Cameroon's Political Activists

Financing the armed Anglophone struggle means financing death in Cameroon.

Kah Walla –CPP Boss

Kah Walla: Cameroon People's Party

Among other things, Kah Walla, Chair Person of the Cameroon People’s Party CPP and Head of the organisation “Stand up Cameroon” has cautioned those contributing towards sustaining the Armed struggle in the two English Speaking Regions of Cameroon. Financing the armed struggle she said was tantamount to financing death in Cameroon. She said a war pitching one part of the country against the other will never work. Stating that the armed struggle had obtained nothing, she stated emphatically that the armed struggle has broken down the fabric of Anglophone society. She was interviewed by Cameroon People in her Douala office.

Read on;

As one of Cameroon’s leading political leaders, what is your take on the quasi disarray that presently characterizes Cameroon’s sociopolitical landscape?

I am a Political Leader and I say so because I hear my name constantly being linked to activism. An activists and a politician are two distinct people. The definition of politics to me is providing solutions to society’s problems. It is very important to realise that when we stand up for roads, water, for people’s rights so that they are not arrested then that is politics. We should therefore not allow any body to take us into some pseudo political stance. This was seen in the way the elections in Cameroon were conducted. It was carried out as if we were in France, Sweden or somewhere else with candidates who were not addressing the issues on the ground. With candidates who allowed themselves to go into a system which they knew from the start could not allow them win Mr. Paul Biya.

What should be the focus of politics in Cameroon now?

In Cameroon it is a matter of changing the power relationship between a dictatorship and the people. There are however some good things that came out of that elections. We saw a clear enthusiasm on the part of Cameroonians which reassured some of us who had been working for change for a long time that this population in its vast majority wants change. Secondly, Cameroonians from the eight French Speaking Regions also moved to show that they were in support of change. Many English Speaking Cameroonians have always wondered whether French Speaking Cameroonians were happy with things the way they are. There was no elective activity in the two English Speaking Regions and activities in the other Regions showed that there was this need for change. Cameroonians as a whole became more aware of the fact that we are faced with a system prepared to kill us. We find ourselves in a system which cannot permit us to move. If we want to bring about change then we must go out of the system. We must go out of Mr. Paul Biya’s agenda. We cannot play the political game following only his agenda. He is a master of the calendar and of all the players. We must move ourselves out of that agenda.

What are those forces calling the shots in Cameroon’s politicking?

 

Cameroon is faced today with two extreme forces. We have the Government on the one hand which is an evil, violent, oppressive regime and has been so for 36 years. It is not a regime which picks out a specific group of people. Today its target is the Anglophone but we have seen on TV that yesterday its target was the Population of the Far North Region. Tomorrow its target may be the population of the East or even the population of the Center and South. If the regime feels threatened and wants a way out and you stand in its way, you immediately become an enemy. It doesn’t matter what part of the country you are from or what ethnic group you are from. It doesn’t matter whether you are their brother or not but if they feel that what you are doing is going to bring down their regime then they will come after you and your arrests and torture will be the outcome and they will kill if necessary.

We should know that it is not a question of fighting a war with one part of the country pitched against the other. A war pitching a part of the country against the other will never work. It must be clear that what we are fighting here is a regime which is against the people. We cannot say the end justifies the means because that is what Mr. Biya will say. Mr. Biya in his head actually believes that he and his regime are necessary to maintain the stability of Cameroon and that whatever means they need to use to stay in power is justified.

What exactly do you make of the armed Anglophone struggle?

