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THE REORGANIZATION OF SOUTHERN CAMEROONS NATIONAL COUNCIL-NORTH AMERICA (SCNC-NA): THE ADVENT OF A NEW POLITICAL DYNAMISM

The history of the SCNC in North America is one that is replete with mucky intrigues, twisted organizational maneuvers, grubby and often hastily patched up compromises, more often than not, stimulated by irresistible greedy proclivities and an implacable and devious resolve by some unscrupulous leaders to rummage and extort from the pockets of Southern Cameroonian refugees trudging in increasingly gruesome and debilitating conditions. The incongruity becomes grimmer when one realizes the fact that Southern Cameroonians who are fodder for these exploitative machinations are barely struggling to catch their last breathe and reconstitute a formidable force to reclaim their lost territory. In spite of the fact that the people of Southern Cameroons have been subjected to an acute pauperization and to one of the most vile and contemptuous regimes in recent memory, the effete Southern Cameroonian leadership, seemingly out of touch with the reality of the Southern Cameroonian problem, has not helped in any way to rescue what has been justifiably perceived as an increasingly grisly and repressive colonization of the people of Southern Cameroons by the blood thirsty regime of La Republique du Cameroun. Regrettably, this unpalatable trajectory has inadvertently emboldened Mr. Biya and his surrogates to show a scant regard to all attempts by the people of Southern Cameroons to assuage the systematic marginalization of the Anglophones. Mr. Biya already has the template for fastening the scurrilous shackles on the ankles of the Anglophones. Recently Mr. Biya and his surrogates, underhandedly and bald-facedly forced a heavily flawed and indiscreet scheme through the throats of Southern Cameroonians with Bill No. 819/PJL/AN, a calculated ploy to eternalize his grip on power. Even more troublingly curious, is a provision shielding him from indictment for any crime committed during his tenure, an astute ploy to inoculate him from palpable recrimination when the course of history runs full swing. Before the reorganization of SCNC-NA, divisive tendencies and the related hydra demon problem of factionalism had infested the movement in North America and the struggle had degenerated into a miasma of trivial flaps, as each faction feigned indignation, angled for any edge and persistently claimed that the other faction was hitting below the belt. Such contretemps, skirmishes, tit for tat charges, divisive and conflict ridden tendencies yielded no discernible advantage and the bickering was not only derisive but regretfully validated a piece of conventional wisdom among Southern Cameroonians that they are their own worst enemies. This state of affairs obviously sapped the vitality of the movement and was observably not in the best interest of the struggle. It was against the backdrop of unremitting bickering that the architect of the proclamation, Justice Frederick Alobwede Ebong intervened and restructured a battered and scruffy movement which was slowly but perceptibly heading to an abysmal failure. He realized that putting new wine in old bottles will only achieve minimal respite, make a farce of a worthy scheme and as time ensues; the pernicious and odious political climate will resurface. To achieve his goal of completely overhauling the movement in North America, he employed his firebrand political style, political savvy, instinctive and radical impulse, his uncommon ability to make use of nerdy details, tactical ingenuity, the vast breadth of his vision and a combination of the eloquence of a psalmist with the timing of a jungle cat to bring to a screeching halt a network suffused with a troubled and menacing satchel of problems such as racketeering, corruption and sexual scandals perpetuated and typified by the previous administrations. The men at the helm of the previous administrations had tarnished the image of SCNC in North America with greed. They were dubious, irresponsible, infinitely stubborn, sleazy, creepy, unapologetically and even devilishly hedonistic and often impossible to control. Their actions were antithetical to the aspirations and expectations of the people of Southern Cameroons in North America. They barely had even the vaguest affinity to the home front movement and their activities were at best tenuous or at worst, embarrassingly counter-productive in popularizing the cause and galvanizing the requisite support for the movement. The indefatigable President Designate of the Federal Republic of Southern Cameroons, H. E Justice Frederick A. Ebong was justifiably concerned with what was faintly but discernibly becoming an unpalatable trajectory and a leadership that had patently lost its bearings in its pursuit of the goals and objectives of the struggle. The palpability of the deepening sense of odium was exceedingly apparent as the movement in North America was unquestionably losing its steam evidenced by a lethargic political participation and involvement in the struggle and there was a general consensus that it will take only a leader with an ironclad reputation for honesty, integrity and stubborn tenacity to reenergize a besieged movement. The President Designate, often and aptly described as a living and breathing fragment of history and a fire-eater who had survived a political hurricane in Cameroon under the most vile, loathsome and ferocious regime of Mr. Biya, intermittently dodged a litany of assassination attempts, had a temporary refuge in Nigeria and ultimately flung by providence to the Free World(USA), was in the right place at the right time to give the struggle another revolutionary twist and the much needed political lubricant for a major onslaught. The president Designate’s inexorable resolve to overhaul the movement in North America was a function of the fact that he had endured an awesome catalog of trials, grief, terror, medical complications and a 14 months incarceration at a National Gendarmerie’s dungeon (The Lake) in Yaoundé under the most disparaging and abhorrent conditions that is fathomable because of his unalloyed and unbridled commitment to the Southern Cameroons’ cause. His visceral understanding of the dynamics of the struggle brought to the fore the absurdity of folding his hands and watching a movement he had nurtured and sustained, watered down by a gang of “Presby” garden variety political hacks. Such a realization assured the President Designate that torpedoing the old political dispensation was not only a matter of expediency but a situation that had to be handled with an unmeasured urgency, a concern harbored by a sizeable chunk of the Southern Cameroonian populace in North America and a coterie of the movement’s founding fathers who unquestionably felt that the movement in America, the bastion of democratic values, should be steered robustly while graspingly preserving its integrity and credibility so that it could serve as an example to be emulated by other Southern Cameroonian liberation groups in the Diaspora, a sentiment premised on a logic so gripping to prove alluring to even the most reactionary activist.

