Interview: Cameroon’s history, political evolution through Senator Nfor Tabetando’s lenses.

Senator Nfor Tabetando Ndiep Nso revisited the mutations of the past decades within the polity leading to present day Cameroon, unveiling his experiences in a recent interview granted the state-owned Cameroon Radio and Television, CRTV. This was during a special radio production titled, Witness of History.

In the revealing interview, Senator Nfor Tabetando gave his personal experiences, touching on the difficulties of life during the Ahidjo era. 

He also took delight in the wind of change that President Paul Biya ushered Cameroon into in 1982 when he ascended to the highest public office of the country, opening up the political space for freedoms and liberty. 

The traditional ruler also revisited Cameroon’s thorny path to reunification and justified the mounting calls for the Head of State, President Paul Biya to seek another mandate among other issues of the past and present. 

Full excerpts. 

Senator Nfor Tabetando, Vice President of the Senate, traditional ruler of Bachuo-Ntai village in Manyu Division of the South West Region and member of the Central Committee of the CPDM. Thanks for accepting our invitation to be guest on the programme, Witness of History!

Thank you for inviting me for this discussion. I am particularly grateful that history will be retold that I too contributed to retelling the history of the past, particularly the political evolution of our country, Cameroon. 

Let us begin with the creation of Southern Cameroons in 1954, which was a merger of the Southern Province, composed of Victoria, Kumba, Mamfe and the Bamenda Province made up of Bamenda, Wum and Nkambe. Do you have any recollection of this period? How was life and politics like in the early days of Southern Cameroons firstly; under the late Dr EML Endeley and then the late John Ngu Foncha as Premier?

Again, I have to thank you for drawing my attention to this period, particularly under the era of Dr EML Endeley and John Ngu Foncha, our forerunners in the political events that took place within these periods. Coincidentally, this period falls during my green days in primary school. More of these, we were thought in schools, not that I lived it, but I knew the people at the time. We were in Standard 4, 5 and 6. During that period, politicians came one after the other to the different classrooms to give us a brief history of what was happening in our country, notably Motombi Woleta, PM Kale and John Ngu Foncha himself, among whom were people like Chief Nsosie, S.A. George, and the rest. We were given a brief history about what was happening within the context of Pan-Cameroon being associated in parliament in Nigeria, under the umbrella of National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, NCNC.

That was before independence, which French Cameroon achieved on January 1, 1960, with the late Ahmadou Ahidjo as President. One year later, that is on the 11^th of February 1961, Southern Cameroons voted to become independent by joining French Cameroon in a United Nations-organised Plebiscite. Where were you then and how did you live this period?

We were then moving to secondary school and of course, as I said before, civic education was one of the most interesting lessons that we were thought. We were told that Cameroonians had started agitating about acquiring their own independence, rather than being ruled as a mandated territory, under Nigeria and France. 

So, they felt a sense of consciousness being Cameroonians. If other countries had attained independence, why not their own country, Cameroon? There were dissenting voices within the Eastern House of Assembly in Enugu and there was the creation of Cameroon Youth League. Some belonged to the political school of thought that they should pull out to see how they could persuade and form a pressure group to make sure that Southern Cameroons as it was, be given its own autonomy; even though the United Nations felt that Southern Cameroons had not yet come to maturity that could be given its own independence. 

So, these dissenting voices came out and eventually, they were now allowed to group themselves together. Some were under the Cameroon Youth League, some came out with different forms of political names like Union Cameroon, One Cameroon, etc. And this was eventually merged to say ‘No’, the 13 of us who were in the Eastern House of Assembly said we should break out to see how the British or the United Nations can give us our own independence status, and that is what happened. 

When this happened, Foncha had a different view. This time, he could not go along with EML Endeley, who wanted that we should attain independence by still being with Nigeria but could have our own independence by going to our brothers. So, the United Nations divided into two, French and English Cameroon. French speaking Cameroonians in the East and Anglophones who were then in Nigeria. So, they opted to stand and contest, lobby our people that it was better to go and accept a Plebiscite so as to determine their fate politically. 

Before that plebiscite, there was some apprehension about joining French Cameroon and some political leaders even campaigned against the option. As you said, people like EML Endeley preferred independence by joining with Nigeria. What was this fear about?

Yes, fears existed particularly, going about with Nigeria. When we were under Nigeria, there was a lot of domination of Cameroonians by the Igbos. Southern Cameroonians were being dominated by the Igbos. Then, NCNC, headed by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, was the party that Southern Cameroonians were part of. So, Nigerians dominated and Southern Cameroonians had no identity, and felt that if they continued with Nigeria, the domination will be too much and they would have no identity. So, that fear was there and the other points from EML Endeley was that, the French culture was strange to the Southern Cameroons because they had their own way of life and own administrative style, which might not be the same in their feeling and ways of doing things. 

