CI-NEWS

CAMPOST Vs BEAC : The Constitutional Challenge to Bilingualism in Cameroon.

2020-06-04

No: 500

CAMPOST Vs BEAC : The Constitutional Challenge to Bilingualism in Cameroon.

The BEAC Bilingualism Scandal
The Federal Republic of Cameroon was built on 1st October 1961 on two pillars of bilingualism and biculturalism. However a Chadian civil servant who became Governor of BEAC has declared publicly that BEAC only recognises one language, namely French. What are the consequences of this challenge to the Cameroonian constitution? Does it mean that the Cameroonian Union is dead? Read on.
Campost made an application to BEAC and COBAC for the license to launch an electronic payment system which includes all of the electronic, computer and telematic processing necessary for the management of bank cards and associated transactions.
However, BEAC & COBAC rejected the application from the Cameroon Postal Services for the reason that the said application was submitted in the English Language.
Barrister Felix Agbor Balla, a prominent Human Rights Anglophone lawyer, reacted angrily to the decision of BEAC, COBAC. The barrister wrote as follows:
"How on earth can we accept this in a Bilingual Country. Our leaders should really wake up from sleep. We cannot claim to be united whilst at the same time marginalizing English language speakers in Cameroon. This shows complete disregard and disdain to Southern Cameroonians”.
To add insult to injury, Higher Education Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo suspended Barrister Agbor Balla for setting an exam at the law school at the University of Buea in English on the Anglophone Crisis. So what happened to the Cameroonian Union?
I was for many years a senior official of the AfDB and part of my job was extending lines of credit to national and regional development banks. It is in this capacity that I handled a line go credit to the Banque de développement des etats de l’Afrique Centrale (BDEAC) . Discussions and negotiations took place entirely in French between myself and Jean Baptiste Assiga-Ahanda, a fellow Cameroonian who was the DGA.
I also recall that he invited me to his house in Brazzaville where I met his wife Marie Thérèse Assiga-Ahanda. But at the time I did not know that her maiden name was Marie Therese Atangana, a granddaughter of Charles (Karl) Atangana Ntsama who played a very prominent role during German Kamerun. He was raised to the position of the Paramount Chieftaincy (Auberhauptlinge) of the Ewondo and Bane by Governor Karl Ebermeir, the last Governor of Deutsch Kamerun.
It never occurred to me at the time to question the legitimacy of the BDEAC operating exclusively in French when Cameroon, a bilingual country, was a key member state. The time has now come to challenge the language policies of all the regional institutions of CEMAC in which Cameron is a member state.
II. Historical Background to the FCFA
When the FCFA was introduced in 1945 after WWII, there were two issuing authorities. For west Africa there was "Banque Centrale de l'Afrique occidentale française" based in Dakar and "Banque Centrale de l'Afrique equatoriale française" based in Brazzaville. But the two issuing houses issued a common currency called "Franc des colonies françaises d'afrique" (FCFA). The inscriptions on the currency were exclusively in French. Of course. What else!
But in recognition of the fact that Togo and French Cameroons were trust territories rather than French colonies, the names of the monetary institutions were changed to become "Banque de l'Afrique occidentale française et du Togo" and "Banque de l'Afrique equatoriale française et du Cameroun" with its head office moved from Brazzaville to Yaounde. But after independence, the names were again changed to "Banque Centrale des etats de l'Afrique de l'ouest (BCEAO) and " Banque des etats de l'Afrique Centrale" (BEAC).
One of the conditions for granting independence was to require that African States should sign financial cooperation treaties with France by which the countries commit themselves to using the FCFA as their currency whose convertibility to the French Franc would be guaranteed by the French Treasury at a fixed parity under what was known as the "Operations Account Convention" binding the country to deposit a fixed percentage of its foreign exchange earnings in the French Treasury.
The Southern Cameroons joined the Franc Zone in 1962 following the so-called reunification of 1st October 1961 after it became the State of "West Cameroon" on 1st October 1961 as part of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. By becoming a member of this monetary union of former French colonies and overseas territories, the Southern Cameroons (West Cameroon) was the only English-speaking territory to have ever joined this monetary union, and has been effectively subjected to French economic controls which have not served the interests of the people of the Southern Cameroons.
During the last 57 years of its membership of the CEMAC Franc Zone, the inscriptions on the coins and the banknotes have been exclusively in French notwithstanding the fact that the population of English-speaking Cameroon "West Cameroon" was much larger than the combined population of other CEMAC (UDEAC) members such as Gabon, the Congo, CAR and Equatorial Guinea. This statistical fact is still valid in 2020.
