The La Republique’s austerity plan that was initiated by the CPDM hegemonic regime failed fundamentally from the point of view of the Southern Cameroons economy and its working class people. The clearest evidence is that for a people that have Ndu Tea Estate, PAMOL Plantations, CDC, SONARA, Nchang Oil Mill, South West Farmers Cooperative, Mukete Estate, Fako Shipping Lines, National Financial Credit and a sea of Credit Union Banks to have recorded thousands of its younger population leaving the country from the early 90s till date is very disturbing.

The majority of these West Cameroonians who are leaving the country are young people who are confronted with a bleak future of part-time work, precarious jobs such as serving in Mr. Paul Biya’s elite forces known as “BIR” and “ESIR” or long term unemployment. The CPDM government had outrageously attempted to blame the unemployed. The Yaoundé Francophone regime reported that it is a lifestyle choice because our younger population loves migrating to the West abandoning government schemes that are geared towards providing jobs for the Southern Cameroons youth. This is a disgusting lie.

The reason for the Southern Cameroons unemployment crisis is because of the lack of jobs. Francophones have taken over everything in Southern Cameroons.  For any job vacancy in West Cameroon, there are 300 people unemployed.  Southern Cameroons unemployed graduates are expected to work for 25,000frs FCFA a month while the Francophone bosses of these state owned corporations are busy recruiting family members and replacing previously paid positions with scandalous internships schemes for their mistresses.

It is hard to explain how Anglophones have cope with this form of vicious and malicious marginalization. A fight back from Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora is needed to demand a future for our young people back home and those sea of Southern Cameroonian graduates now unemployed. The answers is keeping the faith in the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and move your support from social media commentaries into making financial donations to those representing the Consortium back home.

The choices of mayors imposed on Southern Cameroonians by the Francophone political elites in Yaounde have little or no understanding of poverty alleviation schemes. The Paul Biya empty promises have greatly shattered Southern Cameroons. Correspondingly, the Francophone Governors and Senior Divisional Officers sent to our nation from La Republique have no budget to maintain even farm to market roads or subsidize agricultural productivity and above all, institute significant investment to create real training places and jobs.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium should begin the process of phasing out the position of Government Delegate to Southern Cameroons Urban Councils and the participation of the SDOs in Rural Council meetings replacing them with job creation experts from the Southern Cameroons Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance. This is one of the ways that the unjust suffering in West Cameroon can finally be overcome.

The banks and other income generating institutions must be taken into fully democratic public ownership and run for the betterment of the Southern Cameroons society and in the public good. We today after our weekly Cameroon Concord News Group meeting give our full support to the interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium for solid steps taken to weaken the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Southern Cameroons. Happy “Kontry Sunday” to all Southern Cameroonians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai