Anglophone lawyers hold secret meetings ahead of conference

Common Law Lawyers have engaged in a series of secret meetings in a build-up to phase two of the All Anglophone Lawyers' Conference announced for Kumba, Southwest Region.

The meetings, The Post gathered, are meant to give added impetus to what will transpire in Kumba after their six-month ultimatum issued to Government expired on October 9, 2015.

The lawyers are said to be engaged in a series of subcommittee meetings in the major towns across the country to press for urgent changes on issues affecting the English-speaking policy of Cameroon.

It is reported that resolutions of the mini-meetings will remain secret until a suitably agreed timetable and plan of action is designed for the Kumba meeting. Most of what is being assessed at the moment is circulating only within the confines of the lawyers to avoid any betrayal of a common force, The Post further learnt.

Front-liners of the cause to protect the Anglophone educational, linguistic, judiciary and cultural identity from growing French influence have limited their exchanges to emails.

The option has been adopted to avoid harassment from State security operatives.

Contacted by phone to know the amount of groundwork covered so far, the President of the Meme Lawyers Association, MELA, Barrister Philip Awutah Atuba, said he could not comment at the moment.

Barrister Atuba explained that a press declaration can only be made after a meeting they had planned over the weekend.

Rounding off their resolutions at the Catholic Mission Cathedral Mankon, Bamenda on May 9, 2015, the over 700 Common Law lawyers had promised further action if the Biya regime remains silent on issues raised.

They had signaled that if nothing is done, they will take their demands to the Supreme Court acting in lieu of the Constitutional Council.

Beyond the Supreme Court, the lawyers equally pointed to the use of international jurisdiction if nothing is done.

The Anglophone lawyers argue, in the resolution, that a Federal System of government is the only way in the present dispensation to uphold the Anglo-Saxon values.

They decried the systematic erosion of the Anglo-Saxon educational system, adding that; “It is time for records to be set straight for a peaceful coexistence of all Cameroonians."

Speaking to reporters at the Bamenda conclave, Barrister Hamony Bobga observed: “It is time to go back to the drawing table and look at the terms of the union binding Southern Cameroonians to La Republique du Cameroun, because, we think that the union has not worked as was intended. Recent happenings in this country have pointed to the fact that the Yaounde authorities want to completely erode the Common Law system and we are not going to see that happen. With the bi-jural system in Cameroon, we think that the Northwest and Southwest Regions of this country should practise the Common Law and the Francophone Regions practise the Civil Law system,” Bobga maintained.

Before the Bamenda meeting, Bobga had expressed fears that if the current generation of lawyers fails to solve these challenges, they stand the risk of having their bones exhumed from their graves and roasted.

Chiefs, Journalists Join Lawyers

Meeting in Kumba on June 6, 2015, hundreds of Chiefs under the banner of the Southwest Chiefs Conference, SWECC had backed the lawyers' course. The traditional rulers, acting on behalf of their people, said they want to see the enactment of a law in the likes of Canadian official Languages Act in relation to English and French languages in Cameroon.

They requested the Biya regime to criminalise the neglect of one language in the conduct of official business.

Recently, SWECC President, NfonVE Mukete while launching his book in Bamenda, disclosed that he was seeking to bring in the Northwest Fons into the crusade.

On their part, the Cameroon branch of Commonwealth journalists meeting in Limbe on December 5, 2015, also resolved to join the fight against Anglophone marginalisation.