative Council that their policy statement underpinning the commitment of this structure  to  a  so-called “political” solution which has been rejected by French Cameroun which opted instead for a war and genocide  that is exterminating  thousands of Ambazonians and wiping out civilian settlements in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia from the surface of the earth, makes him an unreliable leader on which Ambazonians can rely on for their freedom.   Cho Ayaba should publicly renounce his membership of that treacherous platform to regain the hope which some Ambazonians placed in him.

In the past, he explained his opposition to the Interim Government alleging that the Interim Government did not come out with a clear statement supporting the military option for the self defense of our Ambazonia homeland.  By signing on to a “political” solution, by implication renouncing the military self defense option at a time that the genocide has intensified, and the Interim Government has finally embraced the self-defense option which he insistently craved for, his motives in opposing the Interim Government can now be called into question. He does not need to explain himself anymore. His actions speak for themselves. By joining a platform that clearly disavows what he used to justify his past actions and conduct, he has legitimized the fears of many who had serious doubts and strong reservations about his leadership and the veracity of some of the claims he made attributing the self-defense efforts of the Ambazonia Tigers and other groups aimed at protecting their communities to himself.

As for the rest of the members of the consultative council, Cameroon Concord News Group has stated previously that their appetite for power and money has sidelined them from public trust and popular support over the years. The consultative council itself appears to be one of several creative names attributed by Edwin Ngang to one of several failed structures he created over the years.  If Jacob Mbah and Edwin Ngang could not faithfully work as representatives of Ambazonia under Fon Dinka, how will anyone expect them to faithfully work under this amorphous structure?  From an ideological perspective, members of this structure are worlds apart.

The amorphous structure will not deter the constituent members from attempting to solicit funds supposedly to prosecute a war of self-defense which the platform does not clearly support.  Some of the constituent members have not presented an account of the funds they solicited and obtained through moribund structures for that purpose and with the same objectives. How this amorphous structure will ever be held accountable for anything remains a mystery. It is a stillborn. It is dead on arrival. Let no reasonable person live under the elusion that it can provide solutions to the Ambazonia crisis. The avenues for Ambazonia freedom movements to collaborate in intelligence, resources and diplomatic sharing have always existed and should be encouraged. But was a reboot conference required for this purpose?  Are the constituent organizations informing Ambazonians that they were operating in anarchy and a free for all?  That cannot simply be true considering the general mobilizations that presented our people at home and in the Diaspora as united in purpose about the total liberation of our land. It is that unity of purpose that has united our people to enforce ghost towns and massive protests on a world-wide scale. It is that unity of purpose and collaboration that has mobilized and motivated our social media communicators like Mark Barata, Ivo Tapong , Akoson Pauline and our vibrant Ambazonia Press to bring the messages of liberation to every Ambazonian on the face of the world and the international community. It is that collaboration that has exposed and brought the gas bag Issa Tchiroma, CRTV and French Cameroun genocide media to their knees. It is the sensitivity to this collaboration that has informed the call made by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonians to all Ambazonia freedom movements to unite with the Interim Government to make the final push for the liberation of our leaders and citizens in captivity and our total freedom.  There was no need for a reboot conference with all the divisive and acrimonious rhetoric made by its organizers.

With the reboot sideshow over, Ambazonians at home and abroad should harken to the urgent call of the Acting President and the Interim Government to contribute towards our self-defense efforts against this colonial war of aggression. The Acting President made an urgent plea for unity. The Ambazonia Collaborative   Council should demonstrate their commitment to the Ambazonia cause by making a commitment to unity made by the Acting President. No action aimed at unity towards the self-defense and freedom of our leaders, our people and our homeland the Federal Republic of Ambazonia can be construed as weakness. Making a bold commitment towards unity as the Interim President did is an attribute of bold leadership and strength.  In the form it is presented, the collaborative council is an illusion and lacks strong wings on which our destiny can sail on.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia is widely recognized by the international community at large. If the Interim Government did not pose a serious threat to French Cameroun and French neo-colonial economic interests, there would have been no international conspiracy to abduct our leaders through cowardly criminal means. The proof of the legitimacy and successes attained by our Interim Government is discernible from the fact that  France, a super power and member state of NATO and European Union,  Nigeria , the most populous African Country and  continental economic and military power, and French Cameroun a French puppet neo-colony, resorted to multiple levels of complicity, complex  webs of corruption and criminality to abduct our President and members of the Interim government in  violation of multilateral treaties and international law. This shows how close the Interim Government of Ambazonia was to obtaining the recognition of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia by a number of sovereign states and obviously the international community.

