Let it therefore be said plainly: Cameroon’s elite bargains are about survival of a regime. Ambazonia’s struggle is about the dignity of a people. We are not asking to be accommodated.
We are not negotiating for seats at someone else’s table. We are asserting a right that predates every political deal now being whispered in Yaoundé.
By The Independentistnews political desk.
Once again, reports are circulating that the regime in Yaoundé is offering ministries, appointments, and diplomatic posts to opposition figures in the name of “national unity.” Once again, some are asking whether this signals change, reform, or a way forward.
For Ambazonians, the answer must be clear and disciplined: this is not our fight, and it is not our solution. Cameroon’s political bargaining is about who controls power inside Cameroon. Ambazonia’s struggle is about whether Cameroon has any lawful authority over us at all. These are two completely different questions.
Cameroon has always managed its internal crises through elite co-optation. When elections are disputed or factions grow restless, the regime does not correct the system—it distributes positions. Ministries are offered, relatives are appointed, ambassadors are named. The elite are pacified, the structure remains untouched, and the people are left exactly where they were. That method may stabilize a regime. It does not deliver justice.
Ambazonia, however, is not an opposition faction looking for inclusion. We are a people whose country was never properly decolonised, whose federation was dismantled without consent, and whose territory was absorbed and ruled without legal authority. Our case is not about access to office; it is about restoration of statehood. This is where the confusion—sometimes deliberate—must be rejected.
Elite co-optation assumes that Cameroon’s sovereignty over Southern Cameroons is legitimate and settled, and that the only issue is governance style. Ambazonians reject that premise entirely. Our central question is not who should govern Cameroon, but by what right Cameroon governs us at all. No ministerial portfolio can answer that question. No unity government can erase that history. No political bargain can legalise an illegality.
This is why every so-called solution imposed on Ambazonia has failed. Dialogue failed. Decentralisation failed. Special status failed. They failed because they were designed to preserve an existing structure, not to confront the foundational problem beneath it. You cannot repair a broken foundation by repainting the walls.
When Ambazonia is treated as a Cameroonian political dispute, our struggle is reduced to complaints. When it is treated as a decolonisation issue, it stands on law, history, and international responsibility. These two frames lead to very different outcomes—and only one leads to lasting peace.
Let it therefore be said plainly: Cameroon’s elite bargains are about survival of a regime. Ambazonia’s struggle is about the dignity of a people. We are not asking to be accommodated.
We are not negotiating for seats at someone else’s table. We are asserting a right that predates every political deal now being whispered in Yaoundé.
A people cannot be bought. A nation cannot be bargained away. And freedom does not come from appointments. History has already decided that much.
The Independentistnews political desk.
