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| Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam |
With Cameroon being
threatened by recurring Boko Haram onslaughts, Hon Mbah Ndam says the law will
be a great boost to the fight against the terrorist group. Though he censured
President Paul Biya for not acting on time to prevent terrorism, the MP thinks
the law will undo the mess that the dreaded Nigerian sect has made of some
parts of northern Cameroon.
The MP spoke to our
reporter Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde, read on
News Watch—Hon.Most
Cameroonians are of the opinion that the recently adopted law by parliament on
the suppression of acts of terrorism has killed their freedom. What is your
take on this?
Hon. Mbah Ndam—I
think Cameroonians are justified in
their apprehension because when you look back into the history of our nation,
certain events have occurred which when you talk about any law on terrorism, it
causes ghost pimples on the hands and faces of Cameroonians. We know of the
1962 ordinances, the 1972 ordinance on suppression of terrorism. These laws
frightened Cameroonians when they think that they are about to be brought back
because it is only when the SDF broke the ground in 1990 and launched another
political party that we were able to have the liberty laws of that very
December 1990 that abolished these dangerous laws in our nation. Prior to 1990,
the military tribunal was a kind of tribunal because during the 6th April 1984
attempt to take over government by force, the military tribunal was a tribunal
of exception; it tried people in the morning and executed in the evening and it
sufficed for you to have been taxed of subversion before even 1984 for you to
disappear. There were those laws that were used to crush the nationalists’
movements towards independence. So haven come out of that situation, everybody
feels that this law is exactly that very situation, I want to beg to differ.
News Watch—What
therefore is the content of this law?
Hon. Mbah Ndam—The
content of that law is not what it is that Cameroonians are taking. It has not
deprived Cameroonians of their right to public manifestation; it has not
deprived political parties of holding public rallies and manifestations against
evils committed by the government. It has not limited the right of anybody, so
if this government misbehaves in torturing Cameroonians, or to suppress
Cameroonians of their rights, it will not be because we voted this law. It will
be that it is acting in its usual characteristics manner that it has cause Cameroonians
to suffer over 32 years. When you read Section 1 sub section 2 of this law it
says that the provisions of the penal code, the criminal procedure code and the
military justice code are still applicable so far as they are not repugnant to
this law. This means that it guarantees virtually all due process. Secondly,
the military tribunal that exists in Cameroon today is no longer that murderous
military tribunal of old.
News Watch—How
is the military court of today different from that of old?
Hon. Mbah Ndam—Let
me give an example, when we were clamouring that these laws should be repealed
by Ahidjo, he never wanted until he was tried by them and he had to run
Cameroon and die outside. Our fight since 1990 brought liberty and freedom and
now if you were to be charged of offences provided by this law and you are to
go before the military tribunal, one guarantee you have there first is that
they are trained magistrates even though they are military people who are
sitting there. Secondly any decision of theirs is subject to appeal to the
regional court of appeal where you will have civil magistrates sitting. Any
decision by that civil magistrate or the civil appeal court that does not
satisfy you, you have the right to go to the Supreme Court and even if you are
condemned to dead after the Supreme Court decision, there is still there is
still the application for grace, for mercy by the head of state, so I want to
say it is due process that exists. Secondly if you were to be arrested that you
were marching, it must be proven that you were carrying out a terrorist act and
what constitutes a terrorist act is a question of law, of international law. It
is not just a mere murderer that becomes a terrorist; you must be proven that
you have committed a terrorist act as defined by international law. And all the terrorist organizations in the
world are known, somebody must show that you belong to one of those terrorist
movements.
News Watch—How
does this law relate to Boko Haram?
Hon. Mbah Ndam—Book
Haram has recently been recognized as a terrorist movement, so for you to be
prosecuted in Cameroon, it must be shown that the acts you have performed are
terrorist acts and that you belong to Boko Haram. So when I will wear my sache
from here and ask my colleagues for us to go out into the streets and march
against the rejection of our private members’ bill we will not become
terrorists for that is not what terrorism means. So you see that if you and I
agree, politics aside, that what is happening in the Far North region where
terrorists are carrying incursions into the country where schools have not yet
resumed, villages have been displaced, if we love our people, then those who
are carrying out those acts should be punished and you cannot punish them when
you don’t have a law.
News Watch—Are
you insinuating that the law will rather serve us in the fight against Boko
Haram?
Hon. Mbah Ndam—It
will serve us greatly. For example, if I was to open my laptop, I will show you
the world map for you to see how the world is fighting terrorism and that all
indications of where terrorists are found are the concern of the world. Cameroon
is not yet included because we had not yet ratified the conventions, as lazy as
Biya is, one of the conventions dates to 1999, he has only sent it to us during
this session because the shoe has pinched him. He thought that terrorism was an
affair of other people. And we are not included in the realm of those who can
seek international assistance in terms of fighting terrorism because we had no
legislation for it. Times have changed, for us to fight that movement that is
going up North, it will cost us a lot and this government is responsible
because when we used to say that this country should developed equitably, they
decided to concentrated resources only in certain areas. What is happening is
that your illiterate brothers and sisters and the youths of the North who have
been put under abject poverty; when you get into the Far North, you discover
that fellow Cameroonians are living like animals. You find people whom all they
own in their life are the small mat they hold in their hand that they can put
somewhere and sleep. You find areas that they do not even know that they belong
to Cameroon. But you have these big guns who come from there and parade here
whereas the background is rottened. So when Boko Haram came and lured the
people with a few francs, they have all drained into Boko Haram. And so we are
fighting ourselves, we are fighting the children that we failed to educate. We
are sending our army to go and kill or get killed by some us who have now
joined Boko Haram. This fight can go on for years for it is not a conventional
war, they are attacks by ambush. And for how long will that last; so if you
don’t make laws that take care of terrorist movements like that so that it is a
consummate; world action and assistance, this thing can destroy the whole of
Cameroon.
News Watch—Are
you saying with the voting of the law, Cameroon will now benefit foreign
support in the fight against Boko Haram?
Hon. Mbah Ndam—Absolutely
yes, the first benefit is international investigation. To be able to identify
the culprits, the organizations, we need a police force that is better than the
micro thing that we have in Cameroon. You must be able to go across borders and
see how Boko Haram is linked to the other terrorist organizations and to
Al-Qaeda, which we cannot do. Therefore at what point can you break the link in
order to know to what extend you can fight. You need international cooperation,
it is not that fanfare that you saw Biya and the rest go to France and see
Hollande…it is far beyond that. Cameroonians shouldn’t become cowards for this
law does not stop civil disobedience, it does not stop strikes. This law
punishes terrorist acts and terrorist acts are known in the world. It is not
because we will fight on the ballot box that somebody will be treated as a
terrorist. It is not because we will fight as a result of somebody frauding at
an election that you will be termed a terrorist. The law does not qualify to
try such cases; those are electoral malpractices which are in the law not this
law.
News Watch—So
will you tell Cameroonians that this law has not come to mess their freedom?
Hon. Mbah Ndam—The
law has come to stop the mess that Biya has created for us over 32 years and
not to mess them.
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