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| By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai* |
Mr President,
I am making this last call consequent
upon the power of attorney vested in me as a public intellectual, who has a
patriotic duty to speak truth to power. I equally make this call in my capacity
as a citizen of this great nation, whose only job-profile is to simply ask
questions and demand accountability. I have nowhere else than your office to call,
given the failure of your collaborators to resolve the Anglophone problem,
which has become a ticking time bomb. As the problem festers with no visible
end in sight, your greatest responsibility today, is to give this nation a
pathway to unity in diversity. And by this is meant, Mr. President should
urgently respond to the deafening calls for a return to federalism. As you well
know sir, the clouds are gathering and the looming catastrophe is palpable and
frightening. And as long as you continue to ignore calls for federalism,
Anglophone independence agitations will only grow stronger. It will reach the
point of no-return after October 1, with a formal restoration of independence. And
once that happens, the end may just be near.
Truth be told, Mr. President, the mass
demonstrations across Anglophone regions on September 22, was evidence, if at
all one was needed that Anglophones have lost faith in this one Cameroon
project and now want separation. That the problem attained this current level
of threatening prominence, however, speaks to an abject failure of presidential
leadership. And here is the thing; the problem reached crisis point, following the
pig-headed decision to arrest the Consortium leaders. By arresting Agbor Balla,
Fontem Neba, Ayah Paul and Mancho BBC, the government lionized and
inadvertently gave them international recognition and raised their profiles as
they became symbols of a struggle, which metastasized beyond lawyers and
teachers. These Anglophone activists would have been unlikely heroes if
government had not been indolent and slipshod in their actions and reactions.
Since their release, they have become
larger than life, but the unintended consequence of their incarceration has
been the radicalization of Anglophones; a majority of whom now want nothing
short of separation. Not even the governing council leaders can go contrary to
this aspiration. Therefore, the current militarization of Anglophone regions is
a meaningless show of naked power that has no redeeming value, because that
strategy has been tried already and it failed. So, instead of using a
sledgehammer, there should be dialogue. This is where Mr. President must have a
re-think and open channels of communication with the leaders of the Anglophone governing
council. There must be engagement in line with the African method of consensual
conflict resolution. Ii is beguiling that in the midst of the prevailing chaos,
Mr. President has not bothered to address the nation, despite the mass protests
at home and abroad. It is not too late to do this; because the wait-and-see
strategy has failed.
To halt the descent into anarchy, Mr.
President should immediately order the immediate release of all remaining
Anglophone detainees; create a commission of inquiry to investigate those
killed and compensate their families accordingly, while holding those
responsible, accountable. The government should then open dialogue on
federalism with SCACUF and Consortium leaders, who now represent Anglophones,
and stop listening to the self-serving Anglophone CPDM elite who have no
credibility and only speak on behalf of their personal stomachs. Rather than
war-war and later to jaw-jaw, it is only sensible to pursue the option that
reduces tension, assuage anger, and encourage mature and objective discussion
of grievances in order to achieve a more just and equitable polity.
Your Excellency, I feel I need not say
more, but I must remind you that the Anglophone problem has become a bad
headache that refuses to go away because of your failure to address the main
issue that is responsible for the problem: over-centralization of powers in
Yaoundé. Centralization has created a buccaneer mentality and booty-sharing
tradition evident in the selfishness, corruption, mindless exploitation and
insensitivity amongst the ruling vampire elite who have captured and taken the
nation hostage. As things stand no force on earth can eliminate corruption in
Cameroon. Only federalism would end the reign of crass opportunism and leadership
by small minds in high places; that has taken an otherwise great nation to the
precipice of civil war and destruction.
Whether you are for federalism; be it
two, or 10 states or independence is a matter of opinion, but what cannot be
denied is the fact that the number of Anglophones who prefer federalism as
opposed to independence is reducing by the day. The socially disruptive impact the
crisis has had, and continues to have on the polity, has triggered reactions
that are unhelpful to national unity, peace and stability.
Needless to say, no one wants the
balkanization of Cameroon. That is not what federalism entails and that is not
what it will ever be. But for Cameroon to remain one, united and indivisible,
the government must recognize that federalism will strengthen democracy and
make the country prosper economically. The situation is getting out of hand as
schools are being burnt by anarchists who have been radicalized by government’s
obstinate refusal to dialogue with the true Anglophone leaders. Things will
only get worse, unless a new dynamic emerges on the ground that shows a path
forward towards realizing Anglophones’ quest to manage their affairs.
An important point about the Anglophone
problem is that the present agitation is a symptom of a much larger discontent.
It is a component of widespread and comprehensive dissatisfaction with the
structure, the composition, and the working of the political, economic and
other systems. In point of fact though, the claim of marginalization,
inequitable generation and distribution of national resources, and other forms
of disaffection with Cameroon as presently constituted, is not at all unique to
Anglophones. Other regions exhibit in varying degrees of severity, certain
dissatisfaction with the system. Taken altogether, these constitute an absolutely
unwholesome “Cameroonian condition” that should worry every patriot. The
difference here is that Anglophones are saying enough is enough, and if the
government which constitutionally is obligated to keep the country secure and peaceful
for its citizens cannot address our grievances, then we will be going back to
Buea.
The legal aspect of the Anglophones case
for independence is not in doubt, but like other loci of disaffection in the
polity, it is essentially a political issue that must be handled with tact and
dexterity. Before September 22, not many Anglophones believed the separatist
demand was realizable or even desirable. But, the message of September 22 was
deafening and the government can only continue to be in denial at its own peril.
Like men possessed beyond reason of the validity of their demands, the SCACUF governing
council staked their claim as the true Anglophone leaders by calling for
peaceful demonstrations all over Anglophone Cameroon. It was a gamble that paid
off as the response was overwhelming. At other times, government has sought
political solutions to issues that were either even more socially disruptive or
were threatening to national stability, like negotiating with Boko Haram. If
the government is serious about a peaceful resolution of the crisis, the choice
is simple and straight: return the country to federalism or call a referendum for
Anglophones to decide their future.
More than at any period in history, we
need an inclusive solution to the Anglophone problem in order that all
Cameroonians can join hands to harness their potential for the development of
our country. The truth is that Anglophones are sick and tired of belonging to a
country where the President abuses the instruments of state power to appoint
his tribesmen to the commanding heights of authority positions within the
public service and the military. How can anyone justify why the public
investment budget for the President’s South region is more than that of the two
Anglophone regions combined. As the bread basket of Cameroon, Anglophones will
no longer stand idle by, while their resources are pillaged to finance a
corrupt system of abusive patronage and ethnic-inspired clientelism, run by
tribal jingoists, who see public service as a profit-making business and are
stealing the nation blind. That is not what our fathers voted for in 1961. If
anything, re-unification has turned out to be a colossal mistake, and one which
as Anglophones we must correct, no matter the price to do so!
Nation-building, Mr. President, is not
for the faint-hearted. I strongly believe that we do not have to split this
country before we can restructure it to run as a federation where each region can
run efficiently with the endowments in their domains. That is why, going
forward, there should be open and frank discussion of terms of association to
guarantee a win-win situation for all Cameroonians. This is the fundamental
political solution that Mr. President must implement at this trying time. And
it is the only way to resolve the Anglophone problem and save the country from
implosion. This is my last call to you as a federalist. Should you ignore this
call, I bet you Mr. President, we Anglophones will go back to Buea!
*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, Massachusetts, USA. Talk back at
ekinneh@yahoo.com
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