By Tapuka Gerald, February 11, 2017
Cameroon Journal, Yaounde – In his traditional message to the Youths February 10, President Biya again reiterated what he said to Anglophones observing the current sit-in-strike during his end of year message.
In a close to 14 minutes message, aired over National Radio and Television simultaneously, Paul Biya said dialogue between the various trade unionists and the government were going on very well until political grievances which had nothing to do with the questions being treated were introduced by “extremists.”
“The dialogues were moving on well and were only breached by political grievances from extremists preaching hatred who were out to destroy our unity,” he said.
To Biya, all those who have been arrested are extremists and their arrests was within the ambits of the laws of the land. He promised them a tug of war with the judiciary. He claimed these persons have taken students hostage for their selfish political motives. To buttress his point, he stated that, “it is not acceptable to threaten others to adhere to strike, it is not acceptable to take students hostage for political motives.”
In his traditional out of touch messages to Anglophones which are sometimes pregnant with unfounded claims, Biya was quick to celebrate a fake cosmetic dialogue which led to a fake suspension of the strike action by some trade union leaders. In the same vein, he announced that measures have been taken to solve the problem and implement the decisions arrived at during the inter-ministerial committee meetings. But he failed to announce these measures.
From Biya’s speech, it is clear that he is personally ordering the use of excessive force to coerce Anglophones to bow to his conditions.
Hundreds of persons have been arrested since dialogue was suspended last month and the Consortium has even alleged the existence of a mass grave around the Yaoundé-Soa neighborhood where Anglophones are being killed and dumped.
During his last December end of year message, Paul Biya labeled Anglophones as extremists. He again pronounced the same hate speech on February 10. It appears the President doesn’t know that this will only go down to harden the position of Anglophones as it did just after the first announcements. Moreover, for him to refer to those behind the strike action as extremists, it means the only language Paul Biya knows is violence not dialogue.