According to a report tilted “Historians and Constitutionalists Panel Say Reunification Was Illegal”
published online t by Sylvanus Ezieh, (CJ) on April 5, 2013, historians and
constitutionalists assembled in Yaounde for a conference-debate on the theme
“The case of Cameroon at the UNO,” organized by the commission in charge of
studies, conferences and debates for the celebration of fifty years of reunification
of Cameroon. The close to 800 participants included Julius Victor Ngoh, eminent
Professor of History, University of Buea, and Ondoua Magloire, seasoned
Professor of Public Law and Constitutional Specialist.
The esteemed panelists
importantly declared at the end of their deliberations that,no legal documents
were established at the time of re-unification between the two Cameroons to
bind them in a union.
This is a position that the LDA has championed for
decades and is published in a bilingual booklet titled The Annexation of the former British Administered UN Trust Territory of
Southern Cameroons.
2(a) The panelists, however, failed in their
attempts to provide legal or constitutional underpinnings for the discussions
held in Foumbam in July 1961 between British Southern Cameroons and La
Republique du Cameroun, led respectively by Premier John Ngu Foncha, and
President Amadou Ahidjo.
(b) The fact of the matter, however, is that as from
October 1, 1960 when Nigeria attained independence and Her Majesty’s Government
in Britain could no longer administer the UN trust territory of Southern
Cameroons from Nigeria, Her Majesty’s Government had laid before the British
Parliament on 12 Sept 1960 a new Constitution for Southern Cameroons which came
into force on 1 Oct 1960. It was known as The Southern Cameroons (Constitution)
Order in Council, 1960, which created a ministerial Government in Southern
Cameroons with a Commissioner for Cameroons who inherited the powers that were
hitherto vested on the Governor-General of Nigeria. That Constitution provided
for two Houses of Parliament, an independent Judiciary, but invested the
Commissioner with wide powers over the territory. It is clearly stated within
that constitution that powers over Defence, Foreign Relations, and Taxation
were outside the competence of the Southern Cameroons Government, and
accordingly outside the duties of the Premier and any other member of his
Government. Premier Foncha who led the delegation from British Southern
Cameroons, did so outside his constitutional powers. Therefore, the Foumban conference was illegally constituted and all
discussions, proposals, decisions and expectations lacked constitutional
authority. President Ahidjo and his delegation, on the other hand, were
empowered by the constitution of La Republique du Cameroun to represent their State.
Irrefutably, this glaring
asymmetry at the Foumban conference renders all of its deliberations nonbinding
on the unequal partner, British Southern Cameroons.
3. La Republique du Cameroon graduated
to independence on 1 Jan. 1960 with internationally defined borders. In order
to belong to the comity of free nations of the world, it applied and was
admitted a member of the United Nations Organization on 20th Sept 1960. Upon
being admitted into that UN club, it became bound to comply with the provisions
of the Charter of the UN. It is that Charter which provides in Art 102, the
statutory steps that any member state of the UN must comply with if it desires
to join another territory. There has to
be a written Agreement with the territory the UN member state wishes to join,
resulting in the variation of its territorial boundaries filed at the UN
Secretariat at the time it applied for membership.
4. The UN General Assembly in
reviewing the results of the 11 Feb. 1961 plebiscite in Southern Cameroons
advised strongly in Res. 1608(XV) of 21 Apr. 1961 thus:
“(5). Invites the Administering
Authority, the Government of the Southern Cameroons and the Republic of
Cameroun to initiate URGENT discussions with a view to finalizing, before 1
October 1961, the arrangements by which the agreed and declared policies of the
parties concerned will be implemented.”
5. Had such a tripartite meeting
been held, setting out the agreed terms of joining as previously declared by
President Amadou Ahidjo at the United Nations that if Southern Cameroonians
voted to join La Republique du Cameroun, because of the differences in cultural
evolution of the two parties, the terms would be the creation of a Federation
of TWO states, equal in status, and a copy of the signed Agreement deposited at
the UN Secretariat, that would have constituted a valid Union. I therefore respectfully agree that indeed,
there has been no valid union between Southern Cameroons and La Republique du
Cameroun. At best, the two parties are merely living in a state of political
co-habitation and certainly not of political wedlock.
6. The very learned Professor
Ondoua Magloire is reported to have stated that because La Republique du Cameroun was a sovereign state, it could not enter
into a Treaty with Southern Cameroons which was not an independent state.
But all the UN requires in Art. 102 of the
Charter is a written Agreement setting out the terms of union between the
parties. As the learned Professor would readily concede, an individual in
Cameroun can enter into an enforceable contract with the state of Cameroun.
