By Elah Geofrey Mbongale
The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC, popularly known simply as The Consortium, created in the wake of the ongoing Anglophone crisis in the country has disowned its president, Human Rights Lawyer, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla.
In a communiqué released on social media, the body, amongst other things, accused its president of treating and trading The Consortium as his personal property and acting alone or making social media outings without consultating The Consortium as a body.
In the communiqué signed by eight members of the body including; Tasang Wilfred, Barrister N.G. Andang, Mawum Fuh J. Che, Ndeh Frederick Nifang, John Mbah Akuro, Tse Anye Kevin, Tata Donald and Prince Akere Divine, Barrister Agbor Balla was also accused of “making catastrophic, damaging and overt utterances in the media and during suspicious visits to Ghana, UK and elsewhere wherein the man of law in his avowed ambition is diametrically opposed to the Restoration agenda of the people of Southern Cameroons.
According to the communiqué, The Consortium had since February 9, 2017 officially moved or shifted its stance from Federation to Restoration, with the people of Southern Cameroons who have long decided and settled on statehood restoration as demonstrated and proven on the September 22 and October 1 demonstrations.
While Barrister Agbor Balla has called on the need for children to resume schools and an end to extended number of ghost town days, The Consortium members claim that a lot of pressure was mounted on the Yaounde regime through ghost towns, schools boycott and other forms of civil disobedience resulting to the release of Barrister Agbor Balla Felix, Dr. Fontem Neba and others while some others like Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terence and others are still languishing in detention cells in Yaounde.
The venomous diatribe by the consortium members describes Barrister Agbor Balla as anti-people, anti-freedom and anti-liberation and say his recent outings lends credence to the fact that he has been compromised by the Yaounde regime. They called on their people to consider him persona non grata.
The Sun reached out to Barrister Agbor Balla to respond these claims by members of the Consortium. His communication unit told us that “The Consortium is illegal as at January 17, 2017 following the ban by the minister of territorial administration and Barrister Agbor Balla has since moved on and is more concerned about meeting the needs and aspirations of the people”, they however refused to give any official response to particular claims by the members of the outlawed consortium.
The seed of discord between the members of the outlawed organization and its president, as reported in The SUN Newspaper Edition 0460 of Monday, October 30, was sown after the learned Barrister granted an interview to the BBB on Tuesday, October 24, 2017 at Bush House, London in which he maintained his stand for a return to a two-state federation as was the case after the Foumban Conference in 1972, a stance Agbor Balla has held for several decades now which led to his arrest and detention in Kondengui for almost eight months. He also added that the fight for the restoration of independence of the former British Southern Cameroons is an emotional option which is impossible to achieve.
“Independence is a very emotional thing. People, everybody likes it. But I look at the reality. I am a realist. You know, I look at the feasibility of having it. I am for a federation [two-state federation] that will bring the Cameroons together – the Anglophones and Francophones – to build a stronger country. Let us be honest, we can have unity in diversity”, Agbor Balla told the BBC
It should be recalled that the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium was formed in the wake of the Anglophone crisis late last year with Barrister Agbor Balla as president and Dr. Fontem Neba as secretary general, the body also had as members; Tasang Wilfred, Eyambe Elias, Barrister Bobga Harmony amongst others; many of whom fled the country after the Barrister Agbor Balla and Fentem Neba were arrested on January 17, 2017 and The Consortium banned.
After the ban of the consortium and before the arrest of the leaders about four hours later, a communiqué purportedly transferred powers to other activisits in the Diaspora; Tapang Ivo Tanku and Mark Bara to act as interim leaders of the Consortium until further notice. They were later relieved of their functions by the original members of the Consortium; Eyambe Elias and Tasang Wilfred what had sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria.
Since then, the Consortium has remained relatively dormant with a few sporadic releases until it was absorbed into a larger group of pro-independence organisations called SCACUF.
The recent communiqué attacking Barrister Agbor Balla has been greeted with mixed reactions. While pro-indepence advocates a celebrating the move, Federalist have criticised the decision heavily and called it unfair. They say Barrister Agbor Balla has done nothing but maintained a stance he has held for decades now and still holds after his release from prison.
The communiqué has apparently widened the rift between separatists and federalists in what has been termed as the Anglophone struggle.