THE ANGLOPHONE PROBLEM IN THE CAMEROONS

TAKES A DRAMATIC TWIST.

By Dr. Arnold B. Yongbang

Introduction:

This paper was prepared in 2006 at the request of Rev. Father Eric AKUE-GOEH, a
Jesuit missionary from the Republic of Benin, and assistant parish priest of the Our Lady
of the Annunciation Parish, Bonamoussadi, Douala, who was fascinated by the
Anglophone problem, and invited me to make a presentation of the problem to the
Anglophone Community in the parish, but had to be aborted because of strong objections
from some of the Anglophone parishioners who felt that the presentation would be
introducing politics into the Church. This is another dimension of the Anglophone
Problem – the Anglophone up against himself / herself !

1. So what is the Anglophone Problem?

1.1 L’EFFORT Camerounais No. 315 of October 15 to October 28, 2003, pages 10 and
11, carried an interview by the paper’s then Editor-in-Chief, Rev. Fr. Antoine de Padoue
Chonang, with our own outspoken and uncompromising moral authority, His Eminence
Christian Wiyghan Cardinal TUMI, on the ‘ANGLOPHONE PROBLEM’. Here are
some excerpts of the interview:

Fr. Antoine:
“In your opinion, is there an Anglophone problem in Cameroon?”

His Eminence:
“In Cameroon, yes. There is a real malaise, like I said in my open letter and elsewhere.
Accumulated frustrations from the unilateral cancellation of the federation, to Fru Ndi’s
victory in the 1992 elections as affirmed by ambassadors but which was not recognized,
harassment of Anglophones and ill-treatment of all sorts, restriction of their legitimate
political aspirations, etc..., create a real malaise. It is even said that there are posts that
can never be occupied by an Anglophone, for example, an Anglophone has never been
the Secretary-General of the Presidency…”.

1.2 That, in a nutshell is the ‘Anglophone Problem’ in the Cameroons. But it is not quite
that simple: it is much more ramifying and complex. There is the very disturbing rider to
the problem: the fact that so-called Anglophone intellectuals who, for purely selfish
interests, allow themselves to be used by neo-colonisers to confuse the populations who
look up to these same intellectuals for enlightenment and guidance in their struggle for
their inherent and inalienable right of Self-determination and Independence. Some
intellectuals claiming to be knowledgeable about international law have indeed misled,
and still continue to mislead, the rank and file of the struggle to be masters of their own
destiny by their ignorance of international law. This ignorance caused the struggle to

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spend nearly 43 years chasing the wrong shadow, namely, the independence of the
Southern Cameroons, with various misleading names like AMBAZONIA or
AMBAZANIA, instead of the independence of the former UN Trust Territory of the
Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations and the Trusteeship Agreement signed between the United Nations and
His Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
on 13 December 1946 “to administer the Territory in such a manner as to achieve the basic
objectives of the international trusteeship system laid down in Article 76 of the United Nations
Charter”.

1.3 History has it that when Germany lost the First Word War in 1916 it also lost
sovereignty over its African colonies. In 1919 Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles
giving up all claims to her colonies including Kamerun. In 1922 under the League of
Nations Mandates System, German Kamerun was divided between Britain and France,
the victorious allies; the larger eastern part of the country went to France and became
known as French Cameroun while the smaller truncated western part went to Britain.
Britain further divided its portion into North and South ostensibly for administrative
convenience with its colony and protectorate of Nigeria. The British Northern Cameroons
was administered as part of the Northern Region of Nigeria; while the British Southern
Cameroons was administered as part of the Eastern Region of Nigeria.

1.4 With the creation of the United Nations Organisation in 1945, the Mandated
Territories transmuted to TRUST TERRITORIES under its International Trusteeship
System one of the basic objectives of which was:

"…to promote the political, economic, social and educational advancement of the
inhabitants of the trust territories and their progressive development towards self-
government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular
circumstances of each trust territory and its peoples and the freely expressed
wishes of the people concerned”.

1.5 The 1922 boundary established between the two mandated territories is along the
Simon / Milner Line traced in 1916 by Britain and France, delimited in 1919, and
confirmed in 1922, literally making the two mandated territories two separate countries.

1.6 With the founding of the United Nations Organisation in 1945, territories that were
placed under the Mandates System of the League of Nations were transmuted into the
Trusteeship System of the United Nations Organisation and approved by the General
Assembly on December 13, 1946.

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2. Regional Autonomy for the Southern Cameroons was a cruel illusion:
2.1 With the introduction of internal self-government to the three regions of Nigeria in
1951 under the Macpherson Constitution, the British Government recognised that there
were some profound ethnic differences between the peoples of the Southern Cameroons
and those of the rest of the Eastern Region of Nigeria giving rise to a profound desire on
the part of the peoples of the Southern Cameroons to develop an existence as a separate
entity. For this reason the British Government agreed at the London Conference in 1953
that the Southern Cameroons should separate from the Eastern Region of Nigeria and
become a quasi-federal territory within the Federation of Nigeria. It was under the 1953
Constitution that the Southern Cameroons had its own government, with Dr. E. M. L.
Endeley as Leader of Government Business, and a legislature with prerogatives of
legislation in all areas except those that were specifically on the exclusive legislative list
of the government of the Federation of Nigeria.

2.2 At the Lagos Constitutional Conference of 1957, the Southern Cameroons requested
and was granted a full Regional Self-Governing Status within the Federation of Nigeria;
and so a cabinet system of government was introduced in the territory on May 15, 1958.
To all intents and purposes, from 1st October 1960, when Nigeria became independent,
the British Southern Cameroons had the standing of a de jure self-governing Territory.
After attaining a full self-governing status, the next logical step was full independence.
Regrettably, Britain and France and the United States of America, the cold war allies, all
permanent members of the Security Council, conspired to deny the territory
independence contrary to the expressed wishes of the inhabitants of the territory, the
Charter of the United Nations and the Trusteeship Agreement.

2.4 In 1959, in anticipation of independence, France signed Co-operation Agreements

with her African and Caribbean colonies, including French Cameroun, literally making
these countries contractual colonies of France; and bringing their economies under the
direct control of France. This was indeed neo-colonialism and the United Nations turned
a blind eye to it. France, of course, is a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

3. The Bungled Termination of UN Trusteeship over the Cameroons under United

Kingdom Administration:
3.1 France granted “independance avec la France” to its trust-territory of Cameroun
under French administration on January 1, 1960, and the country took on the name of la
Republique du Cameroun. And despite the fact that there was a communist-backed
insurrection ravaging the territory, no plebiscite nor referendum was held to ascertain
whether the peoples of that territory wanted independence then or at some future date, or
whether they would like to associate with any of its contiguous neighbours.

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3.2 By contrast, on February 11 and 12, 1961, the United Nations imposed separate
plebiscites in the Northern and Southern British Cameroons “to achieve independence by
joining” either the Federation of Nigeria, with a population then of over 80 million
inhabitants, or la Republique du Cameroun, with a population then of about 3.2 million
people. Faced with this dilemma of two equally unacceptable alternatives, the peoples of
the British Southern Cameroons, with a population of about 800.000 inhabitants, voted to
join la Republique du Cameroun under a con-federal union, the broad outlines of which
had been negotiated and agreed upon at meetings between Premier John Ngu Foncha’s
Government of the Southern Cameroons and the Ahmadou Ahidjo Government of
French Cameroun and incorporated into the United Nations manifesto, ‘THE TWO
ALTERNATIVES’, that was widely used for the plebiscite-enlightenment campaigns.
The Northern Cameroons on its part voted to join the Federation of Nigeria

3.3 After the plebiscite, the Fourth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly
(UNGA) at its 15th Session, while endorsing the results of the plebiscite, had
recommended to the General Assembly for adoption Draft Resolution A/C.4/L/685:
- Operative paragraph 5 reads:-
“… Invites the Administering Authority, the Governments of the Southern
Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroun to initiate urgent discussions with a
view to finalising, before 1 October 1961, the arrangements by which the agreed
and declared policies of the concerned parties for a Union of the Southern
Cameroons with the Republic of Cameroun into a Federal United Kamerun
Republic will be implemented. ‘’
-Operative paragraph 6 reads:-
“…Appoints a Commission of three constitutional and administrative experts to
be nominated one each from three member states designated by the General
Assembly to assist at the request of the parties concerned in the discussions
referred to in paragraph 5 above”.

3.4 Instead the United Nations General Assembly, at its 994th plenary meeting on
21 April 1961, passed Resolution 1608 (XV), and operative paragraph 5 reads:

“… Invites the administering authority, the governments of the Southern

Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroun to initiate urgent discussions with a
view to finalising, before 1st October, 1961, the arrangements by which the agreed
policies of the concerned parties will be implemented’’.

3.5 The Plenary of the General Assembly, which normally approved without amendment
draft resolutions submitted to it by the Fourth Committee, decided to amend the
Committee’s draft to delete any reference to the ‘Commission of Experts’ or to the
‘Federal character of the Union’ between the British administered Southern Cameroons
and la Republique du Cameroun. These happened following strong objections raised by
the Foreign Minister of la Republique du Cameroun, Mr. Charles Okala. This action of

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the General Assembly represented a grave injustice to the peoples of the British Southern
Cameroons and a betrayal of the Plebiscite Covenant by which the people had already
decided their future believing that they were doing so in a Federal Union of equal
partners with la Republique du Cameroun under United Nations guarantees.

3.6 Bluntly put, this was a fundamental breach of trust not only by the United Nations
and the United Kingdom as administering authority, but also by the government of la
Republique du Cameroun who had reneged on its assurances to the General Assembly
and the union accords signed by Premier John Ngu Foncha and President Ahmadou
Ahidjo in Yaoundé on October 14, 1960, and incorporated in the United Nations White
Paper, “THE TWO ALTERNATIVES” referred to above.

4. The Post-Plebiscite Conference was a classical deception, Machiavellian style:

4.1 The weak and vulnerable position of the Southern Cameroons delegation at the Post-
Plebiscite Conference, that held in the town of Foumban in la Republique du Cameroun,
from July 17-21, 1961, has been adequately summed up by Pierre Mesmer, one time
Haut Commissaire of French-administered Cameroun, who later became France’s
Minister of the Armed Forces, and, still later, French Prime Minister, in his book titled
‘LES BLANCS S’EN VONT’. Récits de décolonisation. Edition Albin Michel, S.A., 1998,
chapter V. pp. 114-135. Incidentally, the book is banned in the Cameroons. He concludes
that chapter with the following very revealing statement:
“…….. En Exécution du référendum, une conférence constitutionnelle réunit les
gouvernements à Foumban, en pays bamoun familier aux deux délégations, le 17
juillet. Le Président Ahidjo, an position de force, présenta un projet de constitution
faussement fédérale soigneusement préparé par ses juristes français. Ngu Foncha
n’avait aucun contreprojet. En position de faiblesse puisque la population qu’il
représentait ne dépassait pas le quart de celle du Cameroun français et moins encore
en termes économiques, il accepta sans discuter ce qui était, sauf en apparence, une
annexion. La nouvelle Constitution entra en vigueur le 1er octobre 1961. Une
plaisanterie circulait alors à Douala et à Yaoundé: ‘Le Cameroun réunifié est un pays
bilingue francophone’”.

(Our Translation: ‘To implement the results of the plebiscite, the Governments (of the
Southern Cameroons and of la Republique du Cameroun) met in a constitutional
conference in Foumban, in Bamoun country, familiar to the two delegations, on July 17
(1961). President Ahidjo, from a position of strength, submitted for debate a fake federal
draft constitution which had been carefully crafted by his French jurists. Ngu Foncha
had no counter project. From a weak position, since the population which he represents
does not exceed a quarter of that of French Cameroun even in economic terms, Ngu
Foncha accepted without discussion what was in fact an annexation. The new
constitution came into force on 1 October 1961. A joke became rife in Douala and
Yaoundé that the reunified Cameroon was a bilingual francophone country’.)

