The Fako Lawyers Association, FAKLA have called on Cameroonians to resist a recent bill tabled in parliament regarding the promotion of national languages. Following an extraordinary session, the association in a communiqué explained that “the entire bill is designed to assimilate Anglophones by attacking the foundation of their cultural identity”.
To FAKLA, “If this bill is adopted and promulgated, Anglophones will be forced to speak in French in order to survive”, not leaving out the educational system too which will be affected.
The bill which authorises administrative authorities to communicate in either of the country’s two official languages (section 19) the legal minds state, is “not only annoying, it is vexatious and inflammatory under the current dispensation in the country and intended to perpetrate the subjugation of the Anglophone people”.
Subsequently, FAKLA resolved among other things to ” resist the said bill with all our might and with the last drop of our blood”.
The learned minds also encouraged their colleagues to embark on an active sensitisation to let Anglophones know what the bill means, commending a similar stance already taken by the common law lawyers of the Cameron Bar council.
Though the unpopular bill has been shelved, their are fears it may once more come up, especially as no official statement has been made by the National Assembly regarding the bill.
The armed conflict in Cameroon which is now in its 3rd year escalated in 2016 after Anglophone lawyers took to the streets to press for legal reforms. Some were assaulted and jailed by the government of Cameroon.
Mimi Mefo Info
