By Chief Charles A. Taku*
The Republic of Cameroon organised a perfidy in 2019 which it pompously named Major National Dialogue. The Major National Dialogue mid-wived an amorphous construct, a charade, it has been proved, called Special Status ostensibly to recognise the specific identity of the annexed territory of the Southern Cameroons which it nicknamed North West and South West Regions, otherwise called by its pseudonym under genocide, NOSO.
The Special Status was created to douse the flame of liberation which was ignited by the Southern Cameroons war of liberation. Special Status was presented as a ‘Deliberative Organ’ comprising ‘Regional Assemblies’ made up of ‘Divisional Representatives’ and House of Chiefs in the captive genocide enclave to symbolise and emphasise its distinctive enslaved identity. Corrupt organisational, institutional and structural enforcement mechanisms were dispatched to all corners of the world to sing the ‘alleluia’ and the blessings of the Special Status of Southern Cameroons in a ‘One and Indivisible Cameroon’ at long last, alleluia praise the lord of colonial rule they sang themselves hoarse. What a circus of monumental dimension it was! Clerics of all religious persuasions struggled for significance and pecuniary gain to be coopted to pray profound wounds of annexation and colonial rule into submission. According to them, Special Status was the sesame of a ‘ Grandmaster Divine Seal Total Annexation’ and the state capture of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia. Again, they sang the ‘Never Asunder’ and the “ I surrender ‘ slave anthems of submission. Humanity, wither they conscience!
The Devil of deception, it is said, is in its details. The Conference of Traditional Rulers of Cameroon which met under the superintendence of Paul Atanga Nji yesterday January 27, 2025 to endorse the natural candidate of the CPDM 92 year Paul Biya, the Supreme Incarnate of the Constitutional Order of his country Cameroon, achieved an legitimate purpose of interest for the Southern Cameroons of significant relevance to the Southern Cameroons quest for self-determination and freedom under international law. It exposed the facetious nature of ‘Special Status, its NOSO House of Chiefs construct better known as ‘Masquerade in Royal Regalia’. Masquerade in Royal Regalia purports to derive its existence, legitimacy and special status specificity under to ‘Law no 2019/24/of 24 December 2019 to institute the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities’ pursuant to the intendment of Article 62(2) of the Constitution of Cameroon on the “specificities of certain regions with regard to their organisation and functioning” .
The Association of Traditional Chiefs of Cameroon which held its conference January 27, 2025 in Yaoundé to endorse 92 years Paul Biya as its natural candidate for another 7 year Presidential elected mandate, does not fall within this category. It exists and operates by the ministerial fiat of the Minister of Territorial Administration of Cameroon under the law of association Law No.90-53 of 19 December 1990 . The Special Status Law which created NOSO House of Chiefs did not expressly or impliedly extend the special status to the Association of Traditional Chiefs of Cameroon.
It did not make ‘NOSO Masquerade in Royal Regalia’ an appendage of the Association of Traditional Chiefs of Cameroon. By its participation in the Conference of Traditional Chiefs of Cameroon, NOSO Special Status apparatus, has established that it is an appendage of the Association of Cameroon Traditional Chiefs, shares its objectives which it publicly endorsed, and which are inconsistent with Southern Cameroons cultural and institutional values and its international legal identity. This defeats its so-called special status, and its organisational goals stated it its enabling legislation.
The subordination of members of ‘NOSO Masquerade in Royal Regalia’ therefore, which was pompously misrepresented as a reincarnation of the Southern Cameroons House of Chiefs to deflect attention from the horrendous genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes of the past sixty-five years has been exposed in the market place of Republic of Cameroon’s Perfidy and deception. It is a charade.
The late Kenya President Mwai Kibaki once said that every market place has its mad people. The conference of Traditional Chiefs of Cameroon with the co-option of Southern Cameroons traditional chiefs, has achieved two additional purposes: State capture of the Chieftaincy institution and its transformation into a propaganda tool for the perpetuation of imperial rule and the evisceration of the perfidy of NOSO Special Status, its House of Chiefs or Masquerade in Royal Regalia. This confirms the unimpeachable fact that Special Status with its House of Chiefs is a perversion of the legitimate aspiration of the Southern Cameroons quest for self-determination, which is a peremptory norm of international law, an erga omnes obligation and of the supremacy of the international rule of law.