Despite this coordinated act of brigandage and international criminality, the Interim Government is undaunted. The Secretary for Communication Hon. Chris Anu flew to Nigeria and organized world press conferences to deny our adversaries the legitimacy they sought to justify their criminal conduct and the fear they hoped to instill in us through their crime.  After weeks of silence hoping that the crime and its impact would fade away, Mohammed Babagana Mungano the corrupt superintendent of the criminal enterprise came out defending his actions and that of the crime syndicate in the Nigerian government that was responsible for the abductions in complicity with France and French Cameroun. His outing hoping to counter Chris Anu and the Interim Government effort aimed at sanitizing the crime and the huge sums obtained through corruption. This sensitization of Nigerian and world attention towards this criminal conduct backfired. It is unprecedented in constitutional governance which Nigeria is, for a national defense adviser to appropriate the powers of the Inspector General of Police, Comptroller of immigration, Attorney-General of the Federation, Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs by overseeing a corrupt secretive criminal cartel at the center of state power to conduct criminal foreign operations with embarrassing consequences for the Federal Government. The attempt by Mohammed Mungano to explain and justify his actions publicly by making commitments of a legal, security and diplomatic nature with a foreign sovereign is treasonable and portrayed the Nigerian government and members it’s defense, judicial, intelligence and security services in very bad light.

Cameroon Concord News Group is satisfied that the Interim Government is taking verifiable and credible steps towards uniting Ambazonia freedom movements and the people of Ambazonia at home and abroad around our common objective of freeing our leaders and people held in captivity and a vacation of our territory by the terrorist occupying forces forthwith. Cameroon Concord News is satisfied that the commitment of the Interim Government towards the self-defense of the entire territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, the intensification of diplomatic efforts aimed at the recognition of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia by the United Nations, the African Union, ECOWAS and all international organizations makes the Interim Government the most credible platform that all Ambazonians must unite around to attain these objectives.

Cameroon Concord News Group commends the Interim Government’s statement that the betrayal of our leaders is under investigations and that it is committed to all guarantees of fair process under international law and Ambazonia laws. These include presumption of innocence. Ambazonians should give this process its recognition and turn our attention towards contributing for our self defense objectives, assistance to our refugees, our internally displaced, our abductees in French Cameroun captivity, our wounded and maimed and our diplomatic efforts.

Ambazonians world-wide  must  be persistent in the organization of  demonstrations to alert the conscience of humanity towards  the genocide in Ambazonia and our irreversible quest for freedom and recognition  at the United Nations in New York, Geneva, European Union offices in Brussels, African Union Offices in Addis Ababa, African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Arusha Tanzania, The African Commission  on human and peoples’ rights in Banjul, Nigerian, French Cameroun, British and French Diplomatic Missions worldwide. We must file more complaints against Nigerian and French Cameroun individuals involved in these crimes at the ICC, in countries that have universal jurisdiction over international crimes like terrorism, abductions, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, like the United States, Spain, Sweden, Finland and Belgium.

Ambazonians must make sure that all the people involved in these crimes should never know peace in and out of power in their countries and that their countries are held accountable for the crimes committed against Ambazonia.  Cameroon Concord News totally endorses the Ultimatum of the Interim Government of Ambazonia to French Cameroun to produce our Interim President and members of the Interim Government alive and urges the Interim Government to extend the ultimatum to release of all captives and a vacation of the territory of Ambazonia.

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group consistently advised the conveners of the so-called Reboot Conference to approach and work with the Interim Government if it intended to have legitimacy. Mistaking angry rhetoric, demagogy and self-importance for liberation strategy, they ignored the advice. The claim to power by some of the organizers is predicated on their longevity in the Ambazonia quest for freedom. This claim is based on a false reading of the history of the Ambazonia liberation struggle.

