By Atia Tilarious Azohnwi
The Former Member of the National Assembly for Akwaya, Hon. Ayah Paul Abine has joined the social media bandwagon to throw jabs at Cameroon’s Head of State, President Paul Biya following newfound love for the new generation media.
When the Cameroonian Sovereign in a Facebook post on April 22, 2019 called on his compatriots to defend the homeland, Ayah Paul Abine filed a savage response.
In fact, the President had posted: “We have only one Fatherland. It is our duty to defend it and lead it; all of us together, on the paths of greatness and prosperity for everybody.”
The retired Supreme Court Judge cum Barrister-at-Law picked on the man overwhelmingly reelected last October 7 to steer the statecraft, wondering aloud if indeed the fatherland is one.
The former member of President Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) wrote: “One Fatherland’ indeed! ‘One Fatherland’ where parliament systematically refuses to debate the daily massacre of Anglophone! ‘One Fatherland’ where the head stays indifferent to protracted calls that Anglophones should be killed systematically down to the six-month old!”.
Apparently vexed with a regime he so religiously served but that jailed him, Ayah wrote further: “Truly, ‘One Fatherland’ where Anglophones returning to the ‘One Fatherland’ are turned away at the airports! ‘One Fatherland’ verily where Boko Haram killers are resettled and rewarded while innocent Anglophones or at least, presumed innocent at law, are dying in dungeons indefinitely awaiting trial! ‘One Fatherland’ where all anglophone are branded secessionistes and/or terroristes! … Arh beg, who wan vomit???!!! As if we are all infants!”
Until his resignation from politics two months ago, Ayah led the opposition Popular Action Party (PAP).
The retired Advocate General at the Supreme Court of Cameroon was arrested on January 21, 2017 at his residence in Yaoundé in relation to the Anglophone crisis.
He has on several occasions narrated instances of threats on his life. The vocal and loud sounding critic of Cameroon’s current political system quit politics “in compassion and solidarity with the killed, the wounded, the suffering/starving, and those languishing in detention under appalling conditions” because of the social instability in Cameroon.
When on April 10, 2008 parliament amended the constitution to permit President Biya take another mandate in 2011 and beyond if he so wishes, Ayah was the one man from the President’s party who raised a voice of disapproval.
Ayah, an outspoken CPDM MP at the time, slammed the bill predicting it would set the country back 200 years.
He said money was being paid to party members to encourage them to approve the bill, though there’s been no piece of evidence to justify this claim.
In 2011, Ayah stood against Biya in the October 11 presidential election but came 5th. He has since remained a bone in the throat of the Yaounde regime – a status quo he once served.