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The Prime Minister’s office has made public a calendar of consultation meetings before the start of the national dialogue. Following the schedule, the consultations will end on Friday, September 27, 2019.
First, the schedule shows that no separatist leader has been invited to take part in the consultation. To a political analyst, Ako John Ako, no meaningful national dialogue can take place in Cameroon aimed at resolving the Anglophone crisis without representatives from the other side of the war consulted.
With leaders of the separatist movement are in prison, the analyst accepts but states categorically that other leaders do exist that can be consulted. He however regrets why President Paul Biya has not granted clemency to sentenced separatist leaders to be part of the talks.
On the list of state institutions to be consulted Tuesday, September 17, 2019, the Secretary General of the Cameroon People Democratic Movement CPDM features among institutions like the National Youth Council and the Union of Journalists in Cameroon. This, Ako John Ako says has confirmed what critics say the CPDM party is considered as a state within the state and not a mere political party.
He questions why the CPDM party cannot be received as a political party for the consultation but as an institution.
Opinion leaders that will be consulted include mainly 2018 presidential election candidates. To Ako John Ako, these are equally leaders of political parties that can better express their proposals through their respective political parties and not as opinion leaders.
To him, the schedule has instead deprived real independent opinion leaders the opportunity of contributing their views on how the dialogue can take place.
The dialogue process is already on course but Ako John Ako thinks if nothing is done for it to be inclusive, then the results of the national dialogue will not be different from that of the 1991 tripartite conference.
Mimi Mefo Info.
