John Ayuk Takunchong, the CPDM mayor of the Mamfe municipality has called on Manyus to stand behind the one and indivisible Cameroon idea blaming the Southern Cameroons Diaspora for the war currently going in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The Chief Tabetando acolyte warned that any attempt to frustrate the union with French Cameroun or leave the Republic of Cameroon would be a “betrayal” of the role played by the Cameroon army in defending the Bakassi Peninsular.

However, what is not well known is that until he decided to join the CPDM crime syndicate, Takunchong took the polar opposite position against the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé. Far from being a committed hard one and indivisible Cameroon campaigner, the mayor of Mamfe actually had a long record as a popular Southern Cameroons footballer of arguing for Southern Cameroons to sever ties with French Cameroun.

Here are some of the times that the mayor of Mamfe has fundamentally contradicted his own arguments vis-à-vis Southern Cameroons relationship with French Cameroun.

“I was never given a chance with the Indomitable Lions because I do not speak French”

Takunchong today is saying that our union with French Cameroun remains the best thing that ever happened. However, this was very far from his position before the Southern Cameroons revolution.

“I would vote to move away from these Francophones. I’m in favour of the creation of a state for Anglophones. I want us to be able to build our own national football team where players are selected because of their skills and not because they live in Douala and Yaoundé and can speak French.”

“The army camp in Besongabang has done more harm than good to my people”

Takunchong today delivered his support for the Cameroon government army stating that many Francophone soldiers died defending the Bakassi Peninsular.  However, this is a long way from Takunchong’s previous position on the Cameroon military.

“I am not by any means happy with these Francophone soldiers in Besongabang. They have killed many of our young people and there hasn’t been any strong condemnation from Minister Agbor Tabi or Hon. Rose Abunaw,” Takunchong told an audience in early 2000 when troops went on a rampage in his native Besongabang and killed many young men and women. Many Besongabang citizens fled to Nigeria and nothing has been heard of them till this day.

The most Anti French Cameroun mayor in Southern Cameroons

Takunchong today is claiming that Southern Cameroonians need to send their children to school and that the Biya Francophone regime has done all what it can to provide quality education for Southern Cameroons kids.

However, during the period when Takunchong could not study in the University of Yaoundé due to his lack of mastery of the French language, he toured the nooks and crannies of Bonamousadi and Cradat condemning the fathers of reunification.

By Eyong Johnson Agbor in Buea

Elections in Cameroon, scheduled for October 7, will be held against a backdrop of uncertainty in the English-speaking regions and amid accusations that the government is planning to rig the polls.

In exactly two months, Cameroonians will be going to the polls to elect their president. Twenty-eight candidates are in the running, including 86-year-old incumbent Paul Biya, who has been in power for 36 years. He is Africa’s second longest serving leader after his neighbour Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.

But there are doubts inside and outside Cameroon that this election will be free and fair, especially in the Anglophone regions in the west, bordering Nigeria, which have been in turmoil for the past two years, when residents started to press their claims for more autonomy or even independence. According to the United Nations, 200 000 people have been internally displaced and 40 000 have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Polls amid the mayhem

Among those who fled violence is 8-year-old Kum Vitalis who cried when media asked him about his life now: “They didn’t pay my father and there was no money for school fees or food in the house. That is why they brought us to safety here. When it gets better, they will take us back. They have been shooting people inside their houses and they are just dying like that.”

The government denies having any role in the atrocities taking place in the region. But both the UN and non-governmental organisations such as Human Rights Watch have filed reports on crimes against humanity by armed rebels and government troops. Fifty-four-year-old teacher Ngum Julius, who fled the English-speaking town of Njinikom, believes elections cannot be held there.

“All businesses are shut down. All government services are shut down, except the military. Many people have gone away. Too many people are dying, too many people are being displaced. We need to sit at the same table as Cameroonians and talk it out and find a solution,” Julius said.

Cameroon is also dealing with attacks by Boko Haram militants in the north, and a spillover of violence from the Central African Republic.

