He is given two minutes to speak at the round table. “Two minutes?” Biya exclaims. The moderator, Moh Ibrahim responds..”Yes Two Minutes. I know you are president but here, we’re all equal”. Chai. What an abomination!!
Our president struggles with technology. His ear piece is falling off. It’s the first time we have seen Popol holding the microphone. Small wonder he seems to forget to speak into the mic as he jestaculates with his hands, the way he usually does while speaking to an audience.
You sure saw Mr President reading a prepared speech. (Oh no. How could you do that bro?) Well, Moh Ibrahim cut him short. Unbelievable! But yes, Mr president is cut short. Hmmm…Try it here! Heads will roll.
Oh yes, the Lion man is teased on the way he is handling the sticky Anglophone crisis. He is even appreciated for finally arriving the dialogue table with Anglophones. He is also reminded that “dialogue is better than bullets.” Chai!
Ermm…Perhaps too busy with his ear piece, Mr president does not seem to understand a question put to him. A lady panelist, the secretary general of La Francophonie, is asked to translate the question into French. She does a bad job, asking a softer version of the question.
Well, Mr President delivers a short lecture about what he describes as a complicated history of Cameroon that was chopped up and administered respectively by French and British colonialists.
And the president also says the 80% francophone majority had the possibility of absorbing the Anglophones through integration. (Rightly said Mr President. You can only integrate one thing into another. That is what English speakers have been resisting for so long).
In fact these are your very own words..
“On avait la possibilité des les intégrer directement dans le système francophone qui étaient celui du majorité du peuple à 80% mais….”
*Paul Biya. Paris, France. 12 Nov. 2019.
That policy however failed. Of course you inadvertently admit that because of rising nationalism, the people are asserting their identity and you have no choice but to create a special status for them. Anglohones understand you well. Assimiliation has always been there. But the theory of two cubes of sugar melting away in a basin of water and dilluting it sweety taste has failed. The glaring difference between the two education and court systems has been stubborn. Instead you declared it taboo.
The special status you are carving out and the thousands of lives lost in the three-year-long crisis could have been avoided, had you given the federation the people asked for initially.
You stated at least twice in your panel discussion that the Anglophone regions must however remain within a United (and indivisible) Cameroun.
QUESTION: IS Federation Separation?
ANSWER: No. Absolutely not.
Hello people. Know what? Our president speaks English. Yes. We heard you so well Mr President. You did not struggle with your English. We have always known your abilities in the English language. We are just wondering why you never address your people back home in English.
Anyway, charity begins abroad. Cameronians and English speakers particularly have been itchy to hear you speak to them after your Grand National Dialogue. Yet you played the dumb. From Paris, you have spoken about your plans for Anglophones. We now believe that you will truly give us some form of special status. You better be genuine sir. Else you will only be postponing a problem that will come back tomorrow to haunt you and your much cherished one-and-indivisible-Cameroun.
LAST LINE.
Our fore father’s rejected a special status in Nigeria and walked away. Lest you forget.
Now let us see how the very well respected supreme court judge (Rtd) Chief Justice Ayah Paul Abine make of your latest Paris outing. He titles the writeup:
“BIYA CONTRADICTS HIMSELF YET AGAIN
“Two months ago, on September 10, 2019, 0r thereabouts, President Biya denied there had been any marginalization of Anglophones: “prétendue (unsubstantiated/unproven) marginalisation”.
“Today in Paris, however, Mr. President was thorough in his reply to a question that the government policy has been to assimilate (“intégrer”) Anglophones into the Francophones who are in the majority – but the policy has failed!
“MAKWOSHIMAVOH!
GOD NO DI SLEEP!!!
“It is quite apparent that Paris is the fertile ground of contradiction that often casts a spell on the President. In November, 2007, or so, Mr. President denied he had any intention to amend the constitution to seek a third term of office as his preoccupation then was the fight against AIDS and underdevelopment. Within a month, however, he turned about on the grotesque pretext of APEL DU PEUPLE!
“Whatever the case, one thing is of the essence and relevance in the utterances of today. It is now abundantly evident that those Anglophone sycophants who, to curry favours, have consistently denied there was any Anglophone Problem should immediately REPENT PUBLICLY!
“THE ANGLOPHONE CASE/CAUSE IS CLEAR!
“GLORY TO GOD!”