This reflection is inspired by the fact that by law President Paul Biya is expected to convene the electorate to the polls no later than November 15, for municipal and Parliamentary Elections to take place in February 2020, and the real sticky point is that this ought not to be done without the President first declaring a ceasefire and releasing detained activists in order to create an enabling environment for Elections ons to take place
It is the more informed by the fact that unlike the last Presidential election where government and the elections management body could go ahead and fabricate election results for the North West and South West even without anybody campaigning and by extension, nobody voting in the real sense of the word, the situation this time around, is diametrically different as it concerns local elections that Speak to every local community in the conflict zones
It is also inspired by the fact that if government were to make the error of adamantly going ahead to organize local elections in Cameroon under the prevailing conditions and no campaigns and by extension, voting taking place in the two English speaking regions, it would go without saying that it has successfully divided the country into two, a scenario the SDF have sufficiently warned government against.
Although constitutionally, President Paul Biya could still introduce a bill this upcoming November session extending the mandate of Parliamentarians and councilors for another six months, the six months would still pass as if they were six days with the situation on the ground only worsening. If there is anytime regime strategists and thinkers have had a hot potatoe in their hands, this is the time. Added to their worries is the difficulty of implementing the resolutions of the Major National Dialogue which they themselves sat in Yaounde a month ago and took.
If they thought they could hurt or please anybody or group of persons with the Special Status, they are beginning to discover that Anglophones are too smart for their political gymics as ideas as to the content of the special Status have not come in sort supply.
The varied interpretations and the possible content of the special Status is now giving government further sleepless nights and making them regret why they did not rather just settle for a federation. They are the more worried about the fact that restorationists are giving a damn to the resolutions of the Major national dialogue as evidenced by their activities on the ground
The real dilemma though is that time is not on the side of the regime in Yaounde. The powers offered them by the Constitution to postpone Elections and extend mandates of municipal administrators is fast running out.
Organizing Elections in the other eight regions and leaving out the two English speaking regions is an unimaginable scenario. Trying to organize it under the prevailing circumstances is the more suicidal. Keeping detained Anglophone leaders and activists in jail is one error that must be corrected and on time. As Frederick du Klerk said when questioned whether he did not think it was an error releasing Nelson Mandela, keeping the detained leaders in prison would be a bigger error that neither benefits the regime nor the one and indivisibility of Cameroon.
Continuing to function as if sovereignty or the oneness and the indivisibility of a country was a God given right is a bigger error. For the record, something can only be one because it has not been divided, not that it could never be divided.
And if you still doubt that it’s the Unruliness of the regime that has put itself to a tight corner, you need to think again. On my recent trip to Yaounde a regime apologist explained out his frustrations with the system by comparing it to a house that is developing new cracks everyday. To him, no sooner do they spend time and energy plastering off one Crack than a fresh one emerges.
To him, it was more of shame and ego that kept some of them still loitering around such a house that could collapse anytime soon than a strong believe in the workability of the system. You could take the plastering of cracks on the walls of the house to mean the indefatigable firefighting trips currently being carried out across the country by Territorial Administration boss.
Another dilemma that continues to stir at government in the face is the Maurice Kamto factor. No sooner was he released from detention than he started restrategizing to recapture power. Already posing as a threat to the Cpdm in the West and parts of the Centre and Littoral, government does not want to imagine the next legislature with a majority MRC vote holders. What with the SDF or other opposition parties controlling the two English speaking regions?
Be that as it may, the real dilemma for government now is how to contend the independentist flames blowing across the two English speaking regions. With the error of announcing a special Status and with the implications involved in relation to self determination, government now has to thread a very thin line. Going by the resolutions of the just ended major national dialogue, Anglophones in Cameroon have become a recognized national minority with full rights to self determination, be they internal autonomy as obtains with Catalonia in Spain, Quebec in Canada, or Scotland in the United Kingdom.
Even here, it behoves on government to deliver on this primary and remedial right to internal self determination, no longer the Anglophones whom history has demonstrated in triumphant detail that they achieved independence in 1961 by joining LA Republic du Cameroun.
The Muteff Boy’s Take