When Violence Becomes Inevitable
By Peterkins Manyong
"Those who make peaceful change impossible, make the violent option inevitable." This adage, often used in reference to wider scale world conflicts, is particularly apt in describing the latest development in the perennial Wum farmer grazier conflict.
To place the responsibility for the escalation of the conflict on the administration alone, is to ignore the force of extremism that preceded troop deployment on July 25, 2005. To heap blames solely on the farmers is to pass judgement hastily in favour of administrative "drones" who slept too long on the findings of Northwest Governor, Koumpa Issa's, commission.
Fairness, therefore, can only be achieved if the right amount of blame is apportioned to each of the actors and main actress in the conflict.
Alexandre Yangue Njoya, Menchum SDO
A senior administrator, Yangue Njoya surely took over from Abrams Enow Egbe after receiving a few hints on the explosive farmer/grazier conflict. He obviously heeded the predecessor's advice and that is why dialogue was for a long time the main instrument in the search for a solution to the conflict.
The formation of a commission by Koumpa Issa to study and propose solutions to the crisis surely came as a great relief to him.
Unfortunately, the mental disposition of the SDO is entirely at variance with trust of the Menchum people whose chief executive he is; that Menchum people never forget and the administrator scarcely remembers.
To put the matter more bluntly, Menchum people have been suspicious of all administrators after the brutal shooting of eight women there in 1981 at the height of the farmer/grazier conflict.
The SDO, on the other hand, thought that because his predecessor (Abrams Enow) became Governor through the farmer/grazier problem, he could be catapulted to the same position by the same conflict. He seemed to have forgotten that Peter Oben Ashu and Bell Luc Rene gained promotion.
Emmanuel Kouam, Wum Mayor
He is the head of the adhoc committee set up to seek a solution to the farmer/grazier conflict. Judging from public opinion in Wum, what the DO has done so far may be his best, but it is certainly not good enough.
The population has taken great exception to his contradictory approach to the problem. Their frame of reference is his controversial conduct sometimes in April, this year.
According to a protest letter sent to Koumpa, he issued an order on April 18, 2005, giving the farming population the authority to remove cattle from farmlands, but later contradicted it with a secret letter to the graziers through one Djibrila Masanga, telling them to remain on the same spot with their cattle.
Another grudge the Wum people have against the DO is that his commission often demands from victims of crop destruction more money than they finally get as compensation.
Edward Cheng Muwah
Before becoming Mayor, Cheng was a fire spitting SDF activist. At one time, it was rumoured that his name featured among those handed over to security men for arrest. That was in 1992. After SDF's victory in the 2002 municipals in Wum, he was seen by the population as the most suitable replacement for the former Mayor, late Nazerius Ghong.
But once in power, he fond himself in the same dilemma as many husbands who are often at a loss as to whether they should please their wives or their mothers. In Cheng's case he didn't know whether it was more prudent to take instructions from the SDO, who was the Council's Supervisory Authority, or the SDF, his party. When he chose to obey the former, he was branded a traitor.
When troops arrived in Wum and started arresting and brutalising a good number of his known opponents, many were certain it was he who had given their names to the forces.
Consequently, when the Mayor quit Wum for Buea to participate in the correction of GCE results, the general opinion was that Cheng, a Literature teacher by training, had gone to once more enjoy the reputation of a pedagogue, having just tasted the ill consequences of being a demagogue.
Elizabeth Ewi
Besides being Deputy Mayor, Elizabeth Ewi is the leader of the dreaded Ndugufumbui(Aghem Women's Secret Society.) Her reputation soared during the mass protests of Aghem women against the excesses of the graziers in 2003.
In the heat of the demonstration, the women besieged the Fon of Aghem's palace and just as the women of Guinea did to force their husbands to cooperate with Sekou Toure, in the fight for their country's independence, the Ndugufumbui, decreed all sexual activities with men taboo until their problem was resolved..
The campaign produced the desired result as Fon Mahmbi 111 and his sub-chiefs soon took a firm position against the administration in the conflict. This is probably one reason why she was among the first to be arrested when troops arrived in Wum.
When The Post met her at the Northwest Attorney General's office, she appeared quite unperturbed; "The war has only just begun," she said.
Sule Buh
He is the SDF District Chairman for Wum. Like a catalyst which takes part in a chemical reaction, but remains unchanged at the end, Sule has influenced many events in Wum, but has so far remained unhurt. He is one of those who openly expressed disbelief in the story that Cheng's life was in danger.
His argument was that the Mayor was seen drinking and merry-making during the visit of Patrick Akwa, Secretary General in the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection. But the SDF Wum Chairman, who supports the idea of Cheng's "impeachment," could not justify to The Post in Wum why a vote of no confidence against an SDF Mayor was decided upon at the Palace of Fon Mbahmbi III, a CPDM stalwart.
Full of humour, Sule has much in common with Mohammed Al-Shahaf, the Iraqi Communication Minister on the eve of Saddam Hussein's fall.
These, in brief, are the main actors in the Wum farmer/grazier conflict. Although part of the blame may go to the extremists, the administration deserves indictment most for failing to implement the recommendations of Koumpa's Commission.
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