Why the Briscam Freedom Party Recommends Acceptance of the SCREXIT divorce bill of 250 billion FCFA.

The main implication of the sentencing of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Nera Ten by the Military Tribunal in Yaounde on 19th August 2019 is that the Biya regime has fixed a SCREXIT divorce bill at 250 billion FCFA. ($420 million). The BFP accepts this divorce bill and recommends that the people of the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia should accept it. Here are the reasons why.

I. Brexit Divorce Bill between Britain and the EU.

The British Parliament’s European Communities Act 1972 was enacted on 17 October, and the UK’s instrument of ratification was deposited the next day (18 October), letting the United Kingdom’s membership of the EC come into effect on 1 January 1973.

It is now known that if the UK leaves the EU on 31st October 2019, (after 43 years of marriage) it will have to pay a divorce bill of £39billion to the EU. This is now known as the Brexit Divorce Bill. Considering that the population of Britain in 2019 is 67 million the divorce bill is £582/capita.

II. The SCREXIT Divorce Bill between the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun

We have been informed that the military tribunal in Yaounde sentenced Julius Ayuk Tabe and nine other Ambazonian leaders to life imprisonment and a fine of 250 billion FCFA. This is the equivalent of €380 million (or €47/capita assuming that the population of the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia is 8 million).

The question is where did this figure of 250 billion FCFA come from? It is obviously the result of a lot of internal brainstorming within the Biya regime and the Franco /Beti/Bulu ruling group which sees the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia slipping out of its grip and drifting towards total independence as a consequence of the genocide and war crimes that are now hanging over the entire leadership of this regime with the increasing likelihood that Paul Biya himself will be eventually indicted by the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC or the Swiss Federal Prosecutor or by both. In both cases he will face an international arrest warrant.

The figure of 250 billion FCFA is nearly half a billion USD and the the GDP (2018) of Cameroon is around $40 billion and the fiscal budget is $5 billion. In other words the fine is 10% of the budget and 1.25% of the GDP of the whole of Cameroon.

But it is also known that 60% of the reported GDP is contributed by Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia which contributes 30-40% of the budgetary revenues.

The astronomical fine of 250 billion FCFA which is not based on any provision in the criminal code of French Cameroun confirms the belief that the Beti Bulu group was responsible for setting the refinery on fire in the hope that they would be paid the insurance indemnity which would be used to build a new refinery in Kribi. This implies that the insurance indemnity that they were expecting from the insurance companies was 250 billion FCFA. Hower since they had failed to pay the premium for a valid fire insurance policy, their plan went up in flames. Consequently, the Biya regime is saying “if you want your independence, you have to pay 250 billion FCFA”.

III. Position of the Briscam Freedom Party

The Briscam Freedom Party is of the view that after 58 years of marriage it is perfectly reasonable for the party that wants to leave the marriage to face a divorce bill. The BFP believes that the 250 billion FCFA is what the Biya regime is indirectly putting forward as a SCREXIT divorce bill.

They have floated this figure because they believe that it will be beyond anything which the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia can afford after the sustained campaign to destroy by fire over 200 towns and villages in Southern Cameroons and the campaign to deprive the youth of their means of livelihood by burning hundreds of Moto bike taxis in many towns including Yaounde. These Moto bike taxis have become a means of livelihood in a country where youth unemployment is close to 50%.

In spite of this, the position of the Briscam Freedom Party is that a SCREXIT divorce bill of 250 billion FCFA should be accepted by the people of Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia if that is what is required to be totally separated from French Cameroun.

What should concentrate our minds is the modalities of payment and the accompanying details of separation which must be enshrined in a separation treaty to be negotiated between the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun.

IV. Role of the Briscam Freedom Party

It is important to stress that the Briscam Freedom Party is not a liberation movement or a pressure group. It is a political party with a clearly defined and articulated ideology and a political manifesto which has already been presented to the people of the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia. The BFP is not registered in LRC and does not intend to seek any such political recognition from Yaounde.

The BFP is not part of the Interim Government (IG) of Ambazonian and has no intention or desire to become part of it. It maintains its total independence in order to be able to examine political issues objectively and advise the people of the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia appropriately.

V. The Haitian example of 1804.

The external debt of Haiti is one of the main factors that has caused the country’s persistent poverty. After the slaves declared themselves free and the country independent in 1804, France, with the complicity of its allies, demanded that the newly formed country pay the French government and French slaveholders the modern equivalent of US$21 billion for the “theft” of the slaves’ own lives and the land that they had turned into profitable sugar and coffee-producing plantations. This independence debt was financed by French banks and the American Citibank, and finally paid off in 1947.

VI. Like Haiti like Ambazonia

It is very clear that the idea of coming up with a fine of 250 billion FCFA against the Nera Ten probably came from the Emmanuel Macron government. But in slapping this fine on the Nera Ten, the objective is to tell the people of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia that in addition to the total destruction of their country it will cost them an astronomical sum of money to buy their independence as it happened in Haiti in 1804.

