Usually dependable sources within the now fragmented Southern Cameroons National Council SCNC, have hinted The Median that as preparations are heating up to give the late emblematic SCNC National Chairman, Chief Ayamba Ette Otun a ‘state burial’, leaders of the different wings of the restoration movement are also fine-tuning strategies to ensure a smooth succession at the helm of the movement. We gathered that senior magistrate and frontline politician, Ayah Paul Abine has already been contacted by some leaders of the movement to take the relay baton and continue from where Chief Ayamba stopped.

Those who called our newsroom to announce the development said that Ayah Paul has proven beyond all doubts that he is truly “a most respectable and courageous man.”

They said Ayah Paul is not only a man of timbre and calibre but has the wherewithal both intellectually and otherwise to pilot the pressure group away from mucky waters and give it fresh impetus that will enable the SCNC to achieve its desired goal and objective: The restoration of the statehood of the former Southern Cameroons.

But we were also told that Ayah Paul has not given his nod to the proposal.

He also did not totally reject the idea. “Justice Ayah Paul maintained a straight and expressionless face when we proposed the idea to him,” said one of our informants, who at once also hinted that the choice of Justice Ayah Paul enjoys considerable consensus among the many leaders of the now fragmented and near moribund movement.

It should be mentioned that if leaders of the SCNC are looking up to Ayah Paul as successor to the late Chief Ayamba it is because Ayah Paul himself had earlier declared that he would not only join the Southern Cameroons struggle but would do so fully and whole-heartedly.

Ayah Paul made the solemn pledge in his scripted and extempore remarks to the press after the release of results of the 20 September 2014 twin Council and parliamentary elections. Ayah’s party, the PAP won neither a council nor parliamentary seat in the elections.

Following the proclamation of the results of the election, Ayah complained bitterly that he was seriously cheated in the election process and that agents of La Republique were bent on destroying and frustrating his every ambition.

Ayah therefore took the firm and unshakable decision to “return home to the Southern Cameroons” where he would enjoy his rights to the fullest as a first class citizen.

Even though Ayah did not say it outright that he would join forces with the SCNC he at least said it indirectly. And after Ayah made that declaration the intelligence services of the country have since focused their camera and placed a GPS on him, we were reliably informed.

If Justice Ayah is finally chosen and if he accepts to lead the SCNC then he would be the 5th National Chairman of the SCNC after Ambassador Fossung, Dr. Martin Ngeka Luma, Justice Ebong and Chief Ayamba Otun.

It is however not immediately known what procedure the SCNC would use to select or elect its new national chairman. Already, many potential contenders have lined up and are bracing to take up the tricky and challenging job.

Analysts have speculated that the funeral of Chief Ayamba could serve as a golden opportunity for the splinter units of the SCNC to come together once again, pick up the pieces and make firm engagements and commitments for a better way forward for the movement.

But the SCNC is considered illegal in Cameroon, and because of that its militants and sympathizers may not be allowed the opportunity to come together and bury their emblematic chieftain honourably.

That is why some observers are advising that it is high time the SCNC heeded the advice of the Banjul Tribunal and the government of Cameroon for its leaders to consider transforming the movement into a political party because it is by so doing that the movement can become legal and authorized to carry out its activities freely and not in hiding, as is the case today.

But until the SCNC constitutes itself into a political party it will always be considered illegal by Yaounde authorities, and its activities will remain anathema within the territory of the Republic of Cameroon.

It high time therefore for leaders of the SCNC to choose as National Chairman, a person with a wealth of fresh and revolutionary ideas, who can revamp the movement and render its activities more visible and acceptable.

If the SCNC fails to do that now then it risks being buried finally in the dark catacombs of oblivion.