Bar Council, British High Commission commit to win-win collaboration.

This was during an audience President of the Cameroon Bar Council, Mbah Eric Mbah, granted the British High Commissioner to Cameroon, H.E Matt Woods.

Barrister Mbah told journalists after their closed-door discussion that they both agreed to work in diverse areas to promote the interests of Cameroon in general and those of the Cameroon Bar Council in particular, on the one hand, and the interests of Great Britain and British business operators, especially those already established and doing business in Cameroon on the other hand. 

He raised the issue of the absence of a law school in Cameroon, which availability he said, would enable Cameroonian lawyers to get easy access to legal knowledge and make for better training of student lawyers.

Barrister Mbah also told his visitor that the Bar is still using a rented property as a temporary headquarters. 

He assured the UK diplomat that land had been acquired already and the construction of a permanent and befitting head office for the Bar is ongoing. 

The Bar Council President was quick to remind the High Commissioner that the anticipated building will not only serve legal and judicial purposes, as the structure will also habour other modern and personal feel-good facilities that will serve not only the legal and judicial family, but the wider public.

Barrister Mbah deplored the lingering socio-political crisis in the North West and South West Regions. 

Telling his visitor that apart from the crippling of economic activities in that part of the country for almost a decade now, there is nothing happening in the two Anglophone regions at the moment, be it in terms of school resumption or active citizen participation in the ongoing electoral exercise.

The Bar Council President decried the constant imposition of ghost towns by separatists in the said regions; which he said, is crippling economic and social life and has brought untold suffering to the population.

Barrister Mbah warned that tensions could escalate in the two regions if security forces rise up to make sure all schools resume and elections hold in that part of the country when separatists are bent on flexing their muscles by frustrating the two processes.

Protecting British interests

For what Britain stands to gain in their collaboration, the Bar Council boss told journalists that he assured the High Commissioner that the Bar will work towards encouraging more and more British businesses to establish in Cameroon. 

At the same time, the Council, he said, will also work to guarantee the safety of British investments and businesses that are already operating in Cameroon.

For his part, the High Commissioner described the bi-jural colonial heritage of Cameroon, handed down by Britain and France, as a unique jewel that needed to be nurtured and put to greater use and service to both Yaounde and London.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3579 of Monday September 29, 2025