(237 Check) – There is a post circulating on social media especially in Whatsapp groups which indicates that a group of elite of Southwest extraction wrote a memo to elite of Northwest Region, indicating that there is no way South Westerners can live happily with North Westerners in a two state federation.
After fact checking and consulting other sources, 237 Check can authoritatively state that No Group Of Southwest Elite Sent such a Hate Message To Northwesters.
This post which is full of hate speech, divide between South Westerners and North Westerners is fake both in content and attributions and has intention to incite violence.
According to the post that is circulating on WhatsApp groups, it was written by a group of elite of Southwest Region to North Westerners. The post begins by clearly reminding North Westerners of the “thing that binds us and those which divides us to”The opening paragraph above is clear indication of Hate speech and promotion of divide and eventual violence.
It went further to state that “The only thing which makes us common is the colonial English we all use, which identifies us as Anglophones. Apart from that, we are two people with two cultures, two mindsets, two backgrounds and two separate destinies. Truth be told guys, since the outbreak of the crises in our regions, a keen observer has noticed that it is a NW affair. We can authoritatively, say now that all atrocities in the SW have been masterminded by guys from the NW. They may have had some pocket support from a few derailed youths in the SW”
This paragraph buttresses the hate in the document and accuses the North Westerners as responsible or masterminding the Crisis in the Southwest Region.
As a means of provocation, the post asks the North Westerners to Count the number of times ghost towns have been called but the SW has remained focused to school and business and adds that “Today you guys are home on the instructions of Sako and Anu while our people down southwest are going to school and moving on”
Another paragraph that is full of hate is where it indicates that North Westerners should forget about Anglophone SW and NW.
“We are not brothers and will never be. At best we asked for a ten state federation, if the govt ever opted for the system. That your struggle is a scam and we long realized it” a portion of the post reads.
Insinuation that North Westerners are devil, the post states that “Today, the reality is on our feet. Your brothers are all over the hinterlands of the SW owning and working in farms, so they can push your agenda further, but I tell you, we will conquer the devil soon.”
Pushing the divide, the post which is said to have come from a group of South West Elite says the North Westerners should take their bitterness and quest for Independence away from them.
“Never shall it be mentioned again that we are one people because we are NOT. We are Sawa and you are grassfield. Take this advice seriously and know that we will NEVER accept the forced relationship you dream of. Advise your brothers who claim to be fighting in the SW that time has come for them to join us in peace or we flush them out in pieces”. This is hate, dehumanizing and can influence violence and retaliation.
The post circulating on WhatsApp groups and which later found itself as lead story on a Newspaper is signed by no body, but says on behalf of South Westerners. When the post finally left the WhatsApp’s groups to the front page of a major English Language newspaper, it went viral and caused a lot of tension between Elite of the Southwest and those of the North West.
This pushed 237 Check team to do some fact findings to confirm if truly a group of Elite in the South West penned the said document.
The Original Post
After fact checking and asking a lot of questions from many sources on the possibilities of such a hate letter, 237 Check stumbled on the original document from which the one circulating on WhatsApp Groups was extracted from.
Fact Finding indicated that a post was made by Abraham Johnson Batey Batey on his facebook page on September 22 and signed by his himself in the following words, “On behalf of the Southwest Region and her indigenous People. Abraham Johnson Batey Batey THE REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON.”
This goes to confirm that no group of South Westerners sat and wrote any letter to North Westerners with such hate and divide.
That it was the handiwork of a single individual who took upon himself the intention to spread hate.
Fact Checking further reveals that the owner of the page leaves in Yaounde and has often than not made similar publications spreading hate and encouraging violence between the people of Northwest and Those from South West.
We further see a difference on the tittles of the original post on Facebook and the one circulating in WhatsApp forums which was later found on a newspaper.
On the Original Post on Facebook, it reads, AN OPEN LETTER TO THE POLITICALLY DISSIDENT PEOPLE OF THE NORTHWEST REGION. Batey Johnson GOLF-BASTOS, YAOUNDÉ, while the WhatsApp post and that found on the newspaper is headed thus; “Open Letter to the People Northwest”
It should be recalled that the Original post on Facebook is signed single handedly in the following words, “On behalf of the Southwest Region and her indigenous People. Abraham Johnson Batey Batey THE REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON.” Meanwhile the post that was shared on WhatsaApp Groups and on the newspaper ended up simply with the words…. On behalf of Swners.
These clearly show that the original document had been tempered with by a third party to push for a hate agenda amongst the two Regions.
Further fact checking from a few Southwest Elite, confirmed that no group of elite ever sat together to draft and share such content as indicated by a newspaper publication.
Senior Barrister Henry Ngalle Monono, founding Father of The South West Elite Association, SWELA, refused that any group of South Westerners could ever sit and pen such a hate letter.
“This is bigotry at its lowest ebb. The Anglophone problem cuts across all of us whether NWterner or SWterner. Those who write this kind of drivel are the house niggers of the system and they should be roundly condemned.” He told 237 Check.
He added that “Anglophones have lived together for over 100 years. We have brothers, wives, children, in laws on both sides of the divide. We are a people”.
Barrister Felix Nkongho, Elite of the South west, says diatribe by some unnamed South Westerners against our brothers and sisters from the North West is not a reflection of who we are as South Westerners. It clearly represents a minority position.
Distancing himself from the note, he says “However, as a people, our strength is in our unity. We must rise above this pettiness and self-driven divisive tendencies. We have common problems and we must address them as one people”.
Pa Moki Monono, a Bonafide Southwest Elite quizzed how his personal article metamorphosed to become a memorandum of south west elites meant to be given to the Prime Minister or what not. “Which South Westerner wrote it and where was it written.” He wondered.
He added that “No one can claim that NW and SW have nothing in Common except English language.
We are a people from the most interesting history in west and central Africa. Small as we were, we carved ourselves out of mighty Nigeria with a common history and geography. We must unite to address our common problems”.
By Tarhyang Enowbikah Tabe
