CC Moderator accuses gov’t of ‘ceding’ Akwaya to Nigeria!.

The outspoken Man of God made the hairsplitting declaration during an interview he granted Douala-based media organ, Equinoxe Television, Sunday March 31. 

Speaking as guest on the organ’s weekly programme, The Inside, Rt Rev Dr Fonki made pronouncements that bordered on the prevailing security situation in the border administrative unit, which, he said, is now “a-no-man’s land”. 

Aside regretting the repeated invasion of Akwaya Subdivision by those he said are sophisticatedly armed-to-the-teeth Fulani herdsmen, the Moderator was categorical that Nigeria’s presence is more felt in the administrative unit than that of the government of Cameroon. 

The population of Akwaya, Rt Rev Dr Fonki lamented, is now wailing under the merciless raids of Fulani herdsmen, who slaughter compatriots in the cruelest of manners, looting businesses, destroying properties, communities and farmlands with little or no intervention from Cameroonian State authorities. 

Akwaya now a-no-man’s land 

Further painting a picture of the disturbing situation in Akwaya Subdivision, the Moderator said the administrative unit is now a no man’s land. He qualified the area as an abandoned community prey to invasion by Nigerian herdsmen. 

“In terms of our sovereignty, I think Akwaya is becoming a-no-man’s land,” Rt Rev Dr Fonki, who is a son of Akwaya Subdivision, stated. 

He added that with the disturbing development, “it seems as if the government of Cameroon has abandoned the people of Akwaya to themselves…they don’t bother about whatever is happening there”.

Administrators not on seat in Akwaya 

The situation, Rt Rev Dr Fonki further regretted, has been compounded by the prolong absence of administrative authorities deployed to serve the inhabitants of the area. 

“The administration of Akwaya is hardly on seat,” Rt Rev Dr Fonki disclosed. 

This, he quickly pointed out, is not the fault of the absentee administrators, but the enclaved nature of the area. 

“…you cannot blame them [absentee administrators] because they don’t have access to roads, no pipe-borne water, no electricity, no internet, no telephone network,” Rt Rev Dr Fonki stated. 

Population at mercy of herdsmen 

The people of Akwaya, the Man of God further lamented, are at the mercy of armed-to-the-teeth Nigerian herdsmen who constantly storm the area to wreak havoc on locals. 

“These herdsmen, Fulani fellows, who are raiders, are coming from Nigeria. They come in and do whatever they want to do and if you resist, you are killed,” he bemoaned. 

The Moderator, whose house in Akwaya was recently burned to ashes, reportedly by same Fulani herdsmen, revealed that the invaders come in with sophisticated modern weapons. 

“They don’t just come in with dane guns. They come in with sophisticated weaponry, do whatever they want to do, loot the whole village and loot everything of valuable nature from the people,” Rt Rev Dr Fonki disclosed. 

Akwaya population sacrificing not to pick Nigerian nationality   

As confirmed by Rt Rev Dr Fonki in the media outing, the government of Nigeria has over the years been taking advantage of the enclaved nature of the area to lure Cameroonians to pick Nigerian nationality for free. 

Such baits, Rt Rev Dr Fonki said, have been resisted to the highest level by the population, who, despite the neglect, still stay loyal to Cameroonian State institutions and those who incarnate them.

“If not of the sacrifice of the Akwaya people, we would have been Nigerians,” Rt Rev Dr Fonki stated.

He went on to recount that: “There was a time that the government of Nigeria came into the area, because they know that Cameroon has neglected that area…they came into that area with their machines and everything to issue Nigerian national ID cards for free, but we refused”. 

 “…if you cross the stream, you enter a tarred road into Nigeria, just a stream, little stream…,” he said, to buttress his assertion of Yaounde authorities abandoning the population of the Subdivision to themselves. 

Yaounde looks away as Akwaya ruined by Nigerian herdsmen 

The silence of Yaounde authorities is raising questions. Despite the deepening threat to life and security concerns in Akwaya, locals say government seems to be acting slow or not proactive to the situation at all.

The population of Akwaya is also suspecting the repeated attacks by the herdsmen from Nigeria to be politically motivated and attempts to take over that portion of the national territory from Cameroon. 

Created in 1963, Akwaya Subdivision, it should be said, shares borders with three Nigerian States. The Subdivision is made up of over nine tribes, spread over a surface area which covers up to three Divisions in some parts of the country. 

Plea to upgrade Akwaya Subdivision to Division ignored by Y’de 

The Member of Parliament, MP, for Akwaya-Manyu Constituency, Hon Aka Martin Tyoga, has over the years been crying like a baby for Yaounde to upgrade Akwaya Subdivision into a full-fledged Division with new Subdivisions. This, he has often said, is in order to end the suffering the population goes through before getting basic services from State representatives and the overbearing influence of Nigerians in the area. 

The MP had said bringing administration closer to the people would usher in development and security to the people. He regretted that Akwaya Subdivision, created in 1963 like Fontem Subdivision in the South West Region, and Ngwanefor Subdivision in the North West Region, have all been upgraded to Lebialem Division and Momo respectively, while Akwaya still remains a Subdivision. 

He had further stated that Fondong Subdivision, which is today Boyo Division, Ndop Subdivision, now Ngoketunjia Division, and Bangem Subdivision, now Kupe Muanenguba, were long upgraded while Akwaya Subdivision, with close to 140,000 inhabitants with abundant untapped resources from timber, cocoa, which are all exported to neighbouring Nigeria, has remained on the same spot. 

The CPDM lawmaker had revealed that traditional rulers take close to seven days, trekking from Assaka, Amasi, Ballin, Dadi, Obonyi, Assam, Akwa and Kesham to get to Akwaya town to see the Divisional Officer, while the population treks for many days or spends close to 50,000 FCFA, passing through Nigeria to Mamfe, just to establish their identification papers.  

The MP had also said there was the urgent need to upgrade Assumbo, Boki, Messaga Ekol, Mbulu and Takamanda Customary Court Areas areas to full Subdivisions and the Subdivision to a full Division, especially with the frontier with Nigeria and vastness of the Subdivision with forest, which is becoming a hideout for hardened criminals from neighbouring Nigeria.

Appeal for military base unanswered 

Hon Aka Martin Tyoga had in 2023 made a desperate plea to government to set up a military base in the area as the first emergency needed to save his people from marauding Fulani herdsmen from Nigeria. 

Hon Aka had said heavily armed Fulani herdsmen had invaded communities in Akwaya, slaughtering Cameroonians and razing houses in the process in ways akin to those of the terrorist group, Boko Haram. 

Hon Aka had stressed that a new military base would benefit the population, especially as the lone military base in the area is 32 kilometres away from the theatre of operation of the herdsmen.