In essence, the celebration of any anniversary is supposed to be a time of stock-taking and self-evaluation. Such an occasion offers an opportunity for stakeholders to examine the road already travelled, identify successes and failures, weigh the stakes and chart the way forward.
Thus, if the celebration of any anniversary does not culminate in sincere reexamination, counsels and reason-inspired decisions for a better performance, the whole thing becomes null and void. Giving importance only to the glittering externalities of anniversaries without caring a damn about the reflective side of the coin, is self-deception or hypocrisy. The hilarity that marked the 52nd anniversary of the Unitary State on Monday May 20, is yet to settle. But beneath that hilarity and fanfare, lies a divided country wherein the mosaic of 250 tribes are at each other’s neck.
By the way, the very essence of the controversial May 20, 1972 Referendum which was to ensure that former Southern Cameroons melt into the Unitary States is now a flop. The war in the two Anglophone regions that incarnate the former British Southern Cameroons, is a testament that the 1972 move remains counterproductive. For, the genesis of the Anglophone Crisis lies squarely in the fact that, the Federal character of the country was abolished in 1972, in violation of article 47 of the Federal Constitution.
That abolition stirred deep-seated fears about a planned assimilation of Southern Cameroonians, the adulteration of their culture and general way of life. Even when the country changed its name from Federal Republic of Cameroon to the United Republic of Cameroon, the word ‘‘United’’ still reminded everyone that Cameroon was made up of two entities.
The use of the word ‘‘United’’ inexorably means the oneness and wholeness of a thing resulting from parts that were once apart. The word ‘‘United’’ still reminded Anglophones that they were still being recognized as an equal entity of the union. That glimmer of assurance lingered on until February 1984 when that rallying word ‘‘United’’ was brutally eliminated from the name of the country. Thus, the name of the country became The Republic of Cameroon which is the name East Cameroon enquired after gaining its independence from France in 1960. This explains why many historians argue that, by changing the name of the country from the United Republic of Cameroon to Republic of Cameroon, is a bridge of covenant, which indicates that, East Cameroon has seceded from the union with Southern Cameroons.
These are the issues that ought to populate discussions and opinions, on the anniversary of the Unitary State. Besides the war in Anglophone Cameroon, the entire nation is wailing in the jaws of disunity and acrimony. This is a callous afront to what President Paul Biya has told Cameroonians several times in his policy speeches. When Mr. Biya mounted the saddle in 1982, he prescribed national integration as the logical pathway to achieving national unity. But the behavior and practices of many state officials, administrative officials, and socio-political actors, have continued to hurl a damper on the lofty ideas that President Biya dreamt of in 1982.
For, what reigns in Cameroon now is integration-dousing and unity-killing vices characterized by hate speech, tribal bigotry, discrimination, social injustice, nepotism, exclusion and marginalization.
This is a blatant subvention of national ideals because in 1983, President Biya said the construction of Cameroon will be predicated on national unity, peace, social justice and security. He further told Cameroonians to feel at home anywhere they find themselves in the country. Besides, he insisted that no Cameroonian should be considered more Cameroonian than the other. But what has obtained so far in this country, is the anti-thesis of these presidential prescriptions.
It is no longer any secret that Cameroonians have been driven, stigmatized, and poohpoohed in many areas of the country as strangers who are derogatorily referred to as ‘‘Come-no-goes’’. What is even more galling is that, the perpetrators of such xenophobic tendencies, are pampered by highly placed officials in the establishment. Thus, they go the whole hog of hate speech and xenophobia with appalling impunity.
It should still be fresh in the memories of Cameroonians, that a delegation of SDF officials was barred from entering the South region by teleguided CPDM youths, who claimed that, that region is the exclusive preserve of the ruling party. This adds corpus to the ugly incident in Sangmelima last year wherein, local youths vandalized shops belonging to people from the West region, telling them to leave their town.
Due to the nepotism and tribalism that reign in the establishment, people of certain tribes believe that they are more Cameroonian than others because they have many people from their tribal extraction in government. That is why, celebrating the anniversary of the Unitary State as if that were the be-all and the end-all, is a fallacy. What happened on Monday May 20, marked the divisibility of the country. While French Cameroon was beating the tambourines and popping champaign in all euphoria, Anglophone Cameroon was drowned in a boundless wave of violence, wickedness, death and horror.
Belo subdivision in Boyo division of the North West region, was the flagship of the medieval barbarism that characterizes this war of egos. The Belo mayor, Dr. Ngong Innocent Ankiambom, the sub divisional delegate of Basic Education Dr. Aaron Aghi and one other person were bloodied to thy kingdom come. Indeed, they paid the soldier’s debt.
It is an imperative of humanity for the powers that be to embrace peace, silence the guns and chart the way forward for a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Otherwise, the new deal regime will be consigned to the wrong side of history, as the cabal that inherited a peaceful country, moving shoulders high in the committee of nations, and left it lying flat on its stomach in a bloody civil war that would have been averted over a fireside chat. It will also carry the unenvious blight of a regime that has divided the country that was waxing louder in unity.
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