The Lawyers and teachers who took the struggle to the next level which has compelled the world at long last to start paying attention to the Ambazonia cause were not members of any of the platforms on which these individuals are relying on to justify their claims to leadership of the struggle. These individuals were taken off guard when the lawyers and teachers revolution occurred and transmuted to the Ambazonia freedom revolution, suggesting that the platforms and methods they provided were faulty; short sighted or simply lacked the humbling visionary ideology to rally the people towards reclaiming our independence.

Cameroon Concord News is therefore surprised that the so-called reboot conference is intending to reinvent the wheels of the Ambazonia liberation struggle by attempting to drag Ambazonia back to the divisive and visionless politics of self-fulfillment that stifled the cause for a sizeable period of our fifty-six years enslavement. Over a period of several years, these individuals solicited and obtained contributions from Ambazonians without accountability. None of them has contributed to the thousands of Ambazonian refugees in Nigeria nor have any of their appeals for funds targeted the welfare of the refugees.  Some of them spend time issuing threats to Ambazonians who have questioned their motives and their methods.

The involvement of CRTV journalists in the reboot conference poses serious problems. Can they be relied on to lead this struggle?

Cameroon Concord News Group requested to know the objectives of the so-called reboot conference, but their objectives are fuzzy. Coming at a time when Ambazonians have placed three critical issues on the agenda of our liberation struggle, the reboot conference as Cho Ayaba has stated in an audio message through a proxy, is to delegitimize the Interim Government and to validate their old wine in new skins which personalized power over the years.   Absent from their agenda are a clear strategy on how to defend our homeland, our refugee crisis, the liberation of our President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, members of the interim government, Mancho Bibixy and thousands of our citizens in captivity. Also absent is a credible diplomatic roadmap taking into consideration the sub-regional and international dynamics of our struggle and strategic interests.

The conveners of the reboot conference are strange bed fellows united by their search for power, access to contributions from Ambazonians and the delegitimization of the Interim Government.  The reboot conference may signal the last time the conveners agree on any credible strategy on how to prosecute our liberation struggle. Boh Hebert vehemently opposes the military solution, while Cho Ayaba and Akwanga support it. None of them has the credential or the means to conduct viable diplomacy. They lack the temperament and tack to venture in that field. So therefore, what will unite them after the conference? How will the conference resolutions be implemented?

The attention of the international community is turned towards the President and members in captivity that they recognize as the legitimate leaders of Ambazonia. The reboot conference cannot and will not reinvent new leaders acceptable to the international community outside the Interim Government. The abduction of the president and members of the interim government by a joint force of Nigeria and French Cameroon has greatly legitimized the interim government and its leaders in captivity. The involvement of Nigeria has internationalized the Ambazonia cause.  While they are in captivity, a dissident group of individuals cannot replace them, or even take away the focus from them. The abduction in Nigeria is a serious international matter and places Nigeria as a key factor in the Ambazonia crisis.

No one in the international community will seek out for Boh Hebert, Ayaba, Akwanga, John Mbah Akuro as credible interlocutors in the Ambazonia crisis. The international community rally around the abductions and the request to free our leaders to de-escalate the conflict for an all embracing dialogue to occur.  Had the reboot conference conveners been intelligent enough to read the international mood, they would have moved to work with the Interim Government to own the focus on putting pressure on Nigeria over the abductions, its support for the genocide in Ambazonia, the refugee crisis and the war efforts to defend and free our land.

The abduction of our leaders and the refugee crisis are already at the international domain and key world powers and the UN are already on the files. The war crimes and genocide in our homeland are already being condemned. If the reboot conference conveners think that they can pit one issue, armed resistance, and funding to attain it and hope to attract enough world support for our cause, them they need to go back to school and study strategic diplomacy and world politics. The refugee problems are a critical issue that quickly invites United Nations and world intervention in crisis. That too will put pressure on Nigeria and the abduction will hasten the focus and intervention.

Self defense and its funding which seems to be the focus of the reboot conference is a laudable objective. But the question is what unites Boh Hebert, Akwanga, Cho Ayaba and John Mbah Akuro around this objective? What? Cameroon Concord News begs to ask. Cameroon Concord News strongly advises the conveners of the reboot conference to urgently engage in a discussion with the Acting President and the Interim Government with a view to restructuring the Interim Government to accommodate them so that an inclusive conference can be called to move our struggle energetically and with a respectable visionary focus.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group