May 20 Referendum marked the rape of Anglophone aspirations

The commemoration of a national day with pride, fanfare and patriotism honours a significant sovereign achievement of a country, sorry, a nation. Former colonies like the United States, Nigeria, Gabon, to name a few, celebrate their Independence Day while colonisers such as France celebrates the Storming of the Bastille, reputed for being the start of the French Revolution, as their Fête Nationale.

Cameroon celebrates its controversial referendum day on May 20. The 42nd anniversary this time around was just on the heels of the belated 50th anniversary of reunification, a reminder of the Foumban broken promises.

The minister of youth and physical education, Bidoung Mkpatt in propping up support ahead of the celebration criss-crossed through Kye-ossi, Kumba and Manocha trumpeting the virtues of unity and national integration but dodging the historic connotations of the anniversary.

Why, many have often asked, is the celebration not on Independence Day like in all former colonised countries? The reason is that Francophones had their independence on January 1 while the Anglophone got theirs on October 1. Two dates, one country. First federated, then united and finally a "unitary state" grappling with "national unity and integration."

The concept to glorify May 20 was the brain child of Cameroon's first president, the late Ahmadou Ahidjo, after the Foumban constitutional conference. At Foumban, John Ngu Foncha, the primier of Southern Cameroons who led the Anglophone delegation proposed a loose federal system of government which Ahmadou Ahidjo reluctantly accepted. It consisted of the West Cameroon government, the West Cameroon assembly and the house of chiefs while on the other side of the River Mungo were the East Cameroon government, East Cameroon assembly, with the federal government and federal assembly.

As president of the Federal Republic of Cameroon from October 1961, Ahidjo manipulated Anglophone politicians against each other and subsequently cajoled them to abandon multiparty politics which thrived in the West. The clock of the advancement of the Anglophone democratisation process was pulled backwards with the creation, in September 1966 of Ahidjo's single party, the Cameroon National Union - CNU.

In his divide and rule tactics, Ahidjo unceremoniously dismissed the outspoken West Cameroon prime minister, Augustine Ngom Jua, a federalist advocate and replaced him with Solomon Tandeng Muna, a unitary state exponent.

Addressing the national assembly on May 6, 1972, Ahidjo hinted parliamentarians that the federation had become too expensive to manage and that it would soon be abolished through a referendum. The referendum was conducted on May 20 and the official name of the country changed to the United Republic of Cameroon.

Many enlightened Anglophones especially within the leadership of the SCNC and other pro-Anglophone activists haved argued that the referendum violated Clause 1 of Article 47 of the Foumban conference which stipulated that: "any proposal for the revision of the present constitution, which impairs the unity and integrity of the Federation shall be inadmissible." In an article on the "Anglophone Problem" published in The Journal of Modern African Studies, Piet Konings and Francis B. Nyamjoh noted that "Even if the constitution was to be amended, it should not be done by referendum, because Clause 3 of Article 47 stipulated 'that proposals for revision shall be adopted by simple majority vote of the members of the Federal assembly; provided that such majority includes a majority of the representatives...of each of the Federated States'. The autocratic nature of Ahidjo's regime helps to explain why the inhabitants of Cameroon voted massively for the draft constitution, and hence the immediate establishment of the United Republic of Cameroon."

Anglophone apologists argue that even if there had to be a legitimate referendum, it would have been done exclusively by Anglophones who alone voted to reunite with their "brothers and sisters" East of the Mungo. They see the referendum as a rape of Anglophone aspiration awakened by the Foumban conference.

Ahidjo insisted that administering a federation was not only expensive but promoted regionalism and impeded economic development. His prescription was wrong as articulate Anglophones began to complain of neglect, marginalization and the dismantling of their economic infrastructure such as Powercam, Cameroon Bank, Tiko Airport, the Limbe deep Seaport, Marketing Board etc. Despite their very high academic and management ingenuity, they were also not being trusted to be appointed to strategic positions in government or diplomatic services which they frequently protested with extraordinary vehemence. . To tamp down the impact of Anglophone agitation, Ahidjo capitalized in his divide and rule frolics by splitting Anglophones into the North West and South West; using his stooges on each side to propagate the trifling differences between the two.

It is the same policy used by Biyiaism which perceives the South West as pro-regime and the North West where Fru Ndi's opposition SDF party has its fief as antagonistic to the regime. With that divide, when President Biya rebranded the United Republic back to the Republic of Cameroon, a name which existed when West Cameroon wasn't part of it, it took several years before the SCNC was born to propel the Anglophone Problem which is seen today by articulate Cameroonians as a potential time bomb.

Paul Biya's deletion of "united" from the name of the country did not, however, have any significance to the hegemonic tendencies of the Francophone-dominated regime which explains why the 42nd anniversary of the "unitary state" is being celebrated and not that of a return to the La République du Cameroun.

As is the annual tradition, President Biya presided over the ceremony at the Yaounde May 20 Boulevard which usually features a display of Cameroonian security and military artillery and at times troops from neighbouring countries. Civilians, school children and political parties also participated in a tedious match pass to the admiration of diplomatic guests and thousands of onlookers. The event was also celebrated at sub divisional, divisional and regional headquarters. The carnival ended with a reception for invited Cameroonians from every spectrum of society and diplomatic guests at the Unity Palace.

Although some may portray May 20 as a rape of Anglophone aspiration, a national day celebration, however, invokes the spirit of patriotism and in the Cameroon instance, integration and reconciliation to make citizens feel like they belong. It binds bonds and connections between people with different languages, cultures, religions et al. That, however, can only be positive development if there is equity in top appointments and distribution of resources for a country striving to be an integrated nation in unity.

By Asong Ndifor is former Editor-in-Chief of the Herald newspaper and presently guest writer of The Guardian Post newspaper.