FrancAfrique Dans L'Afrique: The Old Power Generation(1)

Louis Egbe Mbua

If we put it that a true and responsible government will exit power by the ballot box rather than recycling old hands tainted with their corrupt practices, then the regime of Mr. Paul Biya is a disgrace. For more than twenty seven years he has been peddling with the lives of the Cameroonian people with his useless and foolish tribal politics geared towards pleasing his colonial master, France while maintaining an incompetent regime; a justification which no one can put pen to paper. For several years, he has been deluding himself with one discredited cabinet reshuffle after another with an apparently warped view that the country will change by some enchantment from Le Grand Sorcier; and a magic wand.

In retrospect, his immature dictatorial regime has dragged the country into a league of unimaginable beggary. Since Mr. Biya came to power in 1982, he has been a dependent of the IMF for handouts and cut-throat loans, fraudulent privatisation of the country's patrimony, such as the Tole Tea Estate, with dreadful results; and which, the meagre funds, are again cyclically embezzled by gangs of national thieves over the years.

The problems of that West African country is so vast that it would take at least half a century to wipe out corruption and the wicked social and financial mis-education of the people. The first of this problem is that of peace and stability. In FrancAfrique of the old school, development and the well-being of the people is secondary to their so-called "Peace and Stability". When civilians protest against the myopic economic and social policies of the regimes in question, they are swiftly brought in front of a Kangaroo court, arraigned and jailed. A typical case in point is the jailing of a popular Cameroonian and international music artist, Lapiro de Mbanga. He is languishing in jail for no apparent reason but that he had been writing and singing songs pertaining to the social ills of the present Cameroon regime, infamously one of the most corrupt in the world.

Peace and stability must be earned through accountability of a government; and the incorruptibility of the judiciary. The opposite is true in the world of the present regime. Last week, the Supreme Court of Cameroon upheld the incarceration of Lapiro, claiming he incited the 2008 food riots. One begins to wonder whether Lapiro and other civilians who were killed or are in rat-infested unhealthily diseased dungeons must be at blame for the lack of vision of a 27 year old tyranny and disgraceful mismanagement. With one of the most fertile volcanic soils in the world, Cameroon has the potential to be the food basket for the entire West and Central Africa. Yet, that is not the case.

Apparently, there are no sustainable food policies; and that most imported food stuff are heavily taxed to pay for the good life of the French whose government take their cut in cash or in kind. While the elite have unaccountable and inviolable access to their loot in the treasury --they live in luxury like in France -- the poor are dependent on their various relatives in Europe and the Americas for monetary handouts. There is a problem here: because those living abroad will hardly garner enough financial critical mass to compete with their peers in their host countries. It is no doubt, at this point of overwhelming forbearance, that many well-educated and upright Cameroonians are now turning into financial white collar crimes to augment their incomes abroad while at the same time support the neglected destitute at home.

The counter-part African who stays behind is also in a timeless dragnet of beggary as the regime is firmly intent on "Peace and stability" with no responsibility. In this case, therefore, the people are psychologically demoralised; and since only a genuinely motivated population can muster enough energy to uplift a country from the doldrums of economic and social mutilation, there is very little expectation but stagnation and retrogression into the Dark Age.

It has to be recalled that Western Europe was deep in the Dark Ages for 1000 years. During this period, intellectual dynamism was discouraged by the authority of the day, dissent was brutally put down, diseases; such as the Bubonic plague wiped out a third of the population, food shortages were rampant; and wars were the order of the day; barbarians were on the match while the moral fabric of the society disintegrated. How they managed to reverse the tide of barbarism, greed, oppression, mis-education and disease is unclear. Nevertheless, if one may extrapolate or interpolate from their society today, it seems the only way they pulled it from the fire was to hold their leaders into account. Those who failed to account were unceremoniously thrown out in disgrace or punished as the system saw fit.

