Joshua Osih speaks out, maintains controversial stance on parliament’s response to US Congress

The First Vice President of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, Joshua Osih has reacted to critics following his latest move in conjunction with some MPs of the ruling CPDM party.

This was in an outing on Equinoxe radio in Douala.

Addressing critics over his signing of a letter addressed to US congressmen over the armed conflict in the Anglophone regions of the country, he said the letter was misunderstood by many.

“I just want to state here that at the beginning, it was about saluting the action of the Members of the American congress who took interest in the situation prevailing in Cameroon and asked the Biden Administration not to authorise the repatriation of over 70 compatriots,” Osih said.

“Secondly, as you may have known, that some of those who had to be repatriated were part of those financing the war in the North West and South West region, that is false. Nowhere was it indicated so…” Osih added.

Quizzed on his signing of the letter despite being of the opposition, Osih said the SDF is “… a political party and not a church. People are usually sceptical of the party’s policies vis-à-vis the prevailing situation in the NW and SW regions.”

“However, I must reiterate that as a politician, one has the obligation to empathise with the plight of a people, especially those directly affected by the said crisis,” Osih stated.

The politician was also categorical, stating that “… the violence is perpetrated from both belligerents. Responsibility goes to the government and beyond the government.”

He further told the audience that “there’s responsibility abroad and also to Cameroonians. It is all these different people that make up the problem.”

To the SDF MP, it is unjustified to use war for personal gains, reason why all hands should be put on deck to stop those fueling the war from abroad.

“… It is sickening to use a bloody war to position oneself politically. In politics, a certain level of moral uprightness is needed for one not to condescend so low so as to carve a nitche for oneself. I think it is despicable using a war with so much dead luck to position oneself…” He said.

Commenting on the fact that some SDF supporters and even officials might have been discontented with his signature on the letter, Osih said his stance for peace was beyond party lines.

“… I am for peace. In my country, though I am against the Yaounde government, I don’t mix up Fatherland and the government. I don’t mix the two and I think that we have to be very careful with the situation in the North West and the South West regions which persist. This is because every step we take in this conflict can cause severe death,” he explained.

“I think if I was wrong in my position before, it wouldn’t have caused the kind of reactions like it did with the Ambazonians. So I congratulate myself for those reactions which illustrate that I pressed them on where it pained them,” he maintained.

The said letter which has since raised controversy had 63 MPs including Osih address some US congressmen over their call for President Joseph Biden to restrict the repatriation of some Cameroonian asylum seekers.

In the letter to the President, the American senators sought to make the president of the US grant Cameroonian Immigrants in the U.S a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or a Deferred Enforcement Departure.

Cameroon described by the U.S Congressmen in their letter, the Cameroonian MPs said, is a “figment of misinformed views of certain individuals who aim to cause the destabilization of the whole Central African Region.”

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