Special Status, Social Media, and the Courage to Rebuild Our Future

By Dr Peter Mbile

In a recent exchange on social media, I sensed a kind but implicit challenge from Dr Ebini.

Whether intended or not, the message seemed to suggest that individuals like me, who have a natural gift for turning/weaving discarded fragments into useful objects, might be better placed investing such ingenuity into causes such as Ambazonia or related separatist currents.

Another point I perceived in the exchange was the reminder that social media is a powerful space for shaping thought and policy, if intentionally used.These impressions, accurate or not, provide a useful starting point for me to weave out something useful.

They offer an opportunity to reflect on my convictions about the Special Status of the Northwest and Southwest, the separatist option, and the role of social media in shaping public life.

*My nature and my choices*

I am an African. I returned to Africa from Europe and the United States because Africa is my work and my calling.

I am drawn to solving problems.

As a teenager, I was fascinated by transforming seemingly “useless materials” into objects of value.

This instinct has followed me into my professional life.

I see opportunity where others see waste or impossibility.

For the same reason, when I completed my studies abroad, I requested my first duty post to be Ndian.

I was not born there and had never lived there, but I knew Ndian had problems that demanded attention.

Helping to solve problems is what I do, and it is who I am.

This is why I view the Special Status as an opportunity rather than a limitation, and certainly as a more courageous pathway than separatism.

*Separatism and the question of courage*

I remain convinced that both the separatist disposition and the weaknesses of the Special Status arise from a deeper issue that has haunted our politics for generations: *the problem of cowardice.*

History shows that the peoples of the Northwest and Southwest, who constituted the former Southern Cameroons, had a full eighteen years of parliamentary democracy.

They managed their affairs without political prisoners and without machinery of overt repression.

Yet they failed to build a just, inclusive and representative political culture.

Their eventual choice to unite with La République du Cameroun, although contested along democratic lines, was correct.

However, the process leading to that union was marred by internal rivalry, insecurity among leaders, and an unwillingness to trust the diverse talents within Southern Cameroons.

This fear carried into negotiations during reunification.

Faced with a more assertive partner, our leaders accepted every sign of bad faith without resistance.

They swallowed every concession until long after the damage had been done, culminating in the regrets expressed during the AAC conferences.

The present 9 years crisis is the predictable outcome of this earlier failure of courage.

*The rise of armed separatism*

When the events of 2016 unfolded, cowardice resurfaced, later, follow good courage.

Taking up arms to address a political and historical disagreement between Africans is not courage.

It is an escape from the difficult work of engaging fellow citizens face to face.

Instead of building platforms of negotiation and intellectual engagement, armed groups chose to disappear into the bush or into foreign cities, throwing fire and rhetoric from afar while exposing children, women and entire communities to dangers they could not shield them from.

A movement that uses its own communities as shields or as bargaining tools is not a liberation movement.

It is a manifestation of cowardice.

This is why the separatist project, attractive as it may seem to some, remains an undesirable path.

*The Special Status: born from the same weaknesses*

The Special Status, introduced in 2019 after the Major National Dialogue, was itself a product of earlier failures.

Unfortunately, its design also reflected the same institutional fear that has crippled policy making for decades.

Regional officials were given responsibilities without real authority.

The architecture of the Special Status was tightened within the same ultra centralised framework that helped produce the crisis in the first place.

Here again we witness a lack of courage, expressed through policy incoherence.

The State, instead of trusting its own decentralisation instrument, retained layers of control and administrative bottlenecks that frustrated the purpose of the Special Status.

Yet all of this can be changed.

We are now in a new era where it is possible to remove these indicators of fear and restore the Special Status to its intended purpose.

What is required is a renewed sense of boldness and trust, not additional centralisation.

*Violence, is not the prerogative of a State*

One of the longstanding legacies of colonial rule is the belief that violence is the State’s natural tool.

Colonial powers ruled through repression because they feared the people they governed.

An independent African State cannot rely on the same logic.

It is neither necessary nor morally sustainable.

A State has many other instruments of power: dialogue, efficient administration, transparency, service delivery, and empowerment.

The Special Status will only succeed when these instruments are given prominence over force.

*The power of social media in public discourse*

Dr Ebini’s implied comment about social media deserves attention.

As a researcher and scientist, I judge impact by the reach and consumption of knowledge.

Contrary to its critics, social media allows ideas to travel further and faster than any traditional book or official communiqué.

What matters is the quality of the material we put into the system.

Good thinking, even if still evolving, finds an audience much larger than the readership of any printed publication.

Used well, social media can become a tool for national healing, civic education and policy innovation.

This is why I continue to use it with intentionality.

*Courage for a new Republic*

The crises we face in Cameroon are not simply political or historical.

They are moral crises rooted in fear, mistrust and a long pattern of avoiding difficult truths.

Separatism fails because it is built on escapism.

The Special Status struggles because it was designed under the shadow of institutional insecurity.

But we are in a new moment.

A moment where courage can redefine decentralisation, restore trust, and rebuild the damaged relationship between citizens and the State.

If we remove fear from our governance and reclaim boldness as a national virtue, the Special Status can yet become a model of renewed unity and autonomy.

And social media, far from being a space of destruction, can serve as a platform for enlightenment and civic rebirth.

I remain committed to this path, guided by the simple instinct that has shaped my life: to find value where others see none, and to build where others hesitate.