Do not take my word for it. Test it. Release the prisoners. Guarantee safe return. Give us one day. One day in Bamenda at Commercial Avenue. One day in Buea at Molyko. Let CRTV carry it live. Let the army stay in the barracks. Let no one be searched or arrested for coming. Let the people come freely.
By Abdulkarim Ali, Contributor The Independentist News
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“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36.If the formula is incorrect, the answer will be wrong.
The people of Southern Cameroons voted on February 11, 1961 to achieve independence by joining La Republique du Cameroun as two equal peoples in a negotiated union. That union was never legally consummated – no treaty was ever signed, ratified, or deposited at the United Nations as required by Article 102 of the UN Charter. What followed was not a union but annexation: abolition of our parliament in 1972, Law 84-001 in 1984, and systematic erasure of our statehood.
65 Years and Not 10 – Ten Years Of What Exactly?
Since 10 seems to be your favorite number, let us list 10:
1. Annexation – If it was a union, where is the treaty? There is none. A union without a treaty is annexation.
2. Pauperization – CDC, PAMOL, our coasts and forests were turned from wealth of a people to revenue of an administration. A free people made poor in their own rich land.
3. Balkanization – A federation of equals was into divisions, divisions into regions, regions into subjects. Divide the land to divide the people.
4. Exiled and Displaced – Nearly one million internally displaced, over 100,000 refugees in Nigeria, diaspora scattered from Norway to South Africa. A people uprooted.
5. Dehumanization and Victimization – Kill them and when they defend themselves, they are termed terrorists and renditioned to life imprisonment. The victim refuses to be victim, hence termed terrorist. To call a people who had a Prime Minister in Buea in 1954 secessionists in their own home is to deny their history and their humanity.
6. Objectification – Our people treated as objects to be counted, photographed clapping, and managed – not as subjects to be heard.
7. Rape – Documented by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch as weapon of war by security forces and condemned when committed by any actor. The body of a woman turned into a battlefield.
8. Disenfranchisement – From elected mayors building homes, roads, markets, water reserves, schools etc to selected mayors organizing dancing women for envoys from Yaounde. The vote stolen, the voice silenced.
9. Mass Killings – Over 10,000 dead, 400 villages razed. Documented in Ngarbuh, Muyuka, Pinyin and elsewhere. When lives become statistics, conscience is lost.
10. Incarceration – Over 2000 are jailed and dying in incarceration. Cells replacing debate.
Is 10 years of avoiding the real path to peace not enough?
Each time you visit, they present to you supposed Amba defectors: how convenient. Amba boys are not the causation of the conflict between Southern Cameroons and LRC. They are making a fool out of you, Sir…
Also, analyze the budget spent on these monologue visitations. The dancing groups, the hired clappers, the hotel bills, the commodification of girls, the security expenses, etc. These selected and imposed administrators are in the peace and war business. Peace is expensive, but war is more profitable for them.
Solutions Proposed Are Not Just Mine.
This is what rights organizations, embassies, countries and mediators have placed on the table:
1. Ceasefire – Called by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UN Security Council Arria Meeting May 13, 2019, Pope Francis, European Parliament Resolution April 18, 2019.
2. Release of All Prisoners – Called by US Department of State, US Senate Resolution 292, Canadian House of Commons, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, African Commission Resolution 527, UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion 59/2022.
3. Guarantee of Safe Return From Exile – Switzerland through HD Centre facilitation, Canada through Minister Melanie Joly January 20, 2023, proposing third-country guarantees.
4. Mediated Dialogue and Negotiations – Called by US Ambassadors Barlerin, Lamora, Tibor Nagy, French Ambassador Guilhou, EU Representative Borrell, UK Minister Ford, German Ambassador Fricke, Canadian High Commissioner Bale, Norwegian Ambassador Nissen, AU Chair Faki, Commonwealth Secretary-General Scotland. If the formula is incorrect, the answer will be wrong.
The Final Truth to Yaounde:
Selected mayors, imposed prefects, imposed SDOs, appointed governors are lying to you. They are selected to lie. A mayor who is not elected by the people cannot speak for the people. A prefect who is imposed cannot know the heart of the people.
The people know their leadership and that leadership is not what is presented to you in dancing groups and rented crowds. That leadership is in prison and in the diaspora.
Do not take my word for it. Test it. Release the prisoners. Guarantee safe return. Give us one day. One day in Bamenda at Commercial Avenue. One day in Buea at Molyko. Let CRTV carry it live. Let the army stay in the barracks. Let no one be searched or arrested for coming. Let the people come freely.
If our people do not rally behind us, if they chant for Special Status and Regional Councils, I will kneel down in Mankon Palace and apologize to the Fon and to the Prime Minister. But if they rally behind their true leadership as I know they will, then let that truth be reported to Yaounde that the guns have failed. Give us one day of truth. If the formula is incorrect, the answer will be wrong.
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Abdulkarim Ali, Contributor The Independentist News
