What Ambazonians Need To Know How Ahmadou Ahidjo Abolished Federal Republic of Cameroon in 1972
The destruction of Southern Cameroons (known then as West Cameroon) institutions, were accelerated when Messrs Ahmadou Ahidjo, Emmanuel Tabi Egbe & Solomon Tandeng Muna, with instructions from @Elysee, schemed and got the last stumbling block Bobe Augustine Ngom Jua out of the way on 12 January 1968.
It should be recalled that the process began in earnest when Ahmadou Ahidjo used Dr EML Endeley to "propose" the dissolution of all political parties and creation of a single "national" party. All political parties in the Two Cameroons were effectively dissolved except that of Ahmadou Ahidjo. It was called Union Camerounaise (UC). The idea bandied then was to have a new party that would "unite" all Camerounese & Southern Cameroonians. Of course, that wasn't true; there was a hidden agenda. Ahmadou Ahidjo wanted to have a complete and firm grip on the Two Cameroons. He simply added "nationale" to his Union Camerounaise and it became, Union Nationale Camerounaise (UNC) or in English Cameroon National Union (CNU). Ahidjo's UC, known only in his own country cunningly dissolved others, crossed over the Mungo Bridge and Matazim and became the only "national" party.
All those who had dissolved their parties were then appointed Section Presidents, Central Committee, Politburo, etc. Even influential personalities of West Cameroon extraction were appointed into the Central Committee, etc. The President of West Cameroon Trade Union Congress was forced into the CNU. This scheme was officialised on 1st September 1966 when the CNU became the only legal political party in both West and East Cameroon.
The same year (1966), the #PlebisciteDay - 11th February was transformed into a "youth day" with the deceitful excuse that the day should also be celebrated across the Mungo - that is in East Cameroon.
Having illegally and unconstitutionally appointed Solomon Tandeng Muna as Prime Minister of West Cameroon, the stage was gradually being set for the total annexation of Southern Cameroons. Ahidjo's comrade-in-destruction, a West Cameroonian, Solomon Tandeng Muna couldn't muster the courage to live in Buea because of the way he became Prime Minister. First and foremost, he wasn't eligible to be Prime Minister because he wasn't a Member of Parliament. Take note of the fact that we were operating a Westminster-like Parliamentary system of government at that time. Only an MP could be voted a Prime Minister. When Ahidjo announced that he had appointed Solomon Tandeng Muna to replace Augustine Ngom Jua, West Cameroon Members of Parliament booed and jeered at him. Despite his shameless treachery, his conscience troubled him and he felt uncomfortable living in Buea. He vamoosed to Yaounde. It's worth mentioning that this was the first move by Ahidjo and Muna towards the total eradication of West Cameroon institutions.
Two years later - that is 1970, the French secret service got ample intelligence that frustration and hopelessness, anger and discontent were increasingly growing amongst Southern Cameroonians, as a result of the mismanagement of "Federal Republic of Cameroon." Secondly, crude oil was discovered in Ndian County. With the discovery of crude oil, the French and Ahmadou Ahidjo hurriedly harnessed their plans of assimilation and absorption of West Cameroon into La République du Cameroun. They wanted to have a firm grip on West Cameroon so as to exploit these resources unperturbed. Thus, any form of "federalism" would have been a hindrance to them.
Between 1970 to 1972, Ahmadou Ahidjo via his comrade-in-destruction, Solomon Tandeng Muna made life more difficult for Southern Cameroonians. They kept giving one reason or the other why the "federation" was an impediment to the progress and development of the federated states. They argued that the "federal system" was bureaucratic, cumbersome and above all, anti-developmental.
In the Meantime, in 1970, John Ngu Foncha who was Vice President to Ahidjo, was finally dismissed and replaced with Solomon Tandeng Muna. So, Muna cumulatively was Prime Minister of West Cameroon and at the same time Vice President of the "Federal Republic of Cameroon". We should not forget that one of the reasons PM Jua got elected into office as Prime Minister of West Cameroon in replacement of John Ngu Foncha was because he couldn't cumulate the posts of Prime Minister and Vice President respectively.
It should be noted here that after having used and politically neutralised John Ngu Foncha, Ahmadou Ahidjo finally dumped him. His political career effectively ended in 1970. Needless to bother ourselves about the nomenclature he carried on albeit ceremoniously, of "1st National Vice President" of the Union Nationale Camerounaise (UNC) which later in 1985 was renamed Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais (RDPC).
