Cameroon’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, has had a taste of what will happen to him in case things fall apart. The conman and ex-convict who is responsible for the escalation of the Southern Cameroons crisis was denied an American visa late last year when he wanted to visit his family, a source at the U.S.A embassy in Yaoundé has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group.

It is the customary for Cameroonian authorities to have the visas of Western countries in their passports as a precautionary measure in case things fall apart, the source said. The territorial administration boss, who has been telling Americans that they had no lessons for Cameroon, ran into a huge disappointment when the embassy turned down his application for a visa.

The embassy indicated that he had not demonstrated that he would be returning to his country and this rejection was made all the easier because Mr. Atanga Nji owns a huge home in Florida. The U.S. embassy consular officials might have thought the unpopular territorial administration boss was simply looking for a way to skip town, as the government he serves continues its onward march to its end.

It should be recalled that senior government officials, like staff of international organizations, have diplomatic passports that enable them to travel freely when on official assignment, but when they travel for personal visits, they must queue up at the U.S.A embassy for a visa.

Mr. Atanga Nji’s name features prominently on a list established by the American Administration for those responsible for the violence that is playing out in the country’s two English-speaking regions.  The source added that the Yaoundé government is in panic mode and each government official is doing what he can to secure a visa just in case things take a turn for the worse.

It should be recalled that the Trump Administration has been mulling sanctions against some Cameroon government officials following the government’s flagrant human rights abuses in the two English-speaking regions and in the country’s Far North where a Boko Haram insurgency has become an excuse for the government to exterminate huge segments of its own population.

Paul Atanga Nji is the second Cameroonian official who has been denied a visa at the U.S.A embassy since the Southern Cameroons crisis started playing out and many government officials are on edge, as the Trump Administration keeps on calling on the government to seek a peaceful way out of the crisis.

Late Patrick Ekema, the notorious mayor of Buea, faced the same situation and, according to our source at the U.S. embassy, the disappointment at the embassy might have precipitated the death of the Buea mayor who had shipped his family to the U.S.A and was seeking to take a girlfriend along.

It should be indicated that Mr. Ekema’s family now resides in Ontario, Canada, where they are seeking asylum. The family of six had run into a huge financial storm when the crooked and dishonest mayor passed away. He was using the Buea city council as his ATM to sustain his family in the United States, but when death struck, the tap was immediately turned off and the family went into a tailspin. The family’s only saving grace has been its asylum claim in Canada which has enabled it to have some government financial assistance.

Mr. Atanga Nji has been very concerned ever since he ran into this storm. Over the last couple of months, his attitude towards the crisis in Southern Cameroons has changed. He has watered down his language though he has dispatched killers to the two English-speaking regions where a government-planned genocide is taking place quietly.

He knows Americans and other Western countries are keeping a close eye on him and in the event of anything, he could face Western sanctions and those sanctions are usually extended to other family members.

Atanga Nji’s daughter is currently schooling in an American institution in France and the family’s objective is to get her to the U.S.A for further studies where she could end up taking residence. It should be mentioned that she is not an American citizen and in the event of any sanctions she might also be affected.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom