CI-NEWS

Peter Ngufor explodes on Anglophone crisis!

2020-01-11

No: 465

Peter Ngufor explodes on Anglophone crisis!

- Urges Biya to apologize and call for general amnesty

- Questions convening of Major National Dialogue

- Traces Anglophone crisis to lack of equity

- Says separatist spoiled a good case right from day one by using Ambazonia that has no historical backing.

Peter Njontor Ngufor, Chief Executive Officer of Farmers House Bamenda , is an admirer of President Paul. But unlike other Biya supporters seeking favours, he would not continue flattering the head of state when he makes an error. That is why from his vantage position of a freewheeling Anglophone and self-made man, he was able to dissect President Biya’s New Year’s address and tell his “champion” many home truths.

Speaking at a press conference in Bamenda, Ngufor took exception to the fact that The Amba Boys fighting for a putative Republic of Amabazonia are still derogatorily called terrorists when they have been living with us for the past 50 years.

Reflecting on President Biya’s declaration of a new Cameroon, the Chief Executive Officer of Farmers House Bamenda called on the President of the Republic to “apologize and call for general amnesty which will include those in jail, those in the diaspora, so that we all start from zero as he himself has said”.

Ngufor said resorting to the use of force would not solve the Anglophone crisis but if that was the last resort, it should be the services of police force used and not those of the BIR or army who should rather be used to fight external forces.

Pa Ngufor also had hard words for the separatists whom he said had diverted the Anglophone cause from its original objective. He said they lost the case from the beginning by using Ambazonia that has no historical backing.

“So why did they choose that name? If they started fighting and calling it Southern Cameroon as we all know ourselves, that would have been understood. Where did they come with Ambazonia? It has never existed as a state. So you spoiled a good case right from day one.”

Commenting on the Grand National Dialogue to which he was not invited, he questioned why it was called in the first place because it is “yet to resolve our national problems”.

Ngufor traced the Anglophone crisis to lack of equity.

“If equity was applied we would not have had any reason to talk about Anglophones and Francophones.”

An exultant Ngufor said “English-speaking Cameroonians came in with their language and a culture. The culture of accountability and human dignity.”

Following are excerpts of the press statement:

“The head of state made a very good speech taking into account the present situation of the country and most especially of the two English-speaking regions of the country and went further to say that this is a new Cameroon. I want to hammer very much on that particular point because we know what a new thing is. That means we should all forget about the past and open a new page. His speech was very profound. He even went ahead to comment on the recent special session of the National Assembly, where quite a few bills were discussed including the bill on bilingualism and multiculturalism. If I picked out this particular point, it is because at one instant I praised that commission and suggested that it should have emanated from the constitution of Cameroon. In fact this has been done and I am very happy about it. I said at one point that if that commission had existed maybe a few years back, we would not have had all this headache that we are having now. Maybe they would have met this frustration on board.

The frustration about marginalization. This point of marginalization is very important because if you ignored a people who came in by voting to join their brothers, it is very serious. So all this has been recognized by the leader of the nation albeit after protests. So I think the head of state has discovered that as a fault and we are all now seeking a solution. So as far as the head of state’s speech is concerned, I just wish that he continues.

What in the speech did you find fault with?

The statement of resorting to military solution was not very good because our armed forces are trained to fight wars, not to fight its population that are actually harmless. If we looked at what was shown over the television as arms, they were mostly dane guns and I don't think they were trained to fight people with dane guns that sometimes take more than 10 minutes to load.

So that was diminishing our armed forces which is unfortunate because they are supposed to fight people who attack our nation from external forces. If they are now fighting harmless people, what do you think will happen if they face people with sophisticated weapons? It is unfortunate that they may not know what to do. I'm sorry to say.

Coming back to the crisis itself, was there actually a crisis? Was there actually something to fight about? I will say no. I will say no yesterday, I will say no today and I will say no tomorrow.

Those we call terrorists are they actually terrorists? Do we have terrorists in Cameroon? The answer is no. Because we don't live with people for over 50 years and call them terrorists.

So many things have been created such as structures including even a special status for the two English-speaking regions. Is this special status actually necessary?

I will say that we wouldn't have allowed things to get to this point because this came up as a result of lack of equity. If equity was applied we would not have had any reason to talk about Anglophones and Francophones. By the way English-speaking Cameroonians came in with their language and a culture. The culture of accountability and human dignity. Do you throw that away because of the current naked brutality? And do you resolve a problem like that? I will say no.

Your comments on the Major National Dialogue.