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4.2 What other revelation could be more stunning and compelling! If Mr. Mesmer, a
frontline French policy maker at the time, contends that Foncha had no counter proposal
to table at the Foumban talks, then what must have happened to the Constitutional
Proposals adopted at the All Party Conference in Bamenda from June 26 – 30, 1961,
barely two weeks before the Foumban Conference?

4.3 The answer is provided for in the eye-witness account of the Foumban Conference
given by Mr. Samuel Njoya, who was the sub-prefect of Foumban at the time, as
reported by journalist Xavier Deutchoua in Les Cahiers de Mutations, Vol 018, January
2004, a monthly French language newspaper, under the banner headline, “LA DUPERIE
DU FOUMBAN”.. And so the post-plebiscite conference turned out to be an exercise in
total deception and betrayal of the good will and trust of the peoples of the Southern
Cameroons.

4.4 The co-conspirators, Britain, France and the United States of America, took
advantage of the vacuum created by the death in September 1961 in a plane crash in
Africa of His Excellency Dag Hammarskjold, the United Nations Secretary-General, who
should have ensured the that UNO Resolution 1608 (XV) Para. 5 of 21/04/1961 were
executed. His successor, His Excellency U Thant, was appointed Acting Secretary-
General in November 1961. So in September 1961 and October 1961 there was no full
Secretary-General of the United Nations Organisation who could have ensured the full
and legal execution of the UNO Resolution 1608 (XV) paragraph 5 of 21/04/1961 on
Southern Cameroons future. It is said that the plane crash was not unrelated to the UN
scribe’s opposition to the programmed annexation of the British Cameroons to its
contiguous neighbours.

5. From Self-Government back to a colony.

5.1 The unilateral abrogation of the Union Accords and the insidious annexation of
the Peoples and Territory of the Southern Cameroons.
5.1.1 Article 73 of the Charter of the United Nations deals with the Declaration
Regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories. It reads:
“Members of the United Nations which have or assume responsibilities for the
administration of territories whose peoples have not yet attained a full measure
of self-government recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants
of these territories are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to
promote to the utmost, within the system of international peace and security
established by the present Charter, the well-being of the inhabitants of these
territories, and, to this end:

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 a) to ensure, with due respect for the culture of the peoples concerned, their
political, economic, social, and educational advancement, their just treatment,
and their protection against abuses;

b) to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of

the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free
political institutions, according to the particular circumstances of each territory
and its peoples and their varying stages of advancement”.

5.1.2 UN General Assembly Resolution 224 (III) of 18 November 1948 on the

Administrative Unions Affecting Trust Territories reads, inter alia:

“…Recalling that the General Assembly approved these Agreements upon the
assurance of the Administering Powers that they do not consider the terms of the
relevant articles in the Trusteeship Agreements as giving powers to the
Administering Authority to establish any form of political association between the
Trust Territories respectively administered by them and adjacent territories which
would involve annexation of the Trust Territories in any sense or would have the
effect of extinguishing their status as Trust Territories;

Having considered the observations of the Trusteeship Council, contained in

the report covering its second and third sessions (A/603), on the existing or
proposed administrative unions between certain Trust Territories and the
adjacent territories under the sovereignty or control of the Administering
Authority,

Notes the observations of the Trusteeship Council on such administrative

unions; and in particular;

Endorses the observation of the Trusteeship Council that an administrative

union “must remain strictly administrative in its nature and its scope, and that its
operation must not have the effect of creating any conditions which will obstruct
the separate development of the Trust Territory, in the fields of political,
economic, social and educational advancement, as a distinct entity”;

5.1.3 In the Trusteeship Agreement signed between the United Nations and
His Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland on 13 December 1946, Britain gave, inter alia, the following
undertakings:

Article 3
The Administering Authority undertakes to administer the Territory in such a manner as to
achieve the basic objectives of the international trusteeship system laid down in Article 76 of
the United Nations Charter. The Administering Authority further undertakes to collaborate
fully with the General Assembly of the United Nations and the Trusteeship Council in the
discharge of all their functions as defined in Article 87 of the United Nations Charter, and to

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 facilitate any periodic visits to the territory which they may deem necessary, at times to be
agreed upon with the Administering Authority.

Article 6
The Administering Authority shall promote the development of free political institutions suited
to the Territory. To this end the Administering Authority shall assure to the inhabitants of the
Territory a progressively increasing share in the administrative and other services of the
Territory; shall develop the participation of the inhabitants of the Territory in advisory and
legislative bodies and in the government of the Territory, both central and local, as may be
appropriate to the particular circumstances of the Territory and its peoples; and shall take all
other appropriate measures with a view to the political advancement of the inhabitants of the
Territory in accordance with Article 76 (b) of the United Nations Charter. In considering the
measures to be taken under this Article the Administering Authority shall, in the interest of the
inhabitants, have special regard to the provisions Article 5 (a) of this Agreement.

5.1.4 Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom as the Administering Authority
of the UN Trust Territory of the Cameroons betrayed not only the treaty she signed with
the United Nations in the Trusteeship Agreement but, most importantly, the trust of the
innocent peoples under its mandate and trusteeship by the wishy-washy manner in which
it terminated the Trusteeship over the territory, leaving the it in a very weak and highly
vulnerable position vis-à-vis the Federation of Nigeria and la Republique du Cameroun.
The cumulative effect of these conditions set the stage for three of the most significant
political developments in the supposed union between the Southern Cameroons and la
Republique du Cameroun, namely:
* The emergence of a one-party system and a vicious dictatorship;
• The abolition of the federation and its replacement with a unitary system of
government; and rule by decree;
• The emergence of the problem of the English-speaking peoples of the Southern
Cameroons generally referred to in the country as the “ANGLOPHONE
PROBLEM”, which ironically has turned out to be the greatest threat to the Union.
Human Rights lawyers have described it as “the most sophisticated slave trade deal
ever to take place under United Nations cover”.

5.2 The Hidden Agenda and the Transfer of Sovereignty:

5.2.1 The fear of Communism and the possibility that the communist-backed
insurrection that was ravaging French Cameroun under the banner of the Union des
Populations du Cameroun (UPC) and its ally the ONE KAMERUN (O.K.) whose leaders
had initially been given sanctuary in the Southern Cameroons, would create a communist
bastion in this strategic geo-political region of Africa, forced the cold-war allies (Britain,
France and the United States of America) to violate the Charter of the United Nations and
the Trusteeship Agreement and to annex the British Cameroons to its contiguous
neighbours (Northern Cameroons to the Federation of Nigeria, and the Southern

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Cameroons to la Republique du Cameroun). The following dispatch from Mr. John K.
Emerson, American Consul-General, Lagos, to the US State Department, dated 11 May,
1959, says it all:
“The Southern Cameroons is a frontier, exposed ... to communist-inspired
influences, which can become a danger of serious magnitude. This reason, not to
speak of its great potentialities, makes the Southern Cameroons an area of
serious concern to the United States. ... The present government in the Southern
Cameroons, made up of almost totally inexperienced and naive ex-primary school
teachers with good intentions, is incapable of grappling with the tremendous
problems which face it. ... Leadership in the Southern Cameroons is
inexperienced, untrained and naive. ... The logical conclusion would seem to be
that the Southern Cameroons, with its remoteness from Lagos, its complexities,
and its vulnerability, deserves increased attention on the part of the United
States”

5.2.2 Information gleaned from Declassified Secret Documents at the Public Record
Office in the United Kingdom shows that British authorities at the Colonial office and at
the United Nations were opposed to the option of full independence for the Southern
Cameroons apparently because they thought that the territory did not have the resources
on its own to be a viable sovereign state. This is the background against which the
infamous and unacceptably ugly ‘TWO ALTERNATIVES’, of ‘achieving independence
by joining’ either the Federation of Nigeria or La Republique du Cameroun, were
engineered through the United Nations as the only basis for terminating United Nations
Trusteeship over the British Southern Cameroons. No effort was spared by the British
Government, operating behind the scenes, in order to ensure that the democratically
elected Prime Minister of the Southern Cameroons, the Right Honourable John Ngu
Foncha, should be denied the platform at the United Nations, to demand the option of full
independence for the territory.

5.2.3 The documents also reveal that Britain was careful not to offend either Nigeria or
the Cameroun Republic; and so British officials at the Colonial Office and at the United
Nations took the unconscionable position that the Southern Cameroons was expendable.
Lord Perth, British Minister of State at the Colonial Office, in a Minute of 12 October,
1960, to Sir John Martin of the same Office wrote:
“What would worry me is if a sequel to the Southern Cameroons’ try for
independence was that the Northern Cameroons went the same way. That would
really, I think, upset our relationship with Nigeria as a whole and for a long time
to come, and that is something which we must at all costs avoid. The Southern
Cameroons and its inhabitants are undoubtedly expendable in relation to this.”

5.2.4 Sir Andrew Cohen, Head of the UK Mission to the UN, New York, in a Confidential
Letter of 7 June, 1960, to Mr. Christopher Eastwood at the Colonial Office in London
wrote:

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 “…Her Majesty’s Government position should be made abundantly clear to
Foncha in an effort to scotch tendencies towards the third question ... The policy
of Her Majesty’s Government is to discourage any tendency towards a ‘third
question’ very strongly”.

5.2.5 Concerns about Economic Viability of an independent Southern Cameroons

were a mere pretext to deny the territory independence.
5.2.5.1 The Report of the Fiscal Commissioner, Sir Louis Chick, on the Financial Effects
of the proposed new Constitutional Arrangements, Lagos 1953, concluded that:
“……a Southern Cameroons Regional government would not in the years ahead
be financially stable without external assistance. In good years it might pay its
way with a slender margin, but in lean years it would have no reserves to fall
back on if, over a period, the deficits exceed the surpluses”.

5.2.5.2 Another report by Sir Sidney Phillipson on the Financial, Economic and
Administrative consequences to the Southern Cameroons of separation from Nigeria,
dated 9th October, 1959, concluded that:

“…… the territory could only exist as a separate entity on a precarious hand to
mouth basis and that it would not be viable as a completely independent
sovereign state”.

5.2.5.3 By contrast, in another economic report in January 1961, Dr. Kenneth Berrill of
St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge, concluded that:
“…the Southern Cameroons is both fertile and full of promise; that it has been
growing fast and can grow even faster and that to do this it desperately needs
outside capital, especially for roads. To continue its fast economic growth the
country needs and improved road system, an enlarged agricultural extension
service and an improved marketing and grading service … government
participation in the economy - its total outlays, capital and recurrent, were £ 2.5
m. in 1959-60, more than double the figure for 1955-56 – had to increase still
further. By early 1961 the government will be providing all its own services or
paying the Nigerian government for them and its recurrent outlays alone will beat
the annual rate of about £ 2.5 m. To keep up its capital program will require
another £ 1 m. that year’’

5.2.5.4 Yet another 1963 Survey Report published by Professor D.E. Gardinier of the
London Institute of Race Relations and Assistant Professor of History at Bowling Green
State University, Ohio, USA, and Fulbright Scholar at the Institute des Etudes Politiques
in Paris, made the following pertinent remarks:
“…Before reunification, the Southern Cameroons progressed peacefully
both economically and politically. The balance of trade from 1956 to 1961

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 for exports and imports of the Southern Cameroons as presented by the
Secretary of State for Finance (Hon. A.N. Jua) to the West Cameroon
House of Assembly as from the 9th to 13th July, 1962, showed that the
balance of trade for the Southern Cameroons was consistently
favourable”.

