I am talking of the Anglophone Problem because it is still possible to salvage the future given that this problem can still be solved. And my responsibilities oblige me still to hammer and to always hammer, hoping that I will be understood.
1) Nigeria which later had a war of secession. General Ironsi was an Ibo man, and when he took power, he supressed Federation with the reason that it will prevent the Ibo businessmen from carrying out their activities. This measure led to violent reactions from other communities and he was killed and Ibos he had appointed and pretended to protect were massacred. Faced with this situation, the Ibo revolted and tried to create a state of theirs but failed. Nigeria then went back to a Federation.
2) Sudan was born in a Federation with the Northern part made up of Arabs and the Southern part made up of blacks. But the authorities in Khartoum quickly suppressed the federation. This resulted in a violent war, leading to South Sudan’s secession.
3) Eritrea was separated from the Ethiopian empire by the colonial Italians but by independence, they were attached to Ethiopia in a federation. The authorities of the empire suppressed the federation. This created a serious war which ended with Eritrea seceding.
4) Somalia was born in a federation with Somaliland. Somalia was colonised by the English and Somaliland colonised by Italy. The military authorities suppressed the federation which resulted to a generalised war which ended with the independent, peaceful and democratic Somaliland, leaving next door to Somalia without problems.
5) Tanzania was born with two entities, Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar. They had the lucidity of never changing their system of governance and they have never had problems.
6) Cameroon was also born in a federation and the federation was supressed. The fact that the Anglophones had not reacted rather cultivated some illusion that the federation had failed. It should be extreme naivety for anyone to imagine that Cameroon will succeed where other African countries have failed.
The lesson we should learn from the above is that you do not supress a federation. It was an error and the more we resist, the more the situation goes worse. This type of stubbornness in a unitary state will inevitably lead to the secession of the Anglophones. It is unstoppable. It is not humanly possible. The only thing to do is to introduce federation throughout the whole country. Time is already against us.
In fact, Cameroon situation is going to be like that of Somalia: the Anglophone will separate and the day they will go, the Francophone will explode. If I insist, it is because there is no other thing to do. The day I stop talking, which is not long from now, know that Cameroon has lost everything!
By Dieudonne’ Essomba