SDF senior official brokered SCNC-gov’t secret talks

It has now emerged that the Biya regime had in a bid to proffer some solutions to the Anglophone crisis, held nighttime meetings with some officials of the movement who, however, turned out to be fake leaders of the group.

Theodore Leke, SCNC 2nd Vice National Chairman under the late Chief Ayamba, confirmed the secret talks in an exclusive revelation to The Cameroon Journal. Leke disclosed that the dialogue was brokered by a top SDF national executive member living in Yaounde. He, however, refused to name the official whom he said linked them up with Amadou Ali who at the time was Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals.

Leke related that at the initial meeting, they met the minister in the presence of an interpreter. He said after a brief chat with the minister, he and other SCNC top officials were asked to return to the South West and come back with a representative delegation on an agreed date.

Leke said when they returned from Yaoundé where they were lodged at government’s expense, they briefed other SCNC officials about the meeting.

On the basis of the briefing, then SCNC Executive Secretary General, Thomas Nwacham wrote to the minister: “We have been informed by one of the leaders of the SCNC, Mr. Leke Theodore that your government is inviting us through your good offices for contact discussions. We appreciate the long-awaited invitation and hope our exploratory talks shall be frank and sincere. We propose that this initial meeting be held on January 20, 2004 at a venue decided by you and look forward to your confirmation.”

The Cameroon Journal gathered that when the government confirmed the rendezvous, a quarrel later broke out within the ranks of the SCNC officials with accusations that millions that were initially made available by the Yaounde authorities were swindled.

Our sources said some SCNC officials wanted to know why the government had by-passed then National Chairman, Chief Ayamba and his immediate assistant, Nfor Ngalla Nfor and settled on Theodore Leke, third person on the SCNC leadership rank. Leke could not give any explanation since as he told The Journal, it was an SDF official who proposed him to the regime as the one to head the SCNC delegation.

Confirmed sources say Leke took a slim delegation of four to Yaoundé and after the meeting there, they were given an assignment to tour the North West and South West regions to compile the grievances of Anglophones and report back to Yaoundé.

In a summary of one of the reports to Amadou Ali, a copy of which we stumbled upon, Leke wrote: “We did not come across any group, fons, chiefs or leaders who rejected the dialogue to solve the Anglophone problem. Their utmost wish was that the talks should be frank and sincere between the two groups involved in the dialogue.”

In a latter report signed by Leke as “leader of the delegation” and Chief Enow Oben as one of the members, they said several meetings were held with traditional rulers in the two Anglophone regions. They equally claimed: “…open meetings were held with SCNC activists in Kembong, Mamfe, Menji and Bamenda.”

Their communication with Amadou Ali, we gathered, was done through an encrypted email address. Amadou Ali himself confirmed the dialogue when at a question and answer session of the National Assembly in November 2009 he said “government was consulting with the SCNC.”

Leke admitted that government paid for his delegation’s assignment for the contact tours which was part of the “negotiations” but would not disclose the amount. It was on the basis of the continuing dialogue, Cameroon Journal learnt, that the government sponsored an SCNC delegation to the African Commission on four occasions to Banjul and one to Dakar, Senegal.

The objective of the government bench to the Commission led by Dion Ngute, Minister Delegate at the Ministry of External Relations in Charge of Relations with the Commonwealth was to have Leke and other SCNC members testify that the movement was in ongoing dialogue with the Biya regime and as such the SCNC/SCAPO complaint be delayed pending the outcome of the SCNC/government talks.

Leke also admitted that their air tickets and allowances were paid by Yaoundé on a total of five trips for the case at the African Commission. But he again refused to say the amount which speculators within the SCNC had said was in tens of millions.

It was at the Commission, we gathered from other SCNC officials, that the government knew belatedly it had all along been dealing with the “wrong people”. Dion Ngute then said the SCNC was in factions and that government did not know who to dialogue with.

At this point the whole deal collapsed

Leke and Enow in another letter to the minister recalled: “We regret that the minister informed us during our last meeting that he has come to the end of his own part and that politicians should take over and complete the rest. Politicians especially those from the English-speaking zone cannot do it for obvious reasons,” they stated.

In the meantime, government insiders say dialogue with the SCNC can only be possible when a credible leader emerges at the helm of the movement.