5.2.5.5 It should be noted that by October 1959 Nigeria was known to possess
hydrocarbon reserves in commercial quantities in the Bight of Biafra – which includes
the coastal stretches of ex-British Southern Cameroons. So Britain could not have been
unaware that the Southern Cameroons had the potential to be the repository of
hydrocarbon reserves which are today being wantonly exploited by neo-colonialists with
little or no benefit accruing to the inhabitants of the territory and which today accounts
for more than 70% of the GDP of the country. Yet, Britain lied to the General Assembly
of the United Nations in 1959 that an independent Southern Cameroons would not be
economically viable and that Her Majesty ‘a Treasury would be obliged to subsidise its
budget.

5.3 Over the years it has become increasingly evident that there was a hidden agenda in
this blatant act of betrayal of an innocent people. The francophone partners went into the
negotiations for the union in utter bad faith knowing fully well that they had no intention
of respecting the terms of the Union.

5.3.1 President Ahidjo’s lie to the Fourth Committee of the United Nations
General Assembly on the 25th February, 1959:
5.3.1.1 The inhabitants of the Southern Cameroons went to the polls on February 11,
1961, on the clear understanding that the basis of the proposed UNION between their
territory and the Cameroun Republic would be a federation of equal partners, the details
of which were to be worked out at a post-plebiscite conference of delegations of equal
strength and in which the United Nations and the United Kingdom as Administering
Authority would be associated.

5.3.1.2 At the 849th meeting of the Fourth Committee on 25th February, 1959, El Hadj
Ahmadou Ahidjo, then Prime Minister of French-administered Cameroun, had this to say
in reply to a question posed by representatives of New Zealand, Liberia and Mexico as to
the form unification might take:-
“……. I would not like the firmness and clarity of our stand to be interpreted as
a desire for integration on my part which would sound the death knell to the
hopes of our brothers under British Administration.
We do not wish to bring the weight of our population to bear on our British
brothers. We are not annexationists. In other words, if our brothers of the

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 British zone wish to unite with an independent Cameroun, we are ready to
discuss the matter with them, but we will discuss it on a footing of equality”.

That was a mitigated lie designed to hoodwink the international community, as history
has abundantly shown.

5.3.2 on 31st May 1960, the United Nations Trusteeship Council, by Resolution 2013
(XXVI):
“…requested the Administering Authority to take steps, in consultation with the
authorities concerned, to ensure that the people of the Territory are fully
informed, before the plebiscite, of the constitutional arrangements which would
have to be made, at the appropriate time, for the implementation of the decision
at the plebiscite”.

5.3.3 The ‘Joint Declaration’ and the ‘Joint Communiqué signed by Premier John Ngu
Foncha for the British Southern Cameroons and President Ahmadou Ahidjo for la
Republique du Cameroun on December 14, 1960, clearly stated that the basis of the
unification of the British Southern Cameroons and la Republique du Cameroun would be
a Federation of equal partners. It further stated that if the plebiscite went in favour of the
option for joining the Republic of Cameroun, “a conference would be held with
representatives from the Republic, the Southern Cameroons and the Administering
Authority, and the United Nations was to determine the period and terms of transfer of
sovereignty to a body representing the future federation”.

5.3.4 The secret documents also reveal that the Attorney-General of the Southern
Cameroons, Mr. B. G. Smith, on 19th June 1961, in a Memo to the Honourable Premier,
John NGU FONCHA, just before the Tripartite Talks which took place in the House of
Assembly in Buea from 15-17 May 1961 (between Foncha assisted by Mr. Solomon
Tandeng Muna, Ahidjo assisted by Mr. Charles Okala, and the British Secretary State for
the Colonies, Mr. Iain Macleod), urged him not to succumb to President Ahidjo’s
shenanigans about the Transfer of Sovereignty to him (Ahidjo) because this was not in
agreement with the terms of the Joint Communiqué nor with the interpretation of the
second plebiscite question, nor with the United Nations Resolution.

5.3.5 Here is the Attorney-General’s Memo to Premier John Ngu Foncha on 19th June
1961:
“The choice offered to the people of the Southern Cameroons was to achieve
independence either by joining the independent Federation of Nigeria or the
independent Republic of Cameroun. The people chose the Republic of
Cameroun.

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 If at midnight the sovereignty of the Southern Cameroons is transmitted to the
Republic of Cameroun the people of the Southern Cameroons do not at that
moment achieve independence. They lose their identity and become subjects of
the Republic of Cameroun. It may well be that within a matter of minutes,
hours or days the Republic will by an act of state transform itself into a
federation of two states composed of the former Republic of Cameroun and the
former Trust Territory of the Southern Cameroons. The Southern Cameroons
will then have achieved independence not by joining the Republic of Cameroun
but after joining the Republic of Cameroun. In order that the people of the
Southern Cameroons may achieve independence by joining the Republic of
Cameroun it is necessary that the Federation should come into existence at
midnight of 1st October. At one and the same moment there will be born the
independent State of the Southern Cameroons and the Federation of the United
Kamerun Republic. The Federation will be a free association of independent
and equal sovereign states.
In order therefore that the Southern Cameroons should exercise its sovereignty
as an independent state equal in all respects to the Republic it is necessary that
the organization representing the future Federation shall be composed of equal
elements representing the Republic of Cameroun and the State of the Southern
Cameroons. It is not compatible with the dignity of the Southern Cameroons
that that organization should be the President of the Republic acting in
association with the Head of State of the Southern Cameroons. It may be
practicable to transfer sovereignty to the President of the Republic and the
Head of State of the Southern Cameroons jointly but it is submitted that the
better course would be that proposed by the Premier and Ministers of the
Southern Cameroons, namely a body composed of equal numbers of
representatives nominated by the Government of the Republic of Cameroun
and the Government of the Southern Cameroons respectively, which body shall
appoint a temporary President of the Federation.
Sovereignty should only be transferred to an organization representing equally
the Republic of Cameroun and the State of the Southern Cameroons”.

5.3.6 Unfortunately, Foncha and Muna had already done a deal with Ahidjo by which
Foncha would become Vice-President and Muna the Minister of Defence, for which the
peoples of the former United Nations Trust Territory of the British Southern Cameroons
are today paying a heavy price in their struggle to re-write their history.

5.3.7 The Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Malcolm Milne, was so exasperated by this state of
affairs that he filed the following despatch to the Colonial office on July 1, 1961.
“… We believe, on very good information, that Foncha has already done a
private deal with Ahidjo, the idea being that the present Government of the
Republic will become the government of the Federation on 1st October, and that

13
 the sovereignty will be transferred to it and defence and national security will
become federal matters.
In return for bringing the Southern Cameroons on these terms Foncha has been
promised the Vice-Presidency of the Federal Republic and Muna has been
promised a post in the Federal Cabinet.
At one time we thought there might have been a show-down at the Bamenda All-
Party Conference with every one’s cards on the table, but all that has happened is
that Foncha has trotted out his pre-plebiscite constitutional proposals and invited
comments on them. The CPNC and OKP-and indeed the Chiefs also – have
demanded an account of what went on during the last Foncha / Ahidjo talks, but
Foncha, strongly pressed by Muna, has kept mum.
It seems that the other ministers although very unhappy are nevertheless tagging
along. Notably Foncha has told them that if the worse comes to the worst and
Ahidjo’s terms have to be accepted they can still hope to remain in office in the
Southern Cameroons.
It seems that Foncha will now trot off to Bamun armed with the views of all
parties in the Southern Cameroons (and all are unanimous in opposing any
suggestion of the transfer of sovereignty to a body other than a body representing
the future federation: they also are unanimous in demanding that defence must be
a regional responsibility). He will presumably once again test Ahidjo’s attitude. If
the latter is firm, Foncha will, I think, give into him and take refuge in the secret
deals arrangement. I am sure that the wretched little man is moved very largely
by considerations of what is best for himself; the interests of the Southern
Cameroons will come a poor second. However, he will need more than his usual
luck and agility to avoid a moment of truth should he return from Bamun having
accepted Ahidjo’s terms”.

5.3.8 And finally, on October 1, 1961, in its final act of betrayal of the innocent peoples
of the Southern Cameroons, Mr. J.O. .FIELD, the British Commissioner for the Southern
Cameroons, in the presence of a guard of honour mounted by a detachment of Grenadier
Guards and Republican Gendarmes, handed over the sovereignty of the Southern
Cameroons to President Ahmadou Ahidjo of la Republique du Cameroun, in violation of
the bilateral agreements contained in the “TWO ALTERNATIVES”, and left the territory
on board ‘H.M.S DIANA’ with a lot of misgivings about the future of the territory.

5.4 “Le Monde newspaper on 1st October 1961 quoted President Charles de Gaulle of
France as referring to the handover as “le petit don de la reine” (a small gift from the
Queen of England). And so ‘expendable’ Southern Cameroons was finally auctioned off
to France like a piece of merchandise nearly two centuries after the abolition of the slave
trade. That was indeed, to paraphrase Fon Gorji Dinka, “THE MOST
SOPHISTICATED SLAVE TRADE DEAL UNDER UNITED NATIONS COVER”!

14
5.5 Right from the beginning of the federation in October 1961, President Ahidjo did
everything not only to undermine the federal structure but also the authority of the
government of the West Cameroon State (on October 1, 1961, the former British
Southern Cameroons became the Federated State of West Cameroon while la Republique
du Cameroun became the Federated State of East Cameroun). Through the manipulations
of the one-party system, Mr. Ahidjo’s intention was to rely on the massive francophone
vote, estimated at about 4/5 of the electorate of the federation, to swamp any adverse vote
in the West Cameroon State. (By United Nations estimates, the population of the British
Southern Cameroons on October 1, 1961 was 800.000 while that of la Republique du
Cameroun was 3.200.000). In addition, Ahidjo assumed dictatorial powers and ruled by
decree; a rule characterised by intimidations, harassments and disappearances of
opponents to notorious concentration camps, and extra-judicial executions – a gruesome
catalogue of horrendous Human Rights abuses.

5.6 This measure calls into question the whole validity of the May 1972 referendum (so-
called ‘Peaceful Revolution’) since the federal system of government was the basis on
which the electorate of British Southern Cameroons had voted to join la Republique du
Cameroun. To have changed to the unitary system without the consent of the
Government, Parliament, House of Chiefs and people of the West Cameroon Federated
State meant undermining the whole basis of the union which required the separate
consultations of the peoples of both territories in accordance with the federal constitution.
To have imposed a unitary state the way President Ahidjo did constituted a serious breach
of trust, and a fraudulent manipulation of the constitution which is unacceptable in
international Law.

5.7 President Ahmadou Ahidjo then went on to issue the notorious proclamation,
DF72-270 of 2/6/72, by which he unilaterally, unconstitutionally, illegally and
fraudulently abrogated the Union Accords, abolished the Federal Constitution and the
federation, abolished the Government, and the Houses of Assembly and of Chiefs of the
West Cameroon Federated State and imposed on the peoples of the Southern Cameroons
a unitary state which he called the United Republic of Cameroon.

5.8 The final blow to the entire edifice of the so-called union came when Mr. Paul Biya,
President Ahidjo’s hand-picked successor, by a stroke of the pen, decreed law
N°. 84-001 of 4/2/84 abolishing the United Republic of Cameroon and renaming the
country simply as la Republique du Cameroun, the same name French-administered
Cameroun assumed at independence on January 1, 1960, and was admitted into
membership of the United Nations Organisation, and thereby completed the
annexation of the territory and peoples of the Southern Cameroons and thereby
confiscating the enormous natural resources of the territory for the benefit of his
masters in France and his ruling junta.

