Wednesday, December 26, 2018

DOWN LITERARY CORNER BY BARRISTER IVOH ALOH NJUH OF THE NUNJAM LAW CHAMBERS IN BUEA

DOWN LITERARY CORNER

SPECIAL WEEKEND FOCUS ON :-

AMBAZONIA, ALSO KNOWN AS AMBA LAND.

WHAT MANY ARE STILL TRYING TO KNOW.

PERMIT MR DEAR READERS TO START WITH THIS AFRICAN PROVERB.... That when you get up early in the morning and your cock starts chasing after you, run for your dear life, for that cock might have developed tooth over night.

The same goes for our focus for this weekend.

BACK TO KNOWING AMBAZONIA.

This is today, a self-declared state consisting of what is now seen as the Anglophone portions of Cameroon which previously comprised British Southern Cameroons.

The Southern Cameroons was formerly the United Nations Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom administration (1922–1961), which in 1961 voted to become independent from the United Kingdom by federating with the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon.

Also called by those teamed by the Government of Cameroun as Extremists, Separatists, Secessionists and or Terrorists as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia

To them :- It is known to have a Flag,
- A Territory claimed by the Federal Republic of Ambazonia,
- Status - a putative unrecognized state.
- Recognized by the UN as part of Cameroun,
- Capital :- purported to be Buea,
- Government :- Transitional,
- President :- Siseku Ayuk Tabe, who is presently under custody, but Samuel Sako Ikome as interim,
- Her Independence from LR du Cameroun,
- Established :- on the 1st of October 2017,
- Currency :- known as the Amba, and a Passport,
- Time zone (UTC+3)
- Drives on the right hand, just like in the East Cameroun.

THE RISE OF THE SELF-PROCLAIMED STATE

In 2017, the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front (SCACUF) unilaterally declared Ambazonia to be independent, while the Cameroonian government stated that the declaration has no legal weight.

The ensuing protests and violence are referred to as the Anglophone Crisis, where many believed stated from the Lawyers and Teacher's strike of 2016, while claimed has been a time bomb since after 1971.

ETYMOLOGY   

The term Ambazonia is derived from the word Ambozes, the local name for the bay area at the mouth of the Wouri (now Douala) river.

HER HISTORY

In February 1984, President of Cameroon Paul Biya changed the official name of the country from the United Republic of Cameroon to the Republic of Cameroon.

The name that Francophone Cameroun held before its unification with Anglophone Cameroon, formerly Southern Cameroon.

Biya stated that he had taken the step to affirm Cameroon's political maturity and to demonstrate that the people had overcome their language and cultural barriers.

The action some argued was extremely popular among the Anglophone majority at a  time when Biya had a fiction with Ahidjo.

But a minority of two Restoration or secessionists groups emerged. The first group believed that Biya was assuming that the Anglophiles no longer had a unique identity and was attempting to further assimilate them into the Francophone majority.

The second group argued that by returning Cameroon to its old name, Biya had restored the Francophone state and seceded from the United Republic, thereby forfeiting his government's constitutional right to rule the Anglophone portion of the country.

THE GENESIS

In a memorandum dated 20 March 1985, an Anglophone Fon/ Lawyer and President of the Cameroon Bar Association Fon Gorji Dinka wrote that the Biya government was unconstitutional and announced the former Southern Cameroons should become independent as the Republic of Ambazonia.

Gorji-Dinka was incarcerated the following January without trial and in the process became a martyr for separatist cause.

In 2005, the Southern Cameroons/Republic of Ambazonia became a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO).

On 31 August 2006 the independence of the Republic of Ambazonia to include the disputed territory of Bakassi was formally proclaimed by the Southern Cameroons Peoples Organisation (SCAPO).

The name Ambazonia was used in 1984 by Fon Gorji-Dinka(leader of the Ambazonia advocacy group), when the parliament and government of the Republic of Cameroun changed the name of the country from the United Republic of Cameroon back to the pre-reunification name of the French Cameroun, the Republic of Cameroun.

In the view of some, including Gorji-Dinka, Bernard Fonlon, and Carlson Anyangwe, particularly in the former British Cameroon, this meant a dissolution of the 1961 personal union.

It was in this light that beginning in 1984, Ambazonia, was declared to represent an intervention of the people of Southern Cameroons to return the statehood of the former British Southern Cameroons territory.

Ambazonia saw this not as the fait accompli of a one Cameroon state but as an opportunity to engage both states into a constitutional review of their post-1984 relations.

Ambazonia believed that by operation of the law, there should be an equal participation by the two states that made up the now extinct federation, in a new vision for their countries' (Republic of Cameroun and the Southern Cameroons) relations with each other.

