"Separatists should Reorientate their Focus towards a Two State Federation"

-Senator Kinyang George 

 Senator Kinyang George, a Cameroonian Politician and Legal Luminary has sent a strong appeal to Separatists especially those fighting in the bushes to reorientate their focus and consider the proposal of a Two State Federation. He explains that for the attention of the international community to be attracted, Anglophones need to speak the same Language. He further states that Seperatists Fighters don't have the means to succesfully wage a war of secession. He also recently started the Tour of Bui  with Noni, one of the three ethnic groupings that make up Bui Division. This saw him convening the Noni Reflection Forum in Yaounde which came out with resolutions that are already being implemented through committees that were created. Senator Kinyang George proceeded to meet with Traditional leaders or Nfons from Noni. In this interview the Senator doesn't only tell us about grounds so far covered in Bui Division but also presents his stand on the Twin Elections in Cameroon. He begins by talking about the grounds so far covered in Bui Division.

"The first issue is that we have made the Noni People to understand that they need to love themselves and that they need to talk Noni and not Djottin, Lasn, Nkor or Din. When you get to the Noni Forum on WhatsApp you will notice that they now talk much more about unity and development. This shows that the Noni Reflection Forum was a success. The forum was called to address the issue of antagonism between the Noni People. We are now focused and prepared to act as one people in the interest of Noni. After the meeting in Yaounde, I held a meeting with the Traditional Rulers of Noni on the instructions of the Yaounde Forum. The Nfons came to Bamenda and we met and talked on development issues and on ways to take Noni forward. We talked on ways to bring peace back to Noni. If there is a problem and there is fighting, it should not divide us as Noni People. It shouldn't kill the love and unity that we once shared as a people. The roads that were blocked by Amba Boys have now been opened and vehicles are now going everywhere in the land. Transportation is once more fluid in Noni. Amba Boys have been made to understand that although they are fighting an Anglophone course, they shouldn't destroy society by obstructing development while doing so. There is a problem but while we look for ways to solve that problem, we should not be self destructive. We have told them that kidnapping is not a solution to our problems. We also hope they should listen to us so that Noni children should be given a chance to go to school. The Yaounde Brainstorming Forum is yielding fruits."

What are the main problems facing Bui Division today and what do you think are the solutions to these problems?

The main problem facing Bui Division is lack of unity. They don't act as people from the same Division. I have six Subdivisions under my controle and my main aim is to bridge the divisions that exist between these subdivisions. We should act as one person focusing on development. From Noni, I will be moving to Oku with the same message of Unity, Peace and Development. From there I will move to Nkum and eventually to Kumbo, the big brother of Bui Division. My tour will ofcourse take me to Jakiri and Mbiame. All of these areas must be covered before the end of my mandate to make sure that there is real development. We should take advantage of the new law. It may not be perfect but we should try to see how we can exploit it in the interest of the Bui people. 

You recently responded to a call from the Nkum People. What was it all about?

One of their counsellors drew my attention to the fact that their health center was dilapidated and needed a facelift. So we sent them 45 cartoons of Medical Equipment and did the same thing for the Nkor Subdivisional Hospital. Still in Nkum an initiative to help internally displaced people wrote to me requesting help. I sent them a package which I think has been helpful. There have been many interventions of this nature. Help individually and collectively has been extended to the Bui People in Prison in Yaounde. There is the case of one Ngalim Felix who was there and needed to be operated upon but hadn't the means. We had to make a move to help him get out of Hospital. The people should know that the Senator is there with an intervention fund. It is not a fund for micro projects but for intervention to help individuals, groups of people and villages. SDF has also greatly suffered from the hands of kidnappers and we have spent a lot of resources in this light. 

Lots of IDPs from Bui are in towns all over Cameroon. We understand you reached out with some assistance to some of them.