15
5.9 He has maintained the legacy of a barbaric dictatorship and a chilling record of
Human Rights abuses on the territory and peoples of the Southern Cameroons
reminiscent of the Apartheid regime in South Africa: from the Ndu massacres in June
1991 following the massively boycotted May 1991 legislative elections; the
imposition of the state of emergency in Bamenda and the state of siege in Fru Ndi’s
compound following Ni John Fru NDi’s victory at the October 1992 Presidential
election; operations “Dorade” and “Delta”, masterminded and financed by the French
petroleum company, ELF-AQUITAINE, in the coastal regions of the territory to
harass, brutalise and intimidate the population to buy only made-in-France goods:
they destroyed goods legally imported from neighbouring Nigeria, and even
destroyed vehicles suspected of running on fuel imported from Nigeria. all in an
attempt to frenchify and assimilate the Anglophones, willy- nilly, into Francophonie,
and to teach Anglophones a lesson; to the aftermath of the so-called terrorist uprising
in Bamenda in 1997 with the attendant desecration of sacred shrines in Oku, Bui
division; and the recurrent massacres at the University of Buea.

5.10 Destabilising Irredentist Claims by la Republique du Cameroun.

5.10.1 La Republique du Cameroun (a former French-administered United Nations Trust
Territory) claims what it calls an historic right or sovereignty over ex-British Southern
Cameroons based on the fanciful notion that it replaced the old Germany colony of
Kamerun, which, so it is claimed, had created a Kamerun Nation.

5.10.2 In any event, following the Anglo-French partition of 1916 and the renunciation
by Germany in 1919 of its right and title to that Territory, German Kamerun became
extinct. In theory of law, the British Cameroons and French Cameroun were two new
polities that came into being as from 1919. Each was the object of a separate Mandate /
Trusteeship Agreement. The International boundary between the British Cameroons and
French Cameroun is along the Simon-Milner Line traced in 1916 by Britain and France,
delimited in 1919 and confirmed in 1922. There is no treaty boundary between the
former British Northern Cameroons and the former British Southern Cameroons – only
an administrative boundary along the River Donga.

5.10.3 It follows that any claim based on German Kamerun must of necessity be
irredentist. Irredentist claims are destabilising claims and constitute a threat to regional
peace and security. They are therefore anathema in international law and relations (*Dr.
Carlson Anyangwe).

5.10.4 It is also true that parts of German Kamerun were integrated into the French
Equatorial Republics of Chad, Central African Republic, Congo and Gabon. Curiously,
la Republique du Cameroun does not claim a similar historic right over these parts of
German Kamerun.

16
5.10.5 The people of the former UN Trust Territory of the Cameroons under United
Kingdom Administration are today asking for a return to the status quo ante and the
total independence of their territory without resorting to violence. The people of the
former British Cameroons shall negotiate economic and political protocols in accordance
with the UN Charter and international law which will enable each country to concentrate
on the improvement of the living standards of its respective peoples so that they can live
like civilised neighbours in respect of each other’s sovereignty and dignity. Self-
determination for the people of the former British Cameroons will not change any
territorial boundaries that existed at independence but will have the potential to return the
territory to a state of respect for human rights and masters of their own destiny.

6. The quest for Self-Determination and Independence of the former Trust Territory
of the Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration (the Northern Cameroons
and the Southern Cameroons together – 86, 214 sq. km) is a very burning issue:

6.1 Southern Cameroons struggle for self-determination was prompted by the blatant and
arrogant breaches of trust by the Francophone partners in the United Nations-imposed
union. French Cameroun became independent on January 1, 1960 and assumed the name
of la Republique du Cameroun. At the termination of the Trusteeship Agreements, the
United Nations decided that British Cameroons should achieve her own independence
‘by joining’ with either the Federation of Nigeria. These two unacceptable and ugly
alternatives pushed them into an unholy union with la Republic du Cameroun.

6.2 The aspiration of the peoples of the Southern Cameroons was to establish a unique
Federation on the continent of Africa, and to evolve a bicultural society in which the
distinct heritage of each of the partners to the union would flourish. During the past 46
years, however, our common experience in the union leaves us in no doubt that, far from
attaining these ends, we have become a people with a problem, an annexed, oppressed,
state-terrorised, dehumanised and exploited people; and treated as a captive people by
successive Francophone-led dictatorships which trampled under foot the union accords
with callous indifference. The Federation was unilaterally, illegally, unconstitutionally,
and fraudulently abolished and French gendarmes and proconsuls invaded and occupied
the territory. And the country was renamed simply as la Republique du Cameroun, the
same name French Cameroun assumed at independence on 1 January 1960. (* The Buea
Declaration).

6.3 Since then our interests have been disregarded, and our participation in national life
has been limited to non-essential functions. Our natural resources have been ruthlessly
and wantonly exploited without any benefit accruing to our territory and its peoples. The
development of our territory has been negligible and confined to areas that directly or
indirectly benefit francophones. Through manoeuvres and manipulations, we have been
reduced from partners of equal status in the union to the status of a subjugated people.

17
And this we cannot accept. Our peoples have been subjected to all forms of horrendous
human rights abuses and state terrorism against which the United Nations Human Rights
Minorities Sub-Commission, the US Department of State, Amnesty International, the
Commonwealth, and the European Union have all at various times indicted the
dictatorship in la Republique du Cameroun for such wanton abuses.

7. ANGLOPHONES’ SEARCH FOR DIALOGUE AND JUSTICE

SYSTEMATICALLY FRUSTRATED, IGNORED AND DENIED WITH
CONDESCENDING IMPUNITY.

7.1 Memoranda presented to President Paul Biya on the Anglophone Problem:

7.1.1 The peoples of the Southern Cameroons have bent over backwards to make the ill-
fated union work but their search for dialogue and justice has been systematically
frustrated and ignored. Anglophone renaissance gathered momentum at the time of the
Cameroon National Union (CNU) New Deal Congress in Bamenda in April 1985 with a
flurry of uncoordinated activities among Anglophone groups notably in Douala,
Bamenda, Kumba and Yaoundé. The North-West and South-West Elites resident in the
Littoral province addressed the first of several memoranda to the Head of State and
Chairman of the CNU Congress in Bamenda, signed by 94 Anglophones, about “the
humiliating and revolting colonial status that is gradually but systematically being
imposed on Anglophone Cameroon by the Administration” and calling for a return to
the Two-State Federation Anglophone Cameroon voted for in the United Nations-
imposed plebiscite of 11 February 1961. The memorandum concluded :

“We do believe that if our aspirations for a true Cameroonian Nationalism, based
on mutual trust and respect for each other’s basic freedoms, justice, dignity and
peace, are to be preserved, our two cultures must be allowed to develop side by
side in a spirit of complementarities NOT of competition. Let us learn from
lessons of history”.

7.2 ‘The New Social Order’ was prepared in Bamenda by Anglophone intellectuals and
professors, among them late Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, Fon Gorji Dinka, Dr.
Carlson Anyangwe, Dr. Clement Ngwasiri, John Fru Ndi and signed by Fon Gorji Dinka
now in exile, for presentation at the CNU Congress by Professor Fonlon. The
presentation was botched. ‘The New Social Orde’r called for a return to the TWO-STATE
Federation with proposals for a Con-federal System of government based on four stages:
the Municipal, the Provincial, the State and the Con-federal.

7.3 On June 11, 1985, another Memorandum submitted to President Biya by the Elites of
the North-West province resident in Yaoundé and Parliamentarians attending the 1985/86
Budgetary session was signed by 30 Anglophones highlighting “the Problems of English
– speaking Cameroonians, State Security and National Unity”. They “appealed to the

18
President and his Government more than ever before to leave no stone unturned in their
quest for solutions to problems specific to Anglophone Cameroonians among which are
justice and democracy, pre-conditions for unity, peace and progress”.

7.4 On August 20, 1985, at a meeting in Kumba from 14th to 19th August, 1985, the
English – speaking Students of the North-West and South-West provinces addressed an
“Open letter to all English-speaking Parents of Cameroon” concerning government’s
plans to reform the General Certificate of Education (GCE). It concluded, inter alia:

“Realising that, with government indifference, the smouldering discontent in the

English- speaking region of the country can only end up in war; knowing we are
those who thus will miss the peace and security we love; conscious of the pains
and sorrows that are inseparable appendages of war; we call on our parents to
press for a peaceful and permanent solution before it is too late”. They then
called on their parents “to assume squarely your responsibilities before history in
view of the gravity of the country’s situation”.

7.4.1 They also called for the release of Fon Gorji Dinka and finished up by quoting His
Holiness, Pope John Paul II’s address to President Biya at State House on August 15:
… “Injustice committed by certain regimes concerning human rights or the
legitimate demands of a section of the population which is refused participation
or common responsibilities beget revolt of regrettable violence but which justice
would have foreheld”.

7.5 The irony of it all is that those who were prepared to compromise the Anglo-Saxon
system of education in 1985 for purely egoistic interests are today lording it over Anglo-
Saxon institutions of higher learning in the territory which were wrenched from the
regime through our collective will and sacrifice of compatriots who defied intimidations,
blackmail and water canons..

7.6 In February 1991, a Committee of Anglophones resident in the Littoral Province,

chaired by Dr. Arnold Boh Yongbang, defied the injunctions of the Secretary of State for
Internal Security and addressed another Memorandum this time to the Fons and
Chiefs, Political Party leaders, Religious Leaders and the People of the former West
Cameroon. The Memorandum carried 65 signatories, on the need for Anglophones to put
up a united front in the event of a National Conference. The theme was: “A society
becomes great not by the victories of its factions over each other but by its
reconciliation”.

7.6.1 This document eventually served as the rallying point for Anglophones at the
Tripartite Conference in Yaoundé in November 1991, when four learned Anglophone
jurists, namely, Barrister Sam Ekontang Elad, Dr. Simon Munzu, Mr. Benjamin Itoe, and

19
Dr. Carlson Anyangwe (EMIA) were appointed to serve on the Technical Committee for
the Drafting of the Constitution (TCDC).

7.6.2 The four submitted a Memorandum on the Anglophone Problem (the EMIA
document) to the TCDC in an attempt “to redress the grievances and injustices which
over the years have been done to English-speaking Cameroonians through a succession of
fraudulent and abusive manipulations of the country’s constitution which has generated a
sense of bitterness and revolt among Anglophones of all ages, geo-ethnic origins, all
social, intellectual and professional backgrounds”. The four “spared no effort in raising
the Committee’s consciousness of the problem, of its magnitude, and of the pressing and
inescapable need to find a satisfactory and lasting solution to it from the awareness that
the cohesiveness of the Cameroonian nation in the years to come will, to a large extent,
depend on how the public authorities of the country handle the grievances which
Anglophones have expressed and continue to express”.

7.6.3 The memorandum recommended “the restoration of Anglophone Cameroon to its

statehood within a Federal Republic of Cameroon comprising the two states that unified
in 1961, each of which may be divided into two or more provinces / regions with
decentralised powers to administer themselves in certain areas of jurisdiction”.

7.6.4 It is regrettable, indeed unfortunate, that the Francophone members of the TCDC,
and particularly Professor Joseph Owona, the Committee’s Chairman, chose to show the
most blatant hostility, contempt, intransigence and insensitivity to reason towards the
proposals put forward as a basis for the satisfactory resolution of the Anglophone
Problem. To them the ‘unitary form of the state was immutable and no longer debatable’.

7.6.5 It is also unfortunate that Francophones have tended to treat the legitimate
aspirations of the Anglophones for a return to the Territory’s statehood then as a bid to
secede, thus confirming our contention that the West Cameroon State was indeed annexed
in 1972 by East Cameroun and integrated into the territory of the latter. To francophones,
federation is synonymous with secession. Even then, West Cameroon was not condemned
to remain annexed to East Cameroun on some ill-conceived notion of national integration
or any other pretext.

7.7 The 4 Anglophone members of the TCDC refused to succumb to Professor Owona’s
tactics of intimidation and blackmail. This indeed was the genesis of the ALL
ANGLOPHONE CONFERENCE that held in Buea, the historic capital of the Southern
Cameroons, from April 2 – 3, 1993.

