By Tazoacha
Asonganyi in Yaounde
Christian
Cardinal Tumi wrote a book “The political regimes of Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul
Biya, and Christian Tumi, priest” in which he brought out the following
mentality of state authorities he encountered in northern Cameroon: 1) “One
Divisional officer even dared to say that Christianity was for the south and
Islam for the north of Cameroon;” 2) “A senior divisional officer even went as
far as to say that he had the power to take a decision that went contrary to
the provisions of the law;” 3) “There was the impression at that time that a
Moslem could commit any crime and go unpunished by the laws of the land. One
divisional officer even had the audacity to declare that laws of the land only
applied to the southern part of the country!” 4) “… [M]any young, non-Moslems
of the north believe that they can only get work with the government if they
become Moslem; or at least, bear Moslem names.
That is a moral pressure that violates the individual’s freedom to
choose in conscience his own religion…” 5) “Even to this day, I still wonder
why some senior divisional officers allow certain Lamibe to act the way they
like…dreadful traditional rulers, who are dreaded by their people. The senior
divisional officers give the impression that they are powerless in the face of
the excesses of those uncompromising Lamibe…I had the impression that in the
north, the senior divisional officer who represents the Head of State, is the
auxiliary of the Lamibe…”
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Bello Bouba Maigari
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Bello Bouba Maigari hails from
Garoua in North Region. He is the president of the National Union for Democracy
and Progress (NUDP) political party. The party was founded in the early ‘90s in
his absence, while he was on political exile in Nigeria. The first president
was Samuel Eboa, who hailed from Nkongsamba in Littoral Region. When Bello
Bouba returned from exile he schemed with other northern barons of the party at
a controversial convention of the party to replace Samuel Eboa as the president
of the party; Eboa stormed out of the party in anger and founded his own party,
Movement for Democracy and Progress (MDP).
One would think that Bello Bouba
was anxious to take over the party to use it as a vehicle to end once and for
all the appalling human rights abuses described by Christian Cardinal Tumi.
This has turned out not to be the case. The violations described here are a
testimony of this.
During the legislative elections
of 1992, Bello Bouba’s party won 68 seats, including three from Mayo Rey
constituency (Haman Adama, Ahmadou Bakary, and Koulagna Nana). On January 8,
1996, while Haman Adama and Ahmadou Bakary were carrying out their
parliamentary activities in the field, the militia of the Lamido of Rey Bouba
attacked their convoy, got them well beaten, and Haman Adama eventually died on
February 18, 1996 from the injuries he sustained from the beating. No
investigation was carried out, and no arrests were made; the crime went
unpunished!
Just before the parliamentary
elections in May 1997, Koulagna Nana – another NUDP MP - was conducting his
election campaign in Mayo-Rey Division on behalf of NUDP; on May 12, 1997 he
and other NUDP members were attacked by the private militia of the Lamido of
Rey Bouba. Two NUDP members and three members of the militia reportedly died in
the confrontation. In spite of his parliamentary immunity, Koulagna Nana and 15
other NUDP members and supporters were detained, but no member of the private
militia was arrested. All but Koulagna Nana and six others were subsequently
released without charge. The judicial authorities in Garoua later ordered
Koulagna's release without charge, but he remained in administrative detention
in Garoua Central Prison until October 1998 when he and the six others were
charged by a military tribunal with murder, arson, looting, illegal possession
of firearms, and other offences related to the events of May 1997; he only
regained his freedom in 2000!
All this can be contrasted with
the vigorous reaction of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) political party
following the murder on August 20, 2004 of John Kohtem, SDF Electoral District
Chairman of Balikumbat, by Fon Doh Gah Gwanyin, traditional ruler, MP and Mayor
of Balikumbat. From August 23-26, 2004, the SDF organized marches in Bamenda to
protest Kohtem’s murder, converging at the governor’s office. On August 25, Fru
Ndi and many of us NEC members led a group of opposition politicians to
Balikumbat to visit John Kohtem’s family; on August 27, SDF members wore black
mourning suits to attend the corpse removal ceremony at the Bamenda Mortuary
and vowed revenge. With pressure
mounting, investigations into the murder were opened and some two weeks after
the murder, 11 suspects were arrested and locked up.
Under increasing heat from the
SDF, the government issued a press release assuring Cameroonians and the
international community that the people suspected to have contributed in
beating John Kohtem to death, would face the law, their social standing
notwithstanding, claiming that “Cameroon is a state of law, which has
established the equality of all before the law, as well as judicial
independence guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic.” In February 2005,
the National Assembly lifted the parliamentary immunity of Fon Doh, paving the
way for him to stand trial on murder charges with respect to the death of John
Kohtem; he was later found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison for
masterminding and participating in the murder of Kohtem.
Let us get back to Bello Bouba’s
party again. During the elections of September 30, 2013, one of the cherished
victories of the NUDP was in Touboro Council in Mayo Rey constituency. One of
the architects of the victory was Celestin Yandal the president of the
“Collectif des jeunes de Touboro,” and one of the candidates on the council
list of the NUDP. Following that victory, none other than Koulagna Nana was
elected Mayor of Touboro Council. The reaction of the Lamido of Rey Bouba did
not take long to come; in December 2013, Municipal Councillor Celestin Yandal
was arrested and locked up. Following shortly after that, Yandal’s wife died
from some medical complications and Yandal was refused bail to attend the
funeral of his wife! To add insult to injury, Mouhamman Toukour, NUDP Mayor of
Ngaoudere II on his way to attend the funeral of Yandal’s wife, died in an
accident on Ngaoundere -Touboro road on Feb 9, 2014.
All this confirms the fact that
in the northern part of Cameroon, more than anywhere else, administrative
officials have the power to take decisions that go contrary to the provisions
of the law; laws of the land only seem to apply to the southern part of the
country, not the northern part! In that part of the country, Lamibe are
dreadful traditional rulers that violate the rights and freedoms of their
subjects with impunity, with administrative officials acting virtually like
auxiliaries of the Lamibe.
And so Celestin Yandal is still
languishing in detention! And Bello Bouba Maigari is sitting in government,
watching all this in silence!! How else can a politician make himself a
laughingstock? How else can an evil regime collude with traditional rulers to
trample on the rights and freedoms of citizens?
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