Biya Laughs at Common Law Lawyers: A game of political divide

Fako Lawyers strike as French Impose in South West Courts.


Fako lawyers are on their third day of a strike action protesting the imposition of French language in South West courts by Francophone magistrates. It should be recalled that these same lawyers amongst others converged in Bamenda on May 9th to castigate the imposition of the French system on the English legal system. Their meeting ended with an ultimatum to President Biya. Barely 2 months to such ultimatum, Francophone magistrates in South West are imposing French to be used in courts. It can thus be seen that President Biya does not really care. Anglophones can complain from Monday to Friday 365 days in a year, Biya and his cohorts would not give a damn.

Meanwhile, in another move to satisfy common law lawyers in North West, Marcel Abah Oyono, the North West Court of Appeal Attorney General who imposed the use of the French language in Northwest courts, has in a Presidential decree been transferred to Adamawa region. While Biya replaces a Camerounese with a Southern Cameroonian in one region of Anglophone Cameroon, the other Francophone magistrates in another region of Anglophone Cameroon are repeating the same scenario. In fact, this is a merry go round and it seems President Biya enjoys the game and yet Anglophone elites are not reading the handwriting clearly on the wall.

However, some political pundits have interpreted Biya's Tuesday decision as one of the solutions being proffered by President Biya to the Anglophone Lawyers’ six months ultimatum. Observers say if Biya’s decision to appoint an Anglophone, Njie Albert Nganje as Attorney General for the North West Court of Appeal is to appease the Lawyers, then he might just have resolved the problem half way because the same scenario just began in South West as Fako lawyers enters their third day of strike action.

I can verily state categorically  here that if the "Anglophone" elites must get Biya on the dialogue table, they and its people must begin looking at the "Anglophone" problem in the eyes of the SCNC. Without which I guess we are bound to fail.

What would the common lawyers do next? Would they call for another conference? Would they be bold enough to do the right thing as it should be done? They very well know the political history and legal relationship of Southern Cameroons with La Republique du Cameroun. It is time for them to do the right thing, if Biya must be at the position to dialogue.

God Bless Southern Cameroons.