7.8 In December 1991, the CAMEROON ANGLOPHONE MOVEMENT (CAM), the

watchdog of the Southern Cameroons struggle for her inherent and inalienable right of

20
self-determination and independence, was born with Chief Dr. H.E.N. Enonchong as its
first Chairman. On December 5, 1991 CAM produced the first Memorandum Relative
to Constitutional Reform, signed by 3904 Southern Cameroonians throughout the
length and breadth of the territory, and forwarded it to the (TCDC) Technical Committee
for the Drafting of the Constitution. CAM was renamed the Southern Cameroons
Restoration Movement (SCARM) in 1996 and since October 2003 joined the protagonists
for the total independence of the UN Territory of Cameroons formerly under United
Kingdom administration co-ordinated by Professor Martin CHIA ATEH.

8. THE ALL ANGLOPHONE CONFERENCES, AAC I & AAC II.

8.1 The blatant confiscation and usurpation of the presidential election results that had
been clearly won by an Anglophone through a democratic process was the immediate
cause of the ALL ANGLOPHONE CONFERENCE of April 1993. The conference was
convened by the 4 Anglophone members of the Technical Committee for the Drafting of
the Constitution (TCDC) appointed by the Tripartite Conference in Yaoundé in November
1991. The Conference brought together in unprecedented numbers a cross section of
Anglophone Cameroon without concerns as to tribe, religion, political party affiliation
and social status, from the nooks and corners of the Territory for the purpose of preparing
Anglophone participation in the announced National Debate on Constitutional Reforms.

8.2 The Conference elected a Standing Committee and produced THE BUEA
DECLARATION. It declared the preparedness of Anglophones to participate in the
announced Constitutional Talks. It reiterated:

- that Anglophone Cameroon shall not be bound by undertakings given at the

Constitutional Talks by any Anglophone not mandated by the Anglophone
Standing Committee;
- That the Anglophone delegation at the said Talks shall conduct negotiations in
close observance of the terms of the Anglophone Draft Proposals regarding the
return to the Federal Form of government;
- That the imposition of the Unitary State on Anglophone Cameroon in 1972 was
unconstitutional, illegal and a fraudulent fundamental breach of faith;
- that the only redress adequate to right the wrongs done to Anglophone
Cameroon and its peoples since the imposition of the Unitary State was a return
to the original form of government of the reunified Cameroon;
- that the survival of Cameroon in peace and harmony depended on the
attainment of this objective to which we mutually pledge our lives, well-being,
careers and freedom”.
8.3 The Standing Committee of the All Anglophone Conference produced Draft Federal
Constitutional Proposals, which were also translated into French and submitted to the

21
Technical Committee for the Drafting of the Constitution, but was summarily rejected by
the Chairman of the said committee, Professor Joseph Owona.

8.4 The Second ALL ANGLOPHONE CONFERENCE (AAC- II) held in Bamenda from
29th April to 1st May, 1994, despite frantic intimidating efforts by the regime to prevent
the Conference from holding. The Conference replaced the Standing Committee with the
ANGLOPHONE NATIONAL COUNCIL (ANC) and came out with the BAMENDA
PROCLAMATION which:
- “noted with a deep sense of dissatisfaction that the Biya Government had
remained totally indifferent to the Buea Declaration as concerns the pre-
plebiscite accord, the Constitution of Cameroon, road infrastructure and check-
points in Anglophone Cameroon, the policy of divide-and-rule pursued in respect
of Anglophone Cameroon, the marginalisation of Anglophones, human rights
abuses, the violation of civil liberties and the disregard of the due process of law,
discrimination against Anglophones in education and training, Francophone
exploitation and domination of Anglophones and the international isolation of
Anglophone Cameroon”.
- “reiterated its view that any union between Anglophone Cameroon and
Francophone Cameroun would not last, develop and prosper unless it is built on
a solid foundation and sustained in a clear atmosphere of openness, trust, mutual
respect and a sense of belonging by all”.

- reaffirmed its attachment to the Buea Declaration and warned that “should the
government either persist in its refusal to engage in meaningful constitutional
talks or fail to engage in such talks within a reasonable time, the Anglophone
Council shall so inform the Anglophone People by all suitable means. It shall,
thereupon, proclaim the revival of the independence and sovereignty of the
Anglophone territory of the Southern Cameroons and take all measures necessary
to secure, defend and preserve the independence, sovereignty and integrity of the
said territory”.
- To this end, the Conference adopted THE BUEA PEACE INITIATIVE (BPI) as
our negotiating position with la Republique du Cameroun in keeping with the
motto: “THE FORCE OF ARGUMENT, NOT THE ARGUMENT OF FORCE”.

8.5 In August 1994, the Anglophone Council transmuted to the SOUTHERN

CAMEROONS NATIONAL COUNCIL (SCNC) to better situate the Southern
Cameroons as the nation state that it is rather than simply the linguistic expression of a
people in bondage.

9. President Paul Biya Convenes his rubber-stamp Constitutional Consultative

Committee:

22
9.1 On December 15, 1994, Mr. Biya convened what he called a Constitutional
Consultative Committee made up of his party’s cronies and loyalists to which the
Anglophone Delegation, as defined by the Buea Declaration, was not invited.
Anglophones invited to the Committee as independent personalities included the late Dr.
John NGU FONCHA (the architect of the unification of the British Southern Cameroons
and la Republique du Cameroun), the late Honourable Solomon TANDENG MUNA (the
person generally believed to have sold the Anglophones to Ahidjo for ‘thirty pieces’ of
silver), His Eminence Christian Wiyghan Cardinal TUMI (the Catholic Archbishop of
Douala), the Right Reverend Henry Anye AWASOM (the Moderator of the Presbyterian
Church), Barrister Bernard A. MUNA (a former president of the Cameroon Bar Council),
and Barrister Luke K. SENDZE (the then incumbent Bar Council President). All these
personalities withdrew from the Committee charging that ‘the composition of the
Committee and its terms of reference fell far short of the aspirations of a majority of the
Cameroonian people in general and the People of Anglophone Cameroon in particular’.
Also invited was the SDF Chairman, Ni John FRU NDI, who turned down the invitation.

9.2 However, surrogate Anglophones belonging to the ruling Cameroon Peoples

Democratic Movement (CPDM) party, without the mandate of the peoples of Anglophone
Cameroon, took part in the Committee which also ignored the Draft Proposals for a
Federal Constitution already submitted by the ALL ANGLOPHONE CONFERENCE
(the Southern Cameroons Peoples Conference). The Committee went on to adopt an
integrationist constitution ignoring with arrogance and total impunity guarantees for
Anglophone Cameroon’s autonomy as demanded by the Commonwealth Summit in
Limas sol, Cyprus, in October 1993 as a condition for Cameroun’s admission into the
Commonwealth. The Committee was chaired by Honourable Simon Achidi ACHU, a
collaborative Anglophone and Prime Minister at the time. As expected, the regime later
dumped him after using him to further enslave the peoples of the Southern Cameroons.

10. Appeals to the Commonwealth.

10.1 The Biya dictatorship applied to join the Commonwealth at the Kuala Lumpur
Summit in 1989. At the Harare Summit in 1991 when the Harare Principles on
democracy, good governance and Human Rights were enunciated, the regime’s record
was, to say the least, appalling on all counts. In June 1993 the Commonwealth Secretary-
General, Chief EMEKA ANYAOKU, paid his first official visit to the Cameroons during
which the dictatorship only permitted him a whistle-stop visit to the Southern
Cameroons. But before he left London for Yaoundé the Cameroon Anglophone
Movement’s (CAM) application for Membership for the former British Southern
Cameroons was on his desk. During the Commonwealth scribe’s whistle-stop visit to the
Southern Cameroons, he was denied all contact with the AAC I Standing Committee
and CAM leaders; but this did not prevent the leadership of these organizations
ambushing him at the SONARA Club in Bota and handing him their petitions opposing
la Republique du Cameroun’s membership of the Commonwealth. The presence of the
army of occupation notwithstanding, the populations of the territory turned out in their

23
numbers with placards denouncing the annexation of the territory by la Republique du
Cameroun and France and asking for Commonwealth membership for the Territory. At
the end of his visit the Commonwealth scribe acknowledged at a press conference that he
had received two applications from the Cameroons for membership of the Gentlemen’s
Club.

10.2 At the Limas sol Summit in October 1993 an AAC I Standing Committee/CAM
delegation made up of Barrister Sam Ekontang Elad and Dr. Arnold Boh Yongbang,
lobbied and persuaded Commonwealth Heads of Government to make Cameroun’s
admission conditional on the regime in Yaoundé introducing constitutional reforms that
would guarantee the autonomy, specificity and cultural distinctiveness of the nearly
6 million English-speaking peoples of the Southern Cameroons who were the ones
interested in Commonwealth membership in the first place, improving the appalling
human rights situation in the country and generally abiding by the terms of the Harare
Declaration on democracy, human rights and good governance. As a people who have
suffered the most at the hands of francophone leaders in la Republique du Cameroun as a
result of human rights abuses, state terrorism and political marginalisation, we saw the
Harare Declaration as a powerful tool to be used to force la Republique du Cameroun’s
compliance with the Limas sol conditionality before Commonwealth admission could be
considered.

10.3 During the Commonwealth Eminent Persons fact-finding Mission to the Cameroons
in July 1995 to assess la Republique du Cameroun’s compliance with the Limas sol
conditionality’s, they recognized, even by Baroness Lynda Chalker’s own account to the
House of Lords on 19th October 1995 “areas where further improvements were still
needed such as, constitutional reforms, local elections, press freedom, human rights and
the independence of the judiciary”. In spite of this evident non-compliance with the
Limas sol conditionality’s, the Commonwealth Secretariat, with the complicity of
Baroness Chalker and the Canadian Government conspired to admit la Republique du
Cameroun, with glaringly dubious credentials, into the Commonwealth with fanfare; and
invited the head of state of that country, who hardly speaks any English, and who is a
staunch advocate of la francophonie, which “declared war on Anglo-Saxon cultural
imperialism” at their Mauritius summit in October 1993, to the Auckland CHOGM. Such
demonstration of callous insensitivity to the very complex and highly explosive political
situation which prevails between the Southern Cameroons and la Republique du
Cameroun was not intended to culturally de-isolate the Southern Cameroons. We clearly
understood that it was used to frustrate the political aspirations of the peoples of the
Southern Cameroons a second time by the same Tory Government that messed up
Southern Cameroons independence 46 years ago.

10.4 And after crooking its way into the Gentlemen’s Club, the regime in characteristic
Machiavellian style has trampled underfoot the Harare Declaration dishing out spiteful
doses of undemocratic and anti-Commonwealth rhetoric again with arrogance and
impunity. The annexation of a people violates not only the letter and spirit of the Charter

24
of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the AU Charter on
Human and People's Rights, but also the Harare Principles of the Commonwealth on
democracy, human rights and good governance.

10.5 In light of such serious and persistent violations of the fundamental rights of the
People's of the Southern Cameroons by la Republique du Cameroun, the challenge was
up to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) and the CHOGM to
destitute la Republique du Cameroun of its membership of the Commonwealth and return
the seat to the Southern Cameroons whose right it was to that membership in the first
place. La Republique du Cameroun has never shown any acceptance of Commonwealth
norms and conventions. Rather she has sought to use her membership of the
Commonwealth to strengthen her annexation and stranglehold on the Southern
Cameroons and to frustrate our aspirations to re-assert our inherent and inalienable right
of self-determination and independence and to confiscate Commonwealth largess for the
benefit of francophones...