Voter apathy

Scepticism about the elections is not limited to the Anglophone regions in the country. In Bonamoussadi, a student residential area of the capital Yaounde, young people say that they should be discussing football instead of wasting time with elections, because the process is not working anyway. Tatah Hans is one of them. “I am a Cameroonian. It is normal to vote. I have to vote. But I am facing so many difficulties because very soon they will start voting and I don’t have a voter’s card. I don’t know what to do,” he told media.

Voter apathy is evident; only seven million of a total of 13 million voters have actually registered to cast their ballot. But supporters of Paul Biya, like Jacques Fame Ndongo, say elections will go ahead despite the rebels’ attempts. “We know that their mad dream is to stop the organization of the presidential election in those two regions, but that mad dream will never come to fruition because the population of the Northwest and the Southwest regions is determined to express its total support to the head of state and his party, the CPDM (Cameroon’s People Democratic Movement),” he said.

Fighting fraud

Meanwhile, the main opposition political party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), cautions the government against fraud. Denise Nkemlemo, the SDF’s communication secretary, says the election management body has already started to break the law, for instance by setting up voting stations where they shouldn’t: “We are not supposed to have voting stations inside the presidency; military camps are also out of the question,” she said. According to Nkemlemo, at polling stations in those places in previous elections, CPDM’s votes outnumbered those for the SDF by a wide margin. “When our representatives wanted to raise questions, the military came with guns and told them “we don’t make noise here.” The SDF will not tolerate the lack of respect of the electoral law,” she added.

These claims are rejected by Enow Abrams Egbe, the electoral body’s board chair, who says critics have ulterior motives. “It is normal that detractors play their game, but we are playing our role with serenity and everything is moving on smoothly,” he said.

Source: DW

Cameroon’s electoral body, ELECAM, on Tuesday cleared nine candidates to run for the presidential polls slated for October 7, 2018. Incumbent Paul Biya is seeking to extend his 36 years in power by a fresh seven-year mandate.

The nine include Biya who leads the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM). His main challengers will be Joshua Osih of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and lawyer Akere Muna – a former head of the country’s bar association.

The other candidates to be present on the ballot paper include: Serge Espoir Matomba, Cabral Libii, Njifor Franklin, Maurice Kamto, Garga Haman and Ndam Njoya.

Over twenty candidates filed their candidacy to contest for the highest political seat of the land. ELECAM disqualified all but the nine above whiles one candidate is said to have withdrawn his candidacy.

The October 7 vote is seen as a stern test for the incumbent who has often won elections with huge margins. A current security crisis in the country’s Anglophone regions have continually affected Biya’s popularity.

Pro-independence groups under the banner of so called Ambazonia Republic continue to wage guerilla-style attacks on members of the security forces across the South-West and North-West – Anglophone regions.

Political watchers are projecting that for the opposition to effectively tackle Biya, there would need to be an alliance to back a common candidate but it remains to be seen in the next two months if they can pull off such a move.

Source: Africa News

In what unfortunately, has become the unedifying trademark of their favorite pastime, there is a surge of Graffi-bashing on social media platforms by self-elected guardians of the SW estate who are engaged in a well-orchestrated campaign to divide and break the Anglophones resolve and resistance in the face of the genocidal war of attrition being waged by the vampire regime of the 85-year-old president Biya, now tottering on the borders of senile decay.These self-aggrandising buccaneers and CPDM hacks masquerading as SW opinion leaders have been gas lighting the dead horse of NW/SW divide,with a revanchist, xenophobic narrative that Northwesterners are the straw man of the ongoing Anglophone crisis. They are shamelessly vilifying Northwesterners for Biya’s genocide, even as the carnage continues unabated as soldiers struggle to contain a crisis that has escalated from a low-intensity conflict to full-blown military insurgency. We have seen this movie before, hence no one is fooled. The vast majority of Southwesterners know the Graffi man is not their enemy: it is the successive Francophone-dominated regimes from Ahidjo to Biya that have pillaged the SW region of its natural resources to finance a gangster kleptocracy in Yaoundé, leaving Southwesterners in abject poverty and misery. One million hate speeches and xenophobic attacks on Northwesterners will not change this reality; it is a fact!

