From: shemlon@occlusal.rutgers.edu (Shiyghan Shemlon)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: CAMEROON: Bill Clinton's "coup d'etat"?????????
Keywords: Cameroon, Elections aftermath, US Presidential Inauguration
Date: 7 Jan 93 20:44:49 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

In article <Jan.7.12.29.08.1993.11043@occlusal.rutgers.edu>, JEMBEI@gallua.gallaudet.edu (Poppi) writes:

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>  
> In his recent article CAMEROON: Bill Clinton's "coup d'Etat"?????????
> my fellow citizen (I guess he is from Cameroon) and brother has provided our

You are right brother, I am from Cameroon and proud to be a
Cameroonian. Despite the discredit our country has suffered both from
within and without, principally due to our corrupt leadership, I feel
we should all fight so that those of us who can proudly proclaim their
"Cameroonianess", should be in the majority and not the minority as
the case may be today.  

> respected readers with creditable information. However, I would like to asks
> some questions, and of course, try to comment on some of his assertions. I 
> have no sympathy for, and am far from being an unconditional supporter of 
> either Biya or Ahijo's government. For your information, my cousin (he is my
> brother in our tradition) has been in political asylum for more than
> 30 years.

You are right brother. As I have often said (and the example of your
cousin sums it all), no Cameroonian in their right mind should be
proud of Ahidjo, Biya or any of their henchmen. These guys devastated
the country with bad leadership and brought us to our present predicament.


> One of my questions is where have you gotten yor statistics about the
> North-West and South-West provinces population, and their GNP contribution?
> 
> I guess when one deal with the two provinces GNP, what first come in mind is
> OIL. 1987 statistics--I am unsure whether they are accurate or not state that
> petroleum contributed about 50% of Cameroon export earnings (in 1987).
>
> My second question is: what is the purpose of specifying that "the two 
> Anglophone provinces contribute close to 70% of the GNP ?"

As I noted in my article, two groups of Anglophone Cameroonians are
now lobbying at the UN. As a concerned citizen and a disciple of the
"national unity", I was very interested in knowing the basis of their
arguments, some of which are pretty aggressive. They have documented
evidence, some dating back to the League of Nations Trusteeships of
1918. As for Economic Data they also posses plenty. There is
documented evidence to support their claim that the two Anglophone
Provinces contribute close to 70% of the GNP.  My stating this figure
here was because the fact that the Anglophone Provinces only get 3% of
Gov't Investment and Infrastructural Development in return, is the
basic argument of the secessionists. I personally believe that such
assertions should be seriously examined by any parties interested in
solving the Cameroonian problem.  I believe it is because the gov't
has hipocritically kept a blind eye to this, supposedly in the
interest of "national unity", that sentiments have been pushed to this
point. Hiding such truths just pushes their resurgence to a later
date. It is easy to verify the 70% figure. Oil revenues account for a
major chunk of our foreign earnings as you have stated above. The
South West Province also has the major plantations; rubber, palm oil,
banana, cocoa, coffee, etc. The North West Province produces the bulk
of coffee, rice and other grains for the country. It is also the
animal husbandry center and one of the two leading bread basket
provinces of the country (the Western Province is the other). There
is data as far back as 1966 when Ahidjo started to hiddenly
exploit the oil resources. As you know the average Cameroonian has
been kept out of the secrets of Cameroon oil revenue, even after it
became officailly known that oil was being exploited in
Idenau-Victoria (no Limbe).  Those Cameroonians calling for a return
to federation claim the only reason the federation was "illegally" (I
still argue with this term, but these guys are big lawyers who may
know better) dissolved in 1972, was because the French refused to
finance an oil refinery in a region that was legally controlled by the
State of West Cameroon. I haven't seen any documents to back this
assertion. It is claimed these are classified reports of meetings between
Ahidjo and the then French "Ministre de cooperation".


> Also, I am tempted to question the appropriateness of labelling the US
> President-elect's decision a "Coup d'Etat." A warning to Biya ? YES,
> it is. 

My calling this a coup d'etat wasn't with any ill intent. On looking
back I agree with you that "a warning to Biya" might have been a more
appropriate title. I would like to apologize to anyone whose feelings
that might have been hurt by  this title.

