Friday, September 29, 2017

Cameroon: Last Call to President Paul Biya: Before We Go to Buea




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

    The Legal Aid Commission (Commission d'Assistance Judiciaire) in Cameroon     In Cameroon, the Legal Aid Commission (Commissio...