THE TWENTY-ONE WOES OF REUNIFICATION OF THE TWO CAMEROONS: Reposted from a posting by:Prince Akame-SCIN

After 43 years of reunification (1961-2004) we (Southern Cameroonians For Independence) are now in the position to assess and say whether or not the thing, illegal or not, has been a blessing. If we find it a blessing then and then only can we think of continuing. If on the other hand we find it a CURSE it must be madness to contemplate a continuation. It is left therefore to those who still pretend to favor continuity under the present condition to reply by publishing their own list of the blessings which, but for reunification, we would never have had.

(1) CUSTOMS DUTY PAID TO FRANCE As a condition for granting independence to her colonies France was to benefit from all their imports from the date of their independence. For this reason a portion of Cameroon's import duties to this day accrue to France. Although we were never part of the French colony of Cameroon France has since Cameroon's reunification benefited from duties on imports into Southern Cameroons also. This mean that we have been paying extra custom duty for the benefit of French citizens even though we had never been their colonial subjects. This unjust enrichment of France at our expense could never have been made possible without reunification. It calls for restitution which is feasible only through the institution of an independent treasury and customs and excise services, which everyone knows are incompatible with a single nationality. Therefore to stop paying France and to get back what we have already paid reunification must first end. France herself should see it as immoral to receive payments for having done nothing and accordingly do the right thing without waiting to be pushed to it. (2) REPUBLICANISM OR MONARCHY? Traditionally Southern Cameroons is a kingdom. First because since every village is a Chiefdom or Fondom as each is headed by a Chief or a Fon, when these villages come together to form a Nation that nation should be called a kingdom or a United kingdom. To call such a nation a republic is incongruous and as such cannot lay claim to legality or legitimacy. Secondly, in recent history Southern Cameroons was a territory under United Kingdom Administration; it was as such part of the United Kingdom, and at independence should have reverted to its historical status of a kingdom. Because the Francophone Cameroonians have been brought up under the French culture of republicanism they used it to illegally convene Foumban conference and the weight of their population to extend their republican status to cover also the kingdoms of the Southern Cameroons and then imposed their commoner-ruler over the territories so illegally reunified. It is inconceivable that when a monarchy and a republic merge, if they can merge at all, the outcome should be a republic: it should be the other way round because it is Kings who rule commoners. The illegal Cameroon reunification of 1961 was therefore an affront to tradition like the subsequent coronation of commoner Paul Biya as Fon of Fons was an expensive joke indeed. (3) SECOND CLASS CITIZENSHIP Although the Constitution of the reunited Cameroon specifies that French and English are official languages and laws are published in the two so-called official languages it is always stated that the "French version is authentic". The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English gives the meaning of "authentic" as "genuine; known to be true". This means that the English Language which Southern Cameroonians speak in the Republic of Cameroon and everything done in English is regarded as neither genuine nor true. When certificates are printed in French and English the French version is always first and in bolder print. This is clearly another way of telling the world that Southern Cameroonians are second-class citizens in Cameroon. So to be first class speak French. (4) CIVIL SERVANTS & POLITICS While under British rule civil servants in Southern Cameroons were not allowed to participate in politics. The civil service was insulated from politics. Civil servants were also not allowed to do private business and their assets were closely monitored. This made for maximum efficiency. The position was the reverse in Francophone Cameroon where by their independence in January 1, 1960 a civil servant, Ahmadou Ahidjo, was already head of state. Here again they used the weight of their population to banish our culture of a civil service insulated from politics. The result is the institution of a very strong bureaucracy which turns civil servants into masters rather than servants of the people, and giving them the liberty to engage in unfair business competition with the ordinary businessman who are notoriously pushed into the status of the "underprivileged businessman". With civil servants in power they make it their prime business to give maximum consideration to the needs of the civil servants and the military in complete disregard to the state of the nation's economy. Civil servant participation in politics is therefore an evil brought in by reunification which, according to Francophone culture, can end only with the end of reunification. (5) CHASING FILES IN YAOUNDE Before reunification Southern Cameroonians were part of a very large country called Nigeria. Our parents knew nothing about chasing files then. No one had to go to