Fight xenophobia, hate speech from top, not bottom.

At a meeting in Yaounde on Wednesday, to renew the “Collaboration Platform between the NCPBM and some Civil Society Organisations”, the Vice President of the NCPBM, Oumarou Djika Saidou, said hate speech and xenophobia have always been major threats to peace, social cohesion and national unity especially during electoral period.

“We are conscious of the stakes of this partnership year as the months ahead bring another crucial season of legislative and municipal elections which are scheduled to hold in the early part of 2027,” Oumarou Djika stated.

He also asserted that: “We shall continue to join efforts to fight these scourges which remain a very serious threat to our peace, national unity and willingness to live together”.

He explained that the CSOs were selected across the national territory, based on their diversity and direct closeness to the population at the grassroots.

The commitments of the CSOs in areas such as the media, issues related to youths, women, judiciary, the family, citizenship and patriotism, counselling and orientation, he said, make them vital in supporting the NCPBM on the field in dealing with hate speech and xenophobia.

Standing in for the Commission’s Chairman, Peter Mafany Musonge, he thanked the Civil Society Organisations, CSOs for the past collaboration and hoped that “more is still needed, especially with municipal and legislative elections expected to hold in the first quarter of 2027”.

The partnership, according to the Secretary General of the NCPBM, Dr Chi Asafor Cornelius, begins from this month to July 2027.

During the “pre-election and post-election periods”, he charged the CSOs to set up mechanisms to monitor hate speech across social and mainstream media, inform administrative authorities of incidents of hate speech in social and mainstream media nationwide so as to strengthen the crusade against hate speech and xenophobia.

The Guardian Post welcomes the collaboration, but with deep reservations given that the Commission was set up as an “extra mile”, the words of President Paul Biya, as a panacea to end the conflict in the North West and South West Regions.

That conflict was partly caused by hate speech, where the people of the two Anglophone Regions were called “enemies in the house, one cube of sugar and Anglofools,” by the high and mighty leading to toxic political rhetoric and derogatory nicknames used to dehumanise them.

There is no gainsaying the fact that the Musonge Commission has failed, woefully, in that respect, especially as it is tackling the problem from the grassroots instead from the top, which often manipulates and brainwashes their grassroots supporters in the dregs of society, during elections, to prevent the opposition from campaigning in their fief.

At the heart of the debate is often a persistent and dangerous misconception from the government bench, fighting hate speech should not be used to attack freedom of expression and assembly, which are cornerstones of democratic societies; protected under international human rights law and enshrined in instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights  and our own Liberty Laws

These rights enable individuals to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas. They form the foundation for other democratic freedoms.

On paper, Yaounde has campaigned against hate speech, xenophobia, unprecedented tribalism, and stigmatisation of some ethnic groups and banning assemblies “likely to breach public peace.”

In a May 22, 2026 release, the Minister of Territorial Administration, MINAT, Paul Atanga Nji, expressed regret that hate speech and tribalism, the other side of xenophobia, are becoming rampant in the country.

He had warned that: “…the Attention of the Head of State has been drawn to the rise in hate speech used by some fellow citizens, unconsciously or manipulated by unscrupulous politicians…they act as threats to living together and social cohesion.”

The campaigns have all focused on symptoms. The cause, especially during elections, are corruption, injustice, stuffing of ballot boxes, disenfranchising voters by moving polling centres in the restive North West and South West Regions to distant places voters cannot trek to; since movements of vehicles are usually prohibited on voting day.

As outspoken member of the Commission and globally-acclaimed peace advocate, Sir Dr Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle, has epitomised hate speech and xenophobia causes are “corruption, inequality, unemployment, and poor governance”.

Hate speech and xenophobia are like weapons that inflict severe injuries on national unity. It will persist, unless those root causes are tackled, beginning from the top down and not the other way round; by using civil societies whose preponderant role as societal watch gods cannot be replaced by those who make policies and fail to serve as role models for implementation. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3878 of Friday August 14, 2026