THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS ON THE LAUNCHING OF AWARD 23

• Breaking News
• February 27, 2023

25th February 2023 Ref. No. FRA/0225/23

THE 2023 FEDERAL DRAFT HOSTED BY THE SAVANNA ZONE ON THE 25TH OF FEBRUARY 2023

My Vice President,

The Hon Speaker of the Interim House of Representatives,

Members of Government,

County and LGA Executives,

Civil society leaders,

Supporters and sympathisers at home and abroad.

Fellow Ambazonians,

Let us observe a moment of silence for all innocent civilians killed by French Cameroon, since the beginning of this conflict in 2017, from the Ngarbu Massacre to the CDC Mondoni Massacre, and those who are being massacred by lone wolves, so-called LRC special forces and their despicable proxies passing for vigilantes, with the hope that they succeed to tag the Ambazonian struggle as organized terrorism. Let us not forget our valiant Ambazonia Restoration Forces (ARFs) who are doing a phenomenal job to defend our people facing annihilation. A moment Please…

May their souls rest in power!

My People,

I love the Savanna Zonal Command made up of Ngoketunjia, Bui, Boyo, Menchum and Donga Mantung. Fellow Ambazonians, we are hosted today by the people and warriors of these five great counties in recognition of their place in this struggle.

The first in any order is a reference and a standard for others.

That is why it is not easy to be in the first position. I commend all our dynamic County Chairs and LGA Executives and patriots here present for their exemplary mobilization and hospitality.

Thank you for your kind words of welcome.

I want to salute all our genuine brave ARFs, the community gatekeepers of the Savanna Zone especially our FM, Major Generals and Generals for their leadership, loyalty, and dedication to defending Ambazonia. We stand together blood by blood till freedom comes. Let me answer some questions about the creation of these zones, and let me make it clearer. The zones were demarcated by a Presidential Decision in 2020, not as administrative units. These are defense provinces demarcated for the sole purpose of coordination, integration, and ultimate transition of our self-defense forces into a true national army.

The Commander-in-Chief has the power to create command infrastructure. However, for these zones to become administrative units in future, it would be by an act of the Interim House of Representatives(IHR). Each zone is headed by a Zonal Commander appointed and vetted by the IHR. Our county authorities are still the highest administrative authorities in every county.

We are here again gathered by our faith in the Ambazonian spirit. As a people fighting an existential war, our lives are a nightmare. But such are the pains of a heroic mother at delivery. There is nothing more precious than the promise of baby Ambazonia. Even the blood of those who are being massacred daily in Ambazonia may only water the fields of our freedom but will never stop us from fighting.

La Republique du Cameroun (LRC) thought their old maquisard strategy of calling us names, manipulating some of our people against their true liberators, and misrepresenting our struggle as begging for our own share of their national cake, will work this time. They want the world to believe that our struggle is a loud agitation for administrative handouts from their slaughter slabs in Etoudi. Unfortunately, some otherwise enlightened ones amongst us agree with them and are helping them to stop us. I have bad news for all of them: Ambazonia is a spirit that cannot die! It haunts its killers, dishonors its mockers, disgraces betrayers and outlives its naysayers. Only those who have understood this reality shall thrive till Buea, those who do not understand it shall perish with the wind but Ambazonia shall triumph.

Fellow Warriors,

We have drafted for 3 years, prosecuted the APP strategy for the three years on all three tiers. We now have a balance sheet before us. We have seen the flaws in our funding and fighting strategies as the war progresses. Many things have changed including on our side as well as on the enemy’s side. The fight we fought in 2017 is not the fight we are fighting today.

The configuration of the war on the ground is changing daily.

In martial arts, we observe that if you continue to do the same thing while your enemy is changing stance and positions and is constantly moving, you will most certainly lose that fight. What we want to do this year as the central government is to move in and fix whatever is not working well according to our strategy – so we can improve on our execution generally. We have to improve on the net amount of money getting into the struggle, effectively manage our scarce resources, avoid the hoarding of our critical resources, improve on the redemption rate at the County/LGA and Federal levels, and strategically assist in planning our national response plan through our Central Command, from the central budget. We want to foster intra-zonal coordination of our defense projects from our Central Command, focusing on all three command zones.

