Benjamin Ngah

Meeting under the
theme, “The Security and Future of the Common Law in Cameroon,” on Saturday,
May 9th 2015, the declaration of the lawyers were unambiguous and
called for the restoration of a federal system of government in Cameroon. According to some of them, the federal
system of government is the only way through which the bicultural systems
Cameroon inherited from its colonial masters could be ensured and the minority
rights of the Anglophones Cameroonians guaranteed.
Most of them who
climbed the rostrum were unanimous in decrying what they described as a long,
steady and systematic erosion of the Anglophone ways of doing things including
the legal system. Most of them cited court proceedings, submissions and the
appointment of francophone magistrate and other court officials to lord it over
them. In most cases, they decried, these appointees have little or no knowledge
of the English language talk less of the common law.
The demands of the
learned men of the law were compiled in a two page document (resolutions) which
basically questioned the legality of the union, called for reforms in the
education and legal system of the
country to make sure the Anglophone system as inherited from the colonial
masters is respected, that they should be a cultural and not regional balance
and most of all that the country should go back to the federal system of
government. They said, they cannot accept to suffer from a history of which
most of them were not part of. They therefore gave the powers that be to six
months to look into the issues and provide acceptable solutions else they will
take adequate actions to force it the throat of the powers that be through
local and international legal actions.
Reactions
Barrister
Bobga Harmony Mbuton
(North West)
The constitutional
foundation of this country must be revisited. The long stay of President Paul
Biya in power is ample prove of a bad constitution. The union between La
Republique and Southern Cameroon is a false union. It was not annexation that
we are witnessing now. The restoration of the government of Southern Cameroon
is a must; it not session but a mere restoration because we had existed before.
Barrister Etta Bessong Junior
(South West)
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