A critical analysis of the forces
that are ferociously opposed to the Biya regime and the French-imposed system
today show that these are people who never allowed themselves to be compromised
by the system in Cameroon, a system which is made up of those who played no
role whatsoever, whether fully or partially, in the cause to liberate Cameroon
from colonialism (whether as liberals, moderates or radicals), and their French
overlords whose game plan is to fleece Cameroon of its resource. This
neocolonialist system dragging Cameroon into the abyss encourages looting by
the elites of the political establishment who are nothing but mercenaries working
against the Cameroonian people. These are compradors per se that have hijacked
the country, even the ethnicity or ethnicities they identify with.
Curiously enough, the forces
committed to the cause to dismantle this anachronistic system, at one time or
the other, were associated with the historic Social Democratic Front (SDF) of
1990-1997 whose ranks had been swollen by the country’s civic-nationalist,
otherwise called Kamerunists or union-nationalists. They were associated either
as parties working with the SDF in the 1991-1992 Coordination of Opposition
Parties, the 1992-1993 Union for Change (made up of parties that supported the
SDF’s John Fru Ndi in the 1992 presidential election). These are/were advocates
of the “New Cameroon” who held as sacred
the true goals of reunification and independence that the land’s historic patriots
fought and died for, and that they led the people to vote for in the 1961
plebiscite in British Southern Cameroons. These advocates were the heirs of
Cameroon’s historic leaders such as Martin Paul Samba, Rudolf Duala Manga Bell,
Ruben Um Nyobe, Felix Moumie, Albert Kingue, Ernest Ouandie, Ndeh Ntumazah,
Albert Mukong, Robert J.K Dibongue, etc.
Today, where are the children of the historic
SDF of 1990-1997, a national, civic-nationalists party per se, at the time that commanded more
than 70% of popular support in Cameroon in 1997, a party where the ideology of
Kamerunism was dominant at the time, a party that was backed by the majority of
its militants, supporters and sympathizers who were the heirs of the historic
UPC and saw the SDF at the time as the party carrying the banner of the cause
to complete Cameroon’s unfinished liberation from colonialism and
neocolonialism in a road map that would lead to the economic union and
political integration of Africa?
Some say the SDF lost its way in
1997 and committed political suicide in 2002, so that the dominant Kamerunist
faction within it found the party unaccommodating, and so abandoned the SDF,
thereby leaving the factions that wanted an independent Southern Cameroons (Anglophone Cameroon), a return to
the 1972 Cameroon Federation with the system still in place, and the faction
that was for collaboration with the system and a share of the national cake, to
become dominant in the SDF.
Where are these former SDF
factions today, and what are their roles in this fourth phase of the
Cameroonian struggle to dismantle the anachronistic system imposed by France? Where
are they in this drive to found the “New Cameroon” that all the groups in the country can identify with?
The answers lie with identifying the different forces
within the historic SDF of 1990-1997:
- The first group is the Kamerunists, otherwise called
the Union-Nationalists of Cameroon. They are made up of the following;
- The union-nationalists, who left the hijacked SDF,
are still against the system and are still committed to the struggle. (Our
type).
- The union-nationalists who are still in the hijacked
SDF and in essence constitute a
futile group.
- The union-nationalists who gave up on the struggle
and are in political lethargy or political limbo(the majority).
- The union-nationalists who are now sponging off the system under the delusion that they are getting back what they lost in the cause
or are getting their own share of the
national cake ( the minority and
traitors).
- The union-nationalists who left the SDF, but
retreated into narrower causes like the SCNC, into provincial goals like the SDF---Northwest
region, and ethnic trenches like Bamileke, Beti-Fang, Bassa, Duala etc. (Ntemfac
Ofege of SCNC etc.)undertakings.
- The SDF militants who may or may never have been
union-nationalists, but who are
still in the SDF and at the same
time have retreated into narrower causes or are openly advocating for the narrow
causes they always held at heart
such as the SCNC or Ambazonia ( Carlson Anyangwe, Boh Herbert, Ebenezer
Akwanga etc.)
- The second group is made up of those who are still in
the SDF who were never union-nationalists but whose main concerns were their
ethnicities or regions. These are mostly the ethno-fascists, the ethnic
chauvinists who like Paul Biya and his tribal cabal are using the people
they share roots with for their personal benefits, or are using ethnicities that like the majority in all
other ethnicities in Cameroon, are for the “New Cameroon”.
- The third group has within its ranks those who were
never Kamerunists (union-nationalist of Cameroon) and who are not in the
SDF anymore. They have either sold out to the system, to other interest groups or have given up on the struggle.
- The fourth group comprises those who though in the
SDF in the 1990s, never stopped dreaming of independence for the lands of the former West Cameroon, or the former British Southern Cameroons. These are the heirs of those who voted
against Cameroon’s reunification in
1961. They are a potpourri of factions ---
ethno-fascists, Endeleyists, Anglophiles, and Francophobes etc.
Janvier Tchouteu June 14, 2012
Today: July 16, 2019
It is obvious that a considerable
number of Kamerunists from the SDF, are today members, militants, supporters
and sympathizers of the Cameroon
Renaissance Movement (CRM)--- Movement
pour la Renaissance du Cameroun (MRC).
They form a faction of those who never stopped upholding the high ideals
of the historic UPC and One Kamerun, people who were in limbo after the top SDF
leadership shed off its civic-nationalist garment and made the SDF a party of the system like the political parties of Ndam Njoya, Bellow Boukba Maigari, Augustine Kodock and the other political parties in the country that are nothing but appendages of the ruling CPDM, the Biya regime and the political system as a whole.
The system needs to be dismantled
as soon as possible before Cameroon reaches that critical point where the
countdown to its demise would become irreversible. The social-engineering of
Cameroonians is already into the third generation. So the heirs of the forces
that upheld the Cameroonian dream, starting with the historic UPC, need to
close their ranks and rekindle the flame that is meant to illuminate the path
to the New Cameroon. We should start with strengthening the correlated Um-Nyobe,
Felix Moumie, and Ernest Ouandie legacies;
we should start by bringing back into the fold of the exponents of the “New Cameroon”, the heirs
of the UPC faction under Mayi Matip who
for the sake of the survival of the Bassa people and for other reasons,
conciliated with France/Ahidjo in 1960; they should be reconciled with the Um-Nyobe-Moumie-Ouangie
factions that got defeated, received no carrots, joined the SDF in the 1990s
and see the dismantling of the system, the completion of Cameroon’s unfinished
liberation, and the founding of the “New Cameroon” as the only option for
Cameroonians who want a true progressive, democratic, prosperous, just, free, harmonious
and advanced Cameroon.
Advocates of the “New Cameroon”
should concurrently be more understanding and accommodating to those coming from ethnicities that
the Biya regime and the system falsely claim to represent because the
existence of the Biya regime is in no way beneficial to more than 90% of the
peoples of the Beti-Fang ethnic group, just like the Ahidjo regime was not
beneficial to the majority of Cameroon’s Peuls (Fulanis). The overwhelming majority of Cameroonians
(99% plus) of all the ethnicities, stand to live better in a “New Cameroon”
where they not only have a stake in running their local affairs but where they
would have the guaranteed support of the state or central government in enhancing their regions and their wellbeing.
Janvier Tchouteu July 16, 2019
