JUSTICE EBONG: THE LAST KAISER
The profiling of the heroes of the Southern Cameroons quest for freedom comes to me like a duty towards home land. The history of this struggle will not go well if we don’t have a relook at our history and attempt to rewrite it to suit our generation.The hallmark of this struggle has seen fiercer hearts than what we think we have today. One of them is Justice Ebong Alobwede. If there is one who took the bull by the horns, stun the world by supprise and showed that love for father land is bigger that holding the position of a judge in a foreign country then that person is no other than Justice Ebong. He did not only speak with words but marched those words with action. Everyone knew his name not only an epitome of the struggle to free our people but no one knew that he was above the mortals who only spoke with pens and papers. He alone did what the history of Southern Cameroons must record down in the middle of its history books and the defining moments. This act of bravado must be reported to this generation of freedom fighters so that we must conclude what he started.
It was exactly 11h30 PM on the night of 30th December 1999 breaking 31st December same year. When everyone was busy arranging and preparing to feast the coming of the new year and a new millinium. When the entire Southern Cameroons was still in the preview of what may happen in a new millinium. When folklore in Africa had predicted that the world may end in the year 2000 that this gentleman, mustered with a lion courage took the occupier by surprise. He and his group stormed the CRTV colonial radio house in Buea and seized the microphones. Technicians were given a tape containing victory songs to play to the nation. The voice that thundered out of the airwaves was that of a certain Judge Justice Ebong Alobwede. In a very optimistic and promising tone, he announced to the people of Southern Cameroons after being introduced to the people by one of his close aids in the following words”… Here comes Justice Ebong…” In his own words he said, “…Justice Ebong Frederick Alobwede, Chairman of the High Command Council of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), here come to address you this 30th December 1999 on the Proclamation of the Restoration of the Sovereignty and Independence of the Southern Cameroons, on behalf of Prince Esoka Ndoki Mukete, National Chairman of the Southern Cameroons…This proclamation is to formalize the Restoration of the Sovereignty and Independence of what used to be the Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom administration henceforth to be known and called the Federal Republic of the Southern Cameroons . . . Pending re-establishment of the institutions of the Federal Republic of the Southern Cameroons, the Chairman, and the Executive council of the SCNC shall co-ordinate the day-to-day internal administration” of the state. …We the people of The Former British Southern Cameroons officially declare our independence from the Republic of Cameroon…
As from this day, we call on the former colonial master to recognize this declaration and enter into diplomatic talks with the leaders of our nation to agree on the terms of leaving peacefully…” After this declaration, the radio station was in his control until the wee hours of 300 am before external foreign troops came in from Yaounde to dislodge him.
It took the colonial powers nine good days to arrest him and transfer him to Yaounde where he was charged for treason and transferred to their usual dungeons at the SED. How long he stayed in prison was just another night mare to his captors. While in custody, Justice Ebong quickly applied for a membership of the British Southern Cameroons into the United Nations, The African Union, The Common Wealth of nations, The Economic Community of West African States and the non-Aligned Movement.
On the 1st of April 2000, the SCNC converge and Justice Ebong was elected the Chairman of the SCNC and the first Head of State of the Federal Republic of Southern Cameroons. His vice was no other than Dr Nfor Ngala Nfor who by then was the chairman of the Constitutional and Political Affaires of the SDF. In the absence of Justice Ebong, Dr Nfor Ngala Nfor was nominated Acting president of the Republic.
Justice Ebong will eventually be freed and he decided to flee to Nigeria where he sorted and got asylum to live and raise his family. In 2004, he spoke to the Post News Paper in Victoria where he explained how he fled the country. According to him, his dream for a free Southern Cameroons was still rife and will never die as long as he lives.
My observation
While researching on this great figure, I realized the Department of State of the USA claimed that the people of the British Southern Cameroons did not come out en mass to support and cheer the declaration made by Justice Ebong. I stand to proclaim that people did not come out because they were afraid at the time and simply also because the political awareness was not rife like what we have today.
That said, it is my wish to say that Southern Cameroonians should open a hall of Fame for our heroes. While we keep pushing for our liberation, I propose that people like Justice Ebong who lost their jobs and comforts for us be placed on a monthly stipends just like the refugees we have out there.
Achiri Atanga
7 comments
Justice Ebong Frederick Alobwede is truly one of the heroes of Southern Cameroons, his
name alone brings back memories.
We Southern Cameroonians have been fighting for at least 100 years uninterrupted.
Every generation has always brought forth people that took over the fight, this present
generation is bringing the suffering to its final end, once and for all.
Until We Reach Buea.
Mr.Achriri,
I congratulate you for your search for Justice Frederick Ebong Alobwede.