I'm sorry to say that the Grand National Dialogue that was called by the head of state is yet to resolve our national problems. I actually forwarded my own input but to say that whether the major national dialogue actually ended up solving our national problems, I wouldn't say so. So the question now is why was it called in the first place?

We have strong points, real assets that the Anglophones brought in which was accountability and human dignity.

I will quote an instance I have lived in Buea during the English system of governance where a very top civil servant was accused of accepting a bottle of whisky from an applicant. A bottle of whisky that was less than 1000 frs. And this civil servant had to face commissions upon commissions. He ended up destroying his career before actually going on retirement because of a bottle of whisky. So today if we brought in that discipline it's for the good of the whole nation.

Today we hear about people embezzling billions of our funds. If they are fortunate, they go free. If they are not, they are locked up. And what happens to the money, no one cares.

Even though we have this dialogue, at the moment, there are so many atrocities still taking place. Have we solved any problem? Maybe after the head of state's speech few days ago, it might play on the problem. But I don't see that happening. So my suggestion to the powers that be is that "okay" there is a problem but let this problem be handled by the police force trained to handle civilian problems. What our elite force BIR are confronted is a mess. So let the armed forces be withdrawn so that the process of law and order be handed over to the police force.

I'm sorry to say that the head of state should apologize. To apologize doesn't mean that you are weak, it simply means that you have seen your errors.

Just an apology and actually stop the word terrorist being used because nobody is a terrorist. If they were terrorists, you have implemented almost all what they have been asking for. So you don't do that and still call them terrorists. It doesn't make sense. So I think there is a lesson to be learnt from our failure because if you fail and you don't learn a lesson that means you have wasted your time.

The first lesson to be learnt goes to the British because the agreement they signed for colonizing that part of the country was nonexistent and that can not be our fault. So now that they have seen that the agreement that was signed has easily re-emerged, they should now find ways and means because their culture is very powerful which cannot be diluted. You can see that anywhere in the world. In Canada there was a little bit of exception because the English people there accepted to allow part of their rights.

The first lesson for the British is that their agreement should have been countersigned by maybe the United Nations in order to make it irrevocable.

The second lesson is the problem of equity. It had to be implemented or taken into account otherwise it doesn't make sense.

As I said we should hold our army in very high esteem and not because we have the arms and manpower, we start engaging into war, killing people and burning houses.

At the end of the day, you will still have to rebuild those things and start giving people gifts and food to people who don't even have houses because they have been destroyed.

These are people who were born and bred in those villages. So you come and burn down their villages and expecting them to cope by what means? These are all questions of common sense. Some of these problems should not apply. It's not a question of going to school. Most of it is a question of common sense.

You burnt somebody's house and come and give him food afterwards. Where is he going to stay? And most of them were born and bred in those villages.

In fact, the head of state should apologize and call for general amnesty which will include those in jail, those in the diaspora, so that we all start from zero as he himself has said. Because he actually said that this is a new nation. He said so.

Let us be frank and sincere and try to put a stop to the mess. Because I think the whole world is actually seeing that Cameroon is in a mess. If there was any genuine point, everyone would have understood but this is actually no genuine point.

He, himself in France said he has failed to assimilate 20% of Cameroon because we are actually 20%. Frankly speaking with this assimilation what was he going to achieve?

Were Anglophones supposed to come and bow down and say "Yes sir we accept to be assimilated". Does assimilation mean that I have to throw away what I have which I knew in mind that it is the best? So you want me to throw it away and follow you into darkness? It has never happened anywhere.

So let's agree that we have made an error and apologize. Grant a general amnesty and Let us start with a new page. We have learnt a bitter lesson and most of it is from the British. They should not have just left us without making concrete arrangement on how we are going to proceed.

Are the Amba Boys fighting a just cause?

The so-called Amba lost their case right from the word go because there is nothing like Ambazonia and the British will not fight for something that has no historical backing. Ambazonia has no historical backing. So why did they choose that name? If they started fighting and calling it Southern Cameroon as we all know ourselves, that would have been understood. Where did they come with Ambazonia? It has never existed as a state. So you spoiled a good case right from day one.

So many innocent people have lost their lives, villages burnt down in a fight with people who have no principle.

So when you are preparing a case it should be solid and well calculated. And that's the tricks of an Anglophone. An Anglophone doesn't indulge into something that doesn't have any backing.

So they have put us in this mess that has led to the death of thousands.

They should now come out and ban the use of terrorism because we don't have terrorists in Cameroon. These are the same people with whom you have lived for more than 50years. So you don't get up one morning and call them terrorists. I don't agree. If I'm saying all this it is because I think my voice is appreciated in this country.

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Peter Ngufor explodes on Anglophone crisis!