Recalling parts I, II & III….
In Part I of my Critique of Mwalimu George Ngwane’s proposition Addressing the armed conflict in Cameroon, constitutionally speaking, I focused on decrypting our understanding of “re-unification”. I posited, hopefully, with historical evidence that, we should speak instead of “Unification”, as the two “Cameroo[u]ns” never existed before as a single Political entity to be re-unified”. I also hopefully, convinced our reader that, Southern Cameroons was significantly “decolonized” by the time its Politicians alighted in Foumban and “united” with French Cameroun, where Parties like the UPC was still illegal. Finally, that Critique wrapped-up with my proposition that, we must view Conflict from another perspective – as a frontier of creativity and of transformation.
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I ended Part II of my Critique of our Mwalimu’s article: Addressing the armed conflict in Cameroon, constitutionally speaking” with a quote from NN Mbile’s Cameroon Political Story, appropriately, dealing with Constitutional Matters:
“Now, returning to the Cameroonian character, what has held the Cameroon Nation together more than anything else is not the “grand” Constitution we wrote, not the angels of civil servants and politicians who run our affairs, but the spirit of tolerance in the character of the Cameroonian”.
“When all is said and done perhaps, we may say that the Cameroonian, due to his character, his often choice of fragmentation to escape confrontation, his capacity to bear patiently the burden of his mistakes; this specimen of the human species has [until 2016] in a region of turbulence, been able to survive intact, to lay a foundation for himself and for posterity”.
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After almost a decade of Parliamentary Party Politics in Southern Cameroons many would argue that we entered into the Union with French Cameroon with an extreme KNDP Government. Although with a very slim majority in Buea that Government used its “Might” to push forward questionable decisions and actions many of which haunt Southern Cameroonians to this day. So, I ended Part III of my Critique of the Mwalimu’s proposition Addressing the armed conflict in Cameroon, constitutionally speaking with the following: “Might is not always right”. That, presumptuousness characterized Southern Cameroons Politics at the eve of reunification and has been brought forward by some of its actors, into the modern day. That, we must understand and acknowledge that, a minority opinion can change the course of a nation for better or worse. So, instead of the three (Munzu, Elad and Anyangwe) simply moving forward to organize AAC I and II on behalf of All Anglophones, on the presumption that they were the majority, could they have settled first for a less extreme and common position? Could a humbler, less extreme position, have united former Southern Cameroonians more, helped avert the Crisis, and optimized our contributions towards a more perfect united, prosperous and just Cameroon?
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I dedicate this fourth and final Part of my Critique of the Mwalimu’s proposition Addressing the armed conflict in Cameroon, constitutionally speaking”, to “ the place of Anglophones in Cameroon’s tomorrow”. As my last piece on the Mwalimu’s article this part will also digress sufficiently into the present political questions facing Anglophones.
1....A Constitutional Review – what would it mean for Anglophones?
The Cameroon Nigeria Transboundary factor.
There are many would-be politically correct Cameroonians including blue-blood Anglophones who still think reference to former Southern Cameroonians is somehow unpatriotic, divisive or not “a la mode”. Well, it is impossible to wipe out 44 years of history. For 44 years Southern Cameroons was a part of Nigeria.
Many of us born before, in the 60s or even after, had Parents who were born Nigerian Citizens. Thousands of former Southern Cameroonians owe their daily bread to Education acquired from Nigerian Universities, where they were not treated as foreigners, but as kit-and-kin, accepted to study as Nigerians and pay the same amount of school fees.
Millions of Igbos and others from the States bordering Cameroon were born and still live in Cameroon with the vast majority in the Southwest and Northwest regions. These families, many of whose children have never seen Nigeria, continue to live and prosper in Cameroon with Citizenship rights that remains to be clarified.
Cameroon was involved in a brief conflict with Nigeria over the contested Bakassi Peninsular – a matter later settled in favor of Cameroon in the ICJ.
Recently, after years of inertia, Cameroon and Nigeria finally signed the Trans-boundary Management agreement for conservation and sustainable management of the biodiversity in the Korup – Oban Transboundary landscape.
The peoples on both sides of the Cameroon Nigeria border from Abana in the Creeks to Fotokol in the Extreme North have relatives on the Cameroonian and the Nigerian side.
We are connected African people, in every way and our past, present and futures are connected, whether we wish it or not. This, in my view should form an important point of reflection and be accommodated in a Constitutional review process for our Cameroon, going forward.
2. Now, a Constitutional Review: the only way forward
The Major National Dialogue (September 30-October 4, 2019) convened by the President of the Republic to bring together Cameroonians of good will in the same place and space, offered us an unexpected opportunity for a collective re-start, aimed at finding concrete and pragmatic solutions, far from petty squabbles, to the problems that have separated us physically and intellectually in recent years – leading to the “Anglophone Crisis”, still raging today.
