Unquestionable Reasons Why Southern Cameroons’ Business Class Must Join the Struggle

Fellow Southern Cameroons businessmen and women,

we must begin by congratulating you for the cooperation you have shown this far by way of observing the ghost towns calls from the Consortium. We know just how much you are sacrificing by doing that, though some among you appear to still be either drawing behind or respecting the calls grudgingly. There are several unimpeachable reasons why you should not only be a silent militant, but become a torchbearer in this struggle for the restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons. There is so much to talk about, but let us look at the following main ones:

1)- Politics of Tribalism: The country functions today mainly on tribal basis and what this means is that the ministers and directors general are considered to care mostly for their tribes people and others only come secondary. Of course our two regions always end up with a maximum of two ministers and maybe four or five directors general out of the many portfolios that exist. To make matters worse, when our own people are appointed, they soon start favouring only Francophone business persons over us on the foolish premise that those are the people who shall keep them longer in those positions. Consequently, most of us end up with very limited opportunities and have to “buy” contracts from Francophone middlemen at extremely huge amounts of money, then obtain loans from the banks on very high overdraft rates and in the end we go home indebted because payments take too long, interests swallow everything, payment percentages leave us looking stupid. That is when the so-called middlemen do not sell us fictitious contracts and go away with our whole earnings. That is what we want to change once and for all.

2) Civil Servants are all in Business: In the days of West Cameroon, civil servants never got into business, they concentrated on serving the state and were well paid and allowed the business community to handle the trade. Today, civil servants are competing with business people and since they hold the offices, business people are always on the disadvantage. That is why in our society today, our business people are suffering while civil servants cart all the wealth with impunity. This has to end.

3) Discriminatory Taxation Policy: All our big companies are forced to pay their taxes only in Yaounde and Douala, enabling those council areas to use the money and develop their infrastructure while our councils are presented as some of the poorest in the country, slowing down development. Worse, those who end up doing business with our councils generally run the risk of never getting paid or they get paid years after execution of the contracts. The situation on the other side is naturally different and this is what we want to stop and it must change.

4) Poor Road Infrastructure: He who talks business, talks time! The road infrastructure in Southern Cameroons is the worst in the country presently. In the past, it took between 3 and 4 hours to travel from Bamenda to Yaounde, today it takes about 7 or even 8 hours to cover the same distance. To make a bad situation crazy, anyone traveling between Bamenda and Mbouda faces a nightmare. The same holds for all our urban roads and this has a huge toll on the business sector. Even Ndian Division where oil is drilled does not have half a kilometre of tarred road, talk less of even having a passable road in the rainy season; what a pity!

5) Air Transport: You have all seen for yourselves that Yaounde has recently rehabilitated some airports; Bafoussam, Ngaoundere, Garoua, Maroua and of course Douala and there is known worthy of the calling in all of Southern Cameroons. Goung to or from the South West, you will be told to drop in Douala and continue by land when there is an airport in Tiko, same thing for Bamenda where you will be told to stop in Bafoussam and continue by land. Our dear brothers and sisters, do we belong really?

6) Constant Harassment by Security Forces: Anyone who does business in our two regions will tell how police and gendarmerie officials torture drivers, passengers and business persons for illicit money daily. It gets worse on border roads; Kumba Ekondo Titit for examples has over 10 control points with fixed collection rates daily on a 60 km-lap of road. Ekok through Mamfe to Bamenda or kumba hold even worse records. Our people, we must say No to all these!!

8) Horrible Treasury Situation: All of us knew that the Limbe and Buea treasury stations were among the richest in the country, that is if they were not absolutely the richest. That is no longer the situation, as even the Bamenda Regional Treasury which could at least pay a good portion of its engagements before looking onto Yaounde is now a cause for total concern. We pointed out earlier that this is because of the evil taxation policy causing all our big companies to pay taxes elsewhere. Today, for our business people to get their bills paid, they have to operate through all kinds of channels and that is not Anglo Saxon at all.

9) Politicization of all Spheres of National Life: Politics has eaten deep into the fabrics of our society to the point that if you do not belong to the CPDM Party or hold a post at least at a section or sub section, you may not get jobs or get paid. Worse, your taxes may be taken to levels that will just send you out of business. Some of us have been forced to join the party ly in order to at least remain in business. This is a thing that has no place in modern day society and it has to change and shall indeed be different in our new country- Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia.

10) Exorbitant Cost of Fuel Per Litre: The cost of a litre of fuel in our country currently is about the highest in Africa, whereas we are a petroleum producing country. In nearby Nigeria, a litre of super costs about 250 CFA F, while we pay 650 CFA F. The reason is simply that a lot of unnecessary taxes are being imposed to finance corrupt practices and useless trips abroad. We know that such high fuel prices make transportation expensive- coupled with high vehicle maintenance costs due to bad roads and the overall result is rampant poverty.

Our dear people, after reviewing all these, is there any point talking about Labour Day celebrations? What do we really have to celebrate when nothing is moving? The three-month internet suspension deepened an already painful wound and caused the shutting down of a lot of businesses; what is there to celebrate? Shall we be celebrating the constant arrests, torture and detention of our sons, fathers, husbands and brothers or the militarization of our cities marked by the constant rape of our women?

It is for these reasons and more that the Consortium is urging you to not only boycott Labour Day activities all over Southern Cameroons, but also to become active militants of this God-ordained struggle for the restoration of the Statehood of Southern Cameroons.

God is with us!

The Consortium