In the run-up to May 20, Etoudi launched a propaganda campaign to confuse the debate on the construction of this ideal. Since the beginning of May, the Facebook and Tweeter accounts of Paul Biya are particularly active.
Every day now, messages in French and English, the two official languages of the country, are there. Main topic being the National unity.
In analyzing these messages, the President of the Republic seems preoccupied with three things: to position national unity as an asset, “a condition and a factor of peace and progress” and to invite “all Cameroonians to reaffirm in the their attachment to this great work. ” The theme chosen for this year’s celebration is in the same vein.
It is indeed a call to “Cameroonian citizens” to remain “united in diversity” and to preserve “social peace, for a stable, indivisible and prosperous Cameroon“. Parallel to this campaign conducted via the official accounts of the President of the Republic and the Presidency of the Republic on social media, another is in motion in the public media.
Things have been well organized, the messages are synchronized and the elements of language are the same. Also by launching the series on the CRTV, the governmental radio, its general manager speaks of Cameroon as “a model of patient construction of a nation on improbable bases“.
For Charles Ndongo, because of the rise of separatist desires in the English-speaking regions, May 20, 2018 should be for the whole nation, “as a first test of respect and attachment to the sealed unity contract for 46 years“.
The mistake is right here. Because, as has often been indicated by many experts from various backgrounds, the unity of Cameroon rests on fragile foundations. The construction of the unitary state being celebrated this week is and has always been contested. The current Anglophone crisis in the country is a metastasis of this challenge, which is called the Anglophone problem.
It was born of the reunification of eastern Cameroon, Francophone, with western Cameroon, Anglophone and minority (2 out of 10 regions), previously separated by colonization. Not without reasons, some of the citizens from the North West and South West regions have always seen a process of “assimilation” with the help of France.
Cardinal Christian Tumi, a native of the North-West, tells in his book “Ma foi: un Cameroun à remettre à neuf“, published by Veritas in 2011, a very striking anecdote: “(…) We were invited, others bishops of Central Africa and I, to the French Embassy to the Holy See. (…) An official of the embassy approached me (…) without the slightest suspicion on his part that I could be an English-speaking Cameroonian, he said to me: we (France of course) are happy that you are succeeding the cultural assimilation of Anglophones “.
The way in which the country moved from the Federal Republic after the Foumban Conference of October 1961 to the Republic of Cameroon in February 1984, helps to reinforce this feeling. “The referendum of May 20, 1972 on unification was itself denounced as an act imposed by its sole initiator, Ahmadou Ahidjo.
The removal by Mr. Biya (?) In February 1984 of the adjective “United” and the return to the expression “Republic of Cameroon” (name of French-speaking Cameroon before reunification) were perceived by the English speakers as “the final act of the process of historical assimilation of their particular identity “, argues the historian Yves Mintoogue in a free forum published in 2004.
“The Head of State continues to record opinions that seem to see as outcome of this serious crisis, what they call a frank and sincere dialogue. Come on then. If we accept this principle, what would be the operational modalities? What faces would the representatives of the state have in front of them? And then, what problems would this eventual dialogue claim to resolve other than those clearly identified and that the head of state has since methodically and systematically solved? “Questions Charles Ndongo.
Number of experts (Jean Koufan, Vivianne Ondoua Biwole, Christian Pout …), high state clerk (David Abouem in Tchoyi, Garga Haman Adji, Abakar Ahmat …) and churchmen (Bishop Samuel Kleda, Cardinal Tumi …) have however repeatedly expressed themselves on the question. And a consistency emerges: the dialogue in question here, will allow to revisit the march of Cameroon to the unitary state in order to build understanding on the points of divergence.
The truth is that, this dialogue, Paul Biya does not want it. He himself clearly said during his speech to the Nation on December 31, 2016: “The Cameroonian people, as one man, is committed to building a united, inclusive and bilingual nation. This is a unique experience in Africa. Like any human enterprise, our experience is not perfect. It has perfectible aspects. We must therefore listen to each other.
We must remain open to the ideas of improvement, excluding, however, those that would affect the form of our state. “We are willing, following and in the spirit of the artisans of the Reunification, to create a national structure whose mission will be to offer us solutions to maintain peace, consolidate the unity of our country and strengthen our will and our daily practice of living together. And this, in strict respect of our Constitution and our institutions, “he added.
For Paul Biya, Cameroon can not be anything other than a united and decentralized state hence the current blockage. However, when it was necessary to abolish the limitation of the presidential mandates, it is the same Paul Biya who affirmed that “the constitutions are not made, the people itself determines what is good for them”. This attitude, Fabien Nkot calls it the “political perversion of law.” The current technical adviser to the Prime Ministry theorizes the concept in his thesis entitled ” Perversion politique du droit et construction de l’Etat unitaire au Cameroun (Political perversion of law and construction of the unitary state in Cameroon)” and defended in February 2001 at the University of Laval in Quebec.
