Hon. British Ambassador C. E. King and Cameroon Republic President Ahmadou Ahidjo Exchange of Notes
The irony was that back in Yaoundé a Briton, Ambassador C. E. King did exchange notes with Ahidjo thus surreptitiously handling over Southern Cameroons to Cameroon Republic. It was false. If it was not sinister, why was the architect of it all, Foncha not present at Yaoundé to have discussed with the British Ambassador before the exchange of notes? Foncha was representing an independent nation state of Southern Cameroons and an exchange of notes of that magnitude could not have been done without his consent and he just accepted it. Could Foncha have been bribed by a business tycoon cum politician, Paul Soppo Priso of Douala or could the fact that he could not speak French imply that he could be excluded?
Further, could there have been a post Foumban deliberation in Southern Cameroons before that was done? What reason was there for such a rush by Ahidjo who unanimously annulled the idea of a loose federation? You can see that hardship and bitter feelings engendered by forced union as in Czechoslovakia before they separated as sensible peoples. Why could British Cameroons and Cameroon Republic learn from that lesson? What of Rwanda and Burundi that did not waste time as British Cameroons and Cameroon Republic before separating? They were of the same status as Cameroon Republic and the British Cameroons. Once more, why did Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador, Mr. C.E. King accept to exchange Notes of transfer of Southern Cameroons to Cameroun Republic with Ahmadou Ahidjo on September 27, 1961 when Britain could not even show up at the Foumban Conference as observers?
The exchange of Notes of Transfer meant that Britain accepted the shoddy Foumban Conference agreement and that it did not matter sidelining the British Cameroons. We are told that British Cameroons was a gift from Queen Elizabeth II of Britain and Dominions to the French. Why could they not allow Quebec Province in Canada to go to France that was already French if they were fair? What was done by the British plenipotentiary in Yaoundé and Ahidjo cannot be accepted in any just, democratic society where there are rule of law and order. |
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If not that it was sinister, as shown by the 1961 plebiscite that was carefully stage-managed including successive partitioning of the British Cameroons, why were its citizens not consulted? Did they ask what was becoming of (British) Northern Cameroons in the process? If the British Northern Cameroons was cut off from the south as was North Vietnam for administrative convenience, why were the plebiscites carried out separately? Why were both results not counted as one if at all British Cameroons was one as it was supposed to be? People could not be cut from one section and pasted onto another as if they were commodities. Are we not seeing what balkanization meant in the Balkan? Who likes that mutilation? British Cameroons is one and indivisible entity well documented in archives and published documents.
The new District Officer of Jakiri County in his inaugural speech October 2007 stated that "British Cameroons was forever going to be with Cameroon Republic." The ever mute Mr. Paul Biya, President of Cameroun Republic on one of his campaigns to cajole (British) Southern Cameroons to keep on allowing them to be ridden as horses sang a chorus which he made Southern Cameroonians to repeat after him: "I was born a Cameroonian and will die a Cameroonian." Those were signs of panicky and intimidation. Remember the squinting-eye Mr. Ian Smith once stated after the UDI in the then Southern Rhodesia that in 1,000 years Africans would not govern themselves. President Robert Mugabe and many proved him wrong. Africans may look backward in the eyes of their enemies but the truth is that Africans have never stolen or enslaved other people to make their wealth. In all of Africa only British Cameroons, (Southern Sudan, Darfur) and Western Sahara are yet to be truly independent. Do you accept a relationship of a rider and a horse when you are going into partnership with someone? In the relationship of the British Cameroons and Cameroon Republic, the British Cameroons had ever been the horse and Cameroon Republic the rider. Such an arrangement is ephemeral even when sustained through the use of force, it ends up in explosions. The people of British Cameroons are asking for the unconditional withdrawal of Cameroon Republic from their territory they have been riding on. What people ask for cannot be suppressed. |
