Creating a Federal Cameroon
Southern British Cameroon had requested its session from Eastern Nigeria in 1954 to become a separate region within the Federation of Nigeria. This followed the political crisis that rocked Nigeria and in which Southern British Cameroons did not wish to be entangled. This was in fact a clear sign that British Cameroons was, in spite of everything, a separate entity from Nigeria and had to remain so. But a roar broke out within the KNC governing party of the British Cameroons: disagreement on the process and timing of reunification which had served as the major weapon used by the leaders to realize separation from Nigeria. John Ngu Foncha insisted on reunification while Endeley put it somewhat in the future, within the framework of West African Unity.
Foncha then resigned from Enderley’s KNC and formed the KNDP. He won the 1959 general elections on the platform of reunification and therefore replaced Dr. Enderdeley as prime Minister of Southern Cameroons. As Nigeria gained independence on 1st October 1960, Southern and Northern British Cameroons were separated from her with a view that they would decide their future at a later date; wether to join the federation of Nigeria or the Republic of Cameroon.
At the UN supervised Plebiscites of 11th February 1961, Southern British Cameroons voted to reunify with the Republic of Cameroun while the Northern British Cameroons voted to unite with Nigeria.
The reunification of Cameroon was therefore an act soley of the people of Southern Cameroons. They thus expressed overwhelmingly their belief in the reconstitution of a larger, stronger, populous and richer Cameroon nation such as was bequeathed by German colonization. Northern British Cameroons was lost to Nigeria just as British Togoland had been lost to Ghana by votes in the late 1950s.
After series of meetings between Prime Minister Foncha of Southern British Cameroon and President Ahidjo of the Republic of Cameroun on the form unification should take, an enlarged constitutional conference was held in Foumban in July 1961. During that conference, a framework of a constitution was mutually worked out by government and opposition leaders of Southern Cameroons on the one hand and leaders of the Republic of Cameroun on the other hand. Ahidjo was determined and succeeded to force the acceptance of a strong federal government with weak federated state governments. After agreement in August 1961 on the constitution of the federal republic of Cameroon, reunification was formally consummated at Buea on 1st October 1961 with the lowering of the union Jack and the withdrawal of the British Commissioner and the proclamation of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. British troops were replaced in Southern British Cameroon (renamed West Cameroon) by troops of the Republic of Cameroon (which became East Cameroon). Source of information: Samuel Ngome, 1985 ‘Change in Cameroon’, ARC publications, Alexandria, Virginia.