Cameroon Veteran Professor of History in a short Public post has weighed into the current crisis plaguing West Cameroon. In a short post, he revealed that dialogue is the way forward but any dialogue that could produce a sustainable solution must be in the presence of UN and UK who were absent during the Foumban 1961 meeting and this dialogue must only lead to a referendum. The veteran Prof wrote:
The Lawyers began it, the Teachers (of Schools, Colleges and Universities) and Students of the Anglo-Saxon Universities of Buea and Bamenda followed, and the whole population of Anglophone Cameroon angered by decades of marginalization rose in support of the strike. This is because every aspect of the cultural heritage, especially the identity and way of life of the people has been negatively affected under a carefully worked out programme of assimilation by the Francophone-led Government.
President Biya has finally acknowledged that some concerns raised by the strikers are genuine and that “dialogue” is the way to solve them. Knowing very well that dialogue in Cameroun is always only announced in speeches, I wonder how serious the President can be taken this time. Whatever, dialogue is still the only way forward that can avoid further bloodshed.
But the dialogue that is likely to produce results that can stand a chance must be around the “Round Table”, in the presence of observers from the UN and the UK (who were absent from Foumban in 1961) as well as the AU. After the agreements have been reached, the people of the North West and the South West only should be consulted in a free and fair referendum about which territoriality (out of the following three) they prefer them to be implemented: (a) Continue in the present union; (b) return to the old two-state federation of 1961; (c) go separate ways and be good neighbors. The last option of course is to balance what the Cameroun Republic of January 1960-September 1961 did for itself in 1984 when it withdrew from the United Cameroon, attempting to drag along with it the unwilling Southern Cameroons
PROFESSOR VERKIJIKA FANSO
