Feature
The South West Chiefs advocate a two state federation as a panacea to the ailing Anglophone problem. It is rightly said, if you do not know where some people are coming from, you will not definitely understand where they are going to.
In a publication on civil law commentaries, Stella Cziment, identifies three world jurist groups: the purists, the pollutionists and the pragmatists. According to her, the legal purists are the French speaking jurists who try to keep the civil law intact while the pollutionists are the English speaking law advocates. Somewhere in between these two vocal jurist groups are the pragmatists who stand for a broader cross-cultural approach.
She however, concludes that in Cameroon these two groups exist because of their deep historical, social and cultural difference and alignments, which make the pragmatic tendency unworkable. She further argues from geographical perspective that the separation of Cameroon population by geographical boundaries has made communication and unity difficult resulting in “uneven political consensus and a lack of common political goals.”
From this analogy, this writer in the present dispensation identifies three categories of Anglophones who will make or mar the pragmatic workability of the two state federation – the diehards, the pacifists and the non-chalants.
The chiefs, to my mind, are the pacifists. They are those who have been very comfortable with the “system”, if indeed, there was a system in place. They are those who dinned and wined with King Biya and his cohorts. To me, the chiefs are not different from the Ngole Ngoles who see Mr. Biya as “natural candidate.” To some of them, if a two state federation is in place, the confusion, compliance, competition and anarchy will continue unabated and Southern Cameroons will never be in peace, even with all the good intentions as is the case with South Sudan today.
The diehards are Southern Cameroonians who have tasted the excesses of the regime. There are those on exile or those who have suffered unfair imprisonment, torture, unbridled discrimination. There are the prisoners of conscience those alive and even those reposing in their graves. They are those whose hopes are dashed and their dreams broken. These would advocate an Independent Southern Cameroon State pure and simple. At most they will advocate for a confederation based on a sound and reasoned new constitution as obtains in Canada, the USA or even the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Wales). But even from these examples, if there is no absolute separation of powers and a strict system of checks and balances, the executive will continue to breed corruption.
Finally, the non-challant Southern Cameroonians are the greatest obstacle to determine the future of the territory. These are the carenots. They are those who have benefited and continue to benefit from the statusquo. They are either those who have established in La Republique, those in the corridors of power or those in the diaspora who have no close affinity to Southern Cameroons. What about the 90% illiterate, ignorant and poor rural masses and electorate who are often bought over with Maggi cubes or cups of rice during elections?
Abraham Maslo, the father of humanistic psychology rightly identifies another group which he calls the ten percent. He says only 10% of people are able to realize real life potential. There are others who see only 10% of the world’s beauty and others who hear only 10% of the music and poetry of the universe which preaches FREEDOM – “All men are born free and equal, but everywhere they are in chains.”
As the clock ticks towards the six months deadline given the regime, it is time that Southern Cameroons constitutional experts start to reflect on the future of Southern Cameroons in particular and Cameroon in general. Abraham Lincoln once said, “I will prepare myself and someday my chance may come”. While Graham Greene says “there’s always one moment in life when the door opens and lets the future in.” Ronald Reagan concludes, “There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we create for ourselves.”
Let freedom reign in this land of promise and land of glory. Let freedom reign.