Yes. What we have in package for these interventions is not enough so we try to do the best we can do. I am also trying to use my nephew who is running a Medical Laboratory in Douala. We are looking for ways to help the IDPs especially those who are sick. We offer them help at the Laboratory for free laboratory tests to be carried out. We are also concerned with Education and are doing much in this direction. We have been giving out scholarships. I am Senator for the Northwest Region from the Bui Constituency. I fellowship at the Mabanda Baptist Church in Douala and there I decided to give Scholarships to the underprivileged beginning from the Pre Nursery to Primary Six. With the Rev. Pastor we have arranged to get to the poorest in every class. We've been helping these children for the past three years. Though I am Senator for Bui, I am Senator for the nation as well. 

Many people criticise the bills that were recently passed in Parliament and forced through the Senate. What's your take on this?

The Bill on Bilingualism was bad law and you will notice that it was rejected by all Parliamentarians both from the ruling party and the Opposition. The fact that all of us rejected that Bill and it was still promulgated by the Head of State has no respect for the Anglophones. A law which says a Magistrate can give a judgement in French in English Speaking Cameroon clearly disrespects the English Common Law. At the Major National it was aknowledged that the Common Law is very distinct from the Civil Law and that it has specifications that are not in the Civil Law and we agreed that it should be handled separately from the Civil Law. We were surprised that they would use the issue of Cameroon being a Bilingual Country to say that a judgement could be issued in the Common Law Jurisdiction in French. It was another aspect of subjugation which we decried. 

Secondly there is the Law on Regional and Local Authorities in which they say article 327 and 328 have given the Anglophones a Special Status in comformity with section 62 Sub 2 of the Constitution. That is fake and there is nothing of that sort. I told the Minister of Decentralisation and Local Development that it is fake and that is nothing like Special Status for Anglophones. Because in a Special Status we maybe talking about something which is similar to 1961 Federal System of Government which we enjoyed at the time when we resolved to join our Francophone brothers. At that time we had a Prime Minister, a Government, Police force, a Legislative Body and were functioning as a State under a Federal System with Equal Status. The Judicial Committee which I was a member during the Major National Dialogue together with the Minister of Justice strongly Advised the Head of State to declare a cease fire and to grant pardon and Armnesty. They didn't do this but instead brought in a funny law referring to it as Special Status to a people who do not have the powers to legislate. A people who do not have the power to construct their own regions. The people have not been given the powers to say legislation on Common Law and our educational system that the state may consult to legislate on our educational system. So where is the Special Status? If we do not have the powers to legislate or construct our own regions then there is no Special Status. The House of Chiefs is a Sharm and there is nothing there that will create any development to improve the wellbeing of the chiefs. The same Governors, SDOs, DOs that were imposed on us are still there performing the same duties and responsibilities. When the Regional and Local Authorities sit and deliberate, they will have to subject their reports to the Governor. The Governor can decide to frustrate everything if he is not satisfied with it. Even if it gets to the Presidency and the President is not satisfied with the recommendations, it will stay in the drawers. Special Status is a deception, nothing has changed.

Don't you think there is a certain lack of understanding of the stance of the SDF?

It is true that SDF has not officially come out with a position. In our internal forums I have been very disturbed about this situation. Me as Senator and as an individual, I have my position. My position is that I am not going to participate in the elections. I will not expose my people to go and be killed. One soul lost in Bui is too much for me. The SDF's Participation in this fake elections will not be in the interest of the party. This will simply give an endorsement to the credibility of the CPDM. I will not be part of this endorsement. I know my population in Bui and I know that they will not come out to vote. 

Do you have any special message?

I am sending a message to our brothers and sisters in the Northwest and Southwest who are fighting. They a reorientation. They have seen the position of the US which states that there will be no secession. We know that secession does not depend on the US but on us. But I am saying that at the moment the means to fight and get secession are not there. People have died and the Northwest and Southwest Regions have been destroyed. So I am begging that the position of the SDF which is a Two State Federation as at 1961 be considered. The Chairman has echoed this in all the Fora that he has addressed. This position should be considered. Let the Amba fighters reorientate their focus. We need the support of the Internal Community and when we are talking a different Language and they are talking a different Language, it gives power to the state. This proposal of a Two State Federation is some thing we should seriousl consider as we get into 2020.

