By NOELA E. BISONG & EBONG WILSON
The Social Democratic Front, SDF Parliamentary Group has said it is taking action to implement party policy at the level of Parliament which in summary calls for a definitive solution that will bring to an end the crisis in the English Speaking regions of the country. The decision was made known to the public through a communiqué signed by the SDF Parliamentary Group leader, Hon. Chief Paul Nji Tumasang, last November 12, 2019 in Yaounde. The said action, The SUN gathered is geared towards blocking the voting of the National Budget, main focus of the session, unless the recommendations of the Major National Dialogue MND are addressed and implemented by government.
According to the party, their action is intended to create an enabling environment for the resumption of normal social, economic, political activities and for children to go back to school, having been absent from school for four years as a result of this crisis.
“Since the beginning of the making public of the existential question in the North-West and South-West Regions which was allowed to degenerate into a problem, then to a crisis and now to an armed conflict reminiscent of a civil war, the SDF has deployed all possible means to draw the attention of parliament and the government on the threat to national unity if definitive solutions were not found…It is important to stress that the root causes of this problem has nothing to do with language, the patronage of appointments, special status just to name these. They are just a manifestation of the problem”, the communiqué reads in part.
In the communiqué, the party narrates steps it has taken for the resolve of the deadlock in the two regions, but how it has often met with stiff opposition from the CPDM government.
“As can be seen, the SDF has made a lot of efforts to get the CPDM regime to join forces with it to nib this crisis in the bud. The CPDM consistently ignored the SDF preferring to consider it as ‘the face behind the mask’. Instead they went around talking largely to its members and sympathisers to (itself ) thus allowing the situation to degenerate into the mess that we now find ourselves.”
While holding that their proposals for the MND were not considered, the party says “Notwithstanding this contempt with which the party was treated, the SDF decided to participate in the ‘dialogue’ because of its long standing quest for peace and a return to normalcy throughout the country. The results of the ‘dialogue’ so far after more than six weeks has been the appointment of Senior Divisional and Divisional Officers throughout English Speaking Cameroon and the calling for elections timed to disrupt the November budgetary session of Parliament.” However, the decision of the SDF comes at a time when the government has just dispatched peace caravans to the restive North West and South West regions, to sensitise the population on the recommendations of the MND, for a return of peace to the regions.