Filed in from Ben Ashu (Arthour unknown)
What some of us, the moderates of the Anglophone Crisis
learned from the last Presidential Elections and the meltdown at the Constitutional Council.
Let
me begin by defining some of the terms I will be using in this prose.
In the Anglophone struggle, I have identified four categories of
Anglophone protagonists:
1. The Independentist/
These are those who want an independent country (Ambazonia) as it was
prior to joining La Republic du Cameroon. That is, as part of the
British mandate administered from Nigeria, but not joined to Nigeria.
This is the meaning of restoration, but I am sure what they really want
is a new country.
2. The Federalists/Moderates.
These are those who want the country to return to the 1961 Federal Constitution of either two states (as it was), or ten states (as some
want it today). These are those who have a strong feeling that autonomy
is our goal and not independence. For independence can come without
autonomy but autonomy comes with independence. They are still divided on
the issue of the number of states.
3. The Regionalists/
These are those who believe in their guts that decentralization will
deliver the required autonomy. They have argued that federalism is a
form of decentralization. Most of the members in this group and pro-Biya
loyalists. They still haven't voiced-out the sticking point about the
voting or appointing of governors. The disappearance of DOs and SDOs.
4.
There are the Status-quoists.
These are those who believe or better
put, don't believe there's an Anglophone problem in Cameroon. They
believe the current crisis is a fabrication by a few individuals abroad
in a bound-to-fail attempt to destabilize the country.
As
an Anglophone you should be able to identify yourself in one of these
four groupings, otherwise, you fall in a statistically insignificant
group of people that we shall not bother to categorize. For the purpose
of full disclosure, the writer of this prose is a moderate, therefore,
there could be an inherent bias in his/her style of writing.
Elections
in Cameroon have come and gone like a weak wind, nothing changed at
all. Mr. Biya is still in power, the crisis in the NW/SW is still
looming and the same acts of violence, killings, school boycotts, ghost
towns, and kidnappings are still going on. However, the wind, even
though weak, exposed a lot of new cracks in crevices of the fabric in
our justice system in Cameroon:
1. The debates in
the Constitutional Court (CC), fiery sometimes but intellectually
enriching above all, showed clearly that, there's no justice in
Cameroon. If anyone ever doubted the weakness of the Cameroon Court System, the videos that were streaming on CRTVWeb and stored for
posterity on YouTube are there to prove it.
2. The
Anglophone lawyers gowned in black with their wigs showed clearly the
difficulty we will ever face in mixing two culturally and legally
dissimilar systems. No member in the Constitutional Council ever spoke
or responded in English for over 3 days from 9 am - 10 pm. In fact, it
was proven by Barrister Sama (defending the SDF candidate) that the President of the Constitutional Council does not understand English.
Barrister Sama had asked for permission for his client to sit down while
he was debating his case; that had to be repeated in French for the President of the CC to respond in the affirmative. There can be no
justice when there's a language barrier.
3. For
the Anglophone Cameroonian to have his/her place in Cameroon, they need a
court, distant from the practices/malpractices of the Justice System of
the French Courts in Yaounde. Can this be possible in a Federation?
Will a Decentralized Government allow us to vote for our own judges and
allow us to sanction them by voting them out of office if found wanting?
4.
Elections in Cameroon will never be free and fair. Call it what you
may, there's a millstone hanging around the necks of members of the CC
that will never go away. The lackluster response of the President of the
CC to the requested 26 PV is worrying. Justice must not just be done,
but must be seen to be done. In this case, justice was not seen to be
done. Is this the kind of court where our Federal Cases would be judged?
It bothers me as a federalist. For full disclosure, I also have no
affiliation to the MRC.
5. I was a fervent advocate
for this election. I encouraged people to register and vote. I
chastised my independent friends for opting for a boycott. I argued that
with technology things will be different. I flaunted the massive
deployment of Facebook and WhatsApp in Cameroon as a game-changer. Boy! I
was wrong. I have never hailed the independentist, but I concede this
one to them. This elections if nothing else has given legitimacy to the
Anglophone struggle. Ignoring all the above, all you need to do is go to
YouTube and watch just the debates at the CC, and tell me if those same
arguments are translated to any foreign language on earth if what
happened there would be considered as justice.
6.
If we have to remain as federalists, we not only need new arguments but
we need to re-convince each other (with proof) that we will be able to
secure more than our courts in a Federal Government.
Edev Newspaper: Email: edevnewspaper@gmail.com/francoeko@gmail.com
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