Editorial: Time for All Anglophones’ memo against marginalisation

The Biya regime doesn’t act with alacrity when it is not confronted by its insiders or even those who have fallen out of favour.

Over the years, the SCNC has expatiated on the Anglophone problem being put on the sidelines of national life either in manpower utilisation or infrastructural development. Biya only acted when some dare devil activists of the SCNC took to CRTV Buea to declare the “restoration of Southern Cameroons independence”.

He hurriedly dispatched Anglophone ministers to the regions to find out what the problems were even though they had been unequivocally explained in the Buea declaration and other well publicised documents.

His ruling CPDM later confirmed there was an Anglophone problem. It was reiterated in the ruling of the African Commission which went further to describe Anglophones rightly as “a people”. Being a people is different from being the Betis or the Bamilekis as the regime’s apologists and bootlickers often portray them.

Anglophones have a culture different from that of their “brothers and sisters” in the rest of the country with whom they had a pact on how to alternately share power. That treaty has been abrogated and there is nobody on the corridor of power to even grumble loudly. And so the problem remains frozen.

The other regions grabbing more than their deserved posts and development allocations are not doing so by accident. They are not amassing positions through playing some games of chances. They have leaders and lobbies to promote and achieve the interest of their people.

But who speaks or lobbies for Anglophones? The SCNC which has over the years been the voice of marginalised Anglophones is often ridiculed with such insults as “secessionists”. Its leaders are not in Biya’s entourage or ex-ministers who can easily get his ears like was the case of the grand north memo in 2002.

Former ministers from the grand north published a scathing memo in October 2002 spelling the problems of their three regions, then provinces, with former transport minister, Issa Tchiroma Barkary, who is today minister of communication leading the quartet.

In a haste, Biya appointed two of them into his government to appease the rage of the people raised by the memo. Their petition, like those of the SCNC over the years, was based on facts. Biya acted.

Today, they and the Betis are on the driving seat of national politics while Anglophones are left in the lurch or “bang de touché” as commercial vehicle drivers would say.

Who speaks for a people who, despite their excellent skills and qualifications, have been reduced to play just the fourth fiddle instead of the second or first which they rightly deserve?

The government would not listen to the SCNC. The South West Chiefs or South West Elite Association or embittered North West Fons’ Union are more concerned with their parochial regional interest and motions of support even on issues that are detrimental to their people.

Although Francophones are quick to point to Philemon Yang as “Anglophone prime minister”, he is far from having the powers of a premier in the Anglo-saxon context. Ask any North Westerner and you would be told he is not even the voice of his North West region, talk less of that of Anglophones.

So who is that voice that can stand up for Anglophones given speculations that the post of vice president would be reintroduced through parliament this November?

The post, if and when it is reintroduced, should be the birth right of Anglophones. It was a condition agreed upon before the union. The Foumban accord made it clear that where a Francophone is head of state, his deputy must be an Anglophone and vice versa.

Today, an Anglophone is not the second, not the third, but in a distant humbling fourth position! No one in the system complains even in a shill tone. What would happen if the vice-presidency is brought back and given to a Francophone on a platter of gold?

The Guardian Post is aware that there would be nobody to cough except the SCNC. Even when reorganised and crowned with a new leadership in December as the lobby group is planning, it will still be an outsider in the politics of the New Deal of President Biya.

Shouldn’t Anglophones have a voice in the system that can address their problems? Can’t Anglophone parliamentarians and senators form a lobby group to demand for the deserved share of Anglophones in sharing the proverbial national cake equitably?

Should allocation of development resources be done on the spur of the moment instead of taking into consideration such factors like land mass, population and source of the resources?

The Guardian Post believes that if Anglophone legislators who are in the SDF and CPDM team up and put the Anglophone problems on President Biya’s desk and in the legislature, the response would be faster than even that of the grand north memo.

The beneficiaries in terms of appointment would no doubt be members of the ruling party but the man on the street will be the better if more attention is paid to the pressing needs of the two Anglophone regions: the Bamenda Ring Road, Kumba-Mamfe Road, Limbe Deep Sea Port, Kumba-Mundemba Road, Mamfe- Akwaya road, Dschang-Mamfe road et al.

Anglophones in the system have been too docile for long. But the time is now to have a lobby group with a voice in the system that can be recognised as speaking for Anglophones?

The Guardian Post can bet that if a memo like that of the grand north is written by Anglophone legislators instead of their boring and monotonous motions of support, the North West and South West regions shall be given their deserved share of the national cake.

Only legislators who better understand the problems of the people than ministers, some of who cannot win any election in their backyards, can provide that credible and authoritative Anglophone voice. Can senate vice president, Simon Achidi Achu and chief whip, Peter Mafany Musonge muster the courage to mobilise Anglophone legislators for such an assignment?