CI-NEWS

Is back-to-school campaign imperiled?

2019-08-20

No: 442

Is back-to-school campaign imperiled?

Hijacked by politicians from the civil society, separatists have weighed in, setting stage for confrontation in the absence of an enabling environment and change of rhetoric on dialogue.

An otherwise good-intentioned campaign for back-to school in the North West and South West regions, initially championed by members of the civil society, is in danger of fizzling out after government and some politicians not enjoying any legitimacy joined the fray.

It was Mancho Bibixy, the coffin revolution initiator who from his Kondengui prison cell, championed the idea of schools resumption in the Anglophone region, to enable the children acquire knowledge and compete favourably with Anglophone separatists in the Diaspora in terms power sharing when the Anglophone revolution succeeds. Taking the cue from him, civil society actors like the Cameroon English Language Newspaper Publishers’ Association (CENPA), indicated their intention to publish messages supporting the campaign and even announced the provision of didactic materials to hundreds of pupils in all 13 divisions of the two regions.

Even Mark Bareta, a noted separatist, appeared in a video supporting the back-to-school campaign which he said would empower those on ‘Ground Zero’ when it comes to sharing the spoils of the Anglophone struggle.

At this point, there was no official response from the Anglophone Diaspora separatists. Instead of creating an enabling environment for the civil society to deploy its strategy of reaching out to hardliners, politicians, most of them lacking legitimacy, joined the bandwagon of the campaign and monopolized the show, in a bid to gain favours from the Biya regime.

In the North West, for example, it was the governor, Adolphe Lele Lafrique who undertook a campaign tour to the divisions. He provoked the ire of hardliners when he declared that it was school resumption before dialogue.

Possibly, in response to this change of rhetoric on dialogue, Diaspora separatists have declared a two-week lockdown of the Anglophone regions to prevent an effective back-to-school campaign now championed by politicians and government officials.

In the South West, Hon. Emilia Lifaka, is reported to have made the blunder of announcing at a rally that she had been given 15 million FCFA by H.E. Paul Atanga Nji, minister of territorial administration, to reinforce the campaign by providing didactic materials to pupils in Fako Division. By letting the cat out of the bag, observers say, she set the stage for confrontation between the Amba Boys, the children and the regular army when schools resume on 2 September, since the MINAT boss enjoys scant popularity among Anglophones.

Apart from failing to hold the dialogue to soften the ground for back-to-school, government also sinned by making no effort to see that the bills of businessmen are cleared so that they could send their children to school.

And so the good intentions of proactive members of government like H.E. Fuh Calistus Gentry, SS for MINMIDT, and H.E. Felix Mbayu, Commonwealth Affairs minister, may just pale into insignificance in the face of an absence of the enabling environment and attempts by government to hijack the back-to-school campaign and take the credit alone. The following post from an Anglophone activist justifying maintenance of school boycott should serve as food for thought for government:

BACK TO SCHOOL 2019:

The stakes are too high!!

Can you do me a favour? Kindly tell the Biya Government that Anglophones LOVE education. They cannot and need not be begged to go to school. We love education so much. We wrote, pleaded and finally protested about poor education as far back as 2016, when this crisis started. So, nobody, yes none should INSULT us by making us or anyone think that WE DON’T LOVE EDUCATION.

Nobody has the right to make us feel THEY LOVE OUR CHILDREN MORE THAN WE DO, and we need to be begged, bribed, forced or coerced to send our children back to school come September 2019.

Come on!

We don't love school and our schools were the best and Francophones sent their kids from Ebolowa via Yaounde to Saker or Sasse? Our system was not good enough and Francophones left Yaounde and Douala or for far-flung Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Lourdes in Bamenda or CPC in Bali? Let us be serious. While some did this at home, other Francophones who knew the value of Anglo-Saxon education or understood that the world speaks English, sent their kids for further education, no longer to France, but to England, America, or Canada, right?

What I hope I will one day understand is the tragedy of loving a thing to the point that you turn around and destroy it. If this is not sorcery, I need to be told what it is. May the day come, when like many things that puzzle and bamboozle us today, we will understand about the nation called Cameroon.

Anyway, before, I get carried away by the pain of the disaster zone that SW and NW have become since teachers and lawyers committed the crime or sin of demanding better treatment for themselves and those they were called and trained to serve - the common man, simple citizens, asking for nothing but an opportunity to earn a living, I believe I have made it clear THAT ANGLOPHONES LOVE SCHOOLING AND SUPPORT EDUCATION WHOLEHEARTEDLY. So, let me state why I believe schools should NOT resume in SW and NW Regions of Cameroon come September 2019.

