Cameroon’s
Prime Minister ,Joseph Dion Ngute ,was recently in Buea sent by President Paul
Biya on a peace and dialogue-seeking mission towards resolving the Anglophone
Crisis ,and he met with many groups among which was Fako Lawyers’
Association(FAKLA).
Following
is said to be a leaked memo by FAKLA to the premier in which, among other
things, the prime Minister is told that a “unitary decentralized state is dead and
buried”.
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MEMORANDUM PRESENTED TO THE PRIME MINISTER
HEAD OFGOVERNMENT ON THE OCCASION OF HIS MAIDEN VISIT AS PRIME MINISTER TO THE
SOUTH WEST REGION BY LAWYERS IN FAKO DIVISION
Your Excellency,
Permit us to begin by
congratulating you on your brilliant appointment as Prime Minister (PM) of the
Republic of Cameroon. We pray that the good Lord will guard and guide you in
this rather daunting task. Your visit to this region comes at a time when the
socio-political atmosphere is tense. Our lives have been affected by three
years of socio-political crisis turn to war. It is therefore of paramount
importance that we urgently begin to look for solutions. As lawyers, meeting
with the PM affords us another opportunity to present some of our urgent challenges both
in the administration of
justice and peaceful
co-existence in our communities. We therefore propose to
make this presentation in two parts.
- The plight of the
Common Law Lawyers, and
- The socio-political
Crisis in Cameroon
In dealing with these
issues, we propose to dwell more on the way forward rather than on the causes. Except,
of course, where recapitulating will help in comprehension.
I. THE PLIGHT OF THE COMMON LAW LAWS.
Your Excellency, the
Common Law Lawyers in this country have over the past three decades, sent a
plethora of Memoranda to government decrying the systematic and deliberate
efforts to crush our system of justice. Things came to a head in 2016 when in a
bid to discuss our difficulties, we scheduled two meetings in Bamenda and Buea,
for the 8th and 10th of October 2016. We were prevented from accessing the
court of Appeal premises in Bamenda causing lawyers to descend on the streets
in Bamenda. The meeting scheduled for Buea on
the 10th was aborted when a marauding police unit dispatched from
Douala, invaded the territory, pulled
lawyers from their
cars and subjecting
them to the
most humiliating torture
ever dreamt of. Lawyers’ wigs and
gowns were seized and to this day, not even an apology has been tendered even
though the wigs and gowns are with the Divisional officer of Buea. This is to
demonstrate that it was a well-planned and executed government scheme designed
to subdue Common Law Lawyers now and forever.
Now that you are
here, permit us outline some of those issues that Common lawyers have been
decrying over the years.
1.
Appointment of Notaries:
For some time now,
attempts have been made to appoint notaries in Anglophone Cameroon. We decry
this for the following reasons. First and foremost, by our training, we are
trained as advocates, solicitors and Notaries. We have practiced in this manner
since independence. We have been serving our people well and there is no public
clamour for change, safe from those who want to take away our jobs and subject
our people to hardship. Secondly, the concept of appointing Notaries is a civil
Law concept, therefore we see any attempt in that direction as a deliberate and
calculated attack on Anglophones in this country.
2.
Stop Harmonization.
We have noted with
dismay that the policy of harmonization is a deliberate strategy to frenchify all Anglophones in this
country. It is therefore our position that the government put an immediate stop
to the policy of harmonisation. Laws must not be harmonised. We should be proud
of our diverse legal cultures and work hard to strengthen each component of our
system rather than kill the common Law. Under the guise of harmonisation, we
have seen our most cherished Law of Evidence scrapped in criminal matters. We
have seen the standard of proof in criminal matters move from an objective standard
of “beyond reasonable
doubts” to the subjective standard
of “beyond doubts” (a near
impossibility in law). We have seen the means of proof reduced to proof by any
means. (Which may include evidence received through torture and other forms of
duress).
Harmonisation must
therefore be stopped forthwith. The continuous attempt at Harmonisation is a
mockery of the Common Law Division at the Supreme Court.
3.The
Invasion of our Courts by Civil Law Magistrates.
The quality of
justice dispensed in our courts today, leaves much to be desired. Most of our
courts and legal departments are manned by French speaking civil law trained
magistrates. In fact, as we speak, the number of French speaking civil law
trained magistrates in the region surpasses the number of Common law trained
magistrates in Anglophone Cameroon. In
fact we have had incidents were judgments are delivered in French in Anglophone
Cameroon. There is no other word to describe this than a policy of
ASSIMILATION. The only way to stop this assimilation is to replace these judges
and magistrates with Common law trained judges. This is even more urgent when
we take into consideration the fact that a Common Law Division has been created
in the Supreme Court.
4.
Stop the Impending CODE CIVILE
Your Excellency, are Anglophones
a colonised people? Why must our laws be scrapped and civil law imposed on us?