Whilst it is true that the inflammatory postings by these CPDM cheerleaders are irritating, despicable and dishonourable; and although it may be annoying that this demented cast of sycophants, wallowing in such demeaning drama of adulation, can even pretend to speak on behalf of Southwesterners, their actions reflect the abysmal level of ignorance, misguidedness and mischief being communicated to gullible Anglophones, who might be tempted to believe their hallucinations. This would be a sad mistake. If anything, these ranting SW Provincialists are sick are demented and need help to get out of their impertinent self-flagellation. They suffer from Graffi Derangement Syndrome (GDS): a personality disorder which manifests as obsessive, compulsive and visceral hatred for anything graffi. GDS symptoms include inferiority complex, self-defeatism, impulsivity and self-denial and prognosis range from acute, chronic to critical, where patients have to be confined to the ICU –intensive care unit of xenophobia.

GDS patients blame Northwesterners for everything that is wrong with the SW and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions and self-inflicted disasters. Just read or listen to their garrulous banter and rationalizations for their Graffi-phobia and you will notice the illogical absurdities in their apposite attacks on Northwesterners, is matched by a penchant for finger-pointing, actuated by a primitive vendetta of self-abnegation and a certain blind, narrow-minded hate, borne of an unseemly grievance prejudice against the Graffi man. For example, nihilistic soldiers have burnt down villages in the SW, raped, tortured, murdered and arrested thousands and forced thousands of other Southwesterners to flee their villages into the bushes. Anyone who claims to be a defender of SW interests would be calling the regime out for these crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations. But these sycophants want us to blame the Graffi man. If this is not the climax of hypocrisy that stinks to the high Heavens, one wonders what else is.

Externalizing the problems bedevilling the SW and trying to make Northwesterners as the bogeyman will, in no way alter the calculations on the ground where the guns are now doing the talking. Whatever moral equivalency these self-elected defenders of the SW estate try to establish, the fact remains that they do not speak for the majority of Southwesterners. Their bile and vitriol, ornamented with bellicose and provocative grandiloquence against Northwesterners, advertises in spectacular fashion, the fact that the so-called one, united and indivisible Cameroon is a hoax!These self-seeking opportunists, lack the intellectual capacity to understand the explosive danger and futility of divisive micro-nationalism. Else, how can Southwest CPDM elite and their Graffi-hating bigots be preaching national unity, while at the same time declaring Northwesterners as persona non grata in the SW; in violation of the Constitution which gives every Cameroonian the right to settle in any part of the country?

It is a pity that we must witness the circus of this pathetic skull duggery unfolding on social media.Indolent Southwesterners will always play the victim and pander to the regime for political crumbs by increasing their nuisance value to seek for public notice. Unfortunately, it is a waste of time trying to use facts, logic and reason to cure GDS. Now that we know these ranting SW Provincialists are afflicted by Graffi Derangement Syndrome; now that the flatulence of their fibs and their shameless attempt to distort and muffle our history has been exposed, we should not condemn them; rather we should pity them. Obviously, they are vexatious to the spirit, but our collective memory can filter whatever narrative they want to foist on us.They believe they are winning when other well-meaning Anglophones engage them on social media. We should therefore ignore them, and instead pray for the remission of their sins against Ambazonia.

Anglophones cannot afford to be distracted by people who speak the language of yesterday with such profound recklessness without any due consideration of the consequences of projecting such a narrow political agenda. That anyone not blinded by prejudice or self-interest would champion hypocrisy and double-speak as the war cry for SW nationalism is clearly beyond commonsense.How can anyone really believe that because he had an unsavory experience with one Northwesterner, all Northwesterners are bad people?How can anyone argue that a mistake made in 1961 was a life sentence that Anglophones cannot correct? Southwesterners must not allow themselves to be stampeded by an eccentric minority of Graffi-haters and detractors. The regime is desperate to break the momentum of the resistance because it cannot win the war on the battlefield.We must unite with our NW brothers and sisters because together we cannot fail. We must keep faith with the sacred covenant signed with the blood of those who have paid the ultimate price, so that we should be free.This struggle is no less our struggle;than it is that of the Ambazonia fighters on ground zero or the Anglophone Diaspora.