Let me thank the Savanna zone for hosting the Federal Government's grand opening of the 2023 Federal Draft. Our golden rule at the Central Government for this year’s Draft is

“if you welcome me with chicken, I will welcome you with a goat when you visit me.”

So County Chairs, do to the Federal Draft what you will want the federal draft to do in your zone.

Proud Comrades from the Savanna Zone,

Your participation is being recorded this day. Show us that you support the Federal Government to play a more significant role in the organization and management of our liberation efforts so that those who escape the sword of the LGA shall fall by the sword of the County and those who escape the sword of the County shall surely die by the sword of the Central Command. It is only logical that he who stands to be blamed every time we fail should play a more pivotal role in the organisation and decisions that move our struggle, and that person is the Central Government. Something is wrong if we raise all the money for others to manage projects but when things fail in their hand we are blamed, not them. It is better we do the fixes now, make necessary corrections and adjustments to our operations than for the Central Government to continue watching from a distance and take all the blame for something that is not really working as we desired.

The configuration of our funding strategy going forward is the result of many fixes we hope to implement for the good of our revolution: we will now draft all year round; we will draft Federal and County, and the Federal Government is going to be empowered to be more present in the home front and provide leadership and guidance to our self-defense forces zone by zone and nationally. We should fulfil better the original plan of empowering the three pillars of our self-defense apparatus – LGAs, Counties and Central Government.

Today is the launching of the 2023 Draft by the Federal Government. The new and enlarged Coalition-for-Surrender is busy stealing actions they know nothing about in the home front, to get some relevant. Their game will soon land them in big trouble. But like vultures, they are watching us eagerly tonight to see when we take our last breath in this struggle. They salivate every time we gasp for oxygen, predicting our end at every turn of events. They congregate in execution chambers hoping to announce our final obituary. Many times, they have published our funeral and built our grave hoping we truly die.

They have reduced the size of their own struggle to a prayer for our doom’s day to come soon. They have said to themselves the reason why they are failing is because the Interim Government (IG) is still in the fight to free Ambazonia - meaning the IG and not LRC in their corrupt mind, is the enemy. But the spirit of Ambazonia is undying, it is stubborn, it is wiser than their machinations, it is sharper than their dealmakers in prison or CDC, it is eternal and indestructible. That is why we continue to survive.

We want to tell these people who are probably hired to destroy the IG, these converts of the Essingan cult, contractors of LRC - CPDM-killer regime, that the solution may come through a genuine mediated settlement, not some backdoor deals.

We should know that these spoilers are probably watching us tonight just to see if their prayers to the devil have been answered or not. So, let us answer them in the best way we can – by drafting our best to the Federal Government for Acceleration.

Dear Financial Warriors

LRC and their agents in the Diaspora are trying to play mind games. They are using the boogieman strategy so you don’t contribute to the struggle for fear of being branded terrorists. Don’t mind them, the US is not a banana republic!

Imagine if Dr Foncha, Augustine Jua, Mola Njoh, and Dr EML Endeley were alive today. What about Barr Ben Muna of blessed memory, who encouraged Ambazonians to fight? Do you think the spirits of these men would be on my side or on the side of the One-Cameroon corrupt machine?

These would surely be standing by us squarely, and can you imagine if Ahidjo or Biya would have had the guts to call Foncha or Jua terrorists or secessionists? Who is terrorizing who and who is seceding from what? What a bully our equal has become! When the Southern Cameroons government delegation went to Foumban, we were not terrorists we were equals, with LRC.

When LRC forcefully dissolved our institutions effectively in 1966 we were not terrorists, because we did not fight back.

When LRC subjected us to sixty years of kale-kale, we were not terrorists because we did not fight back.

When LRC cracked down on the SCNC, SCAPO and SCARM militants we were not terrorists because we did not fight back.

When they used helicopter gunships to kill innocent Southern Cameroons/Ambazonian protesters in September 2017, we were not terrorists because we did not fight back.

But when Biya declared war on us on November 30th 2017 and proceeded to burn down our villages and murder our people in droves, arrest and abduct our people and we decided to resist them, LRC started calling us terrorists because, in their sick logic, self-defense is terrorism. So we the victims should surrender and get killed if we don’t want to be called terrorists?

Please don’t be bullied to withhold your contribution to help defend our victims of genocide.

