By Doh Bertrand Nua in Yaounde
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| Lawyers reject controversial law voted by parliament on bilingualism practice |
Common Law Lawyers under the banner of Fako Lawyers
Association, FAKLA, have in an extraordinary session that held Friday 6
December, 2019 vowed to resist the draft bill on the promotion of Cameroon’s
two official languages even if it is presented in another disguised form with
attempts to assimilate Anglophones.
Their resolve was made known in a communiqué issued by their
President, Benjamin Enow Agbor and the Secretary General Nji Valentine Aben.
“…we promise ourselves and the entire Anglophone people that we shall resist
the said bill with all our might and with the last drop of our blood,” one of
the resolutions of the communique read.
The
lawyers called on their peers engage in a large scale sensitisation of the
Anglophones on the danger of the obnoxious bill. “…we call on all Anglophone
Cameroonians to stand up and resist this bill which is about to annihilate our
cultural identity…on all Parliamentarians and Senators to perceive this bill as
one likely to jeopardise peace, unity and diversity of Cameroon and accordingly
reject same” some of the resolutions indicated urging Anglophone lawmakers to
act according to the general good of the Anglophone community who are about to
be assimilated.
FAKLA
members while commending the actions already taken by the Common Law members of
the Cameroon Bar Council noted that the said bill in its section 19 envisages
and authorises communication by state officials to be carried out in either of
the two official languages in Cameroon. This to them implies that Francophone
Administrative officials may decide to carry out their acts exclusively in
French in the Anglophone Regions of Cameroon adding that section 26 of the
draft bill allows judges and magistrates to use the French language in both the
trial of Anglophones and in delivering judgements which further annihilate the
Common Law heritage.
The
lawyers revealed “…that the entire bill is designed to assimilate Anglophones
by attacking the foundation of their cultural identity…that if this bill is adopted
and promulgated, Anglophones will all be forced to speak French in order to
survive…that our educational system will be affected if this bill is adopted
and promulgated…that the bill is not only annoying, it is provocative,
vexatious and inflammatory under the current dispensation in the country and
intended to perpetrate the subjugation of the Anglophone people.”
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