As we rise to commemorate this day, we renew our spirits and reaffirm our commitment to SCNC, under the eternal Lord of all creation and justice, through Nonviolence, fight for the freedom and independence of the Fatherland, British Southern Cameroons.

I take this opportunity to sincerely thank you all who have remained faithful to this historic and divine calling. The Almighty created all men free and equal and to each people He gave them their heritage to cherish and nourish.

British Southern Cameroons is ours and no foreign laws, decrees, edicts; constitutions and guns will dispossess us of our rightful heritage. To surrender to foreign domination and alien rule of la Republique du Cameroun is perpetual slavery of body and soul from cradle to the grave not just of the living but of generations yet unborn.

This reality which faced the peoples of South West Africa (Namibia), Eritrea, East Timor, among others, boldly confronts our generation. Each generation standing at the crossroad of its history must out of absolute necessity answer the question “Who are we?” and “Who is not us?”

Each generation faced with this must painstakingly review its past and take necessary steps to right the wrongs by positive collective action. Blame syndrome and inertia have never solved the problem of annexation and colonial occupation.

Right to self-determination is not only inherent and inalienable; it is equally an eternal right of a people. This right grows ever stronger in an annexed, occupied and subjugated people suffocating under foreign domination and alien rule.

Without freedom, without control and right over your affairs, without full authority to shape your destiny, a people can never live in dignity and prosperity. An annexed and occupied people never progress for their natural wealth is brazenly exploited.

The annexed know and enjoy no peace for they are ruled by the barrel of the gun. What can explain our predicament better than the experience witnessed in Mamfe on July 27, 2014 when our late leader Chief Ayamba Ette Otun could not even be buried peacefully?

Even in apartheid South Africa, the ANC had the right to bury the dead! But in British Southern Cameroons, the repressive occupation forces arrest, confiscate and imprison even coffin and funeral programme. This year the occupier has continued to tighten the noose of annexation and exploitation and desperate arrests, tortures, detentions have persisted but we remain unbowed.

Why has President Paul Biya flouted the Ruling of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) on Communication 266/2003? Why has he refused to submit to the Constructive Dialogue under the good offices of the African Commission?

The coloniser is always on the wrong side of history for he is anti- human freedom, justice, peace, democracy, the rule of law and progress.

While tyrants and dictators always find themselves in the jungles of human history, those who stand for truth and greater humanity have always triumphed. Mankind is ruled by potent ideas and ideals and not guns and decrees!

To the people of la Republique du Cameroun, we reaffirm our position. We do not hate you! We did not hate you when your country was engulfed in a civil war. In demonstration of African brotherhood and God’s love, our fathers and mothers opened their doors to those who fled and sought sanctuary.

Your gendarmes and soldiers chasing the escapees to arrest and kill stopped across the international border. Our government gave scholarships to your children for studies abroad and your people who took refuge freely prospered. British Southern Cameroons was your USA, a land of freedom and abounding opportunities.

As much as we respect you as a people, we totally and energetically reject your system inherited from the French. We abhor it because it is inhuman; it is evil. We reject your imposed domination, alien rule, assimilation and the plunder of our natural wealth.

We all hail and salute the brave and courageous proud people of Scotland who after 307 years democratically demonstrated their inherent and permanent right of self-determination.

We salute the respect for the will of the people, the rule of law, the attachment and commitment to democratic principles and practices the David Cameron Government in London demonstrated.

That London did not declare that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland held together by treaties for more than three centuries that this supra-nation is one and indivisible, proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the Westminster system is indeed a bastion of democracy. Bravo UK! Bravo Scotland!

But as we all know there is no treaty of union or any legal instrument binding British Southern Cameroons and la Republique du Cameroun.

Under international law any instrument binding distinct peoples and nations is not a matter discussed and resolved in “a mbuh house”, beer parlor, at sumptuous dinner tables with beautiful smiling ladies, whatever may be the caliber of leaders concerned.

Such an instrument must fulfill conditions set out in Art. 102 of the UN Charter: it must be written and signed by the parties concerned and published by UN.

Dear Fellow Southern Cameroonians, I implore you to be inspired by the Scottish referendum. They have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that the will of the people cannot be killed and buried by the passage of time. If 307 years of union bound by treaty have not killed Scottish nationalism why should pretended unification and no treaty for 53 years kill British Southern Cameroons nationalism?

My Dear Compatriots, our march towards restoration is firmly on the rail. National liberation is a collective struggle demanding selfless sacrifices of all patriots.

As we look back and review our current situation we must equally peep into the future.