France and the Biya regime are determined to reduce the people of the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia into the poverty of the dust unless they accept the French formula of decentralisation which will effectively reduce the Southern Cameroons into a French colony by proxy in perpetuity. This is the decentralisation plan that was presented by Jean Baptiste Lemoyne the French Secretary of State and member of the Macron government during his visit to Yaounde from 28-29 June 2019.

VII. Recommendations of the Briscam Freedom Party

Under the circumstances the Briscam Freedom Party is making the following recommendations to the people of the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia :

1. The people of the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia should accept the sum of 250 billion FCFA as a SCREXIT divorce bill. This amount should be accepted because the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia has the capacity to pay in order to free itself from French colonial control forever.

The financial resources that can be used to pay this SCREXIT divorce bill are the following:

(i) The foreign exchange reserves of Cameroon held in the French Treasury in 2019 are approximately $2.3billion. The Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia is entitled to at least 25% of that amount which is around $600m.

(ii) Upon separation, the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia shall withdraw from the Franc Zone. When the FCFA currency is demonetized the total volume of the currency surrendered shall be tendered to BEAC which is legally obligated to pay the Central Bank of Ambazonia the equivalent amount in Euros at the rate of 655FCFA/€

(iii) A special redemption tax shall be levied on the people of Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia to contribute towards the payment of the SCREXIT divorce bill.

(iv) The SCREXIT divorce bill of 250 billion FCFA shall be adjusted downwards by deducting the estimated total cost of rebuilding the towns and villages that were burnt by the Cameroonian army since 1st October 2017.

(v) After its independence the Republic of Ambazonia shall have access to loans from international organizations on concessionary terms to settle the SCREXIT divorce bill and to finance reconstruction.

(vi) The Briscam Freedom Party is confident that it shall be able to negotiate substantial sponsorship support from various countries that support the independence of Ambazonia.

VIII. Conditions attached to the acceptance of the SCREXIT divorce bill of 250 billion FCFA

(i) The first condition to be attached to the acceptance of this SCREXIT divorce bill is that France and the United Kingdom should formally announce their conditional and provisional recognition of the independence of Ambazonia by 1st October 2019.

(ii) The formal announcement of conditional recognition by France and UK is intended to encourage the warring parties to sit down and engage in detailed negotiations on the modalities of the payment of the SCREXIT divorce bill and an equitable separation treaty which shall eventually be signed, ratified and submitted to the Secretary General of the United Nations in accordance with articles 102 of the UN charter.

(iii) The government of President Paul Biya should follow the lead of France and the United Kingdom by announcing its willingness to sit down to formal negotiations (no longer dialogue) in order to agree on the modalities of payment of the SCREXIT divorce bill of 250 billion FCFA which was fixed by the government of President Paul Biya.

(iv) The Briscam Freedom Party is willing to lead a team from the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia to negotiate the modalities of payment of the 250 billion FCFA SCREXIT divorce bill leading to the release of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Nera Ten as well as all the detainees of Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia held in the various detention centers as part of a comprehensive separation treaty between the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia and la Republique du Cameroun.

(v) The negotiations between the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia and LRC shall be conducted with the AfDB and the World Bank acting as joint facilitators and witnesses because the two institutions possess vital information on the Cameroonian economy and they shall play a vital role in providing post conflict support to the two countries.

(vi) The Prime Minister of La Republique du Cameroun should signal the willingness of the Biya government to engage in these negotiations by addressing an official letter to the Briscam Freedom Party by WhatsApp. Based on this letter the BFP shall engage in consultations aimed at choosing a negotiating team for the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia.

IX. Choosing between War and Peace

The sentencing of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, President of the Republic of Ambazonia to life imprisonment and a fine of 250 billion FCFA signals the fact that all efforts to conduct any form of “inclusive dialogue” have failed.

However, the fine of 250 billion FCFA has been accepted as a SCREXIT divorce bill which the Briscam Freedom Party is recommending for acceptance on condition that France and the United Kingdom shall respond by taking the initiative of giving conditional recognition to the independence of the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia.

If the governments of France and the United Kingdom fail to respond to the acceptance of the SCREXIT divorce bill of 250 billion FCFA by announcing conditional recognition of the independence of the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia and advising the government of President Paul Biya to accept to sit down to detailed SCREXIT divorce negotiations jointly witnessed and facilitated by the AfDB and the World Bank, then there is no longer any basis on which there can be any contact between the two sides, with or without intermediaries.

Under the circumstances the only option left to the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia shall be to expand and intensify the armed struggle until there is unilateral intervention by the United States marines and a willing coalition of countries that are determined to end the genocide in Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia.

©August 2019; Dr. Nfor N Susungi
Chairman
Briscam Freedom Party
Ombudsman for National Security
WhatsApp No
+22967192982, +22557217839, +2348091169696

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