Like outraged virgins, Biya Paul, his securocrats and the hawks of his regime keep shouting at "terrorism" in the English-speaking zone. They constantly mention the "secessionist terrorists" at each of their speeches about the crisis. They constantly accuse them of all the plagues of Egypt. Yet it is Biya himself who legitimized the cause that is currently defending a good majority of English-speaking populations.
It was he and his regime who gave him good reason to believe that he had the full right to claim the restoration of the British Southern Cameroons, that state which, despite the guardianship of the United Nations, existed as such between October 1953 and 1 October 1961, the date of the independence of this State which should result in an attachment to the Republic of Cameroon (former French East Cameroon).
In fact, in January 1983, without consulting the parliament or the English-speaking political leaders of the time, Paul Biya changed the name of the United Republic of Cameroon to the Republic of Cameroon, by decree. A return to the name of the former French East Cameroon at the time of its accession to independence on 1 January 1960.
A form of "secession" of fact. Enough to give Anglophones good reasons to demand a return to the British Southern Cameroons, above all, following a principle of international law on the creation and extinction of a state, when two states come together to create a state and this union is dissolved, the two states return each to square one (ex-USSR, Senegambia, etc.).
On January 1, 2010, Paul Biya has his loyal followers, Martin Belinga Eboutou (deceased), organize the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of Cameroon. But only the former East Cameroon under the mandate of the United Nations administered by France obtained independence on 1 January 1960. In organizing the fiftieth anniversary on that date, the Yaoundé government has itself acknowledged that there are 2 Cameroon . He devoted the "partition of the country", recognized that there is an international border between the two Cameroonians since 1931 and endorsed the right to the other Cameroon to celebrate also the fiftieth anniversary of its independence.
On May 20, 2010, after presiding over the National Day parade at the Boulevard du 20 mai in Yaounde, Paul Biya receives at the Palace of the Unit a delegation of UN officials led by the President of the General Assembly of the UN at the time, Ali Triki.
A Cameroonian named Jean Victor Nkolo is one of them. UN officials are equipped, guess what, two maps of Cameroon: that of the Republic of Cameroon and that of Southern Cameroons aka "Ambazonia". In the heart of the Unity Palace, a day of celebration of national unity! Paul Biya did not cry scandal nor protested!
What do the many supporters of Yaoundé's power complain about today since their champion has given legitimacy to the struggle of the English-speaking people for their total independence? Why Paul Biya declared war on those he himself called "secessionist terrorists" when he gave them legal weapons to claim the state whose map was presented to him on May 20, 2010 by UN officials?By the way, who ultimately is the true secessionist?
Reporter: Michel Biem Tong