Conveners of the All-Anglophone General Conference 3 have issued a declaration intending to hold their Conference from July 11th to 12th of July 2019 in Bamenda. The choice of the venue has been shifted from Buea in the Southwest region to the Catholic Cathedral of Big Mankon in Bamenda.
The Wednesday 29th May 2019 letter signed by the Chief Convener, Christian Cardinal Tumi, is still pending on the table of the Divisional Officer of Bamenda 2 subdivision who is the competent authority to sanction the meeting according to law number 90/55 of 09th December 1990 that lays down regulations Governing public meetings and Processions.
Within these 2 days in Bamenda, the conference will seek to bring together all shades of opinions, ideas and proposals from the 13 divisions of the Anglophone community, Southern Cameroons. This will be achieved through public presentations, Group discussions and at the end of the event, Proposals will be adopted and send to President Paul Biya for further treatment.
The option to change the venue has not been explained by the conveners given that it has failed on more than 2 occasions to hold in Buea. The mayor of that town, Ekema Patrick had earlier declared that such a conference that could jeopardize the unitary form of the Cameroon state shall not be tolerated in his jurisdiction. Hopes are now tilted towards the Divisional Officer of Bamenda 2 if he will give the greenlight for the event.
The AAGC3 that saw it birth on July 25th 2018 in Douala-Cameroon, is a brainchild of renowned Catholic Prelate, Christian Cardinal Tumi, who alongside other mainstream church leaders like Rt Rev. Fonki Samuel of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, Rev Ncham Godwill of the Cameroon Baptist Convention and Imam Muhammed of the Central Mosque in Buea, are seeking lasting solutions to the ongoing crisis in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.
It still doubted how consequential the proposals from the meeting will be given that, the belligerents of the crisis haven’t indicated interest in the “Tumi’s Initiative”. The Separatists fighting for the Ambazonian State have declared it a ‘Federalism Union’ seeking continuous living together with La Republique Du Cameroun, whom they consider their oppressor. They base their argument on the fact that, the Union failed when the 1972 federation between both Countries was betrayed by the other party and the Federal State completely absorbed back into the Republic of Cameroon, as was in on January 1st, 1960, of French Cameroon independence, while theirs followed on October 1st, 1961.
The Cameroon government too has been reluctant because, it still believes in the decentralized system of governance used today, though power is still highly centralized. They have declared their willingness to dialogue with “genuine Anglophones” but on condition that the form of the state, especially Secession, is not an option on the dialogue table. The government is gunning for what they term, ‘Effective Decentralization”. The international community has called for a broad base dialogue without preconditions.
Cognizant of the mishmash between both parties, the Spoke man of the AGC3, Ace Journalist Elie Smith, had undergone a Europe-Americas tour with various stakeholders in the diaspora, I’m a strive to have their proposals for a possible solution while creating a common ground for both parties to hold talks.
Political thinkers are still struggling to understand what risk the government of Cameroon stands to run by denying the Anglophones from coming together and redefining a suitable form of livelihood and state format, especially given that the conference is convened by Church Leaders. Whatever the case, the Bamenda AGC3 will only be realistic if approved by the Cameroonian State Authorities through their Divisional Officer in Bamenda 2 as awaited.