 We are no different from what we are fighting against if we have to use the approach of “the end justifies the means.” We confuse the people. If we look at the Anglophone struggle from when it started in October 2016 when the Lawyers and the teachers started it and November 2017 when they decided to go in for an armed struggle you will agree that Anglophones got more confused. At first when somebody was killed we knew exactly who killed him. Now it isn’t the same for reasons we all know. I am not trying to equate the warring factions here. It is the oppressive regime and its marginalization of the Anglophones that lead to the rise of the armed rebellion. One thing led to the other. What I am trying to say is that the adoption of an armed approach is the wrong strategy. We have created a situation where the Government can create confusion in the minds of the people and the international community concerning the perpetrators of the ongoing violence. If somebody is kidnapped today, we will not know who kidnapped that person. Formerly we had a Government which was brutal and oppressive on its people against a people who were fighting for their rights. When the people who were fighting for their rights brought violence into it, they brought in confusion. Some people say this one is “fake amba”, this other one is “real amba” and I always ask the question; “who has the data base?” “Who is holding the information on fake amba and real amba?” Today you sit in Douala or in Yaounde and you receive threatening phone calls. Some people who want money. Who are they? We have to admit that it is the adoption of an armed strategy which has created the fertile ground for this. The armed strategy we have to admit has obtained nothing. We are no more advanced today in the fight for Anglophone rights than we were when it started. On the contrary when we were in a non violent fight, the Government had at least come to the table even if we were not satisfied.

True that it was the arrests of peaceful protestors and cutting of the internet that resulted into the armed struggle but that armed struggle has not achieved anything. On the contrary, when the people took up arms, the government instead stepped up its violence and repression. Remember that before the armed struggle, no village was burnt in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. It is the taking up of arms which allowed the Government to feel that it was justified to carry out the burning of villages. Before the armed struggle we never had a situation where groups of young men were just found lying somewhere dead having been shot by we don’t know who. We did not have the kidnappings which are occurring at a terrible rate. The armed struggle has broken down the fabric of Anglophone society. We have broken down the Economy. Some say we want to make the region ungovernable. “Ungovernable for who?” Mr Biya was never governing there and he didn’t care whether those areas are governed or not. When we bring CDC to a stop, who is working in CDC? Who are feeding their families through working in CDC? We have penalized the very population for whom we say we are fighting.

Some NGOs including yours have been doing quite much out there. What actually is being done? 

The situation has left many displaced people living under very vulnerable conditions. We have those who are arrested and living in prison under very horrible conditions. The arrests are still going on and we have about a thousand people mostly young men and a few girls in there who are arrested throughout the national territory. We have the Internally Displaced People. I don’t have the recent figures but we have about half a million perhaps getting close to 700.000 range of internally displaced. We equally have over 50.000 refugees in Nigeria. These are the effects of this armed conflict. When the peaceful protests became violent, the Government used it as an excuse to increase its violence on people and we now have the results before us.

At the level of Stand Up for Cameroon, we have been drawing attention nationally and internationally to what is going on in Cameroon. One of the things we have done as mothers of the nation is that we took women, a vast majority of them from the French Speaking Regions to go to the conflict regions and see what is happening. Those women were so extremely touched and they brought in their support and those women today are the ones insisting on the March on Yaounde because what they saw in the Northwest and Southwest is unacceptable. We have been bringing material and psychological support and moral support, helping the people to organise themselves and continue to demand for their rights. Right now we are collecting donations in kind and in cash to be able to help people to have a normal festive period as we move into the New Year. We are also monitoring what is being done by the International Agencies. What they are claiming to be doing and what they are actually doing. For those who are in jail, we are also providing support especially during this period. You know that jail in Cameroon is money. You need money to be able to take a bath and have a clean cell. We are providing financial support. Today you hardly hear anybody talking about Mancho Bibixy,Terrence Pen and a host of others who are still there. We want to provide some support to them and their families because it is going to be very difficult for their families during this period without these people who for the most part are the bread winners.

A growing worry is the fact that some NGOs and organisations are actually enriching themselves from the situation while pretending to be taking care of humanitarian needs.

The terrible thing about war which many people do not realise is that there is a “War Economy”. War lasts as long as it does because there are people who manage to profit from it. We have to be clear about this. If the situation in the Northwest and Southwest is lasting this long, it is because within government there are culprits who have been benefitting from the sales of arms, profiting from the fact that they inflate bills to take care of soldiers who are on the field and definitely profiting from the humanitarian aid which was supposed to be 12 Billion Francs CFA. Any of us who’ve been to the Northwest and Southwest Regions will bear with me that there is no evidence of 12 Billion Francs having been spent on Internally Displaced People there. We visited IDPs here in Douala who had been noted down on paper as receiving that money. What we found out were people from families of 5 or 7 who received only one mattress. A family of five to seven people was sharing a bag of rice with five other families. This can’t even feed a family for one day.

