BY SIMON NDIVE KALLA
Barrister Agbor Ashu Emmanuel of the Reform Party has officially declared his intention run as presidential candidate for the upcoming presidential elections; he made his intention known during a press conference in Douala on Thursday March 1, 2018.
Barrister Agbor Ashu regrets that the Anglophone crisis is degenerating into a civil war due to the poor handling of the crisis at its initial stage by the government.
“We are losing a lot of soldiers, civilians and whole villages are being burnt down and I think that, the situation is very detrimental to our own existence, I want to call on my brothers and sisters to understand that the problem cannot be solved by killing people.” Barrister Agbor Ashu said.
He added that it is true that the CPDM government opted for war and given that this is an election year, he urges the population to massively vote them out of office for a change.
“We shall make sure that the grievances of the people are taken into account, we cannot contain the situation with arms because many people will die.” Barrister Agbor Ashu added.
He however urged Cameroonian to join forces to vote the ruling CPDM out of office. According to him, given that francophones have ruled Cameroon for the past 57 years, it is time for an Anglophone to take over power. He added that if this is done, the current crisis may be laid to rest.
According to him, the Anglophone crisis should be solved legally rather than resorting to extremism. He added the Reforme Party will solve the Anglophone crisis by sitting on the same table and dialoguing with those concerned. The CPDM does not want to sit and dialogue on the same table with anybody, he added.
He added that his party is coming up with good governance strategy to transform Cameroon to what CPDM has been unable to do.
On his strategy to win the elections, Barrister Ashu announced that his party has an anti electoral fraud plan that will put the CPDM in real trouble.
Since its creation, the Reformed Party had 1,000 militant throughout the national territory, according to Barrister Agbor Ashu adding that his party is open for a coalition with any party so long as it is not one of the parties that make up the so-called presidential majority of the CPDM.
On the question of the form of state, Barrister Ashue says he respects the constitution which provides for decentralization since the form of state cannot be changed by the whim and caprices of a single individual thus any change in the form of state should be a collective decision by the state actors and the National Assembly.
The Reform Party is proposing amongst others, a decentralized form of government that will have the advantage of cutting government spending, an equal regional representation of ministerial appointments, a radical fight to combat Boko Haram including a strong boarder wall, with surveillance cameras and a patrol team.