Despite the fact that from 1975 West Cameroon is known to contribute over 60% of the GDP of Cameroon and nearly 50% of the budget revenues of La Republique du Cameroun, during the same period, BEAC which is the issuing authority of this currency, is not known to have ever recruited anyone from English-speaking Cameroons into any senior level positions in that monetary organization. Casimir Oye Mbah, the former Gabonese omnipotent governor of BEAC, made it very clear that there was no place for an Anglophone Cameroonian in his bank.
This clearly indicates that being English-speaking automatically disqualified anyone from being considered for employment in any of the monetary structures of the CEMAC Franc Zone. France must take full responsibility for such disgraceful and systematic discrimination based on language by failing to show enlightened leadership on a highly sensitive matter.
The current controversy that has engulfed BEAC and which will carry serious consequences concerns Campost which made an application to BEAC and COBAC for the license to launch an Electronic payment system which includes all of the electronic, computer and telematic processing necessary for the management of bank cards and associated transactions.
The application was rejected by the new Governor of BEAC on grounds that it was sent in English. The rejection letter bore the signature of Abbas Mahamat Tolli, the new governor of BEAC who is a former Finance Minister of Chad, born in April 1972 in Abéché, in the east of Chad and is the son of President Idriss Déby's older sister.
He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Quebec. This is the type of young man that Mr. Idriss Déby Itno finds suitable to send to Cameroon to run the Central Bank and to challenge the bilingual provisions of the Cameroonian constitution.
Article 1(3) of the 1996 constitution of the Republic of Cameroon states as follows:
“The official languages of the Republic of Cameroon shall be English and French, both languages having the same status. The State shall guarantee the promotion of bilingualism throughout the country. It shall endeavour to protect and promote national languages”.
Did the Governor of BEAC realise the political consequences of what he was doing when he rejected the application from Campost?
In effect, France transformed BEAC and other CEMAC Franc Zone institutions into tentacles of the France-Afrique political mafia into which all English-speaking Cameroonians were made to believe that they do not belong because the use of English is not welcome.
This explains why there is now total hostility in Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia towards anything remotely related to the Franc Zone. Language is one of the key reasons why Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia cannot remain part of the CEMAC Franc Zone.
III. The silence of the Bilingualism Commission.
It should be recalled that the National Commission on Bilingualism was created by decree No: 2017/013 of the 23rd January 2017. The Commission which was created by Paul Biya as one of the “aspirin pills” produced the failed Grand National Dialogue of October 2018 and it is an advisory body with legal personality and financial autonomy.
It is placed under the Authority of the President of the Republic. The Commission is responsible for promoting Bilingualism and Multiculturalism in Cameroon with a view to maintaining peace, Consolidation the country’s unity and strengthening its people’s willingness and day to day experience with respect to living together.
The mandate of the commission shows very clearly that it is one of the key pillars on which the national unity of Biya's “one and indivisible Cameroun” hangs. All of a sudden an inexperienced Chadian civil servant assumes the position of Governor of BEAC and challenges that bilingualism provision of the constitution of the Republic of Cameroon.
Simply put, can BEAC which is headquartered in Cameroon tell Cameroonians that English is not their “working language”. That means anyone of the 8 million English-speaking Cameroonians cannot aspire to work in the BEAC even though since 1977, West Cameroon has been contributing 60% of the GDP of Cameroon and around 50% of the budget revenues of the whole of Cameroon.
The question is why does the famous Bilingualism commission not consider that the scandalous treatment of the English language by the Governor of BEAC is a matter that should be looked into by the National Commission on Bilingualism and taken up for examination by the Constitutional Council for a landmark ruling?
We were informed that Professor Joseph Owona was recently named to the Constitutional Council by Presidential decree. The 1996 constitution is practically Professor Owona’s baby because he wrote it with his kitchen cabinet of lawyers after Simon Munzu and Ekontang Elad left the group.
The Anglophone lawyers led by Barrister Felix Agbor Balla have a historic duty to file a case before the Constitutional Council on the language dispute between Campost and BEAC in order to obtain a legal and scholarly ruling on the intent and meaning of the provisions of the constitution on bilingualism.