The challenge for Southwesterners is to rise above narrow ethno-tribal geo-political considerations that undermine our struggle for freedom.The fury of the enemy continues to be unleashed on our people, many of whom have been killed. Why should we give up now when nothing has changed? Think about those who have paid the ultimate price for this struggle. And then ask yourself: was it a Graffi man who burned my village? Was it a Graffi man who raped my daughter or sister? Was it a Graffi man who arrested, tortured and killed my father, mother and brother? Granted that the NW/SW relationship has many challenges, there is more that unites us than divides us. If we as one people remain resolute and defiant in the face of genocide; if we recognize that this struggle is not about us individually and focus on the big picture; then, Southwesterners should not continue in coward servility because it is folly to listen to the advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that if we castigate Northwesterners, Southwesterners will henceforth cease to be second-class citizens and the SW region will no longer suffer marginalization and discrimination.

On a personal note,I would ordinarily not join issues with these Graffi Derangement Syndrome victims,because they are mentally challenged and their arguments are neither grounded in historical facts nor logic, reason or commonsense; but on subjective personal emotions. But I feel constrained to speak out, particularly now, because there is a misdirected campaign by revisionist bigots to re-write Southern Cameroons history, while acting out the divide-and-conquer script written by the CPDM regime. It was Ayukogem Stephen Ojong; Publisher of The Median Newspaper who remarked in exasperation that Southwesterners held the Prime Minister’s job for 12 years and nothing substantial came out of it for the region. Achidi Achu held it for four years and created an expansive business and middle class in the NW region. And when push came to shove during the fundraising for Biya’s humanitarian genocide relief for Anglophones, just four Northwesterners – Baba Danpullo, Shey Jones Yembe, Eric Njong and Goddy Talla contributed about FCFA 100 million; more than the total amount raised by the entire Southwest region. Of course, the Graffi man is responsible for the inability of Southwesterners to rise up to the challenge of personal example, which is the hallmark of true leadership!

Those ranting SW provincialists and their paymasters must understand that Graffi-bashing as a national pastime and favored political sport by SW CPDM elite has had its day and must now end in the interest of the collective Anglophone struggle for freedom.The ridiculous assertion that the Graffi man is responsible for everything that is wrong with the Southwest is laughable and should attract no further comment. Let me assure our Northwest brothers and sisters that the silent majority of Southwesterners are not afflicted by Graffi Derangement Syndrome.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, Boston, USA

Your Eminence, Christian Cardinal Tumi,

Allow me to use this opportunity to congratulate on your effort to seek a lasting solution to the ongoing crisis in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

Your Eminence, allow me to also express my gratitude to you for the positions you have always taken when there are issues facing our country, especially issues bordering on human rights violation and poverty which have a tendency to dehumanize our fellow human beings.

You have always spoken out against bad governance in Cameroon and your publications and interviews stand to attest to your love and respect for human dignity.

Regarding the All Anglophone Conference that you and your peers have decided to convene, I would like to express my total support to your effort. The conflict in Southern Cameroons has resulted in the killing of thousands of civilians and soldiers and this should not be any good news to any right-thinking person.

Human life is sacred and we all have the responsibility of protecting life. It is a shared responsibility and we all have to pull our fair share of the weight.

It is unfortunate that many have been killed in this conflict. However, I strongly believe that there is hope on the horizon. We cannot bring back those who have died, but we can work together to ensure that we do not lose more lives.

The conference you and your peers are proposing could be that trigger that might bring about a change in thinking among the warring factions. War has never solved any problem. At best, it has only made things worse.  We all should ensure that human life should not be wasted and that conflicts should be resolved at the negotiating table.

