ABSTRACT

The concept of political crisis is not fresh thing in this generation as more than 50 countries
around the world are currently experiencing political turmoil. In late 2016, the two English
speaking regions of Cameroon were forced into an unexpected crisis that is bringing the nation to
its knees.
Within the context of repeated calls for ghost town characterized by business shutdown, killings
and movement restrictions, this paper investigates into the effects of socio-economic crisis on
educational enrollment in the Northwest region of Cameroon. The study combines the literature
review and survey approaches, and uses direct observation, group discussions, and other
documented sources from civil society organizations to collect the necessary information. Data
was analyzed using content analysis and the results suggest that the crisis has serious negative
consequences on the wellbeing of the population. Combined with armed confrontation, the
regions have witnessed unprecedented wake of out migration with consequences on production,
income and security. The death toll resulting from the crisis has increased significantly with
many trapped in psychological trauma following destruction of schools and means of
livelihoods. Over 30.000 individuals have become illiterates because of the insecurity concerning
schools in the region and also leaving others jobless and homeless. The effects of the crisis are
not severely felt by the government as existing enterprises continue to pay taxes for its
functioning. Ghost town calls have yielded no political solution as the government remains
resolute. However, frank dialogue is necessary to break the political dilemma and to prevent a
full-blown civil war as tension continues to escalate.

INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of Study
The African crisis of the late 1970‘s has been transformed into what has aptly been called the
African Tragedy (Arrighi, 2002). After the economic crisis of the late 1980‘s that was largely
due to falling oil prices in the international markets, Africa is back on the fore front with political
instability. The last one decade has been characterized by rising political tensions and
disagreeing voices across the continent. While Africa as a whole continue to witness rising
terrorism due to poor governance, the world continues to watch them helplessly.
Sub-Saharan Africa is extremely weak and volatile in the globalizing world in which pervasive
and persistent violence has confounded efforts to improve its economic capacity and
performance (Marshall, 2006). The number of armed conflicts and refugees reduced in Africa
after the early 1990‘s but today, the situation has taken as sharp rise.
Since independence, few African countries have been spared of violence and armed conflict
(Toure, 2017). Conflict is the major obstacle to the development of Education in Africa. This is
of concern because the disagreeing voices of the present crisis in the North West and South West
Regions of Cameroon have directly targeted education as a political bargaining chip. The more
radical Boko Haram sect started by claiming that western education is a sin (Agboa, n‘d). Armed
conflicts, ethno-linguistic disputes, religious radicalism, and many other forms of conflicts have
made the horn of Africa one of the conflict zones in the world (Mangistu, 2015).
After South Sudan, Mali, Niger, Gabon, Nigeria just to name these few, Cameroon is now the
center of rising political tension between one of the two entities that form the very foundation of
the republic and the state to which they belong. According to the international crisis group
(2017), the recent spark of violence in Cameroon‘s Anglophone regions points to an emerging
insurgency requiring urgent attention.

The crisis which started with well-founded socio-professional grievances by the lawyers and the
teachers trade unions took a new turn when political interest groups later took interest in social
unrest. While many interested groups such as the United Nations, the African Union and the
Civil Society tried to mounting level pressure on government to yield to certain political
demands, such pressures have yielded no fruits as the government has remain resolute in its
stand.
The chronicles of the conflict currently rocking North West and South West regions of
Cameroon can be traced back from the early 1960‘s when the two territories decided to come
together for a stronger state on equal terms. According to Njamjoh (1997), the lack of political
will by the ruling elites to preserve the two cultural legacies led to the feeling of marginalization
by the minority Anglophones who started agitating for a return to a federal system of
government in the 1990‘s.
Many are also of the opinion that the Anglophone crises dates back to the post-colonial era and
specifically after the reunification of the two Cameroons formerly under the British and the
French colonial administration.

After South Sudan, Mali, Niger, Gabon, Nigeria, just to name these few, Cameroon is now at the
center of a rising political tension between one of the two main entities that form the very
foundation of the Republic and the state to which they all belong. According to the International
Crisis Group (2017), the recent spark of violence in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions points to an
emerging insurgency, requiring urgent attention. Edstrom (1999) reported that while economic
crisis is the result of sudden, unanticipated shocks, political crisis is usually expected given the
behavior of political agents. In Africa, believe in the forces of repression has contributed to
aggravating conflicts. In many instances, repression has turned social conflict into political
upheavals as we are currently observing in Sudan. The crisis which started with well-founded
socio-professional grievances by the Lawyers and the Teachers trade unions took a new turn
when political interest groups later took interest in the social unrest. While many interest groups
such as the United Nations, the African Union, and the civil society tried mounting high level
pressure on government to yield to certain political demands, such pressure have yielded little
fruits as the government has remained resolute in its stand. It followed that the political
component of the crisis was of little interest to the government as repeatedly, they showed
shadow interest in addressing it.