RAMBLE in the JUNGLE
CAMEROONS Crisis – One This, One That – is a SCAM
By Wanaku Verdzekov · · Africa & the Gulf of Guinea
Tags: cfa-franc, corruption, france, ambazonia
Opinion: Franco-Cameroun trying to score goals in former British Southern Cameroons, aka AMBAZONIA, is a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME (mostly for Ambazonians).
Why? Because the CAMEROONS Crisis "game" has NO GOALPOSTS.
Once Ahidjo's gendarmes (today, Biya's BIR) walked into British Southern Cameroons, aka AMBAZONIA, in 1972, there was really no game to talk about.
We can talk about a SCAM. The people's livelihoods and the current cost and standard of living are visible proof of dysfunction and mismanagement, and of a perception, among citizens and foreigners alike, that the Cameroons context is CORRUPT.
Question: How long can anyone run a CORRUPT SYSTEM and still provide its citizens with the basic public services and products they need to be productive members of their kommunities?
Answer: Even if it ran as long as Methuselah lived (969 years), a CORRUPT system anywhere in the world is a SCAM that will NOT SOLVE BASIC PROBLEMS.
PS: Ending corruption is not rocket science.
In the context of the CAMEROONS, the question "Why does corruption exist?" has not been answered. Anyone?
Without the root of the (tree) problem, all that appears to citizens is dried leaves and damaged fruit. What to do? Again, not a rocket-science situation.
Some people, citizens and foreign agents, know what is going on but keep their mouths shut or speak in whispers, for their personal safety. Safety from what?
And that is where the stories of what happened yesterday become important for decision-making today.
Without the full, official and true story of the "colonization, decolonization and independence shenanigans" since 1884, there is room for deceitful, cunning propaganda coming from Franco-Cameroun, a virtual proxy of France.
This propaganda (one-party rule + the One Kamerun theory + one CFA franc issued by the Bank of France…): none of these major facts gives British Southern Cameroons, aka AMBAZONIA, any leverage within the context of the CAMEROONS. In fact, there is abundant proof that it has been INJURIOUS to the lives and livelihoods of the citizens of Ambazonia in many ways.
In the Cameroons, we have all been living a scam since 1961, and the citizens of AMBAZONIA want OUT. They have REJECTED FRENCH and all its ACCOUTREMENTS. Meanwhile, the citizens of Franco-Cameroun are in a legal and cultural BIND with France. Ambazonia is NOT. (Even LEGALLY, Ambazonia is not BOUND to France, except for the worthless CFA franc coins in citizens' pockets: a scam.)
The scam must end, so that all citizens can go on with their lives in their various indigenous "African" kommunities in peace and tranquillity, minus the gendarmes and the "Abnormal School" prefects who have been causing havoc since 1961.
TM
— Wanaku Verdzekov
Reading & grammar
Reading level: Gr 10–12
Understand
- What three "ones" does the author call a scam?
- What is the Methuselah comparison meant to show?
- Why does the author say history matters for decisions today?
Grammar focus: the hyphenated phrase. "One-party rule", "One Kamerun theory": hyphens join words into one idea before a noun. Without the hyphen ("one party rule") the meaning can blur.
Try it: Write three phrases where a hyphen changes or clarifies meaning (for example, "small-business owner").
Discuss: Is corruption mainly a problem of individuals or of systems? Argue using the text.