Yaoundé, January 8, 2024 — Professor Joseph Owona, a former minister and member of the Cameroon Constitutional Council, passed away on January 6, 2023, at the age of 78. His career, spanning over two decades in various ministerial capacities – has left a significant mark on the political landscape of the Central African nation.
But to Doctor Simon Munzu – who worked closely with Prof. Owona for decades, the deceased is one of those who have compounded Cameroon’s problems and became one of the Biya regime’s ‘songbirds’.
“Without going into details,” Dr. Munzu stated, “it would be fair to say that in his public career, Owona had many opportunities to speak truth to power.”
Munzu added that “as an eminent and influential intellectual and politician, to help steer Cameroon to safer shores, [Owona] chose the path of immediate gratification and the role of the Biya regime’s apologist-in-chief.”
Dr. Munzo’s message was also alluding to the Anglophone Crisis, which started in 2016 – and has claimed thousands of lives – and forced over one million people to flee their homes.
Four years ago, a national dialogue was held to address the crisis – but many have described it as a “sham” as the gathering’s outcome failed to address the bloody quest for independence by Separatists – currently ensuing in the English-speaking North West and South West Regions of the country.
“I last saw or met him at the Major National Dialogue (MND) in 2019. There he received with much remorse my Keynote speech, in which I emphatically stated that the Anglophone war would have been averted if my former comrades of the ruling CPDM party had heeded my warnings thirty years before against Anglophone marginalisation, subjugation, and assimilation,” Dr. Munzu explained.
He added that Prof. Owona “expressed his regrets about this when he got up and embraced me as I was returning to my seat at the end of my speech and asked for a copy of the speech. He didn’t look well even then, four years ago.”
Munzu was one of the founders of the 1996 constitution in Cameroon. As National Secretary for Economic and Social Affairs in the National Secretariat of the CPDM Central Committee, he took part in the deliberations of the Tripartite Conference convened by President Biya in Yaoundé from October 30 to November 18, 1991.
He was selected by the Tripartite Conference, made up of an 11-member Technical Committee Drafting of the Constitution of Cameroon, made up of seven Francophones and four Anglophones and chaired by Professor Joseph Owona.
As a CPDM member of the Technical Committee in charge of drafting the constitution of Cameroon, Dr. Munzu strongly advocated the return of the country to a federal system of government because he sincerely believed that such a system would be the best framework for recognising, upholding, and protecting the Anglophone identity and giving Anglophones their full rights as citizens of this country. But his opinion was ignored, and based on Dr. Munzu’s statement, if his colleagues, including Owona, had dealt with these issues, the war in the Anglophone regions would have been avoided.
Dr. Simon Munzu did not end there. While reflecting on the broader political landscape, the former United Nations Secretary-General’s Deputy said, “He [Owona] was the high priest of the ‘Essingan’ that stood in confrontation with the ‘Laakam,’ two ethnocentric organisations headed by ethnocentric intellectuals.”
In conclusion, Dr. Munzu concluded his tribute by saying, ” May his soul rest in peace. I’ll keep him in my prayers.”
Joseph Owno started serving the state in his 30s as a deputy minister. He was appointed to at least 10 ministerial departments, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, and many more. His funeral program has not been made public.
