Paul Biya: La Republique du Cameroun goes too far again!

As these words are committed Mr Biya is spending his 44th day outside of Yaounde and Cameroun. In order not to fall foul of his constitution, he needs to return by Thursday 17th October 2024. But that is still not the end of it nor should it be. To be clear Ambazonia News couldn’t be less concerned with the functioning of Cameroun in any aspects that do not concern Ambazonia. Their constitution clearly does not concern Ambazonia in whether it is respected or abused. Whatever mechanisms and technicalities are used to help Mr Biya “comply”, will do no more than kick the can beyond the end of the road. It would not be outlandish to see a blinded vehicle driven through Yaounde with the insistence that the contents are Mr Biya’s “resting a recuperating” personification of bravery and service for returning in time to avoid depriving La République du Cameroun of his service. Some idle people would them bite into the futile “debate” of a back-and-forth of whether it is actually him or whether he is alive…

The question for any thinking person would be whether it matters whether Mr Biya returns dead or alive. The answer would be “No”. He is in no state to run a bath, never mind any country. He has not been for a long time – which begs the question why is he hanging on? Is he covering while some forces manipulate in the background or is he actually convinced that he is serving La République du Cameroun, or even that he has ever served? The answers would be a guess as he is notoriously slot-like in avoiding any kind of effort. It is questionable whether he has ever read any paper or had any discussion or thought in the last at least twenty years. Many incredulous Camerounese like to make excuses for him, claiming that the corruption and ineptitude could not be visible to him or he would act against it! Ambazonia News would be of the editorial view that if he were alive and serving La République at any stage he would have noticed even by mistake. Clearly he has been seen alive all these years and that means he has not been serving – certainly cannot claim to have been serving. Instead, he lets others insist he is and that he is serving so well La République du Cameroun would be lost without him! They are strange people. If he has been alive and alert the only conclusion would be that he despises La République du Cameroun, proof being that he avoids any stays there, basing his itinerary on the need to avoid the 45 days out that would require him to have to justify the unjustifiable. That constitutional unjustifiable is actually minor for La République du Cameroun as they would go out of their way to find their own justification for such a great and irreplaceable servant, without whom they would be lost.

The more difficult justification would be the office-sitting he has done so many years when he clearly hates the country! What is the proof that he hates the country? He is about to die out the country getting “rest and recuperation” abroad because there is literally no health facility in La République du Cameroun, either for him to have that “rest and recuperation” or any of his, illogically, grateful acolytes to be treated for the most mundane ailment. That after so many years of “serving” La République du Cameroun. He hates it there and had remain as a block on the futures of youth of La République du Cameroun. Why?

Does La République need him back whether dead or live? Does it matter? In view of his actions and attitudes during his tenuous tenure it is arguable that the former state would be preferable and more beneficial to La République du Cameroun as the block would disappear and Camerounese would finally start looking forward and be forced to replace the irreplaceable. Some common sense and stability in La République du Cameroun and the advent of a leader could lead to a faster acceptance that Ambazonia and La République need to chart their separate paths. Anyone serving the country would not keep dispatching the poor citizens’ children to die trying to kill Ambazonians in a completely futile attempt to prolong and preserve an illegal and forceful occupation of Ambazonia.

He does not have to return. He can remain where he likes to be but the irrationally child-likely helpless Camerounese would have to stand on their own two feet.

So Mr Biya, you have nothing more to prove. Go [stay away] for pity’s sake! Camerounese have never offended or wronged you, have they? Let them fledge! Please!

Advancing the Ambazonian Cause

Ambazonian Flag

In 2023 large a segment of the Ambazonian community was subjected to various schemes on how to find a peaceful solution to the Ambazonian Liberation Struggle.

