The public is not without memory. It recognizes tone. It tracks timing. It understands alignment. And it draws its own conclusions. Not every voice that speaks of concern carries conviction. Not every expression of outrage reflects transformation. Some are simply adjustments—made when the direction of history becomes clear.
By Timothy Enongene
Guest Editor-in-Chief, The Independentistnews
13 April 2026
The tears that fool no one
For years, the people of the Former British Southern Cameroons have known their visible adversaries. They have learned to recognize force when it appears in uniform. They have learned to endure pressure when it comes through policy. But there is another force—quieter, more adaptive, more deceptive. A class of “business journalists” who trade in suffering by day and seek sympathy by night.
The recent headlines from The Guardian Post lamenting that “Anglophones have been cheated again” are not a moral awakening. They are calculation. They are the rehearsed sorrow of a platform that has long survived by aligning itself with the very conditions it now pretends to question. The memory they hope has faded
There is an assumption behind this sudden shift—that memory is short. That the public will forget. That language, once changed, can erase a record. But the record remains.
Where was this urgency when communities were under pressure? Where was this clarity when narratives were being shaped to minimize the very foundations of the struggle? For years, this platform did not challenge the dominant framing. It reinforced it. It reduced a political question into manageable language, urging compliance within a system that many believe does not reflect their reality. It presented caution as wisdom and restraint as responsibility—while the underlying conditions remained unaddressed.
The architecture of distraction
What appears now as concern is, to many observers, a familiar pattern. A shift in tone when the environment changes. A recalibration when public sentiment moves. This is not transformation. It is adaptation.
A media platform that positions itself close to power develops an instinct—not for truth, but for timing. And timing, in this context, becomes a tool. A tool to redirect attention. A tool to reframe narratives. A tool to remain relevant without confronting the full weight of reality.
The industry built on suffering
There is a model of journalism that does not resolve crises—it sustains them. It recognizes that conflict generates attention. That attention drives circulation. And that circulation can be converted into influence. Within this model, suffering becomes material. A headline in the morning. A pivot in the afternoon. A recalibration by night. The language adjusts, but the structure remains.
Today, the word is “cheated.” Tomorrow, it will be something else. But the function is consistent: to engage without committing, to reflect without challenging, to benefit without transforming.
The language that limits
Words matter. To describe a people as “cheated” is to confine the discussion within a narrow frame. It suggests a temporary imbalance within an accepted structure. It avoids deeper questions about identity, status, and the nature of the system itself. It reduces a complex reality into something manageable. Something negotiable. Something that can be addressed without fundamentally changing anything.
The message to the youth
To those who have carried the weight of uncertainty and expectation: be attentive not only to what is said, but when it is said. Visibility does not equal alignment. Attention does not equal commitment. A platform that questioned your position yesterday cannot define your direction today without accounting for that record. Sovereignty, in any form, requires clarity. And clarity begins with recognizing patterns.
The end of the middle ground
There was a time when occupying the middle ground was possible. A time when distance could be presented as balance. That time is closing. Moments of prolonged tension do not allow indefinite neutrality. They demand definition. And in that definition, every institution—media included—is eventually measured.
Closing verdict
The public is not without memory. It recognizes tone. It tracks timing. It understands alignment. And it draws its own conclusions. Not every voice that speaks of concern carries conviction. Not every expression of outrage reflects transformation. Some are simply adjustments—made when the direction of history becomes clear.
Final line
A narrative built on convenience cannot guide a people seeking clarity.
Timothy Enongene
Guest Editor-in-Chief, The Independentistnews
Leave feedback about this