This writer believes that the ancient system of accountability is still in place today in Europe; and may account for the continuance to peace and prosperity. Not so, in FrancAfrique where there is "Peace" and no prosperity. This brings us to the question as to whether there can be peace without prosperity. The conjecture is that one cannot live without the other concept. Where there is no prosperity, there is no peace; and where there is no peace prosperity must not follow.

FrancAfrique Sans L'Afrique: The Old Power Generation

Louis Egbe Mbua

When I was a boy, I used to imagine that people in power never left until President Ahidjo of Cameroon resigned suddenly in 1982. This completely changed my perception of big power players. Ahidjo, although a dictator in his time, was wise in this respect: he knew that he was only mortal; and that having presided over a new country from independence, he must have made powerful enemies nationally and internationally. This writer believes this simple philosophical thought by Ahidjo must have provoked his sudden resignation. Furthermore, ill health in power has proven time again that it is an omen for a man in power to pack up his bags and leave. Ahidjo left behind a generation of men in power, who continue to wield power after 27 years. If we interpolate their total cumulative years in power, and assuming that most of them were with Ahidjo since 1960, then we must reach the conclusion that their time to go is up. This applied to Bongo of Gabon, Eyadema of Togo and Felix Houphouet Boigny of Ivory Coast, the colossus of FrancAfrique.

While some regimes have a gradual and steady decline, there is compelling evidence to suggest that the present Cameroon regime, an important member of FranceAfrique, headed by Mr. Paul Biya, has already declined to the last steps on the ladder stretching down the precipice onto the visible road to oblivion; and that a slight disturbance will precipitate its crashing and tumbling down into the Atlantic ocean to be buried as a monumental carbuncle forever. In this wise, it is important to examine the circumstances that brought about this decline; and then use them to predict a time scale for its demise so that the New Power Generation may gird their loins to seize the mantle; advance constitutional reforms; solve the Southern Cameroons problem; and clean the nation from 27 years of decay.

When colonialism was at her death throes in Africa in the 1960s, it seems that Africans who filled the prodigious power vacuum were ill-prepared for high-wired leadership in terms of experience and mastering the power levers of the state. In addition, they never understood the sacredness of a constitutional state, believing that once one ascends power one automatically becomes the Constitution; and therefore have the powers to disregard the law to reach their own goals. President Ahidjo, President Nkrumah, Sekou Toure of Guinea and a host of other African leaders began dismantling their countries' constitution as soon as they came to power; proclaiming one party state in violation of the same constitution that brought them to power in free and fair elections in multi-party democracies. The effects are still felt today in these countries, and to some extent, their neighbours.

In Cameroon, in particular, Mr. Paul Biya does not follow the constitution as he should have been doing at all occasions; but rather he appears to be bent on treating the Constitution as secondary to him. His recent manipulation of the constitution to perpetuate himself, and his gang of ethno-oligarchs, in power for another seven years was not only a fraud but only goes to buttress the point that he was ill-prepared to run Cameroon; and he is still politically immature.

The next factor to be discussed is the motivation of the old generation of leaders. There seems to be a psychological problem here as most of the old generation of African leaders have one goal in common: the vain glorious pursuit of power. This has been extremely detrimental to the African people and an affront to developmental efforts. While the pursuit of power to effect positive change may be beneficial to a people, that which is pursued for personal reasons to advance tyranny, terror and corruption appears to be the hall-mark of the old power generation.

The counter-argument is that one can pursue personal ambitions only for a limited number of years. Since it will eventually turn into a one-man show, together with a couple of 100s other coterie and flunkies, the power wanes away as their combine ages increase with time in power. The consequences are that the youthful fire that helped their personal ambitions to be fulfilled in the first place is lost; and since they have no philosophies to leave as a legacy of the own lives; and to attract the young and talented to keep their flame burning, the old power generation will eventually be removed from power by the same youths they could have attracted with a powerful positive message.

