By Mua Patrick, Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Cameroon Journal, Yaoundé – Erstwhile Minister Delegate in the Ministry of Justice, and current National President of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM party, Maurice Kamto, is going public with allegations that there is a plot already hatched for him to be arrested and charged with terrorism and other related crimes’
Without stating clearly who his ‘hunters’ are and why he is being hunted, Kamto who resigned from government in 2011 told a press conference in Yaounde yesterday that those who want him arrested are certainly individuals who fear democratic change.
Though Kamto, a member of the Cameroon Bar Association, did not immediately state whether or not the said imminent arrest is linked to the ongoing Anglophone struggle and the sympathetic stance he has maintained, some political commentators and even CRM insiders who spoke to The Cameroon Journal Monday, said it may not be unconnected.
“Indeed, on the basis of advice that I have provided to the Government in public for the purpose of seeking constructive political dialogue with the compatriots of the Anglophone Regions, my activities as a lawyer for the new Anglophone leaders – and not the secessionists with whom the CRM and I have never discussed – the experts of this ‘Black Cabinet’, who fear democratic change in our country, are now working to have me arrested and charged – for terrorist activities” said Kamto.
He said since his departure from the government and following the creation of his political party, a group of individuals belonging to what he described as a “Black Cabinet” has always multiplied efforts to send him off the political scene by all means.
“This ‘Black Cabinet’ has struggled in vain to implicate me. They embarked on a scandalous move to injure my reputation. Later they tried to implicate me in a financial scandal worth 14 billion CFA francs” Kamto said at the press conference.
He continued: “Now, because from its inception in 2012, the CRM indicated that the Anglophone problem is one of the urgent political problems to be solved and that the peaceful resolution of this problem is a political test to our living-together in our country and that the CRM is committed to resolving it through dialogue, if voted to power by Cameroonians, the said Black Cabinet has now decided to deprive me of such an aspiration.”
The Anglophone crisis
During Monday’s press conference, the CRM National President recounted that for about five months now, the North West and South West Regions have been experiencing a crisis that has grown steadily owing to what he termed “government neglect.”
He said from the demands of Anglophone lawyers and later teachers, the unrest has degenerated into a deep political crisis due to poor government handling of the situation which has exacerbated the frustrations of Anglophone Cameroonians.
“The CRM has said and reiterated that clamouring for a particular form of state; in this case federalism, is not a crime. Nothing prohibits us, as a nation, from speaking frankly, in a sincere and constructive dialogue, where it would also be possible to convince one another as to why decentralisation as provided for by the current Constitution should be preferred” said Kamto.
The CRM Chairman boasted Monday that his party is the only political organisation that has so far proposed a concrete and practical solution to end the current crisis.
He said the party’s deep commitment to the unity of the country has inspired their efforts to contribute to finding rapid and sustainable solutions to this crisis.
The unity of the country, he stated clearly, will not be achieved by the use of force but through mutual dialogue.
“It is the responsibility of all political actors, civil society and government to create the necessary conditions for such dialogue. Listening to federalist demands does not necessarily mean adhering to it. In a society which is in search of a democratic foundation, it is important to give a listening ear to the problems of all” he added.