During this challenging moment, voices like yours are needed to help calm down tempers. I hope you will use your privileged position to mobilize Southern Cameroonians, many of whom are longing for peace in their country.

Many Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora want to attend your conference. The idea is commendable and many hold that it could bring about some useful recommendations which, if well implemented, could spare the country the specter of war that is hanging over our heads.

However, they have a few concerns.  Over the last two years, the government has been arresting and jailing Southern Cameroonians living abroad when they come back home to visit their loved ones. For those who hold foreign passports, they are usually denied entry into the country. This has been a source of frustration for many members of the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora.

These measures by the government have created a rift between the government and the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora; a rift that has made it hard for the government to use these efficient resources for the economic development of our country.

As a major convener of this conference, I hope you are taking the appropriate steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur at the airports and even when the conference participants are in the country.

I would like to underscore that the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora is a major force and its weight and influence have been felt during this conflict. If members of this Diaspora are not brought to the table to share their perspective, the resolutions and recommendations of your conference may just be as good as a dead letter.

In this regard, I would like to hail your call for a general amnesty for all Southern Cameroonians living abroad and at home. Your call for the release of all those arrested within the framework of this conflict is also commendable. I know the government has not been very open to this idea. Are there any steps you and your peers are taking to ensure that the government pays heed to your call?

The Diaspora is looking forward to the resolution of these issues. Their resolution is necessary for your conference to attract some of the country’s best and brightest. Cameroon needs all its sons and daughters and a conference like the one you have convened will go a long way in bringing many factions together.

I look forward to having answers to the questions I have raised in this letter.

 Sincerely,

 Joachim Arrey

About the Author: The author of this letter has served as a translator, technical writer, journalist and editor for several international organizations and corporations across the globe. He studied communication at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and technical writing in George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. He is also a trained translator from the Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters (ASTI), Buea, and holds a Ph.D. He could be reached at: arreyjoachim@hotmail.com.

This Op-Ed serves to contribute to the recent initiative by some Church leaders in Cameroon to seek lasting solution to the Anglophone crisis that has recently taken the turn of an armed conflict. On July 25, 2018; leaders from the Catholic, Presbyterian and Muslim Church communities in the Anglophone regions announced a peace plan to resolve the on-going conflict in Cameroon. The plan involves as necessary first step, the holding of an “Anglophone General Conference” (AGC) convened for August 29-30, 2018 in Buea. The aim of the AGC is to seek consensus among Anglophones on the “issues to be examined at a yet-to-be convened national dialogue, as well as freely designate Anglophone representatives at that dialogue”. The conveners of the AGC designated Dr. Simon Munzu, an international luminary and renowned Cameroonian civil society leader, as their spokesperson and also outlined a number of initiatives that the Cameroon government should take to ensure a smooth conference participation by all Anglophone Cameroonians. These initiatives include notably, an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of all detainees, and a general amnesty.

Already, some voices within the Cameroonian diaspora, which has been the brain behind the armed separatist movement, have raised a number of critical concerns regarding the form and modalities of holding such a conference in Cameroon at this time. Let me highlight just three of the main concerns of the separatists. First, separatists claim that the time for dialogue with the government of Cameroon has passed and now is the phase of mediation as the crisis has transitioned to an armed conflict. They also criticize the choice of Dr. Simon Munzu as spokesperson of the AGC, given his controversial vocal stance for a federal Cameroon. Federation is no longer an option for a solution to the conflict, according to the separatists. Lastly, the separatists fear that, even with an amnesty, the Cameroon government is capable of rounding them up while in Buea, attending the AGC. And there are legitimate reasons to distrust the government, notably at the start of the crisis, representatives of the then Cameroon Civil Society Consortium that met with the government to dialogue were arrested soon after the meetings. Separatists are thus suggesting a safe venue outside of Cameroon for the AGC and for a neutral spokesperson, instead of Dr. Simon Munzu.

