Boko Haram insurgency

Biya frowns at CPDM intoxication and provocation
- Says Northerners have no hand in Boko Haram
- Insists that there is no Cameroonian variant of Boko Haram
- Warns national media against “irresponsible” coverage of Boko Haram
By Ayukogem Steven Ojong in Yaounde
President Paul Biya can certainly not be at ease at the Unity Palace at this time especially with the persisting attacks of the nebulous terrorist sect Boko Haram. As commander-in-chief of the Cameroonian armed forces the “lion man” is commanding his troops in one of  the most tricky and complex battles ever, in his almost 32 years at the helm of Cameroon.
    Barely days after the president returned to the country from a three-week sojourn in Europe and even before he really got settled to begin evaluating the results of recent measures he took to tackle the Boko Haram menace, the president got confronted with yet other emerging internal challenges: Some misguided persons took upon themselves to manipulate national opinion that Boko Haram is a Cameroonian phenomenon; that the insurgency is a growing internal rebellion against the regime and that a section of the country is master-minding and sponsoring the terrorist activities that are perpetrated in the Far North of Cameroon.

    In what observers describe as an angry move, the president on Friday ordered the government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary to convene the national and international media and implore them to stop disseminating “ungrounded and irresponsible” allegations that are likely to instill fear in the minds of the populations.
    In a discernibly vexatious and harsh tone Tchiroma wondered aloud why “some voices inspired by ill-fated intentions” should make the public to believe that Boko Haram attacks are the manifestation of a growing internal rebellion against the CPDM regime.
    The regime fire-fighter (as Issa Tchiroma is now fondly referred to) also condemned in very strong and unreserved terms “attempts by some misguided individuals who are using every means to propagate allegations insinuating a rebellion by Northerners in the Northern part of the country.”
    “With such attempts to stigmatize a part of our population, I hereby strongly warn the national media, especially those who have decided to follow this gruesome and perilous move, and remind them of their obligation of republican responsibility,” Tchiroma charged, wondering why some Cameroonians could be so unpatriotic as to fuel tempers and provoke certain portions of the populations at a time when the territorial integrity of the state is in jeopardy.
    “Such wayward attitudes are intolerable and inadmissible in a state of law,” Tchiroma warned further, reminding the agents of intoxication and provocation that their maneuvers which are only intended to create division and distraction would not yield the expected fruit, because nobody can allow himself to be fooled at this crucial moment.
    To further debunk allegations of a “Nordistes conspiracy” in Boko Haram, Tchiroma seized the occasion to clarify that the recent arrest of two “Nordistes” – Mr Harrissou, a Maroua-based notary public and Mr. Abdoulaye SIDDIKI, has nothing to do with Boko Haram. Tchiroma explained that the arrests have to do instead with alleged links and acquaintances they have with armed groups in the Central African Republic, some which are accountable for the attacks against Cameroon.
    But Issa Tchiroma used the forum to also applaud those media organs that have shown cognizance to the severity of Boko Haram and who have accepted to support the president of the republic and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, as well as the defense forces, in the just cause they have undertaken to preserve our national integrity.
    He used the occasion to on behalf of the head of state and people of Cameroon, pay homage to the defense and security forces for their heroism and high sense of “honor and fidelity.
    He also hailed the entire political class and the civil society for the high sense of civic duty and for supporting the head of state.
    To the populations of the Far North, the principal victims of Boko Haram atrocities, Tchiroma expressed the head of state’s unreserved compassion and support.
    He assured Cameroonians that at this time of back to school, all measures have been taken to ensure a smooth and hitch-free resumption of classes throughout the national territory.
            
Thesis of a Northern conspiracy
    Tchiroma’s press outing on Friday came in the wake of intense debates in the media, following some controversial positions taken by some interest groups and journalists on the Boko Haram phenomenon.
    In a motion of support addressed to president Biya on 3 September 2014, political leaders and elite of Lekie Division of the Centre region pin-pointed Northerners as accomplices of Boko Haram. In the motion titled “A call by the people of Lekie in Obala for a total war against the Islamist and foreign sect Boko Haram and its accomplices in Cameroon” (our translation) the Lekie elite said: “No to the accomplices of Boko Haram, principally in the Northern regions of Cameroon, and their sly and under-hand strategy and attempts to incite a break-up of the country……No to all attempts to destabilize republication institutions by foreign agents, through active and passive accomplices in Cameroon, for yet undisclosed reasons, but which are manifest and catastrophic.”
    The Obala motion was signed among others by government ministers and persons ranking as such from Lekie division, MPs, members of CPDM Central Committee and Polit-bureau, CPDM mayors, and presidents of basic organs of the ruling party.

         Cavaye’s angry outburst
    Even before the public could digest and draw conclusions from the Obala motion of support, the president of the National Assembly, Cavaye Yeguie Djibril wasted no time to respond to the “provocation and intoxication”. In a virulent press release published on Thursday 4 September 2014, Cavaye said “on behalf of the populations of the Greater North in general and the elite in particular, I consider the allegations of the elite of Lekie as constituting very grievous accusations. Worse still, they are inopportune, inimical to national cohesion and prejudicial to national unity. .....The whiff of stigmatization that they have invited on the dignified and faithful sons of the Greater North could only go a long way to incite division in Cameroon rather than mobilize the populations to constitute a strong united force against a common enemy – Boko Haram”.
    Commentators have however, expressed surprise at Cavaye’s angry outburst. Many wondered why the National assembly Speaker took upon himself to react to the Lekie motion instead of allowing someone else from the Greater North to do it on behalf of Northerners. Commentators said Cavaye’s outing smacked of double-standards especially giving his earlier declarations during the opening of the June session of parliament when he said that “Boko Haram has accomplices in Cameroon; we know some of them; they are among us and are pretending to be supporting the regime.”
    It should also be pointed out that the “Lekie motion” only came to reinforce earlier speculations on Boko Haram by other analysts. The French journalist, Fanny Pigeaud, who authored the story that was published in the French website Mediapart, also evoked the thesis of a possible northern conspiracy in Boko Haram.
    But all in all, whether who of Issa Tchiroma (Biya’s mouthpiece) or the Lekie elite and Fanny Pigeaud and others would be vindicated on their positions on Boko Haram, only the future will reveal.
    Yet one fact has emerged clearly from the present imbroglio over Boko Haram; it is that the cracks and crevices within the CPDM party are widening and getting more and more visible.
    Whether President Paul Biya, the guarantor and symbol of national unity and cohesion within the CPDM party and Cameroon at large, would be able to stem the tides and restore the legendary peace and stability that has been the hallmark of his reign for several decades now, would be known much later than sooner, The Median can say with conviction.
          But be it as it may, many Cameroonians have expressed the hope that “The Shpinx”  (as president Biya is also fondly called) should triumph, once again, in this new and tricky war, which is already proving to be the most tricky and ultimate battle to be fought by the New Deal regime, after the 6th April 1984 coup, the ghost towns, Bakassi, coupeurs de route and the nation-wide February 2008 hunger riots.