Interviewed By Francis Ekongang

Senator Barrister Henry Kemende

Senator Kemende Explores Possible Ways of Political Transition in Cameroon

Senator Henry Kemende is one of Cameroon's most outspoken politicians in the Upper House. Cameroon People's Francis Ekongang Nzante caught up with him and he talked elaborately on the possible ways that Political Transition could be achieved in Cameroon. 

Excerpts

You are considered in many circles as a Legal Luminary and a household name in political circles. Who exactly is Senator Kemende?

I want to consider those adjectives you have used to describe me as compliments and I thank you for that. It is your judgment to refer to me as a household name in political circles and equally your judgment to refer to me as a Legal Luminary. Barrister Kemende is just somebody who does things in his own style and in a very simplistic manner. It is motivating to hear you describing what I do in that manner. Barrister Kemende is a Lawyer that was sworn into practice in 1999. I took my training with Justice John Nkengong Moni and Justice Nyoh Wakai. Emminent personalities as far as this country is concerned. It is a privilege to have passed through the hands of someone like Nyoh Wakai who was once a Supreme Court Judge in the former West Cameroon and Founder of the SDF Party. It is equally a privilege to have passed through the hands of Nkengong Moni John, a former Minister of Transport and Cameroonian Ambassador to about four countries. I respect these two old people and I am proud of them. Besides being a Lawyer now for twenty years standing I also became interested in politics. I developed interest in politics after serving in ONEL 1 and ONEL 2 in Ngoketunjia as Divisional Head for two years. I eventually left ONEL and made my first attempt to get into Parliament in 2007 and did not succeed. From there I left Lawan Bako's UDP and moved to the Social Democratic Front SDF after I was solocited by my political partners of yesteryears and my contemporaries at the time to work as an Elections Monitor in ELECAM that had just been created. I worked as an ELECAM Boss in the same Ngoketunjia Division for a year. I felt that was not my calling and resigned to join the SDF. That's how I eventually became Senator.

Cameroon has been through a ravaging Anglophone Crisis for three years and counting. What is your take on the way involved parties have been handling the crisis?

We should call a spade a spade and simply look at the way the Government has been handling the crisis. If the Government had managed the situation correctly, the crisis would not have reached the stage at which it is today. The Government ill managed the crisis and did not foresee the extent to which it would degenerate.  The seriousness of Anglophone problems in this country have not been given the attention it deserves over the years. If they had been appreciating the Anglophone Ill feeling correctly from when we had independence by joining French Cameroon then we should not have had the problems we are facing today. If the Government was doing its job it would have realised that there always have been pockets of resistance to changes that were being made in the Anglophone Coponent. They should have already known from their informants or intelligence that there were ill feelings among Anglophones due to the inconveniences that were being brought to bear upon them. It was exacerbated by the so called 1972 Referendum. The ill feeling grew in leaps and bounds. They can't say they didn't know about these feelings  when on every October 1st they sent out uniformed men to arrest activists of the Southern Cameroons National Council SCNC. You cannot be sending uniformed men to arrest people and in the end you say you were not aware of the existence of a problem. They were arresting the activists because they knew that the message they were carrying could be bought by  the public. When it came to this crisis they should have known that the ground was really hot because it was something that had been boiling for years. They could forsee that there was going to be an explosion right away. They believed time and force would solve it. Unleashing their force on the lawyers beating them in their robes. Lawyers were beaten and locked up in a way that gentlemen should not be treated. From then the situation degenerated to where we find ourselves today.

Cameroonians have been harping on Political Transition. What do you think is the best way to go about this?

For Political Transition to take place, the people in power must aknowledge that it is necessary. If they don't aknowledge the need for Political Transition then it can't work. Transition must have its bases from the constitution which should define the way it should take place. It can therefore take place when they decide to disolve the government and make consultations. Another possibility is for the Head of State to resign with his entire Government thus creating a Power Vacuum. The Constitution will now come into operation to pave a way forward. The Head of State himself could make Transition possible by dissolving the whole Government and constituting a Transitional Government under his rule. That's the only way a transition can come about through the operation of the Constitution. In the absence of this, Political Transition can only take place through the use of force. In such a case, the Constitution will be suspended and everything will be determined by the Military Junta in power. 