As I mentioned earlier, the French and Ahmadou Ahidjo had worked on the psychology of Southern Cameroonians. They were told that their lives would be better if the President has more powers and could intervene and act on issues without passing through the "cumbersome and bureaucratic" nature of #TheCameroons.
Let our people know that the "Federal Republic of Cameroon" has inter alia, in Cameroun Oriental (East Cameroun) their House of Assembly and Cameroun Occidental (West Cameroon), the House of Chiefs and West Cameroon House of Assembly. There was also a "Federal National Assembly" whose members were elected from the #TwoCameroons.
Ahidjo and Muna insisted that if all these Houses (Chiefs, West and Est Cameroons) were dissolved, life would be better, civil servants salaries would be increased, projects would be realised without much ado, etc.
At the beginning of May 1972, Ahmadou Ahidjo had travelled to France. He surely went to update @Elysee how much progress they had made and surely opined to them that the time was propitious enough to act. He returned to Yaounde on 5th May 1972. He immediately summoned former Vice President of the "federation", John Ngu Foncha to his office. He told him that he had made up his mind to dissolve the federation. John Ngu Foncha argued and rejected the idea, reminding Ahidjo that any dissolution of the "federation" was against what they had agreed in Foumban, which was enshrined in the "Federal Constitution." It stated in Section 47 that: "Any proposal for the revision of the present Constitution which impairs the unity and integrity of the Federation shall be inadmissible." He further told Ahidjo that he was going to meet with his people for them to collectively opposed it. Ahidjo looked at him, laughed, crossed his legs and asked which people was he talking about. In order to end the discussion, Ahidjo reminded Foncha that he is done with him and could leave his office.
Leaving Ahidjo's office with anger, John Ngu Foncha, invited his brothers to meet and take a common stand on how to stop Ahidjo from dissolving the federation. In the course of their meeting, he discovered that Ahidjo had touched and possibly oiled the lips of almost everyone. He (Foncha) found himself alone and so could not mount any opposition in rejecting Ahidjo's "Peaceful Revolution" project.
After having managed to neutralise everyone, Ahidjo convened the "Assemblée Fédérale du Cameroun" on May 6th, 1972. In his speech, he enumerated all the purported ills found in the "Federal Constitution" and then averred: "J'ai décidé de mettre fin à la fédération" - loosely translated in English as "I have decided to put an end to the federation." He then scheduled a referendum two weeks later, that is 20 May 1972. No one new what was going to happen. Vice President Solomon Tandeng Muna was appointed as the Campaign Manager. Neither Solomon Tandeng Muna nor any other close ally of Ahidjo knew what he (Ahidjo) had up his sleeve. They went round selling an unknown product called unitary system of government. The lied to the people that the unitary system is better than federation as it would bring government nearer to the people. It is noteworthy to mention that no one knew what was going to be on the ballot.
On the referendum day proper (20th May), our people saw this infamous ballot of "Do you wish to.........'' and the answer was "Oui" & "Yes". There wasn't a ballot for "Non" or "No" if you were to vote against. Let me say in passing that some Camerounese have claimed in the media that there is a "Non" or "No" ballot, but none has been able to show proof of it. Those who dared asked or questioned the process or asked the other ballot paper were immediately silenced. Barrister Timothy #Mbeseha & Pa Augustine #Ndangam, etc. who witnessed the charade on that day are alive and strong. They can testify more on Ahidjo's "Peaceful Revolution" which was more or less the annexation and absorption of Southern Cameroons into La République du Cameroun. After the charade in the name of a referendum, Ahidjo divided the Two Cameroons into 7 provinces. His part into 5 while West Cameroon into two, to be called "North West and South West Provinces" of the United Republic of Cameroon.
Since it's difficult to completely bury the truth, Ahmadou Ahidjo came up with a new name for the people of the former British Southern Cameroons. He named them "Anglophones" and that of his compatriots "Francophone". So, our people moved from Southern Cameroons to West Cameroon and in 1972 were "anglophones" and however divided into North West and South West. This was the grand design by @Elysee to completely annex, assimilate and absorb the people Southern Cameroons into La République du Cameroun.
The whole idea of Ahmadou Ahidjo replacing the "federal system" of government with a unitary one was a subterfuge aimed at nibbing in the bud of any "secessionist" tendency our people might have had as a result of the way the federation was being managed. He had to justify how the 4 houses of assemblies were eating a good chunk of the meagre national budget, thereby impeding development. Guess what? Ahidjo's new "Assemblée Nationale" was more expensive than the 4 houses put together.