Furthermore, as the fire is lost, tyranny increases to put down fierce opposition as in the case of Cameroon riots in February 2009, the Buea University shootings in 2005 and 2006; The shootings in Abong Mbang, Kumba and Bamenda recently. Intimidation, and arrests are also common in a declining tyranny. All these have been noted by Living Lights as the signs signalling the end: the greater the violence against civilians; and the greater the arrests and intimidation the nearer the time of tyrannical regimes to go into demise. All that is required is but a spark and it will be all over within days.

Most African leaders of the old power generation were born during the period of French assimilation policy in Africa; and have become like Frenchmen. The more corrupt they are, the more assimilated they would delude themselves to have become. The reason for this tragedy is that most French-speaking Cameroonian elite especially, and in FranceAfrique in general, believe they have a divine obligation to live comme un Parisien, un bon vivant. Now to live in Cameroon, for example, and wish to own a house in Paris or the South of France is another matter.

The result is that most French-Speaking Africans in the elite bracket have a misguided and skewed vision on their goals, aims and priorities to serve their respective nations. Since their own concept of being civilised is to go to France and acquire property; and enjoy fine wines, they are forced to obtain the needed capital for this mission in one way, kind or form or the other. As it is quite clear that their African salaries are totally incapable of sustaining such an expensive lifestyle; and that they are determined to become assimilated in the FranceAfrique social hierarchical milieu, they are left with very few alternatives but to raid the nations treasury, loot some funds by any means possible; and then fly business class to Paris and acquire a villa. The recent internationally-investigated corruption scandals in some prominent areas of FranceAfrique -- Cameroon, Gabon, Congo Brazaville, Equatorial Guinea -- at the highest levels show that the old power generation are finished.

Diamonds Are Not Forever (2)

By Louis Egbe Mbua

Came they with askaris floated,
On rafts; ships with men bloated
With an army with big guns moved,
From the land of the Duchess carried
By servants of doom so parried,
To whimps; caprice of masters inclined,
To conquer; seize Diamond and plunder,
The indigenes starved and camped,
In a places crowded; to wonder,
Of what becomes them; to wander,
With no hopes of Diamond lost,
In fight, to preserve diamonds cached,
But found by the master; watched in lust;
As the owners forgot; vanquished
The battle, so tense, so hard, gained
In the highlands; to sea they chased
Until sweet victory was coined,
With diamonds on a date classed,
As of infamy; the day marked,
By the world; when time and land stood,
Motionless; generations passed,
And new diamonds found: shone
In the midnight moon circled,
By mysteries yet unknown.
So goes the history of old Cam,
Ushered into a new age of con;
With bright promise yet to come
'Cause diamonds are the land filled;
So came the Gems people; and some
Of good; meant good, others bad, so filed;
The natives in camps to form slumps
In the horror camp: toil forever,
So Gems may diamond inherit
And them take to Duchess: in fever
That gripped entire Eur' in an instant,
And causing all Princes a quarrel:
To scream; Give me more! my laurels!
The Chief Prince, a ruler a strike gave,
A glance on diamonds, a pen swiped,
The diamond, one-fifth gone, four-fifth came
To a frightening end, broken: smashed
Into parts; thrown aground wasting;
While natives weep for Diamond, wailing,
And all wailed; but Gems not anxious
To placate egos; of men trapped
By cunning, treachery; Gems conscious;
Of this weakness; apathy planted;
In minds; native Diamond owners;
Who continue in great poverty;
Then one-score years turned corners;
And Gems overthrown from property,
By one, no two kinds of powers,
From Eur' they came; shared spoils:
One-fifth that way; four-fifths of towers
Of aroma pleasant in leaf foils.
Then powers sat; in Versa decided;
Agreed hand on terre; entrusted
To champions; pax mondial chided
By men on mission encrusted
At helm 'seers of Diamonds captured
From Gems' first attempt designed
To rule en terre; with men tortured
As people; second class forced
To work on plantations seized
With no compensation sourced,
From Diamond product exports prized;
For their exotic character nurtured
As nature wills to command;
In Le Monde Diamond as cultured;
In songs, dance, drama to amend.

