Controversy over Dialogue with Anglophones:

Dion Ngute Denies Hammer to ‘Nail’ Atanga Nji  

During the Cabinet Meeting on Thursday, 23 May, one of the ministers asked to know President Biya’s real stance about the dialogue with Anglophones. The Minister said the gov’t was at a loss after two opposing statements were made in public by the PM and the Minat, Paul Atanga Nji, on the subject. In his response, the PM simply re-stated what he said in Bamenda and Buea during his peace visit. Dion Ngute avoided falling in the trap of having to transform the cabinet meeting into a tribunal on Atanga Nji.

By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde

Prime Minister Dion Ngute avoided making an issue of Atanga Nji

As smart and gentlemanly as he is known to be, the Prime Minister, Chief Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute, avoided falling in the trap of having to entertain unnecessary polemics on the subject of government’s position concerning the planned dialogue with Anglophones. This was during the cabinet meeting which he presided, at the Star Building, on Thursday.

                As the meeting was about to rise, one of the Ministers notably the Minister of Public Service, Joseph Anderson Le, asked to be clarified by the PM on which position he and his colleagues should take home as the head of state’s final position on the intended dialogue with Anglophones.  Minister Le said that not only was the entire government at a loss, but the wider Cameroonian public was also in confusion, after the PM and the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, made two contradictory statements on the subject recently.

                Responding to Minister Le, the PM avoided making an issue of the question. He simply reminded the minister(s) that before he undertook the peace mission to the NW and SW, the head of state had told him exactly what to say to the irate populations of the two regions. The PM said President Biya asked him to tell the Anglophone populations that he is ready to dialogue with them on all subjects but not on secession. The PM did not delve into further explaining himself or judging Atanga Nji. He closed the matter there, we learned.

                Yet, even though the PM avoided to polemic on what has come to be known as the Atanga Nji controversy, he had by his response put Atanga Nji in a bad situation.

                For a government that is known to be characteristically conflict prone, Atanga Nji was abandoned to himself by his colleagues, none of whom ever tried to defend him.

                We are told that if there was a way the Minat could disappear from the hall he could have done so. Our source observed that for the first time since becoming the Minat, Atanga Nji stayed mute and did not utter a word for all throughout the cabinet meeting.

                Our source noted that the Minat has always had something to say during all cabinet meetings. But this time he maintained sealed lips.

                It should be recalled that the MINAT, Paul Atanga Nji, recently gave an interview to French Television Channel, France24, in which he said the government was ready to dialogue with the Anglophones and that in the dialogue all subjects would be tabled but not the form of the state.

                The statement by Atanga Nji was in sharp contrast with what his boss, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, had told the populations in Buea and Bamenda only days earlier, and Atanga Nji was among the ministers who accompanied the PM during his trip to Bamenda.

                Commentators question why he did not re-echo the PM in the interview with France24, prefering to instead contradict the PM.

                Many have described Atanga Nji’s outing as not only controversial but counter-productive vis-a-vis the peace-seeking efforts of the government, and with some others saying the MINAT was instead pouring petrol in the fire that his boss the PM is so desperately trying to put out.

                In a desperate effort to absolve Atanga Nji of wrong doing, his apologists evoke the argument that the Minat simply paraphrased his boss and mentor, President Paul Biya in the interview with France24.

                Atanga Nji’s advocates argue that in his several pronouncements ever since the start of the ongoing Anglophone conflict, the head of state has maintained that Cameroon is one and indivisible and that the unitary and decentralized form of the state is untouchable.

                As the Atanga Nji controversy continues animating political debate in Cameroon, many say it behooves the President of the republic to come out and clarify public opinion on the very burning subject of dialogue with Anglophones. And that the president should do so sooner than later, so as to put an end to the confusion.

Pic

Prime Minister Dr Dion Ngute