He was abducted in victoria by a special armed squard of the Gendarmarie and transfered to Yaounde where he was detained incommunicado for 14 months at SED as you rightly indicate.
Security forces raided his GRA Bota residence,assaulted his children,threw out all his house hold property in streets,damaged lots of his property,killed his pigs,looted property at his residence.His children were brutally evicted from their home by a special security squard.
Prior to that the government had attempted to assassinate him.The Minister of Justice by then had summoned Justice Ebong to his office where Justice Ebong was threatened,punitively transfered to Yaounde and was monitored by plain cloth security officers.But all these measures by the Biya government did not stop Justice Frederick Alobwede Ebong from exercising his fundamental human rights of freedom of expression,Article 19 of International Covenant of Civil and PoliTIcal Rights,(ICCPR)and Article 1,the rights to self determination of the ICCPR.
I see some similarities between President Justice Frederick Alobwede and President Julius Ayuk Tabe.
Justice Frederick Ebong—Leader of the Southern Cameroons seeking for the independence of his people.Proclaimed the Independence of Southern Cameroons on ground zero.Abducted by security forces and detained incommunicado for 14 months at SED.
President Julius Ayuk Tabe—Leader of the Southern Cameroons.Proclaimed the Independence of Southern Cameroons abroad,named the Country the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.Abducted by foreign troops with 9 members of his cabinet,handed over to Cameroons Security forces in a foreign country then abducted to Cameroon and detained incommunicado for 11 months at SED where there face severe charges which gross violates international law.President Julius Ayuk Tabe and his cabinet Ministers are just excercising their fundamental human rights as contained in Articles 1,and 19 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.Article 1
1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
2. All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.
3. The States Parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
Therefore,Cameroon is a signatory to the ICCPR.
Cameroon must immediately and unconditionally release President Julius Ayuk Tabe and the 9 others including all persons of english speaking origin abducted by Mr.Biya forces of occupation.
Mr.Paul Biya must pay compensations to Justice Frederick Ebong Alobwede for torture,and also to President Julius Ayuk Tabe and the 9 members of his government,including all those who have been extra-judicially executed,tortured,detained,and whose homes have been burnt by his occupation troops.
Inorder to force Mr.Paul Biya to pay compensations for the war crimes that he is committing in the Southern Cameroons,all his ministers must be put on the red alert in Europe,USA and Canada so that whenever they visit these regions they are prosecuted for the war crimes in Cameroon.
We failed justice then but not now. I sound of liberty is in the air.
It is sad to know that all the criminality perpetuated in Ambazonian by the LRC ‘ngombe” called Biya could not have been possible had it not been for some shortsighted Ambazonians who are so selfish as to be unable to differentiate right from wrong. In short people who are willing to support the Beti thugs that are internationally known to be of moral turpitude. The blessing of the present revolution is that the “Never Again Generation” have refused to accept failure as an option, and are willing to prosecute this struggle to its logical conclusion no matter what.
The gross and inhumane treatment meted out to Ambazonians, Justice Ebong included, are the food for thought for the “Never Again Generation” to for ever more remind them of why the Beti thug call Biya must be made to answer for the crimes committed against Ambazonians.
Justice Ebony started the revolution and it didn’t move because there were no courageous southern Cameroonians to stand behind him at that time. But today,it’s a different spirit that is hovering in Southern Cameroon. The revolution has impacted lrc because of courageous Southern Cameroonians that stood behind Sesiku Julius Ayuk Tabe to reinforce the proclamation of the SC independence. Mark, you are right to say we should put all the figures or heroes in records for future generations. SC has a history and all our heroes e.g J.Ebong, Sesiku Ayuk T.&others should be put in records so that future generation be taught.
Thank you Mr. Achiri Atanga for writing this article and for profiling this very brave man, Justice Ebong Alobwede. I am a son of the soil who have been living in the United States now for 30 years and I must admit this is the first time I am hearing of Justice Ebong. I belief in the ideas Justice Ebong and others in the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) initially proclaimed in the “Restoration of the Sovereignty and Independence of the Southern Cameroons”. However, having seen and followed the two-year war in both Southwest and Northwest Region of Cameroon, and how money and power minder leaders based abroad are now fighting each other, spying and selling each other for monetary gain from the Biya regime have made more pessimistic of the eventual outcome. The struggle have been diluted and openly mocked by these small minder leaders with no regard for people still in hiding in bushes and in exile in Nigeria etc. To the detriment of the struggle, the Biya regime and his cronies from both Southwest and Northwest Region are taking advantage of these inner divides to fracture the goal of those dying for course.
This a weathy History of southern cameroonians who will never forgot justice ebong a true patriot