The Tables Have Turned — And Now, Who Speaks for French Cameroon?

When the Ambazonian resistance demanded genuine dialogue years ago, Yaoundé mocked the request with its familiar sneer: “With whom shall we negotiate?” Now that question echoes back across the Mfoundi valley: With whom shall the world negotiate for French Cameroon? Will it be a recycled spokesman in Maroua, a junta general in Yaoundé, or the French Embassy that still signs their paycheques?

By Ali Dan Ismael, Editor-in-Chief, The Independentist on special assignment.

For more than sixty years, the regime in Yaoundé used arrogance and manipulation to decide who should “represent Ambazonia.” They hand-picked individuals — Ayuk Tabe, Ebenezer Akwanga, Marianta Njomia, Dabney Yerima, Chris Anu, and most recently Cho Ayaba Lucas, currently incarcerated in Norway for crimes against humanity — and presented them to the world as Ambazonian leaders. In reality, many of these figures served as proxies of La République du Cameroun, convenient pawns in a wider French-sponsored strategy to weaken the authentic voice of Ambazonia.

Yaoundé dictated the script: who could talk, who could travel, and who could be televised. They called it “dialogue,” but it was theatre — diplomacy without truth. Yet history, in its quiet patience, has turned the stage around. Today, it is French Cameroon that no longer knows who speaks for it.

A Republic Without a Voice

Since Paul Biya’s disappearance from effective power and Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s self-proclaimed “Government of National Unity,” the state has slipped into anarchy disguised as order. Tchiroma’s cabinet exists only on paper; France pulls the strings through a divided military council and a handful of exhausted bureaucrats. Generals compete for influence, politicians whisper in exile, and the so-called institutions of state — presidency, parliament, and court — have lost all legitimacy.

When the Ambazonian resistance demanded genuine dialogue years ago, Yaoundé mocked the request with its familiar sneer: “With whom shall we negotiate?” Now that question echoes back across the Mfoundi valley: With whom shall the world negotiate for French Cameroon? Will it be a recycled spokesman in Maroua, a junta general in Yaoundé, or the French Embassy that still signs their paycheques?

The Irony of Legitimacy

Ambazonia, once dismissed as a rebellion, now operates as a structured state-in-resistance — with a President, Dr Samuel Ikome Sako, a functioning cabinet, diplomatic presence abroad, and a coordinated self-defence network under national command. French Cameroon, once portrayed as the stable neighbour, now staggers through competing claims, each sponsored by a different master.

The African Union, the Commonwealth, and the United Nations can no longer pretend not to see:
Between the two entities, only Ambazonia possesses coherence, continuity, and constitutional direction.

President Dr Samuel Ikome Sako has made the Ambazonian Government’s position crystal clear:
Just as the Southern Cameroons delegation went to Foumban in 1961 as a sovereign nation, so shall Ambazonia stand as a sovereign nation whenever La République du Cameroun finally presents a legitimate interlocutor. But before any negotiations can take place, Dr Sako insists that all Ambazonian prisoners of conscience, detainees, and war captives must be unconditionally released. Freedom, he maintains, is not a favour to be granted — it is the starting point for peace.

The Coming Reckoning

As the political storm deepens, those who once mocked Ambazonia’s leadership must now search for their own. No press release from Issa Tchiroma, no statement from a French envoy, and no prison-based communiqué from Cho Ayaba Lucas can restore legitimacy to a regime that has lost both moral and legal standing.

When the day of negotiation finally arrives, Ambazonia will come to the table as a government — united, lawful, and legitimate. French Cameroon will come as a fractured relic, asking the very question it once weaponised: Who shall speak for us?

And that is how empires built on deceit collapse — not with invasion, but under the weight of their own lies.

Ali Dan Ismael, Editor-in-Chief, The Independentist on special assignment.