Cameroon's MND Recommendations:PM Says Gov’t Actions Minimizing Effects of Anglophone Crisis.

By Christopher Ambe

The implementation of recommendations of the Major National Dialogue (MND) of Cameroon that took place from September 30-October 4, 2019 in Yaounde   is going according to plan despite some challenges.

Prime Minister, Chief Dr.Joseph Dion Ngute (middle) talking to reporters after the session

The MND recommendations are intended “to restore growth and productivity and to reverse the negative economic impact of the Anglophone crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions”- and they are yielding fruits, the country’s Prime Minister, Chief Dr.Joseph Dion Ngute, has declared.

Dion Ngute, who had chaired the MND on behalf of the Head of State, President Paul Biya and in March 2020 was appointed by the latter as Chairman of the committee to follow up the implementation of its recommendations, on August 11, 2023 in Buea, expressed satisfaction that Government’s plan of action to minimize the negative impact of the crisis was succeeding and called for more collective efforts.

The crisis erupted in 2016 as teachers of Cameroon’s English subsystem of education and the country’s common law advocates staged peaceful protests over corporate demands.

The protests later turned violent and deadly: over 4000 people have reportedly died because of the crisis and property worth billions of FCFA destroyed. Over 40 thousand Cameroonians are asylum seekers in Nigeria and tens of thousands of citizens are internally displaced.

The crisis has badly hit the economies of the Northwest and Southwest regions. In the Southwest region, for example, two giant agro-industrial companies PAMOL Ltd and CDC are barely recovering as thousands of their workers have been rendered jobless.

But President Pual Biya in his December 2019 end-of-year address to the nation said the MND “will, in line with our Constitution, enable us to seek ways and means of meeting the profound aspirations of the people of the North-West and South-West Regions, but also of all the other components of our Nation.”

The MND recommendations included : the reconstruction and development  of the conflict-affected areas; the granting of special status to the NW and SW regions with regards to decentralization and local developmet;the promotion of  bilingualism, cultural diversity and national social cohesion;  educational reforms that integrate the two educational subsystems; judicial reforms that draw inspiration  from  the country’s bi-jural systems; state  ensuring return of refugees and protection of internally displaced people; reform nationality code to allow for multiple nationality and governmental representation of the Diaspora ; ensuring the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants

Premier Dion Ngute was in Buea last August 11 to chair the 5^th Session of the Committee to follow-up the implementation of the MND recommendations.

The session took place at Mountain Hotel Buea and was attended among other dignitaries by some government ministers, and the governors of the Northwest and Southwest regions.

The session, which evaluated the implementation level of the recommendations, adopted some resolutions to speed up recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation. 

The committee resolved  to : intensify  the economic recovery measures to consolidate progress already registered in the agro-industrial domain; encouraged the community-based approach to the identification, studies and execution of projects; discouraged self-destructive attitude that has been adopted by the population; called on local authorities and development agencies to work in collaboration with competent government institutions to open-up farm-to-market roads and plantation roads for benefit of small-holder farmers; urged ministries and institutions to take appropriate measures to ensure the signing of further enabling instruments for the complete transfer of powers and resources to the regional and local authorities; implored Regional Assemblies of the Northwest and Southwest regions to explore the  existing legal framework to complement the actions of the state and propose viable development initiatives that promote the people-centered approach to peace and development; The committee called on authorities to explore possible ways of  increasing budgetary allocations to entities involved in social and economic development and activities geared towards improving the livelihoods of the people; they expressed  the need to forge ahead with the ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation of infrastructure and to continue dialoguing with all stakeholders on the imperatives for  collective efforts to return peace and normalcy; urged stakeholders to reinforce efforts to combat miscommunication and propaganda that institute fear and continue to propagate reports on the prevailing situations in local communities; they called for  the creation, where possible, and particularly in areas  where sporadic and armed violence is  recurrent of specialized military posts to rapidly restore the confidence of plantation workers and local cocoa farmers ; urged participants particularly religious leaders to continue dialogue  and engagements with stakeholders  and their willingness to offer their services to this regard;  they resolved that that it is time for all to help  put an end to wanton  killings  and self-inflicted damage.

It should be noted that the committee’s duties include: follow up the implementation of the recommendations of the Major National Dialogue;  issue strategic guidelines for the implementation of the recommendations of the Major National Dialogue; order, as and when necessary, the conduct of activities that could contribute to the effective implementation of the recommendations of the Major National Dialogue; prescribe any measure aimed at mobilizing Cameroonians at home and abroad to take part in peace building and in the pursuit of the country's development; record opinions and suggestions likely to facilitate the implementation of the recommendations of the Major National Dialogue; and  perform any other tasks prescribed by the President of the Republic.

The committee members included: the Chairperson of the National Commission on the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism; the Metropolitan Archbishop of Yaoundé; the Archbishop Emeritus of Douala; the President of the National Youth Council; two (2) representatives of the Roman Catholic Church from the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda; one  representative of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon; one  representative of the Cameroon Baptist Convention; two representatives of the Muslim community based in the North-West and South-West Regions; one representative of women's associations of the North-West and South- West Regions; three representatives of the diaspora; and four  representatives of civil society.