By Beng Humphrey Fang
The stage was set by the Secretary General of the
Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM, Barrister Christopher Ndong, in a memo
presented to the Prime Minister following President Biya’s decision for there
to be a national dialogue in relation to the raging war being fought in
Anglophone Cameroon.
While Ndong was hard, rather uncompromising about
his party’s stance on Present day national issues, other party leaders like
Garga Haman Adji, Serge Matomba and Libi Cabral were like ready to meet Biya’s
CPDM on middle turf.
However, what stood out sharper than the rest of the
preconditions for Biya’s announced dialogue to eventually see the light of day was
CRM’s demand that Kamto and other political detainees be first released,
unconditionally…(
“We met the prime minister with a memorandum in
which we declared our position and we said we cannot go to dialogue when
Maurice Kamto is still in prison. As we know he has to lead a delegation to the
dialogue table and we don’t know why he is locked up. He has been locked up for
no reason. They should release him before we can proceed to the dialogue.
“Also, we said the government should release all
other political prisoners. That is, grant general amnesty to the political
prisoners so that there can be meaningful dialogue.
That an international body or person of respectable
standard should be a mediator in the dialogue because we cannot say the PM is
mediator when he is part of the dialogue. So you cannot be a party and judge. In
that dialogue we said we shall be talking about; the Anglophone crisis,
bringing all the options on table, the political crisis after the presidential
elections and then seeing into other national major issues/problems.
“We raised the issue on the electoral code which
barely by nature is a bad code. Those
are the conditions we gave them without which we cannot take part in that
dialogue because it will not be a dialogue but it will be a monologue because there
are facial attempts to exclude the major actors. Then whom do they want to
dialogue with if the separatist leaders are in prison. They have not been
released. Who do they want to dialogue with? If Kamto is in prison with his
party leaders and militants, who do they want to dialogue with? So, that is the
memorandum we gave the PM and told him that dialogue will only be possible if
those conditions are met. We are not saying that anything out of that will still
fail. It can happen but we will not take part and it has far reaching
consequences. You cannot be convening a dialogue and informing us that military
people will be part of the dialogue. Where on earth have you ever seen a dialogue
with military people part of it? It is the political institution represented by
ministers that go and talk on behalf of the military. How can military people
come and be part of the dialogue?
“And
then if you look at the configuration, parliament is one sided. Senate is one
sided and most of the people spearheading the dialogue process are all CPDMs
for some. We have seen from all the compositions they have made from the
president’s speech that it is a monologue. If Kamto and his coalition cannot be
there, if the Ambazonians cannot be there, it should be noted that the conflict
that lead to the dialogue are two. The Major conflict; Anglophone Crisis and if
their leaders are not there or coming, how do we bring dialogue?
“Secondly,
the post electoral crisis. If Kamto and his coalition have been locked because
of that and a dialogue is organised in their absence, who are you dialoguing with?
And we know that as a body, when you cut off the head, the body cannot work. If
we are coming to dialogue without our head, how do you expect us to talk? So
that is it. It is just but reasonable that they should release them through a “nolle-prosequi”
and for the other Anglophone leaders, they should be granted general amnesty
and then bring an international body for the dialogue to hold.
The
CRM delegation was led by Madam Silvian Noa, second vice president, Barrister
Emmanuel Sim 3rd Vice National President, Barrister Ndong
Christopher Secreatary General, Okala Ebude assistant treasurer, Dr Sipot Sipot
communication secretary, Niboun Nissack Kamto’s spokesperson and other party
officials.
Cabral Libi of the PCRN party
“We
salute the initiative taken by the head of state organising this Grand National
dialogue. We have presented a document to the PM in preview of the Grand
National Dialogue. We have made proposals on the form of the state; Regionalism
and communal federalism. We also talked about electoral process, the
reconstruction of conflict zones for the displaced persons and refugees to
return. We are waiting if we will be united to the great debate. Equally we
talked about national integration. Finally, we called on the government to
release all people arrested and detained within the context of the Anglophone
crisis because the dialogue to hold is to reconstruct.”
Garga Haman Hadji of the ADD party
“What
we think should be the aim of the national dialogue is the resolution of a
serious problem, the Anglophone crisis. This problem is serious because there
is a part of our brothers and sisters that want to quit the country not
geographically but to separate us. It is unacceptable / inadmissible
sentimentally and constitutionally notably the president of the Republic who
has as duty, to put it better, has as obligation to maintain the country united
from colonial influences British or French.
“The
constitution of 1986 put in place decentralisation. When someone says he wants
federalism, it is a form of decentralisation. I maintain that the problem ass
already solved and we are waiting for results. I indicated that in my report to
the president who sent me earlier on to these two regions. So, the goal we have
to reach is to convince our people, brothers and sisters who are in the bush.
And we can do that because what they need is not to leave the country but to
solve a certain number of problems and this is not a difficult matter. We need
them to discuss with them and to give them our conditions to discuss what is
possible.”
Interview with Serge Espoir Matomba PURS PARTY
“We
have brought some proposals concerning the crisis. First of all, we have
started from what we have been since 2016. We have enumerated some of the
solutions that will bring our country never to face this type of problem
anymore. One of them is to see how we have been caught before, because what we
believe is that we regained a colonial system and regions have just been
divided without taking into account family institutions and anthropological or
social decisions and considerations. So they have just divided the country.
“We
believe that if we can start a good division of our country, many things will go
well. The second proposal was the harmonisation of the educational system.
Today we have two sub systems and I think we need to have one. Also we proposed
the harmonisation of the judicial system.
“Out of that, we have language problem.
Today we are fighting over English Language or French Language. We believe in
our party that when French speaking Cameroonians go to the French embassy that
they are French, they will not be allowed to enter or go to France. They will
not take you as French. You are Cameroonian. Same if English speaking
Cameroonians go to the British/English embassy and say we want to reach London
or England, they will not say you are from England. They will say you are a
Cameroonian. So we have to question ourselves, who are we? What is our
identity? So we have to resolve that in a language because what we need is Cultural
Revolution.
“We
need a language which we will speak anywhere in the public and private sector
or in our everyday life. Also, we proposed as a solution, the right to land.
You cannot say children who have been born in Yaounde and just because the
father is from Bamenda means that they (children) are from Bamenda. He has been
born in Yaounde, he has lived and grown in Yaounde and he is from Yaounde.
These are some of the reforms we have to see into and implement so that our
Country will not face this type of problem for the next 50 years.”