Anglophone as Head of State: Panacea for armed conflict in NW, SW.

This was justifiably so, because at the time, the country was not witnessing any internal conflict like the ongoing bloodletting in the North West and South West Regions.

Government efforts back then were focused on securing the country’s borders from Boko Haram incursions in the Far Northern Region.

Distressingly, for the past eight years, the much-parroted peace is fast disappearing and the country gradually descending into an abyss of violence, due to the armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions.

The conflict has for over eight years been seriously threatening the very foundation of the country’s much trumpeted unity, social cohesion and living together. 

It has caused untold suffering on the population, with over 6,000 deaths recorded, hundreds of thousands rendered internally displaced and thousands of others living under dire conditions as refugees in Nigeria. 

Observers say the conflict has further dragged the marginalised North West and South West Regions about five decades backward in terms of development in all ramifications.

Government’s early crack down on peaceful Anglophone protesters, its highhandedness in handling of some of the most basic concerns raised by common law lawyers and teachers, radicalised and pushed many to the extremes of picking up arms against the State. 

The regime’s ‘hammer-and-lies’ strategy (military force and disinformation), adopted at the onset of the crisis to exhaust protesters, rather than submit to their worries, made many to doubt even government’s measures that could end up proffering solutions to the ongoing crisis.

The main trigger of the lingering conflict in the North West and South West Regions has been the marginalisation of Anglophones; to the point some now think they are treated as second class citizens and even deprived of what is and should have been theirs.

The raging conflict has its roots from the Foumban Conference, which envisaged a power rotation; that, if a Francophone is president, his vice must be an Anglophone and vice versa. 

For over six decades, Francophones have monopolised the apex job and squeezed Anglophones to the marginal fourth position of the ladder of power.

Biya regime running out of ideas to resolve conflict 

When President Biya, at the peak of the armed conflict in 2018, ‘controversially’ secured another mandate at the helm of the State, the hope of many was for him to use his charismatic wisdom to resolve the conflict in the two English-speaking Regions.

But less than a year to the end of his current seven-year mandate, the crisis appears to be taking a different dimension, with guns still smoking in bushes and innocent lives wasted daily. 

With presidential election drawing close and the inability of the Biya regime to resolve the conflict, many are unanimous that it is time for an Anglophone to take over the affairs of the State. 

As per the assessment of many conflict experts and political scientists, the regime in place has literally run out of ideas in handling the conflict.

These experts say the urgent need to consolidate the shaky state of the country’s unity requires urgent solutions to the conflict. 

Such, they added, can only be through a change at the helm of the State that would bring in fresher inclusive ideas and tactics in addressing the crisis. 

The change, many who are clamouring for speedy return to normalcy in the English-speaking Regions aver, should be that which shoots an Anglophone to the coveted position of Head of State. 

This, political watchers and international crisis experts say, will be a bold step by the Biya-led regime towards appeasing the aggrieved Anglophones who have for long been feeling abandoned in a union that they came into on equal basis in 1961.

CPDM should invest Anglophone as candidate 

The calls for an Anglophone to be President, keen observers also say, is timely, given that the 2025 presidential election is drawing close. 

Observers add that such can only come to fruition if the ruling CPDM party bigwigs begin by endorsing an Anglophone as candidate of the party for the upcoming election. 

It is on this score that many political watchers are urging diehard CPDM barons to abandon their hypocritical calls for President Biya, 92, to seek re-election and search for an Anglophone candidate.

They challenge party bigwigs to, for the sake of the country, push the agenda for an Anglophone to be invested as candidate for the forthcoming poll. 

These political analysts also think it is time for Biya, who is natural candidate of the ruling CPDM, to use his wisdom to quit the stage when the applause is loudest and make the wise decision to “return to the village,” by passing the baton of command to an Anglophone. 

Others further argue that another step towards this is for the ruling CPDM party, which has been in power for over four decades, to amend its internal text to rotate the post of party president, who automatically becomes presidential candidate. 