Diamonds are not for ever (1)

By Louis Egbe Mbua

How Happy does thou yesteryear
After many years spent: returned
To the smouldering land ; unplanned;
People pressed down by clay-footed deer
Heard not their groans; blood on ground flows,
Like the river in the city; divides in twos;
Two rivers; one, Diamonds; one Milk flows
One Land-two peoples; right left in twos
Upon centuries and millennial passed
On bedrock of was foundation laid
Happily ever after they lived; paid
Into Progress, steady, sure, they matched
Step by step the gains and game achieved
In aspects lost; some spoken in oral, unwritten
Until of late, the damage done traversed
Coming from the sea the man to be served!
And then began the brave men: of renown
Men of old, courage and honour known
Defend! The Land! lo it is taken!
Rise up! Put Pay and defeat adversary!
Friends and brothers we thought necessary,
For protection and sharing now greedy, turns
Into a ravenous wolf in deer fashion returns;
To kill, steal, plunder, to sea afar;
And the young and strong taken apart
To toil in chains and shame; no recompense;
For wicked pleasure; people's expense
In cries, anguish beyond woman and man
But Divine lifted up His hands mighty;
To Strike! the clay-footed deer: the hangman
And seize the shameful chain employed tightly
On the neck and feet for humans to choke;
And for women to sadness and tears come
For men to humiliation brought;
Children in shouts of horror thought;
A strange monster arrived from Hell
To dwell and eat in the Sacred Hall.
They toiled , chained backs over-bent
To pluck vain harvests,labour lent
For not future or hope; no pay relied
On for a day of rain, lightning pain but plied,
All trades that man thought and beknoweth
Known Old and New Craft man made doth,
Insatiable appetite, unqualified schemes
To exploit fellow citizens; stripped clean
Of dignity, weakened to mere bones
Flesh stripped to barest skeletons
Energy gone; no hope, future distant
And Benefits drained to Black Hole blanked
Bythe darkness of man's heart steeped
In power play game futility extant;
'Cause for ever not do men stay
In conditions advantage bestowed; styled
In delusion held captivated,
By self-conceit; virtue evaded
Hi-jacked, killed, buried to be reborn;
By persons to be conceived to be born,
To stand up in presence unfazed
By diamonds encrusted on walls blazed
In gold, silver, ruby, gem adorned,
The walls marbled to intimidate,
The unborn, the born on earth who donned
The armour of call to truth vitiate
In battle, war and peace proclaim;
By twos of River Diamond announced
By a clarion call; intruder denounced;
On this outrage: preposterous claim,
Of hand knoweth him no secrets;
That lurk in lush forests and hills set
To consume the arrogance from sea
Where seen from on high, they climbed
Breaching the ancient laws of battle chimed
By sages of old, men of wisdom wrote,
Today the dangers of laurels smote;
With the hardened iron and steel made,
By hands of skill: guns turned into spade
And ploughs to guns were they created
For the land of diamonds and milk blessed.

The Sage

Visits from somewhere starts:
From the heart, is the beat done,
To change the course of stars;
Not at night alone blown.

Our arrival: safe and sound:
The craft, level did it land,
On runway it sped: slowed;
Taxied: slowed down to stand.

Shouts of joy a distance heard:
Brothers! Sisters! Welcome back!
To my ears was the music led;
Blends of craft sound to blast.

At home arrived in time to ‘fast:
In the morn’ there he stood,
The new sage: jet black-locked,
In wisdom unblocked.

The Origins of Creation And The Bantus: Part 2

Louis Egbe Mbua

Living Lights are of the opinion that a diversified opinionated society is the vital ingredient to the advancement of that community. In March, this year, a debate happened amongst Cameroonians, in camnetwork as to the validity of Darwin’s theories of evolution; and which was published, partly, in the same month, in this Forum. It is the opinion of this writer that the ideas posed were of a high level; and that this should be circulated to the wider public as it seems that these varied opinions have wider implications than would be imagined in everyday assumptions of life. Publishing ideas directly connected to other people is a daunting task. However, one is hard-pressed: choosing between what the wider public ought to know; and what one may consider an information resource bordering on the irrelevance. More so, at a time of world integration when men and women are not confined to their ancestral communalities and tribal clans; and when every man, woman and child have a reasonable access to information in this day and age of technological revolution, this is of relevance. Technological revolution on its own is not new. Different periods of the epic of world existence have seen their own strides of advances. Yet, what is presented here is of a different and extraordinary era. Although the world may or may not recognise its significance, Living Lights are fully convinced that such dispatches of knowledge may be adventitious to human advancement.