In the document, dubbed the new Social Order, the Ambazonia's proposal of CACIN (the Cameroon-Ambazonia Confederacy of Independent Nations) was summarily rejected by the Republic of Cameroon.

Instead, the leader of ARC Ambazonia Restoration Council, Fon Gorji-Dinka, was arrested and tried for treason for claiming the continuing existence of the sovereignty of the Southern Cameroons in the Republic of Ambazonia.

In 1992, Fon Gorji-Dinka, on behalf of the state of Republic of Ambazonia, filed a lawsuit against the Republic of Cameroun and President Paul Biya on the main charge of the Republic of Cameroun's illegal and forcible occupation since the 1984 dissolution of the United Republic of Cameroon and the declaration of the Republic of Ambazonia.

This suit was registered with the Bamenda High Court in the Northwest region of Cameroon as case number HCB/28/92.

Note, Conflicting reports exist relating to the outcome of this case.

In a 2005 judgment of the United Nations Human Rights ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) Tribunal Communication 1134/2002, the United Nations Human Rights Tribunal ruled in favor of compensation for Fon Gorji-Dinka for human rights abuses to his person and for assurances of the enjoyment of his civil and political rights.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND FORMATION OF AN INTERIM GOVERNMENT

The declaration of independence followed a series of events that started with a lawyers' strike in October 2016, Championed by was known as the BIG SUPER 4.

That is, the Presidents of North West Lawyer's Association under the leadership of Barrister Bobga Harmony, The Fako Lawyer's Association, under the Leadership of Barrister Agbor Balla, The MÊME Lawyer's Association, under Barrister Awuta Philip and The Manyu Lawyer's Association with Barrister Ntuibane as V.P, assuming the Leadership role in place of their Lady President who was indisposed.

The lawyers had some times on the 9th of May 2015, sent an ultimatum to the government of Cameroun calling for a redeployment of French speaking judges from English-speaking courts and called its territory made up of the two English speaking regions of current Republic of Cameroon;

That was equally the cry of the Teachers which equally dates far back, where the English sub system of Education was fast being replaced by the French sub system and French teachers and students in the majority of the English-speaking schools of the English Regions.

THEN CAME THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF AMBAZONIA.

It has since then formed its Interim Government and the Interim President, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius, has appointed his first cabinet in exile.

As noted above, initially, the claims were initiated by the lawyers, then the Teachers.

The lawyers had sent an ultimatum to the government of Cameroon calling for a redeployment of French speaking judges from English-speaking courts.

The Cameroon government responded by cracking down on lawyers' demonstrations, as well as separatist protestors and insurgents.

As events on folded, at least 100 or more people were killed in protests following the declaration of independence, as we read on papers, while about fourteen Cameroonian troops were killed in attacks claimed by the Ambazonia Defense Forces...as it still continuing.

SEIZURE OF THE AMBAZONIAN LEADERSHIP IN NIGERIA

On 5 January 2018, members of the Ambazonia Interim Government were detained in Nigeria by unknown parties.

Voice of America (V.O.A) reported that Julius Ayuk Tabe and six others were taken into custody at a hotel in Abuja.

An announcement was made 4 February 2018 that Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako would become the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, succeeding Tabe, replacing Barrister Bobga Harmony who temporarily Chaired the Council.

DECLARATION OF WAR

on November 30TH, 2017, the President of Cameroon declared war on the Anglophone secessionists to press men at the Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport as he returned from Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire where he attended the 5th Africa Union-European Union Summit.

THIS marked the start of a very violent confrontation between Government forces and armed separatist.

THE conflict started in Manyu Division where the Ambazona Defense Force Operated.

From there, the conflict has spread to other Divisions like Lebialem, Fako, Bui, Mezam, Momo, Menchum, Ngoketunjia...etc etc.

Several different armed factions have emerged such as the Red Dragons, Tigers, ARA, ABL amongst others.

Several Villages and towns have been burned down such as Kwa-kwa, Kembong, Tadu in NSO, Muyenge just to name a few. But almost 104 on counting.

The conflict has escalated at an alarming ratein June and July of 2018 and may lead to full blown civil war, if not carefully handled.

THE EYES OF THIS COLUMNIST IS STILL ON THE GROUND

FOR FURTHER READIND, PLEASE PROF. ANYANGWE  (August 2008) with the Book  Imperialistic politics in Cameroun: resistance & the inception of the restoration of the statehood of southern Cameroons.

THE END.

STAY TUNED FOR TOMORROW'S EDITION, AND IN ANTICIPATION :-

- I shall try to figure out the success or failure of the Republic of Ambazonia,  whichever way it goes.

THIS HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY :-

BARRISTER IVOH ALOH NJUH OF THE NUNJAM LAW CHAMBERS IN BUEA.

TEL :- 677 743 201 OR 696 207 609.

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