1994 Bakweri Memorandum on the Privatization of the CDC

On August 4, 1994, over 500 sons and daughters of Fako gathered in Buea for the
presentation of the memorandum to the public, and to the Governor of the Southwest Province for onward transmission to the President of the Republic.

In the memorandum,the Bakweri argued that if privatization had to take place at all cost it had to be on the basis of

“a creative and enlightened partnership between the owners of the land on which the corporation operates and the providers of finance capital without which it would not be possible to run a modern, technologically-sophisticated agro-commercial complex like the CDC.” 

They insisted that any privatization plan should be based on

“terms which recognise the ownership of land as a distinct variable which together with the cash make plantation agriculture possible. Therefore, landowners deserve ground rent compensation in much the same way as the CDC was liable to pay ground rents for the use of the land.”

At the end of the historic Bakweri meeting, Professor Ndiva Kofele-Kale, secretary of the ad hoc Committee, was designated counsel for the Bakweri people with instructions to present their case before the United Nations and other international fora.

Click the link below to read the the landmark " Memorandum of the Bakweri People on the Presidential Decree to Privatise or Sell the Cameroon Development Corporation"

Click here to print or download BakweriMemorandum in PDF format