By definition “the” solution to a liberation struggle can only be liberation. And yet many of the afore-mentioned schemes dwelled on the nebulous idea of a negotiated settlement with the opaque notion of “inclusivity” which implied Ambazonians should include the whole spectrum from the ARF+ actively risking their lives to expel La République du Cameroun, to “federalists”.  While it was ultimately self-defeating to attempt to build a mass of squabbling parties hardly able to agree among themselves on what to negotiate for, that was not the weakest point of most of those schemes. Some of them sought to be more “inclusive” by including “unionists” in order to prove how much more “reasonable” than La République du Cameroun Ambazonians are! Yes, they tried, in earnest, to sell the idea that unionists, who one would not imagine tolerating a label of “Ambazonian”, should be part of conferences to form Ambazonian “positions” to take to the ” international community ” to take to La République du Cameroun to compel her to “to grant” a referendum to allow “all” Ambazonians to decide. Not only has the international community kept their counsel even in the face of shootings of toddlers on their way to school, for one and various other atrocities, it is also clear that La République du Cameroun has no legal status nor inclination to proceed as the schemers proposed. Why would they give up the simpler and more straightforward opportunity to pacify a relatively small protest, burning diplomatic bridges subsequently and then “grant” more than they would have had to earlier and at lower cost? Granted, it is theoretically possible when a state of “mutually harmful stalemate” is reached but that is, to say the least, remote; and, in fact only undermined by a naïve coalition with the fail-assured feature of trying to get La République’s allies to “help” draw up a “possible” negotiation strategy on behalf of Ambazonia.

Those schemes have accrued what logic dictated they “could” – no progress towards any solution. La République du Cameroun spent the year trying to prove “normalcy”, another of those typically La République du Cameroun words, had returned. “Normalcy” is the unjust, unfair, nepotistic, corrupt system in which Ambazonians were rooted to the base of a proxy colonial hegemony which hardly benefitted any of the “subjects” of La République du Cameroun, but gave them the illusion of being better off than “Les Bamendas”.

They thought if they could convince the nebulous international community that they had a corrupt stable system they could avoid criticism. As absurd as the strategy was it was more logical than the idea of an inclusive Ambazonian coalition for negotiation. After all some experts pointed out that referenda are normally requested by “state parties”, in our case, that meant La République du Cameroun would tremble at the consensus of our coalition and ask the international community to run a referendum for us.

Cynics would suggest the conference fiver season was a time wasting scheme to try to dampen the momentum of the liberation struggle.

It did not work …

How should/could the Ambazonian Liberation Struggle be advanced from here?

Given that La République du Cameroun is not looking like negotiating anytime soon, preferring to rely on out-waiting Ambazonia it is time to move on, and moving on is relatively straightforward in its meaning. Ambazonians need to start actively exercising their independence by running their own affairs.

One domain where this should be propagated is education. Ambazonian Community Institutions need to expand. It was already always the case that schools in Ambazonia were paid for by the community even when “created” by La République du Cameroun’s empirical edict.

There are thousands of Community schools in Ambazonia where the running and management is Ambazonian. They need to go the extra final step and implement the Ambazonian Curriculum and Ambazonian School calendar. Those two steps would notify the international community more than any perfectly crafted negotiating position that any coalition could device if the conferences were to take place. Those acts would also break the “waiting” state that Ambazonian citizens have been in during the Liberation Struggle by assuring all Ambazonian parents of their children’s normal and continued development – the well known ambition of all Ambazonian parents.

The third strand in the education battle would be certification and all Ambazonian Entities vying for independence should don their thinking hearts and device a way to by-pass any La République du Cameroun involvement in assessment and certification. Even before the Liberation Struggle La République du Cameroun’s involvement had diluted and trashed our children’s certificates to the point where even after taking post-sixteen exams in English they still needed to take language assessments before they could be admitted to higher education abroad. That problem would therefore be solved with the knowledge that Ambazonian assessments have the integrity that La République du Cameroun systems singularly lack – quite apart from the desire for independence.

In summary Ambazonia’s future is in Ambazonian hands to do.

The Most High God continues to be our Watchman and will inspire