An Appraisal of the Major National Dialogue as a Panacea to the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon

This paper explores the Major National Dialogue organised by Paul Biya from the 30th of September to the 4th of October, 2019 as a panacea to the Anglophone. The paper also seeks to find out if this dialogue has been the panacea Cameroonians as a whole and the people of Southern Cameroons in particular have been waiting for to end this conflict. This research uses a qualitative research design. This is because the researcher culled information from Jeune Afrique Economie (2019a), Cameroon Tribune, and from Phoenix. Descriptive analysis was used to analyse the collected data. Descriptive analysis is used to get the views of the public whether the Major National Dialogue was really a panacea to the Anglophone crisis. The analysis revealed that there were two opposing opinions on the holding of this dialogue. The government thinks the dialogue was a panacea to put an end to this crisis because there is ongoing construction work in the war zones, and economic activities have witnessed an increase in the regions as the various production units of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) and Pamol plantations have regained agricultural activities. The Ndawara tea estate now functions without problems. Trans-border trade is on the rise and transportation is fluid, except in the rural areas where the state of the road network is poor to name but these. On the other hand, politicians, political parties like the Social Democratic Front, activists, religious leaders, the affected populations, and Cameroonians at large think that the Major National Dialogue was a monologue and therefore was bound to fail because first, key actors arrested and detained in connection to this crisis were not part of this dialogue. For this reason, they are calling for a genuine and an inclusive dialogue. In addition, they argue that we cannot be talking of peace when fighting is still raging on and people are being killed, houses and schools are being burnt, and people are being kidnapped every day for ransom to mention but these.