A patriotic Ambazonian writes to, The Independentist’s editorial team challenging the social media premise that Ambazonian independence can easily come from engaging and capturing Cameroons political system.

Letter to the Editor

Subject: The Hard Truth Ambazonians Must Not Ignore

Sir,

A recent message circulating on social media argues that the path to Ambazonian freedom lies in contesting municipal elections, creating political parties under the Cameroonian system, and gradually winning councils and parliamentary seats until the people can supposedly “walk away” in unity. At first glance, this suggestion appears appealing. It sounds peaceful. It sounds strategic. It sounds orderly. But a deeper examination shows that it rests on false assumptions and carries dangerous consequences for our national struggle.

First, no people have ever liberated themselves by reinforcing the political institutions of their oppressor. Cameroon’s constitution erases Southern Cameroons as a distinct nation. It reduces our people to administrative provinces and subsumes our political identity into a unitary structure designed to prevent any form of self determination. To participate in that structure is not to reclaim power. It is to validate the very system that removed our sovereignty in the first place.

Second, municipal councils in Cameroon do not exercise meaningful autonomy. Even if Ambazonians were to win every council seat from Mamfe to Kumbo, the councils would remain subject to governors, senior divisional officers, divisional officers, treasury controllers, colonial judiciary officers, and military administrators appointed from Yaoundé. A powerless council is not a pathway to self government. It is a token at the mercy of a centralised state that holds every real lever of authority.

Third, our forefathers did not obtain their sovereignty by contesting elections in Enugu or by climbing the colonial political ladder. They walked out of the Enugu Parliament as an act of sovereign refusal and built the institutions of a self governing nation. To invoke their names while proposing the opposite of their example is a misreading of our own history.

Fourth, it is true that Ambazonia seeks peace. But peace cannot be achieved through surrender disguised as strategy. The violence in our land began with the Cameroonian state’s brutal crackdown on peaceful teachers, lawyers, students, and civilians. To claim that Ambazonia must now seek liberation by participating in the very machinery that oppresses it is not a call for peace. It is a call for absorption.

Fifth, elections held under military occupation have no credibility. The organisers, the counters, the administrators, and the final arbiters all answer to the Unity Palace. Ambazonian participation would not yield empowerment. It would yield propaganda used to claim that “normalcy has returned” and that Ambazonia has accepted annexation.

Ambazonians deserve a real strategy grounded in legal truth, historical accuracy, and political reality. That strategy involves strengthening our institutions in exile, building effective governance in liberated areas, advancing our legal and diplomatic argument internationally, and consolidating our defence under a unified political doctrine. It does not involve registering parties under Cameroon’s ministry, submitting to Cameroon’s electoral laws, or seeking permission from an occupying administration to reclaim what is ours by right.

If Ambazonia is truly the dream, then freedom must be pursued through sovereignty, not subordination. We do not reclaim a stolen house by renting a room in it. We reclaim it by proving ownership, securing its foundations, and refusing to accept the thief’s terms.

Respectfully submitted,
[Name Withheld Upon Request]