Enugu or Lagos to chase a file for anything's sake; and when regional autonomy was attained no one had to travel from the Southern Cameroons to chase a file. Although there were no computers everything worked with precision: provident fund or pension or gratuity was ready on the very day of retirement. Those were the days when many workers opted to retire and invest in private business. Today in reunification where civil servants are themselves masters of everything retirement is the beginning of frustration. This is an irony! Many die without tasting of the fruit of their life's savings! - not even after several pilgrimages to Yaounde! And when the money is finally paid those hawks who kept it pay no interest on it. The reunified Cameroon nation is far too short of being the guarantor of citizens' social security. It is a pity! (6) STATE DISHONESTY The National Electricity and Water Corporations as State corporations are allowed by the State to treat Cameroonians as if the said corporations have a right to pretend to be oblivious of circumstances prevailing in the nation. When the State is in arrears of workers' salaries for months, and in some cases for over a year, and in the end will not pay with interest or penalties, the above-mentioned State corporations not only refuse to take checks drawn on government-sponsored banks but go to the extent of charging penalties for late settlement of bills. Out of what do they expect the bills to be settled? And the argument cannot be confined to State employees. How about the farmers produce not paid for years and which will not be paid with interest? How about citizens who suffered tornado disasters since 1984 to date? When will the victims be paid? Why should a State remove its eyes from its responsibilities to its citizens? Why must the State under these circumstances allow its corporations to impose penalties on such suffering citizenry? Before reunification Southern Cameroons was an example of honesty and efficiency: it is the reverse today and most Southern Cameroonians are convinced that only an end to reunification can settle the issues. (7) LAKE NYOS Reunification opened up with politically motivated murders. Although Dr. J. N. Foncha was "MISSED BEING SHOT" Abendong and Marcus Temdia at least died in his place. The six who died during the pro-democracy demonstrations in Bamenda, May 26, 1990, only serve as a recent reminder. How many people are not convinced that the Lake Nyos disaster would not have happened but for reunification? The head of state invited experts worldwide to the scene but without letting them express their expert opinions he himself broadcast to the world that it was a "natural disaster". Could anyone dare contradict him by saying it was a neutron bomb test? Where is the Special Commission he set up to cater for the victims? These things serve the self-proclaimed "architects of reunification" right as they have happened so far in the Southern cameroons. Unfortunately some people are still so blinded by majority politics that they are a very long way off realizing that human beings are not cows, so their leadership cannot be entrusted to ganakohs (Cattle rearers) (8) REGIONAL AUTONOMY WON AND LOST! In mighty Nigerian politics Dr. E. M. L. Endeley led Southern Cameroons into achieving regional autonomy and first wore our premiership crown. Foncha took it from his head, wore it into reunification, and lost it there in 1972 - all with the House of Assembly and the House of Chiefs - thus placing us back at square one. How then can we see reunification as a blessing and not a CURSE? (9) C. D. C. MAKES NO MORE PROFITS Before reunification this giantt corporation yielded great profits annually, the surplus of which were used in undertaking development projects in the entire Southern Cameroons. These profits disappeared with reunification and today the corporation has become a liability rather than an asset. And C. D. C. will never be the same again until reunification ends. (10) MARKETING BOARD LOST The West Cameroon Marketing Board was changed to the National Produced Marketing as a national integration process in the reunified Cameroon. The headquarters was removed from Victoria in its founding province and transferred to Douala. A Francophone was appointed its Managing Director, Anglophones were declared redundant but were replaced by Francophones, its capital was mishandled by the reunification bosses and it was finally liquidated after they had used much of its capital in errecting an imposing head office building in Douala too good for the goose that laid the golden egg. The one thing which is certain with Southern Cameroonians For Independence - SCIN is that if the total value of the Marketing Board's head office building in Douala is not paid back into Southern Cameroons treasury our ancestors shall not lie quiet in their graves. (11) CHEATED OF OIL MONEY Reunification has been used to deprive us of even those benefits which nature had bestowed on us. The discovery of petroleum was made a secret. Secret oil transactions were rumouring with copies of huge cheques circulating. Deaths were related to leakages of information on the illegal oil transactions. A plan to construct a deep seaport at Cape Limbo was shelved and replaced by a plan to pipe petrol from Victoria to Douala for international shipping! Today the Republic of Cameroon is pretending to pay taxes petroleum into