“We do not reject dialogue, we reject the elites who have been sent”, says Agbor Balla

Agbor Balla, one of the consortium leaders was interviewed by Equinoxe radio on Friday16th October concerning the
anglophone crises and he said the following.

Why do you refuse this outstretched hand of power, why do you see it as a kind of provocation?

We are not against dialogue, we do not deny that people come to us. But the only problem is that there are too many tensions. There are almost a thousand people arrested who are in detention. Really, this is not the time to come. They can start working with the military … There are soldiers everywhere, arresting people. The other problem is that they are the same people they sent when the problem started and who said there was no problem. They are elites. When people are arrested, they say nothing … They are the same people of the CPDM. We need a dialogue with everyone. The members of the government can not decide to send members of the government to find a solution at a time when there are too many tensions. That is my opinion. It is like the last time when the Prime Minister went to Bamenda, we said that there were too many tensions and that he was not welcomed.

What do you think the reaction of the populations of the Northwest and Southwest regions to this mission could be?

I’ve talked to people since I’m a man on the ground. They say that this meeting would be useless. They say there will be a meeting but people are arrested. What kind of meeting is it? There are also members of the delegations. It is not enough to have a meeting but with whom will this meeting take place? That’s where there’s a problem. I know that government time is not the time of the people. But for the supreme interest of the State, the Government must react in the right way because we all are Cameroonians. We have to build a good country. But we have to respect people. If you go to Manfe, you go to the village Ewelle … see what people who are supposed to protect the citizens have done, they looted the houses, they broke them and arrested people. If you see this, you will be wondering where we are.

Does this rejection of the elites sent by the government not make you an opposer to the republican order?

We did not say we reject dialogue. But we reject the elites who have been sent. They are not legitimate people … There are people like Cardinal Tumi and even francophones like Abouem A Tchoyi who can be sent. There are people who will talk with them. It is not that we reject dialogue, they are people sent to speak. When you see people like Senator Goghomo. It was he who managed the meeting with the teachers and who after the meeting had said that the problem was over. These are the people they send. And this position is not mine, you can come to the Northwest and the Southwest to ask the opinion of the people. I say only what the people say. I, as a citizen, have said several times that we need dialogue.

In the last paragraph of your letter, you demand the liberation of all peaceful protesters, you ask for a true count of the dead, and then that they completely restore the Internet in the English-speaking regions, fourth and last thing and not least, you demand a real dialogue that will be open to the United Nations. Do you think that these four things can be accepted by the Government, are you not asking too much?

No, I know that when we go to dialogue, we know that the Government can not accept everything. But these are the conditions of dialogue. There are many people in prison, there are people who were arrested when they did nothing. It is not said that the government must do all this before going to dialogue. He must achieve the minimum.