Money itself is not a legacy it is what you do with it that becomes a legacy. The greatest legacy is a living legacy – which is what you did for others in need. Eight million people are in need of freedom and survival from genocide, let's make them our living legacy. After we are gone generations of Ambazonia shall remember us not by how much we have in Bank accounts for our children, but by how much we did for others to better their lives. The greatest souls on earth are selfless souls.

Fellow Ambazonians

Let no one deceive you, We are Ukraine in Africa. The whole world is drafting for Ukraine. Many of us are even donating to free Ukraine. Earlier today I donated $50 to the Ukrainians to help the people of Ukraine defend themselves against annexation. Governments around the world led by the United States are donating billions of dollars to help Ukraine defend itself.

This is a constitutionally protected activity in the United States. My neighbor an ex-military man in the US recently travelled to Ukraine to join the Ukrainian people’s army to fight and liberate their land from annexation. Can you call him a terrorist? NO! According to US law, my donation to Ukraine or Ambazonia is not funding terrorism.

It is if anything, a heroic humanitarian effort to save the oppressed and defend fundamental freedoms. Those of you who think Ambazonians are doing the wrong thing by funding their own resistance, can you please tell me the difference between what we are doing for Ukraine and what Ambazonians are doing for Ambazonia, apart from the fact that Ambazonians are blacks and Ukrainians are whites?

There is no iota of a difference. Here are some glaring similarities between Ukraine and Ambazonia:

1. Southern Cameroons/AMBAZONIA was a sovereign people colonized by Germany, then administered by Britain as a UN Trust Territory. Ambazonia entered into a failed union with La Republique du Cameroun (LRC).

UKRAINE (was a sovereign nation, in fact, one of the founders of the United Nations in 1945.

Ukraine later entered a failed union with Russia the so-called Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

2. Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia gained her independence on October 01, 1961

(Independent Nation).

Ukraine gained her independence on August 24, 1991

(Independent Nation).

3. LRC annexed Ambazonia in 1961

Russia annexed Ukraine in 2014 (Crimea)

4. LRC declared a full-scale war against Ambazonia on November 30, 2017

Russia declared a full-scale war on Ukraine on February 20, 2022.

5. Ambazonians have mobilized their people at home and in the diaspora, to help resist the occupation and free Ambazonia from LRC annexation.

Ukraine has mobilized their people, at home and in the diaspora, to help resist the occupation and free Ukraine from Russian annexation.

6. Ambazonian genuine ARFs and supporters are not terrorists.

Ukrainian soldiers and genuine fighters are not terrorists.

7. There is genocide in Ambazonia.

There is genocide in Ukraine.

8. Ambazonia is defending herself with the support of its diaspora.

Ukraine is defending herself with the support of the Western world.

9. LRC is trying to break Ambazonia into factions and groups to recolonize us.

Russia is trying to break Ukraine into pieces to re-colonize them.

The day the Congress of America will classify support for our Ambazonia’s legitimate liberation efforts as terrorism, is the day Americans will agree to classify support for Ukraine or Israel as terrorism.

Like Ambazonia, these are Countries that are defending themselves from enemies that undermine their statehood and have sworn to annihilate them. LRC by refusing to dialogue with the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia, preferring the military option to address our political demands, has made up their mind to annihilate Ambazonia. We must fight till the last man standing.

But Ambazonia has risen to fall no more! LRC tried bribing our stakeholders, it failed;

They tried incarcerating our innocent people and leaders, it failed;

They tried a Grand National Monologue to impose their will on Ambazonia, it failed;

They tried to divide, despise and bypass the IG it failed;

They have disappeared and killed more than 50,000 of our people, that too has not stopped us; They tried their famous divide and rule wizardry, it failed;

They tried painting Ambazonians as terrorists by organizing massacres they can blame on Ambazonia Restoration Forces (ARFs), it failed.

They truncated our history, miseducated us, and fed us with lies for 60 years, it failed.

I have bad news for LRC and the house slaves supporting their annexation of our beloved country. It is right there staring at us on our national Flag – it looks like Noah’s dove! Once it came out of the ark, it kept on flying, food or no food, on land or on water, but it never went back despite the chaos and desolation! Ambazonia is truly free!

ARFs of the Savanna Command

This is your Draft. Every dime we draft here today shall be put at your disposal for major strategic projects.

