Research on this work started in 1989 at the Kashim Ibrahim Library (KIL), Ahmadou Bello University (ABU) at Samaru, Zaria, Nigeria. The work is guided for the most past by the author’s personal experiences. These include working in the fields of Cameroun’s rural areas with MIDENO Bamenda, working as Supervisor with Raynolds Construction Company (RCC) Bamenda, as Teacher in secondary schools and colleges from CCC Mankon, PHS Batibo and PCHS Kumbo and numerous evening schools to participation in Campus/student politics in Ahmadou Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria, and student politics in Cameroun, which gave birth to the Teachers Association of Cameroon (TAC). In addition, his active role includes contributions towards the founding of the National Union for Democracy and Progress (NUDP) opposition political party (of Cameroun) in Kaduna, Nigeria, and the unsuccessful wooing of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) Chairman, Ni John Fru Ndi and NUDP Chairman and former Cameroun Prime Minister Bouba Bello Maigari that both should form an imperative alliance for the overthrow of Biya dictatorship. The intransigence of both leaders led the author to concentrate on liberating the Ambazonia (Southern Cameroons).
The spectrum and challenges covered by this work are staggering; the analysis and their linkage to domestic and international conflict and law are amazing. For these reasons, and because of the participating role of the author in many incidents in this work, he notes in the introduction, “it is thus highly opinionated in terms of style, contemporary character and qualifications given to interpretation of contents.” The work emphasizes that the process to liberate Cameroun was truncated on many instances. It urges that the process be renewed with greater determination, at least from the Ambazonia viewpoint. It therefore calls on to all Ambazonians (Southern Cameroonians) to wake-up from slumber and reclaim their sovereignty.
The work is the product of a debatable statement made by Professor Heinz Eulau (1967) in The Behavioral Persuasion in Politics, that “the root is man”(p.3)—the root of all evil and good in a nation-state setting is the machination of government and the minds and the interests that run it. Examining Inside Contemporary Cameroun Politics (ICCP) will serve as a testimony to this statement, and in addition, reveal all the remote and immediate causes of domestic dispute that fuel international conflict—from the abuse of democracy through to ethnic stratifications and clashes, through inter-intra-regional/cross national disputes and interests in addition to the wider implications of actions of influential international actors, such as former colonial masters and current heads of states, so prone to embezzlement, tribalism, nepotism and utter disrespect of democratic institutions and the collective will of the masses.
The suffering to which the masses of Ambazonia (The United Nations Trust Territory of the Southern Cameroons) have been exposed to in an imbalanced union with French Cameroun Republic are used as the epicenter of analyses in this work. In questioning whether unity was ever achieved according to the terms of the Plebiscite Treaty (1960/61) and whether political modernization, economic prosperity and democratization has resulted as a consequence of forging unity, this work gives reasons why the people of “Southern Cameroons” take central stage in this work, and why together with Cameroun or French Cameroun, both should and must be liberated from the undemocratic and dubious leadership under which their masses have been held now for over forty years. The work does not shy from attacking French neo-imperialism, holding it responsible for fanning the flames of bad government in Cameroun and through out Africa. This work, explains why the search for the unity failed, and sheds some light on the evolutionary process that the Cameroons are going through since independence, in ways not done by historians and other political theorists on the Cameroons. More intriguing is the exposure of the link between the border conflicts with Nigeria to the annexation of the “Southern Cameroons” by Cameroun Republic and the wider implications on international law and Conflicts concerning claims to territory and breach of international treaties.
In addition, the attitudes of Camerounian elite and masses (“submissive, un-involving, carefree or even passiveness,” author terms it) come under scrutiny here, as issues that plague contemporary Cameroun are discussed. This would, in part, explain why the search for the true identity or pan-Kamerunism failed with the failure of the Cameroon Federation. To a large extent, the triple combination of French neo-imperialism, the passiveness of the masses, and a corrupted elite have produced dictatorships with untold consequences for the people of “The Cameroons” and their internal and external relations. These factors are a testimony that the mistakes of history all came under play to create the type of polity that present day Cameroun represents: an illusive and failed unity.
