To foster unity, national integration:

Biya to merge parts of NW & SW with Littoral, West and Adamawa Regions

President Paul Biya

According to on-line news portal, Cameroon Journal, Yaounde authorities are contemplating a plan to cut some portions of the present NW and SW regions and merge them with the Littoral, West and Adamawa regions. Cameroon Journal said they were hinted of the plan by a source in the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization.

                Cameroon Journal reported that government started contemplating the plan as soon as Anglophones began protesting against the present configuration of the state and advocating a return to the pre-1961 federal arrangement. It added that the plan gained traction after dialogue with striking Anglophone teachers and lawyers collapsed.

                The MINADT source told Cameroon Journal that by virtue of the plan, the parts of Bui Division in the NW that share borders with Adamawa region, in the North of the country will be cut and merged with their Tikari brothers of that region. Also, parts of Santa sub-division, which share the same cultural values with the Babajous in Mbouda, West Region will be cut and ceded to that Region.

                Then, parts of Foumban in the West Region that share borders with Bui Division in the Northwest will be ceded to the Northwest.

                In the Southwest region, parts of Tiko will be merged with the Littoral, while Loum in the Littoral that is adjacent to Tombel in KupeMuanenguba Division will be ceded to the Southwest. 

                Also, part of Lebialem division, including the capital town of Menji, will be merged with Dschang in the West Region, while the rest of the division including Bamubu, will remain in the Southwest.

The reason this, according to Cameroon Journal is to break the unity among the Anglophone populations as a bid to prevent further calls for a two-state federation of secession.

                Also, the gov’t aims to reconfigure the present 10 regions of the country and prepare them to eventually become 10-federated states.

                It is important to note that if the scheme is implemented, it will forever wipe off the map of the Southern Cameroons as it existed before 1961. Also by the new configuration, the Southwest and Northwest will no longer be entirely Anglo-Saxon since they would now have some French speaking populations.

                The Yaounde regime believes that this arrangement will forever silence the Anglophones who, who have continued to clamour for federalism based on language.

                President Biya’s newly created Commission on Bilingualism and Multiculturism will have the task to perfect this arrangement. Once that is done, Biya will decree Cameroon as a federation of ten states, The Cameroon Journal concludes.