By NDIMUH B. SHANCHO
It’s an open secret that the Anglophone crisis, which the major national dialogue has been primarily called to resolve, is inextricably linked to the form of state in Cameroon, most especially the centralized structure that stripped the Anglophones of the privileges they enjoyed under the federal form of government between 1961 to 1972. The Cameroon government, however, seems to have developed nostalgia towards any request towards re-visiting the form of state.
Last October 2016, when Common Law Lawyers in Cameroon went on strike to protest the supposed annihilation of the Common law practice, and Anglophone teachers joined in November 2016, to decry government’s attempt to assimilate the educational system, a number of demands were made to the Cameroon government. In an attempt to broker peace, the government engaged the Consortium made of leaders of Common Law Layers and Anglophone teachers in a dialogue. All discussions during the series of talks with different government representatives went well but flopped when demands for a return to the federal form of government was tabled.
This culminated in the arrest and detention of some ring leaders like Barrister Nkongo Felix Agbor and Dr. Fontem Neba, January 17, 2017, giving the leeway for Cameroonians in the diaspora, who picked up the ‘struggle’, and along the way, drifted to secession. In September 22, 2017, the separatist leaders called for a grand march for the restoration of the state of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia, which has lingered since then.
Despite these, moderate voices have resolutely stood for a return to federalism. Those with this stand argue that decentralization has remained futile since enactment in 1996.
Even the National Commission on Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, in their report shortly after meeting with the people of North West and South West regions to seek solutions to the crisis, indicated that the people of these regions wanted a return to federalism and better autonomy.
Pundits have it that for temper to down, and for calm to return to the Anglophone regions, discussions must be held on the form of state but the Cameroon government seems to have adamantly held unto decentralization.
Meeting with a group of Anglophones during the pre-dialogue consultations, Prime Minister/Head of Government is quoted to have said the form of state is not a priority. He posited that when you have a patient, you stabilize him/her first before looking into his problems, this reporter gathered. Some Anglophone elite, who heard this statement, did not hesitate to advance that “the best way to handle such a patient, is to give him what he wants”.
Though the Government seems to be holding firm to pushing across the decentralization agenda, as can be deduced from the utterances of the governors of North West and South West regions, federalists remain resolute to push on with agenda during the national dialogue.