A look at the evolution
of the Anglophone crises from its onset till date reveals a sequence of
fruitless efforts by two parties each one deliberately refusing to give ground
to the other and as the two protagonists occupy centre stage many have failed
to see the drummers who are actually dictating the pace of the dance. The
victims of this stalemate have been the populations of the Northwest and
Southwest Regions.
On the one hand there
was the Anglophone Lawyers with very plausible demands related to legal
practice in Cameroon. Briefly, they wanted the practice to reflect the two
legal systems of the country and they felt that this could be feasible in a two
federal state system. Among other things they were protective towards an
English Common Law System which they felt was being deliberately adulterated
not only by the French Law but also by the French Language which was
increasingly being used in the two English speaking Regions; the Northwest and
the Southwest. To achieve their requests, they went on strike and have since
then kept the courts in English speaking Cameroon empty.
The teachers of the
English Educational Sub system eventually joined in with equally plausible
demands similar to those of the lawyers and even more and subsequently
paralysed the school year in English Schools in Cameroon.
The strikes of these
two groups took things nowhere and dialogue void of good fate brought no
results and in their frustrations coupled with the arrests of some within their
ranks, the two twinned and formed the consortium together with other English speaking
Cameroonians home and abroad. The Consortium then pressed on with its demands
through the organisation of ghost towns.
Since then, in the
absence of sincere dialogue, the banning of the Consortium and the arrests of
its leaders and other activists has pushed the requests for secession to take
center stage. This request is pushed by extremist secessionists who will stop
at nothing short of secession banking their arguments on the fact that requests
for a two state federation with equal status has failed.
The leverage that the
outlawed Consortium has used is the permanent ghost towns on Mondays and
Tuesdays (now reduced to Mondays) and operation dead school campus. While the
average Cameroonian in the Northwest and Southwest Region is toiling under the
weight of ghost towns and its consequences, instructions are continuously being
given by faces behind the scenes dominantly from the Diaspora. The interest
group being served here is that of diehard secessionists prepared to listen to
nothing else. The questions begging for answers are as follows; -is secession
the best choice for Anglophone Cameroonians? Is a two state federation on equal
status acceptable in a country where the English speaking segment of the
population constitute only two of the ten regions that make up the country? Can’t
there be a two or a four state federation with defined conditions that are
acceptable to all parties permitting the country to remain as one Cameroon?
Another interest group
that is being served by the suffering masses is the authorities of the Republic
of Cameroon and to an extent its French Colonial Masters France who have never
really relinquished its hold on its colonies in French Africa.
Just like the extreme
secessionists, Cameroonian authorities have responded in ways that demonstrate
either a complete misunderstanding of the situation or a deliberate attempt to
misunderstand the problems being presented by a segment of the population. Clearly,
the interests of this party completely contrast with those of extreme
secessionists. Satisfying the needs of the Republic of Cameroon would mean not
satisfying the needs of extreme secessionists.
While the two extremes
continue to hold their grounds protecting their ultimate interests, myopic
political misfits have been playing to the gallery in a bid to protect their
own petit and egoistic self interests. Some have carried out peaceful
demonstrations dubbed Peace March in Limbe and Kumba maybe with an intention of
sending customized signals to certain quarters for personal reasons. Some have
even resorted to utterances tailored on tribal lines to send equally customized
signals. The Police et al have brutalized, raped and arrested to no avail.
On the other hand, some
have master minded the burning of Markets in Bamenda (Nkwen and Food Market),
Fundong and Limbe New Market maybe for disobeying the sit down strike action.
All this drama
completely misses the point. If attention has to be shifted for one minute from
the warring forces and their various interests to the plight of the populations
at the receiving end then the desire to end the stalemate should be paramount
in the minds of those who truly have Cameroonians at heart. Attention has not
yet been shifted to the people and as such no immediate way forward has been
prescribed because none of the parties (the secessionists on the one hand and
authorities of the Republic of Cameroon on the other hand) truly have
Cameroonians at heart for if that were the case then a middle ground should
have already been found. For the way forward to be traced, the questions above
and many more must be answered. For example; is a centralized system with
attempts to decentralize competences like the one in Cameroon at the moment the
ideal set up for Cameroon? Is it normal that just prior to the crises in
Cameroon there was an attempt to harmonize higher education in Cameroon despite
the existence of two sub education systems? Time to stop playing to the gallery
is now if Cameroon has to move forward.
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