Let me quickly comment on the initiative by the Church authorities and suggest ways of making this work, considering the concerns raised by the separatists.

The peace plan to gain consensus on the root cause of the Anglophone Problem, it’s solution as well as to designate representatives to a broader national dialogue; dovetails nicely with the biblical approach to resolving conflicts that I opined not long ago in a piece circulated on social media in early June 2018. In particular, it’s of prime essence to have genuine interlocutors of the Anglophone Problem. Although there are two clear parties to the on-going armed conflict in Cameroon, the interlocutors on the side of the separatists are highly divided ideologically and the risks of the conflict becoming intra (among the separatists themselves) is high. Thus, a conference with the stated objectives is highly welcomed as a necessary first step towards dialogue/mediation/negotiation to resolve the conflict.

Now to make the Anglophone General Conference work, there’s more to do and a few more conditions to be fulfilled than the conveners have proposed.

1. In a situation of an on-going armed conflict, there’s need not only for a ceasefire but also for supervision of the ceasefire, in order to limit any further casualties. This necessitates the intervention of the UN in Cameroon, through its peace-keeping arm. The presence of UN peace keepers will also reassure displaced populations about their safety thereby contributing to a smooth holding of the AGC.

2. Although understanding the urgency of the need for a lasting solution to the conflict, the holding of the AGC need not be hurried. The proposed date seems rather hasty and fears are that the conference might not contribute to healing and an atmosphere of detente, if some perceive it’s timing as corresponding to the electoral calendar in Cameroon. This crisis has been on-going for about two years and several peace building initiatives by the government need to take place for trust to build on both sides. That takes time but the timing of the conference a few months to the forthcoming presidential elections to hold in October 2018 sends mixed messages. I would suggest a date for the AGC further ahead, preferably after the presidential elections.

3. Given the fact that the leadership of the separatist movement mostly reside in the diaspora, to ensure their effective participation and representation at the AGC, there need to be a preparatory conference of Anglophone Cameroonians in the diaspora (preferably held in the US) where representatives of the diaspora community to the AGC would be designated.

4. Participants at the AGC should be allowed to elect their own spokesperson and Dr. Munzu (the conveners’ spokesperson’s) mandate should end on day one of the conference, unless he is elected at the meeting to continue.

5. Following the AGC, the next stage of dialogue/negotiation/mediation, should be between the belligerent parties (that is, between the Cameroon government and would-be representatives of the Anglophone community) and not a national dialogue per se, as the Church leaders propose. The resolution of a crisis/conflict, needs to be primarily between the belligerents, of course, inter-mediated by third parties. The role of the international community and friends of Cameroon would be to facilitate as mediators.

By Dr. Julius A. Agbor, Associate Professor at Vanguard University of Southern California (USA)

Author is a Political Economist, and Associate Professor at Vanguard University of Southern California, Formerly, a Research Fellow at the Africa Growth Initiative of the Brookings Institution in Washington DC
Also, a contributor to the NY Times.

Cameroon’s opposition has again failed to present a single presidential candidate to challenge Paul Biya who has been in office for 36 years. Twenty-eight candidates will be contesting the country’s October 7 presidential election, which Biya is favored to win.

The youngest candidate registered to compete in the October 7 presidential election is journalist Cabral Libi. Just before the filing deadline, the 38-year old said he was still uncertain if he would run because he could not single handedly raise the $60,000 required by the election commission to run. He says he had to ask well wishers to help him.

He says he has demonstrated that he is the only candidate strong enough to challenge the incumbent president because he was able to raise over $ 60,000 from well wishers within three days to pay the caution fee required by Cameroon’s electoral laws for each presidential aspirant.

Libi is one of the 28 candidates to contest the poll. Two women: Ze Genevieve, an independent candidate and Habiba Issa who will run for the opposition UPC party, also registered to challenge the 86-year old Biya, who has been president for 36 years.