11. Appeals to the Organisation of African Unity/African Union (OAU / AU):

11.1 In November 1994 and April 1996, an SCNC delegation met with Dr. Salem Ahmed
Salem, then OAU Secretary-General, in Yaoundé respectively during his first official visit
to the country and in the run up to the July 1996 OAU Summit when Mr. Paul Biya
would assume the Chairmanship of the organisation. The OAU Secretary-General
underscored the legitimacy and justice of a return to the two-state federation where the
interests of the two peoples and cultures would best be realised and protected as is the
case in his own country Tanzania (between Tanganyika and Zanzibar). When he raised
the Anglophone Problem with the President, Mr. Paul Biya accused him of meddling in
the internal affairs of Cameroun. In fact Mr. Biya became an absentee-chairman of the
OAU during his tenure of office because he was avoiding Dr. Salem Ahmed Salem who
kept reminding him about the Anglophone Problem.

12. Appeal to the United Nations against Annexation:

12.1 On June 1, 1995, a 9-man delegation of the Southern Cameroons National Council
(SCNC) and the Southern Cameroons Restoration Movement (SCARM) led by none
other than the late Dr John Ngu Foncha, the man who, as Premier of the Southern
Cameroons, was pressured by the United Nations and the United Kingdom into an unholy
union with la République du Cameroun against his government’s demand for full
independence in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, filed a petition at the
United Nations Headquarters in New York against the annexation of the Southern
Cameroons by la République du Cameroun and France asking the United Nations to grant
the Southern Cameroons the independence that was denied her in 1961. Dr. John Ngu

25
Foncha, at the ripe age of 84 years, was back at the United Nations to personally bear
testimony to the facts:
• that the forced cohabitation into which the United Nations was misled by the United
Kingdom into pushing his government in 1961 had not worked and will never work;
• that even though threatened by violence, the peoples of the Southern Cameroons
were taking the risk of freedom, asking to be given a place in the social, political
and economic life of their country commensurate with their dignity as free human
beings;
• that the peoples of the Southern Cameroons had decided to exercise their inherent
and inalienable right of self-determination to free themselves from the bondage of
neo-colonialism, oppression, exploitation, foreign occupation, and annexation by la
République du Cameroun and France.

13. The Conspiracy to annex the British Cameroons to its contiguous neighbours:
13.1. The conspiracy of the United Nations, the United Kingdom Government, France
and la Republique du Cameroun in the events that culminated in the annexation of
the territory to its two contiguous neighbours have all been highlighted. His Honour J.O.
Field, Commissioner of the Southern Cameroons, in a Secret Despatch of 29 August,
1960, to Mr. Iain Macleod, British Colonial Secretary, assessed the situation as follows:

“Most people in the Southern Cameroons do not want to be administered by the

Republic, they do not want to have anything to do with a French-trained army or
police (which they fear), they do not want a French system of law, they do not want
the French language, they do not want to risk being pushed around by Republic
officials and they do not want policy dictated to them by Republic politicians. Least
of all, do they want the British connection to be completely severed or to be cut off
from British help. ... They fear being pushed into Nigeria as much as they fear being
pushed into the Republic”.

13.2 The conspiracy began to unfold when the 994th Plenary of the United Nations
General Assembly met to adopt the Trusteeship Council Fourth Committee’s Draft
Resolution A/C.4/L.685 on the implementation of the results of the Plebiscite. The United
Nations General Assembly went out of its way to amend that draft leaving out any
reference to the Commission of experts and the Federal character of the Union.

13.3 In 1972, the Federal State for which the people of the Southern Cameroons had
voted was unilaterally, unconstitutionally, illegally, fraudulently, and unceremoniously
abolished by President Ahmadou Ahidjo, by decree N°. DF72-270 of February 6, 1972,
instituting a unitary state, which he named the United Republic of Cameroon.

26
13.4 On February 4, 1984, President Ahmadou Ahidjo’s hand-picked successor, Mr. Paul
Biya, by Decree N°. 84-001, also unilaterally, unconstitutionally, illegaly and
unceremoniously again changed the name of the country from the United Republic of
Cameroon to simply la République du Cameroun, the same name French Cameroun
assumed when it became independent on January 1, 1960, and was admitted to
membership of the United Nations Organisation. By that wanton act Mr. Biya seceded la
Republique du Cameroun from the Union with the Southern Cameroons.

13.5 The high regard given by the Organisation of African Unity/African Union
(OAU/AU) to territorial boundaries “existing on their achievement of national
independence” includes the territorial divide between the former British Cameroons and
the Federation of Nigeria on one hand and between the former British Cameroons and la
Republique du Cameroun on the other. La Republique du Cameroun, since the signing
of the union accords in December 1960, has exhibited callous bad faith and breaches of
trust. Having seceded from the union with the Southern Cameroons in 1984, la
Republique du Cameroun resorted to state gangsterism and terrorism reminiscent of the
Apartheid regime in South Africa, which has caused unspeakable hardships for the
peoples of the Southern Cameroons - all in an attempt to intimidate and subdue,
subjugate and dehumanise, exploit and impoverish, annex and assimilate the peoples and
their territory in keeping with their hidden agenda.

14. THE SIGNATURE REFERENDUM:

14.1 When the SCNC delegation returned home from the United Nations on 28 June
1995, it carried out a countrywide tour of the two Anglophone provinces representing the
Southern Cameroons in the union. The massive popular support received throughout the
territory made it imperative that the support should be harnessed for the record.

14.2 Everywhere the delegation went they heard speeches calling for the total and the
immediate independence for the Southern Cameroons and a review of their relationship
with la République du Cameroun. The Cameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM)
decided to conduct a Signature Referendum throughout the territory with financial
support from compatriots in the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) through the good offices of
compatriot Nfor Nwayuke Susungi then with the African Development Bank (ADB) in
Abidjan, The question put to referendum was:
“DO YOU WANT THE SOUTHERN CAMEROONS TO ACHIEVE FULL
INDEPENDENCE BY PEACEFUL SEPARATION FROM LA RÉPUBLIQUE DU
CAMEROUN?”

14.3 An analysis of the results shows that a total of 315.000 signatures were collected
from the peoples of the Southern Cameroons of voting age through out the territory.
Considering the fact that the voter turn-out at the January 1996 Municipal Council

27
Elections was 419.000 in the territory (the turn-out had been 420.000 for the presidential
elections in October 1992), the total number of signatures obtained represents a 75%
voter participation. Only 100 signatories said NO to independence: 99.97% voted in
favour of independence. This represents the mandate of the peoples of the Southern
Cameroons for their independence. The actual signatures obtained have been submitted
to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights in Banjul, The Gambia, in the
case by the Southern Cameroons Peoples Organisation (SCAPO) and the SCNC against
la Republique du Cameroun now pending before the Commission.

14.4 Five Anglophone activists, namely: Wilson Arrey from Eyumojog in the South-West
Province, Abel Apong from Ngwo in the North-West Province, John Kudi from Esimbi
in the North-West Province, Chryspus Keenebie from Ngie also in the North-West
Province, Jacques Njenta from Nkambe in the North-West Province, were arrested in
September 1995 in connection with the Signature Referendum exercise among the
predominantly North-West workers in SOCAPALM plantation in the outskirts of Douala
on the instructions of Mr. John Niba Ngu, the then General Manager of SOCAPALM, and
whisked off to the maximum security prison in Kondengui in Yaoundé in la Republique
du Cameroun where they were held incommunicado, without charge or trial, for over
five years. Barrister Joseph MBAH NDAM stumbled on them by chance during his
defence of the 61 Anglophone detainees at the military tribunal in June 1999. It took the
regime five whole years to bow to international pressure, specifically from the Swiss-
Cameroon Solidarity Group in Bern, Switzerland; led by the ebullient Rev. Markus Wyss,
one time principal of CPC Bali, before those “FORGOTTEN FIVE” were finally and
unceremoniously released on 6 November 2000. They were suddenly released on
November 6, 2000, by a collaborative Anglophone Supreme Court Judge, Justice George
Gwanmesia, who originally signed their incarceration warrants in the first place,
ostensibly on the instructions of Mr. Paul Biya. The gates of the prison were simply
thrown open and the FIVE were told to walk out and go home with the warning to stay
clear of the SCNC for Cameroon remains one and indivisible. Nobody thought it
necessary to give them some money for transport to their various destinations.

15. THE WAY TO PEACE

15.1 When one country (the Federation of Nigeria on one hand and la Republique du
Cameroun on the other) forcibly and/or fraudulently assumes total and unwarranted
jurisdiction over another country (the former British Cameroons), exercising complete
dominion over it and denying it the right to govern itself, this is annexation; it is
colonisation. The annexationist state may co-opt quislings or collaborators from the
annexed territory into its administration, army, police, and gendarmerie. It may even give
the vote and offer its citizenship to the natives of the annexed territory. All that changes
nothing. It does not make the colonised territory a part of the colonising state but, in fact,
confirms the fact of annexation.(* Carlson Anyangwe).
15.2 The only office which states, by some written or unwritten law, tend to reserve for
their true and genuine nationals is that of Head of State. This fact was dramatically
brought home to citizens of the Southern Cameroons (Anglophone Cameroon) after the

28
presidential elections of October 1992. One of us, Ni John Fru Ndi, who presumed to be
entitled to accede to the office of president of la Republique du Cameroun was told by the
ruler ship (France) that the office was a reserved domain for citizens of la Republique du
Cameroun only. FRU NDI, a bona fide citizen of the Southern Cameroons, is a stranger
in la Republique du Cameroun.

15.3 The same is true of Mr. ABUBAKAR ATIKU, President Obasanjo’s running mate,
who was denied to run for the presidency of the Federation of Nigeria in the recently
concluded presidential elections in that country ostensibly because of alleged financial
impropriety. The real reason he was denied to run for the presidency of Nigeria is that he
is a bona fide citizen of the former British Northern Cameroons and consequently a
stranger in Nigeria. ………..

16. Let us go back and pick up the threads of Fr. Antoine Chonang’s interview with His
Eminence Christian Wiyghan Cardinal TUMI in October 2003:

Fr. Antoine:
We talked about the 1992 elections which, according to well informed sources, were won
by the opposition. But how can we explain the silence of western embassies especially
France that is generally quick to denounce injustices here and there in the world?

His Eminence:
It would appear that it is because of France that the situation did not change.
Fr. Antoine:
That is?

His Eminence:
Instead of denouncing this civil coup d’Etat, France was an accomplice. A French
Minister said publicly: “an Anglophone shall never be in Etoudi”. (ETOUDI is the
presidential palace in Yaoundé).

17. FRAUS OMNIA VITIAT:

It has been argued by the annexationists that the Plebiscite Covenant by which the
peoples of the Southern Cameroons voted to join la Republique du Cameroun is a
binding instrument or treaty. Various Southern Cameroons liberation movements, from
Fon Gorji Dinka of Ambazonia, through the Cameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM) -
now the Southern Cameroons Restoration Movement (SCARM), to the SCNC, the
Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL), and now runner up SCAPO, were misled by

29
this argument and so waged to struggle for the liberation of the territory from a wrong
perspective. That, notwithstanding, the principle at law as for as fraud is concerned is
fraus omnia vitiat, that is, fraud vitiates all treaties and agreements rendering them
null and void ab initio. The Plebiscite Covenant under the prevailing circumstances,
which violates the principles of international law embodied in the UN Charter, is
therefore void and no longer valid.

17.1 Southern Cameroons liberation movements have each shown how the United
Nations General Assembly by amending the Fourth Committee’s Resolution A/C.4/F/685
violated the Plebiscite Covenant. They have also shown how la Republique du
Cameroun, through fraud, corruption, coercion and state terrorism have systematically
and progressively violated the inherent and inalienable rights of the territory and peoples
of the the Southern Cameroons and consequently the Plebiscite Covenant.

17.2 The peoples of the Southern Cameroons went into the United Nations-imposed
union with la Republique du Cameroun in good faith. Their hopes of building ONE
NATION-TWO PEOPLES were shattered by the bad faith, dishonesty, fraud, and
fundamental breaches of trust underpinning a hidden agenda of the Francophones to
annex and assimilate the territory and its peoples, willy-nilly, into Francophonie.