Endeley then fronted that we should rather go to Nigeria, rather than going with our brothers in the East. This was the bone of contention, culturally and politically.

Foncha wanted union with French Cameroon. So, there was a general feeling of brotherliness that East Cameroonians were already our brothers. It was the UN that came and break them into two to form mandated territories, so they should come back with their brothers. That was the reason for the plebiscite. 

The plebiscite questions were: Would you like to attain independence by joining East Cameroon, or would you like to attain independence by joining Nigeria? The plebiscite was conducted under the control and management of the United Nations. 

The results came out absolutely clear and showed that there was a reason to move with our brothers of the East. Afterall, the French language was just used to divide us but not naturally. We were already brothers, Cameroonians. 

Is that why the Foumban Constitutional Conference was held in July 1961, between delegates from French Cameroon and Southern Cameroons, to agree on the form of unifying Cameroon?

Indeed, the plebiscite came and was conducted and the overwhelming majority of the result joining with brothers was declared. Now, having been declared, there were two people who were managed under the foreign cultures, English and French languages, now we have come back as brothers and sisters, we should now fashion out the kind of administration that we want. The form of constitutional arrangement we want. That was what took place between English-speaking and French-speaking Cameroonians in Foumban.

I remember the bold message written to receive the Southern Cameroons delegation: “How nice it is to meet our brothers”. It told it all! It was on October 1, 1961 that Southern Cameroons was officially declared independent as part of the Federal Republic of Cameroon and was renamed the Federated State of West Cameroon, while the French-speaking part was named as the Federated State of East Cameroon. What memories do you have of the government of West Cameroon with its multi-party politics before this merger?

Exactly! When the two entities reunified, Southern Cameroons already had a culture of multiparty system, which was going on in Nigeria and that is why they had the NCNC, action groups, etc. They worked under political groupings. As they came together as one and indivisible Cameroon as it were, they wanted to fashion out a type of political cultural group to manage their own affairs. And so, these parties were naturally going to come together and they agreed to come together and form a party called the Cameroon National Union, CNU.

It was in September 1966 that the then President Ahmadou Ahidjo dissolved all other political parties and created the Cameroon National Union, CNU, which became the single party with himself as chairman. Was this willingly accepted by West Cameroon politicians who had been used to a multiparty system of governance?

Well, it was because there was no pressure mounted to say that anybody should not accept this or accept that, simply because they had seen that the existence of multi parties was certainly uneconomical. It was found that it would not be easy for a small country that had yet not attain its own maturity to have several political parties. 

So, they accepted to group themselves under one political party that was going to create an atmosphere possible for people to agree in parliament on what developmental issues to take or pursue without having dissenting voices in parliament. That was accepted and so the CNU was accepted. 

Mr Vice President of the Senate, this very important date, May 20, 1972, that was the day that saw Cameroonians galvanised to vote in a referendum in favour of a unitary state. The federal form of government was disbanded and the name of the country changed from Federal Republic of Cameroon to United Republic of Cameroon. How did you appreciate this change?

I think, to all intends and purposes, politically, most of the Southern Cameroonians were happy about this. Happy because the cost of running two governments was difficult financially. 

They had not actually taken a database of their resources, neither had they started exploiting these. So, they felt that to allow the two governments to exist, it would not be to the interest of the country. So, they realised that it was better to merge all. 

Moreso, most Southern Cameroonians, now West Cameroonians, were interested in seeing that they had one principal government, which was the federal government. This was also because they heard in East Cameroon, the condition of work, the salaries were better than those of West Cameroon. 

They felt that it was more business in East Cameroon and so the businessmen in West Cameroon were encouraged to extend their businesses to East Cameroon, so that they could make a lot of profit. There was some degree of happiness. It was after that, that people started agitating. Before there was a preponderance of people accepting the merger. 

After having ruled the country for 22 years, President Ahidjo decided to resign on November 4, 1982. Two days later, that was on November 6, 1982, his constitutional successor, Paul Biya, was sworn-in as president. First of all, where were you when the news of the resignation of President Ahidjo broke out and how did you react to it?

Yes. Thank you, Freddy. That was a period of great memory to be registered. And indeed, I was already a practicing lawyer as I still am, based in Douala. We had lived under a system where the political administration and the administrative instruments of the country, the law, were quite hard and were very, very much felt at all levels within the country. And they could never have been any thoughts that there could be a change and a drastic change for that matter. A change that would come without notice; because people lived perpetually in fear of doing anything or saying anything which was deemed to be something that could be called sedition. 

