By Dr. Nick
Ngwanyam, MD.
 |
| Dr. Nick Ngwanyam |
Which dialogue? With
whom, where, when, why, what and how? These are the many questions that are
being asked now. Everyone says genuine, frank and inclusive dialogue without
taboo subjects. Beyond the pain and agony, people are asking these questions
and have genuine reasons for doing so. Dialogue in Africa means different
things to different persons with expected different outcomes. The worst part is
when resolutions are shelved and never implemented.
As I meditated on these
questions and listened to many persons I realized they all have reasons to
wonder and complain. If we do not try to first understand the path we want to
travel, then we shall certainly be heading for the rocks for lack of the road
map. And the road is complicated and thorny. Like anything else that we do, we
must understand the principles, the Physic, Mathematics and the Chemistry. The
salt and the light must be Truth and Love in the respect of Common Good.
Everything worth its
while in life must work on principles.
When you avoid principles you build on a faulty foundation that must crack with
time for that also is the law of nature. No solid constitution and nation can
thrive on half measures.
I remember my mother
cooking ‘corn chaff’ when I was a kid. It is a mixture of beans and corn in
which there are no standard ratios. I have observed my wife cooking it as well
and no batch tastes like the other. The recipes are slightly different but some
principles are constant.
For starters, she kicks
off with the corn. She can decide to peel off the coating on the grains to
improve on the cooking time and change the taste. She can pound that off like
the Muslims do, or boil the maize with wood ash and wash after a while to get
rid of the coating. There are some techniques used in machines to do the trick.
Sometimes, she just cooks through the thick coat for hours on a fire of pounded
sawdust until the maize is done.
It does not matter the
nature of the corn nor its species, she can just cooking it for as long as it
takes and it will be done. You can swear on that because that is Physics and
Chemistry working together. My grandmother in unaware of Physics and Chemistry
but makes use of the principles daily. She knows the importance of time and
seasons, when to prepare, sow and harvest; how to tend to the crops for a good
yield.
THE
WHY AND HOW OF OUR DIALOGUES.
We need to have more
than one dialogue in different settings because the problems are complex. We
are building a new car and different parts and systems have to be built in
different locations then brought together to make a functional whole. One
dialogue cannot do it. We need three micro dialogues and two macro dialogues.
1) H.E.
Prime Minister Yang and Peter Mafany are on the field for the first micro
dialogue. They are testing the waters with one foot and taking the
psychological temperature of Anglophones while letting out the steam from the
pressure cooker. They might be gathering some talking points for solving the
Anglophone problems and gauging where the anger lies. Everyone knows that Anglophones
have been marginalized and are angry about it. They cannot understand why they
have been treated as second class citizens in a union that they embraced with a
lot of hope and optimism many years ago. Lost hope can be a difficult issue to
reconstruct.
2) Anglophones need an AAC 111.
This will bring together Anglophones of all shades and opinions to talk to
themselves and get to a common plat form before setting out to the Macro
Dialogue A. AAC 111 will crystallize
issues into concrete form so that these will be presented as one coherent file
and thus speak with one voice for the good of this nation. Attending ACC 111
would be Dr. Munzu’s camp, SCACUF and the GC, banned consortium members and
individuals including Barrister Balla, Akere Muna, Nico Halle and leaders of
teachers’ and lawyers’ associations. We are thinking of different church
leaders and stand-alone figures like H.E. Christian Cardinal Tumi. The Chiefs
and Fons, women’s representatives, youth representatives, transporters and
okada representatives, university dons, the intelligentia, political party
representatives and other positive and forward looking elites. Representatives
of the Diaspora have a lot to offer. ACC
111 will come out with a list of persons that will attend the Macro Dialogue A
and speak for the people.
3) The
Macro
Dialogue A would be between H.E.
President Paul Biya and the government team on the one hand and AAC 111
Anglophone representatives on the other hand. A third party to such talks to
ease communication and understanding would be the United Nations, America,
Canada, German, Britain and France. This meeting is held in the country after
general amnesty to all participants to allow for free access and frank talk.
4) There
should be a micro dialogue amongst Francophone communities and Regions. They
should seek to discuss what it takes to grow our economy, fight corruption,
respect others especially Anglophones; and what needs to be done for effective
human development and transfer of technology into this nation for
industrialization. They should learn the concepts of self-governance and what
it takes to be proactive.
5) A
Macro Dialogue B will bring Anglophones and Francophones together to learn the
concepts of ‘vivre ensemble’ in mutual respect
and love.
For these dialogues to
take place, we need to emphasize the point that the current government has lost
her voice, credibility and authority over the people. This is so because of
arrogance and the inability to address the basic needs of the communities.
State authority cannot be decreed or dictated. It is a function of love and genuine
respect for each other. Respect is not a one way traffic in which the common
man must swallow as gospel truth what comes from above. It is earned by living
and practicing the truth. Nothing damages relationships more than lies telling
and the absence of the Fear of God.
It therefore, makes
sense to say that the people expect a new and credible government to help this
nation get unto new shores. H. E.
President Paul Biya in December 2013; said this current government suffers from
inertia (inability to solve problems proactively), individualism and poor
governance ( corruption). They should take the blame for the current crisis
because they are not aware that a stitch in time saves nine. New wine cannot be
put in old wine skins and you cannot repair a torn old dress by stitching to it
a new piece of cloth which makes a bad situation worse.
To add insult to
injury, some government ministers and high ranking officials along with
self-seeking journalists refer to Anglophones as dogs, cats, rats and more that
ought to be eradicated. This is not very nice for a people who seek to live and
grow together. Anglophones need an apology for this kind of talk.
I must say that violence has been witnessed on
both sides. The lies telling and social media intoxication is just so amazing.
I am so ashamed of Anglophones who called for children to be killed and yet
when people eventually die one way or the other, we scream about genocide when
we did contribute to it directly or indirectly by asking our children; some
currently on mbanga and tramol; to
face the military while indoctrinating them to believe these are toys.
We say we are showing
up in Tiko to declare our independence and it never happens, and yet no one
gives us an explanation for such an absence. We say the UN helicopter has
landed in Tiko with pictures to buttress yet pictures of such a presence are
those with General Tumenta who died over a year ago. Someone owes us an
explanation.
If the military are
toys, then we cannot be running away from them and seeking refuge in foreign
lands. How could we arrest DOs, SDOs and governors and imprison in chief’s
palaces? How many of such were arrested? What happened to them afterwards? How
do you evaluate such a strategy? How many people died because they wanted to
carry out the arrests while facing toy guns? Does it make sense now as we look
back? I am not saying the killing was a right thing to do. People could have
been arrested and held down while waiting for the tramol to wear out and right thoughts to settle in. Killing unarmed
civilians is a subject of a different debate.
Two days ago, a
military truck probably lost its brakes and ran into people causing injury and
death in Buea. Some say it was deliberate with over 50 persons killed. Some say
1 or two were killed with many injured. What is happening here? Where is the
truth? Where are the bodies of the 50 dead, and what are their identities? How many people were shot from helicopters?
This can easily be verified even after 60 years by studying the bones of the
dead. It can never be hidden.
I read that someone
from the UN is coming to Cameroon and the tone on social media goes up to
reinforce ghost towns and encourage others to do what they must do to stop
children from going to school. Then when schools are burnt and a girl’s arms
are chopped, the leaders do not want to accept responsibility for the violence
on the BBC. We say we are winning big in the face of violence and when
questioned we deny it in the same breath. This confuses me to the core. If it
is not right, do not do it. If you think it is right, do it and take
responsibility for it. Which actions in your opinion qualify as terrorist acts?
What drove me made this
morning was a message circulated to the effect that following the 1st
October upheavals, 400 persons were arrested and locked up in the premises of
Amour Mezam and later on ferried in Amour Mezam buses to Yaounde. These are all
lies and incite violence and destruction of others for no good cause. Hatred
and negative manipulation are certainly not the ways of God. We say we are
Christians and we do horrible things that we cannot be proud of.
Another embarrassment
was the news about the burning of Prof. Sessekou Ayuk’s house and destruction
of his plantations in his native village. Barrister Agbor Balla visited in
person and took a picture in front of this property in the company of the
regent of that village. Everyone was silent and said nothing after this truth
was made public that his houses are intact.
It is not fair to incite and sow hatred and anger just to make political
gains.
As we ask for justice
and God’s favor, we should make sure that we are in good standing with God. The
government also has some hands cleansing to do. For every lie and manipulation
you do, you kill someone and the generations after him. Only the truth and
God’s love can set us free.
Dr. Nick Ngwanyam,
MD. www.stlouisbamenda.com
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
