Towards the Unitary System

As soon as the Federal Constitution came into force in October 1961, the federation began moving rapidly towards a unitary system. In 1962, the pound sterling was squeezed out of West Cameroon and the East Cameroon Communauté Financière Africaine (CFA) franc adopted for the whole country. Similarly, in 1964, the Imperial system of weights and measures was abandoned in favour of the metric system. By 1965, some of the residual powers which the West Cameroon government had arrogated to itself had been taken over by the federal government. At the same time the economic policies adopted between 1961 and 1966 gravely undermined the economy of West Cameroon to a point where pre-1959 conditions have not yet been restored (Ardener 1967: 309, 314-35). This has made the West Cameroon State more and more financially dependent on federal subsidies. By 1966, an unsuccessful attempt had been made to harmonize the legal systems of the federated states. In the same year, all the political parties in the Republic united to form the CNU. Three years later, all the trade unions in the country came together to form a single federation attached to the single party, forswearing their former international ties.

Prior to this, however, a political struggle for the leadership of West Cameroon had developed between Jua and Solomon Tandeng Muna since, constitutionally, Foncha could not be both Prime Minister of West Cameroon and Vice-President of the Republic. The struggle led to the expulsion of Muna and his supporters from the KNDP after Jua's victory (Johnson 1970: 274-5). Muna and his group formed a new political party, the Cameroon United Congress (CUC), which pledged support for the Federal Constitution but advocated the creation of a single political party and a unitary system for the whole country. Its popular slogan was 'one country, one government, one flag, one currency'. This programme matched President Ahidjo's policy well and, in 1968, he appointed Muna Prime Minister of West Cameroon in place of Jua. In 1970, the clause in the Federal Constitution which barred one and the same person from simultaneously occupying the posts of Prime Minister of West Cameroon and Vice-President of the Republic was overridden and Muna was appointed Vice-President of Cameroon in addition to his position as Prime Minister of West Cameroon. Foncha who was the Vice-President before that appointment was thus eased out of office, and the way made clear for the introduction of a unitary system in Cameroon (Ngoh 1987: 257). On the 6 ^th May 1972, President Ahidjo announced in the National Assembly that he intended to transform the Federal Republic into a unitary state provided the electorate supported the idea in a referendum to be held on the 20 ^th May 1972.