Below is a copy of memo,which The RECORDER procured :
_________________________________________________________________________
URGENT
MEMORANDUM
To: Mr. Zang III,
The Senior
Divisional Officer for Fako
Limbe, Fako Division
South West Region
Cameroon
From: Mbella Ikomi Ngongi, Esq.
Attorney-at-Law
P.O. Box 27, Buea, Fako Division
South West Region, Cameroon
Email: ngongilaw79@gmail.com
Date : Thursday, June 6, 2013
Subject: Land
Surrender by CDC to the indigenes of Fako: The Obligation and Challenges of Preserving Fako Ancestral Lands for Fako Indigenes and Posterity
Introduction:
This morning, we heard
over the news on CRTV Radio, Buea, your announcement inviting many chiefs of
Fako Division to a meeting at the Limbe Council Hall at 10 AM tomorrow, Friday
June 07, 2013, to discuss issues relating to lands surrender in Fako Division,
by the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), your administrative
jurisdiction. Having heard some of your
recent public pronouncements and admonitions regarding the reckless and illegal
sale of Fako lands by some Fako chiefs, we think this meeting is very
appropriate and timely; maybe long overdue, but welcome and much appreciated.
The
Problem and Context
Today the peoples of Fako are faced with the
challenges of the overwhelming influx
of economic migrants, who pose a considerable threat to
their very survival as minorities in their own ancestral lands. Coupled
with this is the reckless and illegal sale by FAKO chiefs of indigenous lands
surrendered by CDC. The obvious absence of any strategy by the people of Fako who are faced
with this very serious and increasingly intractable problem, is evidenced by
the way they are increasingly marginalized in the management of the affairs of
the Division - politically, economically, socially, and, to a certain extent, even culturally.
The Government of
Cameroon has an obligation to protect the indigenes of FAKO who are the
innocent victims of this reckless and illegal disposition of their ancestral
lands by some irresponsible chiefs. This
task, at the Divisional level, lies on your shoulders as the Senior Divisional
Officer of Fako. Your recent public
statements decrying the practices of the illegal sale of Fako land by some Fako
chiefs bolsters our efforts to redress this problem with the urgency it
demands. Your concerns are legitimate and we applaud you for the efforts you
manifest in this regard to the benefit of the many hapless indigenes of Fako
Division.
International Law, to
which Cameroon law is subject, addresses the critical issue of protecting national
and ethnic minorities all over the world.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, adopted
by the General Assembly Resolution 47/135 of 18 December 1992, takes
cognizance of this responsibility that States have towards their minority
populations and exhorts Governments to take all appropriate measures, under
the law, to guarantee their protection. The situation in Fako today, where the
reckless and illegal disposal of indigenous lands by some Fako chiefs, with the
complicity of some government officials, occurs on a daily basis, calls for URGENT
and DECISIVE actions, on the part of Government, the Judiciary and Civil
Society – actions that would put an immediate stop to this continuing and
insensitive abuse and criminality.
The loss of Fako ancestral lands through this reckless and illegal sales
and acquisition, or even theft, by some chiefs and government officials, seriously
threatens and undermines the identity and very existence of the people of Fako.
Article
1
of the United Nations Declaration states, inter alia:
1. States shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic,
cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their
respective territories and shall encourage conditions for the promotion of that
identity.
2. States
shall adopt appropriate legislative and other measures to achieve those ends.
Article 2 states, inter
alia:
2. Persons
belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in cultural,
religious, social, economic and public life.
With the clear intention of ensuring that no recriminations are wrought on
minorities who seek to assert their rights to protection under the law, the Declaration further states:
Articles 3:
No
disadvantage shall result for any person belonging to a minority as the
consequence of the exercise or non-exercise of the rights set forth in the
present Declaration.
Article
4:
1. States shall take measures, where required, to ensure that persons
belonging to minorities may exercise
fully and effectively all their human rights and fundamental freedoms
without any discrimination and in full equality before the law.
The
principles and rights set forth in this United Nations Declaration on the
Protection of Minorities are the offshoot, in spirit and letter, of those
embodied in The United Nations Charter
(1945), The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948) and The International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976), all of
which the State of Cameroon is signatory to.