Last January, Cameroon’s notoriously fractured opposition attempted to unite behind a single candidate. About a dozen opposition parties were negotiating to back Akere Muna, a prominent lawyer who specializes in fighting corruption. Muna pledged a non-partisan platform, but today is running on the ticket of his Peoples Development Front political party.

Maurice Kamto, who was meeting with Muna and the main opposition political party the SDF to discuss the possibility of a single candidate, is today running for his Cameroon Renaissance Movement Party. Kamto says after discussing with some political parties, he found out that all of them wanted a single candidate, but felt they were the stronger politicians that other weaker parties should join.

He says he then decided that he, like other politicians who want to run for president should present to Cameroonians their programs and projects that they will implement if elected, instead of basing their strengths on the religious, tribal and ethnic groups they represent.

The SDF has chosen a 50-year old lawmaker, Joshua Osih, as their candidate and says it is sure Osih will perform better in the elections if the polls are transparent and fair.

The ruling CPDM party has gathered at least 30 of the divided opposition political parties to rally behind its candidate, Paul Biya. Issa Tchiroma, president of the Cameroon National Salvation Front, says the opposition’s inability to come up with a single candidate indicates how they are divided and so he will support Biya, who according to him is the only one that can bring peace and development to the troubled country.

“By declaring his candidature, this is an indication, clear indication that he sent to the nation and the world that he is the man of his generation. Mr president move forward, we are ready to support you,” said Tchiroma.

Cameroon is dealing with attacks by Boko Haram militants in the north, separatist movements in two English-speaking regions and a spillover of violence from the Central African Republic.

Biya has ruled Cameroon since 1982 and is Africa’s second longest serving president, after his neighbor Theodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.

He is seen by many as favored to win the polls. If he does, he will rule the central African state up to 2025 when the next presidential election will take place.

Source: VOA

The Social Democratic Front (SDF), Cameroon’s main opposition party has officially filed the candidacy of its flagbearer for presidential polls slated for October 7, 2018.

Local media reports that a mammoth crowd accompanied 49-year-old Joshua Osih Nabangi on Wednesday (July 18) as he submitted his papers at the Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) regional offices in Douala.

Osih, the main challenger to long-serving Paul Biya was accompanied by SDF founder and former flagbearer, John Fru Ndi. A number of candidates are also expected to enter the race before submission deadline.

Speaking to the media after his submission, Osih stressed that even though the number of candidates in the October 7 race may be lesser than that of 2011, it was the reason why this election was “significant” in Cameroon’s political history.

“We will mobilise to ensure victory to improve the people’s living standards …our doors are open to those ready to see us through this journey,” Osih declared. Osih, who hails from the Toko Subdivision in Ndian Division of the South West Region is a first-timer in the presidential race.

For his part, SDF leader and veteran opposition leader Fru Ndi told reporters that Osih and the SDF remained the only sure path to salvage the Central African country.

“Cameroonians have suffered enough, many have died. We will wipe their tears and put an end to the people’s sufferings…taking part in this election is a step ahead for victory,” he is quoted to have said.

Culled from Africa News

Cameroon has set October 7 as the date for its presidential election. However, it remains unclear whether the vote can take place in the country’s two English-speaking regions, where separatists are fighting for an independent state.

Abdoul-Karimou, deputy manager of Cameroon’s election management body, ELECAM, said ELECAM has yet to receive documents from any presidential candidates. But he expects that to change.

He said according to Cameroon’s electoral code, people who want to run for president still have up to July 19 to send their documents to the elections management body for examination.

Already, a dozen people including Joshua Osih of the main opposition Social Democratic Front, Akere Muna, a lawyer and former vice president of Transparency International, Maurice Kamto, head of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon, and journalist Cabral Libi have declared their intentions to run.

Incumbent President Paul Biya, who has been in office more than 35 years, has not said whether he would run. But there have been calls from his party, traditional rulers, and even some opposition political parties for him to be their candidate.

Traditional ruler and lawmaker Chaffa Isaac said they are asking Biya to run in the hope that his reelection could bring peace to the embattled northwest region and complete development projects he had initiated for the whole country.

