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| By Ekinneh Agbor Ebai |
No other event
lately, perhaps, dramatizes the growing contradictions of Cameroon better than
the brigandage witnessed on the streets of Buea and Bamenda with its trail of
violence in which lawyers, teachers, university students and innocent civilians
were beaten, arrested, tortured, raped and detained by rampaging soldiers
acting on “orders from above.” The brutality deployed against Anglophones for
exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights to free speech and peaceful
assembly is simply mind-boggling, inexcusable and stand condemned in all
ramifications. In the judgment of an average sense of decency, the crude police
assault is a moral weakness of asinine proportion that calls into question, the
real character of the nation’s leadership. The lawlessness by security forces was
an insult to democracy and constitutional rectitude that neither edifies the
country, nor the President, on whose desk, the buck stops. Cameroonians deserve
full explanation for this unbelievable shame.
To the utter
embarrassment of the nation, the images of police brutality which went viral on
social media were pathetic, disgraceful and devoid of any perfunctory
exaggeration. By any streak of the imagination, this cowardly and barbaric fury
towards life, liberty and civility, is one of the most odious image-battering
events that only reinforces Cameroon’s international image as a country with
highly dysfunctional institutions where bizarre things can happen. Cameroonian leaders at all levels must be hiding their heads
in shame. Certainly
Anglophones must be allowed to examine the basis of their co-existence. To deny
them this right for fear that they may disagree to live together is like
building on a shaky foundation.
After many false starts, dashed hopes, and
perennially low expectation, Cameroon needs a change of direction and
Anglophones want to reset the agenda. Government apologists denouncing the
ongoing protests as a rally of miscreants must realize that the use of
overwhelming force is a very risky strategy that could backfire and, in the
worst case scenario, crystallize into the formation of armed groups in
legitimate self-defense of Anglophones. Once that line is crossed, the clamors
for secession will only grow louder. History is dotted with too many such
examples and Cameroon cannot afford to go down this route. The government claims
without any evidence that the protests are the handiwork of unseen “foreign
hands” and refuse to acknowledge that the motivations for the protests rest on
the skewed nature of Cameroon as a country. For many years, Francophone-led
governments from Ahidjo to Paul Biya have maintained a portentous imbalance and
inequitable structure that marginalizes Anglophones and disfavors meritocracy.
They have glossed over the continuous discrimination of Anglophones in a
progressive fashion to a point of assimilation. And by so doing they have foisted
a forced unanimity.
With the groundswell
of protests, the unity of Cameroon, for want of a suitable metaphor, seems to
be held at gunpoint. Obviously, these protests point to issues that have not
been resolved. Unfortunately, the government response has been violence and provocative
belligerence, instead of finding a midway for which the nation’s diversity can
be respected, and a sense of belonging maintained without making anyone feel
any loss of their identity. The government must cease and desist from
perpetrating acts of violence against Anglophones as this risk enthroning
instability that could dismember the country.
Notwithstanding, it
is simplistic to view the demonstrations as an event orchestrated by disgruntled
elements reliving an inglorious reverie from some botched re-unification
experiment because the deeper import of the protests transcend the Anglophone
agenda. Protest is a living philosophy of justice that appears wherever and
whenever oppression, impunity, injustice and structural violence rear their
heads. In a democracy, the people alone matter; peaceful protests is an
integral part of democracy; people should air their views, however jaundiced. What
is going on is symbolic of the discontent experienced by many ethno-political
interests for whom the Cameroon question remains unanswered.
That Cameroon as a
nation is living a lie or its rulers are living in denial is not in doubt. It
wants to be a prosperous and politically stable country, yet it is holding down
this potential for prosperity and stability by maintaining a supercilious, garrisoned,
centralized government, whilst paying lip service to regional decentralization.
Nothing is working in the
country and the bond that binds the ethnic nationalities appears tenuous, if
not snapping, fundamentally threatening the unity of the country. The unity in
diversity hitherto advertised as “Africa in miniature” has been supplanted by
diversity in unity, such that Cameroonians see themselves first in the mold of their
ethnic nationality. This explains why Cameroon is politically weak and
structurally fragile, giving rise to negative and frightening prognostications.
Without equivocation,
all is not well with the country. For too long, successive Francophone-led governments
have undermined the essential differences in the various interests of the Cameroonian
people; and so unresolved matters about the aspirations of Cameroon’s
heterogeneous interests have become a ticking time bomb. To assume that these
do not exist, or to gloss over them is to play the ostrich like Fame Ndongo stuck
in clannish grand-standing; wearing the garb of an ethnic jingoist
and pontificating about a united Cameroon. The truth of the
matter is that the current structure of Cameroon today, holds down the levers
of development in the country, stunts its growth, truncates its progress and
actually threatens its unity. The present political structure with its
insensitive centripetal exertions provides vents for sundry injustices in the
polity that must be corrected to liberate the nation’s full potentials.
For the avoidance of doubt, Anglophones have a
right to determine whether the political configuration of the country as it
stands today should remain as it is in form and in character; whether the
structures of the existing order, are suitable for the nation’s complexities as
a bilingual, multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation. Cameroon is a great
country waiting to happen and needs men and women who would make sacrifices for her greatness. It is indeed unfortunate that Francophone political leaders seem to
wittingly or unwittingly consider Anglophones as “enemies in the house” rather
than as Cameroonians with a different vision of how the country can be run. The
Francophone political class needs to learn and understand that leadership is
not about ethnic domination or selfish power equation; it is rather a
disposition of moral strength and sacrifice to act in the public interest. Rather
than exacerbate tension and heat the polity unnecessarily, the government should
find answers to the thorny issues that created this monstrosity in the first
place.
The ongoing violence does little credit to the
image of Cameroon’s democracy. The depth of suspicion and ill feeling
towards Anglophones is unhealthy for a nation in distress. Too much pain has
been inflicted and certain pertinent points need to be made. One is that
Anglophones have been treated as “beasts of no nation” in a way that is
provocative and vexatious. Besides, if the government thinks brute force is the
appropriate response to legitimate Anglophone grievances; that is a huge
mistake as history beckons with lessons. Anglophones may have borne the
provocation with admirable equanimity, but let the government be under no
illusions: Anglophones have been mightily insulted and never again should it
happen. The discrimination and marginalization of Anglophones has had its day
and must now end in the interest of peace and stability. In the meantime, the government
should spare Cameroonians the noise and let Anglophone voices be heard as they
cry in agony for better governance.
*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, USA. Talk back at
ekinneh@yahoo.com