We also draw attention to the fact that there are some who have made astronomical amounts of money from this situation. If people are collecting money then they have to be capable of justifying that money. We also caution those who are donating money. We have credible organisations on the ground and I don’t think money should be given to anybody except to those who are on the ground. We know organisations on the ground like that of Barrister Agbor Balla who is helping those who are in prison. We know of the Ayah Foundation that is helping the IDPs and the refugees. We know an organisation such as Stand Up for Cameroon which is on the political front so let us not hand out money to people without knowing what the money is being used for.

We also caution those who are financing an armed struggle. When you finance an armed struggle then you are financing death in Cameroon. People say they are fighting government but we can count the number of government soldiers who have died as compared to the numerous innocent civilians who have been killed ruthlessly.

 Many Cameroonians who looked up to the struggle now believe that it is taking them down the drain. The Government according to them provides no better alternative. What is your take on this?

We must continue to fight the root cause which is the Biya Regime. We do this following a non-violent approach on the bases of truth and justice. We cannot continue to run after people who have lied to us. I remember that there are people who told us on the first of October that there were UN soldiers already stationed at Ambas Bay, that ships were there and that they themselves were coming to Buea on that day. Nothing happened and people continue to follow and listen to them. We have the Biya Regime that has equally not been true to us for 36 years. Cameroonians know who hasn’t lied to them down the years. Cameroonians know those people who have spoken the truth to them throughout. Cameroon Peoples Party and Stand Up for Cameroon have always believed in and stood up for this type of Political Transition; that is non-violent and standing up for the rights of the people of Cameroon.

We have maintained our Fridays in black and we want a majority of Cameroonians to join us because at this point in time, if we see the whole of Yaounde, Douala, and Bamenda in black we are bound to ask what is happening. We want Cameroonians to join us when we are coming out for a march or for a sit in. You cannot sit home and think things are going to change without action. People should know that action takes place not in the hinterlands but in the Capital City in Yaounde. The people we are trying to influence are in Yaounde and everything we do must take place there in front of them. After the elections, many people said Madame Kah Walla was right. It is not enough to be right. I want to have change. If you think I was right then join us.

Among the twenty Political Parties that supported the candidacy of President Paul Biya, yours was indicated to be among them..

There is nowhere in the world except we want to invent it where leaders of political parties are appointed. Even inside the party, they are elected. It is complete absurdity and heresy to think that somebody will be appointed by someone who is outside that political party and who belongs to another political party. It is only in Cameroon that we can see such madness.  Mr. Tita Fon used to be a member of the CPP and founded the CPP and has been a faithful member from 2011 when he handed the reins of the party to me. He has been a member of the party and was at the congress when I was elected.

So how come the minister invited him as Chairperson of your party?

Mr Atanga Nji, the Minister of Territorial Administration has a complete confusion in his mind between his job as Minister of Territorial Administration and his role as a militant of the CPDM Party. He confuses the two roles all the time. He was the primary person arranging for the support of the twenty parties that supported the CPDM. That is why we say, you cannot go to elections with this kind of people. This is a man who is supposed to supervise elections busily arranging with political parties to support a candidate. How then will he be able to supervise elections? He did it and gave people money. The Biya regime is amazing in the way it pushes Cameroonians to extreme levels of poverty and then comes back with a few pennies telling you to come and join in against its adversaries. So the same person who put you in a dire state of poverty now comes with a few francs calling you to join him. Unfortunately we have a few people who will still fall for that. I am very sad to see Mr Tita Fon fall in this kind of thing. This is an elderly man from the Northwest Region of Cameroon like me. This is somebody who had the courage in 2011 to transfer power within his party. He has done very good things during his life time and it is very unfortunate that at this time in his life, he should be betraying himself as a person, betraying his region as an Anglophone, and betraying his country Cameroon. However, the party is going on with its activities and going on with a sole purpose of meeting up with its objectives.

Cameroon People: Email: edevnewspaper@gmail.com/ francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel: +237696896001