As we write, La République du Cameroun is in the throes of “election” fever, complete with the tragi-comic events that no fiction writer could deem plausible enough to publish! Be that as it may, they are acting it out. They are “pre-defeating” candidates while setting up processes to ensure that their “international partners” will be able to “pass the elections” as “not too flawed”. Remember that last time the “election observers” who “passed” the 2018 “elections” had as their main qualifications being white! It later emerged they had no expertise or experience, even if one goes past the utter embarrassment of continue to need rely on parading even really reputed observers.
Ambazonian independentists have issued reminders that “election” activities on their territory. It is only right to issue such reminders but is it necessary to ban? Yes and no.
It is right to “ban” to ensure our citizens are not induced to take part, be it by local fifth columnists or La République du Cameroun other agents. The ban falls fairly and squarely within the current Liberation Struggle and should be enforced by applying the appropriate and proportionate sanctions to all those who would seek to undermine our sovereignty even when it those acts are already illegal under international laws and statutes to which La République du Cameroun is signatory. For a reminder, the Ambazonia lies out side the borders of La République du Cameroun, which were frozen at their independence on 1st January 1960. In view of this fact, La République du Cameroun’s elections, even if they were less controversial, would not be legally welcome on Ambazonian territory. In view of the potential chaos that that exercise looks likely to unleash this time around, it ill-advised for anyone to expose our territory and civilians to such potential harm.
On the other hand, banning pre-supposes there is a plausible or legitimate event to ban – there is not and there need not be an explicit ban. We work towards the day when Ambazonians will know enough to simply ignore and “vote with their feet” so to speak! Until then Ambazonian leaders must keep banning just as La République du Cameroun’s carpet-baggers unfurl their wares to make impossible promises which they cannot fulfil and do not need to fulfil as Ambazonia does not need them.
“Candidate” Kamto is on record as promising to “visit” Ambazonia, though he referred to Ambazonia as “North West and South West regions”. The positive is that he clearly sees Ambazonia as being outside La République du Cameroun though he does not acknowledge it, preferring to let his electors continue to mistake La République du Cameroun as including Ambazonia.
“Candidate” Osih has stated that he would talk to [the leaders of] Ambazonia and that he would release those in prison first. He too did not explicitly acknowledge Ambazonia as a state but did put negotiations in prospect. Even though “his” party has failed to raise a debate on Ambazonia even once in nearly nine years of killings and displacement, while collecting payments from La République du Cameroun parliament, they are still labouring under the misconception that they represent Ambazonia in that foreign parliament. In that regard he and his party’s position is more callous for they have been a literal “front” allowing La République du Cameroun to imply that Ambazonia was represented in their parliament by non-RDPC persons. It is worth noting that they also, similarly, “validated” the so-called great national dialogue where they failed to put their big “electoral” offering, “federation”, on the agenda. While his “offers” may seem plausible for a starting point, no Ambazonia can count on them as he is extremely unlikely to turn out as anything other than a validator, providing the usual “front” when the RDPC “wins”, for them to claim they won in a “contest”. Apart from the virtually impossible chance of winning, it is worth reminding Ambazonians that they are not legal La République du Cameroun citizens, living in a territory outside La République du Cameroun borders, and should not join the SDF in providing the “front” to validate RDPC and other carpet-baggers’ illegal stance on Ambazonia.
Issa Tchiroma proposed the most feasible route even if it still suffers from the mistaken view of Ambazonia as part of La République du Cameroun. He proposed a referendum to let the people express their preferences. Mistaking Ambazonia as a part of La République du Cameroun would negate the efficiency of a referendum to resolve the Liberation Struggle/”anglophone crisis” in much the same way that the so-called referendum of 1972 entrenched La République du Cameroun in a state of illegality, setting a precedent for paradoxical violations of “the” constitution. To make his proposal feasible, it would need to be coupled with the acceptance that Ambazonia is outside La République du Cameroun and then the referendum with be exclusively for Ambazonians to avoid the same “rigging” that the 1972 already-illegal referendum suffered.
Akere Muna is the ultimate front, though he is even less likely to “win”. As a lawyer, he should know the legal position on Ambazonina and therefore, should not be playing validator again. Just like SDF, he has been in comfortable opposition of the RDPC while mute on the plight of Ambazonians. He has been displaying his “bilingualism”, Ambazonia News imagines, in a bid to placate that well-known king-maker country by not being too anglophone. The very last thing Ambazonia needs is to see a stooge validating a non-solution to her demand for justice and sovereignty. Ambazonia News is relaxed about that prospect as it would be an absurdity too far for Muna to “come from nowhere” to win whether he was installed by said kingmaker of defying virtual impossibility to defeat RDPC on their own pitch with their referee, linesmen, match delegate and the very La République du Cameroun backup of homologation committees. If he beats all that, he cannot beat the secession of 1984 when Mr Biya withdrew La République du Cameroun from the mere-de facto “union” of the then “united” Republic, previously “federal” Republic of Cameroon.
Ambazonians and Ambazonia should instead concentrate on planning how to cope in the aftermath of the La République du Cameroun electoral charade before continuing to work towards a settlement which does not defy the legal reality. Defying the legal reality is any purported settlement which ignores the secession and presents Ambazonia as a helpless supplicant being granted a settlement by La République du Cameroun.
La République du Cameroun no longer has anything to offer Ambazonia as they are “forcibly occupying Ambazonia” as per HCB/28/92, the Bamenda High Court ruling in “Republic of Ambazonia vs Republic of Cameroon”.
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