Today is the 21^st anniversary marking the expulsion of large quantity of CO2 trapped under Lake Nyos. Lake Nyos is located in the north of Southern Cameroon’s or the North West province of Cameroon. The gas emitted, due to the expulsion, suffocated to death some 1700 English-speaking Cameroonians, who were in their sleep. The poisonous gas, also took away the lives of several livestock in the locality.  Lake Nyos is an active crater lake, which formed by an eruption about 5 centuries ago. Cameroon has two such killer volcanic lakes namely: Nyos and Monoun. The second is located in the French-speaking West province and she is just 95 km away from the first, which is located in the English-speaking North West province. Both contain large amounts of CO2 trapped at depth. And surprisingly, two years after the Lake Nyos disaster occurred, her sister lake, Monoun, exploded also, emitting her own poisonous gas, but took away the lives of only 35 Cameroonians.

Besides Lakes Nyos and Monoun all situated in Cameroon, the other part in the world where such dangerous lake is localised is in the centre of the continent.  And this third killer Lake is called Lake Kivu. She stands between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Therefore three of the only volcanic lakes which contain large amounts gas are located in Africa (1). The gas release of Lake Nyos and the disaster it created sparked a wave of global consternation, anguish and generosity. And an unprecedented flood of aid was poured in to help resettle the victims and also construct a macadamised road to the area. But sadly, the survivors saw nothing. The road and houses that donors paid for to be constructed have never been constructed. Most of the survivors who are in majority a pastoralist tribe known as the Fulani, and whose main source of livelihood is animal husbandry are now living in abject poverty, because, their herd of cattle, goats or sheep were disseminated on the 21^st of august 1986.

Wicked & corrupt government

The inability of the government of Cameroon to make the people of Nyos to benefit from aid given them by the international community is the demonstration of the bold corrupt culture and callousness instituted in the country under Paul Biya’s 25 years of misrule. But some apologists of Biya’s misrule, often claim that, it is in recent times that corruption began skyrocketing in the country and those responsible are never punished. But for records, the minister of territorial administration (interior) in 1986, who in a bid to divert food and financial aid meant for Lake Nyos victims, audaciously claimed that, Anglophones were not used to western food and other sophistications. That said inglorious former minister is still glutting and strutting with loots of Nyos victims and he has never been reprimanded or ruffled by the regime that recently, with pomp an fanfare, re-launched her dubious and selective campaign against corruption(2).

Nyos disaster also exposes the discrimination suffered by the minority Anglophones in Cameroon since reunification with the majority Francophones in October 1^st 1961(3). The people of Nyos never went in search of the calamity which befell them, but they are being ignored and punished doubly by the present wicked government of Paul Biya, because, they are Anglophones and worst, some dare vote or are sympathisers of the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF). While hard working Nyos residents met their death through natural causes and they are not being assisted by the state, French-speaking Cameroonian thieves and rogues in the neighbourhood of Nsam-effoulan, located in Yaoundé, who recently went and pilfered an oil tanker and in the process met their collective brutal death, their surviving families are given assistance by the government of Cameroon (4).

Irresponsible & discriminative

Beside the Lake Nyos disaster, that took place in the north of the Anglophone region in 1986, successions of disasters have also stroked the coastal southern parts of Anglophone Cameroon in recent times, precisely the city and town of Victoria and Mienji. But, they have witnessed cold reactions from Yaoundé.

Ironically, the coastal or southern part of Anglophone Cameroon, is allegedly in support of the ruling party: Cameroon’s People Democratic Movement (CPDM), well, that is, if the last electoral results are any yardstick in the measurement of governmental support in an area or region. However, if the southern or coastal part of Anglophone Cameroon are truly supporting or are supporters of Mr Biya and his regime, then, they are yet to reap or see the dividend of their loyalty. And this act alone speaks volumes about Cameroon and also shows the callousness of Biya’s regime. It is bewildering how with such cheap manifestation of ingratitude, Biya’s party could honestly rake the sheer number of electoral victories in last July 22^nd twin elections as proclaimed by the country’s minister of territorial administration minister  Mr Marafa Hamidou Yahya, if it was not through intimidation and fraud (5).

Instead of the South west province or the coastal part of Anglophone Cameroon to be rewarded by Paul Biya, they have been snubbed, ignored and above all, given the treatment meant for any Anglophone and the Anglophone region in Cameroon. Conversely, annually, the second wife of the head of state Mrs Chantal Vigoroux Biya, via her Chantal Biya Foundation continues to give aid and comfort to her French-speaking kith and kin who are above all, criminals and architects of their own travails (6). But Mrs Biya who got married to Mr Biya in 1994, is today one of the richest African woman, and thus identify herself well with those she is aiding.

It is not just because they are French-speaking Cameroonians, but more because, the majority of victims of Nsam-effoulan inferno belong to the greater Beti ruling class, who have instituted the ethnic Bulu tribal dictatorship, which is causing untold hardship to Cameroonians across the regional, tribal and linguistic divide of the country. But interestingly or not, Mrs Biya can’t even give an account on how or what she has done to become an African super rich. Perhaps she can’t give account on her ostentatious wealth, which she tries to dissimulate by selectively distributing alms to her praise singers, because, she knows her wealth is the fruit her profiteering from the corruption ring her husband of a president oversees. She was herself a former call girl who by a struck of luck won the jackpot by marrying an equally wicked, roguish and corrupt man called Paul Biya. But while they swim in financial abundance, the people of Nyos are walking on nothing.

Notes:-

-1) http://www.geo.arizona.edu/geo5xx/geos577/projects/kayzar/html/lake_nyos_disaster.html   

-2) http://www.postwatchmagazine.com/2006/02/corruption_in_c.html

-3) http://eliesmith.blogspot.com/2006/02/celebrating-44-years-of-cameroons.html

-4) http://www.edennewspaper.com/societynews/frenchpresure.htm

-5) http://www.postwatchmagazine.com/2007/08/rigging-three-e.html

-6) http://www.postnewsline.com/2005/12/open_letter_to_.html

 
Web sites:

The Lake Nyos Disaster: www.geo.arizona.edu

CPDM: www.rdpcpdm.cm

SDF: www.sdfparty.org

Chantal Biya Foundation: www.camnet.cm/celcom/fcb

 ** All sources mentioned in the notes were retrieved from the net today, August 21^st 2007.

Robot  # 1 | 22.08.2007 05:48

Today is the 21st anniversary marking the ex...Read the full article.