> Now, here is how I view Cameroon's situation:
> 
> Whoever becomes Cameroon's President at this time will be more likely to
> continue the old-fashioned policy, if that person is a member of the actual
> government team, or has served in any of Ahijo's administration. It
> is possible that some members of the actual administration are very
> good people, who could bring concrete democratic changes in
> Cameroon. But with those who served in Ahijo's administration, I
> doubt. Cameroon certainly needs someone who will 
> bring new ideas, put in place a new team, devoted to changes.

I AGREE 100% with you brother.

> We shall be very careful whenever we deal with political realities.
> This is not only true for Cameroon. It is true for Africa ingeneral.
> Our major weakness is our addiction-like desire to operate behind
> clans, tribes, etc. We can't blame Europeans for having divided our
> continent into micro states--I won't say nations, for there is no
> genuine nation in Africa ! whereas we continue to 
> develop clanism, tribalism, and want to balkanie these very micro states.

The irony is that very few of even the most educated Africans reason
the way you do. I had once called for discussions with fellow Africans
in this news group, geared towards the revival of Krumah's idea for a
United Africa or regional confederations of African states, and I
got a very cold reception. Europe and America are interested in
our remaining or even breaking up into more minute micro states. You will
be surprised at how many western powers will support the idea of a
tiny Anglophone Cameroon State, with oil revenue and a strategic
postion in the bight of Biafra. I think we Africans are so foolish not
to have realized the western games of the past 4 decades. However,
whether we like it or not history will force us to one day wake up to
these realities. 


> John Fru Ndi appear to be a prominent political figure in today's Cameroon (I
> am sorry, for I know little about him). However, if he wants Cameroon to go

Yes, he is very popular especially given the fact that this guy was
virtually unknown in the Cameroon political scene before 1990.

> back to the old times of federalism (Cameroon is the size of
> California)--African federalism, in most cases, is nothing more than a
> sophisticated tribalism, then he is short-sighted politician. I won't support
> any candidate who wants federalism. That is just primary hypocrisy and
> selfishness. Is it because Cameroon oil industry is located in Limbe
> (South-West), in an "Anglophone" province as they call it that
> English speaking Cameroonians should want federalism ? Well, it is
> theii right to express themselves. But we should know that
> federalism has drawbacks, dangers in  itself. It is a weakness. And
> what if later, there is no more oil in the actual 
> site, but elsewhere in Cameroon ?  Fortunately, not all people from that part
> of Cameroon--I won't call them Anglophone support this federalism. My opinion
> is that, what we need is to develop a genuine nationalism beyond democracy.
> Look at Americans ! See what Europeans are working on now ?

Fortunately Fru Ndi is not running under the Federal banner. I don't
think he would have gotten so much support from Francophone
Cameroonians if he were a Federalist. He is fighting against the
corruption of the Biya gov't and has called for a decentralization of
gov't and a return to gov't by elected (and not appointed) officials
as a way of establishing accountability and stamping out rampant
corruption. The Tripartite Conference in 1991 proposed a
constitutional committee to study and propose an appropriate
constitution that couldn't be modified at the Head of State's will.
Unfortunately this committee has been unable to do their job
effectively because the committee Chiarman Prof. Joseph Owona views
any ideas on decentralization of gov't as unpatriotic. He has
virtually torpedoed the committee's efforts and brandished the
Anglophone members of the committee as unpatriotic separatists,
because they are for gov't decentralization, a strong constitution and
accountability. This is very understandable, Prof. Owona is one of the
beneficiaries of the current corrupt system. I think Prof. Owona is
the non-patriot.

