Benjamin
Ngah
Much water has passed under the
bridge and it was time for North West Lawyers Association-NOWELA to take action
and put things straight in order to not only to recue themselves from what many
of them consider to be the gradual annihilation of the Common Law system as
practiced west of the Moungo, but the systematic annihilation of the identity
of Cameroonian Anglophone.
In a meeting letter addressed to
the President of the North West Court of Appeal dated February 23rd,
2015 and signed by NOWELA President, Barrister Robert Nso Fon, the lawyers of
the common law vehement condemned what “the unmitigated dismantling of the
common law heritage which could be seen in all spheres of National life.”
According to the lawyers, the
attempt by our francophone brothers to “assimilate the Anglophone legal heritage
is an abuse on re-unification concept, a violation of the constitution and a
threat to national unity” which is offensive. They observed that that the “the
cracks imposed on francophone brothers on the foundation of our unity which
have seriously widen… may result to disintegration” if measures to redress the
situation are not taken and fast too.
In the report, the lawyers tabled six
strong points which ought to be redressed by the powers that be. These points
include amongst others the use of the English language only in the Bamenda
court of Appeal as a constitutional rights, bail in the context of law must be
seen as a human rights because all accused person are presumed not guilty until
found guilty, no exorbitant locus fees charged by magistrate in the discharge
of their duties and that lawyers in the court of first instance would not put
on robes and should not be compelled to do so.
The cry of lawyers in the North West
region is not an isolated cry. Of recent many stakeholders especially in the
field of education have cried foul as to what some even called, “academic
genocide” as far as the Anglophone system of education is concerned. They claim
that there has been a gradual erosion of the Anglophone educational system
especially at the level of technical education.
No comments:
Post a Comment