In this publication, men and women who have the temerity to put forward their views in the context of the subject matter have their writings embellished as the writer perceives; but not entirely to expunge their very core views and values on the development of man. Participants who did not wish to be named in this article have their wishes respected; and Living Lights would do their best to disseminate their ideas in pure prose. It was the last publication that dealt on the Origins of the Bantus; but has been extended to the Origins of Humans; and so, one is expected to concentrate on the asseveration of the presiding anonymous:

Anonymously, the written statement attributable to a debater who quoted and asked for clarifications: a question asked to throw more light on the subject at hand.

“That is based on Darwinian assumption that man began from animals which has been proven to be a fraud.”

and asked:

"Could you elaborate?”

Before then, Living Lights had written:

The "pre-historic times" did not exist. That is based on Darwinian assumption that man began from animals which has been proved to be a fraud. So who recorded the "pre-history”? Man or beast? How can one talk of pre-history when they were not there?


Mr. Godlove Mburlih dived into the debate from a different angle: questioning the origins of man as given in the book of Genesis with a quotation from an earlier posting:

"The most credible origin of species, especially male and female -- is recorded in Genesis Chapter 1 of the Holy Bible."

Do you really believe that God took out a left rib from the man and produced a woman with it ? And that he ordered in light and day? Then what about the different time zones? And the virgin birth without fertilization of sperm and egg? That Noah living somewhere in the middle east suddenly had a collection of all animal samples to fill in his lone ark for preservation from the flood? Many more questions but the believers always say "just believe" because the Bible says so. Let them first convince the doubters about God being the writer of the Bible or do they say the conspirator?

Living Lights had this answer to Godlove’s enquiries ending with the verve of the rhetorician:

I stated that it is the most credible origin of species. There are other competing theories on human origins. However, the narrative that has evidence is biblical. Why? Because we are self-evident; and that we know that light comes from the Sun and stars. These were recorded in Genesis Chapter 1 before the dawn of modern Science or Hubble Telescope. So who is Greater? Hubble Telescope or God who says he made all in the first place and in the very beginning? Why would God lie? He has no reason to do so at all. Who then is the Greater Scientist? God or Man?

Dr. Val Ngwa further questioned the origins of species as put forward by Living Lights with this informative article on the origins the lexicon genetics writing:

Genesis and Genetics are derived from the Greek work Genetikos meaning 'origin'. We should not forget that the old testament in which Genesis is ascribed to and belongs is but one book; and was written NOT in Greek, but Hebrew. And in Hebrew, the book is called 'Breishit'. Genetics as a science did not stem from the biblical book of Genesis!!

Comment from Living Lights: If Genesis has as roots in Origin, then one may infer that this is the origin of species; and if the word Genetics also stems from Origin, as Dr. Ngwa intimated, then we may arrive at the conclusion that the two words are intertwined and mean one and the same thing. It is quite possible that before creation, God created the Genes first and then put it into the created cells before the process of creation of Man. This is the same process that occurs today as for a person to be conceived, genes must first be introduced into the zygote before growth begins and the child is born to continue growing to adulthood.

The debate then went deeper when the validity of the Bible as a scientific book was challenged; and the fact that humans lived for more than 900 years was of interest to some debaters as some thought it impossible: of which Living Lights gave the following answer:

The Bible is, firstly, a spiritual Book; and a scientific document. Everybody is free to read the Bible including non-Christians. I do not accept Darwin's theories on the origins of life but I will recommend it for reading for exposure. Similarly, people do not have to be Muslims to read the Koran.