By virtue of these international instruments to which Cameroon is
signatory to, the Government of Cameroon has an obligation - a duty - to ensure
that the peoples of Fako are not robbed of their cultural, social and economic
heritages, which underlie their fundamental human rights and freedoms.
When a people are deprived of their very fundamental source of livelihood,
nay, existence, - their land - they cannot, under any circumstance, effectively
participate in the economic, social, cultural, religious or public life in
their country. The indigenous peoples of Fako face the real and present danger
of suffering this fate if the current surrender of ancestral lands by the
Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) continues in the haphazard,
uncontrolled, maybe opaque, manner, style, and speed in which it has been done in
the past and until today.
In furtherance of our fervent desire to ensure the protection, enhancement
and sustainability of the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the peoples
of Fako, we are, hereby, proposing a change in the current and past practices
of land surrender by Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) to Fako indigenes.
This memorandum is the first of a series we will submit for your appraisal and action. We, as a
Think Tank Group, propose strategies and practical steps for the people of
Fako, and even other parts of the
country, faced
with similar challenges
of economic migration, especially in cases where the indigenes, or
their chiefs, have cultivated the negative practice of recklessly and illegally selling
their ancestral lands to the
detriment of their own indigenes and posterity. This
practice is unsustainable and
untenable because it deprives the people of Fako from their most
important capital for development
– land- which, in
turn, is already, now, producing a vicious cycle of
poverty,
disenchantment, despondency and
dependency in many of our village and urban communities, with the most
vulnerable being our youths, the future of this Division, this country. It negates the legitimate
aspirations of any peoples to preserve their culture and promote their legitimate economic and cultural aspirations
for posterity.
CDC Land Surrender in Fako and the Dangers it Poses:
The
Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, has for several years now embarked, together with the
assistance of the Senior
Divisional Officer and the Fako Division Department of
Lands, on a
program of surrendering Fako lands occupied by the CDC in the form of plantations, to many villages, which have applied to
them for the
surrender of parcels of land for
their apparent use.
Many of the villagers in
these villages to which lands have been surrendered by CDC do not own one
square meter of land in the “surrendered” lay-outs. An exhaustive list of such land surrender is in the offices of the Senior Divisional
Officer and should be published.
During our visits to
some of these villages, and in discussions with some of their Chiefs and
notables, the following troubling facts have emerged:
1.
For
several years now, CDC has been ceding considerable amounts of land (average of
over 70 hectares each) to village populations that vary from 10 to 5,000 people.
2.
Most of
these villages, which we have visited and with whose Chiefs and occupants we have
talked, do NOT have the 1.5 million francs CFA (or more) that CDC is asking as
the fee for the cession of the lands. In
addition to the 1.5 million francs cession fee, an additional 1.5 million francs,
or more, are needed to pay for the purchase and implantation survey pillars, labor
etc. Therefore, a minimum of about 3 (three) million francs is needed, on
average, for each village to accede to the surrendered lands.
3.
CDC is
putting considerable pressure on the villages to come up with the money
immediately, or else they would lose the opportunity to obtain the said lands. They (CDC) have made this land cession time-sensitive.
This poses a serious problem since most of these villages are not ready,
financially, psychologically, managerially, or otherwise to receive and wisely
and effectively use and manage these lands.
4.
Because of
this pressure and because most of these Chiefs/villages do NOT have the requisite
sum of money to pay to CDC, several of them have resorted to the dangerous
option of illegally “selling” parcels of
“promised” lands, in ADVANCE, to those who would give them the money, in order for
them to pay CDC. This is the case with
many chiefs and villages in Fako Division.
5. There is
great danger in this practice. Most of
the lands ceded by CDC have invariably ended up in the hands of non villagers, and
not to the rightful and legal owners - the indigenes for whom the land
surrender was meant and from whom the invading and occupying Germans illegally
took away the lands. This has completely
negated the raison d’etre for the
land surrender by CDC to the ethnic and indigenous, minority peoples of Fako.
6.