As the Mwalimu recaps; taking the floor during that Conference, the Sultan MBOMBO NJOYA, King of the Bamoun Stated:
“The only remedy that could cure this evil is the revision of the CONSTITUTION”.
The evil referred-to by the Sultan in his declaration was the armed conflict in the Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon, where Anglophone Separatist fighters are clamoring for a separate State for former Southern Cameroonians.
The merits and demerits of the separatist argument are not a subject of this article; however, the Sultan’s case for a Constitutional review is.
To Southern Cameroonians, Constitutional reviews was a fact of life and I believe like Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States of America, that:
“Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, & deem them, like the Ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well: I belonged to it, and labored with it. (……..). I am certainly not an advocate for frequent & untried changes in laws and constitutions … but I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind”. (Quoted from the Mwalimu’s article)
In our history as former Southern Cameroonians, our experience embodies the thoughts of Thomas Jefferson. And so (consistent with our history and adapted from the Mwalimu), we began with the Richards Constitution of appointing people’s representatives; to the Macpherson constitution that required Parliamentarians to be elected. We then had our first crop of Parliamentarians in 1954 in Southern Cameroons. Before, and after these, Southern Cameroons had experienced a series of semi and full constitutional conferences, beginning in June 1949 in Mamfe; August 1953 - London - Lancaster House Conference; January 1954, the Lagos Constitutional Conference; May-June 1956, the Bamenda conference; 1957, the London Constitutional Conference; in 1958, the resumed London Constitutional Conference, and finally the mother of all, the bilateral (Southern Cameroons – French Cameroun) Constitutional Conference of 17-21 July 1961 in Foumban.
Yet, many would argue, Foumban was the birth place of the “Anglophone Crisis”.
So perhaps rightfully, the Sultan Mbombo NJOYA, King of the Bamoun, whose seat is Foumban should be the one to again ask for a Constitutional Conference as remedy to the evil of the Crisis – which many of us would agree.
3. Elections, and Multipartyism fatigue – DIMABOLA revisited.
3.1. Electioneering!
Videos of excited youth, Cameroonians commenting about voter registration in big towns are circulating across social media – Elections are coming up again in 2025 Cameroon! The Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon are still wrapped in armed conflict.
The separatists have it as mission; as they have had since 2016, to disrupt Elections. The security situation remains precarious at best and explosive at worst. Ghost Towns are still declared by separatists, and observed by a large section of the population, for personal security reasons. The Governor, Southwest region is not indifferent to the security threats. He lives in Douala (Littoral region) and goes to work in Buea (Southwest region) each morning, traveling in an armored convoy.
Good for him, he has the army to provide him with security, like most dignitaries. How about the ordinary man, women, or youth in the hinterlands who has to face the wrath of separatists in order to exercise his/her civic duty to register, vote or not bother at all, not being prepared since 2016?
Ordinary citizens are faced daily with weighing the security costs and benefits of their actions, versus the political vacuum that has existed since the start of the crisis. So, can Elections in the former Southern Cameroons really be meaningful – occur and serve a useful purpose?
As a cornerstone of our democratic experiment; a small but important part of our expression of choice of representative; a process where a single vote can make all the difference, what is the true meaning of Elections to us now?
Insecurity aside [hardly], have we even prepared candidates?
3.2. Multi-party-ism fatigue – DIMABOLA re-visited
In 1972 Southern Cameroonians came out of Buea, to join their sisters and brothers of French Cameroon, in a Government of National Unity. They came out, bruised, battered and fatigued by almost two decades of Multipartyism and incessant voting.
These had produced very little to show for all the acrimony, expense in resources and political bickering. In fact, many would argue that, the battles, animosities and conflicts of Multiparty politics punctuated by voting, culminating to the Plebiscite, its aftermath and Referendum of 1972, are all foundations of the current Anglophone Crisis.
So, when Amadou Ahidjo (of blessed memory) introduced the idea of a National Party – appropriately named - the Cameroon National Union Party - CNU, later to be transformed to the CPDM (Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement), for many who had been actors in Southern Cameroons Political drama, the CNU was a breath of fresh air, a new beginning – one more akin to the African, family culture of the Community, of consensus, of acclamation.
In fact, the DIMABOLA movement of the Southwest was born, precisely in reaction to the horror of returning to those days of bickering, squabbling and hair-splitting over who will be the next BIG MAN.
It was clear that to Southern Cameroonians from numerical minority tribal groupings that voting, Party Politics was not a matter for the best ideas and projects, needed to take the country forward. Multiparty politics and the incessant voting were for people from big tribal groups who sought political power with which to lord over the affairs of minorities.