Southern Cameroons had a legally constituted ministerial Government as from 1st
October, 1960. This was acknowledged by the UN in Res. 1608(XV) of 21 Apr 1961
mentioned in para. 4 above. The allegation that it was a question of “an
elder brother opening his hands to admit a younger brother” is a modicum of
fiction.
Southern Cameroons was a territory entitled to independence in its own
right, by virtue of the Universal Declaration of Independence to all colonized
or trust territories as per UN General Assembly Res. 1514 of 14 December 1960.
This Resolution was completed the very next day by Res. 1541(XV) which
introduced the concept of independence by joining - a power-sharing arrangement
between a non-self-governing territory and a member state of the UN (as LRC
then was). In that event, joining could only be either by Association or by
Integration, and the Resolution states the terms of joining in either category.
La Republique du Cameroun has failed even to respect the terms of this joining
Resolution over a period exceeding half a century.
7. Professor Ondua Magloire is
reported to have concluded that: “we should not celebrate 50 years of
re-unification; rather we should celebrate 50 years of the birth of a state.”
In effect, the learned Professor is
saying that the present state of La Republique du Cameroun was born on 1st Oct
1961 by the union of La Republique du Cameroun which gained independence on 1
Jan. 1960, with Southern Cameroons. He offers no explanation as to how this
union was achieved, but his algebra makes no sense at all. How does he explain
that to the sovereign state of La Republique du Cameroun which gained
independence on 1 Jan 1960 (x), there was added the UN trust territory of
Southern Cameroons (y) on 1st October 1961, and the sum total is still (x).
Algebraically expressed, his equation is: x + y = x, meaning that y
(representing Southern Cameroons) is or was not an entity.
8. What is even more worrying is
that Alhadji Amadou Ahidjo, upon returning to his capital city after the
abortive Foumban conference, summoned his parliament of La Republique du
Cameroun in August 1961 to pass Law No. 24/61 which changed the name of his
country to La Republique Federale du Cameroun, fixing the date of 1st Oct 1961
when that law was to come into force. That law was promulgated by him on 1 Sept
1961, at a time when Southern Cameroons was still a UN trust territory, firmly
under British colonial administration and in no position to discuss its future,
let alone participating in drawing up or approving a federal constitution with
La Republique du Cameroun. This miracle performed by La Republique du Cameroun
in constituting itself into a federation, without the collaborative union with
another external entity, can only be likened to a person who appears before a
Civil Status Registrar with the request that the Registrar should perform the
ceremony of declaring the applicant as married to a non-person. The naming of
Southern Cameroons as the state of West Cameroon in Law No. 24/61 is
irrelevant, for Southern Cameroons was not a party to the Constitution that was
being amended by the Parliament of La Republique du Cameroun.
9. The net result is that Great
Britain, on the termination of its trust administration over Southern Cameroons
at midnight on 30 Sept 1961, failed to hand over the Instruments of Power to
the functional Southern Cameroons ministerial government, as it was required to
do pursuant to UN General Assembly Res. 1514(XV), para. 5, but would
appear, quite erroneously, to have surrendered power to La Republique du
Cameroun. As pointed out earlier, the Federation into which both La Republique
du Cameroun and independent Southern Cameroons were to form as equal partners
was never formed. Pathetically, therefore, Southern Cameroons never attained
independence, never legally joined La Republique du Cameroun which merely
replaced Great Britain in exercising a colonial administration over the People
of Southern Cameroons to this day. This embarrassing and humiliating situation
has been perpetuated in circumstances where colonialism has long since been
proscribed by the United Nations in Res. 1514(XV) of 14 Dec. 1960 in the
following terms:
“(1). The subjection of peoples
to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of
fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and
is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation.
(2). All peoples have the right to
self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their
political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural
development.
(3). Inadequacy of political
economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext
for delaying independence.”
10. It would appear some very learned Cameroonians who have admitted that
there has been no legal union between La Republique du Cameroun with Southern Cameroons
lack the moral courage to advise the Government of La Republique du Cameroun
appropriately, so as to protect their self-interests.
Despite the brotherly intentions the two parties viz. La Republique du
Cameroun and the People of Southern Cameroons, should return to the drawing
board and make every effort to strike a mutually acceptable Agreement, file a
copy at the UN Secretariat pursuant to UN Charter Art. 102 and UN General
Assembly Res. 1541(XV) but, if the centre can no longer hold, the parties
should, peacefully, go their separate ways.
*Mola Njoh
Litumbe,86,Senior Citizen,is Cameroon's Doyen of Chartered Accountants.He is currently Chairman of Liberal Democratic Alliance(LDA),a political party. But Mola Litumbe is known more as minority rights leader, championing the cause of the Independence of Southern Cameroons.
