Who is Fon Fongum Gorji-Dinka?
Fon Fongum Gorji-Dinka is an educated Christian as well as Traditional Ruler (Fon) of the Widikum Kingdom, an aboriginal kingdom of the erstwhile Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia Republic). Fon Dinka believes in freedom of worship, in freedom of speech, and also in the diligent application of the rule of law by modern governments. Above all else, he believes in the right of self-determinations of all peoples, especially given the experience of his native land, The Republic of Ambazonia (Southern Cameroons) and the illegal occupation and gross human rights abuses by the Republic of Cameroun subsequent administration under the lies of unity via the 1961 UN Plebiscite. Thus to the Fon, no peoples should ever be subjected to the kind of relations his peoples of Ambazonia have had with Cameroun Republic for the last 44 years!
When in January 1, 1984 Cameroun President Paul Biya decided to finish what he had started as Prime Minister of Cameroun (who advocated the abolition of English language as a national language in Cameroun with a fifteen page document issued to President Ahmadou Ahidjo who declined to act accordingly) by reverting to the name of La Republic du Cameroun or simply the Republic of Cameroon which was Cameroun’s name at her separate independence in 1960, the Ambazonian Restoration Council (ARM) which met secretly at Professor Bernard N. Fonlon’s residence decided to nominate Fon Fongum Gorji-Dinka as leader of the Restoration of the Statehood of Ambazonia (Southern Cameroons) cause to demand either the total implementation of The Plebiscite Treaty between Cameroun and Southern Cameroons or that Cameroun totally withdraws her administration from erstwhile Southern Cameroons in the event of failure to honor the said Treaty of union.
Education
- St Joseph College SASSE
- Fulbright Political Science Graduate Pennsylvania, USA,
- Council of Legal Education Law School, London;
- Sorbonne University, Paris, France.
Profession
Attorney at Law, Advocate of the Supreme Court of England & Wales, Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Cameroun, Political Activist, Human Rights Advocate and leader of the Republic of Ambazonia (British Southern Cameroons).
Attainments
1964: Became the first Secretary of the Cameroon Federal Bar Association.
1969/70: Appointed by the Central Africa Council of Roman Catholic Bishops as their Legal Consultant and Defense Counsel in the trial of Catholic Bishop Albert Ndongmo charged by then Cameroun President Ahmadou Ahidjo for High Treason and attempted Coup d'Etat.1976: Elected the First President, General Council of the Cameroon Bar.1977: Made Queen's Counsel.1978: Re-elected the President of Cameroon Bar, and to beat the law barring a third term, his professional colleague refused to elect someone in his place and thus forced him to remain as care taker President indefinitely. The Cameroon government came to his rescue by arresting and detaining in 8 October 1981-7 October 1982, for daring to request bail for five foreign missionaries accused of distributing Christian religious tracts without prior written authorization of the Cameroon President.
Public Activities
1959: As President of Cameroon students' Association he led a delegation to the UN for preliminary deliberations aimed at formulating The INFAMOUS TWO ALTERNATIVES in anticipation of the UN-sponsored plebiscite for the Cameroons. Submitted one of the first petitions requesting the United Nations to decolonize Kamerun (German) as one entity!1981/1982: Fon Dinka defended four Nigerian Missionaries against Cameroun President Ahmadou Ahidjo’s charges of attempted state of Cameroon subversion by Nigerians. After the brilliant defense based on freedom of worship arguments, Ahidjo then brandished Fon Dinka as a “blood drinker” even before he became a member of the Brotherhood of Christ Church brought to Nigeria from the USA by Papa Olumba-Olumba—as Ahidjo also proceeded to arrest and charge Fon Dinka (Oct. 8, 1981-Oct. 7, 1982) for having forged his signature to defend the Nigerians. Upon his release from Jail Fon Dinka filed a countercharge against the then Biya Administration demanding they proof how he could have forged the signature of Ahidjo on the date Ahidjo and his government claimed he did when indeed he was out of the country at the specified time. Paul Biya, sensing the huge claims the Fon made on the government decided to completely expunge the case from
Cameroun legal files on the basis that the charges against Fon Dinka were politically motivated by former Ahmadou Ahidjo, a Muslim who not only hated and feared Fon Dinka over the years but wished the expansion of Islam over Christianity.
1985: Launched the restoration pamphlets:
(1). THE NEW SOCIAL ORDER,(2). OPEN LETTER TO CAMEROUN L’ ETAT-MAJOR: DEFUSE THE TIME BOMB, AND
(3). THE REVOLT OF AMBAZONIA.
These documents defined and re-ignited the on-going struggle to restore the sovereign independence of AMBAZONIA (ex-British Southern Cameroons) in concrete legal and diplomatic terms which have stood the test of time and proven more successful a tool in liberation than any other means. The pamphlets called on Cameroun President Paul Biya to comply with the Restoration law which required him to withdraw from Ambazonia and confine the administration of the Republic of Cameroun strictly to international boundaries of the Republic of Cameroun as per the United Nations and Organization of African Unity (OAU) Charters. The Fon was promptly arrested and detained. This provoked the Dinka/GCE Riots (1984/5) which closed all schools and forced the Cameroon Parliament to pass a resolution calling for Cameroun President Biya to convene a conference to address the annexation of Ambazonia problem.