Multiparty Politics had become unpopular; until poor governance in the unitary model saw the impatient, re-emergence of that notion in 1995 with the fiery launch of the SDF Party. Today, as we have settled again into tribal compartments, the appeal of the SDF that is believed to have won the 1992 Elections, and their brand of populist democracy has waned, and there is a real possibility of a return and re-consolidation of tribal Politics.
Since the decline of the SDF, legitimate space for Anglophones in mainstream Party Politics in Cameroon has become painfully thin and uncertain. Perhaps out of nostalgia and apathy, many Anglophones have remained with the National Unity Party idea and settled for the ruling Party – the CPDM.
4. Leadership, and the quest for an Anglophone Presidency?
4.1. The inalienable right to leadership
I am an Anglophone Cameroonian from Ndian in the Southwest region bordering the Republic of Nigeria with who we have a long and meaningful history. I am endowed with education and experience thanks in part to my country and her partners who contributed to my education, and to who I am grateful; and to my parents, my family and my own natural abilities that have permitted me avail myself to those opportunities. These qualities have invested in me the qualifications to be a leader in any of life’s missions to which I commit my mind and energies. Who I am; my origins, history; are a part of my identity and to a large part, that of my forebears too. As a citizen of Cameroon, I have to feel that, I too or one of my forebears, with the right education and hard work, possesses an inalienable right to rise someday, to occupy the highest office in the land – the Presidency of the Republic.
However, going by the Political system in my country, unless we have a constitution that embodies who I am; my culture, history, education and personality, there is little chance that me or my forebear, can feel sufficiently equipped and or equal enough, to aspire to the highest office in the land. So, for many of us Southern Cameroonians, who came into the present Union as a minority, unless we are comforted by an appropriate constitution (or a Unity Party), it is difficult to identify with the highest purposes of leadership and of belonging to our country, Cameroon.
4.2. The quest for an Anglophone Presidency
For instance, I am one who believe that, the time has come for an Anglophone Presidency in Cameroon. Unless we have the Constitution that allows that, when push comes to shove, tribal politics makes that an impossibility. Our acceptance of a Unitary State in principle, meets the standard of launching an Anglophone into the position of Presidency as this cannot be based on tribe, but on equity, ability and perhaps brand.
The Anglophone Brand is widely respected in Cameroon, despite the Crisis in the Anglophone Regions over the past 7 years. The electoral code of a single round election cycle also makes that possible whereby considering the tribal composition of the population a Presidency can be legitimate with less than 50% of the suffrage.
The first President Amadou Ahidjo was a Francophone Muslim from the North, the second has been a Francophone Christian from the far South. It makes sense therefore, to consider a third Republic to be presided over by an Anglophone, not because he/she is from a majority tribe from the geographical west, but more in respect of our African sense of balance, acclamation and consensus, in addition to competence and qualification.
The advantage of an Anglophone President will be firstly, a strong Head of Government – Prime Minister, who is likely to be a Francophone. Cameroon needs a strong Government and a weaker Presidency.
The reverse has been a problem with the Unitary, Decentralized model; as in it, the State tends to be strongly centralized in the Presidency, but very weakly Decentralized through the regions. An Anglophone Presidency will deliver that by default.
The Anglophone Brand as acknowledged and accepted by Cameroonians is also good for the Presidency who sets the vision, the general directions which then weighs on the Brand of the Nation.
And Anglophone Presidency is also very unlikely to be extreme, as we are a numerical minority and therefore would not see a need to seek abode in that base. As a result, an Anglophone Presidency will by default always seek consensus, try to appeal to the weaker sections of the populations, being equal enough to the more powerful; and be obliged to listen to all points of view without which, an Anglophone Presidency will not be able to find its raison d’être.
An Anglophone Presidency will build on the positive aspects of our diplomacy and especially will take fuller advantage of the historical, political and economic advantage of our relationship with Nigeria – Africa’s biggest economy.
Finally, an Anglophone Presidency will prioritize resolution of the Anglophone Crisis. We understand the nature of the Crisis and we believe that its fair resolution is better ultimately, for Cameroon, for our standing in Africa and Globally.
Follow us, and read sequels to the “The Anglophone Crisis" Series and Other Issues on Society and Politics in Cameroon, here on Moneytreeslight. You may wish to support via MoMo +237 653 609 855
Author: Peter Ngembeni MBILE. Peter is a Cameroonian and holds a PhD in Forest Policy and Economics. He is a Sustainable Development Specialist, a Southern Cameroons History Enthusiast and a Political Commentator.
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