EDITORIAL

The uphill task that awaits the next SCNC chairman

Hectic preparations are being carried out by the SCNC to hold an elective general assembly at which it is almost a foregone conclusion that Ayah Paul will be elected to replace the deceased Chief Ayamba.

There are however enormous complexities due to the division among members and sweeping allegations that some of the self-proclaimed leaders have been bought over by the Yaounde regime to split the group and render it ineffective.

Nfor Ngalla Nfor, former first vice president under Chief Ayamba who was expelled from the post for attempting to usurp leadership authority is accused of being a government agent. Nfor has in interviews described himself as national president without saying when and where he was voted into that office.

That is another angle of the split Ayah is likely to face. The other is that of Ambassador Fossung, former SCNC national chairman who is on self exile in the United States but continues to churn out tracts and videos claiming to be the legitimate leader.

The third dimension is the personality of Ayah Paul. Those who are critical of his candidacy for the position say he is leader of a political party who contested the last presidential election and performed extremely well. His critics say he cannot be vying to be president of La Republique du Cameroun while also gunning to lead a group canvassing for the “restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons”.

Ayah’s supporters however say he is the right candidate for now given his unblemished profile and record. He entered parliament as CPDM member after resigning as a judge. Unable to effect any change being a lone voice in the wilderness, he quit the legislature. Ayah as ruling party MP was also opposed to the amendment of the constitution to extend the indefinite renewable of the presidential term.

The hawks within the SCNC however want him to resign from PAP before contesting the SCNC election. They cite the case of Ndoki Mukete who resigned from the SDF when he was elected SCNC national chairman. The Guardian Post has learnt on good authority that Ayah will resign from PAP “any moment from now”.

That will make him an unquestionable candidate for the leadership. He will be charged with the responsibility of uniting the factions before confronting the government for dialogue or the United Nations if there is no negotiation with the Biya regime.

The Guardian Post admits there is an “Anglophone Problem”. The ruling party acknowledges it, so does the president. It is in defining the problem that the parties are diametrically divided. Moderate Anglophones say the problem is placing Anglophones on the sideline of public office and development and see a solution in a return to federalism.

They cite the Foumban federal constitution in which it was stipulated that where a Francophone is president, the vice must be an Anglophone and vice versa. Today Anglophones are on the fourth position of the power ladder and only holding two portfolio ministries of arts and culture and forestry and wildlife.

The SCNC hawks who are often labelled as secessionists argue that the Yaounde regime instead seceded by reversing the official name of the country to “La Republique du Cameroun” a country Anglophones were not part of it in 1960 when it hard its independence. They also challenge the legality of the Foumban constitutional conference at which neither Britain nor the United Nations was represented as specified by a UN resolution. They want the “restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons.”

The Guardian Post is of the view that the issues can be amicable thrashed through internal dialogue without resort to international arbitration, the consequences of which is difficult to predict for now.

The argument the government gave at the African commission was that the SCNC is in splitter groups so it did not know which faction to dialogue with. Some government spin doctors are also quick to refer to SCNC as an illegal organization.

The fact that the government sent a delegation to defend the country in a matter filed by SCNC at the African commission was an acknowledgement of its legality. The SCNC’s membership in the UNPO which is an internationally recognized non-violent lobby adds to fertilise the legality of the Anglophone movement. If it was an illegal group, why did the government use the tax payers’ money to sponsor some black legs within the movement to The Gambia and Senegal who posed as “SCNC leaders”?

With the passage of Chief Ayamba, a reinvigorated and united SCNC executive is about to be elected. The advice The Guardian Post gives the government is to allow them hold their assembly without interruption by security forces so that in the end, Yaounde will be able to know who to dialogue with for the interest of “national unity and integration.”