SCNC, Biya Regime at odds over self-rule inclination

By Peter Kumbang.                                                                   

The Minority English-speaking communities of Cameroon, fed-up with their marginalization, for decades by the Francophone-dominated administration, convened an All-Anglophone Conference (ACC1) in April 1993 in Buea.

    The historic conference examined the marginalization of Anglophones and issued a statement saying no to all the wrongs Francophones were doing to Anglophones that contradicted the spirit of reunification, which was equality in status.

    The ACC would in 1994 be transformed into the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), with the goal of   restoring the Independence of Southern Cameroons, which had gained its independence on October 1, 1961 by joining La Repulique du Cameroun, to form what is today known as the Republic of Cameroon.

     But the Biya government described the SCNC as an illegal/ terrorist group, whereas its devotees saw it as a liberator, at long last.

Since its emergence, adherents of the SCNC have been molested, persecuted, prosecuted and jailed by the Biya regime, which accuses them of trying to divide what they call “one and indivisible Cameroon.”

     To contain any SCNC meetings, security operatives were on alert for any hint as to where the pressure group members were holding secret meetings as the activists planned to celebrate the 54^th anniversary of the independence of Southern Cameroons. Many suspects such as Abga Felix and kitum Wanji had earlier been rounded up by police and whisked away, according to reports.

     SCNC activist Arrey Obi Divine, a Yaoundé resident on September 25, 2015 was reportedly identified in a transport bus at a Buea police control point with SCNC gadgets such as flyers, flags and t-shirts. He was detained for further investigation.

Reports say it was not the first time Arrey had been detained for his links with the SCNC.

    Many activists who have reportedly been manhandled by security operatives have since fled Cameroon.

Come to think of radical SCNC activists such as Ebenezer Akwanga and Ayaba Cho Lucas who for many years now live but abroad for safety reasons.

    Political pundits wonder why the non-violent SCNC,whose motto is the Force of Argument and not the Argument of Force is likened by the Government as a terrorist band.