Coming to the origins of the universe and humans, Genesis Chapter 1 describes the process of the seasons; that it is controlled by the movement of the stars; and we today know that the earth's 365 day revolution around the sun brings about the seasons; and that he sun is a star in the Solar System.

I do not doubt Darwin's intellect. However, the normal scientific procedure as we well know is to propose a hypothesis; and the go on to substantiate it with practical evidence. This has not been done in the Darwinian case. Digging up old monkeys and then displaying them as scientific proof of man's origin does not constitute scientific proof. Who says these are humans in the first place?

Revisiting apparent doubts on the longetivity of the patriarchs, it is also revealed in biblical texts that that length of years was reduced in a significant proportion if not an exponent. For instance, Adam lived 939 years while the Bible states that Abraham lived 175 years. Today, it is recorded that people can live at most 120 years. This is also recorded in the Bible long before modern science can determine logetivity. These are all evidence to prove the Origins of Species.

Professor James Ashu had his own ideas on Darwinism and God. Answering Benns Awaah who questioned man’s origins, he wrote:

Darwin's theory of evolution is as troubling as the biblical story of creation. Nonetheless there is a very big difference between the two.

First, the theory of evolution is just a theory. It means there is a lot of evidence that tends to support a certain set of concepts. There is no proof yet. That is why scientists are still looking for the proof. More and more evidence is being found everyday to support the theory and scientists do not hide the fact that it remains just a theory. The day there is conclusive evidence, you may no longer hear of the "theory of evolution." You may hear of the "law of evolution”. Let us keep waiting and allow scientists to work. Some scientists may even disprove the theory. We should still wait for that also. So far I have heard only of protests; no "disproof".

As concerns the bible, I am more worried. One just has to believe. No questions. If you ask questions you will go to hell. But it is difficult not to ask questions. One such question is this: (Preamble): After God created Adam and Eve, they had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel. Then God punished Cain to a life of wandering. Cain wandered to the country of Nord and took a wife. (We should keep in mind that after the death of Abel, there was left only three people on earth, Adam, Eve, and Cain). Now the question: Were there more creations than one? (Otherwise there would not be a fourth person on earth, not to talk of having a country).

My brother, those are questions that keep some of us worried. Every religion has its own story of creation. Should we believe in any of them? It depends upon the individual. I am rather more comfortable with the theory of evolution. It is scientific. Some day somebody may disprove it. But for now, that is what I believe in.

Of which the Living Lights responded rigorously:


No evidence has ever been found. What they call "pre-historic" humans they keep digging up are not humans. They are a species of monkeys that have died out for various reasons. It is like saying an African and a European are a line of evolution. They are just a variety of the same specie and have nothing to do with evolution.

And then Prof Ashu wrote:

"The day there is conclusive evidence, you may no longer hear of the "theory of evolution”. You may hear of the "law of evolution"."

Well, we are waiting for that day. The day we see will be able to witness a Chimpanzee transform into a man in our lifetime, then we will know that the hour of our "salvation" has come. My informed opinion is that that hour will never arrive

Again Professor Ashu said:


"So far I have heard only of protests; no "disproof"."

People cannot disprove something that does not exist in reality. How is one to disprove that a Chimpanzee cannot become a man? The disproof is there before our very eyes. It's like saying that one should disprove the theory that one can actually jump from the earth to the moon using his physical strength. Well, how is one to disprove that? It has never occurred. The only disproof is that it has never been done.

And Again:

"Then God punished Cain to a life of wandering. Cain wandered to the country of Nord and took a wife. (We should keep in mind that after the death of Abel, there was left only three people on earth, Adam, Eve, and Cain). Now the question: Were there more creations than one? "

The the Bible also recorded that Adam lived for more than 900 years. We can agree that since the year 1000 AD to 2000 AD, we would have had more than 10 generations of people on earth in our own era. So, Adam must have had his tenth generation Grand Children. Surely, Cain could have had a wife from at least the second generation or even the first because Adam and Eve also had daughters and son after Cain killed his brother Abel.

