*By Idris El-Badawi | Independent Contributor – West Africa Bureau*
June 2025 – Buea | Yaoundé | Ottawa | Washington, D.C. In the long and tragic struggle of the people of Southern Cameroons—known today as Ambazonia—no wound has cut deeper than the betrayal by their own so-called elite. These are men who had access to the truth, proximity to power, and the trust of their people. Yet when history called for courage, they chose comfort. When their homeland cried for justice, they chose appointments. And when resistance beckoned, they chose relevance—under occupation.
Names like Eric Chinje, Dr. Simon Munzu, Dr. Dion Ngute, Philemon Yang, Francis Nkwain, Agbor Tabi, Professor Anyangwe, Chief V.E. Mukete, Peter Mafany Musonge, Paul Ghogomu, Paul Tasong, and John Fru Ndi are not unfamiliar to the corridors of Anglophone politics. Once held in esteem for their eloquence, education, and exposure, many of them now stand as cautionary tales—exhibits in the museum of national betrayal.
*Chief Victor Mukete: The Grandfather of Betrayal.*
Chief Victor Mukete, often romanticized as an elder statesman, was in truth one of the earliest architects of the betrayal. As a member of the Kamerun National Congress and later a prominent voice at the Foumban Conference, he helped sell the Southern Cameroons dream for a fictitious federation, setting in motion the colonization that would follow.
His later admission—that joining La République du Cameroun was a mistake—came decades too late, after he had spent most of his life legitimizing the annexation. He accepted titles, salaries, and privileges under the very regime that crushed the autonomy he once pretended to defend.
Mukete died honored in Yaoundé, but reviled in Ambazonia. His confession, though historically significant, does not absolve him. His role was foundational in the deception of 1961. The consequences—still unfolding—are measured in blood, exile, and cultural erasure.
*Philemon Yang: The Ghost of Silence.*
Once Prime Minister, and outgoing President of the UN General Assembly, Philemon Yang has held some of the most powerful positions ever accorded to a Southern Cameroonian. He was also Cameroon’s ambassador to Canada for decades, building a career polished in protocol, but utterly void of principle.
What has Philemon Yang done for the Ambazonian cause? Zero. Not a word. Not a whisper. Not even a whimper. As students were shot, women raped, villages torched, and children burnt alive, Yang maintained a masterclass in complicity: calculated silence.
While wielding global influence in New York, he carried no voice for the stateless people of his own homeland. For Yang, the price of prestige was paid in the blood of his people.
*Francis Nkwain and the Manyu Legacy of Silence.*
Francis Nkwain, from Boyo county, former Rector of the university of Dschang and former Minister of Mines and Power, is remembered not for enlightenment but for crushing the independent press, notably by suppressing Cameroon Calling. His leadership was marked by intellectual insecurity and blind obedience to Paul Biya, making him the archetype of an Anglophone enabler.
Today, his Manyu-based political legacy continues through his two sons-in-law:
Victor Mengot, a senior regime insider and public supporter of the genocide, and Cameroon’s Ambassador to Brazil, Mr.Martin Abgor Mbeng both operating with the same obedient silence that defined Nkwain.
Their family’s allegiance lies not with Ambazonia, but with maintaining proximity to power—no matter the cost in human lives.
*Dr. Dion Ngute: Beti-Bulu Gatekeeper.*
The current Prime Minister, Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute, once served as Director of ENAM—the elite training ground of Cameroon’s administrative state. Under his supervision, ENAM became a marketplace, where admissions were allegedly sold for bribes, favoring the children of the Beti-Bulu elite while sidelining qualified Anglophones.
He was not merely complicit in the system; he managed it. Appointed as Prime Minister at the height of the Ambazonian war, his role has been reduced to reading pre-written speeches and giving cosmetic interviews, while massacres continue in Kumba, Bafut, Muyuka, and elsewhere.
Dion Ngute represents the tragic image of a man more committed to protecting a chair than his children’s future.
*Paul Tasong: NOSO’s Corrupt Prefect and the Ghosts of Lebialem.*
A dim-witted product of ENAM, Paul Tasong was the perfect servant of corruption. Tasked with coordinating the NOSO Reconstruction Plan, he instead used the program to line his own pockets. Billions meant for rebuilding homes and clinics evaporated into ghost projects and political slush funds.
Worse still, Tasong is linked to the alleged killing or disappearance of the Field Marshal of Lebialem, a feared resistance leader. But sightings of the supposedly dead commander in Ghana raise the specter of a fake execution staged for political gain and more French funding.
*Musonge and the CDC Pillage.*
Peter Mafany Musonge, former Prime Minister, oversaw the catastrophic sale of CDC plantations to French interests, in one of the most egregious economic betrayals in Ambazonian history. The loot funded luxury apartment complexes while thousands of workers were left in poverty.
Adding insult to injury, Musonge—now Chair of the Bilingualism Commission—has the audacity to demand that Ambazonians leave GRA lands in Fako, even as his ancestral property was sold to Francophones by the Beti-Bulu governor with his silent consent.
*Dr. Simon Munzu’s Fall from Grace*.
Once hailed as a principled federalist, Dr. Simon Munzu traded vision for vanity. After launching a political party, he quickly abandoned activism for a UN appointment, only to resign in disgrace following a diplomatic adultery scandal.
Returning home, Munzu became a talking head for a dead federalist dream, peddling a model that was never accepted by Yaoundé. His voice now carries no weight.
*From Bishops to Bystanders.*
Archbishop Andrew Nkea, in his feverish pursuit of a cardinal’s hat, has stooped to every genocidal whim of the regime, currying favor with Paul Biya.
Bishop Michael Bibi, chasing crumbs at the dictator’s table, says more about land title disputes than mass killings.
The Church that once spoke truth to power now swings incense before it.
*Eric Chinje & Fru Ndi: Voices Turned Vassals.*
Eric Chinje, a once-revered journalist, now navigates truth like a minefield, avoiding responsibility.
John Fru Ndi, once a lion, is now a footnote in the history of appeasement.
Biya’s Beti-Bulu Machine and the Cult of Betrayal
All of this feeds the Beti-Bulu statecraft of Paul Biya, who famously swore, “Je ne faillirai jamais”—I shall never fail. He hasn’t failed his empire of tribalism and betrayal, but he has failed every value he pretended to stand for.
His parting words? “Après moi, c’est le déluge”—After me, chaos will reign. That chaos is what he and his Anglophone collaborators have delivered.
*Why Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako’s Vision Still Holds.*
Amid this wasteland, Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako stands out—not because he is perfect, but because he has not surrendered. While others traded loyalty for luxury, he built structure, sustained institutions, and kept the dream alive.
In a movement racked by betrayal, internal sabotage, and external manipulation, his government remains the most viable vessel for Ambazonia’s political survival.
*Conclusion: Time to Choose*.
The history of Southern Cameroons is at a crossroads. The past is crowded with collaborators. The present is clouded by confusion. But the future still hangs in the balance. The Anglophone elite—and now ecclesiastical class—have had their chance. And they failed.
Now, the people of Ambazonia must choose between the seductive comfort of gradual death, or the painful but dignified pursuit of freedom. And in that choice, Dr. Sako’s leadership, flawed though it may be, but offers the highest probability of success—not because he is perfect, but because he has not yet surrendered.
History will remember who stood tall, and who simply knelt—with their medals, their robes, their mitres, their titles—and their silence.
Idris El-Badawi
Independent Contributor | The Independentist
