The Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC): Conflicts and Constraints ( Introduction of a book chapter on Southern Cameroons : Upcoming)

The Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) is the administering organ of the Southern Cameroons People’s Conference (SCPC) which is a nationalist movement of the people of Southern Cameroons (SCs) who want to sever links with La Republique du Cameroun (LRC) by restoring the statehood and independence of the former. In other words these nationalists want to bring to a formal end that union which LRC has since informally withdrawn from without withdrawing from the Southern Cameroons territory, thus occupying the latter as a colonial power.

        Nationalism has a long history in the Southern Cameroons and early nationalists in the territory did much to instill statist consciousness and associated nationalism in the masses of the territory through political education in ethnic improvement unions and joint ethnic meetings organized to address petitions to the League of Nations and later the United Nations Organization against British poor administration of the territory. Indeed against more especially the British policy of governing this League of Nations mandated territory as an integral part of Eastern Nigeria.

        As political development improved in colonial Nigeria, early nationalist leaders in the Southern Cameroons created political parties, took part in the elections and led the struggle that raised the territory to a self-governing state in1954.  From that time to independence and reunification of SCs with LRC in 1961, the nationalists demonstrated a great sense of unity of purpose albeit plagued often by conflicts and constraints. The nationalism which fires SCNC today and problems which have beset it have therefore a historical precedent.

        The failure of Southern Cameroons nationalists to find national fulfillment in the union with LRC, as it was the case when the territory was governed from Eastern Region of Nigeria from 1923 to 1954, seemed to have given rise to the neo-nationalism which gained popular support among Southern Cameroonians in the 1990s and culminated in the creation of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) in 1994. SCNC was created to coordinate the activities of the Southern Cameroons People’s Conference (SCPC) which replaced the Buea “All Anglophones Conference” (AAC) of April 1993 that sparked up this new wave of nationalism in the territory. The SCNC took leadership of this nationalist struggle with tremendous support from the masses in the territory and great optimism among its leaders.

        SCNC like past nationalist movements in this territory has had a number of internal conflicts and constraints which appear to have negatively affected its achievements. These internal problems have led to factions within the movement and although most factions recognize SCNC and work for the realization of its goal, SCNC does not coordinate the activities of all factions. Though it has since creation in 1994 been saddled with conflicts and constraints, it appears nonetheless, to have developed deep rooted resilience and as a result has done quite a lot within a very short time to raise the Southern Cameroons statist issue to a high level of recognition both at home and abroad.