The Final process of assimilation will be completed once the muted Code Civile will be enacted into law.
What is wrong with our laws that they must be diluted by an inferior system.
You may rest assured that Common Law Lawyers are ready to resist such a Code
Civil with all our might. We are ready to start the second phase of the
struggle that we began in 2016 if the said Code Civile is enacted into Law.
Your Excellency, we
could go on and on enumerating our challenges, however, we believe that the
above 4 examples
give you a
bird’s eye view of
our frustrations and
also our determination.
In the face of these
difficulties, Common Law Lawyers in 2015 proposed that to ensure that our
system and our people are protected and reassured, we must return to the 1961
federal structure of the country. To this plea, we received no responses other
than brutality. The intransigence of government at the time is the result of
three years of crisis and a fratricidal war. Today's, so much water has gone
under the bridge and lives have been lost. Whole villages have been
wiped out, hundreds
of thousands displaced;
tens of thousands
have become refugees. The
responses so far by government have been peripheral, halfhearted, grossly
insufficient and even a denial of the problem. With your coming into
government, there is hope for a new beginning. We therefore feel compelled to
contribute our views as to the way forward.
If government is serious about resolving this problem once
and for all, it must recognize that the period of intimidation, blackmail and
divide and rule is over. At least amongst Anglophones. Government must at all
times know that Anglophones will not stop at any thing until they achieve
self-determination. A unitary decentralized
state is dead and buried.
Whether it will
be internal or
external self-determination will
be the result
of negotiations between the component parts of this country. As lawyers,
we wish to limit ourselves for now on the confidence- building measures that
must be put in place to facilitate trust toward working together in the search
for a viable solution.
1.
Release All Prisoners of the Anglophone Crisis.
This is a condition sine qua non to any hopes for any frank
and trust worthy negotiations. Sissuku Ayuk Tabe and his team now represent the
face of the revolution and any purported negotiations not sanctioned by them
are bound to fail. For them to be fully involved in the negotiations, they need
to be free people. But as you must be aware, Sissuku Ayuk Tabe will not proceed
to negotiate if other Anglophones arrested because of this crisis are in
detention.
2.
Demilitarise Anglophone cameroon
The number of soldiers
in our communities is so disproportionate and terrorising to our populations.
Most of them, and in fact whole units can only communicate in french. This
creates animosity with the civilian population. If government is serious, about
resolving this crisis, it should demilitarise Anglophone Cameroon. This is a
necessary step.
3.
Grant General Amnesty
There is the need for
a general and unconditional amnesty to all the Anglophone leaders of the
crises. Without an amnesty, it will be impossible for Anglophones to be
properly represented by those they trust. The present crop of Ministers,
Parliamentarians, Senators and Directors have lost the support of the average
Anglophone populace that they cannot be trusted to represent their interest.
4. Solicit the services of a mediator.
They history of
Cameroon is replete with deceit by the francophone led government for the
past 57
years. At every turn
and corner, government business is
conducted in the most secretive manner. Lies telling and
corruption are the other of the day. It is difficult therefore for anglophones
to trust in the word of the francophone dominated government. One broken
promise after another is the hallmark of our experience with the government.
Two examples will suffice. When Southern Cameroons sought to join the Republic
of Cameron in a referendum in 1961, the agreement was that Cameroon will be a
federal state. In fact, the constitution of the Republic of Cameroon was
amended by their national Assembly to provide for a federal
structure of
governance. Section 47 of that Constitution provided that the form of the state
will never be amended. Barely 11 years after, the Ahidjo government imposed a
unitary state in Cameroon which has brought us to where we are today.
In 1990, after the students
strikes in the university of Yaounde, two new universities were created by a prime
ministerial decree. An Anglo-Saxon University in Buea and the University
of Ngoundere for
Francophones. True to
the Anglo-Saxon
tradition, the statutes
of the University of
Buea were produced
and the admission
criteria set out.
It provided that, admission into the University of Buea
was conditioned on 5 Ordinary Level papers including English and two Advanced
Level papers in one sitting. This made the University of Buea an enviable
institution. Today, and beginning from the 2018-2019 academic year, admission conditions have been watered
down. Now a candidate can gain admission with 4 Ordinary Level papers and two
Advanced level papers in two or more sittings.
This is how the
government breaks its promises every time and the people wallow in misery. It
is therefore important that for any meaningful process to be sustainable, a
mediator must be appointed by both sides. This will assure the Anglophones that
the government is ready to resolve the crisis. It is our view that the above
measures will rekindle confidence in the Anglophones and may lead them to trust
the process.
We wish to assure
your Excellency of our continuous availability to contribute our own views
towards getting us out of the present quack mire.
Accept Your
Excellency, our most distinguished regards.
Benjamin ENOW AGBOR,
President Fako
Lawyers Association.
