Godfrey Tangwa AKA "Rotcod Gobata"

THE FORCE OF ARGUMENT OR THE ARGUMENT OF FORCE

I have followed with interest the ‘work’ of the powerful government delegation, led by Philemon Yang, in the Northwest and Southwest provinces, in a concerted campaign against the SCNC. FOUR things struck me which need remarking.

1) The delegation declared that it is not necessary to dialogue with the SCNC! How can this be, when dialogue is the best, if not only, means of settling disagreements and conflicts peacefully? Is the problem with the word ‘dialogue’? Sometimes mere words can cause a lot of problems and have led people and even nations to conflict, violence and war. So, if the problem is with the word ‘dialogue’, why not forget the word and just sit down (or even stand up) and talk with (or even to) the SCNC? Talking is very important because sometimes through talking people in disagreement or conflict may realize that they were seeking the same end in different ways without being aware of the fact. The African traditional system is widely recognized for its emphasis on and practice of consensus in the management of public affairs. In reaching such consensus, the position and views of dissenting minorities are of the utmost importance. Such consensus, however, does not necessarily imply unanimous agreement or even reconciliation of differences, but rather recognition of differences, suspension of disagreement and charting of a way forward, in spite of the differences.

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. KOFI ANNAN

(THE POST, No. 0172, May 12, 2000)

Welcome to Kamerun, but don’t tell us no problem exists

Welcome to Kamerun, Africa in miniature, as we love to call it! (I am using the German version of the name of this our rough triangle quite purposely, for the obvious reason that it brings to mind the historical explanation why such strange bed-fellows as Anglophones and Francophones ever thought they could join together and build a single united modern nation. This German name of our country also helps to cover, the way banana leaves may cover a mess, so that the eyes would see only the termites, the very embarrassing fact that the name ‘la Republique du Cameroun/the Republic of Cameroon’, as it is today, signifies either a unilateral act of secession from the bilateral experimental union just alluded to, or an act of annexation and assimilation of one partner by the other. As Secretary General of the United Nations, you are surely familiar with all this, aren’t you?).

ROBERT GUEI AND THE STATIC STATE IN AFRICA

The news that Colonel Robert Gueï is being proposed or has proposed himself as the presidential candidate of the PDCI party for the forthcoming elections in the Ivory Coast (okay, Côte d’Ivoire) can come as no surprise to any observer of the African political scene. However, this news is not in the least less disappointing for not being surprising. And this remains so whether or not Gueï’s candidature is eventually confirmed or not. He came to power under the guise of a God-sent messiah charged with ridding Ivorians of the corrupt dictatorship of Henri Konan Bédié, and there is no doubt that the latter needed getting rid of. He had been presiding over a dictatorship, boldly pretending to be a modern democracy.