Common Law Lawyers to strike over bill on language
Common law lawyers in Cameroon are expected to kick off another strike action today in protest of a recent language bill tabled in parliament.
The protests comes as the bill is set to be debated today in parliament.
Talking earlier to MMI, SDF lawmaker, Barrister Henry Kemende said the bill on promotion the of Cameroon’s two official languages makes nonsense of awaited Special Status for Anglophone regions.
Other common law lawyers hold that it is ‘yet another attempt’ to suppress the use of English language even in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon.
According to Cameroon’s leading daily, The Guardian Post newspaper, “the form of protest is not known yet but will be determined when they meet at the court premises today”.
The paper goes ahead to quote the treasurer of the bar council, Barrister Akum Michael: “Section 26 of the said bill is very offensive as it allows French speaking judges to be appointed to courts in the common law regions of Cameroon thus taking us back to the cause of the strike in 2016”.
The common lawyers’ protest comes at the same time as that of teachers at the University of Bamenda who are protesting regarding the security situation in their institution and town as a whole.
