New SDF chair: Biya a “catastrophic failure” for Anglophone crisis, re-echoes return to federalism
By Hans Ngala
The new chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), Joshua Osih has lambasted President Paul Biya’s government for it’s “catastrophic failure” in handling the Anglophone conflict.
In a statement dated December 30th and which this reporter has read, Osih said of the conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions of the country:
“This crisis is nothing less than a testament to the Biya regime’s catastrophic failures and we all know that you cannot use the same people who caused a problem to resolve it”.
The statement also re-iterated the party’s stance that the Anglophone Crisis “is a political issue and will only be solved through a political solution” and also re-echoed its calls “for power to be in the hands of the people, through strong democratic institutions and federalism”.
It also took a swipe at separatist fighters in the Northwest and Southwest regions, arguing that “No single Cameroonian, be it in the North West and South West or in the
Northern regions takes up a gun at the cost of a decent job or a small business. These boys and girls are recruited from poverty, joblessness and hopelessness. As a nation, we have a paramount duty to correct this social injustice”.
While criticizing the Biya government which has been in power for four decades is often met with imprisonments or heavy fines on media outlets or journalists, outside observers have done so on many occasions. In 2017 when it was still at the level of stay-at-home protests, the International Crisis Group did warn that government’s heavy-handedness was likely to backfire and lead to “an armed insurrection” but the then minister of communication, Tchiroma Bakary was swift to castigate the group, claiming at the time that they were “on the payroll of secessionists”.
The SDF has been one of the strongest internal voices that has continually criticized the Biya government for its poor handling of the conflict.
The now-deceased founder and former chairman of the SDF, John Fru Ndi reiterated calls for a return to federalism at the failed national dialogue in 2019.
Biya will address the nation tonight in his traditional end-of-year speech tonight at 7:00PM local time and after nearly 7 years of war which he declared, Anglophone citizens are not optimistic for his speech.