If you are not fighting for an individual then you are fighting for Ambazonia, this is your Draft year.

If you are not killing your fellow ARFs but you are fighting LRC then this is your Draft year.

If your struggle is to go to Buea and not to Yaoundé through some backdoors, then 2023 is surely your Draft year.

If you stand for the EQUAL status and not the SPECIAL status then this is your Draft.

Reach out to us, through your County Defense Officers and your County Executives, and we will respond to you as the Government. Those who want to fight as individual private militias, paying allegiance to obscure groups, should know that the umbrella that gives all of us legitimacy internationally is our Interim Government.

You cannot say you reject LRC government and not be under any government, that would mean you are not Ambazonian soldiers, you are “unidentified gunmen” or militias. Soldiers belong to the State and are therefore under the authority of the Government. The title gunmen or militia has a criminal undertone.

Our struggle is legitimate! The legitimacy of the Amazonian struggle is captured in four sentences:

1. Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia was a nation granted independence in 1961 by the UN in a manner that led LRC to annex us instead.

2. Our Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia government and institutions were dissolved by the annexationist - LRC.

3. We restored our independence, and our government that was dissolved by the annexationist was also restored.

4. Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia, our ARFs are now defending our right to exist as a people by resisting the occupier.

As ARFs you are involved in a legitimate liberation endeavor that cannot be criminalized by the sane international political system. Following this logic you are all covered under international law.

But when you are not under a government you are not under any verifiable authority. The world fears those who carry guns yet are not under constituted authority.

The world will not gravitate towards a people in the hands of unidentified gunmen, they will recognize a nation in the hands of a strongly constituted authority. Those who don’t want to recognize this elementary fact are wasting our time in this struggle.

The IG is here to make a peaceful resolution of this conflict or our recognition a true possibility.

My Dear ARFs

We are so proud of you. Please help us shorten our journey by dealing wisely with the crazy talkers in the diaspora and the $100 dollar callers or video makers deceiving some of you and trying to buy your loyalty.

One year after they have ‘rescued’ the revolution, ask them to show you their achievements apart from singing SAKO SAKO SAKO eeh! They thought Ambazonians are fools.

Dear Ambaozians,

Let this Draft bring us together, let us forget our little differences and stop fighting each other to the detriment of Ambazonia, because the bullets and armored cars in Bamali, Nzekwa or Ndop make no difference; let us help our forces because we have no better way to stop the killers of our children and kindreds.

Let us unite forces because if the IG fails, we all fail. If the IG succeeds, we all succeed. Don’t give away what you have for what you only see on television. The IG is the key player in the Ambazonian struggle whether you like the IG or not. If the IG is not here today the field will be made up of talkers and takers. That will be the end of organized leadership and resistance as we know it. The Yaoundé process will be the only option left – and that is what spoilers are aiming at. If you know another viable player doing more than the IG in the Ambazonian struggle today tell us, otherwise you are limiting our strength by withholding your contribution.

The Federal Government needs your full Draft today, to fund our National Strategic Plan (NSP) in the three zonal commands. I will personally supervise the execution of this NSP.

We will not store your money when our warriors still have needs. If we don’t know where to get materials, we shall put the money in the hands of our trusted Generals. It is better for our Generals to eat the money and die than for us to keep the money and they get killed for lack of materials. Our soldiers should not go hungry when there is money in the bank. Our wounded volunteers should not go unattended when there is money in the bank.

Our soldiers should only lack critical resources if there is absolutely no money in our accounts. God forbid that a loyal soldier is killed in battle for lack of materials because we are holding onto money that was raised to fund them.

There should be no sleeper cells again in our revolution, no Counties with no genuine ARF activities. Listen, it will not happen if you give us the money at the Federal Government and also give to your Counties/LGAs later this year.

2023 is the make or mar year – the Year of Acceleration. Give us what it will take to push LRC out of our territory and make LRC the first nation to recognize Ambazonia by leaving our territory. That is why the Federal Government is coming into the fight full-time this year.

We shall be drafting monthly till December 2023.

Fight without ceasing should mean Draft without ceasing.

Viva our Valiant ARFs

Viva the Free People of Ambazonia

God bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

 

________________________

SAMUEL IKOME SAKO Ph.D.

President Federal Republic of Ambazonia

(Former British Southern Cameroons) February 25, 2023