That SW, NW Divide ‘Leaked Letter’: Big Fat Lies!

 

By Tarhyang Enowbikah Tabe

 

There has been a series or reports and information going around online and offline indicating that a group of elite of Southwest extraction wrote a memo to elite of Northwest Region, indicating that there is no way South Westerners can live happily with North Westerners in a two state federation.

According to reports, this memo or letter was intended to be a secret letter to be handed to the Prime Minister and Head Of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute during his recent Visit to Buea to evaluate the implementations of the resolutions of the Major National Dialogue.

We are equally told that due to disagreement between these Southwest Elite, the decision to hand the document was challenged and soon found itself on the social media.

After fact checking the above and more, The Advocate Newspaper can authoritatively state that it is fake and Big Fat Lies.

Original Document

The original document first appeared online in the early hours on September 22 on the facebook page of a certain Batey Johnson with residence in Bastos, Yaounde.

The document is titled, an Open Letter to the Politically Dissident People of the Northwest and ended up with the following signature unedited, “On behalf of the Southwest Region and her indigenous People. Abraham Johnson Batey Batey THE REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON.”

Link Of Original Post On Facebook below

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=184098750466379&id=100065987665965

 

However the document that later left Facebook to Whatzapp groups and then later published by a Newspaper had similar headings with edited signatures from the original document.

The version circulating on Whatzapp Groups and the newspaper in question, are titled unedited, “Open Letter to the People Northwest” and signed in the following words, “On behalf of Swners.”

The bottom line is that no group of South Westerners penned the document; rather it was the handiwork of a single individual who made a post on his facebook page on September 22.

No ‘Black Leg’ Southwest Elite Spoke To A News Organ

According to the introductory paragraphs of the said Newspaper publication, even though the said letter is cowardly simply signed: “On behalf of Southwesterners”, ‘black legs’ South West elite who had opposed the idea of penning the letter, told The Newspaper, that the idea was born out of the announcement of PM Dion Ngute’s recent visit to the region.

“We gathered that it was initially planned to be presented as a memo from the living forces of the Southwest region, to President Biya, through PM Dion Ngute, who was in Buea to evaluate the implementation of the Major National Dialogue recommendations.” A paragraph in the newspaper reads.

Our team of fact checkers has discovered that these statements are false and misleading.

Primo, we wondered how and why a memo to North Westerners would be presented to the PM for onward transmission to President Paul Biya before reaching the target.

Secondo, there was no planned or audience held between a group of elite and the Prime Minister before or after September 22 to September 23 when the Newspaper was printed or when its front page went into circulation.

Furthermore, Our Team also wondered how a letter that went into circulation online written and signed by one man and termed an open letter would automatically appear as a leaked letter the next day without being touched by a third party for whatever reasons.

Yaounde Based Fako Elite, House Of Chiefs Rep, SW Journalists

The newspaper article in question alleges that “the idea of the said memo was being fronted by, especially some Yaounde-based Fako elite, and a prominent member of the South West House of Chiefs.

Two prominent journalists from the South West region, we were told, were hired to draft the memo.

It is suspected that it was after the said memo received catcalls from some South West elite, that it was leaked on social media as an anonymous letter.”

It is clear from the above findings that the letter was a one man’s job shared on his facebook page and has nothing to do with other Yaounde Based Fako Politicians and a prominent member from the Southwest House Of Chiefs.

As far as the allegations that the two prominent journalists from the Southwest Region were hired to draft the memo, from the foregoing, it boils down to another big fat lie.

No Byline, No Names, No Signatories

Our last but not the least fact checking point was on the issue that the article was written as a journalistic news item, yet without a byline and no names of signatories of the said Open Letter that later became a Leaked letter.

Knowing the professionalism of the said media house and its place in the Newspaper industry in Cameroon, we doubt if this was not an intentional act for whatever reasons, knowing well that professionally it was not worth publishing.

Reactions

 

 A One Man Show

This Diatribe, full of hate speech attributed to the SW Elite first appeared under the wall of Abraham Johnson Batey in Facebook on September 22 2021.

How did his personal article metamorphosed to become a memorandum of south west elites meant to be given to the Prime Minister or what not. Which South Westerner wrote it and where was it written.

No one can claim that NW and SW have nothing in Common except English language. We are a people from the most interesting history in west and central Africa. Small as we were, e carved ourselves out of mighty Nigeria with a common history and geography. We must unite to address our common problems.

Pa Moki Monono,

Elite

 

Stronger United Than Divided

We must find common ground between the peoples of the Southern  Cameroons.  What unites us is stronger than what divides us. We have always been stronger when we speak with one voice. Examples of our struggle for the GCE Board, the University of Buea etc serve as good examples.

The diatribe by some unnamed South Westerners against our brothers and sisters from the North West is not a reflection of who we are as South Westerners. It clearly represents a minority position. We may sometimes have differences. This is normal.

However, as a people, our strength is in our unity. We must rise above this pettiness and self-driven divisive tendencies. We have common problems and we must address them as one people.

Felix Agbor Balla

CSO Leader

We Are A People

This is bigotry at its lowest ebb. The Anglophone problem cuts across all of us whether NWterner or SWterner. When the entrance examination into Enam is translated into bad English that does not make sense, when the language of the force remains French and none English speaking commandants de Brigade interrogate you in French, when you are accosted on the highway by gun toting French speaking policemen, when The DO of your subdivision does not speak English, when a judgment is read in French in the Administrative Court in Buea, when Limbe which has the best natural deep sea port is shutdown for fifty years, when SONARA inside Limbe is a reminder of your own marginalized status, when the percentage of Anglophone into the higher institution of the state is reduced from the 20% decreed by the Ahidjo regime, when you are called two cubes of sugar in a basin of water etc etc does it differentiate between a north westerner and a south westerner. Those who write this kind of drivel are the house niggers of the system and they should be roundly condemned. The Anglophones have lived together for over 100 years. We have brothers, wives, children, in laws on both sides of the divide. We are a people.

Barrister Henry Ngalle

Founding Father, SWELA