The United Nations was an organization with great values, will voice to the voiceless, stood up for against human right violations, a rescuer for the oppressed, will call member states to order a great overseer of the world.
After the Second World War II, the UN obliged colonial power to guide their colonies towards independence in Africa, Southern Cameroon was one of those countries
Southern Cameroon was under British rule has three options, independence as a sovereign state, and independence by joining French Cameroon or by joining Nigeria. The British put forward a case to the UN that southern Cameroon was not economically viable to be a sovereign state, the people of southern Cameroon appeal against the to the un who was quick to reject the appeal of the southern Cameroon given rise the plebiscite questions.
- Do you wish to achieve independence by joining the independent Federation of Nigeria?
- Do you wish to achieve independence by joining the independent Republic of Cameroun?
The United Nations documents defined the basis of integration as: “Integration with an independent State should be on the basis of complete equality between the peoples of the erstwhile Non-Self-Governing Territory and those of the independent country with which it is integrated. The peoples of both territories should have equal status and rights of citizenship… at all levels in the executive, legislative and judicial organs of government.” With all confidence, southern Cameroon voted to gain independence by joining French Cameroon according to the UN specifications above and trusting that they will always be there as a marriage counselor between the English and French Cameroon.
Since independence In 1961 French Cameroon have re-colonise Sothern Cameroon the people of southern Cameroon have been living in fear in their own homeland they can’t call the name of their own country without the fire of persecution. At the core of Anglophone grievances is the loss of the former West Cameroons as a “distinct community defined by differences in official language and inherited colonial traditions of education, law, and public administration,” which can be broken down to the following
- The failure of successive governments of Cameroon, since 1961, to respect and implement the articles of the Constitution that uphold and safeguard what British Southern Cameroons brought along to the Union in 1961.
- The flagrant disregard for the Constitution, demonstrated by the dissolution of political parties and the formation of one political party in 1966, the sacking ofJua and the appointment of Muna in 1968 as the Prime Minister of West Cameroon, and other such acts judged by West Cameroonians to be unconstitutional and undemocratic.
- The cavalier management of the 1972 Referendum which took out the foundational element (Federalism) of the 1961 Constitution.
- The 1984 Law amending the Constitution, which gave the country the original East Cameroon name (The Republic of Cameroon) and thereby erased the identity of the West Cameroonians from the original union. West Cameroon, which had entered the union as an equal partner, effectively ceased to exist.
- The deliberate and systematic erosion of the West Cameroon cultural identity which the 1961 Constitution sought to preserve and protect by providing for a bi-cultural federation.
The SCNC raised these issues with the government but there was no solution, the SCNC started their campaign for impendence of southern Cameroon. The government’s first approach to this idea was to band the SCNC, persecute its members some were sent on exile or incarcerated. The lawyers and teachers joined in last November and they were brutalized by the law enforcement officers (Boko gendarme and haram police), this led to the birth of the coffin revolution in southern Cameroon. At least 10 people have died who went out to express their frustrations against the government in a peaceful way. The government called for dialog and when their terms were not met they arrested all southern Cameroonians who went in good faith to dialog with the French government and were imprison in addition to 100 southern Cameroonians who went out demonstrating against the government who were also arrested and are in jail till date, followed by internet blackout in southern Cameroon for 91 days.
The above is the product of the marriage between LRC and southern Cameroon after fifty years and where have the almighty UN been? The last UN residence coordinator for Cameroon was bribed and did not raise any of these concerns to the UN. The UN visited Cameroon early this year and only Boko haram was discussed not southern Cameroon. Thanks to the relentless questionS asked by inner city press at the UN daily briefings the UN was forced to go to Cameroon for the third time and asked for the realize of all detained and the restoration of the internet in southern Cameroon and dialog should resume. The government In Cameroon reluctantly restored the internet but did not realize all who are unjustly detained. The gangster regime in Yaoundé is now forcing children at gunpoint to take GCE both O and A level exams when these children had not been to school since last year November in an attempt to destroy or downgrade an English exam. When asked the above and the none compliance of the Cameroon government’s last request at the daily briefing by inner city press, all the Un can say was that they were closely monitoring the situation ( whatever that means).the UN is hoping that dialog will restart in Cameroon but how can that happen when gangster regime was to dialog while pointing a guns at the head of southern Cameroonians but we cannot continue to leave with LRC we had tried it two times it did not work first was the joined condominium from 1914 which collapsed in 1916 the British and the French could not jointly administer Cameroon, the independence by joining LRC in 1961 which has given rise to the marginalisation of southern Cameroonians. Two clear example that these people cannot stay together, why the UN still wants dialog and unity baffling to me, there is only one solution to this problem the total independence of southern Cameroon please Mr un wake up to this reality, your greatest achievement in Cameroon since 1961 is the restoration of the internet in southern Cameroon, at time I wonder if this is the same UN that forced colonial power to grant independence to their colonies or we have a shadow that UN now.
By PRIDE MBI AGBOR
SCNC ACTIVIST UK