17.3 The peoples of the British Southern Cameroons have been denied their right of equal
belonging in a union they voted to join under agreed terms, in addition to the denial of
those rights prescribed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They have been
made to toil for the francophone majority to reap the fruits; and they have to fight and
blackmail one another for the crumbs. This is camouflaged slavery at the dawn of the
third millennium. This has made the Southern Cameroons unable to contribute as a
people to their political, economic, social and cultural progress and play a meaningful
role in the community of nations as it should have been doing if it where an independent
nation on its own. The peoples of the Southern Cameroons want to reassert that challenge
with the human resources made up of a population of over 6 million and endowed with an
abundance of natural resources that are either untapped or being exploited to maintain a
French tele-guided dictatorship in place to continue to protect the economic interests of
the neo-colonialists and France.

18. The Philosophy of the Force of Argument, Not the Argument of Force:
18.1 The SCNC took a hard look at the fratricidal conflicts plaguing the African
continent; from Mozambique to Angola, from Sudan to Somalia, from Liberia to Sierra
Leone, from the Casamance to Algeria, from Rwanda/Burundi to the Congos. We thought
that we could slowly but confidently educate the United Nations and the Organisation of
African Unity (now the African Union) by using the weapon of “THE FORCE OF
ARGUMENT” to show why the Southern Cameroons has to become an independent
nation. Recent events in the territory brought about by the Biya regime’s arrogance and

30
intransigence, refusal to dialogue, its institutionalisation of fraud (electoral and
economic) and corruption, the telling of lies as a means of governance, and the
derailment of the democratic process seem to point the way to “THE ARGUMENT OF
FORCE”, the universally accepted solution to the conflict now prevailing between the
Southern Cameroons and la République du Cameroun.

18.2 The Way to Peace, therefore is not to prepare for war (as Mr. Paul Biya would
Want us to believe):
18.2.1 The Federation of Nigeria and la République du Cameroun should respect the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights as well as the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and in particular,
Article 4b of that Charter on the respect of borders inherited at independence.

18.2.2 When la Republique du Cameroun became independent on 1st January 1960, the
Southern Cameroons Autonomous Territory was not part of la Republique du Cameroun.
In a similar vein, when the Federation of Nigeria became independent on 1st October
1960, the Northern Cameroons Autonomous territory was not part of the Federation of
Nigeria since the UN had separated the UN Territory of the Cameroons under United
Kingdom Administration from the latter before 1st October 1960.

19.3 The Way to Peace, therefore,

- Requires both the Federation of Nigeria and la République du Cameroun to

renounce the use of force as an instrument of policy in their dealings with the
peoples of the UN Territory of the Cameroons formerly under United Kingdom
Administration.

- It also requires the United Nations to supervise and ensure the proper
implementation of United Nations Resolution 1608 (XV) using its Mechanism for
Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution; and not hide behind the state
practice of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states.
- Through its own programme of Conflict Prevention, Management and
Resolution, the United Nations is well placed to intervene in the conflict between
the Southern Cameroons and la République du Cameroun and to ensure its
peaceful resolution and so avoid another disastrous shooting war in Africa. The
United Nations also has established mechanisms with which to promote and
protect the universal and internationally protected code of the human rights of
minorities, indigenous peoples and other vulnerable groups against discriminatory

31
 and abusive practices and to assist governments in carrying out their
responsibilities.
- The Special Committee of 24 on Decolonisation should re-visit the British
Cameroons file in order to see for themselves that the Declaration on the Granting
of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples was not implemented in the
case of the peoples of the British Cameroons at the termination of the Trusteeship
Agreement.

20. The Millennium Goals:

20.1 It would be recalled that when the 147 Heads of State and Government together
with representatives of 191 nations assembled at the Millennium Summit in New York,
from 6-8 September 2000, and adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration, they
reaffirmed their faith in the United Nations and their commitment to the principles and
purposes of the Charter as indispensable foundations of a more peaceful, prosperous and
just world. They also ‘rededicated themselves to the right to self-determination of
peoples who remain under colonial domination and foreign occupation and to the
respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms’.

20.2 The cause of the peoples of the UN Territory of the Cameroons formerly under
United Kingdom Administration is not only a just one; it is irrefutable as the facts are
compelling. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, and the A.U. Charter on Human and Peoples Rights all put the
case of self-determination for the annexed, oppressed and exploited peoples of the
Southern Cameroons beyond the pale of the so-called internal affairs of la République du
Cameroun and egocentric solidarity with France. Self-determination is a human right.

21. The Concept of the UN Territory of the Cameroons formerly under British
Administration and Light at the end of the Tunnel at last.
21.1 For nearly 46 years, the peoples of the Southern Cameroons in particular had
predicated their struggle for self-determination and independence on the premise that
there was a legal union between the Southern Cameroons and la Republique du
Cameroun. That was a false premise. Southern Cameroons liberation movements spent a
collective 46 years waging our struggle from a false premise: first, that there was a legal
federation in international law between the Southern Cameroons and la Republique du
Cameroun; and second, that the Southern Cameroons could become independent in its
own right. This Cameroon Territory concept has rendered the Southern Cameroons
liberation movements irrelevant.
21.2 The break through came on 21 March 2003; one of us, Professor Martin CHIA
ATEH, a diligent researcher into the workings of the United Nations system, with the

32
support of UNESCO and the United Nations University of Peace, both scientific organs
of the United Nations, revisited the Southern Cameroons file and came out with the
startling revelation, which he addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations
Organisation on:
“The Non-Execution of UNO Resolution 1608 (XV) paragraphs 4a & 5 of 21 April
1961 on the Future of the Trust territory of the Cameroons under United Kingdom
Administration: No Treaties of the Union were worked out between:
a) the Government of the Federation of Nigeria and the Autonomous
Territory of Northern Cameroons;
b) the Government of the Southern Cameroons and la Republique du
Cameroun”.

UNO Resolution 1608 (XV) states:

para 4: “Decide que les plebiscites ayant eu lieu separement avec des resultants
differents, l’Accord de tutelle du 13 Decembre1946 relatif au
Camerounsous administration du Royaume Uni prendra fin,
conformement a l’aliena b de Article 76 de la Charte des Nations Unies
et en accord avec l’autorite administrante, dans les conditiones suivantes:
a) En ce qui concerne le Cameroun Septentrional, le 1er Juin 1961, au
moment ou le Cameroun Septentrional s’unira a la federation de Nigeria
en tant que province Separee de la Region du Nord de la Nigeria;

para 5: “Invite l’Autorite administrante, le Governement du cameroun

meridional et la Republique du Cameroun a entamer d’urgence des
pourparles afin de prende, avant le 1er Octobre 1961, les dispositions
necessaires pour que soient mises en oeuvre les politique concertees et
declarees des parties interessees.

994eme séance pleniere

21 Avril 1961.

[Translation:
para 4: “Decides that since the plebiscites took place separately, yielding
Different results, the Trusteeship Agreement of 13th December 1946
relating to the Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration
should end pursuant to Article 76(b) of the United Nations Charter and
in agreement with the Administering Authority under the following
conditions:
a) As concerns the Northern Cameroons, on 1st June, 1961, when the said
Cameroons would join the Federation of Nigeria as a separate province of the
Northern Region of Nigeria;

Para 5: “Calls on the Administering Authority, the Government of the Southern

Cameroons and la Republique du Cameroun to immediately open talks in
order to make necessary arrangements, before 1st October, 1961, for the

33
 implementation of the policies agreed on and declared by the interested
parties”.
994th Plenary session
21 April 1961].

21.3 Northern Cameroons Autonomous Territory:

21.3.1 The above Article 4a required that an Agreement (or Treaty) of the Union between
the Government of the Federation of Nigeria and the autonomous Territory of the
Northern Cameroons with the United Kingdom as Administering Authority of the
Northern Cameroons Territory (part of the Trust territory of the Cameroons under United
Kingdom Administration) be worked out before 1st June1961. The Agreement (or Treaty)
was to protect the interests and rights of the inhabitants of both Northern Cameroons and
those of the Federation of Nigeria. The worked out Agreement (or Treaty) should have
been ratified by the Northern Cameroons Autonomous Territorial Assembly and the
Parliament of the Federation of Nigeria, and the Agreement (or Treaty) should have been
registered and a copy deposited in the Secretariat of the Secretary-General of the United
Nations Organisation in application of Article 102(1) of the United Nations Charter. That
Article 102(1) states:

“Every Treaty and every international agreement entered into by any member of
the United Nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as
possible be registered with the Secretariat and published by it”.

21.3.2 The Federation of Nigeria, itself already independent on 01/10/1960, had become
a member of the United Nations Organisation (UNO) on 7th October 1960 (UNO
Res.1402 (XV) of 07/10/1960). So it was aware of the above Article 102(1) of the United
Nations Charter.

21.3.3 Unfortunately, the agreement (or treaty) was never worked out. What is found
today is the following: since 1st October 1960, the late Tafawa Balewa, the then Prime
Minister of the Federation of Nigeria, in a ceremony at Mubi formally took possession of
the Northern Cameroons Autonomous Territory. The Northern Cameroons Autonomous
Territory has moved through the following appellations in Nigeria’s administration,
namely: from Northern Cameroons Autonomous Territory to Sardauna Province, then
Gongola State and part of Bornu State, and today it “forms” parts of the following states
of the Federation of Nigeria:- Bornu State, Adamawa State, Taraba State.

21.3.4 So the extension of the administration of the Federation of Nigeria to the Northern
Cameroons Autonomous Territory was from the onset – 01/06/1961 – illegal and
illegitimate in international law and a violation of Article 102(1) of the United Nations
Charter. It was an invasion. It was a violation of the Northern Cameroons’ right to Self-
Determination and Independence. So the present administration of President Olusegun
Obasanjo/ President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua of the Federation of Nigeria on the Northern

34
Cameroons Autonomous Territory is still illegal and illegitimate in internal law and a
violation of the United Nations Charter.

21.4 Southern Cameroons Autonomous Territory:

Paragraph 5 under reference above required that a Treaty of the Union between the
Government of the Southern Cameroons and la Republique du Cameroun with the United
Kingdom as Administering Authority of the Southern Cameroons (part of the Trust
Territory of the Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration) be worked out before
1st October 1961. The Treaty was to protect the interests and rights the inhabitants of both
the Southern Cameroons and those of la Republique du Cameroun. The worked out treaty
should have been ratified by the Southern Cameroons Territorial Assembly and the
parliament of la Republique du Cameroun, and the Treaty should have been registered
and a copy deposited in the Secretariat of the Secretary-General of the United Nations
Organisation in application of Article 102(1) of the United Nations Charter which states:

“Every Treaty and every international agreement entered into by any member of
the United nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as
possible be registered with the secretariat and published by it”.

21.4.1 La Republique du Cameroun, itself already independent on 1st January 1960, had
become a member of the United Nations Organisation on 20/09/1960 (UNO Res. 1476
(XV) of 20/09/1960). So it was aware of the above Article 102(1) of the United Nations
Charter.

21.4.2 Unfortunately, the Treaty was never worked out. What is found today is the
following, namely:

1. On 1st September 1961 in Yaoundé, la Republique du Cameroun,

Mr. Ahmadou AHIDJO, the then President of la Republique du Cameroun revised
his constitution of la Republique du Cameroun of 21 February 1960 and imposed
it on the peoples of the Southern Cameroons and their Territory on 1st October
1961. This is what Article 1, paragraph 1, and Article 59 of Mr. AHIDJO’s
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Cameroon which came into effect on 1 st
October 1961 state:

Article 1, paragraph 1:
“The Federal Republic of Cameroon is formed, as from 1st October 1961, of the
territory of the Republic of Cameroun, henceforth called East Cameroun, and

the Territory of the Southern Cameroons formerly under United Kingdom

Administration, henceforth called West Cameroon”.