In a nutshell, Ahmadou Ahidjo had no intention of "bringing development nearer to the people" but had the sole objective of absorbing Southern Cameroons into La République du Cameroun, more so, because of its natural resources. If Southern Cameroons was like Chad or Centrafrique, Ahidjo would not have bothered about them "uniting or federating" with them.
Needless to mention that La République du Cameroun falsified the history of the Two Cameroons. I got to know this from a communication officer of the UPC party. He confessed to me after a debate at Sky One Radio in 2007 that they were told that one of their tribes called "Anglophone" was part of their country (La République du Cameroun) but unfortunately ran to Nigeria. And that they (Camerounese) have recaptured and brought us back to Cameroun.
Any critical observer of our sad history would agree with me that the so-called Foumban Conference was a pathway to our annexation. If not, how would Cameroun's Ahidjo declared La République Fédéral du Cameroun on September 1, 1961 instead of a should-have-been joint declaration of "Unification" on October 1st, 1961? Worse still, Ahmadou Ahidjo merely amended their 1st January 1960 Constitution to incorporate a so-called part of their country called Southern Cameroons which in their French language then was called Cameroun Occidental.
At end of the illegal and fake referendum of May 20th, 1972, Ahidjo declared that 99.9999% of Camerounais & Southern Cameroonians voted overwhelmingly to replace the federal system with a unitary one.
The Chief traitor and Campaign Manager of this annexationist project, Solomon Tandeng Muna was appointed as the new President of the reconstituted National Assembly. He became the constitutional successor of Ahmadou Ahidjo. Since the country had changed from the federal to unitary system, the post of Vice President of the "Federal Republic of Cameroon" which he took over from John Ngu Foncha was abolished.
Three years later - that was in 1975, Ahmadou Ahidjo amended the so-called unitary constitution and created the post of a Prime Minister. Mr Biya'a Bi Mvondo Paul Bathélèmy, who has been Director of Civil Cabinet and later Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency was appointed the pioneer Prime Minister.
It should be noted that all the treachery and betrayal from Solomon Tandeng Muna [on the people of Southern Cameroons] was on the assumption that Ahidjo Ahmadou was going to hand power over to him.
In 1979, Ahmadou Ahidjo tabled a bill to the National Assembly which was to "amend and supplement the Constitution" of the "United Republic of Cameroun". The amendment was about making the Prime Minister the constitutional successor in replacement of the President of the National Assembly. Solomon Tandeng Muna who had done everything Ahidjo asked him, privately questioned the change. Ahidjo assured him that once the bill was voted and promulgated into law, he would later on appoint him Prime Minister. So, from 1979 to 4th November 1982, Speaker Solomon Tandeng Muna kept waiting to be appointed Prime Minister. If it happened he would have automatically made him Ahidjo's constitutional successor. Like everyone else, Muna on that fateful day at 8:00 p.m. heard the very short and brief of Ahmadou Ahidjo resigning as President of the United Republic and to hand over power to his "illustrious successor" on Saturday, November 6th, 1982.
Hours after that announcement, Solomon Tandeng Muna met Ahidjo, pleaded that he rescinds his decision but it fell on deaf ears. He felt disappointed and his life long dream of betrayals of the people of Southern Cameroons with the hope he would be made President of La République du Cameroun ended on Thursday, November 4, 1982 at 8:00 p.m.
He remained Speaker of the National Assembly until 1988 when he resigned, quit Yaounde and returned home. He spent the rest of his life in his village Ngyen-Mbo, Menemo LGA of Momo County. He is being remembered as the man who built a good prison in Mbengwi. What about this famous phrase in Menemo : abere maths, physics, etc?
What Are The Lesson We Should Not Forget When Romancing with La République du Cameroun
To begin with, La République du Cameroun is an occultic, corrupt, lawless, manipulative and Machiavellian country. They strive for brutality, intimidation and bribery. If they try to intimidate or bribe you and none works, they would brutalise you so as to make you vulnerable. All is about bringing you into submission.
Another aspect of La République du Cameroun's stock-in-trade is infiltration. They come to you through friends and family. Before coming after you, they study your character, behaviour and personality. They look for your Achilles heels and once that is gotten, they exploit it to the fullest. Let it be known that they are a very patient people when it comes to getting whatever they want out of you.
A glaring example is Ni John Fru Ndi. The latest are Messrs Nso Obi Foncha, Nguh Nicolas Santos, Nkongho Felix Agbor, etc.
