Lawyers of Anglophone origin in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon, the former Southern Cameroons, practising the Common Law converged on Buea, Saturday, February 13, 2016, under the banner of the Cameroon Common Law Lawyers Conference to examine issues regarding attempts by government to erode the Common Law heritage.
The conference was co-chaired by Barristers Gilbert Abunaw Enaw and Yuah Ophelia Sendze.
The Council of the Common Law Lawyers headed by Fromer Bar President, Barrister Eta-Bisong
Welcoming the participants to the conference, Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho, fondly called Agbor Balla, on behalf of the Local organising Committee of the conference called on lawyers to maintain the force of argument, rather than the argument of force. The President of the Fako Lawyers Association, FAKLA, enjoined his peers to bury the hatchets, sink their differences and unite their forces to fight against the erosion of the Common Law juridico-cultural heritage.
Speaking during the opening half of the conference, Former Bar President, Barrister Bernard Achuo Muna styled his presentation in the form of a sermon. He said Southern Cameroonians hunger for freedom.
“We may be remotely controlled and enslaved by money, position, favour from higher powers to the extent that we accept or do things that are not in the interest of the English speaking people of the former southern Cameroons who are in bondage without realising it because long years of hardship have forced many to accept hardship as normal,” Barrister Muna said.
He went on to say that: “I am sure that most if not all of us here are hungry for a new day, the dawn for a new beginning for freedom. This freedom is not only for Common Law Lawyers. It is for all the peoples of the former southern Cameroons who have previously enjoyed freedoms and justice provided by the common law system…You cannot force people to conform to a system they are not used to. That will be alienating them.”
“I pray that is conference will be a catalyst in bringing salivation and deliverance from bondage to the people of the former southern Cameroons. If we act collectively, decisively and in unity, we shall indeed be the saviour and deliverers of our people. To do this, we must cast the fear of being labelled and stigmatised by the enemies of freedom.”
After Barrister Ben Muna’s presentation, the lawyers jumped from their seats as if planned and chanted the lyrics of Akon’s music titled “freedom”. “Freedom, (ohh) Freedom (Freedom), Freedom, (ooh) Freedom…” they chanted.
After the break, the about two thousand lawyers met behind closed doors.
Resolutions arrived at after the in-camera session is contained in a document titled “The Buea Declaration II”.
“…meeting this 13th day of February 2016 in Buea, capital of the former Southern Cameroons/West Cameroon after carefully and assiduously reflecting and deliberating on the facts that the state of Cameroon has given a deaf ear to our resolutions and proposals made in Bamenda on May 9, 2015, we regret and strongly condemn the state of Cameroon’s deaf ear given to our above mentioned resolution and proposals or solutions to the problems raised therein,” the Chairman of the Conference read.
“Considering that the above decried silence amounts to a rejection of our properly communicated complaints despite the serious constitutional issues with which they are pregnant, we hereby declare and take the following resolution:
“We recall and emphasise that the plight of the Common Law juridico-cultural system has experienced mischievously programmed and sustained erosion to the present point of near extinction.
And it is undoubted that this predicament arises unequivocally from the none implementation of United Nations Resolution 1608(XV) of April 21, 1961 and the dishonest manipulation of Southern/West Cameroonians into an illegal union that created an enabling environment for an organised eradication of the Common Law juridico-cultural heritage of the Southern/West Cameroon.
“We commit ourselves resolutely to seek by every legal means a correction of the source of endangerment of our Common Law juridico-legal-cultural heritage through the invocation and strict implementation of United Nations Resolution 1608(XV).
“We declare the constitution and manning of the Council of the Common Law Lawyers Conference and empower it to steadfastly secure a reversal of the erosion of the common law and the restoration of the security of the common law cultural heritage.”
A committee of the council of the Common Law Lawyers Conference was put in place to man the council and it is constituted by Barrister Eta Bisong Jr as Chairperson, Barrister Harmony Bobga-Mbuton as Secretary General along with 11 other lawyers.
The council was given three months to develop and circulate a draft roadmap for adoption and implementation of the resolutions of May 9, 2015 and the council will within this same period engage and access every means available for the projected implementation of the said roadmap. The activities of the committee will be assessed one year after.
