Most
presidential speeches are unpredictable. Not so,
speeches by Paul Biya, the President of “La Republique
du Cameroun”. Last Saturday was the president’s 35th end-of-year
address and it proved, anew, that Mr. Biya’s newest problem is an old
one. His every outing is stubbornly true to form and
style. Boring. Predictable. Fact free. Power drunk. Sickening. Removed
from reality. Overloaded with empty promises. Full of spin
and half-truths… Even outright lies.
Those, including some
members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Independence of Southern
Cameroons (MoRISC), who had hoped that Mr. Biya could use the speech to
demonstrate that he is, indeed, the president of the two Cameroons say they
were stunned by it. Mr. Biya could have been speaking to the inhabitants of
Mars as an actor in some “Alice in Wonderland” movie; oblivious
of any reality. With so much at stake, Mr. Biya blew another golden opportunity
to make history… to be presidential.
The speech came on the
heels of the most violent and tragic government crackdown of peaceful
street protests by Southern Cameroonians. Like Pharaoh in Egypt, Mr. Biya
sounded God has “hardened his heart". The time devoted to this issue very
early in the speech, betrayed how much the regime has been rattled by
ongoing strikes by lawyers and teachers as well as by the wave of street
protests across the world and campaigns involving the Diaspora calling, among
others, for the restoration of self-rule for Southern Cameroons.
It would have been
laughable were it not so tragic. The same Mr. Biya who, by presidential fiat
destroyed the “Union of the Cameroons” in February 1984 when he unilaterally
reverted to the name of “La Republique du Cameroun”, claimed that he
is walking in the footsteps of the founding fathers. Ahmadou Ahidjo,
Um Nyobe, Ernest Ouandie, John Ngu Foncha, E. M. L. Endeley and
Augustine Ngom Jua must be turning in their graves. The “best pupil”
of a certain French president would “eat the earth” (swear) that imposing the
worst form of colonial rule on Southern Cameroons creates a “ONE and
INDIVISIBLE” country than the two-state federation set up by the founders. Not
true!
What is true is the
following: only divided families and countries afflicted with divisions would
find the need to issue loud sounding declarations about being “ONE and
INDIVISIBLE”. Gabon is not proclaiming that it is “ONE and INDIVISIBLE”.
Mr. Biya found it important to do so twice in the same speech. Very
telling of the gravity of the profound divisions that he
knows must exist yet must pretend they don’t exist. A believer in the
“argument of force”, the abusive spouse (“La Republique du Cameroun”) in the
“union of the Cameroons” wants divorce denied simply because the couple
is “ONE and INDIVISIBLE”.
After disseminating a
December 15, 2016 “Diplomatic Note” in which it distorts facts and tells outright
lies about the events unfolding across Southern Cameroons, Mr. Biya claims in
the speech to be “deeply concerned” by these events. A power hungry regime
whose secret motto must be “in Machiavelli we trust” slams “The Coffin
Revolution” as “a group of manipulated and exploited extremist rioters”.
Amazing, right?
Like every abusive spouse,
Mr. Biya misidentifies and belittles the problems of the couple. He dismisses
the problems raised by the abused spouse as unimportant compared to other
ideals and values of the marriage: the sanctity of the matrimonial bed (such as
the flag and Constitution) or what Mr. Biya calls the very “foundations of our
togetherness”. The president argues that the couple is still “standing on its
feet”; that the abused spouse seeking divorce “can rightfully opine on any
aspect of national life, including through duly declared peaceful strike
action”.
Did anyone warn the regime
to be careful what it wishes for? Too late now! MoRISC has already evoked this
“inalienable” right… the “fundamental civil right… enshrined in the
Constitution” to declare (see our Roadmap at www.morisc.org/roadmap) that Southern Cameroonians, with effect from this first day
of January 2017, have “duly declared” an indefinite “peaceful strike” against
the colonial “La Republique du Cameroun” until self-rule is restored to the
former British Southern Cameroons.
Threat of divorce has a way
of reminding abusive spouses of the need to woo their partners as before,
charming them with care, love, gifts and flowers. Our first love (Ahidjo) wooed
Southern Cameroons on the constitutional promise not to violate the sanctity of
the federation of two equal states. In the hope of convincing the abused spouse
to stay on in the union, Mr. Biya offered a bribe. He wishes to “personally
supervise” (?) the building of a dam on the Menchum River, not far from the
site of another project (The Ring Road) whose construction he also pledged to
supervised only months into his now 35-year reign. The big problem with telling
lies is that the teller has to remember them.
The regime reminds the
abused spouse that the “marriage certificate” was based not just on democracy –
pure and simple – but “in the model of democracy which I (the abusive spouse)
have proposed”. Go figure what this “model of democracy” means! Is it about
upholding only those parts of the Constitution that serve the dictatorship? Why
has Mr. Biya’s regime not implement the current Constitution, 20 years since it
was adopted in 1996? “La Republique du Cameroun” has notably failed to hold a
dialogue envisaged in the hope of saving the union of the Cameroons under a
2009 ruling by a court accredited to the African Union. The regime is so
abusive it won’t even abide by the court orders to hold a dialogue with the
abused spouse within 180 days.
Mr. Biya lacks credibility
to point an accusing finger at Southern Cameroonians. Why is it okay for
the president to resurrect “La Republique” dead and buried on 1 October 1961
and not okay for the spouse to raise from the death Southern Cameroons?
Truth be told. President
Biya – not Southern Cameroonians - is the hostage of a few,
manipulated regime and party extremists. Their only
job over the past 35 years has consisted of shielding the
“absentee tenant of Etoudi Palace” from coming face-to-face with the ugly
reality of misery, poverty, hopelessness and despair that nearly
four decades of his misrule has visited on the peoples of the
Cameroons. The extremists include Prof. Fame Ndongo, who has never
stopped undermining the Anglo-Saxon system of education. Extremists like Paul
Atanga Nji who deny the existence of any problem. Extremists and “agents
provocateurs” like Premier Yang, who descended on Buea and Bamenda, looking for
a crowd to rent to “Dimabola” for the regime. The extremists include those who
violated students, “disappeared” and killed demonstrators. Extremists like
those who chased leaders of teachers’ and lawyers’ trade unions
in the closing days of 2016 in the hope of signing a deal lifting their
strikes. Unable to reach a deal, the regime’s extremists simply “cooked” one
up.
What else could it be
called but playing desperado? Plain. Simple.
Mr. Biya was defiant,
warning no doubt that his regime will not retreat into a hole. However, the
regime dropped a heavy hint that it could be waving the white flag.
At his discretion, Mr. Biya says he may convene discussions on the same
problems extremists within claim do not exist.
The dust in Southern
Cameroons won’t settle until a deal is reached. Southern Cameroonians are only
getting started. They won’t stop mobilizing until they win self-rule. The
regime can work for a bargain or it can play ostrich, hiding behind empty
slogans like “ONE and INDIVISIBLE”. History is full of the story of countries
that once claimed exactly the same bull yet could not prevent the birth of new
nations. The people of Southern Cameroons are a different people from those of
“La Republique du Cameroun”. They have a right to self-determination that
cannot be denied by Yaounde. The march to freedom and self-rule can’t be
stopped. Certainly, “La Republique du Cameroun” is “ONE and INDIVISIBLE”. But
so, too, Southern Cameroons is “ONE and INDIVISIBLE”.
ENDS
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