By NOELA EBOB BISONG
Frontline activist of the Anglophone cause in Cameroon, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor a.k.a Agbor Balla has unveiled what in his opinion must be the content of the awaited Special Status for Cameroon’s two crisis-plagued regions.
The announced Special Status was the main recommendation of the Major National Dialogue held in Yaounde few weeks ago, with principal purpose to lay the Anglophone crisis to rest.
At the sidelines of the visit of France’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean Yves Le Drian to Cameroon last week, Barrister Nkongho Felix seized the opportunity to get Le Drian’s help to ensure the right things are done for peace to return in the regions and Cameroon at large.
Barrister Nkongho Felix told Le Drian during their meeting last October 23 in Yaounde that the Special Status “provides an important opportunity, if handled correctly, to respond to several demands underlying the unrest in the Anglophone regions, and are awaited with optimism by a large number of moderate Anglophone actors.”
He therefore beckoned that “Please encourage the Cameroonian authorities to take a participatory, constructive, and inclusive approach to developing the content of the Special Status framework for the NW/SW. As at the National Dialogue, Anglophone constituencies (education unions, legal unions, religious bodies, civil society, political leaders) should be allowed freely to discuss, debate, and propose what content is most appropriate for the Special Status for the regions. Government should avoid imposing, or developing the content alone, without wider public support in both regions.”
Agbor Balla noted that “Around the world, the granting of Special Status to regions of the country is best done in the Constitution, which recognizes those regions’ specificities, and protects their status from being reversed. Presently, under its laws, none of Cameroon’s regions (including the Northwest/Southwest) have a constitutional right of existence: they can be modified, created, altered, or merged by Presidential decision (Section 61 (2) of the Constitution). There is therefore a need to re-visit how to protect the Anglophone (Northwest/Southwest) regions as entities constitutionally, if they are receiving a Special Status.”
The legal mind furthered that “Special Status for the NW/SW Regions is not just, nor even principally about seeking political office, control of resources, or about those regions turning their back from Yaoundé. Please encourage Cameroon’s Government to examine the specific areas at the origins of this crisis, in which those regions need to manage certain affairs more proximately.”
To him, Special Status arrangements should enable the two Regions ensure that:
(1) an appropriate level of English is used and maintained to deliver public services there,
(2) the English educational system is maintained and not over-ridden by the French system,
(3) the English legal practice system is maintained, and
(4) the State or public administration in the region reflects the language, and local government practices common to those regions.
Barrister Nkongho further implored Le Drian to “Please encourage Cameroon’s Government, while maintaining all its regions under the national umbrella, to focus on identifying areas where enhanced devolution, or self-management of certain domains, will enable all components of its population to realize their full potential, and thus in diversity, contribute to building a stronger Nation. Please offer your continued availability (and that of international partners) to support the Cameroonian authorities and all actors in the crisis, to implement and make this a reality”,
Concerning the disarmament and demobilisation of ex-fighters, Barrister Nkongho Felix urged Le Drian to “push for Government to engage the separatist factions, to join an all-englobing peace process for the country.” According to Barrister Nkongho Felix, all sides in the conflict should be urged to continue to engage the Swiss process to de-escalate the fighting.
Le Drian while in Cameroon was granted audience by President Biya, after which he visited Douala and Maroua. His two-day visit ended with a pledge of FCFA 30 billion by France to help reconstruct and stabilise Cameroon’s Far North Region.