Solution to Anglophone Crisis:

SWELA Wants AAC III Convened First

By Boris Esono in Buea

SWELA SG, Moki Joseph Etukeni

The SG of the Southwest Elite’s Association, SWELA, Moki Joseph Etukeni has said that the urgent setting up of regional councils and the convening of a Pan-Anglophone Forum to discourse the Anglophone crisis and seek solutions, are the first steps towards finding a lasting solution to the ongoing crisis that is rocking the NW and SWRs for almost two years now.

            Moki Joseph was speaking Thursday April 26 after an audience granted him by the Chairman of the Bilingualism and Multiculturalism Commission, Peter Mafany Musonge, in Buea.

            “I presented a number of suggestions to the head of the commission. Some of the suggestions are contained in the four memos that we had already sent to the presidency. It was a matter of reminding the Chairman of the Commission about these memos and making sure that the issues contained in them are again highlighted to the head of state”.

            Moki noted for instance that during the heat of the Boko Haram problem, indigenes from the Northern regions were appointed as administrators in the hotspots, and this was because they mastered the terrain better and could better handle the situation and seek appropriate solutions. He wondered why the authorities have not seen the need to do same in the North West and SW if they really need solution to the crisis.

            Another critical and vital issue that has been talked about for some time now is the creation of regional councils. The SWELA SG wondered why the regional councils have still not been set up, even though the constitution is clear with regards to it.

            “We want the regional councils created and the delegates appointed. We have proposed that each regional council should choose its delegates. The SW for example is made up of 31 councils plus twelve first class chiefs which if we add together gives a total of 43 members. The Center region with 10 divisions and 70 councils will have a house of about 80 members”.

            “If people are talking about a national inclusive dialogue it is necessary for Anglophones to meet and decide on a common platform and on whom to represent the regions in the dialogue. A Pan-Anglophone Dialogue Forum like the one proposed by Dr. Simon Munzu is necessary in solving the present upheavals in the Anglophone regions”.

            It should be recalled that during the early 1990s when the Anglophone problem became a burning issue to the state, Anglophones held a conference in Buea (AAC 1) and another in Bamenda (AAC 11) and came up with a common platform that was tabled in the Tripartite Constitutional Conference in 1993. Unfortunately, instead of adopting the federal system that was advocated by the Anglophones, the head of the Tripartite Conference, Prof. Joseph Owona, shoved aside the draft proposal of the Anglophones and settled instead for decentralization.

            So if Anglophones are to meet again, as SWELA and many other voices are saying, then the forum would be tagged AAC 111.