The United Socialist Democratic Party, USDP and the Cameroon People’s Party, CPP have in two separate releases said they will not be participating in President Biya’s convened National dialogue. According to Kah Wallah’s CPP, “the substance of Mr. Biya’s speech was inaccurate, deceptive and downright insulting to Cameroonians”.
Apart from refusing to acknowledge the crisis, the CPP says the Head of State refused to “apologise for the violence, atrocities and human rights violations committed against the population of the North West and South West regions”.
The form of dialogue convened the party added, will in no way address the root causes of the crisis. A real national Dialogue it proposed should address a variety of areas including problems of Cameroon’s colonial past, redefine the relationship between the State and the citizens, redefine the form of state, the army and other key institutions.
“Instead he spoke to the population with disdain bordering on insult” the CPP statement read, reiterating that what Cameroon needs is a political transition.
The USDP of Prince M. N. Ekosso on its part listed five reasons for not taking part in the National Discourse. Paul Biya is said does not believe in dialogue, the conflicting parties have diametrically opposed goals, the lack of an intermediary to mediate the dialogue, the inconvenience of the venue and the military occupation of the crisis hit regions.
For an all inclusive dialogue, the party proposed that apart from calling for a ceasefire and demilitarization of the regions, all opinions leaders should be freed and invited as first participants. The diaspora too it proposed should be represented and the dialogue held “outside Cameroon on a purely neutral ground”.
The USDP and CPP’s stance come as few of the many propositions already made by civil society actors, political parties and opinion leaders, with most of them calling for the unconditional release of all arrested in connection to the Anglophone crisis.
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