Those Who Live in Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones! Mola Njoh Litumbe

In the matter of The Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC) Versus La République du Cameroun (LR C) The above matter is currently before the African Commission on Human & Peoples' Rights, Banjul, and is registered as Communication 260/2002. In the course of the proceedings, having regard to the gravity of the complaint, the Commission issued a restraining order to President Paul Biya, urging him to use his good offices to ensure that no further alienation of the disputed CDC lands takes place. More precisely, the African Commission wrote as follows to counsel for BLCC:
"Please also find enclosed a copy of the urgent appeal the Chairman of the African Commission wrote to His Excellency, President Paul Biya of the Republic of Cameroon requesting for the latter's Presidential Intervention to suspend the alleged detrimental alienation of the disputed Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) lands in the Fako Division, pending a decision on the matter by the African Commission."
Although a decision on the matter has not yet been rendered, as the African Commission sits just twice a year, a publication by the Cameroon Minister of Economy and Finance appeared in the official Government newspaper Cameroon Tribune of Tuesday, October 18, 2005, on page 18, inviting bids for supplementary consultancy work regarding the privatisation of the remaining CDC estates, the situation of the land on which the plantations are grounded, and to advise whether the land should be leased or sold outright to prospective investors.
BLCC is bewildered by this seemingly irrational posture of LRC, which recently mounted a powerful delegation to the UN to urge that illustrious body to bring pressure to bear on Nigeria to vacate Bakassi, as ruled by the International Court of Justice, ICJ. And yet, LRC treats with disdain and utter contempt, a restraining request of another international judicial body asking it to exercise restraint.
It must be observed in passing that the ICJ found out that Bakassi is within the former UN Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons, SC), so it remains to be determined if SC is now legally incorporated into LRC.
The evidence against such a proposition is overwhelming. In the first place, the so-called Constitution of the Federal Republic of Cameroon which purported to join SC to LRC was exclusively a LRC instrument, promulgated into law by the then independent state of LRC on September 1, 1961, at a time when SC was still under British trusteeship.
There is no available evidence that the legislative assembly of SC endorsed a law of LRC, passed before SC was free to join, and without the concurrence of the British Administering Authority which at the material time, exercised sovereignty over SC.
Secondly, although the UN resolved in April 1961 that prior to October 1, 1961, the British Administering Authority, the Government of SC, and the Government of LRC were to meet to draw up a Treaty of Union, a copy of which was mandatorily to be filed at the UN Secretariat.
The tripartite conference failed to hold, so a Union Treaty was not executed. In the result, the international boundaries of LRC at independence on January 1, 1960 were not enlarged to incorporate those of SC when the latter joined LRC on October 1, 1961, as there is no legal instrument to that effect.
The two territories therefore maintain at law their separate boundaries inherited from their respective colonial masters, as there is no instrument legalizing the "marriage" between the two parties. In local terminology, such an association is not referred to as a marriage, but a jomba or come we sit don situation. Unless therefore a "marriage" certificate was filed at the UN, the concept of "secession" equivalent to "divorce" as preached by some protagonists of LRC, is a barefaced terminological inexactitude in the circumstances of this matter.
What President Biya should urgently do, by way of damage control, is to heed the proposal to dialogue with responsible Southern Cameroonians, for which Dr. Nyamndi and I are ready and willing to assemble representatives of the nationalist groups that demand total separation from LRC.
Given goodwill on both sides, I believe there is still time to correct the "master-servant" relationship that has lasted 44 years.
Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones!