- Also submit copies of ‘Bamenda Resolution’ to Foreign Embassies
By Essan-Ekoninyam in Yaounde
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| A delegation of Common law lawyers pose for photo after depositing “Bamenda resolution” at PM’s office in Yaounde |
It should be recalled that Common Law lawyers met in Bamenda on Saturday 9 May 2015 to discuss the conditions of legal practice in NW and SW regions especially following the appointment of Francophone Judges to Courts in these essentially and primordially English Speaking parts of the country. The lawyers also took a cursory look at the state of the union between English and French Cameroons 54 years since the Reunification in 1961.
Coomon Law lawyers said by looking at these issues their aim was simply to point out to government those areas that needed to be improved and/or reviewed. They also sought to make suggestions on how the two entities that united to form Cameroon can better forge ahead in harmony and in respect of each other’s specificities and identity.
It was in light of these that the lawyers urged government to halt all efforts and policies aimed at eroding the common law system that prevails in SW and NW regions of Cameroon. The lawyers reminded government that the appointment of Francophone Judges in Anglophone Courts not only violates the constitution of Cameroon but frontally provokes and insults common law judges and lawyers.
Apart from the conscious and sustained effort by government to erode the common law system and enforce the French Civil Law system, the lawyers also observed albeit, with vexatious dismay the discrimination, marginalization, exclusion, second-class status and subjugation that Anglophone Cameroonians are subjected to in their own fatherland.
In a rare manifestation of their disappointment and dissatisfaction, the lawyers have issued a strongly-worded ultimatum to the government calling on her to review all policies that seek to undermine and consciously assimilate Anglophones in Cameroon. They also urged the government to review these policies within reasonable time or they may be forced to take further and more compellings action.
Re-affirming the Bi-lingual, Bi-Cultural and especially the Bi-Jural nature of Cameroon as enshrined in all versions of the Cameroon Constitution (1961, 1972 and 1996 constitutions), the lawyers exhorted government to withdraw francophone judges from courts in the English parts of Cameroon (NW and SW regions) without further delay.
Then to ensure a peaceful and harmonious co-existence of West and East Cameroon as one republic, the lawyers suggested a return to the two-state federation as was decided at the Reunification Conference in 1961 in Foumban.
When this reporter sought to know from Barrister Nkongho Agbor-Balla if by given an ultimatum to government they were not taken the authorities hostage, the learned Barrister hastened to say no.
“We are learned and responsible people; we cannot take the government hostage. All we are doing is to call the government’s attention to those glaring forms of individual, corporate and institutional excesses and injustices that have continued to be perpetrated on one segment of the population for decades now and which we think must be corrected. We are only urging the government to review the situation within reasonable time,” Agbor-Balla said, also noting that they are not calling for secession per se, as some people have erroneously interpreted their action to mean.
“We are simply calling on the government to respect the bilingual, bicultural and bi-jural nature of Cameroon as it is clearly written in the constitution, nothing more, nothing less,” he concluded, saying they are open to dialogue if the need be.
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