They are extremely good at dividing and conquering. They created what they called NW and SW and made sure that we see ourselves as our own enemies. Hence, the infamous Yaounde saying that "The greatest enemy of an anglophone is an anglophone."
Here is another example of how they successfully execute, divide and conquer politics within their country. First and foremost, they have no idea about what a country or a republic is all about, what it should be and how it can be developed.
You have these two "Professors" of the Nkam division. They are Messrs Njoh Mouelle Ebenezar & Moukoko Mbonjo Pierre. They are both hardcore members of the RDPC party. Mr Biya tosses them as he likes. He makes sure that when Moukoko Mbonjo is in "power", Njoh Mouelle is in the "opposition" and that if Yabassi or Nkam division is not developing, the problem would be one of the two and why not all of them. The two have RDPC factions in the division that fight themselves all the time, especially during party and national elections. This has been ongoing over the years. Unfortunately, Camerounese don't understand and perhaps, may never get it. Today, inhabitants of this enclave would blame the two for their underdevelopment, whereas the whole thing is about the centralisation of everything in the hands of a very incompetent and corrupt few in Yaoundé.
This mindset is also overbearing within Ambazonia. It has eaten into our liberation political leadership and is fast descending within the rank and file of our valiant Ambazonia Restoration Forces (ARF). Bui Warriors, Red Dragons, Bambalang Marines have fought and won battles without "uniting" with the known Cameroun proxy forces (ADF) posing today as unity warriors.
When we launched the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, not everyone desiring the return of multi-party politics in Cameroon came to Bamenda for the launching. Sad to add that even our "Bamiléké brethren'' who had settled in Bamenda after fleeing the brutal killings in their country, ran out, saying: "Nous avons beaucoup perdus; nous ne voulons plus mourir, etc." When we finally launched the SDF on that famous Saturday, 26th May 1990, these same Ntongtu people claimed that they were part of the project.
It takes determined, committed & resilient people to achieve their desired objective. Ours is the actualisation of our restored independence. We have been fighting and winning great battles against the enemy. Last year was our best year ever. We just need to improve and innovate our home made weaponry.
Within these four years of active fighting, we know who is who and who has been doing what. So, let's not fall into this cheap and deceitful notion of "unity and collaboration" because not all who sing that song of unity and collaboration are going to Buea. Some are disguised Yaounde agents planted within our ranks to sing that of "we are not united - that's why the struggle is struggling and failing, etc."
Our boys should know that Cameroun does not forgive and forget. Let them hear this. Ahidjo assigned Bishop Ndongmo to "rally and bring his brothers from the bush" so they should dialogue for peace. The Nkongsamba Bishop brought them out and as he was gearing towards the said dialogue, Ahidjo's men rounded them up and killed them! They even chopped off the heads of some and placed them at major junctions in the cities. They did it as a deterrent to scare others from fighting. Haven't we seen our own corpses being paraded in our major street junctions in Bamenda, Kumba,Bafut etc.? The main leader [Ernest Ouandié] was publicly executed at a public square in Bafoussam, while the "mediator" Monsignor Ndongmo was given a life imprisonment. He would have been executed like his brother but for the fact that he was a Catholic Bishop, The Vatican intervened and he was released and sent to Rome. Before leaving Cameroun, Bishop Albert Ndongmo had spent five years in a notorious prison in Tcholliré, North Cameroun.
Furthermore, Ahmadou Ahidjo who gave power on a platter of gold to Biya'a Bi Mvondo Paul Bathélèmy had died but his corpse is still in Dakar, Senegal. Two weeks ago an ADF purported agent was tricked using a "nurse" and finally picked up in Bamenda. They wanted to kill him but he begged them no to do so. In order for him not to be killed he promised to show the hideouts of the fighters. Having helped the enemy to kill his brethren, he was not spared either. We are told he is being locked. If it's true that he is being kept, they are merely using him to kill more fighters. He will eventually be killed if they haven't yet done so by now. Whether you betray or not, LRC sees us as dogs, etc. Their wish is to win this war and take over our territory.
Last, But No The Least
This write-up is essentially about the nitty gritty of our hidden history. We need to know what, why and how it happened that led us to where we are today. History always repeats itself, in some cases. Traitors will always be there; we need to know and immediately uproot them without much ado.
As a matter of fact, we might have had few Munas then, but we have more and deadlier ones now. They aren't going to take us back to Yaoundé. We need to be ultra vigilant and remain atalat #UntilWeReachBuea
Wan Atso Atse is an Ambazonian Pro-Independent Campaigner, writing from Adelaide, Australia