There concluded our debate. There are other participants who engaged in this interesting debate but what has been presented so far is a sample of participation. Living Lights wish to thank all those who took part and owner of camnetwork group; and all who gave me the permission to publish their ideas in this Forum.

20th May Cameroon: The Age of Reason and Unreason

Former Seat Of Government, Buea, Federated State of West Cameroon

Courtesy of http://www.flckr.com/

Louis Egbe Mbua

It crossed my mind that the exact reasons for the formulation of this day in Cameroon nationhood has not been fully examined with a very fine lens. This day is a blessing to a few elite Cameroonians, a mixed blessing for a majority Cameroonians and a great political, social and economic misfortune and disaster for a significant minority. The three groups at play here are: the Cameroon elite – this includes groups from both the English-speaking (Southern Cameroons or Federated State of West Cameroon) and French Speaking (La Republique du Cameroun or Federated State of East Cameroon.) regions; the gross majority of the Cameroon masses who are French-Speaking from La Republique du Cameroun; and the final unfortunate English-speaking Cameroonians from minority Southern Cameroons. In between these fundamental groups are other tribal geopolitical factors which will not be examined here: as it is of minor significance in relation to the creation of The Federated States of the Cameroons on the 1st of October 1961.

President Ahidjo had failed to implement the legal requirements of the United Nations: to implement the terms of the February 1961 plebiscite; but rather had used subterfuge, deceit and other politically motivated cunning schemes to co-opt elite Southern Cameroons politicians from Buea, the Capital of Southern Cameroons, to Yaoundé, the Capital of La Republique du Cameroun. Although there was a meeting in Foumban in July 1961 to finalise the Federation, it ended inconclusively because any agreements that could have been reached would have been practically and legally inapplicable as Southern Cameroons was still a UN Trust Territory; and that only the UN could sanction any agreement between the two states. But since Ahidjo had a Union des Populations Camerounais (UPC) guerrilla war on his hands, he thought it would be easier to call for national “unity” between the two states rather than risk a legalistically powerful Southern Cameroons that had the powers and political will to have opposed his absolute brutality in putting down the UPC Rebellion and other acts of genocide.

Buea, at the time, was a very powerful political base to launch any challenge against Ahidjo – both in policies and his political position. Worse, Ahidjo, having come to power by questionable undemocratic means in East Cameroon, feared that Southern Cameroonian politicians will demand that he subjected himself to popular democratic vote as was the custom in their own part of the country. The state was then set for an unreasonable move that would spiral the country into the brink of disintegration almost 50 years later.

Ahidjo, therefore, instead of doing what was right and just to the entire Federation, being in a position of strength as opposed to the trust territory of Southern Cameroons, decided to disregard international law, impose a constitution onto the people of Southern Cameroons who never democratically deliberated on it in the first place, as was their tradition at the time, brought in his army who had been in brutal confrontation with the UPC Guerrillas in East Cameroun; and went on to harass the people of Southern Cameroons into submission and unconstitutionality.

Meanwhile, he had brought over or bought over -- depending on one’s point of view -- seasoned Southern Cameroons politicians such as Nzo Ekangaki, John Ngu Foncha who was Prime Minister of Southern Cameroons, Prof Bernard Fonlon and a host of top level Southern Cameroonians to Yaoundé. Again, this was an illegal and unconstitutional sham that continues to be this day. Yaoundé had and has never been democratically approved as the capital of Southern Cameroons people or the Federation: so quite why the Prime Minister of Southern Cameroons, Dr. Foncha, would have accepted the position of Vice President of the Cameroon Federation without the peoples approval is open to debate. The main suggestion as to this Southern Cameroon political folly may be grounded on personal political profiteering.

