Whenever we insisted on the return to the Federation, as a suitable solution to the Anglophone problem, some people replied that the Secessionists did not demand federalism. What were they waiting for? That Anglophones take up arms for federalism? And why ? Federalism was a negotiation posture that cut the pear in half! But he was rejected by the Government and his supporters were put in prison!
Why did we want them to stop federalism? Arrogance arouses extremism: if your wife accuses you of your contempt, she is not going to limit herself indefinitely to fighting with every insult you make! She will eventually take note that you are incorrigible and will file for a divorce! And you are not going to say that they are two different women, one who refused insults and the other who asked for a divorce! She’s the same woman!
The English-speaking Secessionists do not come from the sky, nor from Biafra as some spread it everywhere: they are the English-speakers whom we have known for a long time! BOOH Hebert, AYUK and other Fieldmarshal LEKEAKEA are Cameroonians who have worked in Cameroon, as patriots, who believed in the Cameroonian Nation and loved it as much as we do, but who have changed.
Men change! Yes, God created men to change according to the circumstances! Men are not pieces of wood that swallow all the vicissitudes without changing! The English speakers who agreed to come with Cameroon rather than Nigeria are the same people who voted for the unitary state in 1972.
But having found that this unitary state was too stuffy, it was the same English speakers who accepted decentralization in 1991. And it is the same Anglophones who, exasperated by the procrastination and the delays taken by the Government, deduced that only the restoration of the Federation could resolve their unhappiness. But when, with absolutely irrational brutality, the Government repressed the Federalists by declaring that “the form of the state is not negotiable”, it was the same Anglophones who took up arms to engage in a fierce and bloody struggle for their release.
Here is the truth!
The English speakers hoped for an original Cameroonian Nation, drawing its evolution from its own historical, sociological and geographic references. Instead, the government wanted to transform them into a sub-colony of a French colony.
The government refused to build an original and authentic Nation to give body and soul to a France whose institutions she copies with manic fidelity. Was this kind of nation project that Anglophones could join? No intelligence in approaching problems!
How can we imagine that when Anglophones claim their confiscated autonomy, the only solution the Government finds is to go and consult France and recover its “special status” remedies which it applies to its separatist movements ( Corsica, New Caledonia, etc.)?
What was the message?
Is Cameroon France to apply the “special statutes”? This is exactly what should not be done! How, God! Have we been able to offer Anglophones the “special status” of France at the very moment when they accuse us of wanting to embark on a business to create a tropical France?
No, no and no ! Cameroon must have its path in its evolution and not copy anyone. Our country was born federal, it must remain federal. There is no debate to be had on this!
The abolition of the federal state was a mistake, and persistence in the unitary state is folly. It is an adventure that is not viable and that will lead us to the abyss. We must return to the 1961 Federation by updating it on the basis of our historical references and definitively end this poodle submission to the French model which will lead us nowhere.
The vast majority of Anglophones never wanted to leave Cameroon, since it was they themselves who freely chose it in 1961. But they did not make this choice to be phagocytosed in a sort of tropical France . They should not be given as an alternative only this phagocytosis or separation, because surely they will choose separation.
Dieudonne Essomba