“Trial of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe is like playing with fire at a petrol station” ⁰

The Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides will again appear in the French Cameroun Yaounde Military Tribunal on the 7^th of February.  The case has been in court for close to a year and now.

The Ambazonian chief executive and members of his cabinet are facing lame and ridiculous charges of terrorism, secession and civil war. Ever since their first appearance in court, Southern Cameroons territory has been rocked by ghost towns and intense fighting is currently going on.

The regime in Yaounde has never been this weak. Those who have been propping the government such as Minister Amadou Ali are gradually showing signs of fatigue.  The shocking death of Foumane Akame-a senior Biya acolyte recently in Geneva also indicates that years of lying and defrauding the state are clearly taking a toll on the health of these key actors.

The French Cameroun economy is crumbling; the population has lost hope in the country. The government’s mismanagement of the country and its determination to hang on to power despite losing many elections has pushed the population into the worst form of despair.

This situation has been made all the more desperate by tribalism and nepotism which have become the government’s tools of administration par excellence. Tribalism that had very little space in Cameroon’s politics under the country’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo has become a key component of the country’s politics.

A baron of the regime was heard murmuring privately in Yaounde that the trial of the Ambazonian leader is like playing with fire at a petrol station and that their appearance in the Yaounde military court is fanning the flames of the crisis in Southern Cameroons which has resulted to various incessant clashes between French Cameroun security forces and the Ambazonian Restoration fighters.

By Sama Ernest and Kingsley Betek