CI-NEWS

Who wants to torpedo national dialogue?

2019-09-24

No: 448

Who wants to torpedo national dialogue?

While Dion Ngute is burning midnight oil collating proposals in view of the Major National Dialogue billed for September 30 to 4 October at the Yaounde Conference Centre, detractors have resorted to distractions and ‘greedy agendas’. The dramatization of the alleged burial alive of a woman in Guzang , creation of fake accounts for national dialogue, and flare-up of smoking guns in Munyenge and Bamenda last week detract from the sincerity of Cameroon’s healing process.

The process of the healing of Cameroon’s gaping wounds caused by the three-year-old Anglophone crisis has begun with consultations being made for the past two weeks by Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, designated to chair the Major National Dialogue slated for September 30 to 4 October 2019 at the Yaounde Conference Centre.

But while the composed PM is working round the clock to avert any hiccups, detractors right in the system have had a field day imposing their own greedy agendas and resorting to distractions that detract from the sincerity of the announced dialogue.

The press was awash last week with reports that a woman had been buried alive in Guzang, Momo Division of the North West region, allegedly by suspected Ambazonia fighters. The incident that has been dismissed as a stage-managed stunt by spoilers was immediately hijacked by territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, for selfish reasons. In what was considered as a distraction, Atanga Nji resorted to raining insults on Amba boys whom he referred to as terrorists who must confess for the atrocities they had committed on the people. He then ordered an investigation into the incident, promising hell for culprits and a decent burial for the victim.

Observers and separatists immediately disapproved of the MINAT boss’ attempt to make political capital of an incident he is accused of having masterminded through his own sponsored armed groups. Chief Justice Barrister Ayah Paul Abine had in an article given several reasons why the Guzang incident was not true to life.

It was probably angered by the provocation of the MINAT boss that gunshots were heard last Thursday in Bamenda around the Ayaba Hotel area where Atanga Nji was lodged. One account has it that gun battles led to the killing of two civilians.

Against arguments that dialogue cannot hold in the midst of smoking guns, it was also a bloody Friday in Munyenge in Muyuka in the midst of consultations held by South West governor in view of the Major National Dialogue. At least seven persons were reportedly killed when the army raided the area at a time some commanders of camps harbouring Ambazonia fighters were invited by the Meme SDO for consultations in Kumba.

In yet another act seen as an attempt to torpedo the Dion Ngute-led national dialogue, fake addresses were published on social media misdirecting Cameroonians to channel their proposals through them for collation. Reacting to this misinformation, the Director of Cabinet at the PM’s Office, Balungeli Confiance Ebune, published a disclaimer. He said proposals should only be forwarded to the address www.nationaldialogue.cm.

From the foregoing, it is clear that somebody is intent on derailing the upcoming dialogue so that the man on the steering wheel should not succeed. Only time will vindicate Dion Ngute just as he emerged heads high when President Biya announced the much-awaited national dialogue on the Anglophone crisis on 10 September.

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Who wants to torpedo national dialogue?