Prez Biya's Fons, Chiefs and Lamidos in CMR today

The late President Ahmadou Ahidjo signed Decree No 77-245 of 15th July 1977 that organized Fondoms and Chiefdoms in the United Republic of Cameroon.

The Ahidjo decree inter alia made provisions for first-class, second-class and third-class Chiefs and Fons and defined the modalities for appointment of Fons and Chiefs including the responsibilities and benefits attached to the duties of a Chief and Fon. These all changed after November 6th 1982 with the coming to power of President Biya and his counterfeit policy of rigour and moralization.

Today, overzealousness, greed and dirty CPDM politics have shattered traditional institutions and the pride, personality and the reverence that Anglophone Chiefs and Fons used to have.

Fondoms and Chiefdoms in Cameroon are as old as the history of Cameroon itself. Fons, Nfors, Sultans, Lamidos and Emirs administered their people as natural leaders. Although not elected through popular elections, they were never self-made.

Through consultation by kingmakers, succession to the throne was hereditary by members of the royal family who lorded it over the rest of the tribe in an unchallenged and unwritten arrangement.

The British colonial administrative policy of Indirect Rule wherein Fons, Emirs, Lamidos and Chiefs served as auxiliaries of the administrations later provided for a House of Chiefs to give tradition its due place in the political scene. The House of Chiefs was more or less an apolitical and advisory body.

After 31 years of bad governance, the clamour for the reestablishment of the House of Chiefs is rife but the current environment or traditional terrain is characterized by CPDM confusion. Fons, Chiefs, Lamidos have more militant in party politics even more than founders of those parties.

Such political and personal ambitions have stood on the way of attempts to bring the natural rulers together. CPDM modernism has made North West Fons and South West Chiefs to abandon almost everything that makes them worth the name.

Fons, Lamidos and Chiefs drink and get drunk in bars, rub shoulders and chests with women, shake hands with anybody, move capless and dress like pop stairs, fight over trivial issues and most of the times over girlfriends with their sons. The mystical and overwhelming powers of Anglophone Chiefs and Fons have fled.

Almost anybody can become a Chief in CPDM Cameroon provided the financial resources and CPDM backing are there. Chieftaincy wrangles and fight for succession have torn tribes apart and heads have even rolled.

This goes contrary to what the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Chiefs and Fons have taken turns at the Kondengui high security prison. Cameroon is in need of a strong revival.