So, people lived in that situation and felt they couldn’t have been a change like that. Why this change? Why abruptly? Why? Why? Why? There must be something behind this and it was total fear that people lived in their homes without moving out. Some of course, in the cities. Yaounde itself. 

I remember we were still in court. Because as it were, we used to be in court till 8p.m., 9p.m., 10p.m…it kept people agape with mouths opened to hear what would come out next. That was the message that came out and the news came out. A resignation. Without reasons. Just personal health reasons, he said. 

And of course, that was not kindly received because we were not sure of the future. What was going to happen the next day and that was what happened. And so, there was a lot of fear and tension. There was a lot of doubts created. All till the oath was taken by the present president, nobody knew it was going to be so. 

What did you know of Mr. Biya before he became president in 1982? 

Well, I must tell you that as a young lawyer, who was just returning to the country, I knew there was the institution of the Head of State. And the Prime Minister then was Mr. Biya. I knew him as a catholic. I knew him as one who I was told and informed and I do believe that he was a seminarian. He went back to school to complete university and then took up a career in the civil service. I knew he definitely was going to be a decent leader. 

I knew him to be a decent man. I knew that his father was a catechist as we were told. And therefore, from that background, he couldn’t be anybody that would be doubted to occupy a public office as the President of the Republic. 

Particularly so, we knew that he had worked with the outgoing president and he knew the mechanism and the machinery of government and therefore he was certainly going to do something more and improve upon the system. 

That was an undoubted situation. That in itself, was the kind of person I had in mind. And that in itself, is the kind of person I still have in mind now. That is why he is doing so well as Cameroon’s Head of State. 

Barely two years into office, there was an attempted coup to oust President Paul Biya on April 6, 1984. What memory do you keep of this failed coup, believed to have been masterminded by forces loyal to the former president? 

Frederick, it was a sad situation to imagine that a decent man, a decent child, a decent boy born of a beautiful family, Christian family, had just taken office. He had not yet come out with a roadmap for what he wanted to do for his country. At least, they would have given him five years before they summited analysis in assessment of what he had done and what he was not doing, then such an attempt could have been made. 

But this was premature. It wasn’t even supposed to come. So, it is not even the question of saying premature but its assessment, if anybody had done it at all, was wrong to say that they should oust him. And, they may be some misguided enthusiasts who masterminded that. 

And so, that attempt was frowned at by many. That is why as at today, nobody thinks about it. Nobody wants to think about it because Cameroonians understand that coup d’états don’t help. Coup d’états come to destroy and create tension and sufferings. 

That is why you find that there is a lot of unanimity among all Cameroonians now, about forging ahead about the social development of our country. I don’t think that it may happen again. 

Senator Nfor Tabetando, you are now a convinced and I should say, a convincing member of the ruling CPDM. Tell us, what year did you join party politics? 

I must say that my political inclination is predicated to the fact that my uncle, of blessed memory, Chief Emmanuel Egbe Tabi, was an active member of politics generally. When I came back from university, he was already in government and as a I said, I found in him, an astute politician. I found in him, a man who liked community development and fair play. A man who liked to represent his people, defend and protect their interest and also seeing good for the general interest of his people. 

Secondly, I did law and I found that the first thing to do as a lawyer is to defend the defenseless, to protect the downtrodden, to lobby for the good and benefit of the old, the young, the community you live in and to bring positive changes in the society. 

I had found out that CNU was then replaced. It became a party for the people. CNU was now a platform for people to sit and discuss the development of their area. And I automatically joined CNU. From there when its metaphors itself to the CPDM and the former party was dissolved (and the CPDM took on) and so I carried on with that till today.     

You are talking of the CPDM, which was formed on March 12, 1985, in Bamenda. You were already a member of the CNU before it became the CPDM, which you joined. How was the transition from the CNU to the CPDM? Was there anything that changed in your political life after this transformation? 

Tremendously. We all saw the character, Paul Biya and a man who had something to offer Cameroonians. We saw a man who knew how society could be organised for the benefit of all. We saw a man who loves his people without discrimination, had in mind democratic principles and practices. 

Before, you had instruments putting everybody under strict control. Cameroonians had no independence of thinking, no independence of organising once self, to assemble to voice out their opinions and views. Unlike the late Ahidjo, President Biya said he had brought the CPDM for political competition. Not long after that, he ushered in multi-partism in Cameroon.

It was from that time that he said people should get ready for competition. We all saw Biya as a leader who does not discriminate in the discharge of state duties. When he took over power, Cameroon had seven Provinces but he decided to increase the number of Provinces. That is why he split the North into three Provinces and gave the opportunity for development on equal pace. 

The year 1990 was politically a very turbulent year, bringing about a return to multiparty politics in our country. What appraisal do you make of this period of political turbulence, especially with the creation of the Social Democratic Front, the SDF?

There is no static system. Immutable, no. Human behavior is unpredictable. Unpredictable because society changes. The wind of change always for culture, for politics, for international relations etc. In your very house, where you are with your wife and children, some of these days, you find a child becoming very radical. Some two children or three or your family, become radical. That is human behavior. 

Human society is one that has a combination of so many people with different ideas and many schools of thoughts. And they are so many people who are idle. Anything you bring to them; they take without reasoning. 

And more so, our communities across the world, are not all developed in one discipline or the other, particularly politics. 

Most of our communities are not, let me not say educated, education has many ramifications, cultural education, native education and what. But some cannot understand certain principles of life. You take the politics we say and the multiparty system that you bring to the country, if you ask people who are following YDP, YDF, YDB and others as political parties, why they are following, they don’t even know. They just know that my countryman is the one who owns the party, so I should follow him.

Was there any fear of other political parties being born because I remember even among the CPDM members, there were people agitating against the creation of other political parties?

Yes. This is what I was giving you as a background. People do not even seem to know, some of those who belong to the CPDM. It is now they are seeing that CPDM is a true party that people should follow. Because they are seeing the achievements, successes and the developmental attainments of CPDM across the whole country, villages, primary schools, nursery schools, health centres etc. So many universities have been created, since President Biya came to power. 

Cameroonians have completely departed from the question of ideology to clans, tribes and regions. That is what is happening. 

However, many have come to reason. That is why many are clamouring for President Biya you have to be their candidate at the 2025 presidential election. Why? Because they are seeing the bright future of Cameroon with President Biya as their leader. They have seen what Biya has done and is still doing for Cameroonians. 

That is why many are asking the question: “Why do we need a change at the helm of state”? Let us declare our intentions now that Papa, we will still vote for you because what you are doing is what we want and for our children yet unborn. 

The constitution of our country does not give an age limit to who should be voted. So long as God keeps you alive and in good health, you can run for the highest office of the land. In fact, the more elderly you are, the better you can handle issues because you have passed through a string of experiences. 

Today there is this fear that we are gradually getting back to the one party system because if we take the recent example of the Senatorial elections where CPDM swept everything and the other opposition parties did not get a single seat at the Senate. Does that not bother you people of the CPDM party?

Instead, it makes us even more comfortable. To show that our people, our principles, our policies, our political philosophy are being understood by Cameroonians. What is wrong with that? That is why I am telling you that people are seeing the advantage, the value of being in a progressive and developmental party that is poised for development, the CPDM. That is why they are now saying we want you Papa Biya for the next presidential election. They are not hiding their feelings. They do not want somebody to come and dictate to them. Tomorrow, if two or three political parties come and say no, we want a change, we want to be candidates, no problem. We go out for the franchise. We see who gets what and who gets how many votes. That is it. More importantly, there is nothing like age limits to be a candidate at the presidential election. If you are 35 years and up to 200 years, you have the right to be candidate.

You were already a lawyer as you served in the English-speaking part of Cameroon. I remember as a primary school pupil, we already used to hear of lawyer Tabetando who was very famous then. And then later you became a famous oil business magnet as well at Euro Oil, yet you persisted in politics until you headed the senatorial list from the South West Region and later you were elected into the first Senate Legislative Period in 2013. What is that thing that keeps you committed to political life in spite of your successes as an individual, as a lawyer, as a business magnet dealing in oil?

Thank you very much. When I came back after my studies as a lawyer, I did not hesitate to join the political wagon for the interest of the community as a community developer. It was not because I had money but to serve the people. I did that not because I wanted to sort of project myself, No! But to be sure that my people are represented. I have their mandate to discuss and look for things for them. And so, making myself visible now to serve the people on the political platform, is thus the wish of the people. 

The essence of coming to the Senate was not necessarily to project my tribe or maybe to look for money which is not there because elsewhere in the world, other senators, in Nigeria have huge sums of money, in Gabon here, our salaries here as senators is nothing to be compared with what those in Gabon earn. 

I came to senate, just so that when President Biya is implementing the bicameral system of legislation, I contribute my own quota. I happen to be a lawyer who knows the history and the evolution of the senate all over the world. I am glad to be one of those who contribute to the mature political system and the democratic system under the leadership of President Biya.