1) If schools resume in SW and NW that will spell the end of English speaking Cameroon for ever and ever and ever. We have come too far to look back. That should not happen.

2) If schools resume in SW and NW, life will return to normal and that will mean all who have died in the course of the past 3 years, died in vain. The majority who were killed, who had their houses burnt in Kwakwa and their businesses run down, and many are IDPs in Yaounde or Douala or refugees in Nigeria today, were neither secessionists, Ambazonians nor Separatist fighters. Those words or expressions barely existed before 2016, not so? The Biya Government created this situation and these people who have revolted, it should address it properly, once and for all or live to face the bitterness, anger and vengeance of the thousands of orphans, widows and widowers across the world today, who are victims of the Anglophone Problem that erupted like lava in 2016 and is simmering to the discomfort of so many today that Cameroon has become "the sick man of Africa" with many Doctors around its bedside - Ambassadors, pleading, EU taking resolutions, UN calling special meetings, etc.

3) If schools resume, and life returns to normal, there will be NO INCLUSIVE DIALOGUE and Anglophones will be FINALLY ASSIMILATED as a conquered people, never to be remembered, only to be mentioned in a distorted narration of history as is the case for Amadou Ahidjo, since for those who were created by Paul Biya, Cameroon history began on 6 November 1982. Sad.

4) If schools resume in 2019 and life returns to normal, Anglophones WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED FOR REBELLING AGAINST THE SLAVE MASTER, as was the case of Blacks in 12 Years A Slave or Django Unchained. If you are tempted to flirt with the idea of returning to school, please watch any of those films. We cannot be slaves to our Black brothers in our own land! Slaves in 2019, in our own country? Let those who have partnered with the regime continue to wine and dine in Yaounde. We must admit it is difficult to forsake the safety and comfort of power, but we cannot forget ALL THE OTHERS WHO ARE SUFFERING GROSS INJUSTICE OVER THE PAST 5 DECADES and join this privileged few in the rape of our people. Because it is short-sighted, immoral and wicked to do so, we shall not.

I think of Mancho Bibixy and others who HAVE UNDERSTOOD THAT NOTHING GOOD COMES EASY and THERE IS ALWAYS A PRICE TAG, and are suffering for asking to be treated a little better and I will rather die on my feet with some dignity than live on my knees in total ignominy. God forbid!

Many who are struggling today, many who are paying the price at personal cost, showing resilience in observing Ghost Towns over the past 3 years at home and those abroad, who are sending huge remittances to sponsor kids who have had to relocate to other towns or paying for Anti-Biya campaigns or walking the corridors of international organizations to seek foreign intervention for a solution to the crisis, have understood that Ghana is a great country today only after they went down this road. They look at Rwanda and tell themselves that, with some determination and vision, it is possible to rise out of the ashes like a sphinx and be the pride of Africa.

IF THE BIYA GOVERNMENT REALLY MEANS BUSINESS ABOUT SCHOOLS REOPENING, IT SHOULD CALL FOR THE INCLUSIVE DIALOGUE PM DION PROMISED IN BAMENDA AND BUEA MANY MONTHS AGO.

HOW MANY TIMES DID CRTV ANNOUNCE THAT SCHOOLS HAVE RESUMED IN THE TWO EMBATTLED REGIONS?

WHO WANTS TO TAKE THE RISK OF BEING CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE RAGING BETWEEN DESPERATE AMBA BOYS AND TRIGGER HAPPY BIR SOLDIERS?

WHERE IS PROF MBOFUNG PAUL TODAY?

IT IS NOT EASY TO TRUST A REGIME BUILT ON LIES.

We were fooled in Foumban in 1961, we were deceived in the Yaounde Tripartite in 1992, we will be REAL FOOLS AND ASHAMED OF OURSELVES if we allow ourselves to be raped again in 2019.

Do me a favour: tell the Biya Government, we will not take another poisoned gift, we are well read and we know the story of the Trojan horse of Greek mythology. As for schools resuming it is NO, THANKS. If you cannot get this message to Yaounde, please send it to our brothers at home and abroad. And please, also send it to Mancho Bibixy and all our brothers and sisters in prison with him, abroad.

BoP Arusha

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Is back-to-school campaign imperiled?