Dear Mr. Anu:
Thanks for dedicating the Editorial of Feb. 2nd, 2017 on your coveted online platform, Cameroon Journal, to denigrate, deride and lambast the Movement for the Restoration of the Independence of Southern Cameroons, aka MoRISC. As one who claims “to have pioneered the initiative that led to the birth of MoRISC,” one would have expected these views to have been expressed in some shape or form while you enjoyed membership with MoRISC but helas. I would grant you the privilege that the scales suddenly fell off your eyes when you were given six months’ leave twice every year from MoRISC Communications Team.
I have struggled to decipher the rationale for your missive but find it hard to put aside the fact that this smells of the sour grapes phenomenon. One would have expected you to preface your remarks with the fact that “You were thrown out of MoRISC Communication subcommittee for proclaiming violence, antithetical to the ethos and philosophy of the movement.” That alone would have given your ranting some credibility.
Your opening salvo, “we have listened to the arguments for and against the group…” sets you up on a high horse as an arbiter and one cannot but wonder whether given the recent brush you had with the group, you could be impartial.
Against that backdrop, I have also toyed with applying the biblical parable to MoRISC of the man who sowed good seeds but while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weed among the wheat. Matthew 13:25 And this “weed” some are already smoking and trying to choke the wheat. Just remember that after the weed dissipates, you will need the wheat! In that parable, Christ asks that the weed be allowed to grow alongside the wheat until harvest time.
The foregoing notwithstanding, I have taken the liberty in my personal name to respond to your charges against MoRISC in the true spirit that brothers fight with elbows and not with fists.
By way of general comments, notice that in your opening paragraph, you set up any initiative for the liberation struggle on an impossible mission when you opine that – “the mission and modus operandi be made for the purpose of unanimity and acceptability among a majority of Southern Cameroonians” Think about it again! No one expects unanimity. We can have unity without unanimity. Unity is not the absence of conflict. In fact, when conflict is handled well, it leads to unity. And by the way, the different groups mushrooming on the Southern Cameroons agenda do not seek unanimity and a majority of Southern Cameroonians.
It is overly overzealous to imagine and expect that unity would have been achieved between November 2016 and now. MoRISC seeks to forge a long lasting unity between the different groups while creating space for those who do not want to be affiliated to the different groups and yet want to be a part of the liberation struggle.
All I offer in response are the words of the revered Englishman Henry Cardinal Newman who said: “Nothing would be done at all, if a man waited till he could do it so well, that no one could find fault with it.” Desperate times call for desperate measures. The “tour de force” that MoRISC is, is clearly evident in the virulent attacks it has engendered. I just hope you were not insinuating that those opposed to the budding MoRISC are in the majority and even if they were just be reminded that the problem we are decrying in our country borders on the fallacy of numbers.
Let me focus now on the five charges you leveled against MoRISC and attempt an answer. I do so with the firm understanding that your attitude is one of a MoRISC atheist than an agnostic. While the agnostic harbors doubts and is open to understanding, you have already adjudicated and condemned MoRISC. Yet for the sake of information, it is important to clarify.
On MoRISC’s Place as an umbrella organization of all Southern Cameroons Nationalist Movements in the Diaspora: There have been many recriminations against MoRISC with respect to its claim of being an umbrella organization. When the revolutionary volcano exploded in Southern Cameroons last November, many in the Diaspora cried out for concerted effort. There were online appeals for some coordinated leadership and the need for different groups to coalesce and form a united front. That was a tall order and given the rapid turn of events, there was need to make hay while the sun shines.
Chris, for a publisher of your caliber to peddle in half-truths and outright lies is befuddling. Your sourcing for this was poor and worse still biased.
In the United States of America, the three well known groups fighting for the liberation of Southern Cameroons are the SCNC, Ambazonia-related groups most prominent of which is the Ambazonia Liberation Movement (ALIM) and the SCYL. Each of the leaders of these groups was contacted. There was even a new group created in New Jersey called Confederation of British Southern Cameroons in the US CBSCNA; And many others have sprung up! During the January 21st conference, these groups were welcomed and given the opportunity to introduce themselves.