In our many
focus group meetings held with some village members, notables and chiefs, there
seemed to be a general agreement on the proposal we made to them for the need
to have a credible and realistic management plan for the lands that are being
surrendered by CDC. However, knowing the
level of material and spiritual poverty of some of these people, there is a
slim chance that they will wait for the process-driven management plan to be
set up before they completely divest themselves of the land by way of cheap, ridiculous,
sales to whoever brings ready cash to them.
Time has proven us right. Most of the lands ceded by CDC are NOT in the
possession and control of the intended recipients. Rather, they are in the contentious
“ownership” of non- intended third parties.
In the light of the
foregoing, we respectfully submit to you, for your urgent action, the following
proposal as a means of addressing this
problem from a short, medium and long-term perspective:
OPTION A:
i.
Immediately
order a freeze on all CDC lands
surrender to any Fako villages UNTIL a clear and unambiguous understanding is
reached by ALL Fako Elites and Villages/Chiefs on the generally accepted principles
by which these lands will be held in trust by the chiefs or elected or selected
committees, to be properly managed, when surrendered, in the interest of the
village communities. These principles
will be in keeping with a desire to protect these ancestral lands - not to sell
them - and to ensure that they will be passed on to posterity.
ii.
Set up a Fako Strategic Land Management Committee
(FSLMC) to work directly with CDC, the SDO, the Lands Dept and all Fako villages
to establish viable development management plans for the lands earmarked for
surrender and also to establish a viable plan for any future land surrender by
CDC in order to ensure proper protection for the minority indigenes of the
respective villages and for posterity.
This Committee should comprise independent and professional persons from
various walks of life, from Civil Society and elites of Fako, with no political
or Civil Service connections and/or aspirations.
iii.
Sign commitment/engagement agreements with each village/chief embodying the
principles of no-sale and proper, sustainable, management of these lands. Any violation
of the terms of this agreement shall result in the immediate revocation and
annulations of the lands surrendered and a return of the said land to CDC for
safe-keeping and use.
iv.
Lands shall
NOT be ceded by CDC to any village
that does not submit a 25 to 50 - year development management plan, accompanied
by a visaed agreement by The Senior Divisional Officer along with credible
Stakeholders from Civil Society of Fako Division origin (preferably members of FSLMC) in ii above, or any other designated
entity, certifying the embodiment of the principles set forth.
OPTION B:
i.
Immediately
set up a Fako Land Trust Fund with
at least 1 (one) billion francs CFA of Cameroon Government money, designated
for the development projects of Fako Division.
Set up a management process for this trust fund, whose membership/contributions
should be extended to all Fako elites and indigenes.
ii.
Use the funds
from this trust fund to support villages with the acquisition of the ceded
lands and support the creation and
implementation of viable, short, medium and long-term, development and management programs for all Fako villages, with
special emphasis on youth training and
employment in rural communities to prevent or stem rural exodus.
We remain at your
disposal to help in clarifying the proposals made here and in actualizing
strategies to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the many,
innocent, peace-loving but deprived indigenes of Fako. We seek to work with you in the furtherance
of your objectives that has led you to calling and holding this meeting with
the chiefs of Fako, in Limbe tomorrow, June 07, 2013.
Respectfully yours.
Mbella Ikomi Ngongi, Esq.
Attorney-at-Law
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cc:
·
-Mr. Ngoni
Njie
The General Manager
Cameroon Development Corporation
Bota, Limbe
South West Region, Cameroon
· -
H.E. The
President of the Republic of Cameroon
Yaounde, Cameroon
· -
H.E. The Prime
Minister, Head of Government
Cameroon
Yaounde, Cameroon
· -
H.E. The
President of the National Assembly
Cameroon
Yaounde, Cameroon
· -
The
Minister of Territorial Administration
Cameroon
Yaounde, Cameroon
· -
The
Minister of State Property and Land tenure
Cameroon
Yaounde, Cameroon
· -
The
President of the South West Region
Administrative Court
Buea, Fako Division
South West Region
Cameroon
·
-The
President
Fako Elite Development
Organization (FEDO)
Fako, South West
Region
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