Cameroon has seen a series of massacres notably the one in Ngarbuh in Ntumbaw and many contradictory reports have come in. What is your take on this?

When a situation like that occurs, it is usually difficult to know the exact figures. People run into the bushes and it is difficult to determine exactly the number of dead bodies. It is only after an investigation has taken place and all members of the community accounted for that you can arrive at exact figures. One death is not less important than fifty deaths. The death of any single Human being inflicts much pain on the family that loses a loved one. When you have lost a loved one then you will be able appreciate the value of a single life that is lost. When you talk about one death in terms of its effect on a family then it is the same like fifty deaths. 

Who ever is responsible, be it the regular army or the armed Mbororos will have to render account to posterity. If it is the Goverment and they are denying thinking that by doing so they will run away from responsibility, then they are fooling themselves. The point is that it is the duty of the Government to protect the life and property of the its citizens. So when they fail in this responsibility irrespective of who did the killings, they carry the responsibility. Instead of them denying responsibility and pushing it onto people whom we don't know, they should apologise to the Cameroonian people for failing in their duty. If all the killings and destruction of poperty have been carried out by the Amba Fighters as they are called, then it is reason enough for the Army to withdraw and for the Government to resign and aknowledge defeat. 

What is your take on the Twin Elections that just took place in the country?

If we had taken two steps towards Democracy then we have taken about five steps backwards. It is unfortunate that before the present delimna, Southern Cameroons had conducted Free and Fair Elections without any reproach from anybody. It is also unfortunate because if Cameroon has  made five steps backward then the hitherto Southern Cameroonian has made Ten steps backwards. 

If you were to address a message to Armed Separatists what would it be?

I would tell them not to fall in the trap of being accused as the defense forces are being accused on a daily bases. The population they are fighting for is suppossed to be the hen that lays the golden egg. If they are fighting for that population, then they must also do everything to protect that same population. They need not harass that population nor take them into the bushes for ransoms. They must define where they get their finances. They should not lose the confidence of that population that is counting on them for protection. 

What is the way forward for the Social Democratic Front the SDF?

One of the Founding Fathers of the party Justice Nyoh Wakai had foreseen what is happening today.  I sounded a warning within the NEC Forum. This warning was leaked out and it went viral on Social Media though it wasn't intended to. What I was worried about came to pass. We have been winning elections in the past and the population has always been behind us. The Rigging Machinery that has always been in place was always uncovered by the watchful population. The population that we counted on in the past was no longer there. They were running into the bushes. They were not there and we knew that they were not going to be there and we went in for elections. It was unfortunate. The best we should have done was to go in for elections in the eight Regions and we have come out suffering the greatest casualty than other political parties. When High Tides bring fishes ashore, the fishes should be very careful when the tides are dropping. They should make sure they follow the waters back without which they will die.

Les Gens Du Cameroun: Email: francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel: +237678401408/ +237696896001

Ngufor Peter Comments on Cameroon's Political Tantrums in 2020

 

       From the Head of State's End of Year Speech, to the beefed up Security  measures that were deployed prior to the Twin Elections that took place on the 9th of February  2020, and the wide range of massacres  that  followed  in the Northwest Region  and to a smaller  extent in the Southwest  Region, it is according  to  many  observers including  this elite  an indication that the President has actually  followed up with the execution of certain lines of action that he made mention of in his End of year speech.

Since December 2016, Cameroonians have always looked forward to President Biya’s end of year speeches with heightened expectations that he would announce some groundbreaking measures that would lead to the resolution of the crisis rocking the Northwest and Southwest Regions in particular and the general state of dystopia that has progressively pulled the nation to its knees. However, the general public has on each occasion been left wondering if the President was truly aware of the acuteness of the sociopolitical problems that have held the nation hostage. This was how Ngufor Peter, an elite from the Northwest Region of Cameroon viewed it as he took a swipe at the unfolding events since the beginning of 2020.