So in 1972, when Ahidjo abrogated the illegal constitution, it meant very little to him as he had no legal right to rule in the Southern Cameroons. To "legalise" this constitutional Coup D'Etat, he concocted a fraudulent referendum for the entire Federation in complete violation of the terms of the plebiscite. Thus, Ahidjo’s 1972 act was a forgone conclusion because he had never fulfilled the UN and plebiscite terms in the first place. So, there we have it: a Southern Cameroons (and French Cameroun) elite who enjoyed and continue to enjoy the trappings of power in a foreign capital but kept and continue to keep their eyes away from the big picture: their people in Southern Cameroons and the depletion of political savvy hands from Buea and their own country; thus rendering their own capital and country a reduced powerbase and a shadow of its political self to this day.

Although Dr. Endeley and Bobe Jua had remained behind, Buea’s days as a renowned democratic capital in Africa were over: The Houses of Parliament and Chief, having been bypassed by Ahidjo in the watch of the elite now ensconced or promised to be given positions in Yaoundé, was now finished.

Ahidjo and the Francophone elite, therefore, now had the opportunity to work and examine the skills and ability of the West Cameroon elite in Yaoundé in their own turf and on their own terms. Reduced in power and carriers of water, and knowing full well that their presence there was illegal and unwarranted by the East Cameroon elite, the Francophones now applied their full rights upon them; and making it very clear that Southern Cameroonians were second to them irrespective of qualifications. There were arguments in offices in Yaoundé as to whether Southern Cameroonians were equal to East Cameroonians as a people within the Federation.

Nevertheless, Ahidjo and his coterie of Francophones knew that they were no match in qualifications and experience to West Cameroonians. This being the case, he had considered this a threat to his own country East Cameroun; and the West Cameroon elite a threat to his own political position as an absolute ruler. As a result it seems that the only way Ahidjo were to eliminate this threat, once and for all, was to annex the state of West Cameroon, one of the Federated states. As he had bought or brought over the West Cameroon elite, he knew or calculated -- quite rightly -- that they would not dare oppose him. Ahidjo then went forward and performed an international criminal act by abolishing a state that was internationally recognised; which he is not a citizen; and where his rule was illegal. That is the reason for 20th of May in Cameroon’s annals. It is not a National day nor is it an Independence Day. It is the day when people applied their reason to create chaos, commit a crime and allow unreason to flourish and illegality to prevail in Cameroon to this day; and why thieves run Cameroon today.

Ahidjo’s unreasonable political machinations didn’t end there. He had, unlike the Southern Cameroons elite who had deserted Buea and their own people, foreseen the huge economic potential in Southern Cameroons in terms of social, economic and human resources: for the United Nations and the British had laid a very strong educational, economic, political and administrative foundation in the country embedded in the rule of law and fair play; and the minds of the people of Southern Cameroons. In this wise, Ahidjo knew it would have been impossible to exploit these resources without him being referred to the Southern Cameroons parliament or being prosecuted in Buea if he were to allow the West Cameroon state to exist, or taken to the International Court of Justice for trial. So, the only way he could extract these resources to augment his impoverished and war-torn country was to act illegally by annexing the West Cameroon state. And that is what he did in 1972, 20th of May the day when political, economic and social madness took hold in Cameroon; and the day the age of unreason began.

Ahidjo -- and his partners in crime went further – closing down airports, seaports, and other important institutions such as the West Cameroon Parliament; and the West Cameroon National Electricity Board. All resources from Southern Cameroons as from that period ontowards ended up in Yaoundé and Douala to this day: making the Francophone Middle class rich while impoverishing Southern Cameroonians. Power now resides in the hands of Francophones who now determine, illegally, what Southern Cameroonians should do, say or what positions they should occupy in their own country. They monopolise the oil industry which is mostly in Southern Cameroons and discriminate against the inhabitants of Victoria, steal lands from indigenous Bakweri and commit all kinds of crimes against the people of Southern Cameroons. While French Cameroonian middle classes and the political elite can celebrate their loot, the Southern Cameroonian people must mourn this day as the day when unreason replaced reason. Consequently, this day of unreason must be overthrown in Cameroon to be replaced by a legally binding date – if any Union is to continue -- so that reason and law may reign: for peace, stabilty and justice to prevail in that country.