Let us be clear that this talk of outreach is a smokescreen used to give the impression that MoRISC is not representative. It would be nice to be specific. And here, I like to talk about the Chairman of the SCYL.
As far as I know, the Chairman of the SCYL was contacted and invited to the very foundation meeting of MoRISC. Dr. Ebenezar Akwanga has taken part in a steering committee meeting of MoRISC and even spoke during the town hall meeting organized last December by MoRISC. He is not in support of MoRISC and that is his right and prerogative but that does not mean he has not been contacted and briefed on the goals and mission of MoRISC.
Edwin Ngang, the poster child of Ambazonia Liberation Movement (ALIM) was contacted and you know, he and his ilk have serious reservations against the rest of the groups that call themselves “Southern Cameroons…” They believe any group that labels itself that way is part of the problem. Edwin, has repeated ad nauseam, that pan-Cameroonianism is the major stumbling block. You can imagine the herculean task it is to get them on the table. He graciously accepted to be a part of the conference and was present.
MoRISC does not seek to reinvent the wheel and believes in the trail blazed by giants on whose shoulders it stands. Hence, efforts were made to recognize these. Be informed that Chief Alexander Taku was invited to the conference and he took part in the conference in DC.
Ambassador Fossung originally accepted to be part of the conference on condition that somebody would pick him up. Entre-temps he changed his mind. You wonder why? Folks of your ilk poisoned the swamp.
Retired Justice Alobwede Ebong was also invited and agreed to be a part of the conference and some confusion on transportation prevented him from showing up.
Be informed too that MoRISC in the planning for the conference that took place last January reached out to Fon Gorji Dinka who is currently in London. He was given the opportunity to record a message and send to the group and he originally declined and said MoRISC could use one of the many messages he had sent out. With hindsight, he changed his mind and sent a message which was played in the evening during the “cry-die.”
It is also worth noting that outreach efforts were made to other groups that were known such as the AAG that believes in federalism as the way out of the current quagmire.
As a good reporter, one would have expected that having taken part in the preparations towards the conference, you should have reported that outreach attempts to women and stalwarts of the struggle were made. You even volunteered during the planning of the conference, to reach out to Prof Kofele Kale and get him to be a keynote speaker and we are still awaiting your feedback.
You claim that leaders show up at protest rallies not as organizers but as any other Southern Cameroonian would. This grandstanding must end! Tell those leaders to organize their own demonstrations and invite others. They come to a rally and are recognized and given the opportunity to address the people and it becomes an issue. If they had shown up and not given that attention, they would have cried foul.
I would suggest that those leaders pray this famous prayer of St Francis of Assisi:
Lord Make me an instrument of your peace Lord: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
May they seek not so much to be understood as to understand!
“The Draft Constitution that Surfaced in DC” is your next charge. MoRISC has a legal team that drafted that Constitution. Again your sourcing was wrong, poor and prejudiced. It is so easy to give a dog a bad name and hang it. Chris, it is shameful that members of MoRISC’s own steering committee did not read the draft constitution. This is the problem with us all. That document was circulated at least 24 hours to the conference. Do not forget that the only way to hide information from a black man is to write it in a book.
I hope you are not insinuating that a constitution is only worthwhile when written by a team. You worked on hearsay and concluded that the constitution was done by one person. There were at least eight fine legal minds that worked on that document. Now that a team prepared that document, you still have issues with it. Every constitution is a working document.
I would agree that may be more time should have been given for people to read through the document. Hopefully, many have had the opportunity to read the draft document and are prepared to send forth proposed amendments for the 11th Feb conference in Hagerstown.
