The extend to which the aspiration of southern Cameroonians Met at Foumban constitutional conference.
The extend to which the aspiration of southern Cameroonians Met at Foumban constitutional conference.
The aspirations of southern Cameroonians refer to the decisions of the Bamenda pre –Foumban conference of June, 1961. In fact, that meeting was simply aimed at taking in the house before the talks and to adopt a common position that was to protect their interest. It is such a position or the decisions of the Bamenda conference that we refer here as their aspirations to the Foumban conference. Though their major aspirations were discarded, some were however taken into consideration and accepted as shall be discussed in the following paragraphs
At Bamenda, southern Cameroonians wanted a loose federation that was going to allow the federated states the ability to exercise much power and influence with a distinction made between the federated states the ability to exercise much power and influence with a distinction made between the federal and state governments. At Foumban, a federal republic was realized with two federated states East and West Cameroon constituting the federation.
Secondly, They also opted that the president of the federation should be elected following a simple majority through universal adult suffrage with a term of office of five years renewable once. This was also coupled by the fact that they wanted the president to be assisted by a vice president who were to come from the two federated states with a possibility of rotation at the end of each mandate. This was actually realized in the conference with The president elected through universal suffrage and simple majority with the post of the vice president instituted.
They further argued that the southern Cameroon house of chiefs, the English legal system and the customary court system be maintained and this was accepted and respected as proposed.
Moreover, they wanted English and French to be the official languages of the federal republic. This was accepted during the conference in Foumban with the two languages given equal status as official languages of the federal republic of Cameroon.
However, most of the aspirations of the southern Cameroon delegation were far fetch in Foumban as most were rejected or modified to suit the delegation from republic of cameroon interest. Some of these aspirations rejected or not met included:
They wanted a lose federation with power vested on the federated states. Unfortunately, the deliberations resulted to a powerful centralize federal structure with the constitution according power in the hands of the federation.
They also argued strongly for an equitable or fair share in all the ministerial portfolios in the federation. This was not accepted as immediately after the conference, the ministerial team that was born confirmed this with 40 reserved for east Cameroon and only 10th for west Cameroon.
As a follow up to the foregoing, southern Cameroonians thought that the position of the president should be ceremonial in keeping with the idea of the form of the federation they wanted. But it was rejected outright as the president was vested with full executive powers to do and undo in the federation.
In addition, They asked for the federal capital to be moved from Yaoundé to Douala but at Foumban, this was not accepted as Yaoundé was approved and maintained as the capital of the federation.
Of equal importance was that, They insisted on the issue of a dual nationality with the possibility of retaining state nationalities before a general one for the federation. This was rejected as just a single nationality was retained for the federation…
Also, They wanted a bicameral legislative assembly at the federal level with the states to retain their houses of assembly. The state assemblies were retained but the bicameral legislature at eh federal level with the lower and upper chambers was ignored.
Lastly,, southern Cameroonians wanted all aspects of education to be at the level of the state with the federation to handle the opening of a university. It should be borne in mind that it was the good counsel of the attorney general that opted for this arrangement without however negating the possibly of southern Cameroon opening its own university at a future date.
This notwithstanding, the meeting wound off without any agreement on the antherm, the motto and the flag and Ahidjo exploited it and superimposed those of French Cameroon on them. Consequently, the southern cameroon delegation left for foumban with a lot of optimism but returned shattered and full of dissatisfaction, demonstrating a people who had failed completely in their mission.
