- Nfor Ngala Nfor, SCNC National Chairman
The Chairman of the Southern Cameroon National Congress, SCNC has declared that the 50th anniversary celebration of reunification which president Biya presided in Buea is a non event, as there is no legal document binding Southern Cameroon and La Republique du Cameroun. Contrary to PM Yang’s wish for the SCNC to be transformed into a political party for it to negotiate with the Cameroon government, Nfor Ngala Nfor said SCNC can never become a political party under a colonizer (referring to La Republique)
After much speculation especially from SCNC ranks that Biya will not go to Buea he has finally presided over the 50th anniversary celebrations of reunification. What do you have to say about this?
The firebrand SCNC Chairman, Nfor Ngala Nfor
because there was no union between Southern Cameroon and La Republique. Let me also draw your attention to the fact that even some Francophones have now come to admit that there is no legal document binding Southern Cameroon and La Republique du Cameroun. Note that the former United Kingdom High Commissioner to La Republique before he left made it clear that he has never seen any document on the unification of the two Cameroons. These are facts and I will like to make you understand that the issue of a union of peoples, of nations is an aspect of international law. It is not based on the whims and caprices of individuals, it is not an issue of political slogans but an issue of law and history and once it does not conform to established norms you cannot sit down and begin to say this has taken place when you cannot prove it. We have challenged Biya to show the document, the treaty of the Union. But no one has so far been able to do so.
What is your take on the president’s speech in Buea?
We did not expect any thing good to come out of the colloquium or so called celebrations which we have dismissed as a make belief. What came out of it is the usual rhetoric. There were some people who were saying that Biya will make some great pronouncements in Buea but we dismissed it and we have been proven right.
At a colloquium at the University of Buea Prime Minister Yang said the government of Cameroon can only dialogue with the SCNC if it registers as a political party and shun its secessionist agenda. Don’t you think that is a good suggestion for the SCNC?
Firstly, I want to draw your attention to the fact that Mr Philemon Yang first and foremost is a Southern Cameroonian. So it was not his place to answer that question. He is over there in the government working as Ahidjo was in the French Parliament, same as Houphouet Boigny of Ivory Coast was in the French Parliament and even held a ministerial appointment in France. Philemon Yang and his likes are in La Republique same as these people of former French colonies were in the French National Assembly. So it was not his place to answer that question for he is a southern Cameroonian. The matter is between Southern Cameroon and La Rupublique du Cameroun and as I have said it is a matter of international law. Now back to your question on whether it is not ideal for the SCNC to transform itself into a political party, the SCNC is a liberation movement with sole objective to restore a nation state that existed and that is British Southern Cameroon which came into being in 1954. We cannot transform the SCNC into a political party even if we do so it will be under whose laws?, the laws of the occupier of our land? Mr. Philemon Yang and his cronies talk as if when people of a land are fighting for freedom, they need to go and get authorization from the oppressor. The ANC did not go to Apartheid leaders to ask for permission for what they were doing so we will not go to Mr. Biya to seek his approval by transforming the SCNC into a political party. The SCNC cannot be transformed into a political party under the laws of La Rupublique because La Republique is here illegally and they know it. You saw it in Buea, the evidence of the illegality of what they are doing.
How did you appraise the outcome of the Buea colloquium?
The first thing that I will want to say is that even inside that hall the dividing line between Southern Cameroon and La Republique was very clear and very visible both from the speakers and the audience. From the aspect of the audience, whenever somebody said something about Southern Cameroon which was the truth and which projected the identity of Southern Cameroon you saw that Southern Cameroonians clapped overwhelmingly while Francophones or citizens of La Republique in the hall supported their head with their hands which was very remarkable. From the aspect of the speakers, Pr. Fanso, Mola Litumbe wanted to expose the injustices and illegality of the union but you saw that there was consistent effort to disturb them from doing so. Even a man such as retired Bishop Lysinge who stood up and was shouting about conversion, how do you ask people to be converted to injustice, annexation and assimilation? Did Moses ask the Israelites to be converted and accept to be slaves in Egypt? Did Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu ask Nelson Mandela to accept Apartheid in South Africa? We expect a Man of God such as Bishop Lysinge to have stood up and spoken the truth. He should have even asked the participants to defend the truth and fight for justice.
Some SCNC activists were arrested in Buea before the anniversary and it appears the SCNC has not made any official statement about it?
