Fellow Southern Cameroonians,

The events of the past two days should fool no Southern Cameroonian. Colonial La Republique du Cameroun (LRC) isn’t bowing to our demands by offering to release some – keyword some – of our detained leaders and the hostages the colonialists have not stopped taking all across our homeland. In war terms, LRC has not even called a unilaterally truce. Yaounde has merely stopped firing to reload. We are officially in the “First Phoney Battle” of our war of sorts with the colonial regime of Yaounde.

As the facts become clearer, we are realizing that the events of Wednesday are as fake as the so-called presidential decree. The only thing real about the decree is the fact that it was signed by the real Prime Minister (otherwise known as the Secretary General of the Presidency); not by the First Slave whom Yaounde recalled from Canada and holds as the first hostage at the Star Building.

By waving a fake white flag on Wednesday, Yaounde was signaling its commitment to “live to fight another day”. And LRC only took that decision after it had ascertained, beyond any shadow of doubt, that it could not hope to ever win the ongoing Battle of Abduct, Deport and Jail. That battle was already doing way too much damage to the badly battered reputation of Colonial Yaounde. Claiming to have released everyone is meant to win favor all around the world.

The fake presidential decree grants neither presidential pardon nor clemency, given that no crime was committed and no condemnation had been handed down by a court. Imagining that a judge in Cameroon would have done anything except do the will of the colonial master is to suggest that the tyrant in power in Yaounde is not the law. On Wednesday, LRC did only one thing: it embarked on a charm operation towards the international community.

See – we have released their leaders, must be the most recurrent phrase in any diplomatic letter or note verbal leaving Yaounde for any capital of the world. As it brainwashes the world, the colonizer will first not release everyone; will not release those not detained in Yaounde; will leave those who have been in jail for years (like our Comrade Maxwell or the young men from Wum) to continue to rot there. The illegal state of emergency imposed on Southern Cameroons will allow the occupation forces of the colonizer to round up, to deport, to torture, to execute, to “disappear”, and to maim and rape as many of our citizens as possible.

Meantime, Yaounde will turn on the heat on those released, presenting their gesture of release as one good turn deserving another. Our leaders are probably right now being pressurized to call for the resumption of schools lest they be returned to jail. That is why the fake decree is about discontinuance, not the dripping of all charges and unconditional release. Those of our leaders released under this mafioso deal remain hostages – in jail or out of jail. They are or will be under enormous pressure to denounce the restoration of independence agenda. The fake decree allows the colonial regime to hold a gun just a lighter tighter and closer to the heads of our leaders, always ready to fire. Talk of Boko Haram-style governance!

The main goal Yaounde seeks with its fake decree is to take as much wind out of the Restoration of Independence balloon as possible. We are now at a point once accurately predicted by Barrister Nkongho. We are at the point where LRC is begging for anyone among the Southern Cameroonian leaders to revert to demands for federalism; away from outright separation. No one should be fooled either. Even if LRC talks federalism at some point, everyone should know that LRC isn’t even considering federalism. The colonizer isn’t even ready to contemplate the decentralization it wrote into the constitution 21 years ago.

Since Wednesday, we have also come to the point where the Southern Cameroons struggle for Restoration of Independence is likely to face its wildest challenges. We are officially entering the point where the most brutal battles ahead may be Southern Cameroons versus Southern Cameroons. As in Ahidjo’s day, our leaders will number the Hon. Juas but also the Hon. Munas. LRC hopes that it can use the release of some of our leaders and people in detention to unleash a phase of division that will see Southern Cameroonians eat each other alive – over “school or no school”; over “decentralization or regionalism”; and over “federalism or restoration”.

If our leaders and people take the bait that Yaounde has in the water right now, the colonizer will kick back and relax over a “33 Export” or a champagne bottle, as they watch Ambazonians eat each other.

The above isn’t a prediction. It is not a fatality. We can avoid this trap. We can and must avoid taking the bait. This is how:

First, insist that all leaders of our struggle state clearly if they are for decentralization, for regionalism, for federalism, for restoration of independence – not statehood – or for the status quo.

Second, ensure that the leadership for the restoration of independence is shielded from coming under direct threat from the colonizer, including by recognizing that if home-based leaders are for independence, it will take offering themselves as sacrificial lambs to speak openly about it from within the mouth of the Lion of Etoudi.

Third, insist that the leaders of the restoration agenda maintain the strongest weapon they have deployed so far, which is keeping schools closed until independence is restored.

Fourth, denounce any dialogue that is led by the colonizer with a right to also pick participants, especially talks that exclude any groups that currently and openly advocate separation.

Fifth, the offer by the UN but previously by the African Union and, notably the Court in Banjul, to facilitate talks must be accepted by all stakeholders. The agenda cannot be limited to discussing the so-called “one, and indivisible” Kamerun. Separation must be entered as not only a likely but very probable and acceptable solution to the AU, UN, and LRC.

Sixth, our pro-Independence organization must revive the pressure to discredit the colonizer and to deny any legitimacy to those who still claim to be representatives of Southern Cameroonian’s while serving as de facto collaborators of the colonizer.

Aluta continua!

Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert (Yindo Toh)
Spokesperson, MoRISC