While this book is not an attempt to rewrite the History of the Cameroons, it nonetheless draws some parallels in terms of historic and contemporary interpretations—drawing on political, economic and socio-cultural issues as they relate to the relationship between the two Cameroons today. Any curious reader may consider this work as a contemporary—comparative evolution of Cameroun politics, with the view of forging a future political culture and identity. However, this depends on the outcome of attempts by political and social activists to forge the relationship between the Cameroons, by seeking the redefinition and implementation of the 1960/61 United Nations Plebiscite Treaty—the pillar of the Unity Dream as contained by pre-plebiscite agreements between the governments of British “Southern Cameroons” and Cameroun Republic and by United Nations Resolution 1608 of April 21, 1961.
This work is different from other works on Cameroun in that it does not limit analyses to a particular discipline, nor does it toe the line of powerful political figures. It tears through every facet of Camerounian life with the furiousness and energy of lightening and thunder in challenging the position and claims of state authority’s retrogressiveness and decadence—as it examines issues surrounding the unification of the Cameroons, oppression and the suppression of multipartyism, the rebirth and demands for the restoration of the Federation and or total independence for the “Southern Cameroons,” border disputes with Nigeria and especially over the oil-rich southern maritime region, implications of other nations such as former colonial masters, domestic resistance to dictatorship and their consequences including brutal killings from school girls to the First Lady of the nation and the Delegate General for National Security and more—this work paints a horrible picture (see enclosed pictures!) of Cameroun politics in particular and African Politics as a whole, as close to reality as the author lived it and can best make us to understand. It can be very useful to students of conflict and international law, history, development, state succession and state rejuvenation or political change as a whole and education at all levels. Read it over and over again!
Justice M. Mbuh (Mbuhmegha) was born a few years after the United Nations passed UN Resolution 1608, of April 21, 1961. He attended Presbyterian Primary Schools in Aghem, Wum in Mentchum Division and in Pinyin, his village of origin in Mezam Division, in the northern region of the UN Trust Territory of the “Southern Cameroons” (Ambazonia), now currently under Cameroun Republic’s illegal recolonization and exploitation. He attended Secondary School at City College of Commerce (CCC) Mankon, Bamenda (1977-82), and High School at Cameroon Protestant College (CPC) Bali (1982-84/5) during which period he made Advance Levels in Economics, History, and Geography including two Advanced Level Royal Society of Arts (RSA Stage III) London, in Economics and Commerce Marketing. After graduating from CPC, he worked as Foreman for Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) Bamenda (1984-85), Surveyor for MIDENO Bamenda (Phase I)(1986), and taught at City College of Commerce (1986-87). He left for further studies in Ahmadou Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Nigeria, where he earned a B. Sc. (Hon.) Economic degree in 1990. Upon returning to Cameroun in 1990, he again worked as Surveyor with MIDENO Bamenda Phase II (1991), taught at Presbyterian colleges in Batibo (1991-92) and Kumbo, Nso (1991-93).
Disgruntled and frustrated by both Cameroun Opposition Political Parties, the ruling CPDM Party and Government of President Paul Biya, he left the country in 1993 for the United States where he earned a combined Economics and Education Master of Education Degree (M. Ed)(1997) and a Master of Arts (MA) in International Relations from the University of South Carolina (USC)(2000). After teaching at Ronald H. Brown Middle School in Washington, DC, (2001-2002) he took time off to complete and publish (call it personal therapy) this work and the refurbished Thesis (USC, 2000) into his first book: International Law and Conflict: Resolving Border and Sovereignty Disputes in Africa (iUniverse, 2004, ISBN 0-595-29707-2). Currently, he is pursuing a doctorate in International Relations. Inside Contemporary Cameroun Politics (ICCP) is his protest, lament and refusal to live the lies of Cameroun unification as presented by domestic and international status quo, which besides promoting such fraud induces conflicts all over the world.