Learning from our age of hope and promise and the dark-age under la Republique du Cameroun subjugation, we must vehemently reject and cast away everything seen in the evil system. From the good of the age of hope and promise we must be determined to build a system of government that is people- centred, that is, a system of government at the service of the common man.

This system is focused and lays emphasis on the happiness and wellbeing of the individual citizen. Until the individual is the focal point you cannot talk meaningfully and realistically of equitable development, and development to empower the people.

I have deemed it necessary to raise this crucial and sensitive issue for last year at the National Council meeting in Buea which Hon. Paul Ayah attended, in an inspiring interactive session delegates from different counties fielded questions on the concerns of their people on what I call the New British Southern Cameroons.

Last week at the Southern Zone National Council meeting in Kumba similar questions came up. What is clear is that a national struggle is an investment which must reap rich dividends for all the people, which must redeem and transform people’s lives.

The painful experiences under la Republique du Cameroun annexation makes us to abhor and reject unitarism which centralises and concentrates all powers at the centre and in one man. We reject the idea of a strong ruler no matter how benevolent he may be. We stand for an efficient strong system.

At the first Constituent Assembly held in Bamenda in May 2000 a FEDERAL SYSTEM of government starting with the existing thirteen Counties was adopted. For balanced and equitable development there will be Revenue Allocation to the Counties and Local Government Areas (LGA) from the Federation Consolidated Account (FCA).

In addition to this the Counties based on their constitutional defined powers will still have authority to raise revenue internally through taxes as approved by the County Assembly. There will be no “prefects” and gendarmes.

We are committed to a system whose policies will engineer healthy competition for self-fulfillment. We believe a happy man, a self-confident man endowed with skills under the rule of law is a great achiever. We believe no one but you can better satisfy what is good for you.

As explained in Buea in question from a delegate from Ndian, the head of state will not have the right to make the issue of proceeds from oil, for example, a taboo subject (“Na ya oya?”).

Your future is bright, very bright in sovereign British Southern Cameroons. The sky will be the limit for each citizen. The land of freedom, rule of law will once more be the land of promise and abounding opportunities for all.

Fellow Compatriots, with you I say this with pride and conviction for I fervently believe in our right to freedom, dignity and to be masters of our destiny. I see it not far from now for the Lord who gave us this land is leading. The Lord of justice has never failed or abandoned the oppressed that lean on him for deliverance.

To hasten our liberation, I call on all of us to sink whatever differences exist. Focus on the bigger picture! Jump on the liberation train and let us unite for national restoration and glory. Let us stop listening to the lies and falsehood from Yaoundé. Our political salvation lies in a united front as in Buea in 1993 to the Nine Man Delegation in 1995 to petition the UN against annexation. Let the interest of the people overwhelm individual and limited group interest.

Our faith in the youths, the students, as the budding force of our nation, the evident hope and engine of our future prosperity, the solid bridge between now and the future remains ever strong. This struggle is your struggle, the foundation of your greatness!

Under la Republique du Cameroun dictatorial corrupt rule of the few Octogenarians, your future has been sealed. In the New British Southern Cameroons with a federal system your place to shape your destiny, participate in governance and attain your full potential is guaranteed for this will be, to paraphrase President Abraham Lincoln, the government of the people, by the people and for the people. You are the dynamic force of the New British Southern Cameroons!

As for our women, the mothers of our nation, the staying- force of our dynamic cultural heritage, the future holds great for you, not only that never again shall you be traumatised by rape or by seeing your son’s skull blown by the bullet of the occupier, but that with a just and fair system your rightful place in decision making at whatever level is guaranteed.

Let us in solidarity, men, youths and women rise and hasten the New Dawn!

All religious bodies, NGOs, trade unions and professional organisations, you are partners in national reconstruction and nation building. Though New British Southern Cameroons will be a secular state all religious bodies have an important role to play for politics without morality and fear of God will build a morally bankrupt society where self-interest overrides collective interest.

As for our Natural Rulers, their distinguished place of honour will be restored.

I will not do justice to this message to the nation without condemning the reckless sale of land as if sellers have been assured the world is ending tonight. The family land you inherited is equally the heritage of your children and children’s descendants.

To those with huge money bags from across the Mungo who rejoicing at the deliberate impoverishment of our people get into shady deals with youngsters, we energetically condemn and call on our Natural Rulers, as custodians, to put a stop to wanton sale of land. This has heightened population dilution with an evident evil agenda. Such evil against a people has never worked!

We take judicious note of the US-Africa Summit President Barack Obama organized in Washington. We call on him to match words with action in using US diplomatic weight and influence at the UN to effectively apply preventive diplomacy to end the Middle East perennial crisis by bringing to reality the independence of Palestine.