With the masks of deception peeling off, the wheels of international justice for victims of impunity and atrocity crimes, thousands in cold unmask mass graves, many in forests competing with reptiles and wild beast for spaces of refuge and survival, indentured slave labour, sex slavery, terror military justice and barrel of the gun, battles for the soul of the living faith, abductions, transborder trafficking and refouling of victims, the legitimisation of terror, torture, egregious violations and the objectification of victims.
Will genuine Southern Cameroons Chiefs who are committed to be different from their corrupt peers and have made a choice to be genuine custodians of our cultures and traditions; liberating consciences of our humanity, our ancestral bonds of freedom, of justice for the dead, for the living, the unborn; of peace and of the sanctity of life, of the morality of spiritual values, of our individual and collective survival in a world environment at war with its soul, stand up now and be counted?
*Chief Charles A. Taku, Barrister at Law, International Lawyer Organization Lead Counsel, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Special Court for Sierra Leone, International Criminal Court, Oude Waalsdorperweg 10, 2597 AK Den Haag, Netherlands
Addendum
About His Royal Highness Barrister Chief Charles Achaleke Taku: added by Nchumbonga George Lekelefac, January 28, 2025.
Position: Barrister at Law, International Lawyer
Organization Lead Counsel, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Special Court for Sierra Leone, ICC. The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. As a court of last resort, it seeks to complement, not replace, national Courts. Governed by an international treaty called the Rome Statute. It is located in Oude Waalsdorperweg 10, 2597 AK Den Haag, Netherlands.
Biography: Chief Charles Achaleke Taku holds a diploma in law and economics from the University of Yaoundé, then an LLB (Hons) from the same university and an LLM from the University of London. He was called to the Cameroon Bar Association as a barrister-at-law in 1984.
Chief C. Takuwas appointed lead defense counsel at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR) in October 1999 and lead defense counsel at the Special for Sierra Leone in July 2005. In March 2012, Chief Taku represented a client at the ICC in March 2012 and the African Court on Human and People’s Rights. The above professional assignments are ongoing. He has successfully litigated a number of cases at the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, and in national jurisdictions.
His Royal Highness Barrister Chief Charles Achaleke Taku was a former president of the International Criminal Court Bar Association replacing the renowned Karim Khan. His Royal Highness Chief Charles Taku is a Southern Cameroons lawyer with more than 40 years experience in the International Criminal Court and the Sierra Leone Tribunal including the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Arusha). The Man of Law once came under attack from Cameroon government Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary on his stance on the Southern Cameroons war. Chief Taku took over from Karim Khan who defended the Kenyan Vice President William Ruto during the post-election violence trial in that east African country.
He has a legacy of an indefatigable advocate of fundermental human rights. He is an international voice of the voiceless and Defender of the Defenseless following the footsteps of his lovely mother, Mama Helen Atabong Asaba Fontem was a distinguished community leader, education advocate, politician, development agent, philanthropist and an extraordinary crusader for justice.
The most distinguished Hon B.T.B Foretia was an astounding lawyer and a fearless crusader for justice who groomed HRH Charles Taku. He put him on his feet during his first appearance with him in Court. From thence, Barrister Taku has not relented these past forty years.
HRH Charles Taku is grateful to the women and men with whom hw has been engaged in all the aspects of the administration of justice and the struggle for a just, free and peaceful world. “Although we play different roles”, he writes, he adds that “we are united in a common objective, in which justice is the sole winner.”
He is grateful to his family and the entire Taku and Fontem families. Mbe Taku was his hero and a warrior while his wife Mama Helen Atabong Asaba Fontem was a distinguished community leader, education advocate, politician, development agent, philanthropist and an extraordinary crusader for justice. Her cause of beatification is highly crusaded by me.
His dear wife Antonia, his children Kelvin, Barbara, Ngwing and Atabong are his best friends of all times. Above all, there is a time in one’s life when a sister is everything in one’s life. His sister Bibiana Taku was a class and bench mate of his, a friend and a manifestation of the endless love of God to him and humanity.
