Pictures of the highly popular outing of the Head of State last December, during which massive crowds from all the corners of the North West Region turned out to welcome him, have hardly faded out from the minds of the most resentful detractors of that timely political initiative. From the quality of the turn-out, the North West was depicted, as a vast sanctuary of brotherhood and conviviality.

But the stories coming in from there in the past few days completely mismatch this posture. The lurking demon of the region is back again. The people of Bambalang and Balikumbat are at each other’s throats. If it were simply a case of brotherly misunderstanding which, in any case can be well understood, there will be no real cause for concern. But the horrendous casualty figures and the mass destruction of homes, farms and domestic animals leave the impression that these public displays of brotherly solidarity are, to say the least, duplicitous. For, how could the fons of the two fondoms, who barely two months ago were dining and wining in the Bamenda Congress Hall during the President’s visit and who certainly must have met in several pre and post visit meetings, allow their subjects to fight with such ferocity today?

Inter-village conflicts have been the main socio-economic stigma of the North West from time immemorial and successive government initiatives to stem the plague have hardly provided durable solutions. The measures usually taken appear laudable but from close observation and because of the recurrence of these conflicts, it is necessary to revisit the effectiveness of same. This posture of pessimism is informed by a number of factors, least of which is not reactions in previous situations and the lack of resolve in addressing what is generally thought to be criminal acts and for which the law must be seen to be at work. One is tempted to believe that justice, on several occasions, has been too often delayed; thus secreting a germ of impunity in those who continue to perpetrate these bestial acts. It is hardly imaginable to accept that neighbours of yesterday, because of a small piece of land, can exhibit such sudden aversion for the other paragraph. Are citizens of the North West no longer afraid of the law? They, who jealously uphold the common law system, are expected to lead in the respect of the law! The absence of firmness in previous instances is definitely responsible for the current state of affairs and except the State, through the legal and judicial system takes back what is supposed to be its due from politicians, these instances are bound to flourish and will continue to cast a portrait of infamy on a population, that has in the very recent past portrayed itself as responsible and ready to go along with the President of the Republic in his effort to make Cameroon a place worthy of praise from all considerations. Simply put, why are the security agencies working with such complacency? One expects that all those involved in reprehensible acts should be in the hands of the appropriate authorities and should answer for their offences. The public authorities may be wanting in terms of resolution; but ordinary people too have a say. The new world is a globalising one and the people of the NW cannot be an exception. The village or “fondom” mentality is still too strong and can in some way be responsible for the absence of tolerance. The globalisation principle is not a mere cliché. It teaches us that we have to consider ourselves as one; and in the NW, this teaching is particularly expedient. Take the “ring road” project. The project is intended to link some 100 communities whose interests are evidently divided. The notion of “village” is an obvious antithesis to the whole idea of the “ring road” whose objective was to link villages, and, in the process, undermine cleavages.

Our compatriots of the NW must henceforth understand that the exigencies of globalisation and the building of a united country require that we cannot be asking for trans-NW roads, a university or a regional referral hospital while at the same time working to promote the emergence of villages with such vigour and intolerance. If these amenities must come, the price will certainly be to avoid these bestial acts and unjustified bloodletting which may raise doubts in the minds of those who thought the region deserved these amenities and gladly offered them. These primitive acts, unfamiliar with a new-found tolerant and civilised political atmosphere, must stop.