What motivates Mr Paul Biya to call for a National Dialogue on the horrendous Anglophone situation should provoke continental and global debate in charting a sustainable way forward towards building a best alternative mechanisms and a workable agreement to resolving this modern carnage in the 21st century after never again in Rwanda. 

In 2016, a strike action by the Anglophone lawyers and teachers rapidly metamorphosed to a serious crisis and by October 2017, led to an unusual unrest which has not been quelled up until today and seems to threaten the peace and security of that twin nation like nothing has ever threatened it.

The principle of self-determination is prominently embodied in Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations.

Earlier, it was explicitly embraced by US President Woodrow Wilson, by Lenin and others, and became the guiding principle for the reconstruction of Europe following World War1.

The principle was incorporated into the 1941 Atlantic Charter and the Dumbarton Oaks proposals which evolved into the United Nations Charter. Its inclusion in the UN Charter marks the universal recognition of the principle as fundamental to the maintenance of friendly relations and peace among states.

It is recognised as a right of all peoples in the first article common to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which both entered into force in 1976.

The above positions are not alien to what our compatriots and founding fathers of Africa fought and died for.

Dr Donald Agumenu
Leadership and Governance Expert
Accra, Ghana.