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| Amadou Ali, then Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals fronted for the gov’t and authorized millions for the talks. |
By Mbom Sixtus, April 09, 2015
Cameroon Journal, Yaoundé
– It has now emerged that the Biya regime had in a bid to proffer some
solutions to the Anglophone crisis, held nighttime meetings with some
officials of the movement who, however, turned out to be fake leaders of
the group.
Theodore Leke, SCNC 2nd
Vice National Chairman under the late Chief Ayamba, confirmed the secret
talks in an exclusive revelation to The Cameroon Journal. Leke
disclosed that the dialogue was brokered by a top SDF national executive
member living in Yaounde. He, however, refused to name the official
whom he said linked them up with Amadou Ali who at the time was Minister
of Justice and Keeper of the Seals.
Leke related that at the initial
meeting, they met the minister in the presence of an interpreter. He
said after a brief chat with the minister, he and other SCNC top
officials were asked to return to the South West and come back with a
representative delegation on an agreed date.
Leke said when they returned from
Yaoundé where they were lodged at government’s expense, they briefed
other SCNC officials about the meeting. On the basis of the briefing,
then SCNC Executive Secretary General, Thomas Nwacham wrote to the
minister: “We have been informed by one of the leaders of the SCNC, Mr.
Leke Theodore that your government is inviting us through your good
offices for contact discussions. We appreciate the long-awaited
invitation and hope our exploratory talks shall be frank and sincere. We
propose that this initial meeting be held on January 20, 2004 at a
venue decided by you and look forward to your confirmation.”
The Cameroon Journal gathered that
when the government confirmed the rendezvous, a quarrel later broke out
within the ranks of the SCNC officials with accusations that millions
that were initially made available by the Yaounde authorities were
swindled.
Theodore Leke, he led the talks with Ahmadou Ali
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| Theodore Leke, he led the talks with Ahmadou Ali |
Our sources said some SCNC officials
wanted to know why the government had by-passed then National Chairman,
Chief Ayamba and his immediate assistant, Nfor Ngalla Nfor and settled
on Theodore Leke, third person on the SCNC leadership rank. Leke could
not give any explanation since as he told The Journal, it was an SDF
official who proposed him to the regime as the one to head the SCNC
delegation.
Confirmed sources say Leke took a slim
delegation of four to Yaoundé and after the meeting there, they were
given an assignment to tour the North West and South West regions to
compile the grievances of Anglophones and report back to Yaoundé.
In a summary of one of the reports to
Amadou Ali, a copy of which we stumbled upon, Leke wrote: “We did not
come across any group, fons, chiefs or leaders who rejected the dialogue
to solve the Anglophone problem. Their utmost wish was that the talks
should be frank and sincere between the two groups involved in the
dialogue.”
In a latter report signed by Leke as
“leader of the delegation” and Chief Enow Oben as one of the members,
they said several meetings were held with traditional rulers in the two
Anglophone regions. They equally claimed: “…open meetings were held with
SCNC activists in Kembong, Mamfe, Menji and Bamenda.”
Their communication with Amadou Ali,
we gathered, was done through an encrypted email address. Amadou Ali
himself confirmed the dialogue when at a question and answer session of
the National Assembly in November 2009 he said “government was
consulting with the SCNC.”
Leke admitted that government paid for
his delegation’s assignment for the contact tours which was part of the
“negotiations” but would not disclose the amount. It was on the basis
of the continuing dialogue, Cameroon Journal learnt, that the government
sponsored an SCNC delegation to the African Commission on four
occasions to Banjul and one to Dakar, Senegal.
The objective of the government bench
to the Commission led by Dion Ngute, Minister Delegate at the Ministry
of External Relations in Charge of Relations with the Commonwealth was
to have Leke and other SCNC members testify that the movement was in
ongoing dialogue with the Biya regime and as such the SCNC/SCAPO
complaint be delayed pending the outcome of the SCNC/government talks.
Leke also admitted that their air
tickets and allowances were paid by Yaoundé on a total of five trips for
the case at the African Commission. But he again refused to say the
amount which speculators within the SCNC had said was in tens of
millions.
It was at the Commission, we gathered
from other SCNC officials, that the government knew belatedly it had all
along been dealing with the “wrong people”. Dion Ngute then said the
SCNC was in factions and that government did not know who to dialogue
with. At this point the whole deal collapsed
Leke and Enow in another letter to the
minister recalled: “We regret that the minister informed us during our
last meeting that he has come to the end of his own part and that
politicians should take over and complete the rest. Politicians
especially those from the English-speaking zone cannot do it for obvious
reasons,” they stated.
In the meantime, government insiders say dialogue with the SCNC can only be possible when a credible leader emerges at the helm of the movement.
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