Preserving Common Law system

Over 700 lawyers attended the historic conference

Anglophone Lawyers advocate return to two-state federation
- Urge Biya to react within six months or……….
By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda
Cameroon Common Law Lawyers have issued a memo to government requesting that a federal system be reinstated in Cameroon whereby both the Common and Civil Law can function independently. The memo was issued in Bamenda at the Mankon Catholic Hall, on May 9, 2015 after a confab under the theme "The Security and Future of the Common Law in Cameroon" which brought together over 700 lawyers.
    The lawyers through the strongly worded memo have given government six months to look into their problems or else, they (the lawyers) will take drastic measures.
    "We are expecting the government to call for dialogue and if the government dares not to respond within the six months period as has been the case in other issues, common law layers would seize the constitutional council for whom the Supreme Court deputizes for now. This shall be done by exploiting the closure by the common law lawyers’ conference before the constitutional council and even seek international fora. We have adequately exhausted all local legal framework in the country." Barrister Bobga Harmony added.

    The measures The Median gathered include tabling the matter to the international courts. The lawyers have also called on the powers that be, to respect the bicultural nature of Cameroon as well as interrupt all attempts to assimilate Anglophones of the former Southern Cameroon. 
    “Recent happenings in this country have pointed to the fact that the Yaoundé authorities want to completely erode the common law system and we are not going to see that happen. With the bi-jural system in Cameroon, we think that the North West and the South West regions of this country should practice the common law and the francophone regions practice the civil law system,” Bobga emphasized.
    The Bamenda conference also urged lawyers to enter into politics so as the effect the much needed change. “Lawyers should enter into politics to rule the country and not allow themselves to be ruled by illiterates and truck pushers,” they vomited. They also argued that if lawyers enter Parliament, they would be able to right many wrongs in the country.
    On his part Barrister Eta Bessong Jr. called on all the Common Law lawyers to join their voices in order to tell the powers that be to stop the onslaught.
    The lawyers also observed that it is a misfortune that the train of harmonization and the much heralded bilingualism is null in Cameroon.
    According to Barrister Kemende Henry, NW Representative of the Bar Council President, recent happenings at the NW and SW Courts of Appeal and the convening of the Bamenda Conference are telling. He said that the gradual erosion of the common law has made the Cameroonian Common Law lawyer to be seen as defending what is unknown to him, and what no longer applies in England where it originated.
    The conference saw the presence of  the two former Bar Council presidents; Eta Bisong Jr and Sama Francis, and current President of the Bar General Assembly, Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle.
      The call for a return to the federal system comes as the country braces up to celebrate the Unitary State on May 20.