You have made some very strong points above. I would however beg to
differ with you on some few points. Genuine nationalism will be
difficult to attend if certain portions of the population feel they
are being unfairly treated, be they poor or rich. I believe the
Anglophone problem would have reached this stage oil or no oil. Your
refusal to call Anglophone Cameroonians what they are is a mistake.
Many of them feel very strongly about this. They are defined thus by
the constitution which still accepts two official languages. A smart
move perhaps by those who crafted the 1961 constitution, but an idea
that has been exploited in ill fate by both parties (At times I wonder
if it wouldn't have been better to adopt just one of the two languages
in 1961). Many Anglophones have been given occassion by our current
leaders, to feel like second class citizens in their own country and
when you see the evidence (words like "Biafres" - biafrans, "anglos",
"les ennemis dans la maison" - ennemies within the house, "si vous
n'etes pas contents, rentrez chez vous" - if you are not happy go back
to where you came from, etc., etc...), it is often difficult to find
counter arguments to their strong sentimental feelings.  If you don't
believe my assertion as to how strongly Anglophone Cameroonians feel
about their heritage, go back to 1985 when the gov't tried to replace
the English system of eduation in Anglophone Cameroon, with one styled
after the French system. There were revolts and the sentiments were so
high then that if such was attempted today the secessionist will
capitalize on it. We can still have unity and tremendous progress in
our diversity. Refusing to recognize our differences is blind and
naive nationalism that will hardly succeed. Look at America. They
recognize their differences as Africans, Italians, Irish, Jews,
Asians, etc., but still bind together to build the strongest nation in
the world through cooperation and equitable representation.  Just
think of what would happen for example if Bill Clinton's White House
staff excluded blacks. I can guarantee he will lose the next elections
despite the fact that blacks make only 15% of the US population. In
Cameroon I think the gov't has used the pretext of national unity to
refuse equitable representation to 30% of the population. No
Anglophone can head a key ministry like Defence, Information and
Culture, Internal Security, Territorial Administration, etc., and no
Anglophone currently holds a high ranking position at the Presidency
of the Republic (the current policy making body). When an Anglophone
is named as Prime Minister he must be flanged by two Francophone
overseers to make sure he doesn't overgrow his shoes. I wholly support
those who think that this is unfair representation which is definately
not in the interest of national unity. This has instead helped to
deepen ill feelings and destroy that unity. Our case is 1000 times
simpler than the US case for example and I really don't see what
prevents us from doing like the US. Any body who thinks they can solve
Cameroon's problems without addressing these issues is living in a
utopic world.

I agree with you that Federalism has its draw backs. However a well
crafted federal system like that of the US brings about transperence,
accountability and responsible Gov't. My idea is, in looking for a
solution to our present stalemate, we should explore all possible
structures, even federalism, as long as it eliminates the abuse of
power and the corruption that our current structure breeds.

> Regarding the US President-elect Clinton to invite John Fru Ndi, if this is
> true, I see nothing bad in that. It is not a "coup d'Etat" either. Because of
> Clinton adamant support of democracy, it is natural that he invites a
> democratic leader to attend the inauguration. And it would be great if the US
> government really takes more concrete actions in order to help bring about
> democracy--a genuine democracy in Cameroon. There is no democracy if people
> refuse to lose ! I have read "Jeune Afrique" accounts. In one of the
> articles, the author titles: "Cameroon....The Americans against
> France ?" Because of the pressure that some of the US Embassadors in
> Cameroon, and other African countries on local government. I am a
> deaf and few deaf people are involved in politics--deaf peple with
> high school education are very rare in Cameroon. But I have the
> right to WANT a TRUE democracy. No matter who the president is, 
> where he is from, if he is a Cameroonian and accept the rules of democracy,
> works for it, he is my man.

I couldn't agree with you more brother. You are a real role model for
many Cameroonians. With your disability and current level of
achievement, I can only say CONGRATULATIONS, for your calibre is not only
rare in Cameroon, but all over the world. More grease to your elbows.


> Whether Biya resigns or not, there is hope that Cameroon will become a
> democratic country, provided friendly nations and their governments
> such as the USA help the Cameroon peole. the dark side of sanctions
> (freezing aid) is that the poor people is hurt more than the
> intended targets (Cameroon students have not received their
> scholarships for more than one year !). But if the goal is attained,
> then deprivation would not have been worthless ! 

What a pity. I wish these thieves and criminals who call themselves
leaders had some understanding of the word "patriotic". Biya and his
chronies are rumoured to have an estimated 5 to 10 times the country's
annual budget (of about $2.00 billion) stacked in their private bank
accounts and investments abroad, while young Cameroonians are deprived
of their education. These guys should be indicted for treason and
imprisoned under hard labor for the rest of their lives.

> Cameroonians are wise people, and I hope they will avoid the CHAOS !!!
> Poppi   
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