Cameroon: Another Foumban, Another Referendum, Another Federalism

Mwalimu George Ngwane*

I was surprised but not shocked that the question on Federalism was not asked by journalists during the Press conference President Paul Biya jointly hosted with the visiting French President, Francois Hollande at the Unity Palace on July 3 2015. Yet for close to three months successively, the media have been awash with headline stories about the All Anglophone Lawyers’ Declaration on federalism; the South West Chiefs’ Conference’s unprecedented stance on Anglophone marginalization; the South West Elite Association’s reiterated stand on federalism; the pro-federalist utterances by francophone intellectuals like Prof. Mathias Eric Owona Nguini, Noucti Tchokwago and Prof. Maurice Kamto; Christian Cardinal Tumi’s interview in which he stated categorically that “if Anglophones are given another Referendum, they would rather leave Cameroon”; Ben Muna’s clarion call for another Referendum to determine the Southern Cameroon’s new option; Honourable Cyprian Awudu Mbaya’s crusade against the lopsided policies of bilingualism in Cameroon; and behold, the petition signed by fifty Anglophone lawmakers and addressed to President Paul Biya over the ‘boko haramisation’ of the constitutional status of English language and Anglophones in the country.