The voice of the CPDM against violence became louder when the meaningful strike of the teachers and lawyers was high jacked and turned into an arm conflict.
The militants of the ruling party, though victims of the surge in violence in the two English-speaking regions, has continued to preach peace and dialogue. Militants of the CPDM were the first targets (till date) of the armed separatists who felt that the party’s position of a one and indivisible Cameroon was a barricade to their pipe dream of carving out the North West and South West regions into a new state they hope to call Ambazonia.
The CPDM has proposed decentralisation, opposed to federalism by the Social Democratic Front; the onetime main opposition party in Cameroon. The stance of the CPDM for a one and indivisible and decentralised Cameroon has put the party between two hostile fronts. Militants of the CPDM are victims of violent attacks online. Offline, militants of the party are killed, kidnapped, tortured, and forced out of their homes in the North West and South West regions. Anglophone rebels target and torch properties of CPDM militants. Yet, militants have not touched a hair on the heads of members of the opposition or armed groups.
Instead, the CPDM has continued to roll out talking points for decentralisation as the form of the state that the party supports.
Comrades in government, from the Head of State who is the National President of the CPDM down to the ministers and other servants of the state enjoy the support of the party’s vast majority as they seek for an end to the crisis in the English-speaking part of Cameroon. When government organised the Major National Dialogue, the CPDM participated fully. Lackeys of some opposition parties and apologists of separatist fighters tagged the 2019 event a monologue. An empty criticism because the civil society, hardliners and regime opponents were part of the congregation and spoke freely. Members of the CPDM like the late Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, member of Political Bureau (highest organ of the CPDM), and a Yaounde regime baron spoke without fear or favour. Late Christian Cardinal Tumi who took part in the Major National Dialogue said absentees out of regret were the ones shaming the event.
Also, CPDM Regional presidents and mayors are working tooth and nail to roll back the crisis despite the poor security situation in parts of the two regions. The CPDM through goodwill has lured many out of the camps since the armed conflict broke and President Paul Biya offered an olive branch to those who drop their guns and join the reintegration centres for combatants.
Jude VIBAN