Research shows that in the context of the establishment of the unitary state, “the repositories of power imagine and elaborate a set of techniques of legal cheating that they mobilize progressively and systematically to achieve the political objectives they have set themselves beforehand ”
In analyzing these messages, the President of the Republic seems preoccupied with three things: to position national unity as an asset, “a condition and a factor of peace and progress” and to invite “all Cameroonians to reaffirm in the their attachment to this great work. ” The theme chosen for this year’s celebration is in the same vein.
It is indeed a call to “Cameroonian citizens” to remain “united in diversity” and to preserve “social peace, for a stable, indivisible and prosperous Cameroon“. Parallel to this campaign conducted via the official accounts of the President of the Republic and the Presidency of the Republic on social media, another is in motion in the public media.
Things have been well organized, the messages are synchronized and the elements of language are the same. Also by launching the series on the CRTV, the governmental radio, its general manager speaks of Cameroon as “a model of patient construction of a nation on improbable bases“.
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| Anglophone Crisis: The Truth Is That Paul Biya Does Not Want and Is not Interested In Dialogue! |
The mistake is right here. Because, as has often been indicated by many experts from various backgrounds, the unity of Cameroon rests on fragile foundations. The construction of the unitary state being celebrated this week is and has always been contested. The current Anglophone crisis in the country is a metastasis of this challenge, which is called the Anglophone problem.
It was born of the reunification of eastern Cameroon, Francophone, with western Cameroon, Anglophone and minority (2 out of 10 regions), previously separated by colonization. Not without reasons, some of the citizens from the North West and South West regions have always seen a process of “assimilation” with the help of France.
Cardinal Christian Tumi, a native of the North-West, tells in his book “Ma foi: un Cameroun à remettre à neuf“, published by Veritas in 2011, a very striking anecdote: “(…) We were invited, others bishops of Central Africa and I, to the French Embassy to the Holy See. (…) An official of the embassy approached me (…) without the slightest suspicion on his part that I could be an English-speaking Cameroonian, he said to me: we (France of course) are happy that you are succeeding the cultural assimilation of Anglophones “.
The way in which the country moved from the Federal Republic after the Foumban Conference of October 1961 to the Republic of Cameroon in February 1984, helps to reinforce this feeling. “The referendum of May 20, 1972 on unification was itself denounced as an act imposed by its sole initiator, Ahmadou Ahidjo.
The removal by Mr. Biya (?) In February 1984 of the adjective “United” and the return to the expression “Republic of Cameroon” (name of French-speaking Cameroon before reunification) were perceived by the English speakers as “the final act of the process of historical assimilation of their particular identity “, argues the historian Yves Mintoogue in a free forum published in 2004.
“The Head of State continues to record opinions that seem to see as outcome of this serious crisis, what they call a frank and sincere dialogue. Come on then. If we accept this principle, what would be the operational modalities? What faces would the representatives of the state have in front of them? And then, what problems would this eventual dialogue claim to resolve other than those clearly identified and that the head of state has since methodically and systematically solved? “Questions Charles Ndongo.
Number of experts (Jean Koufan, Vivianne Ondoua Biwole, Christian Pout …), high state clerk (David Abouem in Tchoyi, Garga Haman Adji, Abakar Ahmat …) and churchmen (Bishop Samuel Kleda, Cardinal Tumi …) have however repeatedly expressed themselves on the question. And a consistency emerges: the dialogue in question here, will allow to revisit the march of Cameroon to the unitary state in order to build understanding on the points of divergence.
The truth is that, this dialogue, Paul Biya does not want it. He himself clearly said during his speech to the Nation on December 31, 2016: “The Cameroonian people, as one man, is committed to building a united, inclusive and bilingual nation. This is a unique experience in Africa. Like any human enterprise, our experience is not perfect. It has perfectible aspects. We must therefore listen to each other.
We must remain open to the ideas of improvement, excluding, however, those that would affect the form of our state. “We are willing, following and in the spirit of the artisans of the Reunification, to create a national structure whose mission will be to offer us solutions to maintain peace, consolidate the unity of our country and strengthen our will and our daily practice of living together. And this, in strict respect of our Constitution and our institutions, “he added.
For Paul Biya, Cameroon can not be anything other than a united and decentralized state hence the current blockage. However, when it was necessary to abolish the limitation of the presidential mandates, it is the same Paul Biya who affirmed that “the constitutions are not made, the people itself determines what is good for them”. This attitude, Fabien Nkot calls it the “political perversion of law.” The current technical adviser to the Prime Ministry theorizes the concept in his thesis entitled ” Perversion politique du droit et construction de l’Etat unitaire au Cameroun (Political perversion of law and construction of the unitary state in Cameroon)” and defended in February 2001 at the University of Laval in Quebec.
Research shows that in the context of the establishment of the unitary state, “the repositories of power imagine and elaborate a set of techniques of legal cheating that they mobilize progressively and systematically to achieve the political objectives they have set themselves beforehand ”
