By NOELA EBOB BISONG
The interim government or IG, of the yet to be established ‘Federal Republic of Ambazonia’ is already engulfed in a deep internal crisis, which appears to be drifting factions of the set struggle for independence further and further apart.
The accusations and counter accusations are only making crystal clear the fact that power, which is loved by many, is also very slippery in the hands of many. Government’s announcement of an imminent dialogue to resolve the three-year old Anglophone crisis seems to have stoked the flames of division within a movement that for long has been mired in in-fighting. However, of late the crisis has deepened and it is burning hot and wild.
Last week, Chris Anu, communication secretary of the ‘Ambazonia Interim Government’ is said to have gathered some 100 members of the Ambazonia struggle for independence to impeach ‘President’ Sisiku Ayuk Julius as President of the Interim Government, of the supposed Federal Republic of Ambazonia.
Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius and others it should be recalled are since January 2018 being detained at the Yaounde Principal Prison (Kondengui) by the government of Cameroon for their activities in their ‘struggle for independence’, from the Republic of Cameroon.
president of the ‘FRA’
The reasons behind the Chris Anu-led team, The SUN Newspaper has gathered include the fact that Sisiku Ayuk Julius is being accused for gross violation and abuAlso, Ayuk Tabe is being accused of appointing a parliament, appointing people to negotiate on his behalf with the government of Cameroon, and of barring Barrister Fru John Nsoh in preference to another lawyer as his new defense in Kondengui.
It should be recalled that about a month ago, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius issued a statement, disposing Dr Samuel Ikome Sako, as ‘Acting Interim President of the FRA’. This no doubt is held by many as one of the key factors that has gone ahead to fan the flames within the Ambazonia circle.
These accusations have brought in a divide, as some are beginning to distance themselves from their ‘president’, while others remain loyal to him.
According to Barrister Fru John Nsoh “Mr Ayuk Tabe has been compromised”. He insists that not the entire team at Kondengui, but the interim president Julius Ayuk Tabe, Prof. Cheh Augustine Awasum and one other, who was recently made Minister by Ayuk Tabe, in his cabinet. The legal mind tasks the trio to make public the details of their discussion with the Director of the Civil Cabinet of the Republic of Cameroon, if the allegation that they have been compromised is false. Barrister Nsoh also revealed that Ayuk Julius has been keeping documents from him.
However, those loyal to Ayuk Tabe hold that there is no existing constitution which governs the Interim Government, hence tagging some of the revelations as being “outright lies and manipulations”.
According to Mark Bareta, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe “reconstituted his cabinet as per 5th January 2018, a cabinet which still had Dr. Samuel Sako and Chris Anu because they were part of Sisiku’s cabinet. Reconstituting a cabinet is not the same as forming something new or dissolving”, he says.
The Ayuk Tabe defendant also writes that “Without an official people approved constitution, President Sisiku has all the rights to take actions of his cabinet whether from jail or not as long as the means suggest”.
However, in a somewhat regretting manner, Bareta questions: “If we have a legislative body, aren’t we supposed to know its composition? Who sits in the house? Who represents you? Who makes and passed laws for you? Have we become another Cameroun that we can’t know these things, I think Cameroun is even better because their own legislature anyone around the world can tract its members. If you are asked who seats in that house, how many will you named? I will name Elvis Kometa and tribalistic Wonja Wonja. We deserved to know its composition to understand the geopolitical representation. As of now, that house is a CPDM controlled house”, he maintains.
Directing his attention to his fellow diaspora ‘strugglers’, Bareta out-rightly states: “Anyone out here who is free and enjoying the coziness of the diaspora freedom borne by the suffering of their own people and loudly praying, cursing or wishing that Sisiku should be sentenced or be dead as well as his team shall not succeed. You are on your own. God will not answer such prayers. Such prayers are evil, borne from a very dark side and our ancestors shall be very angry if such even whispered near them”.
However accusations of the use of power, as well as money, continue to set the ‘strugglers’ at loggerheads, barely days after Ayuk Tabe made public his own version of dialogue to end the struggle, and called for all his brethren to be united for the sake of their cause.
The Sisiku Ayuk Tabe version of dialogue
Incarcerated ‘Southern Cameroon’s leader, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, has released a letter, where he outlines what should be a true dialogue to solve the current deadlock in Cameroon’s two Anglophone restive regions.
Addressed to other ‘Southern Cameroonians’ engaged in the ongoing struggle for self determination, Ayuk Tabe writes that the five-page document follows brainstorming which he and his brethren in detention at the Yaounde Principal Prison, have engaged in and come out with, and he states it remains open for more ideas.
Titled ‘Proposal For Talks To End The Political Conflict Between The Southern Cameroons And La Republique Du Cameroun’, Ayuk Tabe reminds his co-‘strugglers’ that “This struggle is bigger than any one of us and we must put our nation first”.
The Sisiku group writes that the proposed talks to end the political conflict should, among others, deliberate on issues like the Origin and basis of the conflict, which they state is the “outcome of the 1961 botched decolonization process of the former UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons”, as well as the failure by the United Nations (UN) to respect and apply Article 76(b) of its Charter and also the Trusteeship Agreement. “FOR A PERMANENT SOLUTION to solve the political conflict highlighted above, talks should have as ultimate objective to right the wrongs of 1961 that led to the annexation and colonial occupation of the British Southern Cameroons by La Republique du Cameroun, that is the restoration of the statehood of the Southern Cameroons”, the proposal states.
Outlining the scope of the problem, the proposal states that the solution of the problem falls within the UN mediation, citing examples like Eritrea vs Ethiopia, and even South Sudan vs Sudan. “We therefore expect the resolution of the Ambazonian political conflict with La Republique du Cameroun to follow the same international involvement and method for a permanent solution”, they say.
According to the Sisiku group, the parties to the Talks should be the following; La Republique du Cameroun, Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia, The United Nations Organisation officiating as the natural umpire and Foreign observers. They further suggest that organisations and countries that could have observer status during the Talks should be the United Kingdom, France, the African Union, Commonwealth, European Union, ECOWAS, Nigeria, United States of America (USA), Ghana, South Africa, Algeria, Russia, Rwanda and Germany.
Also, the proposal again outlines several conditions which must be met to create a conducive atmosphere for the talks to be held, which include such as, unconditional cessation of hostilities and complete withdrawal of the military, release of all detainees, war deads and the handing over of the same to the United Nations with an accurate head count and recording; observation of a cease fire by both parties; Withdrawal of Governors, Senior Divisional Officers and Divisional Officers; and also withdrawal of “all la Republique du Cameroun colonial civil servants”.
The proposal further states that “La Republique du Cameroun and Ambazonia shall have an equal number of delegates to the Talks”.
Regarding the venue for the talks, head quarters like New York-UN, Geneva-UN, Addis Ababa-AU, were suggested, which Sisiku and his group believe are safer than anywhere else in Cameroon. “For the safety and security of participants and sanity of the Talks, it is proposed that this should take place in a neutral territory, away from La Republique du Cameroun and Ambazonia”, they state.
They again propose that the issues for the talks will be to ensure peace, peaceful separation and good neighbourliness between the two belligerents, “the Talks should among other things, be centered on; Political issues; Economic issues; Socio-cultural issues”.