An Anglophone President in Cameroon is fulfilment of Minorities rights- Barrister Agbor Balla
By Wilson Musa
The former President of defunct Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC, Barrister Agbor Felix Nkongho has started a campaign for an Anglophone President to become the next leader of Cameroon.
Two Francophones from La Republique du Cameroun, former President Ahmadou Ahidjou and present President Paul Biya, have ruled the West African country.
No Anglophone has been President of the country since independence and reunification in 1961 when Southern Cameroons voted to reunite with La Republique du Cameroun.
Barrister Agbor says it’s time to fulfill that after Paul Biya’s departure.
“We have to respect to the other people who came together to form the country . The West Cameroonians or Southern Cameroonians and La Republique du Cameroun. It very important to win the minds of the people of the southwest and northwest regions, to win the minds and hearts of Anglophones for them to understand and make them feel that they are part of this country,” he told reporters.
The former President of the Fako Lawyers Association spent 8 months in jail after his arrest on January 17, 2017 following an Anglophone uprising demanding for better teaching conditions and respect of the common law judicial system.
Several years after leaving jail, the Human Rights lawyer and founder of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, says an Anglophone President will mean minorities are also given a place in Cameroon to rule,
“That they belong to this country it’s very important to have an Anglophone President and equally to have a rotational Presidency. In a way it will guarantee majority rights because if we all go by the law of majority we will never have a President. So it is very important that this campaign be carried out by everyone in the press,” he added.
This call for an Anglophone President comes three years to the expiration of President Paul Biya’s 7 year mandate by 2025. The President, 89, said on July 26, 2022 that he has not yet decided if he should go to his village after 2025 or stand again as candidate.
There is also a silent campaign by some Northerners for the return of a Muslim president. But the battle to succeed Paul Biya is right in his bedroom.
His son, Frank Biya is being projected as the next president by some unknown people hiding behind youths to pass across their agenda.
