The momentum is all on Ambazonia’s side. President Biya and his gang of Francophone political elites are historically unpopular. The Ambazonia political base is angry and activated, with regular mass protests and the killing of a gendarme all testifying to the seriousness of the Southern Cameroons resistance. The ruling CPDM crime syndicate has been banned in Southern Cameroons and above all, listed as a terrorist organization. Consequently, it is widely expected that French Cameroun opposition will make gains in the 2018 presidential elections, and that Biya himself will face an extremely tough re-election battle and may end up in exile. But by some strange happenstance this momentum has not translated into the currency that matters most in every liberation struggle: cold, hard cash.

The Governing Council of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has a fundraising problem and it is lagging far behind its French Cameroun counterpart which is the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime that still has complete and total control  of Southern Cameroons oil revenue and the Bakassi oil and gas fields.

The main difference is that La Republique du Cameroun has a sitting head of state that runs the nation as a private estate and who can drive huge-dollar donations from the French government, the French dominated International Monetary Fund and rich European corporations.  Any African dictator heading a consortium of crime syndicates such as the one headquartered in Yaoundé is an ATM machine. That’s something that Ambazonians and their Governing Council don’t have right now. But Southern Cameroonians are also presiding over a fractured and scattered resistance regime, which the international community thinks they are divided in terms of both tactics and priorities.

There is no denying that the many Southern Cameroonian groups in the USA have contributed immensely to the struggle. But by providing Ambazonians a leader and a political base in Nigeria, SCACUF has done what Napoleon left undone for the West Cameroon resistance.   The Nigerian structure is what the struggle had been missing over the years and what the Governing Council is sorely missing now is the North American group, who proved to be an especially talented force ever since the revolution started.

With the declaration of independence and the creation of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his French Cameroun counterpart, Paul Biya are roughly neck-in-neck overall in various diplomatic push.  The quest for attention by some Southern Cameroons leaders in the Diaspora has frustrated many Ambazonians, who see Biya’s health issues, his sinking favorability and stalled Francophone agenda  and wonder why Ambazonians can’t take advantage of that and stay united in the Ambazonia struggle.

Some are spending precious time raining attacks on the Governing Council and have argued that Southern Cameroonians can wage the liberation war “together differently”.  Mindful of the present difficulties confronting Southern Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria. Considering that the overall levels of cash swimming around La Republique and the Governing Council are not similar and that the Ambazonian Governing Council has more issues to deal with before the 2018 presidential elections and beyond, there is an urgent need for every Southern Cameroonian group to rally behind the Head of State of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. Southern Cameroonians back home including the thousands that have left the homeland to neighboring Nigeria have been incessantly flashing out signals that the Anglophone Diaspora doesn’t stand for much other than opposing Biya.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group