They further buttress their argument with the fact that at the moment, the party has no Anglophone, even on the front seat, after the death of its Deputy National President, Fon Angwafor.

Anglophone as magic wand for armed conflict in NW, SW

In the present dicey context, an Anglophone as president, many international governance experts argue, would do everything possible to solve the conflict and address the root causes of the Anglophone crisis.

An Anglophone as President, they strongly posit, will build an inclusive society that will quell sentiments of secession and revive national unity.

It is a conviction held by global good governance heavyweight and Senior Associate and Regional Director for West and Central Africa at the National Democratic Institute, NDI, Dr Christopher Fomunyoh. 

In a recent media outing, Dr Fomunyoh had stated categorically that it is time for an Anglophone to become Cameroon’s next Head of State.

The revered US-based Cameroonian was firm that “it is that lack of sense of belonging that is stirring up the conflict in the North West and South West Regions”. 

He had also said an Anglophone as Head of State, will “be able to address the grievances of Cameroonians across the board and be able to give citizens a sense of belonging”.

According to Dr Fomunyoh, an Anglophone with credentials, who has proven his/her worth can fix the country. He sees the cultural upbringing of Anglophones, which has embedded them “values of fairness, of justice, of equity and equilibrium vis-à-vis everyone” as a plus in leadership. 

Having an indigene of either the North West or South West Region as Head of State, Dr Fomunyoh had further argued, “will be another major way of sending a message across to citizens that all Cameroonians are equal”.

This step, he had explained, “is a way of showing that every Cameroonian is a hundred percent a citizen of Cameroon...there is no second-class citizen”. 

Others who are versed with the country’s geopolitics are unanimous that an Anglophone as Head of State will be a bold step towards ending the conflict in the English-speaking Regions. 

With the panoply of options and measures engaged by government unable to silent the smoking guns and restore normalcy, observers are saying makes it urgent to give an Anglophone the chance to deal with the mater once and for all.

Many are also arguing and strongly so, that even if the CPDM egocentric pecking order wants to maintain its Francophone hegemony, the opposition should step in boldly and present a single presidential candidate who should be an Anglophone.

Such a candidate, they add, will likely flush out the CPDM and serve as panacea to the disturbing conflict in the two English-speaking Regions. 

Power rotation option 

Power rotation, as captured by writer, E.S. Staveley, in his 1972 book titled: “Greek and Roman Voting and Elections”, is a political "…trajectory where the average citizen would gain active experience in every aspect of local governance, from finance to foreign policy”.

Many democracies have practised rotation in office, which have occasionally required certain political officials to step down and allow others to take their places.

As part of efforts aimed at resolving the conflict in the North West and South West Regions, many are also urging the Head of State to strongly consider the option of a rotating presidency, and give Anglophones a shot at the nation’s top job, come October 2025. 

This, they argue, makes much meaning as the first two Heads of State, since reunification in 1961, have been Francophones.

The 1961 Reunification, they further argue, was forged on the condition that if a Francophone is president, the vice shall be an Anglophone and "vice versa".

For some 63 years, Francophones have been on the driving seat, while indigenes of North West and South West Regions, who in the worst scenario would have been second in command, have been humiliated and relegated to the fourth position on the ladder of power.

Division within Francophone-dominated regime 

It is no secret that the Biya regime has long been fragmented into camps, with some adopting positions of hardliners.

Such hardliners, many of whom are said to be benefiting from the conflict, political watchers say, have frustrated the genuine moves aimed at resolving the armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions; such as the Swiss-led peace dialogue and the Canada-led secret “pre-talks”. 

The lack of unity within the system, analysts say, has further bolstered the strong conviction that only a new captain in the ship of State, in this case an Anglophone, can overhaul the system and proffer urgent solutions to the deadly conflict in the North West and South West Regions, and other national issues. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3268 of Wednesday October 23, 2024