Looking back at the 2019 End Of Year Speech, he said it did not disappoint in terms of the President’s routine puncture of the people’s expectations. Mixed reactions from Cameroonians across the National Triangle poured in following the End of Year Message of the Head of State President Paul Biya on the 31st of December 2019 even from his own party members.

Commenting on the President's End of Year Speech, Ngufor Peter, CPDM bigwig and Anglophone elite from the Northwest Region of Cameroon called on President Paul Biya to apologise to Cameroonians. He equally called on the Head of State to grant a General Amnesty and release everyone presently detained in relation to the ongoing Anglophone Crisis which is in its fourth year.

Professor Messanga Nyamdig, a staunch Biyaist and permanent member of the CPDM Central Committee, had some hard words for the Speech Writers of the President. www237actu.com reported that Professor Nyamdig did not hold back his thoughts as he gave a very damning appraisal of the contents of Biya’s speech. The site noted that, in an appearance on a local radio station in Yaounde owned by Sismondi Barlev Bidjocka, Nyamdig “demonstrated that he was not won over by the President’s Speech. "Paul Biya has not made any real announcements," the Political Analyst said.

As a recap of the speech, Paul Biya said the military would henceforth show no mercy for those who continued to refuse to surrender and be forgiven.

He said the Military would have no other choice than to combat them in order to protect Cameroonians.  "Our Defense and Security Forces will, once again, perform their duty with restraint, but without weakness. I wish to reassure them of my full support and high esteem."

The President said Cameroonians in the Diaspora were funding violence back home by continuing to buy weapons and called on them to be more patriotic and to refrain from destroying their own country.

Ngufor Peter CEO of Farmer's House and CPDM bigwig from the Northwest Region said the Speech of the President touched on key issues affecting the country including the Security Concerns in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. He said the President also made mention of the fact that Cameroon would experience a new beginning. This he said was the most important aspect of the President's Speech. "This means forgetting and forgiving and opening a new page."

Among other things, Ngufor Peter said the President made mention of the recent Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly and mentioned some bills that were passed. Among these, he said what caught his attention was the bill on Bilingualism and Multiculturalism. A bill which he had admired. "This should have emanated from the constitution of Cameroon and now this has been done," he said adding that "if that commission had existed maybe a few years back, then Cameroon would not have been going through what it is experiencing at the moment."

Marginalisation he said was a huge mistake that Cameroon ignored for too long and only the crisis finally drew the necessary attention to it. He, however, said resorting to war was not good because our armed forces were trained to fight in wars and not to fight against an unarmed population.

He condemned the tendency to refer to a given group of Cameroonians as terrorists. "You don't live with people for over 50 years and you get up one morning and call them terrorists. The so-called terrorists are protestors."

He also questioned the necessity behind the Special Status Bill. "Was it really necessary? I am saying that we should not have allowed the problem to get to that point." He said if equity was applied at all levels then there would never have been the necessity to talk about Francophones and Anglophones.

"Let the armed forces be withdrawn and let Law and Order be handed over to the Police and I am sorry to say it but let me say it, the President should apologise. To apologise doesn't mean that you are weak but simply means that you have seen your errors. The word terrorists should be stopped from being used because there are no terrorists in Cameroon."

On his part, Ni John Fru Ndi, Chairman of the Social Democratic Front said he was scandalized that Biya did not put in place measures to stop the Anglophone Crisis that was in its fourth year.

He said after the Major National Dialogue, Cameroonians expected him to free separatist leader Ayuk Tabe Julius and his collaborators to allow peace to return.

"I expected that in a speech like this he would say Anglophone activists, I pardon you. Now with this Olive Branch that I have extended, can all those in the bushes {fighters} come out let us talk," he said adding that "But Mr. Biya said if you want peace, be prepared for war. I saw in him then that that was somebody who wanted to fight under all costs before his term comes to an end."

 Les Gens Du Cameroun/ Email: francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel: +237678401408/ +237696896001