To Eric Chinje, Arrey Obenson, and all who now seek to rewrite their role in this tragedy: You cannot cleanse betrayal with eloquence. You cannot redeem complicity by inventing a “Project C.” Truth is not found in conferences but in confession.
By Ali Dan Ismael, Editor-in-Chief, The Independentist
The Veil Behind “Concern”
A new chorus of “concern” is rising from the same elites who helped launder Paul Biya’s fraud. Under the so-called Project C, Anglophile figures such as Eric Chinje and Arrey Obenson now posture as moderates seeking dialogue, federal reform, and a “return to national harmony.” Their pitch is carefully polished—Anglophone in tone, democratic in phrasing—but its real purpose is to re-legitimize a collapsed union that no longer exists.
They speak of “electoral transparency,” yet ignore the blood still soaking the streets of Bamenda, Kumba, and Mamfe. They condemn “irregularities” but dare not name the fraud itself or the colonial arrangement that made such fraud inevitable. Their project is not conscience—it is camouflage.
From Complicity to Cosmetic Dissent
When ballots were stolen, these same voices were silent. When Biya’s appointees fabricated tallies in war zones, they found the arithmetic acceptable.
When the Northwest and Southwest—regions under military occupation—“voted” overwhelmingly for the man who bombed their villages, they called it “national participation.”
Now that the regime’s collapse is obvious, Project C emerges to repaint their complicity as moral awakening. They propose to “heal the nation” without naming the nation’s wound—the illegal annexation of Southern Cameroons in 1961 and the genocide that followed.
The Arrogance of the Eleventh-Province Families
Worse still, their own families—safely abroad—have joined the mockery. From the comfort of European salons and North-American living rooms, relatives of these self-styled reformers pour scorn on the Ambazonian struggle. They deride the martyrs of Ngarbuh, sneer at refugees in Nigeria, and ridicule self-defense fighters as “bush boys.”
Such overt insults betray not only ignorance but moral rot—a grotesque spectacle of privilege laughing at pain. It is, in truth, a storm in a teacup: a noisy display by people untouched by the rain of bullets that drench the homeland. Their arrogance reveals what Project C truly is—not a movement for justice, but a salon of shame trying to sanitize complicity with fine English accents and borrowed conscience.
Family and Business Ties with Yaoundé
Documented evidence and long-observed patterns suggest that both Eric Chinje and Arrey Obenson have maintained family and business relationships with the Yaoundé establishment—connections that provided them comfort and access while their homeland bled. These networks are visible in their continued proximity to regime circles and their open hostility toward the prime movers of the Ambazonian quest for independence.
Their sudden moral indignation therefore rings hollow. You cannot dine with tyranny by night and preach democracy by dawn. Their proximity to the system they now criticize explains why Project C bends over backward to “reform” rather than dismantle the colonial framework that feeds them.
The Obenson–Elango Connection
What further exposes the ideological DNA of this circle is Arrey Obenson’s former business partnership with the late Eyembe Elango, who was closely linked to Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and co-authored the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the IG-Care faction and Cho Ayaba’s ADF. Their joint ventures once attracted serious controversy within the early Interim Government’s financial operations—controversy that prompted a decisive audit and the immediate suspension of foreign intermediaries.
At the time, the Treasury under Dr Samuel Ikome Sako, working through its then-administrator Irene Ngwa, took firm corrective action to protect public accountability and restore confidence. That episode symbolized a clean break between those committed to institutional integrity and those still navigating networks of private interest.
These associations speak volumes: Project C emerges from the same milieu of shifting alliances—where politics and business intertwine, and loyalty follows access rather than principle. It is not a new philosophy but a recycled strategy of survival among elites who mistake visibility for virtue.
The VIKUMA Axis and Its Collapse
Some of the most vocal federalists in this new formation are offshoots of the cultic VIKUMA (Victoria–Kumba–Mamfe) axis of descent, a socio-political network once engineered to divide the Northwest from the Southwest elite. The objective was simple: to fracture the solidarity of Southern Cameroons and weaken any unified front for sovereignty.
For decades, VIKUMA functioned as the spiritual backbone of elite manipulation—sowing mistrust, rewarding betrayal, and auctioning loyalty to the highest bidder. Thank God it has completely collapsed—because, like all structures built on opportunism, it lacked foundation, purpose, and truth. Its demise proves that the Ambazonian spirit cannot be defeated by tribal intrigue or imported cults of division.
Why Their Federalism Is a Trap
Project C’s “federalist” agenda deliberately evades the one truth that defines this era: Ambazonia was never lawfully joined to La République du Cameroun. Federalism within Cameroon presupposes a union that never legally existed. It is therefore a political fiction—a softer instrument for continued assimilation. Every attempt to “reform” the union without addressing its illegality merely repackages domination as decentralization. Project C’s blueprint does not free Ambazonia—it freezes her sovereignty behind a cosmetic façade, offering commissions instead of constitutions and conferences instead of consent.
Moral Bankruptcy and Selective Courage
These “Eleventh-Province” personalities shed tears on television for electoral victims yet never mention Ngarbuh, Kumba, Mautu, or Pinyin. They decry “national tension” while avoiding the word occupation. They mourn democracy’s death but ignore the colonial structure that murdered it. Their outrage ends where their privilege begins. They want a cleaner dictatorship, not a freer people.
Ambazonia’s Standpoint
Ambazonia is not a bargaining chip in their rehabilitation project. We are a sovereign people under decolonization, recognized by UN Resolution 1608 (XV) and protected by Article 1 of the UN Charter. The fraudulent election of October 12 2025 belongs to La République du Cameroun, not to us. Our struggle is not to reform their tyranny but to end our captivity.
A Call to Integrity
To Eric Chinje, Arrey Obenson, and all who now seek to rewrite their role in this tragedy: You cannot cleanse betrayal with eloquence. You cannot redeem complicity by inventing a “Project C.” Truth is not found in conferences but in confession.
If you truly believe in justice, then speak the truth that the Open Letter to NW/SW Elites demands:
acknowledge the fraud, name the perpetrators, and recognize that sovereignty belongs to the people who died defending it—the Ambazonians.
Until you do, every “project” you promote will remain nothing more than another mask for the old deceit— a performance of remorse that convinces no one,
a storm in a teacup while a nation bleeds for freedom.
Ali Dan Ismael, Editor-in-Chief, The Independentist
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