Failing that it shall be taken that the constitutional affront by BEAC on the language rights of Anglophones constitutes a legitimization of the fight for secession and separation by the people of the Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia because the central pillar holding up the 1961 Union has collapsed.
IV. The Economic Flaws of the Franc Zone System
Over the years the Franc Zone has shown very serious signs of dysfunctionality and of being a highly flawed monetary arrangement which may have done long-lasting damage to the economies of its member countries. It has neither promoted economic growth, industrial development, job creation, stability nor trade between and amongst its members. It has merely encouraged importation and consumption.
The issuing authorities have not been able to deal with mundane problems such as ensuring that change is available at Points of Sale (POS) in the economies of member states. The result is that in all the Franc Zone countries in West and Central Africa, many commercial transactions are frustrated by lack of change at POS and merchants are frequently forced to abandon their shops to go and hunt for change in the streets. Such problems are an indication of lack of technical professionalism on the part of Central banking authorities because the problem has been allowed to persist for long.
Under normal circumstances the Central Bank should issue the currency in coins and banknote denominations which will facilitate the availability of change at points of sale for the settlement of financial transactions. Yet everywhere in the Franc Zone from Brazzaville to Dakar, if you remove a 10.000 FCFA note to pay for anything no shopkeeper will be able to give change. If you enter into a taxi without declaring in advance the denomination of currency you have, you will face an abusive exchange with the taxi driver at your terminal point over the issue of lack of change.
The only explanation for this problem is lack of professional competence by the Governors and their French advisors.
V. The Devaluation gap
In 2016 the Nigerian Naira was devalued by around 200% under pressure from the IMF in response to fiscal pressures created by the collapse of the price of oil from above $100/bb to around $50/bb. The official exchange rate of the Naira was allowed to float and collapse from 150 Naira/$ to 360 Naira/$.
But in pushing for a devaluation of the Naira, the IMF failed to anticipate its impact and effect on the economies of weaker Franc Zone countries bordering on Nigeria whose GDP is over $500 billion.
The policy of fixing the parity between the CFCA and the Euro, guaranteed by the French Treasury (at 655 FCFA/€) as required by the Operations Account Convention is based on the false idea that it protects the Franc Zone countries against exchange risk uncertainty because many of the Franc Zone countries are oil exporting countries, whose export revenues are earned in US$.
The case of Cote d'Ivoire is similar because the country is the world's largest cocoa producer but the cocoa is priced in £-sterling. The Franc Zone countries earn their export revenues either in US$ or £-sterling on the London commodities exchange. But as the countries settle their foreign obligations (including external debt) primarily in US$, it makes absolutely no economic sense for them to maintain their foreign reserves with the French Treasury in Euros or to maintain a fixed parity of 655 FCFA/€. The current parity has been fixed and has remained unchanged since 1994.
This arrangement has made the FCFA effectively a derivative currency of the EURO and thereby making the Franc Zone an overseas extension of the Eurozone. But the Franc Zone does not benefit from any of the economic stimulus measures that are proposed from time to time by the European Central Bank (ECB) for Eurozone member states because the ECB does not even acknowledge the existence of the Franc Zone as an extension of the Euro one through the French Treasury. But interest rates set by the ECB in response to economic developments within the Eurozone determine the rates at which the foreign reserves of BCEAO and BEAC are invested by the French Treasury.
The exchange rate inflexibility of the Franc zone has resulted in a drain on their foreign reserves and rendered sustainable economic development impossible. But the immediate impact of the devaluation gap of 200?tween the FCFA and the Naira is that motorists in some countries such as Benin, Cameroun, Niger and Chad where motorbike transport is the most popular mode of mass transport, rely primarily on petroleum products smuggled from Nigeria and sold in jerrycans, penalizing authorized filling stations which are a major source of petroleum tax revenues for the government. This has led to the closure of filling stations in most countries neighboring Nigeria.
In order to eliminate the devaluation gap between the Naira and FCFA, there should be a competitive devaluation of the FCFA in order by setting a new parity rate at 1200-1500 FCFA/ €. But this cannot be done because it will cause social upheaval in the CEMAC and UEMOA countries on a scale that no one can manage. But this is the exchange rate that reflects the current economic fundamentals of the Franc Zone in terms of the productivity of labour.
