Mvog-Betsi’s Emile Onambele Zibi on behalf of all the Patriarchs and Elders of Mfoundi has addressed an open letter to President Paul Biya. He accused Biya of GENOCIDE
The Letter written in French was published by the accredited Newspaper “Le Messager Newspaper” on Oct. 5. The text has been loosely translated to English.
Your Excellency,
Unique circumstances have pushed us the Beti Patriarchs to address you this correspondence that many of us consider as one of the last. Indeed, and contrary to the obligations tied to your functions, you have become absent and inaccessible. Confronted with this Your Excellency, we and our people want you to know the following:
“Things we overlooked long ago with simplicity have clearly become a genocide. Our people are dispersed and diluted. Our lands are being seized and resold. Soon we will have no base, no culture, no village. We deserve more than this. To us, it is a battle of survival
We are absent from all the decision-making circles that concern the present and future of the country, even though we are the major actors in our history.
The CPDM party which is in power in which you pulled us all into, no longer belongs to us. Besides, we have always occupied junior positions. Today your Secretary General Jean Nkuete has created a different CPDM, close to the political ambition of his people, and controlled by the Bamiliekes.
The Senate President Mr. Niat no longer hides his origin, all important gifts, best hospitals and universities are in his region.
Your Excellency, we, therefore, wish to inform you that we are leaving the CPDM for another party closer to our aspirations, and who considers us as full citizens.
The 20th May Boulevard is in the place of the history of the Beti people of Mfoundi. Do you know that that water course which gives its name to the Division is a mythical and mystical river? Shockingly enough, every 20th May celebration, the Beti dignitaries, and elders of Mfoundi are never among the list of the Head of State’s invitees. A feast in our place without us.
You always prefer other compatriots elsewhere. Will you be happy if you are excluded from ceremonies in your Division of origin and in your village where you have just been appointed an Elder or Notable?
Mfoundi and the people of the Great Center and East are poor parents of your 35 years of reign. Unjustly, these people reduced to beggars, lack everything: water, electricity, great industrial structures, road infrastructures etc.. contrary to the West and South Region for example.
Your Excellency, we have always given you our votes through bargaining. Hence it won’t be so. This poor BARGAIN will have to stop, because, after you, another power will make us pay for our blind and innocent trust in you.
Your Excellency, your power is becoming tribal and even familial, because all the positions of authorities and MONEY go more and more to the Bulus and the Nanga-Ebokos, whose votes for you have never ever been enough to have you reelected throughout the different Presidential elections.
Whenever Mfoundi and the East have been called upon, it is only when things seem tough and your position is threatened. Without Mfoundi for example, the April 6, 2014, push, the ghost towns, Bakassi, your different ‘victories’ at the dawn of multipartyism, and even the fight against Boko Haram would have been disastrous.
Your Excellency, the people of Mfoundi through the authorization of the Council of Elders are writing to you today to tell you that WE ARE DONE with you.
Henceforth between you and us, things will never be the same”, if once again, you ignore and simplify us with your usual silence.
Done in Yaounde, the 9th September 2016
For the Association of Patriarch and Elders of Mfoundi
ONAMBELE ZIDI Emile
President of Patriarchs and the Indigenes of Mfoundi
Translated by Henriette Lounge
