By Daniela Itoe Ngum
The total refusal by separatist fighters to drop their weapons as appealed by the Head of State during his inaugural speech on November 6, 2018 and in his end-of-year address on December 31, 2018 was the reason behind a crisis meeting convened by the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Meme, Chamberlain Ntou’ou Ndong.
The meeting that took place on Tuesday January, 15 at SDO’s conference hall grouped major stakeholders in the division, including traditional, religious and political leaders, the military, syndicates, and judicial officials was meant to sought opinions on what can be done to facilitate the disarmament process.
Most participants proposed that general amnesty be granted to separatist leaders in detention and all those arrested in connection with the Anglophone crisis and open meaningful dialogue with separatist leaders in the diaspora.
According to the Government Delegate to the Kumba City Council, Victor Ngoh Nkelle, the Ambazonia fighters receive orders from their leaders in the diaspora and as such, it is of upmost importance for the government to engage in dialogue with those leaders.
“From what I have noticed, the ‘Amba boys’ take instructions from their leaders in the diaspora and they are not intelligent enough to digest those messages, as such the government needs to first of all dialogue with the separatist leaders in the diaspora in order to solve the problem, and then grant amnesty to all in detention if not, then I don’t think this problem will ever be solved,” the Government Delegate said.
Others called on the President, the father of the nation to cease from using hard words such as using the military to forcedly neutralize the fighters. This according to many instead fuels the crisis.
For some, it is wise for the Head of State to take the nation by surprise to formally address the Anglophone crisis; this might somehow calm down the situation because they know he is concerned about the plight of the people.
Meme SDO, Chamberlain Ntou’ou Ndong on his part expressed great satisfaction with the frank proposals. He said they will go a long way to curb the crisis. The administrator promised to forward the proposals to his hierarchy for them to examine and act accordingly.
“Most of them talked about granting general amnesty to all in detention, calling for dialogue with the leaders and those who have meaningful contributions that can solve the crisis. I am very pleased with their contributions and I will forward them to my hierarchy, but you know we are only here to seek opinions, we are not the ones to implement these proposals,” the Meme SDO noted.
Worth noting is the fact that, since the President’s end of year message to the nation promising to completely neutralize the separatist fighters, Meme Division has since then experienced high level of hostilities. The situation has kept the administration worried given that movements in and out of the division have been highly affected.