“We are calling on president Paul Biya to take all appropriate measures to create a conducive atmosphere, one for peace to reign in Cameroon, two, for there to be a successful election where he is candidate,” he said.

But the Social Democratic Front’s Joshua Osih said he does not think the elections can be conducted successfully in the northwest and southwest regions, where the military is battling armed groups fighting for the creation of an English-speaking state.

Twenty percent of Cameroon’s 23 million people are English-speakers in a bilingual country where French is the predominant language.

The conflict has killed more than 250 soldiers, armed fighters and civilians. It has also left over 160,000 people internally displaced and and forced tens of thousands across the border in Nigeria.

“Elections are not possible in the present circumstances in the northwest and the southwest,” said Osih.

Last week, lawmakers in the national assembly passed a law extending their mandate for 12 months. They said the country cannot handle having presidential and parliamentary elections in the same year.

Some lawmakers said they voted for the bill because the crisis in the English-speaking regions will make it impossible for the elections to take place.

Last March, senatorial elections did not take place in the English-speaking Manyu and Lebialem administrative units where some municipal councilors were arrested and locked up by armed groups.

Armed separatists have vowed to block any elections in the English-speaking regions. The government says it will ensure the security and safety of voters.

Source: VOA

The 86 year autocratic, dictator and  ruler of la République du Cameroun in his typical Machiavelli way of doing things announced a  couple of weeks ago, despite the escalating war that he declared on the people of the English speaking region in Cameroon that the presidential elections would hold on the 07 of October. Prior to this announcement, two other elections (municipal and parliamentary) that were supposed to take place this year were postponed and members of parliament and mayors had their mandate extended to 2019. Political pundits and observers have been wondering aloud if it makes any sense to organize presidential elections in a country caught up in a senseless war that has produced some 200.000 internally displaced persons with over 50.000 as refugees in Nigeria? A lot of tongues have indeed been wagging on how the Biya regime intends to stage the elections in the Southern Cameroons, where citizens are gunned down indiscriminately by Francophone soldiers and where Southern Cameroonians are not allowed to communion in groups, as the military continues to kill indiscriminately.

The robust resistance of the restoration forces, who have basically taken over authority in Anglophone Cameroon, and who enjoy the support of the communities is definitely an insurmountable challenge to the infamous electoral project. The restoration forces have vowed that no such election is going to take place in Africa’s newest state-The Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The restoration forces are in total control of the communities and have reportedly intensified ghost town operations. Attempts by the Yaoundé government and the mayor of Buea to disrupt the idea of ghost town recently led to deadly clashes with state authority ending up with a bloodied nose, and the restoration forces having the last word.

This week, the minister for defense Joseph Beti Asomo on a special mission ordered by the head of state of la Republic visited the affected regions to meet and congratulate the soldiers for their bravery and courage in killing their fellow citizens. What was thought to be a robust and security tight convoy of 30 armoured vehicles ferrying the minister  and several army generals including colonels came under attack. Beti Assomo and his entourage met what has been described as the most audacious attempt by the restoration forces to make an emphatic statement to the Yaoundé regime.

One of the journalists traveling with the minister got injured in the attack. He narrated the ordeal to the world and in his statement, he compared the restoration forces to Boko Haram, and pointed out that although the Nigerian Islamic sect uses sophisticated weapons; the restoration forces were in possession of locally manufactured weaponry. He further pointed out that Ambazonian forces are more organized and intelligent than Boko Haram fighters. He said if the restoration forces had modern assault weapons, the damage on the convoy would have been unimaginable as the minister would have been captured. In the midst of this insecurity and uncertainty, and the attack on the defense minister’s convoy, it is abundantly clear that elections will not take place in the former British Southern Cameroons. The restoration forces have instructed Ambazonians not to part of the upcoming counterfeit presidential elections, which they described as provocative and illegal. How the 86 year old dictator intends to make such a precarious election to take place remains a mystery, wrapped in a puzzle inside an enigma.

By Ntam Charles Ngeh

Bonn, Germany