Nov 30, 2012

Southern Cameroons: ID Cards And Currency To Be Introduced


The Southern Cameroons National Council has announced plans to introduce identity cards, currency and treasury bills in the region and to sign a petition against the ‘illegal occupation and colonisation’ of their territory by Cameroon.

Below is an article published in Punch Nigeria:

The Southern Cameroons National Council has announced plans to introduce identity cards, currency and treasury bills for Bakassi and other areas in the two formerly British-administered regions of Northwest and Southwest regions.

SCNC coordinator for the Centre Region, Maxwell Oben, told Africa Review magazine that more than 10,000 people across the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest Regions commonly known as Southern Cameroons now possess the ID cards.

He said the movement was also seeking 50,000 signatures to back a petition it plans to lodge at the United Nations against the “illegal occupation and colonisation” of the formerly British-administered Southern Cameroons by the French-speaking Cameroon.

More than 6.000 signatories have already backed the appeal and more are still doing so, Oben says.

The SCNC is also said to be planning to introduce a currency– Ramson or Rams – for the territory. Treasury bonds that will be exchanged for the currency “once sovereignty is attained” are already in circulation, the activist says.

There are also plans to set up broadcast media to whip up popular support, according to the activist.

The Efik in Cross river State (Sout South Nigeria) are one of the groups that inhabit Bakassi, an oil rich peninsula Nigeria and Cameroon contested for over 20 years but was finally ceded to Cameroon in a 2002 International Court of Justice ruling.

The group had been resettled inland in Cross River State after the ruling but complained that they could not get an alternative livelihood to fishing.

Their resolve followed Nigeria’s decision to shelve calls to review the ICJ ruling before an October 10, 2012 deadline.