- Dr. Simon Munzu
 |
| Dr. Simon Munzu |
Dr. Simon Munzu, co-convener of the 1993 All Anglophone
Conference says the Special Status for the North West and South West Regions is
a mockery of the people of these regions.
Although
he was given a voice at last year’s Major National Dialogue, Dr. Simon Munzu
insists that this far, there is nothing special in the much-talked-about
special status for the North West and South West regions which was intended to
solve the on-going Anglophone crisis.
In a 5
June 2020 interview with The Sun, the unrepentant Anglophone Federalist that
Anglophones have held their breath and waited for too long for the Government
to come up with the content of the special status.
“With
deep regret, I would say, nothing! Remember that the Major National Dialogue
was organized specifically to examine ‘the situation in the North West and
South West regions of Cameroon’. Its overall objective, as announced by the
Head of State who convened it, was to find a lasting solution to the crisis in
these two regions so that they could return to normalcy,” said Munzu. “After
several days of deliberation in a forum organized by the Government, it was
officially recognized, for the first time, that there was an Anglophone
problem.”
Participants
at the Major National Dialogue recommended that to resolve the Anglophone
problem the two Anglophone regions should be granted a ‘special status’. In
implementing the recommendations of the Major National Dialogue, the government
was given a blank check to give content to the specific recommendation
concerning ‘special status’, Munzu opined.
“We all
held our breath and waited with great expectation for the Government to come up
with the content. We ended up being very disappointed. I have read the Law on
Decentralisation that was promulgated on 24 December 2019 over and over and
over again. It contains some provisions in Part V of Book IV entitled ‘Special
Status of the North West and South West Regions’. I regret to say that these
provisions do not contain anything that confers any meaningful ‘special status’
on the two Anglophone regions. It is hard to see how they can lead to the
resolution of the Anglophone problem,” Munzu explains.
His
words: “On the devolution of powers, the two Anglophone regions do not have any
powers different from those enjoyed by their Francophone counterparts. The
regional councils in the Anglophone regions comprise 90 members that are
supposed to reflect the sociological composition of the region, exactly as is
the case with those in the Francophone regions. The only difference is that, in
the Anglophone regions, the law says that 20 out of those 90 regional
councillors must be traditional chiefs, whereas in the Francophone regions the
number of traditional chiefs is left to be decided by each council according to
its local sociological realities.
“Second,
while, in the eight Francophone regions, all the 90 regional councilors meet
together and deliberate as a single chamber, in the two Anglophone regions 70
of the regional councilors meet separately as the ‘House of Divisional
Representatives’ while the remaining 20, all of whom are traditional rulers,
meet separately as the ‘House of Chiefs’. This is to create the illusion that in
the two Anglophone regions, we now have a ‘House of Assembly’ and a ‘House of
Chiefs’ as we had in the days of the Federation. This is a mockery of the
people of these two regions.
“The
other distinguishing feature, one which is just as meaningless as the others,
is the introduction for the two Anglophone regions of a state official who is
appointed, and can be dismissed, by the President of the Republic, called the
Public Independent Conciliator who will be charged mainly with the examination
and amicable settlement of disputes between citizens and regional and municipal
council administrations.
“In
every other respect, including the supervision and control by Governors and
Senior Divisional Officers as ‘representatives of the State’, the two Anglophone
regions are treated exactly the same as the eight Francophone regions. It is
difficult to see how all this can contribute to resolving the Anglophone
problem and ending the four-year-old crisis in the South West and North West
regions.
“The
purpose of ‘special status’ for the Anglophone regions ought to be to grant
these two regions a sufficient degree of administrative and financial autonomy
to enable them to run their own systems of education, justice, police, etc. in
accordance with their own heritage. The aim should be to put an end to the
marginalization, domination, and assimilation of these two regions by ‘La
Republique du Cameroun’.”
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