By DOH JAMES SONKEY AND ELAH GEOFREY MBONGALE
The resurfaced Social Democratic Front, SDF Party Member of Parliament for Jakiri in the North West Region, Hon Joseph Wirba who had been in the hiding ever since a warrant of arrest was issued against him by the Delegate General for National Security at the heart of the Anglophone crisis has declared that “I am ready to pay any price to liberate our people of West Cameroon. When I came to the conclusion that I will live or die back home standing up for our people of West Cameroon, I packed my bag and left where I was, to come back to Cameroon.”
The non-compromising Hon Wirba’s declaration in an interview granted The SUN Newspaper sharply contrast with allegations by some people who claimed the firebrand MP had negotiated his return to Cameroon.
The SDF MP stole the show in the hemicycle of the Ngoa Ekelle Glass House last June 21, 2017 when he suddenly reappeared at the National Assembly, demanded the floor and insisted despite being called to order several times by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril that bills should be relegated to the background in order to first tackle the socio-political unrest in the North West and South West Regions that has prevented students from attending classes for over six months.
When Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril asked if Hon Wirba has finally come out of his hiding, the SDF MP retorted that “Since you failed to protect me, I am back to continue from where I stopped,” challenging the Speaker to send a message to the person who wanted him arrested that they can do so immediately at the National Assembly.
On why he is daring the lion in its den by coming back with an arrest warrant still hanging on him, Hon Joseph Wirba explained that “After three months of reflection, I came to a simple conclusion that if our people of West Cameroon need me, I need to stand up for them. So, it is now the place of the government to decide which place is best suit for Wirba, is it Kondengui or an early grave because I have reconciled with both and that is why I am back.”
He decried the indifference of the regime “I don’t see why bills are examined and voted here for all this time with nothing happening to the common Cameroonian. For how long will this government go on humiliating our people? The people cry out, you don’t listen, more than a million children are out of school for more than six months and the Speaker cannot talk about it. Businesses are closed for half a year because the people are in pains and you don’t listen. Teachers talk, you drive them, some are in jail and others in exile. What are Agbor Balla, Dr Fontem Neba and the others doing in prisons? Their crime is simply that they are different because they come from West Cameroon. Some people call them political prisoners but I call them cultural prisoners.”
Hon Wirba castigated the government for always attempting to force people who are not like them to be like them.
He frowned that “The House Speaker could not even let me express myself on the West Cameroon plight but I had to push as usual to be able to get some space. When you have our Bishops and men of God humiliated in public, what is it that the government really wants? We cannot recall the number of times they had run down Christian Cardinal Tumi for standing by the truth. We have gone through fifty years of pains so they should stop humiliating us.”
Hon Wirba concluded that “The status quo can no longer hold because fifty years is enough.”
In another interview he granted Equinoxe TV, Hon. Neba warned that most of current solutions to the Anglophone crisis by government is a farce, a pretence and just for cosmetic purposes. He insisted that the only solution to the current impasse is a return to the dialogue table. According to him, West Cameroonians are almost reaching a point of rebellion; they are rejecting everything from government.
Quizzed on what he stands for; federalism or secession, The Hon. MP said “I don’t believe in a stance, whether federalism or independence. I believe in our people living in dignity and freedoms. I belief in us going back to the foundation as we came and discuss and let the people decide. We need to reflect and review our history. The people will decide, so we must sit on the table.”