On MoRISC as a political organization – It would be instructive to research on the various ways of registering an organization in the US and the implications not just for donors but for those running it. It is very easy to stoke the flames of sentiments and make outlandish claims. What do you understand by a political organization? Please school yourself on what the options are, the implications of each and the advantages/disadvantages of registering groups in the United States. How do you for proper tax purposes constitute an organization in the US and blend that with the activism and diplomacy needed to achieve the goal of the independence of Southern Cameroons. What do you suggest as an alternative? How is the SCNC for example registered in the United States? FYI, SCAPO at the recommendation of the African Union Court deposited registration forms as a political party in Cameroon. How about the SCYL? How is it registered if at all in the United States? Be informed too that it took years for the SCNC to be cleared off the State department’s list as state sponsor of terrorism. We must walk a fine line and not just throw words around?
Your insinuation that MoRISC is a monolithic cabal high jacked by Boh Herbert is a cheap shot. Try again! Why is it that of the over 24 persons on the steering committee of MoRISC, you have singled out Boh Herbert and claim he has “vehemently challenged revision of the group’s status?” You ridicule the rest of us members of the steering committee and make us look like dunces being led by the nostrils. The interim leader of MoRISC’s steering committee has been the Chairman of SCNC. The fact that Herbert has been the public face of MoRISC should not invite this kind of vitriolic attack. To use an editorial page to settle personal vendetta against one with whom one harbors differences in opinion is definitely a cardinal sin in journalism.
On the relationship between MoRISC and the Consortium: For the last couple of months, the name on every lip in Southern Cameroons is the consortium. Thanks to this representative body of lawyers, teachers and drivers which took the country as by a storm, the liberation struggle of Southern Cameroons has been reenergized. Given the reality on the ground and with the sound legal minds that led the consortium, they strategically argued for federation as the ultimate solution to the Southern Cameroons conundrum. While MoRISC unapologetically convened on the sole agenda item of restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons, it recognized the leadership of the consortium and paid allegiance to it. There is no doubt that given its reality on the ground, the consortium could only do that much. Many of us had sustained conversations with members of the consortium. As a body, MoRISC recognized its role as a diaspora organ working with external options and exploring international options.
Ivo Tapang, has been invited many times to join the Communications committee and he has elected not to. There were attempts made to have him be a keynote speaker at the last convention. That too fell through.
It is not for want of trying. Do you know the relationship the consortium had with the political leaders of the different groups in the struggle back at home? It would be nice for you to read, re-read and understand where the Consortium was going to and why they did what they did.
Structures on the Ground: Again this charge against MoRISC while valid is premature and presumptuous. Concretely, the only organization that has structures on the ground in Southern Cameroons is SCNC. It would be nice to find out what you mean by structures? Office space? Or did you mean human resources/boots on the ground? If it is about human resources, MoRISC is barely two months old today. It is work in progress. Yet, it is gathering momentum in South Africa, in Europe, in Africa and even here in the United States of America. MoRISC is designed to provide the convening power to galvanize the efforts of SCAPO at the African Union, Ambazonia Liberation Movement at the United Nations and the SCNC. It seeks to serve as a lubricant while at the same time creating space for non-aligned members of any of the current outfits to also participate. This is where the rubber meets the road.
Your reference of Hon. Wirba is yet another desperate attempt at legitimizing baseless claims and sanitizing half-truths. Hon. Wirba has received more phone calls since his courageous speech in Parliament than all his life put together. Yes, MoRISC reached out to him to invite him to the conference last January 21st and he explained that there are too many groups inviting him all around the world and he thinks this is not the opportune moment for him to travel. He clearly indicated that he thinks it is premature and more coordination needs to be done.
You can see how much time one has wasted responding to these gripes that could have been settled inter nos. We must make no mistake: La Republique is not the only enemy Southern Cameroons has. We too, the people of Southern Cameroons are out best enemies. Your editorial was an epic betrayal of journalism, laden with innuendoes, half-truths or rather “alternative facts” I urge you to tighten your role as a watchdog. Just be careful that the dog does not turn and bite its master while the enemy is pillaging and plundering the master’s property. It would be an overstatement to claim MoRISC as it stands is a perfect gem. It is work in progress and we can either let it blossom or at our own peril seek to choke it.