Bitter, sweet memories Anglophones have of Prof Joseph Owona.

The death of Prof Joseph Owona, renowned Professor of Constitutional Law, member of the Constitutional Council and former member of government, has sparked memories of how he impacted the lives of Anglophones in the discharge of his state duties.
While some Anglophones hold bitter memories of the erudite Constitutional Law professor, others have fun memories of him.
Since his demise, some Anglophones have been casting aspersions at Prof Joseph Owona, albeit to the disdain of others, because of the 1996 constitution, which he practically midwifed. 
Some Anglophones feel that Prof Owona failed them when, as head of the Technical Committee for Drafting of the Constitution of Cameroon, which produced the 1996 constitution, he virulently rejected the proposal by Anglophones for a federal system of government to be incorporated into the constitution.
It should be recalled that when the Head of State, President Paul Biya, in late 1992, called for the Tripartite Talks and announced a Constitutional Forum to draft a new constitution that was expected to take the country out of socioeconomic and political doldrums, Anglophones convened and held The All-Anglophone Conference, AAC, in Buea.  
The purpose of convening AAC was for Anglophones to arrive at a common set of proposals to assert and safeguard Anglophone interests. These proposals were to be submitted and defended at the national constitutional talks announced for March 1993, by the President. 
The AAC, which held in April 1993 in Buea, was massively attended, hugely represented and immensely successful. Federalism was adopted as the form of the state to be proposed by Anglophones at the announced national Constitutional Forum.
A majority of Anglophones, then, believed strongly that such a system was the best framework for recognising, upholding and protecting the Anglophone identity and giving Anglophones their full rights as citizens of Cameroon. 
However, when Dr Simon Munzu and Dr Carlson Ayangwe, who were members of the Technical Committee for Drafting of the Constitution of Cameroon, presented the proposal for federalism during deliberations of the committee, Prof Joseph Owona, head of the committee, virulently rejected it and several other Anglophone proposals.
Owona is said to have even “arrogantly” chided Munzu and Ayangawe, who were academic and legal heavyweights in their own right, for “having copied the Nigerian constitution”. 
The now defunct Cameroon Post newspaper of April 9-12, 1992, had reported that Prof Owona, in rejecting Anglophones’ proposal for federalism, had threatened “Beti secession if Anglophones insist on federalism”.  

Poking ambers of Anglophone crisis 
Some analysts hold strongly to the fact that Prof Owona’s rejection of federalism from the 1996 constitution helped to deepen the Anglophone Problem and laid the foundation of the armed conflict that is now rocking the North West and South West Regions. 
An Anglophone, who did not want to be named told this reporter: “Remember the crisis in the North West and South West Regions began when Common Law lawyers went on strike, calling for a return to the federal system of government. If the federal system had been incorporated into the 1996 constitution, there wouldn’t have been any strike by lawyers calling for a return to federalism”.
“If Joseph Owona had not rejected outright, federation, the over 6,000 deaths, over 300,000 persons displaced, communities burnt down, destruction of properties, disruption of schools, businesses closed and several atrocities committed due to the armed conflict in the two Anglophone Regions would have been averted,” he stated.
Analyst, Christmas Ebini, doesn’t have kind words for the late Prof Owona. He wrote on his Facebook page: “The likes of the late Prof Joseph Owana betray their academic integrity when they became the merchants of political manipulations, intimidation, falsehood and personalised egocentric presentation in the affairs of the collective aspirations of a people and a nation. We are all living witnesses of the germination of the seeds of hate, tribalism, instant gratification and the lack of dignity, integrity and wisdom in the affairs of state”.

“If only they heeded warnings…”
Dr Simon Munzu, in a reaction to the demise of Prof Owona, which has been circulating on social media, wrote: “Prof Owona was my colleague for several years at the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University of Yaounde and political sparring partner, especially within the 11-member Constitution Drafting Technical Committee established at the November 1992 Tripartite Conference on which he served as Chair”. 
“I last saw/met him at the Major National Dialogue (MND) in 2019.  There, he received with much remorse my Keynote speech in which I emphatically stated that the Anglophone war would have been averted if my former comrades of the ruling CPDM party had heeded my warnings thirty years ago against Anglophone marginalisation, subjugation, and assimilation. He expressed his regrets about this when he got up and embraced me as I was returning to my seat at the end of my speech and asked for a copy of the speech…,” Munzu added.
He continued that: “Without going into details, it would be fair to say that in his public career, Owona had many opportunities to speak truth to power and, as an eminent and influential intellectual and politician to help steer Cameroon to safer shores, but he chose the path of immediate gratification and the role of the Biya regime's apologist-in-chief”. 
“He was the high priest of the 'Essingan' who stood in confrontation with the 'La’akam', two ethnocentric organisations headed by ethnocentric intellectuals,” he theorised.

Silver lining
However, as they say, there is always a silver lining to every dark cloud.
The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, Joshua Osih, nonetheless, has fun memories of the late Prof Joseph Owona.  
In a tribute he posted on his Facebook page, Osih wrote: “Prof Joseph Owona has left us with an immense legacy, notably his ability to break the ice at the height of the political crisis at the end of the 1990s, when he went to Bamenda and officially addressed our late Chairman, Ni John Fru Ndi: ‘My Dear Chairman’, showing great courage and a sense of openness that will remain engraved in our memories. The next day, he had lunch with late Rose Fru Ndi and the Chairman at the Ntarikon Palace, subsequently explaining that he did not require an authorisation to act in the interest of the nation”. 
“His action was an example of leadership and mutual understanding. He leaves behind a lasting impact. He was a man of principles and convictions who assumed his positions without fear. He loved his country with passion and dedication. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this difficult time…” Osih added.