The reorganization of SCNC-NA was a worthy political move guided by a desire to recalibrate a beleaguered movement, restore its integrity and credibility and snuff out all furtive and shady proclivities that had tainted the image of the movement in North America. When the President Designate resettled to the United States on February 21st 2006, he was appalled beyond measure by what he saw as a multiplicity of disparate factions, more often than not, guided by hideous and ulterior motives. He determinedly set out to bring the various incongruent factions under one canopy. He called for a conciliatory conference at the Blackburn Center in Howard University on September 23rd 2006 ostensibly, to iron out perceived discrepancies and usher in a new political dispensation. Such a gesture resonated among the Southern Cameroonian populace in the US and was greeted with an overdose of approbation because there was an overwhelming hunger for unity and change. The Blackburn Conference created a propitious climate for elections and paved the way for the elections of October 29th 2006.The election led to the installation of Eric Tita-moh Takwi at the helm of a new executive. Regrettably, barely three months afterward, perhaps as they were still struggling to master the rubrics of the office, they were engrossed by serious allegations of impropriety, corruption and sexual scandals. The situation was accentuated by the fact that some members of the out going executive led by Larry Eyong adamantly refused to relinquish power and continued to operate from obscurity. These allegations, coupled with continuous and intractable fighting between the outgoing executive and the newly elected executive, resulted to paralysis and loss of credibility and integrity of the SCNC leadership. This scenario complicated the situation of Southern Cameroonian refugees applying for asylum and seeking immigration status in the US as the two factions engaged in a fierce and often truculent competition in issuing sworn affidavits and making court appearances on their behalves. Consequently, the cases of Southern Cameroonians were adjoined sine die pending investigation into the alleged cases of impropriety. The wrangling between the two factions shredded the fabric of a struggle that had gained a lot of traction because of the sustained assiduity, tenacity and obstinacy with which most of Southern Cameroonians have resiliently fought to put an end to the scurrilous colonization of their territory. H.E Justice Frederick A. Ebong, who had always conveyed the impression of a rock, an unflappable presence during the most difficult moments of the evolution of the struggle, was the only ultimate and reasonable alternative to dim-witted machismo of political drudge to rescue an unfortunate and grave situation. He used his untrammeled executive authority vested on him by the Constituent Assembly Resolution Nos FRSC/CA/001/2000 and FRSC/CA/002/2000 of May 1st and 2nd 2000 which appointed him as the President Designate of the Federal Republic of Southern Cameroons and the National Chairman of Southern Cameroons National Council to take conservatory measures to protect the integrity of the liberation movement. Consequently, he suspended the two fighting factions - the amorphous out going executive of Larry Eyong and the hubristic newly elected executive of Eric Tita-moh Takwi on January 31st 2007 and appointed an interim committee to manage the affairs of the SCNC-NA for a period not exceeding six months, after which elections were to be held to come up with a legitimate executive under his watch. Elections were accordingly, conducted on October 28th 2007 and the newly elected executive was sworn into office on November 11th 2007.

The decision to re-organize SCNC-NA was a responsible decision taken after a meticulous and conscious consideration and in restructuring SCNC-NA; the framer took great pains in avoiding the loopholes which led to the excesses which ruined the previous administrations. The President Designate has inelastic latitude to modify or completely scrape the decisions of the executive of SCNC-NA if they are at variance with the goals and expectations of the struggle. The executive of SCNC-NA is completely subservient to the President Designate and his cabinet. This precludes a possibility of operating without recourse to his unrestrained authority. The successes of the present executive have been astonishing, to say the least. The leadership has revealed an obsessive and obdurate commitment to the goals and aspirations of the movement. It has demonstrably shunned the twisted, selfish, nefarious maneuverings and pervasive institutionalized corruption which were akin to the previous administrations. Recently the leadership got a ringing endorsement from the General Assembly when it presented a statement of account, a move which was perceived as a palpable demonstration of accountability and transparency, a tenet which eluded the grasp of the previous administrations. The leadership of SCNC-NA organized an earth shattering demonstration at the US Capitol on March 12th 2008 against Biya’s surreptitious and arbitrary attempt to revise the constitution and sustain the illegal occupation of Southern Cameroons indefinitely. The demonstration was an astounding success as the reverberations of it elicited national consciousness among Southern Cameroonians. SCNC-NA runs a Newsletter, “The Southern Cameroons Voice” which handles the cutting edge issues of the politics of Southern Cameroons with greater effusiveness and less analytical precision. The newsletter, astutely coordinated by its unfaltering Editor in Chief, Lambert Mbom, offers an incredible platter where the goals and objectives of the struggle are illuminated, analyzed and promoted.

Essentially, the reorganization of SCNC-NA was a monumental move in the history of the movement in North America. It was a harbinger of a new political dynamism that had been the dream of Southern Cameroonians in North America for a considerable period of time. It had a transformative and cataclysmic effect on a movement which is unwaveringly committed to launching a truculent and fierce assault on one of the most despicable and obnoxious regimes in modern time. It was equally an unambiguous message to the Southern Cameroonian leadership in the Diaspora to quash the political culture bequeathed by La Republique du Cameroun which maintained that corruption and devious maneuverings was an appropriate mode of governance while accountability and transparency was merely considered a disguised form of self interest subversive to public welfare. A cursory assessment of the present political trajectory gives even the most tepid Southern Cameroonian in North America a glimmer of hope as the reorganized SCNC-NA has demonstrably shunned the shady and nefarious hinges which sustained the edifice of previous administrations and contributed to their ineptitude and loss of credibility.

-   JUDE A OZUGHEN Secretary General SCNC-USA Tel: 240:595:9602