Limbe's treasury which is controlled by their treasurer. (12) ELECTRICITY CORPORATION LOST West Cameroon Electricity Corporation (POWERCAM) installations inherited from the Nigeria Government Electricity Undertakings have been totally dismantled to make Southern Cameroons totally dependent on supply from Edea in French Cameroons. When asked about the Menchum Project and what really went wrong with the Yoke supply, the answers one always get is that they are either "very costly to develop" or that "they are risky and irrelevant projects". (13) VICTORIA SEAPORT CLOSED The Victoria natural seaport was closed by reunification and the city became a ghost town to this day had the discovery of oil nearby not brought partial salvation. (14) BANANA TRADE LOST Before reunification banana was one of Southern Cameroons cash crop. Shortly after reunification private farmers in Southern Cameroons lost the trade even though east of the Mungo, especially in the Littoral Province individual farmers still plant them and market abroad. (15) UNCUSTOMARY DISTRIBUTION OF REVENUE The established custom in tradition as guided by AHON (also known as Ekpe or Nyankwe, Butame, and even in Nkwifor etc.) is that one eats as he contributes. As has been shown in the cases of C. D. C., Marketing Board, and petroleum, the improperly negotiated reunification has enabled the Republic of Cameroon in the name of a single fatherland to use the weight of their population to make themselves bosses over our wealth. We are now called upon to accept with thanks whatever they give us, and many of our kith and kin are paid to pass motions of support for the fraud. What a shame? (16) TIKO AIRPORT AND WHARF CLOSED Both the Tiko Airport and Wharf are closed by the accursed reunification. Tiko Airport turned to a military base to consolidate annexation and neo-colonialism (17) THE RAILWAY CLOSED The Meanja/Tiko railway has been abandoned by the disheartening reunification. (18) MAMFE ENCLAVED Mamfe town which, as Southern Cameroons gateway to Nigeria and was bustling with economic activity, was economically paralized by reunification. The Kumba/Mamfe/Bamenda highway was abandoned, forcing all traffic to pass through the Republic of Cameroon's Nkongsamba/ Mboudam highway. Mamfe has since become enclaved. (19) LAW ON SUBVERSION Ordinance No. 62-OF-18 of 12 March 1962 "to repress subversive activities" which made it a crime for anyone to oppose or criticize any government action was promulgated into law less than six months after reunification. Under it many civilians were heavily fined or imprisoned by Military Tribunals for doing what before reunification was a civic right. The right of detention without trial at the infamous BMM given to the Administration was an instrument of repression which became possible only with the advent of reunification. (20) UNJUST PENAL CODE Even though the penal systems are not harmonized Anglohones are often arrested west of the Mungo, transferred, detained, tried, and jailed east of the Mungo under a system totally strange to them. East of the Mungo confessions are extracted through torture. Because the accused is presumed guilty upon a complaint being lodged against him there is no question of bail. The magistrate may convict and make a "no appeal" order which is obeyed meticulously. Prisons are extremely over-crowded and the prisoners are underfed. They buy their own drugs or are left to die. Therefore the magistrate, police and the prison superintendent are Alpha and Omega. It is even an offense to ask a question in court! That is the side of reunification many Anglophones don't know, or have deliberately refused to know because they are busy as handclappers. (21) STOLEN RADIO TRANSMITTER In early 1994 it was discovered that a Frequency Modulation radio transmitter donated by the Japanese government for installation at Buea, Headquarters of Southern Cameroons, was instead installed at Douala! If your uncle inherits your father's estate and is using its proceeds to maintain only his own children, when you attain maturity what do you do? Of course, you take back your father's estate. In this case of the Republic of Cameroon and Southern Cameroons it is even clear that the so-called uncle is no uncle at all. The transmitter was easily stolen because of reunification. CONCLUSION The Twenty-One Woes of Reunification enumerated above are only a few out of many that cannot find space here. Knowing that we have achieved nothing through reunification which we could not have achieved without it, Southern Cameroonians For Independence - SCIN see that reunification poses a great problem needful of an urgent and lasting solution. SCIN is convinced that there can be no solution other than through negotiation on a footing of equality, that is, since the Republic of Cameroon is sovereign Southern Cameroons equally became sovereign States to enable them speak from the position of strength and not from weakness. Reposted from a posting by: Prince Akame-SCIN

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[PAOLO LAURENT]

THE HEADING SHOULD READ
21 WOES OF UNIFICATION OF THE TWO CAMEROONS

SINCE BOTH 2 CAMEROON HAD NEVER BEEN ONE BEFORE IN HISTORY WITH OR WITH THE ARRIVAL OF THE GERMANS

RE- WAS ADDED BY THE INSTRUCTION OF THE FRENCH LAWYERS WHO WERE ADVISING AHIDJO ON HIS RECOLONIZATION OF SOUTHERN CAMEROONS FOR THE FRENCH,
A KIND OF PROPANDA FOR THE UNEDUACTED MASSES