President Biya instead accused the Speaker, Solomon Tandeng Muna of the Cameroun Parliament for leading a pro-Dinka Parliamentary revolt against him. Biya then put the Fon on trial, and demanded the sentence of death by a firing squad. Under torture, the Fon suffered a stroke, which paralyzed his left side. In his defense the Fon asked the court to dismiss the charge unless the prosecution can state the law which made it an offense to call on the Cameroun president to comply with the Cameroun Restoration law 84/01 which requires him to withdraw from Ambazonia. Since no such law exists, the Military Tribunal acquitted the Fon.
President Biya appealed and re-arrested him. But the law creating the military tribunal denied a right of appeal in high treason cases (which invariably ended with a conviction). London based Amnesty International elected the Fon PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE in 1985/6. Biya clamped the Fon under indefinite house arrest but he made his escape by night speedboat three years later across the Ambas Bay into Nigeria. The United Nations accorded him protection with Nigeria as a "host country".
In 1990 the organizers of the Dinka riots, including Ni John Fru Ndi and Albert Mukong formed a restoration political Party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF) hoping to win power and enforce the Restoration law which dissolved the Cameroun-Ambazonia Union. The Party leader Ni John Fru Ndi was soon bought over to denounce the very objective of its formation. So the Ambazonian faction of the SDF including the second vice chairman Dr. Ngeka Luma was for emancipation while Fru Ndi is still against. Fru Ndi engineered the call for Luma to resign from the Party but Luma challenged them to sack him and loose the entire Ambazonian SDF which controls all but two of Ambazonia's municipalities.
1990: The Ambazonian Restoration Council made a Proclamation, which then formalized the restoration of Ambazonia's independence. It designates the spearhead of the liberation struggle HRH Fon Gorji-Dinka the Head of the Republic of Ambazonia. This was filed it at the United Nations with a petition demanding United Nations action to terminate Cameroun illegal occupation of Ambazonia. Several meetings with the UN officials took place in 1991 but no positive results.
1991: The U.S - Ambazonian dialogue held it's first meeting under the Chairmanship of the African Affairs Assistant Under Secretary Irving Hicks U.S agrees that Cameroon indeed is illegally occupying Ambazonia and after reviewing the options concluded that only a unilateral U.S action could get Biya out of Ambazonia. U.S then required from Ambazonia a declaration by a national or international tribunal on the matter.
1992: With technique and method the Fon framed a lawsuit HCB/28/92 in the Cameroun High Court which forced President Biya (second defendant) to acknowledge:
a. that ex-British Southern Cameroons is now the sovereign State of Ambazonia with Fon Gorji-Dinka as Head of State;
b. that Cameroun occupation of Ambazonia is illegal and constitutes "an act of continuing aggression";
c. that Cameroun must make an unconditional withdraw from Ambazonia and instead seek the creation of the Cameroun-Ambazonian Confederacy as per the terms spelt out in the United Nations Plebiscite. This judgment provides the legal cover for unilateral external overt action to compel Paul Biya to withdraw from Ambazonia in compliance with national as well and international law. However, before the Bush administration could act it was replaced by the Clinton administration.
1994/95: The Fon framed the Interpleader Summons which Ambazonia lodged at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). On the instructions of the French/Algerian President of the Court the registrar rejected it. Consistent with the rules of ICJ Ambazonia appealed against the President's decision. The President blocked his faulty decision from being submitted to the whole Court.
In total frustration the Fon got Ambazonia's Delegates in North America to try reviving the US-Ambazonia dialogue. Congressman Tim Penny got involved and drew the attention of Secretary of State Madeline Albright who wrote the ICJ but got no more than the calendar of fixtures for the case.
1997: The Fon got the High Court of London to compel the British government accept the transfer of the Fon's asylum from Nigeria to Britain. He took the advantage to assert the fact that the ethnic people of Ambazonia retain British citizenship till Ambazonia became free from Cameroun under which Britain illegally subjugated them. The British government conceded:
(a) That Cameroun occupation of Ambazonia is illegal and forcible, and
(b) That British citizenship vested in ethnic Ambazonians (6.4 million) would only lapse when the country becomes free from Cameroun which is in fact a surrogate ruling Ambazonia for and on behalf of Britain.
1999: Visited The Hague to file documents, which accuse all, concerned of collusion in prolonging the Bakassi case. This case and the daily expansion of the disputed could be ended in less than 40 days. But ICJ has continued as if nothing new has come to their notice.
2000: The Ambazonian leader visited Nigeria for a period of six months during which time he had three meetings with the Nigerian president Obasanjo who asked his Attorney General to deal with the matter but to this day he has failed to treat it as it should be.
2001, August: Returns to the United States to establish Ambazonia's Peoples Emancipation Council (APEC) following three successive demonstrations at the Cameroun and British Embassies in Washington DC a few months earlier. The Emancipation Program was the product of a summit of all factions, which have in the past worked separately for the freedom of the Ambazonia (ex-British Southern Cameroons). The Summit, which held at the Untied States Congress from June 15-17, produced a United Front which was to try enlisting external assistance to get Cameroun President Paul Biya comply with the Cameroun High Court order requiring him to withdraw from Ambazonia put finality to this continuing act of aggression which goes on with impunity till this day.
2002-2015: Successfully galvanized legal global actions at UN, ICJ, AU and many countries. Having exhausted all peaceful means, Dinka issued the last warning to BIYA to listen to his wise men and obey the voice of the Lord God to move out of Ambazonia or else…..