Anglophone Problem: Dr BASSONG Pierre Yves Writes to President Biya

 Here below in its entirety is an Open Letter fom Dr. Pierre Yves Bassong, the  President of the Syndicat des médecins du Cameroun to the Head of State Paul Biya.

SUBJECT: Petition of French-speaking Cameroonians for the resolution of the "Anglophone problem"

Excellency,

It took me weeks of reflection and insomnia to finally decide to initiate this petition to the address of your very High Personality.

I have the honor and privilege of working in Bamenda as a doctor of neurology at the regional hospital of Bamenda and teaching at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Bamenda since December 2012.

The experience of my stay in this part of the country and my belonging to the part of the country of French expression allow me to tell you without hesitation that our English-speaking fellow citizens do have a palpable sense of marginalization and the time Could no longer be the denial of reality. The reasons for this feeling lie in the poor application of decentralization throughout the national territory, the very low representativeness of these fellow citizens within the governing apparatus, and the monumental error of your administration. The second official language, whereas our Constitution places it on the same level of equality as the French language. And the regrettable attitude of the majority of your government that, although very educated and brilliant does not fluently speak both languages ​​or not at all.

The real reason for this petition is to tell you humbly that our nation is at risk of genocide and for this purpose it is more than ever necessary to involve you personally and physically in managing this problem that no one can continue to deny. This, in order to restore the order that the last meeting aborted of your party has definitely undermined.

Excellency, where your head of government has failed, you alone can succeed. You can only restore order by going physically to Bamenda and Buea, while acknowledging the "anglophone" problem, such as a polygamous father to whom the sons and daughters of a household are calling for attention.

On the other hand, respecting and definitively restoring our two major cultures to the same level of equality. Not to mention the thorny problem of allowing each region to fully benefit from its wealth (by applying decentralization or federation perfectly, let us not be afraid of words).

Excellency, your present silence is dangerous to our nation, for if nothing is done, your people are irresolutely tending towards a civil war, not to say genocide, which if you do not pay attention will take away your regime.

The massive presence of the army and the policemen in the streets of Bamenda will never guarantee the security of property and people in the working-class districts and in the remote corners. This, in my humble opinion is only oil on the fire which maintains a tension already unsustainable.

Excellency, I beg you to accept this petition as a declaration of love to our country from those who will sign it. Because we are proud of our biculturalism and demand that the two cultures be perfectly treated of equal to equal.

As you always know how to listen to your people and are quick to react when the truth is transmitted to you, please accept, Excellency, the expression of my most patriotic sentiments.

Bamenda, December 10, 2016 Dcr BASSONG Pierre Yves


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