VI. The Eco Impact
The Heads of State of Ecowas met recently and decided that a new single currency to be known as the ECO shall be introduced in Ecowas in 2020. What this means is that the Naira, the Cedi and the West African FCFA ( XOF) shall disappear to be replaced by the ECO.
The Eco is the proposed name for the common currency that the West African Monetary Zone plans to introduce in the framework of Economic Community of West African States. After its introduction, the goal is to merge the new currency with the West African CFA franc at a later date.
However some dissident views have already been expressed by President Macky Sall of Senegal and President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d'Ivoire who are reluctant to sever their links with France and the French Treasury.
What this means is that there will probably be a two-speed monetary union by which CFA countries from Cote d'Ivoire to Senegal (Ecozone/West) will implement the new single currency at one speed while countries from Ghana to Nigeria (Eco zone/East) will implement the new currency at another speed.
But the question is what is going to happen to the CEMAC Franc Zone. The answer is blowing in the wind because no one knows. Indeed the entire zone seems to be drifting towards collapse. Indeed the CEMAC Franc Zone seems to behave the “Black Hole” of the French African Empire.
VII. The inevitable of separation into two
Since WWI former German Kamerun has been breaking up into bits and pieces. But France has always been the active force behind the disintegration of German Kamerun. It started when France took control of German NeuKamerun and attached the pieces to Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Chad.
Following the UN Plebiscite of 11th February 1961, Northern British Cameroons was attached to Nigeria and parts have since become merged into Taraba, Adamawa and Borno states. On 1st October 1961, Southern Cameroons joined the UN Trust Territory of French Cameroun which became independent on 1st January 1960 to form a bilingual Union of federated states. Unfortunately the rejection of a letter written in English by the Governor of BEAC is sending the powerful message that the foundation of that bilingual and bicultural Union no longer exists. This explains why there is a separatist war in Southern Cameroons since 1st October 2017 towards an unstoppable disintegration of the Union of 1961.
The body Count in this separatist war now stands at 8,665. This does not include the 300 towns and villages burnt by the Cameroonian army, 600.000 IDPs left without homes and 30.000 sent as refugees into Nigeria.
VIII. French colonial ideology of Submission.
Armed conflict and resistance broke out in Southern Cameroons on 1st October 2017 because the regime in Yaounde does not believe that any political conflicts can be settled by sincere dialogue or mere negotiations. They believe that in all conflict situations the people should just yield to force by submission and capitulation because there is no rule of law. But people raised under Anglo-Saxon culture do not believe in the French colonial ideology of submission.
Anglophone lawyers like Felix Agbor Balla and other Common law lawyers must now wake up and understand that the rejection of the Campost letter by the Chadian Governor of BEAC is simply a challenge to Anglophones and their place in Cameroon, counting on the idea that the French colonial ideology of submission will prevail eventually and nothing will be done to challenge or change the French language status quo that has existed in CEMAC since West Cameroon joined the Franc Zone in 1962.
If the so-called Bilingualism Commission fails to take this matter to the Constitutional Council for a ruling on the constitutional interpretation of bilingualism in Cameroon, then let it be understood that the rejection of the Campost letter by the Governor of BEAC is a violation of the fundamental language and cultural rights of 8 million Anglophones under the 1996 constitution and this violation legitimises the right to separation and the withdrawal of the Southern Cameroons from the Union of 1st October 1961.
The Briscam Freedom Party believes that the future of the Franc Zone in the CEMAC region is very much in doubt as long as the devaluation gap of 200?tween the Naira and the FCFA persists because the currency is now overvalued against the $ and € and this is destroying both the industrial and agricultural sectors and creating unemployment. But at the same time any major devaluation, which is eventually unavoidable, will trigger social unrest on a scale that cannot be contained. Hence Cameroon is doomed.
When Southern Cameroons /Ambazonia breaks away from French Cameroun, the logical course of action shall be to negotiate entry into the ECOZONE /East in order to have access to the entire ECOWAS market from Calabar to Dakar.
©Copyright April 2020
Dr. Nfor N Susungi
Chairman
Briscam Freedom Party

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CAMPOST Vs BEAC : The Constitutional Challenge to Bilingualism in Cameroon.

CAMPOST Vs BEAC : The Constitutional Challenge to Bilingualism in Cameroon.