Special Session of Parliament:

The Last Hope to Save Cameroon!
By Dieudonné ESSOMBA
A special session of Parliament opened on Friday 13 December and we are told that it would dwell on the content of decentralization and, in particular, the special status of the English-speaking regions.
    To a certain extent, this instance was expected.  Indeed, the Biya regime has been the subject of intense diplomatic pressure to postpone the elections, and give itself time to ease tensions in the NW and SW by implementing the special status recommended during the Grand National Dialogue.
    Since the Government, which does not like to back off, cannot postpone the elections it wants to please the International Community by adopting laws relating to this special status, so as to alleviate the pressure.
    But the essential question remains: even if such laws are adopted, will they lead to the end of the Secession or at least reduce its virulence? The answer is clearly no; quite the contrary!
    The special status amounts to official recognition that there is an Anglophone problem, and a stinging disavowal of those extremists who had openly denied it.
    But far from appeasing the Secessionists, this concession comforted them in the feeling that only force could create the spaces of freedom from the regime in place.  Such tremendous and unexpected success, against a regime that showed cadaveric rigor in its approaches, has rather revealed serious weakness of the regime and hardened the position of the secessionists.
    The Secessionists now know that the regime will still give in, give in and give in again. And they will maintain their military pressure, relayed by diplomatic pressure from the great powers that count in today's world.
    There is no need to wait for any lull in these areas.  Admittedly, in the best of cases, the English-speaking Secession is there for the next 40 years, the average lifespan of a secessionist movement. But the problem today is no longer to extinguish it definitively, but to reduce its nuisance and attractiveness.
    However, for this to be possible, it is imperative to disarm the historical arguments of the Secession which, it must be recognized, are extremely solid: under the control of the United Nations, Southern Cameroon had the choice between Nigeria and Cameroon.  She chose Cameroon on the basis of a federal state.  On the same basis, Northern Cameroon chose Nigeria.
    Before any objective tribunal, you cannot convince the judges that the Government of Cameroon was right in suppressing the Federation.  And we can see that no country in the world has given reason to the Government; the best she has had have been recommendations to solve the problem amicably.

    And that’s what you have to do, instead of playing smart.  It will do absolutely nothing.
    This policy of decaying and making small steps rather favors the Secession, which has succeeded in imposing itself on the international scene as a major problem even when so-called patriots told the Government that there was nothing to fear.
 What needs to be done now is to restore the 1961 Federation, which may be updated to take account of future developments in the system.  There is no solution in the maintenance of the unitary state and to persist there, it aggravates the problem.
    Of course, some say that such a restoration will bring no peace, on the grounds that the secessionists would be manipulated by foreigners.  I'm not saying no. But at least the Government would have nothing to blame themselves for and the Secession would no longer have the argument of assimilation!

And that counts!
    It is for this reason that I urge Parliament to be useful for at least once in a lifetime, by opening up a real prospect for a return to the Federation, possibly renewed.  This is the only way to dry up the Anglophone secession.
    This does not mean that parliament has to proclaim the federation, but that it takes a provision that makes it clear that the form of the state can evolve if the people so decide.
    Perhaps, it must be said clearly, cleanly and definitively!  Anglophones will never return to the unitary state.  There is no configuration of the unitary state that can calm the Secession because it is the word "unitary" which has been providing the fuel of hatred and war. And that is what Parliament will have to understand.
    But if it persists in its status as a registering chamber, then it will have helped the government in the collapse of Cameroon.