What role do you play as a Senator to ensure that the decentralisation process is effective at the level of the regions?

Certainly, that is what I was saying in different words. We brought out this question of devolution of powers. You can call it decentralisation, call it devolution of powers. We the representatives of the Chiefs of the South West who took part in the 1996 constitutional review, had canvased for some kind of innovations. We wanted the issue of devolution of powers, which is now a decentralised system to come out in the constitution because that per say suggests what you call a federated state. We call it now regions, decentralised regions. It is the same thing. Give it any name, it is the same thing. 

We are comfortable now about decentralisation, which is devolution of powers. We, the Chiefs of the South West region, advocated and it is now in implementation. Therefore, the Senate, as defined by the constitution, is part and parcel of the Regional Assemblies. We are observers when their meetings are taking place. But we have a lot to subscribe to the question of the management of the regions from the assemblies. We have ideas we can sort of slot in through the representative, through the executive of the regions. We have quite a lot to do there. We are also working with municipal councils bringing ideas on how to satisfy the population to keep them busy, to introduce certain projects which at their local levels can benefit the youth and the woman to empower them.

We can also join them to initiate ideas about how they can interact with other regions, how they can interact also with foreign bodies through the constituted procedure set out by the constitution and government. I think it is a salutary thing that finally the decentralisation came in. The 1996 constitution was able to provide a special status clause. And that special status has given the ombudsman position to control or sort of pacify situations in administration within the English-speaking regions. We are happy that as Chiefs of the South West region, we did contribute to the putting in place of the Senate and I find myself as one who is a pioneer Senator for the regime.

And as you said in your portrait in our introduction in this interview you are a traditional ruler of the Bachou Ntai Kingdom in Mamfe, Manyu Division. Do you have any particular role you play in the business of House of Chiefs in your region of course which is a special status conferred to the two English-speaking regions of the North West and South West Regions?

Certainly. I am already a member by definition of that assembly because we have made a choice of who to represent us in the House of Chiefs, where perceptibly, our President is the Vice President of the Regional Assembly. Occasionally, the regional president of the House of Chiefs holds meetings and invites opinions for whatever he wants us to give go him, to present for the interest of the Chiefs in the regional house. More so, whatever the regional house is taken to do for the whole region, villages, subdivisions, etc these are brought to us at the level of the Chiefs Divisional Conferences and Subdivisional Conferences to discuss and then give opinion or give written suggestions to that effect. I think it is a very active system and most people are happy about it. And I am particularly happy that it has come to daylight, thanks to President Paul Biya.

Nfor Senator Tabetando, we know you to be a very culturally oriented Vice President of the Senate. Each time we see you, you are dressed traditionally. What do you do to foster the customs and traditions of your people, whose culture is part of our national cultural heritage?

It is the identity of my cultural values. Suits were meant for lawyers because we have sort of accepted to apply and adopt a system which I studied to become a lawyer but after that as a King of my people, I should be like them. I should eat the food they eat, I should dress like they dress to project my culture because the first identity of a person is his culture. I feel very comfortable to be always in my traditional attire, to depict the culture from where I come. To depict that culture is a beautiful thing. It is an identity which should not be downplayed. That is why in my daily life, you find me dressed as a Bayangi King, or a Sawa King in the general parlance.

Senator Nfor Tabetando Ndieb-Nso, it was an immense pleasure having you to share your wealth of experience with fellow Cameroonians. Thank you so very much for your time?

Thank you, Freddy. I am there to also share with you the views of the other electorate, or other citizens who are interested to see our country move ahead. In fact, we all want the country to move ahead. I am particularly grateful to God to have given me the air to breath now and the life to live. And to see the multifaceted developmental projects that the Head of State, President Paul Biya, has come up with, under the canopy of our party, the CPDM. I am pleased to see that Cameroon is really not emerging but has emerged. 

It just needs now to move faster again. All the facets are moving now to the industrial stage. That is his ambition so that we are going to depend only on exporting our raw materials, making sure that they are finished goods here in the country with markets available to send them to other African and European markets as we are doing. Cameroonians who think that they have not been satisfied in any form, should rethink and join the wagon. 

They should know that they are not fighting for their personal interest but they want everything for the interest of the common good. Those who are dissatisfied because of their personal ego and are sending children to the bush, they should please turn to God and beg for forgiveness for sending their children into the bush. Let those children come back so peace should be re-established, absolute peace not partial. 

Interview transcribed by Njapteh MacWalter, Dewah Fabrice & Beng Emmanuel.