By Synthia Lateu
Presidential candidate Cabral Libii has called on contenders who denied the Ngarbuh massacre to withdraw from the October 12 election, saying they dishonour the memory of victims by staying in the race.
In a statement issued on October 1 – the anniversary of the birth of the Federal Republic of Cameroon, following the 1961 reunification of French Cameroon and British Southern Cameroon, Libii revisited what he termed the “misunderstandings” of reunification that sparked today’s Anglophone conflict.
“We have lost thousands of our brothers and sisters in a senseless and tragic war,” he said, stressing that children must be taught this history. “They must also be told that this government, through its Minister of Communication Issa Tchiroma, denied that women and children were unjustly massacred in Ngarbuh.”
Libii went further, declaring that any candidate who once denied the massacre “must withdraw from the presidential race and if they don’t, no Cameroonian should give them their vote.”
The remarks appeared directed at Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the former Communication Minister and now opposition candidate, who has faced backlash for proposing to resolve the Anglophone crisis if elected. Critics note that as minister, he dismissed claims of atrocities. In response, Tchiroma has argued that he was only speaking as a government spokesperson at the time.
Libii also outlined his own vision for peace, pledging a form of community-based federalism.
“The government I will form will sit in the Anglophone regions until peace is fully restored between our brothers on both sides of the Mungo,” he said. “And on that day, as with Senegal’s Monument of the African Renaissance, we will launch the construction of the greatest Monument of the New Reunification, with spaces named in honour of all the heroes of our struggle for independence.”
Turning his attention to the ruling CPDM and incumbent President Paul Biya, Libii denounced the regime’s failures after more than four decades in power.
“We see the giant posters of an old, stagnant, and incompetent regime, exposed in all its filth and decay, unable even to hide its own rot. These posters, set against this backdrop, symbolize a country abandoned to stench, to trash, to the unbearable, to chaos.”
Libii urged voters to break from the past and support him at the polls.
