Editorial: Why Biya should pardon jailed separatists.

Earlier, on March 7, there were reports that another political personality, Prof Olivier Bile, leader of the Union for Fraternity and Progress, UPF, had, on behalf of the Alliance for Political Transition, reached out to Ayuk Tabe and Co. 

This left no one in doubt that the two camps were currying for support from the jailed separatist leaders.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and nine other "Ambazonia" leaders were arrested in January 2018, in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and forcibly returned to Cameroon. 

They were charged, among other offences, with terrorism, rebellion and secession, at a Yaounde Military Court, which found them guilty. A life sentence was slammed on all 10. They were also ordered to pay fines totaling 262 billion FCFA.

They lodged an appeal on August 26, 2019, for the trial that commenced in December 2018, protesting that all the evidence against them were only presented in court during a single 17-hour overnight hearing on August 19, 2019.

Their appeal of August 26, 2019, is still to be heard, but there is no qualm that despite their conviction, and fragmentation of the separatist groups, Ayuk Tabe remains the "face" of the conflict that started in the North West and South West Regions, in 2016, when teachers and lawyers took to the streets to demand greater rights.

Due to the government's inability to handle the situation, it soon degenerated into more demands as numerous separatist groups emerged, taking up arms and including use of Improvised Explosive Devises, IEDs.

Despite being in splinter groups, there is no doubt that the faction, led by Ayuk Tabe, appears to command respect across the board. Some government officials have, in the past, been reported to have gone into secret talks with Ayuk Tabe, which is indicative of the support he is perceived to still have even, though in prison.

It was apparently against that backdrop that prominent personalities in the opposition, who are interested to oust incumbent Paul Biya at next year's presidential election, visited the convicts, may be to have their "blessing".

As was expected, the visits did not go down well with the government. The Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, in a husky statement on Tuesday March 12, instructed the 10 regional governors to crack down on activities carried out under the banner of the Political Alliance for Change and the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon. 

Atanga Nji said the two associations are illegal movements and that they are run by certain political leaders who are “in search of notoriety in defiance of the laws in force”.

He went on to ban them from holding public meetings, press conferences and consultations to recruit new members.

“More seriously, the promoters of these clandestine movements went to meet in prison terrorists, definitively convicted of serious crimes planned and orchestrated in the North West and South West Regions, with the aim of forging a political alliance," he said.

Atanga Nji insisted that visiting jailed separatist leaders is an endorsement of the ongoing chaos in the North West and South West Regions.

In an attempt to thwart the political coalition, Atanga Nji stated: “The movements called ‘Political Alliance for Change’ and ‘Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon’ are not political parties within the meaning of Law No. 90-56 of December 19, 1990, relating to political parties. Having no legal existence, these clandestine movements cannot carry out any political activity throughout the national territory.”

He said only legalised political parties have the right to request authorisation and obtain receipts for meetings, demonstrations, conferences, or public meetings from the administrative authorities.

For The Guardian Post, the minister's statement, in contextual terms, is a paradox, given that last year when he announced the creation of 40 more political parties, he said the intention of the Head of State was “to enrich the political debate and encourage the expression of freedom”. These parties will help “stimulate a contrasting and constructive political debate”, Atanga Nji had said.

How can he then be banning and threatening even a Member of Parliament from visiting and holding discussions with a prisoner? Does anybody need any permission to visit prisoners? Is the ban not just to inflate the ego and importance of the convict?

Why did the Union for Change, which presented Fru Ndi as its candidate at the 1992 presidential election, not ban? Why the ban on a similar temporary group now which can still operate under the umbrella of one of the nearly 400 political parties?

Most worrying, the CPDM, where Atanga Nji is Section President, counts at least two coalitions-The Presidential Majority and G20. There are even speculations that the CPDM could be about going into another coalition with the 40 political parties that were recently created.

If any purpose, the MINAT statement has served, it has been a boomerang, giving importance and popularity to the jailed "terrorists", who, as long as they remain in prison, drawing from history, remind humanity of the lingering conflict in the two English-speaking Regions.

They are part of the problem as well as a component of the solution. 

It is on these grounds that The Guardian Post appeals to President Paul Biya, to use his constitutional prerogative to pardon Ayuk Tabe and his colleagues as well as others being detained in connection to the conflict in the two Anglophone Regions.

He commendably ordered the freedom of 289 others in the past and it shall just be a continuation of his magnanimity and power should he pardon those still in jail in connection with the crisis in the North West and South West Regions.

Historically, Heads of State have pardoned convicts, including murderers, not necessarily as a show of mercy, but to quell political tension and social unrests like the one which continues to bubble in the North West and South West Regions, especially with the unpredictable political atmosphere of the 2025 presidential polls.