That does not mean we are doing nothing about it, we have sent people to Buea to find out where they are detained and the contacts have been made and that kind of thing. The making of the declaration about detention is nothing strange, people have been arrested right to Bui far away from Buea although they were arrested and detained only for a short while. People have been threatened; the County Chairman’s house in Buea was rounded up for two days. What I want to say is that people were arrested but it didn’t come to us as a surprise because arrests have been what we have been going through. When you see the way troops were in Buea, they were out to intimidate the population. It is not only SCNC people that have suffered, even ordinary civilians, farmers have suffered and lost property because of the so called celebrations of the 50th anniversary of reunification which does not exist.
In the fight for the liberation of Southern Cameroons we have the SCNC, SCAPO, UNO State of Cameroon and others. Do the many factions not stifle the fight? And who is in charge of the SCNC, Nfor Ngala Nfor or Chief Ayamba?
Your question comes up in two parts. On the struggle on divided fronts, it is true that when the struggle started in Buea in 1993 then to Bamenda in 1994, what came out was the SCNC and the Delegation to the UN to file a petition against the annexation and assimilation of southern Cameroon was SCNC. It is true that some other groups have come up. As much as one would have wished that all of us were together I want you to understand the socio-political environment within which we operate, which is so corrupt. Under La Republique laws, how many political parties are there in this country? There are more than 320 political parties for a population of less than 20 million inhabitants. In the last presidential elections how many parties contested? Just 23 of them contested. Now the reason for the existence of many political parties is as a result of the corrupt nature and at the end of the day you hear of the presidential majority where some political parties come together to share from the largesse which the CPDM regime has monopolized. So, some of these groups that flirt around that they are doing this and so forth is to show that they are being sponsored by La Republique du Cameroun to kill the struggle. Unfortunately they are not winning the war because truth is infinite. I will also like to draw your attention to the fact that there is no liberation movement any where in the world which started monolithic and ended monolithic. Even in South Africa there were other groups. You know very well that when Mandela was even ruling during the transitional period and brought a member of the Apartheid regime in to the government there was still the Incarta Freedom Movement that was fighting the ANC despite the fact that they were in government. So what I am saying is that despite the fact that we don’t want such conflicts, human nature being what it is, interests differ and people too. Now you talked of SCNC/SCAPO what you should ask yourself is what they stand for. If they are all standing for the freedom and restoration of southern Cameroon there is no conflict. That is why you see that SCNC and SCAPO were together in Nigeria and Banjul. They have been working together because the ultimate goal is restoration of the statehood of Southern Cameroon.
So what of the UNO State of Cameroon?
For the issue of the UNO State of Cameroon I think you should find out what they stand for, what they are doing and how they came into being. I would not like to comment because there is so much controversy surounding that so called group.
What about the leadership of the SCNC?
That is a very good question and if you had to ask that, I think you yourself can answer. For the issue of Chief Ayamba, he violated the constitution, the laid down rules of the SCNC. You must have heard of the PCF which we created in 2011, he was involved from day one to the end but later turned against it and carried out acts which were contrary to the principles governing the SCNC and the constitution and as such, he axed himself from the SCNC. Yet though, the SCNC has continued to wax stronger and stronger. You can find out there is a press release which was released by the County Chairmen who took the disposition after waiting for him to come back and apologize, he did not do that and they went ahead and said they cannot continue having him to be acting and confirmed that i should be the Chairman of the SCNC.
What has the SCNC accomplished during its 21 years of existence?
I think you should have asked if Cameroonians believe in the SCNC. And I will tell you that Cameroonians believe in the SCNC. What you should understand is that even by the year 2000 when I was elected as the national chairman it was not an easy thing to have a journalist pronounce the word SCNC or Southern Cameroon. They were always calling it the Anglophone problem. But today any paper that comes up with an issue with a headline mentioning southern Cameroon is the most marketed paper on the newsstand. If you listened to President Biya talk in Buea the other day, he made mention of southern Cameroons. Has he ever done so before? For the first time Biya pronounced the name southern Cameroon. In the colloquium that you are talking of SCNC was the issue, Southern Cameroon was the issue, even those who were avoiding the truth also came and admitted that things have not worked out as we expected. The question which was asked to the Prime Minister at the colloquium was about the SCNC. If the SCNC was not alive no body would have asked him why the SCNC was not in the colloquium which means people were going there expecting the SCNC to defend its own version. And if they don’t have anything to hide why was SCNC not invited to talk?
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