Remains of Cameroon's first president clock 19 years in exile

Advocates of the repatriation and proper burial of the remains of the late president say the move will reconcile the nation and its history

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr.

Usually passionate outbursts over the endless stay in exile of the remains of Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, re-surfaced and ostensibly fleetingly faded here at the weekend as 30 November marked 19 years since the statesman perished in a rather humiliating manner, far away from his homeland. The death anniversary, according to many, would have crawled by unnoticed but for impassioned pronouncements made on the issue by famed nationalist fighter, Mboua Massock ma Batalong. Addressing a weekend press conference, apparently the only ceremony organised on the occasion, he reiterated the fact that the repatriation of the remains of late Ahidjo represented a crucial precedent in reconciling the country with its history. Massock held that the deliberate disregard of the issue upheld over the years by the Yaounde regime amounts to a tangible threat to social peace in the country. «It is inadmissible that the first president of this country, no matter his crimes [in the eyes of his haters] be buried in a foreign land. It is inadmissible that the government in power continue to preach national integration and yet willfully refuse to address such a burning issue which could be transformed into a time-bomb by trouble-makers. It is a scandal as far as the history of this country is concerned,» Massock declared. Mboua Massock, who earned fame as the mastermind of the anti-government ghost town operation that stalled economic activity during the tumultuous return to plural party politics at the dawn of the 90s is also known to have been part of the UPC nationalist struggles to unseat what he calls the neo-colonialist Ahidjo regime. He said rational action demanded that late Ahidjo’s remains be repatriated from Dakar, Senegal to Cameroon. The issue has frequently sparked debate within and without the country since Ahidjo’s death was announced on 30 November 1989. The only instance President Paul Biya addressed it was during an interview he granted the French TV channel France 24 in October 2007. He gave the impression that the return of Ahidjo’s remains was not a state issue, intimating that it was up to the late president’s kin to exhume and convey them to his native country for re-burial. But some politicians and particularly those from the northern parts of the country from where the late Ahidjo originated, have held that the responsibility lies in the hands of the government. Mboua Massock’s stance on the issue embraces that of former Beninese president, Zinsou Emile, also known as a dear friend of the late Ahidjo.