Buea – For years, the Cameroon government has peddled the Grand National Dialogue (GND) as its golden ticket to resolving the conflict in the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. It was advertised as the ultimate forum where grievances would be addressed, historical injustices corrected, and a genuine path to lasting peace carved out. But as the dust settles, as the years go by, as the so-called Special Status unravels into nothing more than a hollow charade, the truth now stands bare before the world: the GND was never about justice, never about resolution—it was about pacification. It was a ruse to dupe the unsuspecting, to suppress the revolution, and to give the false impression of normalcy while tightening the chains of colonial subjugation.
Cameroon’s Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, has now inadvertently confirmed what Ambazonians knew all along. Speaking in Yaoundé on March 18, 2025, in a meeting with his hand-picked “stakeholders,” Ngute did not even attempt to pretend that the GND had resolved the root causes of the conflict. He did not say that the Francophone teachers forced into Anglophone classrooms have been withdrawn. He did not say that Francophone district attorneys and decree-appointed governors have been recalled. He did not claim that economic discrimination and systemic marginalization have been addressed. No, he could not say any of that, because none of it has been done! Instead, his primary “achievement” was this: the government has cracked down on separatists in the diaspora and normalcy has returned.
Is that what the Grand National Dialogue was supposed to be about? Was that the “solution” Ambazonians were promised? Ngute boldly declared:
“One particularly rewarding action of our diplomacy has been the engagement of partners in disrupting the activities of secessionist leaders residing abroad. This has amounted to judicial proceedings in the majority of countries hosting identified terrorist groups.”
There you have it! The real purpose of the GND was not dialogue. It was not to listen. It was not to address the grievances of Ambazonians. It was to target, hunt down, and silence those advocating for true freedom. It was a well-orchestrated maneuver to give Cameroon breathing space while waging a war of suppression at home and abroad. It was a tool not of peacemaking but of strategic warfare against the Ambazonian movement.
And yet, Ngute went on to list another so-called “achievement”—“the restoration of normalcy.” What normalcy? He pointed to cocoa production in the Southwest, claiming that farmers have returned to their fields and are benefiting from higher prices. But we ask: how many villages remain burned to the ground? How many families remain displaced? How about the thousands of refugees? How many innocent civilians continue to be tortured, maimed, or slaughtered by Cameroon’s military? What about the countless Ambazonian leaders and activists languishing in prisons, held without trial, and subjected to inhumane treatment? Normalcy is fake normalcy when you still hold thousands of people behind bars.
Ngute also celebrated the so-called “effective functioning” of the Special Status and the Northwest and Southwest Regional Assemblies. But the question remains: in what way has this so-called Special Status improved the lives of Ambazonians? How has it erased the decades of marginalization? Where are the independent Anglophone institutions? Where is the autonomy? Where is the power to govern ourselves? It is all a lie! A Special Status dictated by Yaoundé is nothing more than an extension of colonial rule, a fraudulent attempt to deceive the world while maintaining absolute control over Ambazonia.
To further insult the intelligence of Ambazonians, Ngute paraded the establishment of a Higher Teachers Training College in Buea as another milestone of the GND. What does that have to do with the fundamental issues of the conflict? Is that supposed to compensate for the thousands of teachers and students killed or displaced? Is that supposed to make up for the systematic destruction of the Anglo-Saxon education system? How does one training college undo decades of deliberate neglect and subjugation? The answer is simple: it does not.
Ngute then talked about development plans for the regions. The problem is Ambazonians have heard these empty promises before. For years, they have been promised deep seaports, ring roads, and investments. And yet, what has been delivered? Nothing but more bloodshed, more lies, and more manipulation. The people no longer have faith in a government that only knows how to make promises but never fulfills them.
Ambazonians Must Remain Vigilant
The revelations from Ngute’s speech should serve as a warning to all Ambazonians. Ambazonians must be wary of the mushroom groups that keep emerging in the name of Ambazonia. These groups—yesterday it was the CDN, APJ, and today it is the Caucuses. They are nothing but Cameroon partners, spies among us. Ambazonians must ask: Who funds them? What is their real agenda? These are the groups Dion Ngute is referring to as partners that they use to weaken and divide the independent movement.
Real Ambazonians must know their true leaders. They must know who has been in the trenches, who has paid the price, who has stood firm despite the threats, the arrests, the betrayals. The enemy is desperate and will continue to infiltrate and destabilize the movement from within. Ambazonians must not fall for these tricks.
And let no one be deceived: The war is not over, normalcy has not returned, the people have not surrendered. The fact that the Cameroon military still occupies Ambazonian land, the fact that people live in fear, the fact that they still keep thousands in jail, and the fact that extrajudicial killings continue—these all prove that there is no peace. True normalcy will only come when Ambazonians are in full control of their land, their institutions, and their destiny. Until then, the fight continues. Every day, every moment, Ambazonians will continue to surprise the Cameroon army. Freedom is non-negotiable. Sovereignty is inevitable.