35
 Article 59:
“…The present provisions, by which the constitution of the Republic adopted on
21st February 1960 by the Cameroonian people is revised, shall enter into force
on 1st October 1961. The revised constitution shall be published in French and
in English, the French text being authentic”.

21.4.3 Mr. Ahidjo’s federal constitution of 01/10/1961 on Southern Cameroons’

Territory was a violation of paragraph 5 of UNO Res.1608 (XV) of 21/04/1961 for a
Treaty of Union to be worked out between the Southern Cameroons Territory and la
Republique du Cameroun.

21.4.4 The United Kingdom signed an EDICT on 27/09/1961 ending its administration of
the Southern Cameroons Trust Territory without ensuring that a Treaty was worked out
between the Southern Cameroons and la Republique du Cameroun in execution of both
the above UNO Resolution and the Trusteeship Agreement signed on 13 December 1946
with the United Nations Organisation in New York.

21.4.5 So Mr. Ahidjo’s extension of his administration to the Southern Cameroons

Territory was from the onset – 01/10/1961 – illegal and illegitimate in international Law.
It was an invasion. It was a violation of Southern Cameroons’ right to Self-Determination
and Independence. So the present administration of Mr. Paul Biya on the Southern
Cameroons Territory is still illegal and illegitimate in international law and a violation of
Article 102(1) of the United Nations Charter.

21.4.6 The United Nations Secretary-General who should have ensured that UNO
Resolution 1608 (XV), paragraph 5, of 21/04/1961 was executed, H. E. Dag
Hammarskjold died in a plane crash in Africa in September 1961. His successor, H.E. U
Thant, was appointed Acting Secretary-General in November 1961. So in September
1961 and October 1961 there was no full Secretary-General of the United Nations
Organisation who could have ensured the full and legal execution of the UNO Resolution
1608 (XV), paragraph 5, of 21/04/1961 on Southern Cameroons future.

21.5 The Former Trust Territory of the Cameroons under United Kingdom
Administration: Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons together.

21.5.1 The Northern Cameroons and the Southern Cameroons together comprise the
former UN Trust Territory of the Cameroons under British Administration (86,214
sq.km.) for which a Trusteeship Agreement was signed on 13/12/1946 between the

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General Assembly of the United Nations Organisation and His Majesty’s Government of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Article 1 of the above-mentioned Trusteeship Agreement defines the Territory as

follows, namely:

“The Territory to which this Agreement applies comprises that part of the
Cameroons lying to the west of the boundary defined by the Franco-British
Declaration of 10 July 1919, and more exactly defined in the Declaration made
by the Governor of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria and the Governor of
the Cameroons under French Mandate which was confirmed by the exchange of
Notes between His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and the French
Government of 9 January 1931. This line may, however, be slightly modified by
mutual agreement between His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and
the Government of the French republic where an examination of the localities
shows that it is desirable in the interests of the inhabitants”.

Article 3 of the same Trusteeship Agreement defines the role of the Administering
Authority as follows, namely:

“The Administering Authority undertakes to administer the Territory in such a

Manner as to achieve the basic objectives of the international trusteeship system
Laid down in Article 76 of the United Nations Charter. The Administering
Authority further undertakes to collaborate fully with the General Assembly of
the United Nations and the Trusteeship Council in the discharge of all their
functions as defined in Article 87 of the United nations Charter, and to facilitate
any periodic visits to the Territory which they may deem necessary, at times to be
agreed upon by the Administering Authority”.

22. The Way Forward Today.

22.1 The quest for Self-Determination and Independence of the Peoples and Territory of
the former British Cameroons is an incontrovertible and a burning issue. The UN should
ensure that the Self-Determination and Independence of the Peoples and Territory of the
former British Cameroons is Rectified and Regularised in accordance with Article 76,
paragraph b, of the Charter of the United Nations Organisation.

22.2 The recent Nigeria - la Republique du Cameroun Mixed Commission on their border
problems provided an opportunity for the former British Cameroons’ independence issue
to be raised and regularized. Why? Because since UN Resolution 1608 (XV), paragraph
5, of 21 April 1961 was not implemented in accordance with International Law, both
Nigeria and la Republique du Cameroun had no legal right to claim Sovereignty over the
Bakassi Peninsula of the UN Territory of the Cameroons formerly under United Kingdom

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Administration. This is in accordance with Article 102 (2) of the Charter of the United
Nations which states:
…”No party to any such Treaty or International Agreement which has not been
registered in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article may
invoke that treaty or agreement before any organ of the United Nations”.

22.3 La Republique du Cameroun and Nigeria should withdraw their illegal and
illegitimate administrations from the UN Territory of the Cameroons formerly under
United Kingdom administration immediately and progressively. They should also
encourage the peoples of the former British Cameroons to continue to work for their
sovereign self-determination and independence through the United Nations Organisation
to ensure international peace and security. Exiled Southern Cameroonian citizens should
be called back home. And All SCNC prisoners of conscience should be released and
damages be paid to the families of the dead.

22.4 This means that a UN Transitional Administration should takeover the Territory of
the former British Cameroons to ensure that the peoples of the Territory prepare
themselves for their Sovereign Independence and Future Government and Administration
of their Territory. The presence of the UN Administration on the Territory will not only
ensure international peace and security but will also reduce the tensions between the
peoples of the Southern Cameroons and la Republique du Cameroun in particular on the
one hand, and the peoples of the Northern Cameroons and Nigeria on the other.
Legitimacy and legality of the former British Cameroons’ independence will be
endorsed. East Timor became independent recently. A war is not necessary.

22.5 And so the peoples of the former British Cameroons, the Northern Cameroons and
the Southern Cameroons together, have requested the Secretary-General of the United
Nations Organisation, H.E. Kofi Atah ANNAN, and his successor, H.E. Ban Ki Moon, to
make use of their good offices, drawing upon their stature and impartiality, in the
interests of preventive diplomacy, to bring to the attention of the Security Council and the
United Nations General Assembly:
A) The non-implementation of UN Resolution 1608 (XV), paragraph 5, of 21
April 1961 on the Future of the Cameroons under United Kingdom
Administration.
B) The urgent Rectification and Regularisation of the Self-Determination and
Independence of the Territory in application of the UN Resolution 1514 (XV) of
14 December 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial
Countries and Peoples.
C) The Admission of the State of the UN Territory of the Cameroons formerly
under United Kingdom Administration after independence to the United Nations
Organisation as a full member in application of Article 4 of the Charter of the
United Nations.

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22.6 Just as UNO Resolution 1349 (X111), paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 of 13 March 1959
gave independence to the state of la Republique du Cameroun on 1st January 1960 and an
Assembly elections were conducted and it (Resolution) recommended that la Republique
du Cameroun be admitted as a member of the United Nations Organisation in application
of Article 4 of the Charter of he United Nations, and just as the Federation of Nigeria
which became independent on 01/10/1960 was admitted a member of the United Nations
Organisation by UNO Resolution 1402 (XV) of 07/10/1960, so too the Peoples of the
former UN Trust Territory of the Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration
today want a United Nations resolution Granting them Independence and Admission as a
member to the United Nations Organisation in application of Article 4 of the Charter of
the United Nations.

22.7 Attached is the September 1960 United Nations map of the former Trust Territory of
the Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration (86,214 sq.km.) – United Nations
Map No. 1269 (1).

23. CONCLUSION

23.1 There comes a time in the affairs of men when a long-suffering people must either
stand up and be counted or for ever hold their peace; a time when a people must face the
destiny which they have always known that they would face someday; a time when a man
must take a deep breath and do what he has to do; a time when the faint-hearted can
perform acts of courage beyond expectations; a time when a man must take a bold leap
into the uncertainty of the unknown in order to escape from the certainty of a past best
forgotten; a time when there is nothing to fear but fear itself; a time when a slave must
break out and take the risk of freedom or forever remain in bondage; a time when you
must reach out for that abstract goal for which you must be willing to sacrifice your life;
it is the time to live free or die. (*N. N. Susungi).

23.2 That moment finally came for the people of ex-British Southern Cameroons on
December 30, 1999, when Justice Frederick ALOBWEDE EBONG, a bona fide citizen
of the Southern Cameroons and Chairman of the Strategic Committee of the Southern
Cameroons National Council (SCNC), set up by the Prince Esoka NDOKI MUKETE
leadership of the organisation, on behalf of the annexed and colonised, oppressed and
brutalised, dehumanised and exploited peoples of the Southern Cameroons, in
desperation proclaimed over Radio Buea the Restoration of the Sovereignty and
Independence of the Southern Cameroons, our chosen course for Self-determination, to
forge our destiny and build our own country in Freedom, Justice and Peace. That
proclamation too was misleading in that the Southern Cameroons is but a part of the
former UN Trust Territory of the Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration for
which the United Kingdom signed a Trusteeship Agreement with the United Nations on
13 December 1946, and undertook to lead to self-determination and independence. The

39
Southern Cameroons, therefore, can only become independent together with the Northern
Cameroons in application of the Charter of the United Nations and the Trusteeship
Agreement.

23.3 That proclamation, misleading though it was, prompted the United Nations
Secretary-General, H.E. Kofi Atah ANNAN, to visit the Cameroons on May 1-3, 2000 –
a visit that was heavily state-censured. At the end of the visit Mr. Kofi ANNAN
prescribed dialogue to defuse the potentially explosive situation prevailing in the country.
The peoples of the Southern Cameroons have been knocking on the door of la
Republique du Cameroun for dialogue for the past 46 years but successive francophone-
led dictatorships have responded with all forms of violent intimidations and barefaced
state terrorism. How then do we dialogue with the deaf?

24. The Way to Independence for the Peoples of the UN Territory of the Cameroons
formerly under United Kingdom Administration:

24.1 The way to Independence for the peoples of the former British Cameroons (Northern
Cameroons and the Southern Cameroons together) is in the hands of the UN. The UN
should follow the same path it took to grant independence to other UN territories. It must
be noted that the British Cameroons is a particular UN Territory as it had been annexed
respectively by Nigeria (in the case of the Northern Cameroons), and by la Republique
du Cameroun and France (in the case of the Southern Cameroons) through an unorthodox
independence-by-joining that the UN granted the Cameroons under United Kingdom
Administration in 1961.

24.2 The former British Cameroons today is in the same situation as the three Baltic
States (Estonia, Lestonia, Lithuania). It should be recalled that the latter three states were
granted independence by the League of Nations, and the independence was later
suppressed by the Soviet Union which then annexed them on the grounds that as small
neighbouring states, it was their weakness that allowed the German troops to crush them
very easily and then crossed their international boundary with the Soviet Union into St.
Petersburg. But with glasnost and perestroika brought by Mikail Gorbatchov, these states
regained their lost independence through the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples
Organisation (UNPO) and the UN.

24.3 Another way out for the Northern and Southern Cameroons is that the UN may
simply implement the UNGA Resolution 1514 (XIV) of 14 December 1960 on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Territories and Peoples.

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25. Finally, I should like to end this write up with these quotations from Pope John Paul
II “The Great”. During His address at Unity Palace, Yaoundé, on the occasion of His first
official visit to the Cameroons, 15 August 1985, the Holy Father said, inter alia:

“Injustices committed by certain regimes concerning human rights or the

legitimate demands of a section of the population which is refused participation
or common responsibilities beget revolt of regrettable violence but which justice
could have fore-held”.
Addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York on the occasion of
its 50th Anniversary of the Organisation on October 1995, the Holy Father said, inter alia:
“A pre-supposition of a nation’s rights is certainly its right to exist; therefore, no
one – neither a state nor another nation nor an international organisation – is
ever justified in asserting that an individual nation is not worthy of existence”.

It seems to me that on both occasions the Holy Father was addressing the “Anglophone
Problem” in the Cameroons.
- Finis –
Maps of the British Cameroons:

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