Beating War Drums Makes No Sense
By Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert (Yindo Toh)
Spokesperson, MoRISC

All this loud talk about war being the only option left for the independence of Southern Cameroons to be restored is just what it is – plain, empty talk! It is something else, too – it is plain, damn silly and dangerous!

The colonizer loves and has heavily invested in promoting it online. Yaounde is in the role of a spider, inviting the fly to pay the spider a visit. Flies know, or should know, better. Don’t get caught in the deadly web.

The Republic of Cameroon is baiting and begging Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia to commit its deadliest error yet: trigger what Yaounde will transform into a War of National Unity.

In very simple terms, picking up arms would put a final nail on the coffin of Ambazonia’s Independence Quest. Those falling in love with or urging consideration of the violent approach – sadly a fast growing number of our people since the infuriating carnage of last September 22nd and October 1st – justify their call with the lamentation that we cannot just sit by and be slaughtered one by one, like chicken for a massive chicken soup delicacy.

Well – if we are angered by that carnage, we must never forget that if LRC killed in the hundreds in those two days, they will be licensed to kill in the tens of thousands, and with total impunity, should the war dreams culminate in a war effectively being launched.

However justified and legal our case, anyone picking up arms in Southern Cameroons will be making themselves and, by extension many of our people, the members of a militia group (illegal under International Law). They would be creating a rebel group or armed insurrection (both illegal under International Law). The colonizer will bypass both of the above and go for the ultimate bad naming of the dog. Yaounde will plead the case, assisted by France its sponsor and chief legal counsel before the Security Council as well as before Satan in Hell, that whatever we call ourselves, we are, in fact, a terrorist group. As you all know, that is code word within the international community for saying members of a particular group do not deserve to live and should not be negotiated with.

That is why quite bluntly war won’t cut it. Going to war is simply not fighting smart. Besides, no war has ever been won on the battle field. All wars have ultimately been resolved through legal and diplomatic means. This makes fighting wars not half as important as winning the peace. The people of Catalonia understand that, which is why some of you could watch an amazing video this morning showing their people, confront, stare down, bully and March out the occupation forces from Madrid from one section of Catalonia… without so much as throwing stones. That is why Catalonia has not turned to arms, although it is easy to imagine that it would be easier for them to source weapons and ammunition than it would be for Southern Cameroonians, for example.

Even Colonial Cameroun – a well established dullard in governance – has learnt this lesson and has applied it before with a brilliance that is usually absent from anything decided out of Yaounde. Remember Bakassi? The Republic of Cameroon knew that it would be crushed if it went to war against Nigeria over the Bakassi Peninsular. They knew also that they would win the legal and diplomatic war against Nigeria. So, even dull LRC played clever by opting for the legal and diplomatic front. That choice frustrated Nigeria, which was begging for a border war that would have most certainly – as has been the case with the border wars between Israel and Palestine – facilitated the extension of their border to swallow Bakassi. Even Silly La Republique understood and applied the right strategy: the force of argument, not the argument of force.

Southern Cameroons invented that slogan, but it is about time we stick strictly with it. Not war, but all things legal and diplomatic. That would be fighting smart! Taking action that we know, for sure, will lead to the killing of millions of Ambazonians is fighting stupid. It would be tantamount to helping the colonizer win a war we did not need to start. It is giving up what is our joker in this struggle, in favor of an approach that puts our opponent light years ahead of us. We know better!

Those making our case an opposite of number of the case of Catalonia ignore too many facts. Southern Cameroons gained independence from the U.K. as set out under UNGA Resolution 1608(XV) of 21st April1961. Catalonia did not gain independence and cannot show a similar UN resolution as Ambazonia. With the UN’s approval, Southern Cameroons formed what was supposed to be a union of “two states, equal in status” with Colonial Cameroun. Catalonia did not form any such union from which they are asking to breakout. Southern Cameroons has a territory within internationally recognized borders. Catalonia does not. Like all independent countries, Southern Cameroons voted in an independence referendum. Catalonia is still asking the world to let its people exercise the right to self-determination. Catalonia is more like South Sudan than Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. Their single strongest argument under International Law would be the fact that they are a people and that they have never foreclosed on their right to self-determination.

Beating war drums in Ambazonia is playing into the trap the colonizer has laid for us from the beginning of time. Our job is not cheering for a strategy we are lest prepared for and whose cost in blood is certain to numb even the hard hearted. The work we must continue to focus on is to sustain the momentum of this struggle. We must keep our people mobilized and steadfast in denying consent to the colonizer. The job of leadership must focus on building an inclusive, credible and legitimate governing authority, in consultation with the people. The Kaduna Mafia-type arrangements for usurpation of power that have reared their ugly behinds should be nibbed at the bud. Our focus should remain to build on diplomacy and the legality of our case. East Timor did exactly that, and ended up forcing the United States Congress (once, as with Ambazonia today, strongly opposed to independence for East Timor and totally in favor of a United Indonesia) and the United Nations to do the right thing.

A winning strategy recognizes that many hands do light work. The current dispensation which rejects all initiatives except those taken by SCACUF can only harm, kill and bury this struggle. Wouldn’t be wonderful to see a return to the time when groups across the world – some of which we cannot even remember by name except as Southern Cameroonians – organized rallies of over 500 people in Germany, for example, and elsewhere around the globe, giving our case international exposure? Other movements grow legs of clay when the grouping playing the role of Governing Authority seeks to do, to own and to take credit for everything. Masterful leadership is achieved by delegating authority, not hugging it. When those small, small, nameless and faceless groups poured out into streets of the world to cry for justice for our people, the carnage we have suffered had not yet been visited on our people. With a little more delegation of authority and mobilization of the whole Ambazonian nation and groups, our people angered by the carnage would be doing more, not less of those demonstrations.

That is why the Fourth Conclave mattered so much and, sadly, fell so flat on its face. This is not just criticism for criticism sake. We all know that momentum is waning and it is urgent that we speak up to help prevent the bottom from falling out from under this struggle. We all need to find creative ways of recapturing the magic of those days. We all need to initiate action at our own level without waiting for all action to be decreed by SCACUF and/of the Governing Authority. The latter can help by rescinding on its communiques decreeing that anything about this struggle that does not come from them is coming from the colonizer.

Our people should remain vigilant and ready to boldly decry evil not only from the colonizer but also from within our ranks. They must be prepared to call leadership to order when they witness evil like the current shift towards more exclusion and Open attempts to build a one-party system crowned by one man rule. If the people cannot speak up now; if they cannot ask for the best governance practices while we are still on the Road to Buea and the Governing Authority, we might as well forget obtaining that from them when we get to Buea.

END