When the Greentree Agreement was signed on June 12, 2006, resolving
the Cameroon-Nigeria border dispute over the much contested gas-rich Bakassi
Peninsula, most, if not, all Cameroonians and the World saw Paul Biya,
Cameroon’s President as the father of peace.
But it now appears Biya might have been frightened by Nigeria’s
military might to subdue his itchy lips from declaring war against Nigeria.
Fair enough, Cameroon went through the UN to secure a Diplomatic Win during
which Ghanaian mascot son, Kofi Annan, the then Secretary General of the United
Nations supervised the peaceful boundary deal.
Sad
enough, same Paul Biya who would have had nothing to lose, denied listening to
only a slice of the grievances of Anglophone lawyers and teachers back in 2016
and would later declare war on the English-speaking Regions of Cameroon. No one
doubts the fact that there would have indeed been no armed conflict if Biya had
acted like Emmanuel Macron who addressed the concerns of disgruntled Yellow
Vest French protesters.
In
Biya’s case, he clamped down on peaceful protesters who were demanding for an
improvement in basic amenities. One thing led to another and war emerged. The
war then spread like an airborne across the two English-speaking Regions of
Cameroon.
The
peaceful protest moved from mere demands for basic amenities to the demand for
the Restoration of the statehood of the former British Southern Cameroons aka
Ambazonia. Armed groups would later emerge from every corner of the North West
and South West, leading to audacious insecurity. Cameroon has now officially become
another Baghdad. It’s indeed another Baghdad, if not, worse than it.
If the
insecurity isn’t as audacious as it’s reported, how come dead tolls are on the
horizons and kidnapping has become the new Religion? The situation is that bad!
It’s bad so much so that Cardinal Tumi was literally touched. National
Telegraph gathered that twenty-two (22) elements of a school in Cameroon named
after the Man of God were kidnapped.
A
source expressed shock at the level of insecurity, adding that he couldn’t have
imagined it happening to something that has the Cardinal’s name. National
Telegraph has confirmed that on Saturday January 19, 2019 between 8PM and 9PM,
a group of unidentified gunmen stormed Christian Cardinal Tumi Comprehensive
Catholic College (CATACCOL) Mantum in Jakiri, Bui Division of Cameroon’s unruly
North West Region.
During
the attack, the Principal, Rev Fr. Lawrence FovenWirba, a Seminarian, a
teacher, the night watchman, and 18 students were kidnapped and ferried to an
unknown destination. Even though all twenty-two (22) were released the very
next day; Sunday, January 20, 2019, the physical and psychological effects that
must have accrued to the victims are most likely immeasurable.
Though
CATACCOL has been named after the Cardinal, it’s run by the Diocese of Kumbo
with Bishop George Nkuo as proprietor. CATACCOL is only a film in the theatre.
Cameroon is up in flames; Douala, Yaoundé, Bafoussamet alia are going bankrupt
in peace with Vuvuzelas-like protests and thunderous gunshots.
In the
North West and South West Regions, most villages are in ruins, not even up to
their shadows with dead bodies of children, pregnant women, youths, aged,
disabled and even animals littered here and there. Biya, 85, has won a highly
contested presidency and moves and grapples with his steps and speeches, yet
he’s consistent in making sure Cameroon remains in top-notch insecurity.
With
high-sounding threats from Boko Haram in the Grand North (Adamawa, North and
Far North Regions) and with the some of the deadliest broods of the rebels from
the Central African Republic already in strategic places in the East, the UN on
Thursday, January 24, 2019, through its Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator
for Cameroon, Allegra Baiocchi wasn’t wrong to have said; Cameroon today can no
longer be a forgotten crisis; it needs to be high on our agenda.
Pic
Christian Cardinal Tumi is a Cardinal Priest and the
Archbishop Emeritus of Douala
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