Buhari, Biya and the Ambazonians
Idon’t know whether it was expedience that informed the decision of the Cameroon 45 to slip into Naija. It was curious that the secessionists felt they would be safe from Paul Biya’s gendarmerie once on Naija soil. These asylum seekers have not heard the words of our elders who advice that we take a good look at anyone offering to buy us a beautiful dress. Obviously these Ambazonians (as they like to call themselves) are no students of history. Neither the Frenchified government nor it’s gendarmerie from who the refugees were trying to escape taught African history. If they did, they would have known that Naija is not an asylum-friendly nation. A country that places no value on its own citizens should never be expected to defend others, except of course those others come from nations with the capacity to bully it into compliance.
An understanding of Naija history would have taught the asylum seekers how in 1984, the Buhari government hired Israeli agents to kidnap, drug and crate Shehu Shagari’s transport minister, Umaru Dikko in an attempt to bring him back home to answer to corruption allegations. The leopard never changes its spots except in genetic cases of albinism.
In 2006, pretended elder statesman, Olusegun Obasanjo handed over Charles Ghankay Taylor to the International Criminal Court of justice. That was not the only Obasanjo act for favouritism the global community as two years later; Obasanjo carved a chunk of the land and the people of Naija and unilaterally grafted them to Cameroon. It is curious that nobody has charged Obasanjo for the massacres in Odi and Zaki Biam.
In several parts of our country, governors monitor social media just to harass and imprison anyone trying to make them accountable. Just a few weeks ago, government announced it would be monitoring the social media accounts of people on social media. Obviously, these incidents did not make the headlines on the RFI relay station in Cameroon. It is not improbable that life-president Biya jamms the signals of the BBC in restless southern Cameroon a.k.a Ambazonia. No French vassal state promotes English over the romantic language of Charles de Gaulle and the assimilation it confers on citizens as long as they do not attempt to relocate to Chevaleret or the Quai de la Gare quarters of Paris?
Given these antecedents, our Ambazonian neighbours led by their leader, Julius Ayuk Tabe ought to have come to the realisation that soldiers, even as converted democrats, are unlikely to support secession anywhere. If the antecedents supra did not convince them, they ought to have heard about the treatment meted to Nnamdi Kanu and his Biafraud dreamers by Operation Crocodile Smile. If these guys had consulted the oracle of Ambazonia the way North Americans consult the groundhog for the remaining days of winter, it would have advised them against crossing over to Naija. It would have told them that while their asylum application were being processed; they remained stateless citizens and subject to Naija’s notorious law of wandering.
Naija citizens caught wandering have ended up detained indefinitely or dead in police jails. This is why you will never see a mechanic without a businesscentre-laminated identity card pronouncing him or her an engineer and CEO of a garage with no GPS-enabled address. To navigate the many now-onnow-off checkpoints in Naija without identification makes one susceptible to all kinds of harassments to put it mildly. The best way of escape is to be armed with currencies of value to grease itchy palms.
Mr. Ayuk and his executives should have stayed under Florence Ita-Giwa’s charge. Mama Bakassi earns enough from her oil block to keep fugitives fed and clothed under her corporate social responsibility. Sometimes, she could provide safety from deportation. According to those who swear by the well of Daura, the only way to roam free in Naija is as an outlaw like a herdsman. Our IG, Ibrahim Kpotun is not averse to marauding herdsmen as long as they ravage areas with anti-grazing laws and are averse to the establishment of cattle colonies. Naija is a very dangerous place to live even for its citizens; so foreigners hoping to be protected from pursuing bloodhounds do so at their own risk.
Nobody, except the UNHCR is disturbed about the forceful repatriation of Ayuk and his comrades. Those who deported the Ambazonians were fully conscious that they were unlikely to be welcome in Yaoundé with cups of coffee and croissants or baguettes, Camembert and cups of Bordeaux rouge. What’s more, nobody would have bothered about their deportation if the BBC hadn’t mentioned it in passing. African news is the living diary of the ruiners of its destiny. They are hardly devoted to the plight of displaced people, least of all secessionists. The fear is that, those who harbour secessionists risk insurgencies in their own homes. This fear is palpable, although it is not grounded on evidence.
To future asylum seekers, remember the sayings of our elders - when someone promises to make you a beautiful dress, take a look at what they’re wearing!