The SDF National Convention scheduled for the
22nd to the 24th February 2018 in Bamenda, is ending today. Ghost towns were
imposed for the same period, designed to make nonsense of the SDF Convention. I
do not claim to be more perspicacious than most but in my humble opinion, we
are being stupid!
How have the ghost towns affected the
convention? The delegates are meeting and whatever decisions had to be made are
being made. So what exactly have we achieved except punish ourselves without in
the least affecting the “traitor”? Back in the day we had a saying: too much of
anything is a disease!
When ghost towns started, the people decided
to sacrifice to signal their dissatisfaction and discontent with a system that
was driving them into the ground. The point has long since been made. Children
voluntarily decided to stay home from school in a show of solidarity with their
teachers who were protesting against what they perceived to be unacceptable
conditions of work. Again, the point has long since been made. Yet ghost towns
continue and children are being deprived of the only thing that assures them of
a potentially bright future! All in the name of “the struggle”.
The question is how do these activities
advance the struggle?
Not only is the struggle becoming a bad
odour, a stench in the nostrils, but the same people who stood for it are being
wearied by the protracted meaningless misery imposed on them. And the operative
word here is imposed.
The call for ghost towns is now dreaded
because it comes with a threat - “defaulters shall be treated accordingly”. The
threat is necessary because even the “organizers” know that the people are
weary. Try giving them a choice and the reality will become obvious. Just tell
the people that they are free to stay home or not according to their
convictions and see how many stores will stay closed!
“We will live free or die!” has become a
slogan for the so-called IG. This is the message that is plunging untold
numbers into misery and not a few to untimely graves. A slogan glibly repeated
by advocates of a struggle in which they are not struggling. How many of these
“patriots” are in Cameroon? How many of them have had to shut down businesses
or face an enraged army? If they are serious, let them keep their children home
from school in solidarity with the struggle! If they are serious, let them stay
away from work on Mondays in solidarity with the ghost town back home! It is
very easy to live free or die when someone else is taking the risks. It is very
easy to sit back in safety and donate money for arms. Come home and live the
struggle and I will happily sacrifice my salary for weapons! For three days I
have been unable to get my medication for hypertension because the medicine
stores are closed and no pharmacy is open. If my case were more serious and I
had to have that medication or die, I would be a corpse already! We will live
free or die. That should be every individual’s choice, not one imposed by a
governing body which does not yet have the people’s mandate.
Back in the day, to be Anglophone meant to be
honest, respectful and respectable. It meant being truthful, and dependable. It
meant being a gentleman. These in very large measure were the qualities which
made the Anglophone the Anglophone!
Today, it has become common practice to lie,
shamelessly lie, to “promote the struggle”! So someone unconscionably lies
about the SDO of Ndop and six BIR eliminated by Amba soldiers! Another, the
so-called Amba Critic declares that the Regional Governor has called on
Bamilike people to report Anglophone activists to the forces of law and order -
all this in a bid to radicalize and stir people up to unthinking anger and
xenophobia. Nothing that is built on a lie can succeed.
In Kumba, a poor teacher is killed for
telling children to go to school.
Where is the famous Anglophone respect for
other people’s opinions? Where is truth? Where are honesty and considerateness?
A group of individuals have hijacked a peaceful, popular outcry
Unanimous
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Opinion