Kamerunians, 2016 has not been the conclusive year for the change so desired by each of us.Change in order for us to live better and for our country to be in a real way of prosperity and peace.

On the opposite of that, we are ending in tearing apart and pain, a year full of disasters.

The question one asks is, for how long anymore ?

How many wounds are still needed to get Mr Biya and his gang out of insensitivity and unconcern towards the upset and anxious Kamerunian people

How many calamities are still needed to bear for the Kamerunian people of the four corners of the country to decide to end with the group of sensualists which is organizing her misfortunes?

Fellow countrymen,

Some major facts

During the year which is going to end, we have been undergoing powerless :

* The ratification of the Agreements of Economic partnership (AEP) which protect shamelessly foreign enterprises to the detriment of poor local initiatives reducing at the same time the customs office of the State;

* The fall of the price of oil which reduces more the public income in opacity supported by the power in place;

* The unrestrained return of the State to the public indebtedness and its fatal consequences so decried since the sad experience of the years 80 and disparaged which are setting up anew : structural adjustment, privatizations, massive unemployment etc...;

* The race to the hijacking of lands by the pillars of the regime with their foreign accomplices, destroying the entire village communities;

Etc...

For what results?

* Two or three building sites really but with a limited impact on the daily life of the Kamerunians taken

as a whole and a privileged way of enriching the well-off persons of the team in power.

But mainly :

* The deeper anchoring of our country in domination and extroversion

* The increase of poverty for the majority of Kamerunians

* The repeated disasters (Koumatekel, thefts of babies, Matomb, Eseka, Santa ...)

* A deep social malaise weakening a precarious national unity which cans neither be erased by the exceptional feats of the indomitable lionesses from a football in permanent crisis, nor the performances of the soldiers at the front, of an army undermined by wheeling and dealing and nepotism.

* The hindrances to the freedom of meetings, demonstration and information (a young lady journalist was undressed at the Gynaeco-Obstetrical Hospital in Douala).

* Violence and repression as the prioritized mode of settling conflicts.

In all evidence to make the same order reign is the leading word of Mr Biya and his group of friends here and somewhere else.

In the same time…

* The discontent and even the anger are expressed more and more through varied struggles, claims of salaries and non-paid other social rights, multiple leading words of strike, public meetings taking place despite intimidations and arbitrary arrests, for the trade-unions right against brutal clearing out etc...;

* Requirements on the political alternation are heard even timidly in the circles of the power;

* What to say about the insurrection threat in the regions of South- West and North-West whose populations are victim of the lack of sympathy and the stubbornness of the power party of that decay and overtaken by the events.

* The firm conviction is settled for the requirement of a political transition as the only possibility to sort out an alternative in our country with more and more affined precisions.

Then, Kamerun is living obviously a crucial phase of a deep crisis and 2017 will certainly be a year of hash struggle in order for the decision to be drawn clearly. One thing among two:

* Either the status quo triumphs, what would mean the pursuing of the slavery of the surrounding neo-colonialism with the calamities pointed out above.

* Or the start of an honourable exit with the real hope of an option of popular and national interest.

This is the stake for the year 2017. The daily life of all will depend on it, that of all the Kamerunians of all regions of the country, all, including those among us who go on saying that they are not involved in politics.

Each camp will have to prepare for the battle consequently. It is the only way to win the right to build for our country a real unity on the sane foundations.

The Kamerun people will have to identify clearly its interest and “ break into sweat ” as it is generally said.

As for us on the UPC, it is clear that we are going to fight in order to contribute to take out the country from the neo-colonial mess in which the collaborationists from all sides have plunged us.

Nothing will have to divert us from this objective, neither the persistence of a war against Boko-Haram henceforth drawn up, nor even the drift of all secessionist threat.

While understanding the reactions of the Kamerunians of the regions of the North West and the South West, while condemning the blind attitude and the repressive temper of the power in place, the position of UPC remains positive and summed up in the following manner.

We appeal to all our compatriots to force themselves to build together a unitary state, multi-ethnic, democratic, strongly decentralized, joined together, where there will be nothing to afraid of, a permanent dialogue with any of his social groups minority on not.

But mindful of the diversity of opinions out the fundamentals of our living together today after more than fifty years of dictatorship, we present once more, the platform named Stand Up For Cameroon as the most advanced initiative towards a solution. SUFC is active, organized reached by consensus, always open and evolutionary but firm and determined.

It is well and truly that initiative which made the government step back in March – April 2016 in its attempt to modify secretly the Constitution at the exclusive advantage of Mr Paul Biya. And the fight is going on to propose and build a clear alternative front.

It is the occasion to thank all partners, all active, those generous and dynamic youngsters who believe in a better future.

Other initiatives appear actually here and there. We have to be proud of them. All these fronts of struggle will have to be converging in the immediate perspective once more to “ modify the ratio of the forces in favour real change which the Kamerunian populations appeal their renewed wishes”.

We are convinced after all that there ought to be more and more involvement, more determination, more solidarity, more constant and more dynamism in the action. The Kamerunian youth which is not yet mobilized is particularly called upon. She will have to take up her responsibility.

It is with this note of hope in the fight that the combating UPC insists on announcing that the year 2016 is ending with a resounding victory.

Actually, the complaint lodged since 2012 by the UPC against the State of Cameroon near the African Commission for Human Rights and Peoples (ACHRP) has just achieved a first outcome.

The commission by the decision in reference COMM/ 423/12 rendered during its 29th Extraordinary Session recognized the State guilty of the violation of the African Chart to the detriment of our party.

In addition to that, the State of Cameroon is summoned to repair the prejudice it caused and to let alone the judiciary and the administration of justice perform their duty without interferences.

It is a victory for our party which has been struggling for at least 25 years since the return to party politics in our country against a marginalization doubled with harassment for all time.

It is equally a victory for all those who refuse to resign in front of the arbitrary and claim the respect of their rights.

Proof is thus done anew once more that the struggle pays and that forecasts interesting perspectives

Happy New Year 2017 to all.

“Another Kamerun is possible; others choices are necessary”.

Douala, 30th December 2016.

NDEMA SAME Alexis

President of the UPC